Check Out this Cute Giveaway

Check out The Vintage Pearl for her great giveaway.  It's a beautiful camera strap cover.  I love it!!!

Christmassy up in Here.

We are getting ready for Christmas.  We have been listening to Christmas music, singing Christmas songs, talking about the birth of Jesus Christ and what Christmas means.  We have also been making Christmas gifts.  For Ben's freelance clients and our friends and family that live nearby we put together these yummy treats.  One of my favorite things to make this time of year is Chocolate-Peppermint Bark.  I love it and it is fun to make.  I hope the recipients of these gifts enjoy them too.  Plus, they get a cute little holiday cardinal tin.

Here's a photo of Uly hugging Ben out in the woods.  That tree that is on the right gave its life to be our Christmas tree.  Yeah, it is a tall sucker.  It is beautiful.  We are thankful for it and its sacrifice to help us celebrate Christmas.

My dad told me that when I was about Uly's age, I had learned that trees are alive.  That Christmas we went out and to cut down our tree, like we always had.  But this year, since I had learned that trees are living creatures, I didn't want him to just saw it down.  I was afraid that would hurt it.  Since I knew about  hunting, we decided that it would be a good idea if my dad would shoot the tree first.  Then once the tree had been "killed", he could cut it down.  

Oh the minds of 4 year olds...

Family Picture

Here's us in all our glory.  Picture credit goes to Katie.  Thanks Katie!!!

Kitchen Wear

Yeah, you read the right; kitchen WEAR.  

I just saw an ad on Craigslist for kitchen wear and my first thought was that it was for something that you wear in the kitchen - maybe a cute apron or something like that.  So I was curious and checked it out.  

They are selling kitchenware.  Not kitchen wear.  It cracked me up.

http://provo.craigslist.org/hsh/928367417.html

Funny Picture

Ben and Uly were taking some pictures for me on my phone yesterday.  This is Uly smiling really big.

This is Uly trying to open his eyes as wide as he can and smile.  

Are you totally busting a gut right now?!?  I look at this picture and I just start laughing and laughing and laughing.  I think I'm all done laughing and then I look at it again.

I love that little turkey!

Cheesy Noodles and a Cheesy Boy

Click on the image to see it much larger:

We call "Mac & Cheese" "Cheesy Noodles" at our house.  I thought you might enjoy these photos of Magnus eating said Cheesy Noodles tonight.  I turned around and saw him and had to grab the camera.  In fact, I picked the bowl up off the floor for him a few times too.  I'm an enabler, it's true...

Halloween & Thanksgiving...

I posted this photo of Uly and Gar over on Momshots in their Halloween Costumes.  Uly was Indiana Jones and Gar was Wall-e.  We had a really fun time making their costumes and more importantly the boys loved them.  I think that Gar actually believed that he was Wall-e.  He has such a great imagination!

I didn't really get any good shots.  I was pretty disapointed.  All these shots that I thought were good turned out to be out of focus.  That's what I get for wearing my glasses while I use the camera, I guess!  

Next thought...  Does anyone have any good ideas for Thanksgiving decoration craft ideas?  I would really like to make some decorations with the boys, other than just turkeys.  I'm sure we'll make a few of those, but any other ideas would be greatly appreciated! 

Halloween Decoration Factory

We have been making Halloween Decorations all over the place.  Here are a few...

This is a wreath that my mom taught me how to make out of grape vines.  It was super easy and fun to make.  After Halloween I am going to keep using the wreath for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.  It's nice to have a solid wreath foundation that I can alter as I choose.

Just a plaque thing I saw online and wanted to make.  They turned out OK.  It was fun to use Modge Podge.  I think that's my new favorite sticky stuff.  I am going to have to come up with somethings to decoupage.  Maybe I'll get the boys dressers and decoupage those.  It's probably about time that we start keeping their clothes in dressers instead of bins...

Two things here:  Ghost Garlands and fabric wrapped wire letters.  These were both really fun to make.

This is that tarantula that I told you about last week.  I had them printed at Walmart and framed them.  I decided that I am going to keep these frames full of rotating photos.  After Halloween I have the next three photos already printed.

Halloween hangy flower things.  I don't know what they are called but I like them.  Kristina made some and told me how she did it so I had to make some that same day.

We've got six pumpkins on the front stairs waiting the time when we can carve them.  Hopefully that will happen before Halloween!!!  Plus we've got some skeletons throughout the house and window stickers on the front windows.  We've had a lot of fun decorating.  Every day Uly asks me if we are going to make more decorations today.  If Halloween is this much fun, Christmas is going to be a blast!!!

Almost Reading

Uly read his first two words on Saturday (October 11, 2008) night.  He sounded out the words "Puff" and "Toot".  Then he started being silly and we didn't get much further than some giggles and tickles.  But, he actually sounded them out and understood how to push the sounds together to form a word.  This was a milestone.   We will be working on other words now.  Yay, Uly!!!

Here is a photo of him today sporting his new backyard hair cut.  I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.  :)  Read the next sentence sarcastically:  Olea gives me one lesson an suddenly I'm open for business cutting hair.  Uly likes it.  That's the most important thing.  :)

Spiders and Cute Gar

We were running around trying to find some good locations for a photoshoot when we happened upon this little fella.  He was HUGE.  I think I'm going to print out some of this series and use them as Halloween decorations.

Here's a cute shot of Gar.  Ben asked me to get some shots of Gar for a website he is working on.  I went out and shot lots of shots of him.  Here are a few.  These images are all straight out of the camera.  I haven't messed with them at all, like I usually do.

McKee Family

Here is my sister Sariah, her husband Randy and their beautiful daughter Cora.

Two Sites is better than none...

If you check this blog but never check Momshots, you are missing out on most of my photos and some of our stories.  I have been feeling a little overwhelmed and crazy lately.  Well more crazy than overwhelmed, really...  A little too overwhelmed to come up with original content for both places right now.    

I realized I haven't posted here for a long time.  I regularly post at www.momshots.com so check it out once in a while to see new photos.  I will still post here occasionally and sometime frequently, but you can always count on regular posts over there.

Here is the most recent photo from my most recent post on Momshots.

Adorable Sweater Company

How stinking cute are these sweaters?!?  The seasons are starting to change, here in Utah, and I would love to go on a major shopping spree and buy new cute clothes.  After having 3 babies and gaining countless pounds (OK, so they aren't countless, I just don't want to say how many!!!) and loosing pounds and gaining pounds and loosing and gaining and loosing and gaining and loosing and loosing more, I am in dire need!!!  :)  

This cute blog is having a give away for a sweater.  I've got my fingers crossed!  Go check out her great site and enter the contest too.  

Thorey's Baby Shower

Here are a few photos from Thorey's baby shower.  I was lucky enough to be able to go since it was on the Saturday that we were in SoCal.  It was so much fun.  So many wonderful women came to show Thorey their support.  We had delicious food and a great time.  

I even won a shower game - the only shower game that I have EVER been good at.  It was a word scramble of baby related things.  I got 19 out of 20 right.  Horray for word scrambles...  :)  I also had a blast sitting next to Trena's mother and sister in laws.  Those Schulze ladies are great!  Once again Trena, thanks for marrying Aaron! :)

Trena, Katie and Thorey - the three Stier sisters:

Thyssen & Noni.  This is Katie's son.  He's a miniture version of Skippy and is just so adorable you want to nibble his cheeks off.
This is Thorey's belly, her hand, Katie's and Trena's.  
This was the most delicious cake made by a bakery that I have EVER tasted.  I am a huge fan of scratch cakes and this one totally tasted it.  Not to mention that it was super cute with sock monkey drawn in icing.

This is Thorey with her husband's grandma, Grandma Bauer.
Katie & Thorey.  Katie made this tutu for the sock monkey.  It was super cute!

These two are of Val and Thorey.  My favorite is the one where they are standing and you can see Thorey's belly.  I think they both look so great.

This is not from the baby shower but I really like it.  Thorey was sitting near the sliding glass door and the light was coming in on her.  I couldn't resist going over and snapping a few photos.  It turned silly very fast and I have some great blackmail photos of Thorey making faces!  Or at least something to show her daughter one day.

This Was Not Me Today...

Today Uly keep asking if we could do preschool.  I said yes but first I had to clean the kitchen, wash the floor, clean the living room, do the dishes, laundry, work on getting Ben's business license and registering him with the State - all my chores.  I am remiss to say that we didn't have preschool today.  I worked and worked and sent Uly and Gar to play.  I guess in my defense, at least I didn't stick them in their room with a DVD.  They did actually play all day and I know that is good for both his body and his mind.  However I didn't do the one thing he was asking me for: Preschool.

Then tonight I read the following poem.  You can bet your bippy that I will not be worrying about my chores tomorrow.  We're doing preschool all day.  I am going to be Teacher Mommy tomorrow and there's nothing you (or my dirty house) can do about it!

I Took His Hand and Followed
Mrs. Roy L. Peifer

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I...

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood...

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill...

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.

Bellingham Farmers' Market

Another group of photos from our trip.  These are taken at the Bellingham, WA farmers' market.  This cute little blondie is my adorable niece, Cora.  I love taking photos of her.  I have a whole bunch more that I will post when I've gone through everything.

There was a music group there that was OK.  The best part of them was that they had a guy tap dancing as part of their percussion.  It was really fun to see.  This is Uly and Gar dancing to their music.  One of my great joys in life is to watch children dance.  

These other two photos are just some beautiful wares of the produce vendors.  They make my mouth water!

Curly Headed Little Boy

Just my sweet little Gar-Gar.  I sure love that curly headed little boy!!!

I just entered this photo in a weekly photo contest from the Digital Photography School.  The assignment is called Contre-Jour which basically means a photo that has light in the background/is backlit.  I don't think this really fits the assignment but it is the closest one I had in the alloted time frame.

Road Trip Photos II

This is a photo from our road trip.  I put it as a separate post because I did two versions of it.  I can't decide which I like better...

You can't really see it from these small images, but under the blue sign there is a sign that says Route 66.  I didn't realize that this was part of that.  I guess this is truly Radiator Springs.   

Road Trip Photos

Here are a few photos from our road trip.  We had a great time and saw a lot of beautiful scenery.  I love being stuck in the car with my favorite people.  I think that is one of my all time favorite things.  Even thought the drive was super long - close to 3000 miles and nearly two full days of driving - it was still a blast.  This is a photo of Mt. Shasta, in Northern California.  It is through our bug smeared windshield.  A true road trip photo!

This is Gar standing on a bulldozer - or Scoop as he is called (The bulldozer, not Gar) at our house.  This was near Palmdale, CA.  We stopped for an emergency pee break and found this guy to climb on and the following Joshua Trees.

This is a really cool tree out in the Middle of Nowhere, California.  It is heavily laden with people's shoes.  We didn't contribute any shoes - just watered the tree in one of our emergency pee stops.  This is really half of the tree.  There are many more shoes here than what you are seeing.  It is one of those landmarks that we always see but had never stopped at.

This is another spot that we have driven through but never stopped - the Train Museum in Kelso, California.  Kelso used to be a little depot town on Route 66.  It now has the museum and this shell of a building.  And trains.  This used to be the post office and general store until the 1940's.  

If anyone has some extra money and wants to invest in a good little restaurant/deli, this would be a great place.  The museum used to have a lunch counter but they closed that in the 1960's.  We were there for maybe half an hour and there were about 20 cars that stopped there.  If they had a store that sold food, they would be raking it in.  I'll add that to my list of fun little businesses to own after I make it big...

Can we really have a road trip without photos of trains?  Not in our family.  Trains are our friends.  We all love them.

I have many more photos - photos from Thorey's baby shower, kids, family and even a farmer's market.  I will post those up here as soon as I can.

RIP Arnolkardis and Mr. Krabs

So I need to change the header of this blog.  We no longer have pets.  We came home from our trip to find my favorite pet ever, Arnolkardis and his friend, Mr. Krabs dead.  An interesting fact about hermit crabs is that they leave their shell when they die.  We are speculating that is so other hermit crabs can inhabit their old shell.  

In retrospect, I probably should have asked the neighbor boy to watch and feed them instead of my uber busy sister.  Not to place blame or anything, but you did kill my all time favorite pet...  ;)

The Alphabet Project - Continued

Uly and I worked on the letter B today.  We went for a walk to the beach with Cora and took lots of pictures of boats, and other B words.  We also picked blackberries yesterday and made jelly.  Yumm!!!  Here is our newest alphabet page.

The Alphabet Project

Uly, Gar & I are undertaking a big project.  We are making an alphabet book using photos that we take.  We have finished page A and have 25 more pages to go, but it is going to be fun.  We had so much fun today going on our photowalk looking for things that begin with the letter A or the letter A itself.  We take pictures of the A's and then compile them onto a page.  When we get the whole alphabet finished, we'll print it out and have a book.

Tomorrow we start on the letter B

Little Artist

Photo from today's painting session.  Newspaper hat + watercolor paints + easel = happy little 4 year old.

Anyone else on Twitter?

that's what I want to know.  If you have a Twitter account let me know I would love to follow you.  I have two: Winyari and Momshots.  

Obligatory Photo:

Delphinium Faux Watercolor

I was playing with a photo in Photoshop and this is my result.  I took this picture of a delphinium growing in my mom's garden when we were up visiting in July.  I was wishing I could print this out on watercolor paper and hang it up or make greeting cards out of it.  I think that would be fun.  Maybe I will make that a goal - to make a series of greeting cards out of photos.  Anyway, the inspiration came from  Pioneer Woman's photography section.  

 I think I'm going to make a little post about this on Momshots so if you're one of the two readers I have, this will seem familiar.  Sorry, I'm feeling a bit sarcastic right now.  :)

I guess I'm dedicating this photo to my mom.  It makes me think of her and how much I love her.  She is a woman of many talents and growing a beautiful garden is one of them.

Fishing Rod Hands

I just wanted to share a photo I think is cool.  These are Gars grubby little paws holding a homemade fishing rod.  This was taken on the Lummi Island Ferry dock when we were up in Washington this summer.