Fair Trade

I was trying to be festive, so I put some treats out on a plate on the table. Leo caught sight of them and climbed on up and had one. The problem was he was still munching on his lunch... Why was he wandering around with a mouth full of turkey? Well that is another story, which involves stools, a small table and pretending to be in a fancy restaurant, but the punch line is that Leo wasn't in his high chair.

So when he went up for the treat he just made a quick swap... I don't really blame him. Lunch meat or double butter pecan chocolate squares... hmmm, I'll go with the chocolate! They really were double butter, I made them in a hurry and DOUBLED the butter!! And not just 2 tablespoons instead of 1... more like one cup instead of a 1/2... Once I figured out what I had done, I was surprised they turned out at all... Steve says they are even better. But that is coming from the guy who thinks butter is one of the 5 major food groups.

Turkey trade.

Happy treat eating boy!

Just a Little Allergic Reaction

Johnny was taking amoxicillin for an ear infection he had last week. On day 7 of the medication he woke up with a rash, turns out it was an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin.

Thankfully he says it doesn't really hurt, we are keeping him on benadryl, and he is finally starting to look better.

It got worse before it got better.

POOR BOY!!

the plague

Yeah, we are headed to the doctor...

Tree Cutting

Our annual tree cutting... thanks to the Goodman's we actually have pictures of it this year.





We stopped to look at the Grand Canyon, OK the "Little Colorado River Gorge" but give it a couple miles and it is the Grand Canyon.

Notice Steve's grip on Ky... 1000 feet sheer cliffs tend to make us nervous parents.

Grand or not is is pretty cool!





We started walking back to the car and Kyla started crying... it took us a couple minutes to figure out what was wrong. She had pushed on a loose tooth with her tongue and IT FELL OUT! We spent a few more minutes looking for the tooth on the ground.

She was a little upset about the whole thing...

Here is her "Grand Canyon tooth"... we never did find the tooth, there were tons of these little white rocks though...

So now Ky has lost two teeth and lost two teeth. The first we replaced with a paper one and now the second is a rock, poor tooth fairy!

Ky decided it was OK because now she can say she is always at the Grand Canyon... at least a part of her is. :)

Seamons' Christmas Chaos

We got together with Beave's family for a little Christmas party while we were in Utah. The kids all had a great time, they LOVE being with their cousins!!

Kyla, Erika and Tess. Most of the cousins on Steve's side are boys, hence the chaos... :) Not really, my girlie girl can bring some chaos with the best of them!!

Johnny got an electric toothbrush and couldn't wait to use it... hey he wants good teeth OK?!

Our little CHEEKY MONKEY with some new monkey rain boots, he looks pretty pleased with himself, doesn't he?!

And our little holiday fam.

Best part of the night was talking with Grandma and Grandpa Seamons on their mission! We are super proud of them and LOVE them so much!!!

We ended up driving home through the WORST storm and road conditions EVER because we didn't want to miss this time with our family, definitely worth it!

SNOW

It snowed while we were in Utah... Yeah for the first snow of the year!

Ky and John ran right out to play in it!

SNOW ANGELS!!

"Hey kids come stand under this tree..." -Steve

Yeah that's Steve shaking the snow on Ky and John... he is such a fun dad!

T-day in Utah

We ended out C week with a long drive in the CAR to grandma's house. We left Friday night and made it in good time, we missed the storm that came later that weekend and we missed the deer who tried to kiss our front bumper...

Grandpa has a new "grandpa" chair, perfect for relaxing in front of the fire with at least two grandkids snuggled in for stories....

Aunt Liz helped the kids make a cool "Thankful Turkey."

We had lots of fun with cousins, at the end of the 9 day trip Kyla was still saying we didn't stay long enough.

I left my camera in the car when we went to the children's museum and when we went to see the lights at Temple Square... I'll have to beg some pics of those who remembered cameras...

C is for... Dad's stinky old socks...

We made these cats out of Steve's old socks.... Ky kept saying how stinky they were... :) Johnny was good with just a collar but Ky had to make some accessories for her cat; purse, dress, cupcake, hair flower and after all that John decided he needed a back pack, we made one and then Kyla's cat got one too. Camilla the cat was decked out!

Yeah, that is my sewing machine, out of time out, my mom fixed it when she was here... who knew sewing through hot glue could be such a problem... ;)

I was so excited about these cellophane window pics... for some reason the red worked better than the blue and yellow...

This is what our counter looks like after painting... SO HAPPY for washable paint!

T is for Tent

My parents were here last Sunday night when I was trying to figure out what to do for the next letter week... they had some fun ideas. For our Friday fun we put the tent up in the basement and watched Toy Story 3! I don't know what it is about a tent but it makes everything more fun! Ky and John slept in the tent... part of the night...

I just love Kyla's "bumpy hair!" She had braids the day before...

It's Sunday night... again... but this time I am alone... even Beave has deserted me. :) He left this afternoon for a work trip. So any great ideas for the letter C?

The Artists

Kyla and Johnny love to display their "artwork." Usually it is taped to the walls all over the house. I am actually OK with that but I saw this cool way to display kid's art and decided to make it for their room.

The paint I used was left over from an old bathroom remodel, it has been remodeled again since the red... the paint is down to the very end but I made it stretch, I wanted to match the stars I made a couple years ago and painted with the same left over red... plus it is RED so Johnny loves it.

They could fill up 100 of these, but we'll start with this one...

Give Thanks

I saw this idea online and wanted to try it, something cool for Thanksgiving. I'm not much of a sewer but I can fake it sometimes...

The great thing is I had all the supplies on hand; fabric, thread and frame.

This little surprise was Leo's handiwork, THANKS LEO!

It only took me 3 days... maybe 4.

And Ta Da, there it is!

Can you guess who said what? :)

We are richly blessed and are so thankful for everything we've been given.

Tomatillo Salsa

My parents came down to Flagstaff last weekend, it was great to have them here, even if it was a SHORT visit! They brought us some produce from their garden. THANKS Dad! We decided to get adventurous and make some Tomatillo salsa, it even fit into our T week... :)

Kyla loves "science" so she was excited to have a science day. We researched tomatillos online and found they can be green, yellow or even purple. The kids peeled the tomatillos and made some observations... they were all green, made sense since they were all from the same plants but a little disappointing to Ky, she was hoping for a purple one!

Cutting up the tomatillos was Ky's job, she was so proud of herself, I held my breath half the time, sharp knife... AHHH! Johnny's job was a little less nerve wracking, push the button on the food processor... :)

Then into the pot, and two little cooks stirred the WHOLE time!

Ta Da, Salsa!

I'm wondering if my Dad thinks this is going to protect his stash of Salsa he and my Mom made this fall... is one batch of fridge salsa enough? Hmmm, they may want to count their jars before I get there... :)

Turkey Lurkey

It is T week and we have been making turkey turkey turkeys!

Ky and John loved these hand and feet turkeys!

We made these turkeys out of pine cones the kids found on their "nature walk." They walked around the yard picking up pine cones. :) I think the line up goes: Mom, Johnny, Dad, Leo, and Kyla. It was a fun family night, Steve discovered the joys of the finger burning hot glue.

Ky's turkey, her name is Jane.

Mod Podge

I had my first experience with Mod Podge. I'm not sure how I avoided the Mod Podge craze for so long.

I got this box at a thrift store for $2. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, just that it had potential...

I bought this paper for something... I can't remember what... it has been sitting in the closet for awhile. So in a flash of inspiration, it comes and GOES so quickly, I put the two closet buddies together and came up with THIS

I like how it turned out but there are definitely a few things I learned about how to use Mod Podge... next time.

PICTURES

I took some fall pics of the kids this morning...

I love my kids and think they are adorable... however, when it comes to pictures, I have this "look and the camera and smile" image in my mind... I need help (with lots of things but for now lets focus on pics...) which are your favorites? I already narrowed it down from 100 to these 20.

I let Ky choose shoes off or on... oh well.

Parving Cumpkins

We love carving pumpkins!

Leo even got in on the action this year. If he had a scooper in his hand he left the knifes alone... for the most part.

Yeah, he is on the EDGE of the table, I left him to get the camera, anything for a picture...

Johnny with his monster mouth. He got a Lightning McQueen pattern book, but when it came down to it, he wanted a face. Just like his mom, I'm all about the traditional Jack O' Lantern.

Ky carved hers mostly by herself, with a little help from a good friend.

The line up.

Steve's super spooky pumpkin.

Kyla's cutie bat.

Johnny's monster mouth guy.

Now the pumpkins sit on the porch and get old, until we have the heart to throw them away... until next year Mr. Pumpkin!