My little cancer patient

Ok thankfully he's perfectly healthy but he did get his first "daddy haircut" and I'm a little worried about getting unnecessary pity from strangers if I take him out in public in the next week or so. That super short blond hair is hard to see and he looks almost completely bald. (which to Miss G is the most humiliating physical characteristic a person can have, she's not happy about it.) But he's still got his cute face and it will grow back! I think he likes it, except when we rub his head.

Great Deal on Creating Keepsakes Magazine

I've been looking for an excuse to subscribe to Creating Keepsakes and this offer was too good to pass up- subscribe for 1 year for $20 and get a coupon for $20 to Shutterfly! Click HERE to get it before August 14th!

Tonight's Project...

EDIT: *If you want to see the whole group of entries, click this link HERE. I'm new to Flickr and for some reason my picture doesn't always show up in there, I think maybe only when I'm signed in? Maybe you'll see it though, it's fun to see all the other creations people came up with!

I actually started this a while ago and wanted to tell you to enter, but due to my severe procrastination problem I just finished it tonight- and it's the last day to enter. The Crafty Chica was having a fun contest to embellish a beach tote and I really wanted to do it. I've had this simple denim bag for a few years (Bath & Body Works gift) I scanned a vintage style Hawaiian postcard and enlarged it a bit and printed it on inkjet fabric from the Vintage Workshop. Then I wandered around my sewing room and craft stash till I found the ribbons and beaded trim and that gold flower from one of the girls old sandals and got busy sewing and glueing. I added some glitter around the image too, though you can't really tell in the picture. The girls were ooooo-ing and ahhh-ing over it before bed and asking when they could have a turn using it. After looking at the other entries in the contest I don't have much hope of winning a prize but it was fun having a challenge to make me do something!

Viva Las Vegas

My take on Vegas: I saw waaaaaaay too many bottoms and breasts, (they are literally EVERYWHERE you look on the strip) and it's WAY too hot in the summer time. We took this trip because we got 2 nights in a free hotel room for sitting through a 90 minute time share presentation, and it was worth it. I would probably only go there again though if I got a killer deal on a NICE hotel room, but it was definately an interresting place to visit, and it was wonderful to get away anywhere with just Sam and I! We took a ton of pictures to show the kids,I'll spare you (most) of the ones that don't tell the story. We drove for several hours, waited in the dam traffic, (Hoover Dam) Got to our (hilariously cheesey) hotel room, walked and walked and walked until we were ready to pass out from the heat, took lots of pictures of ourselves, ate a wonderful dinner at the Belagio where we were incredibly lucky to be able to skip the hour and a half buffet line because some nice couple felt sorry for the pregnant lady and gave us their front of the line pass! Posed for LOTS of cheesy pictures.Day 2- I discover that the vomit stains on one side of the bed seemed to be growing, so I bravely stepped on them (with shoes of course!) and discovered it was wet and sloshy, and not a stain at all. So Sam got on the phone and informed them of the leak and we were promptly moved to a (slightly larger, and decidedly cleaner) room. We did our time share presentation duty, went to see the latest Harry Potter, did a lot more walking, exploring and picture taking before finally ending the night by calling a cab to rescue me and my blistered feet from Caesars Palace. Then the rain started and we got a great storm through most of the night. The last day we went to check out a very overpriced "outlet" mall and headed home, the end.

Food Storage Friday: Inventory

No mine never got beyond the hand written paper on a clip board stage- and then it was ripped into several pieces by my lovelies for no apparent reason. So if you want to be simple and do it that way, laminate your pages and use a dry erase marker to keep track of what you have! Since I've been such a slacker I went and found some websites with systems for you to borrow:
Prepared LDS Family has inventory pages that you print and put into a binder system- may I suggest putting the pages in sheet protectors if you have destructive munchkins. (like me) The whole site is filled with excellent information on gathering and rotating a 3-12 month food supply. I think this would be especially good if you have food stashed around your house, the binder would be a great central location to list what you have and where so you aren't running around looking in closets and under beds for things.
Track My Food Storage.com actually allows you to set up an account and manage your food storage online, could be helpful!
One of my neighbors has a good system, they have a large poster hanging on the back of their pantry door with little library card style pockets all over it labeled with the necessities (flour, sugar, beans, wheat, rice etc) and then small cards representing how many cans they have tucked into each one- so 20 cards in the sugar pocket for 20 cans of sugar, etc and when they pull out a new can, they also pull a card and put it into a large pocket at the top, so they can easily see what they need to replace- very smart idea, I think I could do that for my cannery type items.
Another idea is using index cards in a box to keep track, for more on that idea click HERE.
Once you know what you have, it shouldn't be too hard to type it up and put it into some kind of a spread sheet that you can print and update by hand, or just save it on your computer and update weekly or something, either way, it's a smart thing to do to avoid wasting food or running out of important ingredients!
A great article to help you if you're just starting to gather your food storage can be found HERE.
And if you need something to scare you a little, check out this website- the US Debt Clock. Those numbers are climbing by the minute with no end in sight.

Sin City without the sinning?

So does anyone have any recommendations for something fun to do in Vegas? Sam and I get to take a quick trip there and I'm looking forward to a couple nights away from [my little angels] but I'm not exactly sure what we should do! I plan on walking the strip at night, eating out and seeing Harry Potter without having to pay a babysitter, (thanks mom!!!) and dragging Sam to do a bit of shopping, but reading the Trip Advisor reviews I'm wondering what else there is to do besides drinking and gambling...

Scrapbooking

A few weeks ago the girls requested to look at their "scrapbooks" and it was so fun to see how happy they were going through them, even the really cheesy pages. They didn't care that my pages don't look like the ones in the scrapbook magazines. I felt pretty bad when Miss E discovered that she only had a few pages done in her album while her sisters had at least one full book so I've been trying to get some scrapbooking done for her and it's FUN. Even though I don't love every page, I love the pictures and especially the little girl who is THRILLED to see each new page I make for her.
Flourish rub on, bling and border sticker are Glitz.I'm in love with those flower cardstock stickers from Basic Grey.The paper, journaling sticker and bling are Glitz, the star tag is from a pack of gift tags from Pier One.I kind of copied this idea from a page on the Glitz blog, the felt flowers and heart ar American Crafts and the papers, journaling sticker and sparrow sticker are Glitz.The left page is from a page kit, and the other one is just some more Glitz papers and cardstock stickers.

You can see by these baby pictures that I have a lot to do now that she's almost 4 but I'm looking forward to it!

Grocery Savings

I've been slacking in the coupon shopping department lately- it's hard to go to the store with the kids out of school and a pregnant woman with 4 kids is a spectacle as it is, let alone when one or more is making noise or running around! I stumbled upon a website that has me re-motivated to start saving and getting the deals, click HERE to see all the free stuff she has gotten lately! She found her deals thanks to some great sites like these: Deal Seeking Mom, and Coupon Clippin' Mama. They both link to a lot of coupons you can print online if you don't get the paper. I finally got my coupon file organized (since SOMEONE dumped it out in my car) and printed some new ones so I'm ready to go!

Recycled T-Shirt ideas

Generally I think if you aren't wearing a t-shirt, pass it on to someone who needs it via DI or Goodwill or something, but sometimes you just love a shirt for sentimental reasons, or maybe it has a really cute design on it, or it's ripped or stained and not really wearable. In those cases, you need a good project! This book caught my attention:I think craft books are great gifts to give and get, but there are so many free ideas out there I can't bring myself to buy one for me, so I've been doing some online searches and found these great ideas:

Make a quilt or a pillow- sew pieces together like these:

Stretch them onto an embroidery hoop or picture frame for instant wall art. (via Betz White)

I love this idea from Craft Gossip, turn the sleeve into a baby hat:

You could make a bag:You could also make drawstring style bags, I saw some little ones made with sleeves, or turn your old shirt into a nightgown or swim cover up for your girls!

I'm dying over these little gauchos that popped up on my google reader this morning made from recycled t-shirts:

And finally, if you're really talented and ambitious, you can cut up a shirt and crochet it into a little creature:

Now go- make something! And tell me if you do, I want to see it!

A big day

Our oldest (Miss B) was baptized Saturday. She looked so beautiful, and requested her dad wear a suit so he looked extra nice too! To anyone who may not know, we baptize children in our church when they turn eight years old. (to learn more, click HERE.) Miss B was so excited, it's something she's learned about and looked forward to since she was very little and she was just beaming when she came out of the water. We are so thankful for friends and family who were there for her, it meant a lot to all of us!

I think I'm so funny sometimes

Eleven

That's how many grandkids my parents have right now, the newborn didn't make this picture, I can't imagine why his parents wouldn't want sandy kids holding him for it! But also, today is me and Sam's 11 year anniversary! And since I already did a mushy post the other day (as mushy as I get here anyways) you get to see this fun picture from our beach trip! Happy 11th to my Sam- it's been fast, I can't wait to see what the next 11 years bring us! (another baby, teenagers, old age, riches (ha!) etc...)

Real Men

I might swoon over guys like this:

who can fight their overwhelming urge to kill the girl he loves so he can be with her, (huh?)

or guys like this one:

who can get a girl with a line as simple as "I can't find the um, stationary, want to help me look?" (um, yes!)

but really, at the end of the day, the real guy who steals my heart is this one,

the one who plays with our kids, who will stay up all night to fix my dishwasher, and the guy who will work outside in 110 degree heat to fix our lawn mower. (or that little guy with the big bum next to him) XOXO