Happy...Everything!

Okay, time to give an update on all the holidays.

During October we went to the pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins. They had a corn "sandbox" for the kids to play in. Way better than sand. Of course, you do find tons of kernels in the baby's diaper afterwards, but it's better than sand.

This one of Candace is kind of funny. She's a character.

 Corn Angels

Seth and Justin working hard. Actually those pumpkins were pretty heavy.

I think we've got a picture of every one of the kids wandering around the pumpkin patch at that age.

Some ginormous pumpkins.

We also had a Halloween party this year. Those I can only do every other year. They are time consuming, but it was fun. I made all kinds of "gross" food like "a plug of hair from the bathroom drain", "earwax on a swab", "bat wings", "troll finger nubs" and the like. The names made them way more gross. It was hard to want to eat them after you read the names, but it was all really good.

Seth smeared his little fingers all over my lens so every picture that night was smudged. I made our costumes with a freezer paper stencil and white paint. I also made Meagan's lady bug costume and Seth was the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Candace was Princess Peach.

We had a "trunk-or-treat" at the church on Saturday night and then I took the kids trick-or-treating on Monday. Seth actually wore the bunny ears and tail that night. It was so much fun going around the neighborhood with them. Seth was super cute. He carried his little pumpkin to every house and held it out saying, "tit-or-teat". Then when they brought out the candy bowl he was all over that. Everyone was trying to give out a small handful but while they were distracted with that Seth was raiding the bowl behind their back and adding more to his bucket. It was pretty funny. He made out like a bandit. He had more candy than anyone.

Justin's brother Jake and his family visited us a few days before Thanksgiving. They were visiting Laurie's family in Mesa. I'm glad we're kind of the halfway point for everyone between Texas and Utah. We get to see our families more while they're traveling to see someone else. ;) 

We went with them to Saquaro National Park. I've never been there. I didn't even know it was there. At some point, I want to visit Tucson and any other city we live in, like a tourist and see all the cool stuff that home has to offer. Most people travel all over the country and the world to see cool stuff but there is always something cool near home too that you never even visit. 

Thanksgiving was spent with some friends from our ward, the Wardles. Neither of us have family here so we spent the Holiday together. We had really good food and we played tons of games the whole night. It was probably the most stress-free Thanksgiving I've ever had, as an adult anyways. I made a few dishes ahead of time and it really helped.

After my morning sickness episode this time around I couldn't do all the "time-wasting" stuff I normally did before. It was good for me in a way. I've gotten better at prioritizing and simplifying and identifying what is really essential and what is just unnecessary fluff that I used to fill my days with. It's been great. And, every holiday has been a lot less stressful but still fun and beautiful. I guess that's a hidden blessing that came out of morning sickness. Don't get me wrong, I still waste my time (ahem...pinterest, facebook...among other things) but I don't do it as much because I just can't stand it for very long.

Next up is Christmas. We stayed home for this holiday too. I don't think my body could have handled any more long trips. But, it was nice because we got to have Christmas in our home with just our kids. It's a lot less stressful that way. Justin's parents and a couple of his brothers stayed with us a few days before Christmas on their way up to Utah to be with the rest of the Paul clan. That was really nice and fun too. Lots of board games. We really like playing board games. We've got a lot of fun ones and it's just a great way to visit with everyone and still have fun. Justin likes it because he can get his competitive edge on and pit every other player against each other. He doesn't even care to win as long as he has a chance to pull a really dirty move on someone. Ah, what a funny guy. I love him.

I also did some additional crafts and decorating for Christmas. I made a mitten advent calendar and filled it with little treats and tiny ornaments for our tiny Christmas tree. It was great because the girls were always excited to take down a mitten every day in December and I didn't have to listen to them ask me "how long 'til Christmas" every day. Best of both worlds.

Our first real tree in years. We had a 6ft fake one forever, until Seth pulled it over while trying to pull off an ornament to look at it. One of the legs on the stand broke. I loved the smell of this tree. It made it feel more like Christmas. We're going to get a real one every year now. They are way cheaper than I thought.

These are my new nativities my mother-in-law gave us. I didn't have a nativity and told her so in passing, not really thinking about it. She remembered and got us these. I feel a lot better having something around the house to remind us of the true meaning of Christmas.

It's also fun to decorate with them.

These stockings are the same ones we've always used but I added the gold letters. It got really difficult last Christmas keeping all the candy in the stockings separate because we couldn't tell which stocking was which. Problem solved. And they aren't permanently attached so I can do something different in the future, if I want. I guess that's one good thing about pinterest. I've gotten a lot of good ideas from there that make my life a little easier.

Sethy boy's 2nd birthday. What a cutie! He'll get one of my favorite cakes every year until he's old enough to have an opinion. And even then, I will influence him heavily. This one was Tres Leches.

His first real boy toy...ever. He's been playing with the girls' stuff and gender neutral baby toys up until now. This boy needed some cars. He loves them!

Here's a few random, funny things. I tried to catch Justin on video singing one of his "crap songs". You know, butchering the tune and lyrics and singing in an annoying voice. The camera beep gave me away. You can kind of catch the tail end of what he was singing. I think it was Brown Eyed Girl.

Here's Meagan's "Charlie Brown" dance. She just busted out with it while Justin was playing. I guess they watched Charlie Brown's Christmas movie at school. Her dances are so funny.

We also did the Twelve Days of Christmas for a family in our ward. It was pretty fun but a lot of work coming up with it all, getting all the stuff and then going out every night to drop it off. Here's a couple of them.

Here's the whole song we made up.

On the twelfth Day of Christmas

Secret Santa gave to me

12 drumsticks dripping (drumstick ice cream cones)

11 poppers popping (new years poppers)

10 worms a creeping (gummy worms in pudding and oreo dirt)

9 reindeer prancing (reindeer ornaments)

8 cakes of “milky” (slices of tres leches cake)

7 Doves a flying (dove ornaments)

6 snowman droppings (a foam snowman with cookies n cream kisses)

5 golden…”things” (ferrero rocher, with one eaten)

4 ornaments, (random ornaments in a pack)

3 Christmas pens, (self explanatory)

2 turtle clusters, (boxes of Turtle chocolates)

And a giant candy Christmas wreath! (corn flake, marshmallow shaped wreath)

Here are the secret ninjas that delivered the goods every night. I think Meagan was holding up the 7doves a flying.

We must include a picture of Seth. He loves to pose for the camera every time I get it out.

All excited, ready to open presents on Christmas morning. Well, at least Candace is.

We got to skype my parents on Christmas morning. That was really fun. That program is so awesome. It's like really being there with someone. We did get to have Christmas with some family after all.

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth...i.e. Loooooonng Post

Alright guys, overload time.

I feel like I've fallen off the face of the Earth. I've been so busy with all kinds of stuff that I haven't done a whole lot of other stuff, like interact or talk to other people. (sorry mom!) It also doesn't help when I lose my cell phone and can't locate it because it's been missing for a while and the battery is completely dead. (success, It's been found now!). Our kids have also taken turns passing around a stomach bug the last 2 weeks. That's fun. I love washing all kinds of blankets and sheets. You know how I love laundry.

Since my last post 2 months ago we've done so many things. Let me sum up...

yeah right, you know I'm going to give you every detail.

Meagan's school had a little program about our country. It was pretty cute. I'm glad they did it. I think a lot of people are losing sight of what makes this country so great and where we've come from since its founding. Good to know they are teaching my kids at least. Each kid had a part in between lots of songs they learned. Meagan had to fill in for one of the kids' parts.

They had the audience join in on the Star Spangled banner. Sadly, most of the people either didn't want to sing or they didn't know the song. A lot of people were looking around confused like they didn't know the words or something. It makes me sad and worried that patriotism is getting lost these days.

At the end of February we went skiing in Flagstaff. Way fun! The kids did really great.

This is Meagan's second time skiing. First time a couple of years ago didn't go over too well. But by the end of the 1st day she could do this.

She was racing me down the mountain after a while. I'm a scaredy cat so she usually beat me.

Here is Candace's "skiing".

...and here's how Seth did it.

Justin said he loved it and was saying "uuuuaaaaahhhhh" every time he turned a corner. Most of the time he hung out in the lodge with whoever was recuperating. We went with a big group so we could get the group discount. He was really good, but I think he started getting separation anxiety by the end of the 2 days.

I also did really well. I didn't biff it until my last run on the last day. My ski hit a hole and twisted my foot around, causing me to eat snow. I was trying to film Meagan skiing so I just took my video shots and told Meagan to wait while I figured out how to get my ski back on. It took me, no joke, 20 min to figure out that the ski had popped off and not released the locking mechanism. It usually does when your foot comes out, but it must have come off with too much force, too quickly and my ski would not go back on. I figured it out after I had the brilliant idea to compare it to my other ski which was still attached. By that time Meagan got confused about where I was and just headed down the mountain without me. She was okay but my shoulder muscle still hurts from that fall. I'm just glad it happened at the very end of the trip and not in the middle when there was still some good ski time left.

Their first bath all together. We won't be doing that again. The water was a little too deep for Seth.

I also had some recuperating time after all that. I had laser eye surgery in March. I'm no longer legally blind! 20/20 vision, as long as I don't let my eyes dry out. I have to use a lot of eye drops though. No big deal, after dealing with contacts and glasses most of my life. I lost my last pair of contacts and my glasses broke after the ski trip. It was difficult to try to ski with glasses. You have to have some sun and wind protection and goggles weren't fitting too well over my glasses. That's why they broke. Hooray for me! I still catch myself trying to push my glasses up on my nose, or thinking, "oh, I need to take out my contacts". Nope! Ah, it's beautiful.

I've still been doing some crafting and home organization. I made a diaper bag for my friend who just had a baby. I wish I could have kept that sweet awesomeness. But, it's better to give than to keep for myself.

 Finished product. Alyssa, if you're reading, this is what yours would look like. You can pick the colors/fabric design you want, of course.

Inside Detail

Front detail.

The girls helped me paint their shelf/hook rack. They picked the color. I had to hang it low enough for Candace to reach so she could hang up her dress-ups and put her little "treasures" on the shelf.

 And...their room has been a lot cleaner. Brilliant!

I've been doing a little kitchen organization, too. I got a magazine holder to put all my small spiral cookbooks in. They kept falling over in the cabinet and getting lost. Such a frustrating mess. And, I got rid of the powdery flour and sugar bags that haunted the a fore mentioned cabinet, with accompanying scoops. You know, the Raisin Bran box kind of scoops. I'm lovin' it. Yep, pretty easy to please. Plus it's more convenient because I want to start baking a lot of bread. I made some cinnamon raisin bread the other day. The kids loved it. I think it needed a little more work before I'm happy with my bread baking abilities. Now I just hope I can remember the Thanksgiving bread-making lesson me and the other sister-in-laws got from Mamma Paul.

And finally, IT'S...!

I love pastels, the perfect weather, nice breezes and the chance to grow something green around here.

Here's our first real attempt at a garden. I would love to have tomatoes or lettuce whenever I want. 

It's going pretty good so far. I got a timer to water it automatically. Cause last year I kept forgetting to water everything and it all died.

Here's an idea that I thought was pretty cool. Toilet paper rolls double as seed starters. I got the idea from here. What an awesome (free) use for something you'd throw away anyways.

 

Want another great use for toilet paper rolls? I know you do. 

Fire starters. My mom taught me how to do these. Stuff them with dryer lint and dryer sheets and they light up like the Fourth of July. Saves you from searching for kindling when you're camping, or if you have your own fireplace. We go camping a lot so it's useful for us. I never thought I would wish for more empty toilet paper rolls in our house.

Just make sure you don't stuff them too full. They won't get enough air inside to stay lit. You could also poke holes in the side to let in some air. We tried them out last weekend when we went camping. They worked like a charm. I wished burning the whole bag I had would have helped keep me warm but there wasn't enough firewood in the world for that. Yeah, I know. Camping in April in the mountains...bad idea. Well, it was. Freezing cold all night long, and I mean freezing. One of the worst night's sleep ever. We were going to try out a new rock climbing place the next day but we were all so cold and miserable we just wanted to go home before the rains came. Yep, rain. I don't care how much the kids are looking forward to camping or how much we promised them we would do but I will never go camping again when the forecast says, Low - 33, 30% chance of rain. I was already halfway done packing all our gear by the time I saw the forecast or I would have absolutely said "no way. I don't care what I promised you we would do this weekend." and suffered through the whining and complaining that would inevitably follow.

But on a good note, we all took long hot showers and cozied up to a movie and hot chocolate when we got home. We stayed in all day. I do love doing that every once in a while.

Loads of videos of our cute kids

 We were eating pizza for dinner one night. Meagan loves to make up random songs...kind of like me and Justin. This is her "ode to cheese".

 Then Justin came home from work and got in on the action. These guys crack me up.

 This is how Seth learned to walk. Turns out we didn't need a walker after all.

Here are some of his first steps. Thank you small stool for teaching him how to do it.

 Here's Meagan's 7th birthday party. She wanted a blackforest cheesecake for her birthday. Who am I to deny the wishes of a 7 year old? The kids mostly just played outside while the adults talked and ate. My kind of party.

 Alright you. Stop growing so fast.
















                          And finally, I got a new haircut.

Customize a slideshow desig

Cleanse and Purge! ...and catch up.

Alright, catchup time. I've got so much cute stuff to show you. 

So, since Christmas I took this sweet little picture of Seth enjoying his new tricycle. Man, they've come a long way in tricycle design. It's so convenient to steer it with the handle. He absolutely loves riding in that thing, if you couldn't tell.

 

Next up is the treasure chest I Spy bag I made for Christmas. That one was fun to make.

I've been busy with getting organized in my house. Every Christmas when we bring in the onslaught of new stuff we just got...I've got to figure out where to put it. So it was time for a purge. 

I went through all the girls' dress-ups they don't wear much and put them in a box in the top of their closet. I'm so sick of finding toys and dress-ups all over the floor that they didn't even play with. Useless cleanup time. Then, I went through all of their old clothes they've grown out of and bagged them up to take to Twice As Nice. It's a second hand store here in Tucson that will buy your clothes from you and resell them. Unfortunately they only took a small stack of the five bags I brought in, so I still have most of them in a big storage tub in my kitchen. arrrrr..... Someone please tell me their method for choosing which clothes to buy off you and which ones to give back with a huge stamp of disapproval and a frownie face. Man, there was some seriously cute stuff in there they didn't look twice at. Does anyone want girls size 2T and 3T clothes for just about every season? Cause it's yours for the very low price of FREE!

I did get to organize their closet though. I got some of those hanging shelves for their shoes and the clothes they wear that aren't dirty but would otherwise wind up on the floor. Man, what an awesome idea I had for that. ;) Their room has been a lot less messy after installing those bad boys. Plus it also has a hanging bar midway down so short little Candace can hang up her dresses all by herself. Fantastic! It got my cleanse-and-purge juices all flowing.

Next room up for organizing was...mine. My sewing area, to be more precise.

I got those frames for $2.50 in those sweet little bit-o-heaven bargain bins at the front of Target. I finds so much good stuff there for cheap it almost makes me want to cry...almost. Just a little paint and mod-podge over the hot pink and lime green colors that graced those little gems and I got a list for all my sewing/crafting projects I want to do and a peg board for pinning up sewing instructions, fabric measurements, etc. Plus I finally got a little pen caddy to catch all the tape measur-er thingies and scissors that always got lost under the sea of unfinished projects. Wooh, feelin' good. And if you look closely, yes, Elaina and Reina, I'm planning on making you some sweet, styling new diaper bags. And if you order in the next...month, maybe...you can pick the colors and size you want. Don't delay! By the way, if anyone else wants a diaper bag, just let me know. ;)

The next thing I've done is whipped out these bad boys. Well, more like sweet, innocent, young princesses. That's Cinderella and Princess Peach (from every Mario game ever made). I've been promising them these dresses for Christmas, birthdays and before the end of time. I finally did them.

 Whew, one more item checked off my project list. 

 These next two I did a few months ago. Finally got around to getting a frame for Meagan's school pictures. I kind of want to do something about all that white, but no ideas have jumped out at me yet.











 Plus, here's a plaque that I made assembled. I've been keeping busy.

Let's see. What else do I have? Oh yes. New dishes, finally. No more mismatched, broken, incomplete different sets for me...well until the kids break some of these. Or me. I'm pretty clumsy when I'm pregnant or hormonal. Does anyone else just love square plates? Yeah, me too. Candace was so excited to use the new plates. She may have been as excited as me. I don't know.

 Here's a little valentine's love for y'all. My sweet hubby got me these.

...and I made him these.

AHAHAHA! Good ol' heart shaped sugar cookies. Gotta keep the romance alive, you know. Yeah I stole the idea off some other mom's blog. Which brings me to my next point. I'm seeing where all you cute ladies out there are gettin' your awesome ideas from. Blogs and Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I CAUGHT YOU! I was flipping through my latest BHG magazine (just got a subscription a few months ago, awesome) and saw something I was admiring at someone else's house a few months back. Then I realized, this isn't the first time I've caught someone cheating by getting their ideas from other awesome sources. It's alright, I mean, I'm cheating now too, I guess. I'm just sad I didn't have these idea factories at my disposal years ago.

Alright, now for this next picture, don't adjust your monitor. Your eyes are fine. You are not seeing double.

 Seth sure loves his daddy. This was a complete accident. I noticed it when he was holding Seth that they were dressed just alike.














Helping me with chores. That's Seth's favorite spot in the kitchen. And by favorite I mean next favorite spot after his high chair while stuffing his face.

He doesn't like it when I move him away from the dirty water while I'm loading that thing.

Stay tuned for some really cute/funny videos on my next post. I figure I've been at this long enough for now.