Queen Amidala

Queen Amidalla never looked so good! And yes, I like to try on as many creations as I can. :) The crown and hair is my personal creation. Well, actually all of it is. I have too much fun making costumes. I am making all this for a family in our ward. This is for a 5 year old. :) I made some Star Wars capes and stuff that I'll post later... hopefully ON the Duff Family! :)

Beatrice and I went to the pumpkin patch with the preschool group. It was SO COLD that morning and had just rained so the tracktor could not take us out to the patch. We had fun anyway for a few mins.

She has this hat on over her huge flower in her hair. HA! Why do we make the kids where these huge flowers? not sure, but they are darn cute! :)

Apples!

What did you do yesterday? Well, I made and canned applesauce! Love this stuff! I should do more with this big group that lives here. A few friends came over and we did their stuff too. It was a great party. I am positive I didnt get the mother of the year award...but today is a new day! :)

A Book?

Chris has teased me for years. One thing he has teased me about is me writing a book. I dont have a desire to, but he reads a lot and he's read some things I've written lately and says I'm a good writer. That was a real compliment! wow! He's serious! haha! He thinks I should write a book. Humm. SO, what kind of book should I write? you know, in my spare time. lol! (you can tell I'm a dreamer, cant ya. there are only a few of us left in the world, and I happen to be one of them.)

Its Autum Time!

The colors of my backyard are so beautiful. It was a rainy day and the light was SO beautiful on everything! I was doing dishes and kept looking outside and just had to get out there to take some shots. Next time it rains, check out the colors of the world around you. Its pretty darn cool.

Yep, you see a punching bag in the tree and a fort built with odd sheet in the tree house. I know there are better backyards than mine, but I might have to argue with that notion because I usually have the best sounding backyard. The sounds of kids playing and laughing might be the best sound on earth. :)

Where is Bea???

She stole Charlotte's binki and hid behind the couch.... was so relaxed that she fell asleep!!

Sing it from the roof tops!

Brian the Dishwasher Guy almost got a photoshoot with us due to fixing our DISHWASHER for us after months and months of some other repair man sending us many empty promises. :) But, I wasnt really sure he'd know what to do with all the attention. Brian was a gruff, Idaho cowboy, smoke smelling man of few words. I am pretty sure I scared him with my giggles of excitment! Dishwasher works better than ever and now I get to fix my hardwood floor from the dishwasher totally messing it up. yay. This was definatly blog worthy!! No more washing everything by hand! I feel ok not buy paper plates now. :)

I think dishwashers are one of the best inventions on this earth. When I create my own world, I am pretty sure I will just include a dishwasher and washer growing from the ground like weeds. :) yep, you heard it here first! :)

See ya Facebook!

Wow, I did it! I am sure the shaking will stop soon, but I really quit Facebook! Ah the bitter sweet Facebook! I may go back someday, but until then... I live.

One thing that you might have to watch out for is... you can only post a little bit on FB at a time. My blog... yes, I could go on and on for hours. I know I talk too much. I just might have to get my own blog just for me.

But! Now you have to comment on my blog! :) Please!

its picture day at school today!

And I didnt buy any!! YAY! I did it! I hate buying the school picutres. I never pass them out and I dont like buying a 'good enough' picture when I take some great pictures of the kids all the time. Granted, Bea's picture was taken by our friend Dan, Jessica's hubby. And all of these pics were taken with Jessica's awesome camera. Oh, and Addy's picture was cut out of our family picture because she just didnt have any that were totally great. Still working on one for her 8x10 frame in the family room.

an idea

For those that know me... I have lots of ideas come out of my mouth. I dont always exactly do all of them, but I like to dream about them. I do have a fun idea that I actually could very well do from home and with very little overhead. Patterns. I love making patterns. These are a few designs I was inspired to design about a year ago. I could sell a PDF file of my patterns. Hummm... maybe that wouldnt make a ton of money, but I cant spend a load of time sewing. AND I dont have a lot of time to think about getting my designs made and into stores with some Chinese sweat shop just yet. :) Five kids is still a lot to handle at home! Where you might ask would I sell patterns?... Etsy.com. Awesome place! :) Just another idea.

A note

I was at RS the other night and a wise and wonderful lady with kids my age said how much she really loved her daughters blogs and how they keep the distance between them and those that she loved seem shorter.
I am on Facebook and do lots of little blurps of what I am feeling or silly experiences. Maybe I should share a few things here too. But! This blog is also about the FAMILY vs. just me. Maybe I should have a blog of just me someday... but then I dont think people would read it... I talk too much anyway. :) ha! Plus, I dont think it would mean as much when you couldnt see all the facial expressions Ive got. THAT makes a difference! hahah! Chris has said for years I should have a TV show that just has me making facial expresions. Nice. Nobody would watch. haha!

SO!!! Here it goes...

Gabe shared a Book of Mormon with a kid in class a few weeks ago. He's so brave and a great example to me. Yes, it seems like there are school/religion issues, but I dont care about that. Way to go Gabe! He's also a straight A student.... well, except those few rebelious moments of homework, but he gets that from me. Dang it! :)

Isabel is totally sweet and putting Bea to bed every night for me. She likes to cuddle with her to the point that she falls asleep too. Isabel does a TON to be so sweet in the family. I told her the other day that she is really becoming a real teenager too. She said that she kinda feels left out in her group of friends because she is the oldest in her family vs. all her other friends are the middle or youngest in their families. I forgot about all the things kids worry about! I have to pay attention to that!
OH! The kids have found the movie maker on the computer.... yep, thats all I need to say!

Adeline... oh sweet addy! She is a handful and I look forward to seeing her everyday all at the same time. I acutally cant think of anything spacific right now, but oh, as you know, I will and I'll tell ya soon.

Beatrice seems like she is totally bored all the time! She is so super cute with me and the baby. Even if she lays all over the baby. But, its like she doesnt know what to do with herself. She likes preschool a lot and I love those days! But, if you could be addicted to a movie, She would be addicted to Barbie, Diamond Castle. Its always in the DVD player. ha! I dont know what to do with her somedays. Although, I do think she may be President of the USA at age 20. For various reasons. Spend some quality time with her, and you'll find out why I think so. :)


Charlotte (10mo) is a CHUNK! I dont know how she became so fat, but she is really gaining weight. ok, she loves food... that could be it. Its so fun, but it's a new experience for me. My babies are never fat. She is totally crawling great and she'll be walking in a few months I am sure. She is super smily and laughs at everyone. I had a friend watch her the other day and she said all she did was smile and laugh! YAY! I love to hear that! :)

Here she is...

Chris and I run everynight for a little bit. Its getting really cold and its starting to give me brain freezes. haha! serious. ha! Its been really fun to spend time with him in an active way. (He has lost 50lbs in the past few months. And I wear size8 jeans, but I dont think it counts because they have some stretch and they are Levis. but size 8 sounds fun!) He jokes that I push him to the limits. Well, that is not a joke, but with excersize, it may be. We come home and he does his pullups and I watch him. Then I always try and then can never do even one and I laugh to death about that. That just never is good for the muscles to try to work when youre in stitches on the floor. I am waiting for that to get old. I'll let you know when it does. Chris says its weird that I hold Charlotte who is almost 20lbs everyday and he cant hold her for too long. Just a mom thing. But I still cant do any pullups and he does like 50 in a row. He might be a show off though. :) jk. We stay up reading scriptures and read the stack of books by our bed people have recently given to us or that we have found. Then we talk about things that have been on our minds through the day. Chris keeps a little notebook with him to write down his thoughts in the day. I dont think we've ever actually spent this kind of time together in our entire marriage. Sounds kinda sad, but true. I hope we can make these things habbits. The TV goes on occationally at night, but its rare. Wierd and I love it. I am trying to cook better for him and do service for him more and he is trying to listen to me and spend quality time with me more. We still have days that are really hard and its nothing I can write about but, that is where the old saying comes to mind... "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something". Ahh, the wonderful things we have learned from The Princess Bride. Most of all, Its been really nice getting to know someone I already know. Marriage is a strange thing. I know we will be better, we have to be.

Some fresh air!

The kids and Chris had a long weekend.. Thursday and Friday off. WAY FUN!

I was such a mean mom and made them go on a "walk/hike" up the canyon on the canyon rim trail. One of my favorites around here. The reason is because I can take the stroller. (Charlotte got to sleep for the 2 hours we were on the trail!) There really is no place for a good hike around here except going UP the canyon. :( Theres no place like Utah mountains and the hills of Cali. that I like to hike on.

I wore these guys out! But, we had a GREAT DAY!

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