Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for all kinds of things, and I have lots to share when "vacation" is over.  But for today, I wanted a few light hearted laughs.

 Except it will be Black Friday in less than 24 hours, so....  Christmas is comin'!

 For my Mormon friends :)

 I loved Garfield as a child.  Betwee Piko and I, I think we owned all of his cartoon books.  It is also funny to go back and see how Garfield has evolved.  This is one of the later renderings :)

 Been there.  Done that.  And we did it outside.

A classic :)

I have so much to be thankful for!  Happy Thanksgiving to You!

Recycled Clock

One of the things I have wanted to do to finish Kelsey's room is to put up a clock.  So I can see how much time I spend cuddling her, and what time in the infernal morning she has chosen to wake up :)  I have put a clock in each of the kids other rooms, so it made sense to put one in hers!  And, because the girls now share a room, I also happened to have an extra clock!  Her rooms decorations are based on her bedding, so I decided to continue the theme.

This is my "before" picture.  As you can see, A) I did this activity back closer to Halloween, and B) This isn't a true before picture as I had already started.  At first I played around with just painting the petals that fabulous red raspberry color.  But, the purple was actually painted on the back side of the clear acrylic, so it showed through if you were standing to the side.  It just looked kinda weird.

 So, I thought I would play off the lollypop trees (thats what I call them) and do some polka dots.  I decided to use the raspberry as a base coat.  It took about 3 coats to get good coverage.

 I thought I would be super cool and make my own "stamp" out of some craft foam.  

 But the foam didn't hold the paint well, and the circles didn't hold their shape.  I tried to quickly wipe it off before the majority of the paint dried.  Thankfully, at this point, it was just a matter of repainting the base coat.

 On my next trip to Wally World, I found these babies!

So I used the leftover pink from her walls and the leftover green from her bookshelf and made me some polka dots!

 I wasn't super thrilled that the red was matte and the dots were glossy, so I broke out the glossy mod podge and painted a coat.  I figured it would serve well as a sealer also, even though, hanging on the wall, I don't expect much traffic.

 And there it hangs, in its place of glory.  (Yes the blinds are like that on purpose because she plays with them *translation: breaks them).

 It turned out quite well!  I didn't want to break open the clock to touch the butterfly or anything.  And there IS a butterfly in her bedding, so the purple-ness doesn't bother me. 

Cost: 

$0 for the clock

$1 for the red paint

$0 for the pink and green

$4 for the round brushes

$7 for the mod podge (which kinda doesn't count because I am sure I will use it for a ton of other things)

So $12 for the whole shebang!  It did take a few days, but that was waiting for paint to dry, as well as re-doing mistakes...  I am super happy with the results.  And pleased that I can tell when it is time to put my sleeping baby in her crib and stop cuddling her :)

Scratchy voice

Kelsey caught a throat bug.  It made her want to cuddle, and made her voice all cute and scratchy.  I tried to get it on video here, but she wouldn't cooperate.  Of course.  The video still makes me giggle though :)

A few minutes later, she got upset and started to cry.  And that is where you can really hear how hoarse she was.  Also, check out that bottom lip...  It comes out pretty far.

Its a good thing I don't have to feel bad for how cute I think her scratchy-ness is :)

Fall Festival

Our stake had its third annual fall festival, and the kids were super excited to go.  The first thing thing Kari and Dylan headed over to was the "mechanical" bull.  Kari actually held on for a decent amount of time.  She totally would have hit the 8 second mark.

She was then kind enough to help Dylan get on.

He held on until it started moving...

... then pretty much jumped off.  Eh no big deal.

There was also a blow up obstacle course that the kids had tons of fun on.

Kaitlyn even tried it (notice she didn't try the bull)!

Kari went more than once.  Can you tell by her hair?

There didn't seem to be quite as many games this year as there were last year, which is a shame, but, the kids still enjoyed it.  Kari got right in there with the needle in a haystack thing.  She ended up pulling some hay out of her backside later as it had gone down her pants. :)  

Kari, my most adventurous and probably (as a result) most fun having child also did 4 square in the air.  She moved a few spots even!

I love fall for many reasons, but all the fun stuff to do is right up near the top!

Green Ninja in Training

Last year for Halloween, Kari was Lloyd the green ninja from Ninjago.  She asked me to help make her a costume, which I did my best to do.  This year, she reused the same basic costume to turn into a teenage mutant ninja turtle.  Are you sensing a pattern here?  

She keeps the costume within easy reach, so as to be able to dress up whenever the desire strikes her.  However, it is also within easy reach of her little sister.

Who screams when any one else puts on a mask.  But it doesn't seem to bother her to wear one :)

Hello in there!

She looks so happy, even though she can't see anything!

Such a happy big sister, willing to share too.

At least for now :)

Baby Technology

Kelsey is teething.  Which seems to affect her mostly at night.  During the day she is ok, but come evening she transforms into the needyclingywhiney monster.  Yay.  The other day, I needed my arms.  I needed my freedom.  I needed my sanity!  I tried to brainstorm something to keep her entertained.  Kelsey is in the stage where she is starting to be interested in movies and things.  It is both a blessing and a curse.  I would love for her to never be interested in TV, but the realist in me realizes that there are times when I need to distract her.  Enter the computer.  I don't even remember what the kids were doing.  I think they were playing on Zoodles.

But it enthralled Kelsey enough for me not only to get done what I needed to, but for me to take an extra 15 seconds to take a cute picture.

 And what do you do when your children are quiet?  Why you go look for them, of course!  On this particular day, I noticed while I was exercising that Kelsey was no longer hanging out downstairs with me, and that Dylan was particularly quiet.  This is what I came upstairs to find.

Yay for technology and for some temporary sanity for mommy!

Done Decorated

I am a decent worker.  But I don't feel like I am very creative.  Which is unfortunate since the house could use some decorating.  Give me a wall that needs painting, and I am all about it.  Give me the same wall, and ask me to pick some art, and then artistically hang it on the wall, and I will run screaming...

The good news is, that in this modern world, there is always something we can turn to in these times of trouble and woe:  Pinterest!  I looked around at some pictures, and did my best to see what I could do with what I had to work with.  In the course of my browsing, I came across this sign, and kinda fell in love.  With something like this, I would usually try to figure out a way to make it and save myself money, but lettering is NOT my strong suit, and at the time I wasn't feeling particularly motivated or crafty.  So I ordered it, and when it finally came, I went straight upstairs to do my best.

Below are 3 options that I played around with.  If you haven't gotten the hint already, I am decorating that bathroom in blues and whites and ducks.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 3 has a little bit more of the surrounding area...  The duck towel as well as the tissue cover.

Feel free to pass on ideas or vote in the comments.  And don't worry about hurting my feelings.  I ain't no decorator.  It don't bother me none :)

Handsome Feller

Ok.  Maybe it isn't all about Kelsey ;)  By the way, that title reminds me of the joke that my dad used to tell us that starts with "One smart feller and he felt smart" and ends with "One fart smeller and he smelt fart."  Good ol' Dad! (by the way, no I don't remember the middle of the joke :)

Do you ever have those days when you look at your child, and suddenly s/he looks older.  Like 3 minutes ago he was still a baby-ish 3 yr old, and when you come back from washing the sticky off your hands (because, as a SAHM, your hands are always sticky), he is suddenly a grown up 4 year old!  This happened to me recently.  

I went through Dylan's drawers to find out how much of a new fall wardrobe I needed to find for the dude.  Turns out, like, the whole thing.  So we went shopping and brought home new clothes, and the silly boy cried and cried as I took out his old clothes.  He had grown quite attached to them, you see.  He even told me he was going to stop eating healthy food so he would stop growing.

On this day, he came down in his new jeans, and a new shirt, and he just looked so.... so....  grown up.  It made me sad, but it also struck me how handsome and cute he looked.  So I asked him to go stand by my favorite picture taking wall and let me take a few pics.  He obliged, but his little copy cat sister had to get in on the action too.

Here she is applauding him for a smile well done :)

I asked him to cross his arms and wink at me.

He tried both sides.

So did Kelsey :)

No more baby fat.  No more chubby cheeks. 

Lots more attitude.  Oh well.  At least he is still cute :)

Cute Outfit

Welcome to the Kelsey blog.  Where all I do is post pictures of Kelsey!

 It was a cute outfit!  I just couldn't help myself!

The end :)

18 Month Pictures

All of the photography places around us have closed down.  Olan Mills, Sears and JC Pennys, even the one inside Walmart!  Since I have a fabulous camera, and my children are comfortable with me, I thought I would try a few on my own.  I even made my own backdrop and photobooth.  My main mistake was that I went outside on a super sunny day.

So while some of the expressions are pretty much priceless, the colors are a bit washed out, and the eyes are unfortunately squinty.

Which is a shame, because if I were slightly more skilled, she actually was decently happy this day, and her outfit was cute!

I even got a few flowers for her to play with.

And brought out some of the newer, less scratched up toys!  Yay props!  Check out that lip!!!! :)

She proceeded to tear the flowers to pieces.

But at least she kept smiling :)

"He can call me flower, if he wants to!"

It kinda matches her outfit too!

And then it started going down hill.

And the photo session was pretty much over.

Smell good Kelsey?

No!  Don't rip them up!

Moral of the story is this: I will either need to find a new photography group (that I can afford), or I will need to become more skilled at using my camera.

18 month stats:

22 lbs 6 oz (50%)

32 in tall (50%)

3 shots...  Poor baby!