Aunt Pickle Saves the Day!!!

Aunt Pickle is our favorite fruit/veggie Aunt!  She has been amazing and come out to each of my children's 8th birthdays to make sure she came for their baptisms.  This time was no different.  Kelsey and I picked her up at the shuttle parking lot and brought her home.

There she spent the rest of the week hanging out with us.  I'm not gonna lie.  She was a huge life saver.  We did a few fun things like going out for Monte Christos with my "crew".  And shopping at the craft store (me for pinewood derby supplies, her for earrings).  But that week happened to be quite busy for hubby and I. I had meetings, hubby had meetings, we had meetings together.

She stayed with Kelsey all day while I spent the day with some friends at the temple.

She also made dinner, ran my children to various after school activities, and was just my general savior.  I cannot express how much she helped, and how much I love her for it!

This was one of the days I had a meeting, and left Kelsey in her care.  While Pickle was in the shower, she handed Kelsey her tablet to play on.  I love that Kelsey couldn't actually go into the bathroom with her, but she still wanted to be close.  So she just hung out right outside the door.  #NoPersonalSpace

It was not all fun and games for Kelsey.  She did have to accompany me once or twice.  And, judging by her facial expression, I think there was somewhere else she would have rather been.

Life is hard sometimes baby.

So, in case you missed it Pickle, I was a horrible hostess.  But I appreciate your help so much.

Love you!

New Coldness Maker

Remember how almost 7 years ago I painted our fridge?  That bad boy lasted and lasted!  Seriously, I cannot tell you how impressed I am with the paint.  I was never brave enough to put magnets on it, and drag them all over the place on the front/doors.  But, we did put a few magnets on the side (that you see below in the picture).  You can see from the picture below, there is nary a scratch on it.  Color me impressed.  

See?  The front looks great still!

Unfortunately, the fridge started "peeing".  And by peeing, I mean leaking water inside the fridge.  And no matter how many times I cleaned it up, and hoped it was a one time occurrence, it always came back.  And, get this: There is NO water line to the fridge!!!  That means it was condensing from the inside somehow.  The fridge and freezer were still cold.  But the amount of water that collected on everything was annoying at best, and started to ruin my produce when it had to sit in puddles of water.  When I found out that a service call alone would be $150, we opted to buy a new one instead.  The sticker inside the door showed the fridge was 30 years old so it was probably about time.  

RIP.  She had a good run.  

So we purchased a replacement, basic, black model for <$500.  And here she is.  Looks completely different, no? 

Well, actually no.  But it'll do the job, without getting water over everything.  And for only $15, they hauled away and disposed of the old one!  Yay!

Happy Birthday Kelsey!

Since I did Dylan's birthday out of order, I should probably put Kelsey's in there too.  Since hers was BEFORE Dylan's and all :)

Kelsey was able to celebrate her birthday while we were on vacation in Florida.  She actually had her birthday IN Disneyworld.  I  mean, that could be the best place to celebrate your birthday in the entire world!!!  She wore a pin that said "It's my birthday" all day, so she got everyone wishing her a happy birthday.  And we celebrated the day after when we finally had some time off.

I didn't make a cake this year.  I wasn't about to try to do all that or pack all that.  But when I saw this cake with purple flowers on it, I knew it was hers.  The Paw Patrol characters were one of her presents from us.  We just had to rinse them off once we were done.

And because we were in FL, Grandma and Grandpa drove an hour or two to come over and visit!  They ate dinner with us, and opened presents.  Grandpa also used his iPad so Kelsey could skype with her aunts and uncles so they could sing to her.  And, because I am a space cadet, I didn't get any better pictures than this...  Boo.

She was a birthday princess all day!  Any time we had to make a decision, like what to ride next, or where to eat, she would pick and then declare that we had to do it because it was HER birthday.

I mean, could she be any happier to be eating her birthday cake?

Other than the Paw Patrol characters on the cake, we also got her a ukulele.  She was so excited to have a "tar" just her size.

Her brother was also incredibly generous when he gave her 2 of his very own Pokemon cards.

Again, we were in the park for her actual birthday the day before, and we allowed her to pick one thing we would buy for her as a present.  She picked this Cinderella music box.

She loved it so much, it was hard to get her to sit still to take a picture.  And don't ask why she had to dance with her eyes open.  I am not quite sure.

S&M were super nice and bought her a present in Disneyworld too.  A new shirt.  In her favorite color!

Her last present was her "grown up" car seat.  Again, I didn't want to pack 2 car seats in the car, so this one was delivered once we got home.  First thing she had to do was try it out.

And then we had to install it and her in the car to show Daddy how much she liked it.

At her well check up (a few days later, thankfully)

She weighed in at 41 lb 12.8 oz (thats about a 6 lb increase from last year) 65%

And was 44 in tall (that is 3 in increase from last year).  She is also pretty tall in the 80%

We love our "baby"!  She is so ready to go to school next year!

Dylan's Baptism

As I have mentioned in previous posts, in our church, we wait until kids get 8 years or older to get baptized.  If you want a wild trip down memory lane, feel free to check out Kari's baptism or Kaitlyn's.

Aunt Pickle has come to each of her niece's/nephew's baptisms.  I don't think they realize just how lucky they are :)  And grandma and grandpa have come too!

Before the program began, we went to take a family picture.  If you look closely, you might notice there seems to be an extra in the picture.  Cute Becca said she wanted to come "watch" but when it came time to line up, she just stepped right in!

We sent her back to her mama and grabbed one more quick photo before we headed in.  

The program was lovely.  He had his Grandpa and one of my good friends (and Becca's mom) as speakers.  He picked out his favorite songs.  And then got to pick out his own refreshments afterwards.

Imagine my surprise, when offered anything in the world that he wanted, that he picked carrots and apples dipped in peanut butter, cheesecake, and Doritos.  I mean, what else could an 8 year old desire?!?! 

  As with baptisms past, I picked out a few of his pictures through the years and displayed them with the refreshments so people could see just how far he's come :)

We're so happy he has chosen to get baptized, and will happily use our village to help raise this wonderful boy to become a wonderful man!

Dylan turns 8!!!

Poor Kid.  On his actual birthday, we were busy. I spent the day up in Atlanta with a friend.  Daddy spent the day at work.  There was martial arts and homework.  I asked him if he would be patient and celebrate his birthday on the weekend.  Grandma and Grandpa would be in town, as well as Pickle (who had been in town for a week).  And we would have more time to devote to him and his birthday wishes.   He agreed, and thankfully we were able to devote proper birthday attention to him a little while later.

Strangely (because he hasn't been there for a long time), he asked to go to our local hibachi place.  Pickle had been, but Grandma and Grandpa said they hadn't been, or if they had it had been a long time.  So we got to introduce them to something new.  Like the onion volcano.

They were nice enough to sing happy birthday to the birthday boy too.  

Grandma also decided to make a robe for Dylan's birthday.  The material was super fluffy and soft.  And made a bit of a mess when she cut it out.

But it fit him perfectly and he has been super excited to wear it!

He was also able to have a special recognition at the martial arts studio.  They give birthday spankings :)

At his 8 year well check up, he is 

57 lbs (increase of 5 lbs from last year) 50%

52 in (increase of 3 in from last year) 75%

He chose an ice cream cake this year.

Was sung to....

...and then blew out the candles!

What better way to celebrate your birthday than with family in from out of town, good food, and an ice cream cake?!?!

Pickle and Grandma and Grandpa came into town also to be there for his baptism!  Stay tuned :)

Our First Pinewood Derby

Guess who turned 8 in March?!?!  This guy!  Our church doesn't start regular activities for the youth until they turn 8, so you better believe that as he got closer, he started asking about it.  I went to the store and bought his uniform stuff, and sewed on his patches (which was a mild pain in the rear).  And even though his birthday was the day after the pinewood derby was held, they allowed him to participate.  He looks so grown up here!

Our den leader took the responsibility quite seriously.  They had brackets set up, regulations to be followed, and judges involved.  I took this picture, however, because I thought it was funny.  None of the kids were allowed by the track, but the dads all went up to take a look at it and "make sure everything was set up."  It made me think of a punchline to a joke (though I don't have one in mind).  "How many men does it take to run a pinewood derby?"

Unfortunately, because of move outs and birthdays, we didn't really have enough cub scouts to make it interesting.  So they invited the Achievement Day Girls (who are the same age, 8-11) to make their own pinewood derby cars and to participate in the derby.  That meant that while Kari was too old, Kaitlyn got to make her own!

Dylan's car did pretty great, though he was eliminated before the final bracket.

Kaitlyn did slightly better than Dylan did, and actually made it to the final bracket.

A good time was had by all, and thankfully, they showed good sportsmanship all around.

Dylan wanted his to be fairly simple.  He wasn't all that worried about aerodynamics, hence the big spoiler.  And he needed a driver!

Kaitlyn got second place!

And, in the way that is completely appropriate for Kaitlyn, she decided to paint her fingernails to match her car.  I'm pretty sure that gave her good luck.

After the official races were over, they allowed us to run some fun races.  This is Kaitlyn, Dylan, and our friend Lauren running against each other.

For our first pinewood derby, it was quite fun.  I was impressed how "into it" hubby got.  I also had no idea you could spend significant amounts of money on a car (we didn't, but, google it.  Seriously. Senior Google will present you will all kinds of things you can buy).  Hubby also had a decent reason for observing so closely.  He has been tasked with (for starters) making a preliminary estimate of building a track for our ward to keep of our very own.  This one was borrowed.  So, we'll see how it goes :)

An Orange by Any Other Flavor

I'll admit that I'm in a bit of a conundrum.  Disney pictures.  So many Disney pictures.  Over 500 at least.  And while I'm sure you wouldn't hate me to see some of them, I doubt you want to see all of them.  So until I decide how to organize them, or share them, I'm going to skip some things.  Which bothers the OCD part of myself a little bit, being that I usually prefer to go in somewhat chronological order.  Oh well.

You may even start to get bored of all the Tae Kwon Do pictures, since I feel like they have a test all the time :p  They don't.  It just feels like they do.  This was the first time they were able to participate in the belt testing with all the other kids on the regular schedule.  And I got a few videos that I think are fun.

This is Dylan doing some of his self defense steps.

And that is Kari in the background doing hers.  (You'll have to look over the cute boys in the front)

I liked when they did things together.

And I'm pleased that Kari has been working on her flexibility.

The end result being a few days later they got their brand spanking new orange belts!

They are advancing quite well and working hard.  

Congratulations kids!

What Time Is It?

The last project we had to do for Kari was a clock.  I looked online and couldn't find a green wall clock that she really wanted.  We had leftover fabric and a will to live (just kidding) so we went back to Hobby Lobby and picked up a clock kit.  We asked hubby to make us a square out of scrap wood, but to build an excess frame on the back so we would have somewhere to staple the fabric to.  Then we primed it white so the fabric would have a nice white background.

I knew we would put the fabric on the square first, and then drill a hole in the center later, and I didn't want the fabric to move, or get caught on the drill.  Enter the Mod Podge!  

We did our best to make the fabric even all the way around.  It's not exactly perfect as the fabric has some stretch to it, but...  that doesn't bother us!  Then we turned it over and wrapped it like a present, so the sides and corners would look nice.  And we used the stapler to attach the extra fabric on the frame hubby made for us.  The clock kit will sit down inside that frame as well, so from the side, all you will see is the nice edges we created.

 I figured the fabric would get dusty sitting on the wall, and once it was mounted to the clock, we couldn't just take it off and wash it.  I wanted to be able to wipe it off with a duster or cloth and make it look clean again, so we put a coat of Mod Podge on top as well.

Because I kinda feel like Mod Podge never 100% dries and always seems a tiny bit tacky, I took it outside and sprayed it with a light coating of the same sealer I put on the dresser knobs.

The clock kit came with gold hands and we bought some numbers that were gold as well.  I don't love the gold look, and I thought black would have a higher contrast, so....

... we painted them with some leftover spray paint we had from another project.

And then the project sat for a while.  As in months.  I was waiting for a good time for hubby to put the numbers on the clock.  He is so much more exacting, it was the perfect way for him to "get involved" in the project.  Once we finally got around to it, I warned him that because of the sealer we put on there, I doubted he could mark it with a pencil and get a good erasing out of it.  So, in typical hubby fashion, he figured out a way to not mark on it at all!

 Piece of cake!

 The only thing left to do is set the time.

 And cheese it up!  Finished product!  Voila!

 In case you noticed that hubby has something wrong with his wrist, never fear.  Its not leprosy.  Just poison ivy from cleaning up the yard.  Never even saw it coming.  But after a week of itching, loosing sleep, and swelling, he finally went and got some steroids.  Silly man.

All that was left to do was to put it up on the wall.

Looks pretty great next to her curtains.

 And now, because it has been lived in, it is not in the best shape.  So many tiny messes to clean up.  So I will have t have her clean everything before I can give you a final tour.