Vote for Melanie!

My cousin-in-law Melanie, is a finalist in a contest on http://www.seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/ . If she wins she will receive all sorts of fun pampering. Go there and vote today!

Cute & Easy Gifts

Here are some cute & easy gifts I've made...

First, are these key chains. They are made out of ribbon (of your choice), a split key ring and a "D" ring. They are kind of addictive. Once you start, you see so many possibilities it's hard to stop. The only thing that stopped me is that I have to get-out and put-away my sewing machine each time. What a pain. I need to remedy that!
Here's where I got the original idea from: http://creativelittledaisy.typepad.com/creative_little_daisy/2006/02/super_easy_keyc.html
I didn't follow the directions word-for-word, but they gave me a good start.


Next, is this Post-it note holder. It's made with scrapbook paper, embellishments/stickers (of your choice), and an acrylic 4x6 picture frame. I made 4 or 5 of these and none of them where alike. Mine are again much different than the original idea. Let your creativity be your guide. :o)
You can put next to the phone or on your desk. Who doesn't need a Post-it note every once in a while? ---I wish I would have taken a picture of the others I did, so you could see the variety and versatility. Oh well.

Here's where I got the original idea from:

http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/acrylicpostitnoteholder.php

I think these would make good visiting teaching gifts, teacher gifts, neighbor gifts or a gift for a person who as ALMOST everything. They are quick, easy and not bad on the budget. Let me know if you make some. I'd love to see the "fruits of you labors". Good luck.

Sleep-overs?

To Have a sleep-over or to Not have a sleep-over...that is the question.

Jason and I have been thinking about this over the last few years. Should we continue to let our kids have sleep-overs or should we make a new family rule about no sleep-overs??? I know they can be a lot of fun, but I also know that a lot of bad choices can be made at these late parties. I know some families do "late-overs", so the kids still get to hang out, have lots of fun, but then go home to their own beds and families. We're starting to lean in that direction. It makes Rylee and Taylee really nervous, but it just seems like the best thing to do.

One of the reasons this came up in our conversation again, was an adult fireside that Tim and Karen (bro & sis-inlaw)went to in their stake. It was a parenting fireside. It was clearly stated from their stake presidency that they felt strongly that they should NOT allow their children to participate in sleep-overs. Is what's good for their stake, good for ours too???

This weekend, both of our older girls had a friend over, for the night. I think it may have been a reaction to over-hearing our recent conversation. They thought they'd better get one in before we had made up our minds completely. ---I forsee a family council/FHE in our near future about this topic. Wish me luck. :o)

Charity & Rylee

Kaisha & Taylee

What do you think???

Crafty Cousins

Our Olsen cousins surprised us by coming to see us New Year's Eve (when their other vacation plans changed). They got to stay from Wednesday night to Sunday morning. It was such a treat!
Having cousins visit alleviated some of the disappointment our kids felt when we didn't get to go to Utah for Christmas. Whew! These kids get a long so well and just entertain themselves for hours at a time. One of the favorite past-times, while they were here, was crafting with these beads. I think they are officially called, "Perler beads", but we usually call them, "melting beads".

You take a pegboard shape (they make all kinds, but these were the "Fashion Fun" ones), add beads, and then iron with a special ironing paper.

Voila, you have a cute-shaped thingy!

Taylee had received these for Christmas and was so kind to share with everyone. The little bucket contained 5,000 beads and I think they used about all 5,000 with the exception of a few stragglers left on the floor or table. Who knew this would entertain children from the ages of 12 to 2 years for hours at a time?!

Catie showing off her rad, red high heel.

Rylee and her bee-u-tif-ful blue handbag.

Ethel with a matching ensemble.

Bob concentrating on getting it just right.

Taylee with fashionable purple nail polish.

Abree hard at work making a rainbow colored purse. (As you can see we were most concerned about crafting that day...not brushing hair.)

Other things the cousins entertained themselves with; playing Littlest Petshop, Barbies, Babies, going to the neighborhood park, jumping on the trampoline, board games and much, much more.

The adults even had fun "playing". We shopped, watched movies, played games and vegged out in front of "Top Chef" with treats. It was so much fun to have them here.

Thanks for PLAYIN' Olsens!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We celebrated Christmas with my dad, on New Year's Eve. Everyone came over to our house to hang out, open presents, snack and play games. Of course we did a little decorating for the occasion.

I had taken down the Christmas tree, so instead we had a Christmas corner. Here's all the gifts from Grandpa.

Yum, snacks and treats.

Dirt cake, courtesy of Jackson and Candice. We also had cute little chocolate covered cherry mice by Micalea.

The kids watched a movie, while the adults played "Apples to Apples" and "Imagine If". There was some smack talking and a bit of competitiveness, but I think we all were still friends, by the end of the night.

Not only did we have local family over, Nate and Cathy's family came (from Ogden)for a surprise, last-minute visit. They were able to celebrate New Year's with us and even hang out for a few more days. We were so excited that they could come!

Mom, look what I got!

Five minutes till 12 midnight, I passed out party hats and horns and we ran upstairs to watch the ball drop.



Happy New Year!

Catie Jo

Grandpa Waite

Happy New Year?

Audrey didn't like the party horns.

Here's Lizzy with her "treat face".

I caught Dean and Candice in a New Year's kiss.

I think this is going to be a great year.

Happy New Year!

Zoo Gift Can

I've always wanted to make one of these...



We had Jason's sister's family for Christmas. As a family gift, we gave them a Zoo pass for the year. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally do this cute craft. I decorated the paint can "zoo style", then put animal cookies and the zoo pass card inside. Also added a zoo book to boot. I think it turned out pretty cute and will probably do this again.