Perler Beads

Perler beads....... LITTERALLY hours of fun!!!

Tote

This was "The Year of Electronics" at our house for Christmas. Rylee and Taylee received Nintendo D.S.'s and Abree received a V-Smile Pocket... or "INtendo D.S." as she likes to call it. The older girl's also got cute D.S. holders (that look like mini purses). Abree needed something to put hers in, so I made her this place mat tote . It turned out so cute!

Sewing with Grandma Smullin

According to Abree and Treyson we have 2 different grandmas.... "The Purple Grandma" (Grandma McKinley) and "The Sewing Grandma" (Grandma Smullin). While "The Sewing Grandma" was staying with us, the kids did some sewing..... of course! :)

First project was pajama pants for Rylee. She had missed the sewing session during the Summer, due to girl's camp, and wanted to learn how to sew. We found some vintage flannel (from Grandma Ison) and an old pj pattern, in my stash, and got to work.

Grandma taught her the basics of cutting out a pattern, the parts and functions of the machine and basic sewing techniques.

(She's wearing the new pajama bottoms. They are a light blue flannel with fluorescent pink and blue elephants. Perfect for bed time attire.)

Next up were book bags... or "side back packs" according to Rylee and Taylee (I tried to convince them that they were actually called book bags, but they wouldn't have it. To them, they were "side backpacks".)

Taylee's sewing skills were still sharp. She remembered the things Grandma had taught her in the summer and has great potential as a seamstress.

The sewing machine they used was new. The kids had received it for Christmas. I thought that they would LOVE it... and they did!

I was glad that now they could practice sewing on a basic machine and I wouldn't have to worry about them "practicing" on mine.

Treyson didn't join the sewing this time. He mostly did this.......

....and this.

Abree also made a bag with Grandma's help. She helped pick out the fabric, so no surprise it's PINK.

Thank you "Sewing Grandma" for your patience and skills!

Grandpa & Grandma Gifts

Jason's mom called me around Christmas time. We talked for a few minutes and then I admitted to her that their Christmas gifts, from us, were going to be a little late. She asked if she and dad could come visit the next week and spend some one-on-one time with our family. I said YES! ..of course. Then she said not to worry about sending the gifts, they could wait to get them when they got here. Whew!

Two of the things I had been working on were these......

1. A "Golf Score Card" for Dad.

Not a golfer myself, I don't know how useful these will be to him, but they sure are CUTE! And that's what matters, right?

2. A pin cushion, with customized pins, for Mom.

"Grandma's Po-tees"

My niece Jordyn couldn't say her K's, when she was little. She used to call pins "po-tees" as in pokeys. Jordyn is now 8 and has learned to say her K's, but Grandma thinks it's so cute, she still refers to them as "po-tees" often.

Here's how I made the "po-tees".....

I uploaded photos into Print Shop. Then I cropped and lightened each one. (This was something that was recommended.) Then I printed them off onto special Shrinky Dink paper made for inkjet printers. Then I cut or punched the photos/pictures out.

Next I stuck plain (dressmaker) pins through the picture and put them on a cookie sheet covered with a paper bag.
By trial and error, I learned that cropping the photo off-center made it look better. Who wants a pin through their forehead that looks like an extra eye or very unfortunate placement of a large mole???





Then they baked in a 200 degree oven for about 5-7 minutes, until they were done curling and shrinking.









Viola!

Customized "po-tees".

Aren't they so cute?!!!

The possibilities are endless. I tried to use my special Shrinky Dink paper wisely (because it was a little spendy) by sneaking in flowers, butterflies, crowns, shoes, initials, etc. between the photos.

I LOVE how they turned out!

Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, we had J.C. and Mom & Dad Smullin with us.

We made the plan for the night; dinner, games, snacks, games, snacks, snacks, snacks and watch the ball drop with Dick Clark at midnight.

I made something new, Peanut Clusters (with crushed potato chips for that salty/sweet thing).

And we had something old, (or should I say traditional) a cheese ball or "Ball Cheese" as Rylee calls it.

We also purchased some firework poppers for when the ball dropped and the clock struck midnight.

We started the evening with a turkey dinner (Thanks for the turkey donation Clawson's. It was yummy!)

Then the gaming and snacking commenced. First up was "Apples to Apples". Much coercion and smack talking went on....all friendly, of course. Taylee was the stealthy, silent type winner, while J.C. was the loud, in-your-face LOOSER. (Just teasing you J.C.!) Then it was on to UNO...all the while snacking away.

When it was a few minutes til, we went upstairs to watch the New York ball drop. Dick Clark was there (along with Ryan Seacrest) to welcome in 2010.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I'm excited to see what this year brings.

The Christmas Post

Ok, here's the Christmas post...

On Christmas Eve, we gathered at our house for a party with my dad. We had a white elephant gift exchange, snacked and played a game.

We also opened gifts from Grandpa Waite. Grandpa gave us a neat gift. He gave us "Our Family Home Evening Journal". It's a notebook with pages in it to fill out as we have our FHE's. Documentation that may become precious in the years to come.

Christmas morning, Jason and I woke up around 7:00am. We got the orange juice mixed up and the sweet rolls baked and then headed upstairs. We thought we'd find the kids waiting to pounce. Instead we found this......
sleepy bedheads!
We were shocked. We had to turn on the light and wake everyone up from their "visions of sugarplums". Then we were told the rest of the story.... Treyson awoke around 4am, woke everyone else up and then was told to go back to sleep, cuz mom and dad would NOT want to start the day that early. (They were totally right about that.)

The kids had slept together in the family room. We had our traditional sweet rolls, orange juice and milk for breakfast.

"Hmmmm, wonder what Santa brought????"

Then it was time for the traditional line-up... youngest to oldest. (Each year the older girls try to convince us to start a new tradition... oldest to youngest. They haven't convinced us yet.)

Treyson had a Bakugan-fest...everything Bakugan.

Rylee got the Nintendo D.S. she was wanting..... lucky.

Abree got her "D.S." a.k.a. V-Smile handheld game system.

Taylee said she was 100% POSITIVE that she would get a Nintendo D.S. from Santa.... she was right. How was she so "100% POSITIVE"???

Jason got BSU attire from Santa.... and some Utah Jazz (wooden) candy canes.

The "Aftermath".

I received a new camera from Santa, that I'm still working on figuring out. (The instructions were printed in a foreign language, so even if I wanted to read them I couldn't.)

In the evening, we went to my mom's house to celebrate and open presents. Each family received emergency preparedness items to put in our 72-hour kits from mom and the grand kids got cool kit type gifts. Treyson's was a model car kit and Abree's was a clothespin doll kit.

Christmas was a wonderful day of celebration and family.