Noteworthy

Cantus Youth Choir,

invited the female acapella group

NOTEWORTHY

(from BYU)

to come sing for a fundraiser here in Meridian.

Rylee invited some friends from our old ward/school, to the concert.

It was fun and entertaining.
They encouraged audience participation, as we learned how to "beat box".
Ya, I'm still no good at it.
They also awarded prizes (NOTEWORTHY CDs) for correct answers to personal information questions about themselves.
Afterward, the singers were more than happy to give out their autographs.....

...and take pictures.
At first, I didn't want to disturb others trying to get autographs, so I took the first few shots with only a few singers. When the singers kept popping in and out of my shots, we finally decided to get everyone together and do a big group photo.

Next, we went outside and goofed off.

We did about 20 or more of these jumping photos.

The girls thought it was SO funny, they kept wanting to do another and another and another.

Next up, goofy line up.

Toe star.

Finger star.

Charity, Shay

Maddie, Gretchen, Rylee

And finally, the pyramid.

Rylee had so much fun hanging out with her old friends. She's already making plans on when she gets to see them next.... maybe birthday time?

Daddy-daughter Date

The girl's middle school had a fundraising dinner and auction on Friday... the "Husky Howl".

Taylee was babysitting that night, so Jason took Rylee on a daddy-daughter date.

Rylee talked Jason into letting her put make-up on him and dressing up for the event.



Jason said he ended up being the ONLY adult dressed up.
A little awkward, but he was a good sport about it.


I think they had a good time together... or to be more accurate, Rylee had a good time hanging out with her friends, while Jason got ditched and hung out with the other dad's.
Again, he was a pretty good sport about it. :)

Super Saturday... on a Tuesday.

Recently our ward had a "Super Saturday" ....on a Tuesday.

Our regularly scheduled Tuesday was the best option, since the building was booked every weekend for the month of October.

The theme for the evening was, "Centering Christ in our Holidays". Being on the Relief Society Meeting board, I was volunteered to give the lesson that evening.

Probably because I had expressed my feelings about Easter and talked about the new Easter traditions we created as a family.

I prayed about what to say, for weeks. Even so, the day of, I was VERY nervous. I gathered a few things as visual aids to give ideas on how to center Christ in our Holidays.

I started out by sharing some things I had learned in my Positive Parenting class that morning. I was feeling inspired to share, although the topic didn't seem to have a connection.... pride.

I went on to talk about my experience with Easter. Going from NO Easter Bunny as a child, to the Easter Bunny visiting my children, back to having the Easter Bunny "hop on by". I read my blog post I made 2 years ago.

I told them about our Easter traditions; Jerusalem dinner and "Easter in an Egg".

I also shared about other things I've done to center Christ in my holidays....

I collect nativity scenes. One of my favorites is this Fisher Price nativity. I love it because the kids can play with it, interact and retell the story of Jesus' birth.

The pillowcase with my name was a tradition we had as children. We would put our Christmas pillowcases on at the beginning of December. When we would see our pillow we were to think of Christ and how we could serve one another.

The heart shaped pillow is an idea I read on a blog. During the month of February, you take turns passing around the "Love Pillow". When you do a service for someone in your family, you put the pillow on their bed. Then they have the next 24 hours to perform a service for someone else in the family. The "Love Pillow" gets passed from one bed to the next all month long.

The stocking garland is another new tradition I'd like to start in my family. Basically it's a advent or countdown to Christmas. Each day a slip of paper is drawn out of the stocking and then our family does what it says. Each day we focus on Christ with our activity for that day.

Next, we moved on to dinner and crafts.... or "gifts of love" to stay within our theme. :) We enjoyed a huge variety of homemade soups and rolls. One of the most popular soups of the evening; Butternut Squash.

There were several wood projects; temple pictures, family photos, and holiday blocks. Also available; cloth headbands, glass etching, embroidered nativity and decorative jars/cans.

If you're curious about what projects we did, you can click on this link

http://2010giftsoflove.blogspot.com/

I got to be in charge of the glass etching station. I pre-cut family names onto contact paper, using a Cricut Thank you very much Karen. Then we carefully placed the contact paper stencil name on to the bottom of a glass pan. Trying to get it straight with no wrinkles was the hardest part of the whole thing!Then we applied "Armor Etch" cream to the name stencil, waited 5 minutes and Voila!.... a pan that can be easily identified at ward functions. Many made them as Christmas gifts.

Here's the poem to include, when giving as a gift...

Have you ever been asked by a very good friend,
For one of your favorite dishes to lend?

And when it was time for the dish to come back,
A strange looking object was returned in a sack!

Now I can help so your friends you won’t blame,
I have this nice dish that now bears your name.

So lend it or take it to any old place,
Your name you will always be able to trace.

It was a successful evening.

Many "gifts of love" (crafts) were completed and lots of fun and talking too.

Scarecrow!

My friend Jilene was asked to make a scarecrow for her daughter's school class. The donated scarecrows were to be auctioned off, to raise money for the school. Jilene didn't feel confident in her scarecrow makin' skills, so turned to me for a little inspiration and crafty know-how.

Initially, we were thinking of making a full-sized scarecrow. As I was researching and looking on the internet, I found many smaller versions.... scarecrows as plant pokes, pins, made with candy, as shelf-sitter decorations and holding baskets. Many of these were super cute, so I asked Jilene if the scarecrow HAD TO be full-size. She called the school and found out that making a smaller version would be just fine, so we shifted directions and came up with a plan.

This was our inspiration. I've had him for years...unfinished and kind of sloppy. He was useful in our scarecrow makin' though. I used his general size and shape to make a pattern.

I have since done a few finishing touches on him and he now looks great sitting on my shelf.
I found these old dish towels, yellowed and stained. I don't remember where they came from. Probably from a grandma hand-me-down fabric box. Even though they weren't in perfect condition, I thought they would make a great head/body for a scarecrow.
Scarecrows are supposed to me rustic and dirty, right?

I cut out the body, making the arms and legs really long, so they could wrap around a basket. Next, we ironed on a nose and patch cheeks, stitched a mouth and used buttons for eyes. Then I arranged some raffia around his head and pinned the 2 body pieces together. I sewed around the head and raffia hair, then around the rest of the body, leaving an opening for stuffing. I was pleased and surprised when the raffia hair actually worked. It's a little crazy and Jilene may decide to give him a haircut, but I like him.

Then it was on to making his clothing. I used our inspiration scarecrow to make a pattern, once again. I was able to leave some raw edges and not get too particular about things...because it was a scarecrow for goodness sake. We tied jute around the neck, waist, wrists and ankles and left some raffia sticking out for cuteness.

Here's George..our finished scarecrow. Jilene will probably fill the basket with apples, mini pumpkins or candy for the auction.

I was very please with how he turned out, especially because he was our own creation.

Would you bid on George?

Halloween Party

A lady my mom works with, has a Halloween Party for her neighborhood kids each year. She asked my mom if she would like to bring her grandchildren to the party.

My mom said, "How many? I have 14."

"Oh, maybe just a few of them then."

When other grandkids were busy, out-of-town or still too young to come, my kids got lucky enough to get on the invite list.

Treyson decided he wanted to be a clown, when he found a costume and wig, in my stash.

He wore Jason's Converse shoes to achieve that floppy, big shoe look.

Abree found this costume in the stash. Taylee raved about HOW CUTE! she was, so Abree decided she wanted to be a ladybug.

Taylee had decided she wanted to be Pippi Longstockings this year. We had waited to the last minute, only having striped tights, to come up with her costume. We felt we had found a treasure, when Rylee discovered an actual wire hanger in the closet (those are rare and hard to come by in our house). Taylee gathered mis-matched pieces of clothing and I began bending and cutting the hanger to go in her braids. Another awesome find was when we discovered the orange hairspray in my stash. Only thing missing was Mr. Nilsen, the monkey. He was hiding out today, but maybe he'll make it for Halloween.


Isn't she just the cutest Pippi.... or maybe Wendy, from Wendys?!

Quite the trio.

Who wants to bet, Treyson comes back with his clown make-up looking like the Joker, from Batman?

My Birthday

My birthday celebrating began with this....

Treyson made me a Captain Crunch cereal, toast and milk breakfast-in-bed.

Started my sugar rush early...it was a FREE day!
For lunch, I went to Red Robin with some friends from the ward. I had a yummy burger. I can't remember the name of it, but it had a fried egg in it. I was a little scared to try it, but the waiter said it was good, so I went for it.
It was good.

We were also celebrating Stacey's birthday.

We're Birthday Sistas!!!

Weeks earlier, Stacey had told me she loved skulls. So when I saw this, it had her name written all over it!

She said, "I don't have one THIS big. Thanks."

Good Food + Good Company= Good Lunch!

I received a text from Jason, it said, "I'm getting off at 5. I will pick you up at 5:30 and we are going out!"

When I got home from lunch, I took a little nap. I was feeling a bit under-the-weather and wanted to rest up before the evening events began.

When Jason got home he showered and rushed around. He asked if I would hang out in the room for a while because he and the kids were doing something.

No problem..... I'll just take a little longer nap.

In my sleepiness, I heard scuffles, bumps and glass clinking together. Couldn't figure out what was going on out there, so I didn't try and went back to sleep.

Finally, Jason came in and said that they were ready. He escorted me to this quaint little Italian cafe, "Smullini's".

We were greeted by this lovely hostess...

"Hello. Welcome to Smullini's. How many will be in your party tonight? We have a table over here, next to a window, does that sound good? Great. Right this way. (Lead them to their table.)

I found her script, behind the sign, after dinner. Too cute!

We were seated and noticed the nice view of the broken trampoline, in the back yard. :)

Our waiter then greeted us...

"Hi, my name is Treyson and I will be your waiter for tonight. Can I get you something to drink? We have cherry Kool Aid and water" (said in the cutest, kind of robotic, voice).

He then took our order and poured our drinks. Next, he brought out our Caesar salads.

As he was walking back to the kitchen, he stopped (probably thinking to himself, "I should say something"). He then turned around, nodded his head and said, "Enjoy!".

So funny. We couldn't contain ourselves and started laughing. He was trying so hard to remember everything he was supposed to say and trying to be the best waiter ever.

He WAS very attentive. He kept our water glasses full. He also kept asking, "Does everything taste ok? Can I get you any thing else?"

Rylee the cafe manager.

I later heard her say, "Wow, being a manager, you've got to do a LOT of work (she prepped all the food and kept the kitchen running smoothly)..... I thought that I'd just be sitting back and watching!"

Abree the waitress.

She brought us our garlic bread, hung out in the kitchen and eventually brought me gifts to open.

Smullini's menu

When we were finished with our meal, Treyson said, "I heard it was some body's birthday."

All the kids came over to the table with a chocolate cream pie and candle and sang "Happy Birthday".

Next, it was time for gift opening.

The best gifts EVER!

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a 'get out of jail free card' from a weeks worth of laundry by your awesome Hubby."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to one full day (8am to 5pm) of honey do's (arrange with J) for a day."

"This coupon entitles Alisha Smullin to a sink free of dishes for the rest of the month of October. Happy Birthday!"

Can't wait to use my birthday coupons! I always tell Jason he doesn't have to buy anything big or expensive for gifts. All I want is a mile-long list of Honey Do's ....DONE.

He would rather buy the big or expensive thing. :)

Rylee is becoming the rich one in our house. She bought me these cute flats.

Taylee gave me this. She actually made it with a kit and a mold.

She said, "Do you get it?"

Me-"Uhhhh, no."

T-"It's a cricket..... you know a CRICUT."

Me-"Nice!"

Do you get it? "Cricut" is a scrapbooking die-cut paper cutter thingy.

She really knows what I like. :)

Treyson gave me a Bronco sport poster.

Abree have me a colored princess picture, sack puppet and a piece of gum.

She said, "Since I ALWAYS give you a sack puppet, I thought I should give you something else too, so I made you a princess picture."

To end our evening, I was escorted upstairs for a movie..... including a concessions bar; popcorn, cookies and pork rines. We all started watching the movie, but when it got too "kissy" we sent the kids to bed and finished it ourselves. They were not very happy about that.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable day. I felt loved, appreciated and remembered by the phone calls, texts and Facebook messages.

Thanks for making my birthday so nice.