Honey Mommy

iPad Baby and the Accidental Nap

2012-02-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

Can I just tell you how much I love my iPad? My husband bought it for me shortly after Miss Aubrey was born and I use it constantly! I love the convenience of having the internet at my fingertips, not to mention my calendar, music, reminders, games, etc.

I am not the only one at my house who loves it. My boys love to play games on the iPad and beg me to let them use it! Their current favorite is Where's My Water?. But they still love to play Plants vs. Zombies and Angry Birds, among others. This weekend I got even more competition for my pad.

Yep! Honey Daddy showed Aubrey that she could draw with her finger on the iPad, and she was fascinated. I guess it's a good thing that she can't beg me to use it yet!

In other happy honey mommy news, I was the recipient of an accidental nap today. Hooray! At lunchtime Eli was whining because he did not want to eat the lunch I made for him. I told him that he was welcome to make his own lunch, at which point he went in his room to pout. Apparently he was tired because this is what I found when I went to check up on him:

Isn't it amazing how angelic kids look when they are asleep? Naps are heavenly for mommies for sure!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

I ♥ Scavenger Hunt Sunday {2•19•12}

2012-02-18T20:24:00.003-07:00

Love

I saw a photo similar to this one on Pinterest and thought it would be fun to take a "love cards" photo for this prompt. Of course I did a little bit of editing in Photoshop, but not too much!

Duplicated

For Valentine's Day we all received yummy boxes of chocolates from my father-in-law. The kids' boxes were all the same. Hooray for duplicates! I was not in love with this photo originally, but after playing around with it in Photoshop I love what I ended up with.

Trending

So I actually went on Twitter and looked up what was trending. Would you believe that this week, Valentine's Day was trending? I am glad because a lot of the other trends were junk! So here is my box of yummy chocolates. I love chocolate, and I love that my father-in-law sends us each a box each Valentine's Day.

Paper

Last week for the "shadow" prompt, I posted a heart-shaped shadow made up of puzzle pieces. I got lots of inquiries as to how I made the shadow. I used my new Silhouette Cameo to cut out a shape just like this and used it to make the shadow. I love my Cameo! It will cut paper, vinyl and even fabric. I love pretty paper, and being able to make such fun stuff out of it is awesome!

Plastic

Plastic is everywhere! I had a hard time deciding what to take a picture of for this prompt (even though it was one of mine!). In the end I chose this Lego lady that belongs to my boys. If you look at her necklace, you may be able to guess why I chose her!

In Search of Snow

2012-02-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

It almost snowed here this week. It looked like it was going to snow and a few white flakes came down, but then it stopped. My boys were SO disappointed.

Since they wanted to play in the snow so badly, I drove them up the canyon again to find some snow. The mountains behind our house are all white, but none of the snow stuck in the valley. So I was sure we would find snow up the canyon.

I was surprised by just how far up the canyon we had to go, but we did find snow at Vivien Park.

We also found a phone booth that was nearly buried in the snow, thanks to the plow clearing out the parking lot. My boys thought it was great fun to climb up the mountain of snow and play by the phone booth. Of course they had to make a couple of phone calls.

This time Miss Aubrey was awake when we got to the park, so I bundled her up in her cute little snowsuit.

She actually wasn't too happy about me sitting her in the snow and walking away. I had a hard time getting a smile from her. I like the picture above because you can see all the teeth she has grown in the past few weeks.

I may not have gotten a smile, but I did get a wave. Or maybe this is just a request for me to come and pick her up!

The boys had fun playing on the park equipment as well. Apparently it was much more fun to play in the park because there was snow at the end of the slide and the slide was wet and slippery.

The boys' snowpants were soaked when it was time to go. Good thing I thought to pack a garbage bag to put their suits, boots and coats in!

The scenery in the canyon was lovely. I enjoyed the way the snow highlighted the layers of rock.

There was only one thing that I regret about this little outing. The next day I could not find my headset for my phone! The last time I am sure I had it was driving up the canyon and I haven't seen it since. I use my headset constantly, and it is really nice to be able to talk on the phone and have my hands free to do other things. I have nightmares about my beautiful Jawbone headset falling out of my pocket into the snow, never to be seen again. *sigh*

Hopefully it is just misplaced in my home somewhere, but in the meantime it sure has inspired me to start my spring cleaning a little early!

Sharing the LOVE on Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T20:22:00.002-07:00

Happy Valentines Day! We are definitely feeling the love at the Honey House!

Don't you just love all the red, pink and white decorations? I especially love our cute Valentine's mailboxes.

We had these mailboxes last year, but we have added a mailbox for little Miss Aubrey. Good thing I have my Silhouette Cameo so I can cut out vinyl to match. This year I also printed out the little cards for the kids to fill out and put in the mailboxes. We have been having tons of fun with these!

We have also been busy sharing the Valentine's Day love. Look at what I made for Jonah's teacher for Valentine's Day:

It is a pencil bouquet. On the inside are regular pencils with a layer of Valentine's pencils on the outside. We tied a nice red ribbon around them with a heart-shaped note that says, "You're the 'write' teacher for me!". Then I put some nice fake flowers on the top to finish the bouquet. Cute huh? I hope his teacher liked them. I know Jonah was really excited to give them to her. He was really cute about it this morning.

I found a cute glass to put the bouquet in for a "vase". I love how it turned out and I may have to use it again next year.

Here is another Valentine that I may have to make again. Superhero suckers!

We made these for Eli's preschool class, since it is pretty small. But I have to say that it would not be hard to do them on a large scale. Especially with the printable from HERE.

Super cute and super easy! We had a few left over, and Jonah gave those to his friends who are not in his class at school.

I have also had a blast making cute cards and cookies. It has been a fun Valentine's day so far, but now I have to go because the kids are in bed and I finally get to spend some time alone with my Honey. Hooray!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {2•12•12}

2012-02-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Facial Feature

One of my favorite things about my son Jonah is his freckles! I love the little sprinkling of freckles on his forehead and nose because I have freckles too. I also think he has nice, long eyelashes.

Shadow

This week I had a friend come visit and we used my Silhouette Cameo to make Valentine cards. We cut heart puzzles out of paper, and I knew they would make a great shadow.

Spicy

Did you know that we are fans of Tabasco sauce? My husband loves the stuff, and we have nearly every flavor they make. This week I found garlic flavor and habanero hot at the store, so I had to pick them up. We were also nearly out of chipotle and green pepper sauce too so I got those as well. I think the grocery clerk thought I was a little crazy!

Gold

This prompt was a bit of a challenge. I prefer silver jewelry to gold and could not find anything good to photograph. So I took my camera shopping with me. These are actually some gold light fixtures that I snapped a picture of at Hobby Lobby.

Fabric

I have pieced together turtle quilts for both of my boys, and this week I got them back after having them machine quilted. Aren't they just the cutest thing ever?! I love them!

Rip VAN Winkle

2012-02-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

Taking Naps (according to Eli):

Three-year-olds are too big to take naps! You say I need a nap 'cause I get grouchy and whiny in the afternoon. But that does not mean that I need a nap. It means I need to watch a movie or play on the computer. I know! I need to play on the iPad or the Wii right now.

Actually, I think I just need cookies and ice cream! I am sure that would make things better.

Just because I fall asleep in the van whenever we go somewhere in the afternoon does not mean that I need a nap.... it just means that riding in the van is boring.

(When this kid falls asleep in the van, he is dead to the world. You can open and close doors, talk to him... whatever. He won't wake up! I have carried him into the house and he will sleep through it all. This wouldn't be a problem, except he wakes up grouchy. Ahh the joys of motherhood.)

Elmer the Elephant and Rainbow Fish at Preschool

2012-02-07T20:14:00.003-07:00

I am part of a little cooperative that teaches preschool for our 3 year old children. I only end up teaching preschool once a month, which I figure is definitely worth the money I save by not sending Eli to a "formal" preschool. I figure that with two college degrees, I am probably qualified to teach preschool anyway, right?

A week or so ago when I taught preschool, the letter for the day was E. So I decided that we would do something related to elephants. My mother-in-law (who is also a librarian) suggested that we read about Elmer the Elephant.

So I checked out the books at the library where I work. Can I just say that these books are awesome! Elmer is a patchwork elephant that wants to be like the other elephants, but comes to find out that they like him just the way he is. Jonah and Eli loved reading these books so I knew they would be a big hit at preschool. Here was the setup for the day:

I made the elephants using egg cartons. I found the idea on this website and they weren't hard to make at all. I thought they turned out really cute!

First I read the first few Elmer books, then we put long socks over our arms and pretended they were trunks. I had the kids reach into a sack and pick something. Then they were supposed to try to tell me what it was without looking. The kids thought it was tons of fun and wanted to do it again later!

I wish I had pictures of the kids with their elephant trunks, but sometimes when you are in charge of 5 three-year-olds it can be pretty busy. I did manage one picture of them doing their E coloring page.

After they colored their paper elephants, I let them color their egg carton elephants. Once a year Elmer's friends have a parade where all the elephants paint themselves and Elmer is the only elephant painted grey. The kids did a great job making their own colorful elephants.

It was a really fun preschool day for me. I was really happy with how the crafts and activities worked out. I really do enjoy teaching preschool a lot more when I am prepared!

For our second day of preschool that week we had the letter F. So we talked about the rainbow fish and read tons of books about him.

I think the craft turned out pretty well. I used my new Silhouette Cameo to cut out the fish scales, so it was a lot easier on me than cutting out a bunch of stuff by hand. I can already tell I am going to love that machine! Then the kids just glued the scales on the fish outlines.

Here is Eli's rainbow fish. Pretty nice, huh?

And of course you can't have preschool without a snack! What snack would go better with this lesson than rainbow colored goldfish?! Of course the kids loved them.

After looking at the crafts I did for preschool, I guess I must have needed a little more color in my life this winter!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {2-5-12}

2012-02-04T22:00:00.003-07:00

Strike a Pose

When you live with two little boys, this is the kind of pose that you see most often. I made my boys superhero capes for Christmas a year ago, and they love them!

Footwear

My little girl has started to pull herself up to a stand. She is getting quite proficient at standing up and then getting back down to crawl around. Before long she is going to figure out how to walk, and I am SO not ready for that! Here she is in a cute pair of hand-me-down shoes that I thought were very appropriate for February.

Hobby

I have many hobbies. I enjoy sewing, cycling, reading, crocheting, blogging, making cards and taking pictures. This picture represents two of my hobbies. This is my baby girl wearing a hat I crocheted. I have been thinking about opening and etsy shop to sell some of the hats I have made, but have not gotten to it yet. (by the way, my baby has learned how to wave- SO cute!)

Shiny

This one is from my archives, but I couldn't resist. It is from a car show that we went to in Wyoming, and the cars were all chromed up and shiny. I love that you can see my reflection in this hub cap!

Color Me Green

I passed by this trailer and had to stop and take a picture of it. Looks to me like someone needs to take some time to paint it green again, don't you think?

Count Your Blessings

2012-02-03T12:04:00.000-07:00

Last night I thought it would just be an ordinary night working at the public library, but it turned out to be anything but ordinary!

First was the picture message that I got from my sister. The picture was of my niece's x-ray, showing her broken collar bone! Poor thing! She fell off a kitchen bench and landed wrong. Can you imagine having a broken collar bone at 2 years old? My little niece is in a brace/sling thingy now and can't move her left arm very much. How miserable!

My sister had to go shopping last night to buy shirts and pajamas that button up, because they are the only kind that they can really get on and off their little girl without hurting her.

Next I got a text message from one of my dear friends, telling me that she was at the ER because their son had a seizure. He is the same age as my younger son, and I couldn't believe that he went to the hospital last night in an ambulance! I can only imagine how scary the situation must be for my friend and her family.

They were hoping that the seizures happened because he got a high fever, but he had more seizures this morning. So now they are going to have to run some tests and see if they can figure out what is going on. My heart breaks for this little boy and I sure hope everything turns out o.k.

I also found out that another dear friend had her father admitted to the ER last night as well. He recently had knee replacement surgery and is having complications from that.

Holy cow! Aside from all that, I have several friends who are facing other challenges in their lives right now. When I think about it all, it is a bit overwhelming.

I have to admit that for the past two days I have been a bit grouchy and short-tempered. When the kids misbehaved, I found myself being less patient with them and not treating them as kindly as I should. After the events of the last 24 hours, I have taken a step back and realized how blessed I really am. It really put my life in perspective.

My children are healthy and happy. I have a wonderful husband who loves me and my children. We have a roof over our heads and sufficient income to meet our needs. We have families that love and support us. We truly are blessed!

Right now I wish I could do more to help my friends and family. We are praying for them and offering our assistance, while counting our many blessings.

Tea Clothing

2012-01-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of Tea? I don't mean the drink of course, I mean the clothing company!

I hadn't heard of Tea until I was contacted by the company and asked if I would like to try out some of their clothing for my three kids. When I checked out their website I was impressed to learn that they are the only children and women's apparel company that travels to different destinations around the world for the inspiration behind their collections. I would definitely call their clothing extraordinary. Not only are their clothes uniquely styled, they are also gorgeous! Since I don't have an online degree in fashion design, companies like Tea are very helpful in keeping my kids looking stylish.

I had the opportunity to sample some modern children's clothing from Modern Mexico inspired Holiday collection. When I browsed the collection I was impressed with the choices boy's clothing. I have a hard time finding clothes for my boys that I actually like! So many clothes for little boys have sporting items on them, and we are not really a sports family.

My husband's family is from Tucson, and I loved the southwestern feel of the clothes in the Modern Mexico collection. I let my boys choose their own shirts, and I loved the ones they picked.

I took some really fun pictures of my boys in their shirts when we were in Tucson and I think these clothes are definitely suited to the desert environment, but they fit in equally well in our home state of Utah.

Actually, Jonah loves to wear his sand lizard shirt to school. Besides being stylish (don't you love the color?!), it is soft and comfortable. He has gotten quite a few compliments on this shirt!

Have I mentioned that Eli is in love with his jaguar mask shirt?

As soon as I wash it he wants to wear it again immediately. I can't blame him because I love the great print on the front. It is definitely eye-catching and suits him.

So needless to say, the boys love their shirts, as do I!

When I tried to get the boys to "model" for me I could not get a serious shot from them, but that's fine by me! I think these show their personalities more anyway.

I was so happy that I was also able to sample some cute girl's clothes for my little Miss Aubrey. Tea has the cutest little leggings and dresses! I had a hard time choosing which little dress I wanted for her.

In the end I think I chose well! I love her little outfit. I think the print on her dress is so cute and I would love something like it for myself (wouldn't you?!)! I think she is adorable.

I love that the dress and leggins would be perfect for a special occasion, but they are soft and comfortable enough for every day wear. I will be really sad when she grows out of this little dress because I love it so much!

So next time you are looking for some stylish, unique clothing for your children be sure to check out Tea. I am absolutely drooling over some of the cute dresses they have in their new Bali collection. The colors and prints are beautiful. Check them out!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {1.29.12}

2012-01-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Smile

Little Miss Aubrey has been 10 months old for nearly two weeks, but I have been waiting for her cold to go away before I took her monthly pics. I decided this week she was finally well enough and gave it a shot. What a difference a month makes! I could NOT get her to sit down on the couch; she kept trying to crawl off the edge. She would not hold still on the floor either. She insisted on standing up, so I had to figure out how to make it work. It was a lot of work, but I love how this picture turned out!

Stand Alone

We FINALLY got a good snowstorm. My boys were so happy, and I loved taking frosty winter pictures. I wasn't thinking of this prompt when I took a picture of this tree covered in snow, but it works for me!

Rusty

This rusty old car is sitting at a vintage gas station not far from my home. I think it is beautiful and knew it would be perfect for this post.

Artificial

This prompt was a bit challenging for me and I could not think of anything good to photograph. So I went through my kids play food and found this fruit to photograph. They almost look real, right?

Repeating pattern

I don't have anything against condos and townhouses (I lived in one once upon a time), but I am glad I don't live in one now because I would never be able to figure out which one was mine!

Snow Day and Wilbur the Snowman

2012-01-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Last night an amazing thing happened... it actually started to snow! The boys were so excited, especially after all the rain that we have had this week.

When we woke up, everything was wonderfully wintery white.

The boys desperately wanted to play in the snow, but I knew that by the time Jonah got out of Kindergarten the snow at our house would already be starting to melt. So after lunch we took a little drive and went up the canyon to a park just past the mouth of the canyon.

There was a lot more snow there than there was at home, and the boys were excited to get out and play!

There was only one little problem. I got the boys dressed in their boots and snowpants before we left the house, and told them to grab their coats as we headed out the door. As you can see from the picture above, somebody did not listen to mommy and forgot their coat!

It would not have been a problem, except it is a bit colder up the canyon and Eli was wearing short sleeves. Since his little sister was sleeping in her carseat, I figured Eli could borrow her little snowsuit to keep his arms warm.

After I put the little snowsuit on him he was warmer, but I almost could not stop laughing! He looked like he had a little bear hanging out on his back or something! It was hilarious, but he didn't mind at all because his favorite colors right now are pink and purple.

Canyon View park was great. We had the place to ourselves and there was plenty of snow. The boys had fun throwing the snow off the bridge into the water, and I enjoyed the scenery.

Of course we could not let our snow day pass without building a snowman.

I helped the boys roll the snowballs, and they packed them down. And of course every time Eli turned around and I saw the little feet dangling out the back, I had to stifle more giggles! Hehe.

We had a great time building our snowman in the park! The boys were happy to know that he would last longer because it was warmer, and at night when no one was looking he could go play on the playground equipment!

We named him Wilbur (as in will-brrrr!) and waved goodbye to him as we drove away.

When we got home our grass was already almost bare, so it was a good thing we drove up the canyon to play in the snow! I hope it snows again so we can play in the snow, even if we have to take a little trip to play in it!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Little Dish Washer

2012-01-23T15:15:00.002-07:00

Somebody decided she wanted to help me do the dishes! It kind of freaks me out that she climbed up there by herself!

Did I mention that she figured out how to pull herself up to a stand the past few days?! Save me!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {1.22.12}

2012-01-21T21:59:00.003-07:00

Sunset

This week was one storm right after another! I almost didn't think I was going to get to take a picture of the sun setting, since it was always behind the clouds. Then finally one afternoon it cleared out a tiny bit. So I quickly drove down to Utah lake to get some pics of mountains and the frozen lake.

Black and White

As I mentioned, this week was very cloudy and wet. It mostly rained, but the mountains did get a little snow. There are some pictures that I took of the mountains to the east of our home. The sky was already white, and the mountains where too so I figured they were practically black and white already.

A Day in My Life

My poor baby girl caught a nasty cold and is currently cutting three teeth. Poor thing! She has been miserable all week, and a lot of my time this week was spent trying to get her to sleep. I felt pretty brave taking this picture of her when she finally settled down for a nap!

Four

Not far from our house is the Timpanogos Harley-Davidson. It is a very interesting building that is made from recycled materials from the old Geneva Steel Factory. So on the way home from lunch with my honey, I stopped and took some pictures.

Colorful

Since I spent most of my week inside because of the inclement weather, the most colorful shot I could come up with was this picture of one of Aubrey's baby toys.

Home Sick with No Snow

2012-01-19T20:40:00.001-07:00

What a week! Some of my little people have been sick, so that has put me behind on a lot of things. The first one to get sick was little Eli. He got a fever and a nasty cough, poor kid. There was one day that he spent nearly the entire time on the couch asleep. It is times like these that make me feel like I need the advice of people who have gone to the best nursing schools.

He definitely had a fever, and you can see how much he sweat on the couch pillow. (Eww! Definitely had to wash that one!)

How can you not feel bad when your little boy looks at you like this?

Can't you just see the "I feel yucky, why can't you make me feel better?" in his eyes? It breaks my heart.

Speaking of heart-breaking, my baby girl was the next one to get sick. Audrey did not get the fever, but has a yucky cough. Top that off with the 3 teeth that she is currently cutting, and she is one miserable girl. Needless to say she has not been sleeping well, and I have rocked her to sleep many-a-night, many times a night. I never dared take a picture of her while she was sleeping because I did not want to wake her up!

Our sun catchers made of ice have both melted, which made the boys a little sad.

They are even more sad that it did not snow yesterday or today... it rained. Can I just say that January in Utah is turning out to be a bit strange! There is no snow on the ground and I can't remember it ever being this warm. I actually don't mind the lack of snow, but I hope for my boys' sake that it snows soon!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday: The rainbow collection {1-15-12}

2012-01-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Stacked up

I recently opened a box of baby toys for Miss Audrey, and it was kind of like Christmas all over again. There were all the stacking cups and toys that the boys played with when they were babies, and I know my baby girl is going to love them!

Winter Wonderland

When I suggested "Winter Wonderland" I was sure that we would have snow here in Utah by now... not so! My boys are so distraught about the lack of snow that to appease them we made snowflake window clings. Now we can at least pretend that it is snowing outside.

Usually by this time of year we have had a few good snowstorms and the mountains by our house look like this picture I took last year instead of mostly bare and brown:

Sweet

Nothing is sweeter than my sleeping baby girl!

Hole

I almost feel like I cheated with this one, but can I help it if my stacking toys have a hole right down the middle? I guess I could have used this picture for "stacked up" too!

Frozen

This week in another effort to make winter fun without snow we made a suncatcher out of ice. First we froze some colored ice cubes (shaped like stars) and put them in a pie tin with very cold water. Put that all back in the freezer an you've got a colorful, frozen suncatcher.

What I did on my Winter Vacation

2012-01-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

So I want to tell you all about our vacation to Tucson over the Christmas holiday, but feel like it is a bit lame to be still talking about Christmas on January 11th. So I am going to give you a brief overview. Something similar to what my boys would say if they were asked, "what did you do on your vacation?"

We got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Auntie Em while mommy worked on a quilt. We played board games, did puzzles, and played with playdough.

We also got to help Auntie Em make cookies for Santa. She let us roll out the dough and cut the cookies and eveything. It was so much fun!

We went to a really cool place called "Winterhaven", but for some reason most of the pictures that my mom took there were a bit blurry or turned out with funny shapes.

Apparently we were having so much fun that our baby sister couldn't take the excitement anymore, so she cuddled up to mommy and fell asleep!

Christmas was so much fun! Santa brought us exactly what we wanted!

After Christmas we got to do even more fun stuff (besides playing with our new toys). We made a huge hopscotch board on the sidewalk. It went from A to Z!

Then we went to the Saguaro National monument and saw lots of really fun cacti out in the desert. We counted how many arms the saguaros had, and one of them had 15 arms!

Most fun of all was going for a ride on Grandpa's boat! It was warm outside and the boat went really fast. It was the best day ever!

Our Christmas vacation was so much fun. But soon we had to drive all the way home. Being in the van all day long makes me sleepy.

There you have the (very) brief rundown of our two week vacation. Now we are home and things are slowly getting back to normal. At least I finally have Christmas put away!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {1-08-11}

2012-01-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Let's just pretend that it hasn't been over two weeks since I last posted, ok? Sheesh! Let's just say that coming home from our Christmas vacation in Tucson has been a bit crazy. I had to unpack everything, including all the stuff we got for Christmas. Then I had to pack up our Christmas decorations, ornaments, nativities, and the tree. Not to mention the fact that my baby girl learned to crawl over Christmas, so I have been working on child-proofing the house too!

Phew! I have been so busy that I have not even really been on the computer. So I pulled together these pictures from the hundreds of photos that I took on our vacation to Tucson, Arizona.

Empty

This is my son Eli, who is constantly going at top speed. Occasionally though, his energy tanks hit empty and he crashes. Especially when he has been in the car nearly all day. It is a long drive for us to visit my husband's family in Tucson (about 14 hours), especially with 3 kids! But the kiddos did great in the car and took some great naps.

Mainly One Color

I told my son Jonah that there were pink and purple cacti, and he didn't believe me! So I showed him these prickly pear cacti that are in front of Grandpa's house. Kind of pretty, aren't they?

The prickly pears are not quite as sharp as the saguaro that is also in his yard. Check out the spikes on this green giant.

Soft

This is one of the inhabitants of the desert that looks "soft", but most certainly isn't! This is a teddy-bear cholla. It is called that because it looks soft and cuddly, especially from afar, but those spikes are sharp!

This on the other hand is one of the few soft plants that I found. I am pretty sure it is a cresote bush, but I could be wrong!

Dozen

While we were out in the desert visiting Saguaro National Monument, we had a great time counting the arms on the saguaros. Many of them had more than a dozen arms (but this is not one of them!). You can't see them all, but this saguaro has about a dozen holes in it, most of which were probably made by the cactus wren on the top.

Laundry

It was so warm in Tucson that they hang their clothes out to dry, even in the winter. I love to hang my clothes out on the line, but I only get to do it during the summer. So here is a picture of the boys' clothes on my clothesline from earlier in the year.

Christmas Snapshot

2011-12-26T21:17:00.002-07:00

Opening presents on Christmas morning can be so exhausting!

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T11:10:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas!! We are enjoying time with family in warm and sunny Tucson, so I have been taking a little break from blogging. But there will definitely be more pictures and posts coming soon. Hope you are having a fun and festive Christmas!

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {12-18-11}

2011-12-16T23:32:00.001-07:00

What is it?

I got my new bokeh kit in the mail today! I was so excited to be able to do some fun, custom bokeh. I had my camera pointed at the Christmas tree and was playing around with the settings on my camera and accidentally snapped this picture. Yep! One of the bokeh discs is a smiley face.

Children sleeping

This is my youngest boy, Eli. He is the kind of kid that runs nonstop all day until he just drops! He is almost 4 and refuses to take a nap, but some days it just catches up to him!

I admit that I have posted these last two pictures recently, but they are my favorite pictures of my two youngest kids sleeping. This picture was from the first weekend in December at my family Christmas party. My dad (HiFlight) put my baby girl to sleep and I got this sweet picture.

Joy

For the past few days I have been delivering little Christmas ornaments to my neighbors. It has been such a joy to see all the people that I love. It was also a joy to find this lovely glass block at my friend's house tonight, since I didn't have anything for this prompt yet!

Window

I love the way that shops downtown decorate their windows for Christmas. It wasn't until after I took this picture that I realized that it kind of looks like a monster face in the window. Can you see it?

Half

Oh how I love oranges at Christmastime! Every year when I was little we always got an orange in our stocking and somehow I still crave them in December. This is the last orange left in the box that we bought a little less than a month ago. I cut in it half just for you and took a picture (right before I ate it!).

Shoveling the "snow"

2011-12-16T09:44:00.004-07:00

Can you believe that we haven't really had any decent snowstorms yet this year? The boys have been waiting and waiting for it to snow. They were so excited when they woke up one morning this week and found snow on the ground!

It wasn't a very big storm and as the day got warmer, the snow got wetter. When we went to pick Jonah up from Kindergarten he told me he was disappointed that the snow was all melted. So I told him that there was still a little snow on the driveway that he could shovel if he wanted. He was so excited! The minute we got home he had me get out his shovel so he could get to work!

You would not believe how fast the boys were running back and forth on the driveway! They were having such fun!

It was actually nice that the boys shoveled so our driveway would get clean and dry. Goodness knows Honey Daddy would not have enough time to do it!

More Christmas Craftiness: Preschool Handprint Santas & Snowmen Ornaments

2011-12-14T09:29:00.002-07:00

This week it is my turn to teach our cooperative preschool. Of course the topic is Christmas, since this is our last week of the year. At the end of the week I get to focus on baby Jesus and the nativity, but our lesson for today was about Santa.

So first we used our hands to make some cute hand print Santas.

I painted the thumb and lower portion of their hand red to make the Santa hat, then I painted the rest white. I added the flesh colored paint and faces after the hand prints had dried. Then we finished it off with a pom-pom. I think they are adorable! Even my Kindergartener came home and wanted to make one, so we did! Maybe I should take some online art classes to give me inspiration for more fun projects I can do with the kids!

As a nice gift for the parents, we also made hand print snowman ornaments. I painted the kids' hands white and then had them squeeze a round ball ornament in their hand. Since our kids are only three, that is where their involvement ended. Later in the day I added faces, hats, arms and buttons to the snowmen and I think they turned out to be absolutely adorable!

I also wanted to do a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for my little girl. Can I just tell you how hard it is to paint a baby's hand and try to get that onto an ornament?

I ended up wiping off the ornament a number of times. When I finally got a good handprint, I filled it in with a little extra paint. Then I added some ribbon. I think it turned out cute. I am going to use my new Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl to put Aubrey's name and date on the back of the ornament. Can you believe how small her hand is in comparison to her brothers?

So that is what we have been up to so far this week. How about you?

Linked up to Wordful Wednesday, Wordish Wednesday, and Wordless Wednesdays all over.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {12-11-11}

2011-12-10T20:46:00.001-07:00

Less is More

As we get older, sometimes Christmas becomes too much about the presents and the hustle and bustle of giving and getting. As I watched my baby girl gaze in wonder at the simple beauty of our little Christmas tree, I think about how Christmas really is much more simple and wonderful for our little ones. They have fewer cares and enjoy the holidays so much more. I guess it really is true.... sometimes less really is more.

Holiday Lights

There are many houses with Christmas lights around where I live, but I loved the simplicity of this house that simply had the star of Bethlehem overhead. That's what it is really all about, right?

Ornaments

Our tree has many ornaments that we love because of the memories they are associated with. This particular ornament is my boys' favorite because they can pull the string and make the nutcracker move. They don't really understand the sentimentality of this ornament though. My husband was given this ornament when he was just a boy and I suppose he enjoyed pulling on its string as well.

Cup of Cheer

I was discussing this weeks photo prompts with a friend, and said that I didn't know what to take a picture of for this prompt. When she told me that a cupcake is a "cup of cheer" I thought she was absolutely right and not to mention brilliant! After all, a cupcake is a cup that can cheer up nearly anyone, right?

Nativity

I LOVE nativities. I have three larger sets on top of my piano and several other smaller sets. One of my favorites though is this ornament on my tree that my mother-in-law gave me last year. I love the simplicity of the silhouettes and the light shining through the glass.

Christmas Craftiness: the Knitters Ornament

2011-12-07T20:20:00.001-07:00

I love it when you find the perfect gift for someone you love!

You may not know that I crochet. I don't have an online education in art, but I enjoy being creative and I like to think I am pretty good at it. I have long professed that I am a crocheter, but I don't knit (even though I do know how). At least that is what I kept telling my mom when she would show me any cute knitting patterns. Then this Christmas my mom and older sister showed me the cutest Christmas gifts that they were knitting. I knew they would make great gifts for my friends... and I got sucked in!

Since they got me started knitting, I knew exactly what type of ornament I needed to make for them!

I saw a picture of something similar online, but without instructions. So I will tell you what I discovered through trial and error:

I went to the craft store, looking for round ornaments. Initially I bought a plastic ball to wrap with yarn, but they were too big (3 inches) and the knitting needles looked ridiculously small. I could not find any smaller plastic balls and I didn't want to do a glass ball because I didn't want it to break. So I ended up with a cream-colored ceramic ornament that was a little over 2 inches around. I tied the Christmas variegated yarn around the top of the ornament and started wrapping! I didn't use any glue at all (but that doesn't mean you can't!). When I thought the ball was big enough, I used a crochet hook to weave the end of the yarn in really well.

To make the knitting needles I used two bamboo skewers, like you would use for shish kebabs. I cut them the length I wanted and inserted two wooden beads on the flat end. Then I inserted the "knitting needles" into the yarn ball. Add a ribbon bow and you are done!

I think they are adorable and my mom and my sister loved them! I may just have to make one for myself now... either that, or figure out how to make a miniature crochet hook to put in my yarn ball because I don't knit, right?