Honey Mommy

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.

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!

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 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?

Honey Family Christmas Party

2011-12-06T16:40:00.001-07:00

Christmas has come a little early to the Honey Household! Wahoo!

This weekend was our annual family Christmas party. So we packed up the kids in the car and headed for beautiful, wintry Wyoming.

We had so much fun spending time with my family. The boys got to play outside in the snow with their cousins and hang out with Grandma and Grandpa.

I had a great time with my sisters and parents. My little sister, who has four daughters, helped me give miss Aubrey her very first hairdo! Who knew she already had enough hair?

My baby girl really loves her Grandpa. He actually got her to go to sleep in his arms, and I caught this precious moment while we were visiting.

If that doesn't melt your heart, nothing will!

Of course the most exciting part of the weekend was exchanging presents! It is by far the kids' favorite activity. We love to make homemade gifts for each other and find fun little things for the kids.

My family has gotten so large that we only have seating for the adults. The kids have to sit on the floor. (I don't think they mind too much, as long as they get to open presents!)

We could probably use some kids furniture, like these fun beanbag chairs that my boys eagerly pointed out to me while I was window shopping online at one of my favorite stores, Wayfair (formerly CSN Stores).

My boys are really into Cars this year, so they LOVE anything that has to do with the movie. They are both asking Santa for toys from the movie this year.

Speaking of presents for the boys, we let the boys open their big present from us. We just couldn't wait until Christmas!

Yep! We got the boys a Wii! They are SO excited and they could barely contain themselves. They even got a Cars 2 driving game. I think it will be a fun gaming system for our entire family.

The boys aren't the only ones that couldn't contain themselves! Even though we agreed not to get each other presents (besides the air conditioner/furnace/dishwasher), my sweet Honey got me a present that I have wanted for a while now...

A Silhouette Cameo! I have died and gone to heaven just thinking of all the fun craft projects I can do with this baby! Wahoo! Now I just have to scrounge up some money to buy transfer paper, vinyl, glass etching cream, heat transfer vinyl, a hook, etc. So much fun stuff!

I love getting to have Christmas early with my family. It really gets me excited for the holiday season and all the fun I get to have with my little family in the weeks to come.

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

Scavenger Hunt Sunday {12-04-11}

2011-12-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

Portrait

This is my 8 month old daughter, Aubrey. Each month I take new pictures of her so we can see how much she has grown. I got some really spectacular pictures of her this year, and this is my favorite.

Nostalgic

There is an old Sinclair station not far from my house that has old-style gas pumps, coke machines, signs, and antique cars and trucks out front. I knew it would be perfect for this promp

Time

We are visiting my parents' house this weekend for our annual family Christmas party. This grandfather clock is one that they have had in their house for as long as I can remember, so it definitely represents time to me.

Full of Light

I love that my Christmas tree is prelit. Hooray! I don't have to string any lights to enjoy the beautiful glow of my Christmas tree. We finally got all the ornaments on the tree and I think it is gorgeous. One of my favorite things to do is to sit in our front room, which is softly lit by the glow of the tree and enjoy the peace and stillness of the season (after the kids are asleep, of course) .

Motion

This weekend we are in Wyoming, and they have plenty of snow. So we went outside to make snow angels. This is my niece making an angel in the powder.

Our Christmas Book Advent

2011-12-01T21:10:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of this week I felt like I was coming down with something nasty. Since then Aubrey and I have been feeling a bit under the weather. My head is all congested and my voice sounds funny. My poor baby girl ended up with a runny nose and a cough. Add teething to that, and we have one miserable little girl! Poor thing.

She has not been sleeping or napping well, so Tuesday after story time at the library when my friend and I traded kids, I decided to go pick up and drop off with Aubrey in the van. That way maybe she would fall asleep in her car seat.

Well, it turns out that one of my kids did fall asleep... just not Aubrey.

Eli was passed out cold when we got home. I carried him inside and set him on the couch. When I came back this is how I found him. Silly boy!

I never did get Aubrey to take a nap. She had a hard time getting to sleep that night too. It didn't matter whether I held her or put her in her bed, either way she was miserable. I think the congestion in her head was making her uncomfortable. Finally I ended up putting her in her carseat, and she settled down and fell asleep sometime around 1 a.m.

I am happy to report that today she is feeling much better. She still has a cough, but now she has two teeth instead of just one! Just that little bit of relief helped her have a much better day.

I had a better day as well. Something about the start of December makes me cheerful. Plus tonight we started our Christmas book advent!

Each day until Christmas we will open a new Christmas book to read. Today we got "Mortimer's Christmas Manger" by Karma Wilson, which is one of my favorites. It is going to be so fun to read a new Christmas book each day!

Trim the Tree

2011-11-29T19:42:00.001-07:00

For family night yesterday, we finally put ornaments on the tree! The boys were SO excited, especially after I made them wait four whole days. Oh the cruelty!

I am actually impressed that I have my Christmas tree up and decorated before December! Go Mommy. The boys were so excited that they carried up nearly all the ornament boxes for me. Hooray!

The boys loved decorating the tree. I just kept handing them ornaments and letting them put them wherever they wanted.

Of course the boys can't reach too high, but they used all their resources to get the ornaments up as high as they could.

It was so fun to watch my big boys decorating the tree...

Even if their ornament placement was a little bit off.

Yep! There are 7 ornaments in this picture!

So I did move the ornaments around a bit and I have a few more to put on, but I think the tree is going to be beautiful!

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

Scavenger Hunt Sunday #15

2011-11-26T19:54:00.001-07:00

Waiting

The day after Thanksgiving we put up our Christmas tree. My boys are SO excited to put the ornaments on the tree, but they are waiting on Mommy. I guess I should probably get it in gear so they can stop waiting... though they are also impatiently waiting for Christmas to get here!

Foliage

Very few of our trees still have leaves on them so I couldn't figure out how I was going to take a picture of foliage. Luckily the bushes right next to our house are just starting to change colors.

Candid

Here is a picture of my baby girl on Thanksgiving, wearing the shirt that I appliqued for her... o.k. I admit I finished sewing it that morning, so what?! Anyway, she was having a great time watching her big brothers play.

Fork, Knife or Spoon

When I read this prompt I couldn't think of any creative way to photograph silverware. "What a boring prompt!" I thought. Then I actually started playing around with spoons and noticed the cool reflections I got in my shots. Turns out this was the prompt I had the most fun with. The first shot is one I call "Spoon Face", and since I am in it I suppose you could call it a selfie. The second picture is the sky, a tree, and part of my house (with our flag) reflected on a spoon placed on my driveway.

Rule of Thirds

After reading this prompt I revisited some of my pictures from last week because I realized I cropped them totally wrong! Doh! So here are my reflection and water shots from last week recropped to follow the rule of thirds. I think they look much better, don't you?

Happy Thanksgiving and Our Home Improvement Christmas

2011-11-22T14:34:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving from my One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians!

I have so much to be Thankful for this year. First and foremost, my three beautiful children who bring so much joy into my life.

Today our local library storytime, we read fun Thanksgiving books and got to make these cute headbands for the craft. The library ladies were kind enough to let me make one for Miss Aubrey too so I could have three little Indians! I am thankful that our library offers free programs that are so fun for my kids.

Speaking of fun, you will never guess what has been happening here lately. Yesterday the heating and air conditioning guys came to our house, and we got a brand new furnace!

Can you believe that our old furnace was built in 1976? Holy Cow! That means it was 35 years old! No wonder it started making funny noises and doing things that my husband did not like.

We have known that this day was coming, so it was not a big surprise that we needed to get a new furnace. It does kind of stink to have to get a new furnace right before Christmas, but the good news is that I get an air conditioner too!

Yep. For the past 6 years that we have lived in our house we have had an ancient furnace and no air conditioning. We just had an evaporative cooler (aka swamp cooler). Won't it be so nice this summer to be able to turn on the air conditioner and have the cool air blow out all the vents in the house? Heaven!

I am thankful that our old furnace lasted so long and that we have the means to buy a new one. Plus, isn't my new furnace beautiful and shiny?

That's not the only shiny thing in our house either! A few weeks ago our dishwasher gave up the ghost (just before Halloween, coincidentally). It just would not drain and the motor died. So I got a beautiful new dishwasher.

Oooh! Aaahhh! Pretty! Now my dishes actually get clean! Plus I don't have to wonder if I killed all the mold and junk that was growing in our old dishwasher.

So I guess you could say we are having a home improvement Christmas. Honey Daddy and I are getting each other a new furnace, air conditioner, and dishwasher. They may not be fun gifts, but we will definitely enjoy them! I am just thankful that we will have a warm house in the winter, a cool house in the summer, and nice, clean dishes!

We will also enjoy spending time with our sweet little family over this long Thanksgiving weekend. I am so thankful for my husband and my sweet kids... even if sometimes they are little turkeys!

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

Scavenger Hunt Sunday #14

2011-11-19T19:42:00.001-07:00

Mainly One Color

As I was out driving around today, I stopped at the cemetery near our house to take a picture of Mount Timpanogos covered with snow and topped by clouds. I thought I could use it for this prompt since it was all very white. Then I spotted the great colors and rusty hardware high up on the little outbuilding I had parked next to and I couldn't pass it up.

Around the Home

Here is one little girl who is going to be moving around our home in no time! She has been lifting her little bum up in the air and lately I have found her on her hands and knees rocking back and forth. It will only be a matter of time before she figures out how to crawl!

Reflection

Utah Lake is not too far from my house so I decided to drive there to look for my "reflection" shot. I had a hard time choosing a shot because I got so many cool reflections in the still waters at the edge of the lake. This was my favorite one. I think this bird is a heron, but I didn't get a close look because he flew off after I took this shot.

Writing

Have you ever noticed that buildings next to the railroad tracks get tagged a lot? This building used to be covered with the most colorful graffiti. I have even used it as a backdrop for photos in the past, so I was almost sad when I saw that the owner had painted over it. Of course the "clean slate" of the wall didn't last very long.

Water

Is it water, or the mountain? Here is Mount Timpanogos as seen in the water of Utah Lake. I had a hard time choosing just one water picture, so you get two.

Here is another shot that I took down by Utah Lake. It was nice to be able to take my baby girl for a walk without my boys there to scare the birds away.

Leaping in Leaves

2011-11-16T16:44:00.001-07:00

Today I found myself a day late with my usual Wednesday post, but on the bright side at least it is still Wednesday! So I guess I will multitask and call this my Wordful Wednesday/You Capture post. Go me!

Our yard is usually bare of leaves because my husband is really good about keeping up with yard work. However our neighbor has been a bit under the weather, so we decided to help her out and rake up her leaves. Of course the boys were all too happy to help, as long as they got to play in the leaves afterwards!

Jonah and Eli took turns running toward the HUGE pile of leaves and then taking a big leap!

They always have so much energy that I did not mind raking up the pile of leaves over and over so they could keep running and jumping and hopefully burn off some of excess energy.

I got some pretty good practice with my action photography as well. Here are a few of my favorites:

Look at how much air Jonah got on his leap! Wow!

I told Eli to jump into the leaves face first, and he was more than happy to oblige.

Jonah just couldn't get enough of jumping in the leaves! Eventually I gave up helping him re-fluff the pile because I got tired, so he just piled it back up himself and kept jumping!

Jumping in the leaves is so much fun! My boys kept at it for at least an hour this afternoon, and that doesn't include the time they spent jumping last night. Jonah actually cried when he saw the leaves being put into the garbage can.

Do you have any leaves left where you live?

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

Scavenger Hunt Sunday #13

2011-11-12T18:32:00.001-07:00

Before and After

Just before church last week I noticed that my kids were looking very cute and Christmasy. So I sat them all on the couch with my black background and took some quick shots that I plan on using for Christmas cards.

As often happens with kids, they never all looked good at the same time. I liked the boys in the picture on the left, but Aubrey was leaned over and not looking at the camera. So I took Aubrey from the picture on the right and inserted her in the picture on the left. With a little editing I don't think you can even tell!

How did I do? I put my watermark on this one so none of my peeps get the idea to print this one off. You will be getting one for Christmas, ok?!

Opposing Lines

This prompt had me a little stumped. I understood what I was supposed to look for, but couldn't seem to find it anywhere. But then again I had a busy week teaching preschool and the weather was atrocious. Today we went to the nearby dinosaur museum, where I spotted this fossil. I think this counts as opposing lines, right?

Custom Bokeh

This prompt had me a bit freaked out at first. I wasn't sure I could do a custom bokeh. But I looked up instructions online and found that it wasn't as hard as I thought! I made a few different lens covers, but I liked the flower one best. The first picture was taken with white Christmas lights, and the bottom image is with colored lights.

Which Pair of Shoes Should I wear?

After our impromptu Christmas pictures shoot, I decided to sit Aubrey on the couch alone with all of her shoes. Would you believe that she probably owns more pairs of shoes than I do? The funny thing is that she can't even walk yet!

Little Features

Though I love all of little miss Aubrey's features, I have to say that this picture shows my favorite little features... her eyes, her smile and those squishy cheeks. I just love this little face!

Snowman Preschool

2011-11-10T22:01:00.001-07:00

It had been my turn to teach our cooperative preschool this week, which has kept me pretty busy. As this evening arrived I realized that I had only taken pictures of preschool so far this week! So that is what you get to see today. Today was especially fun. I was teaching the letter S, so I decided to focus on snowmen!

As you would expect (since I am a librarian), we read lots of fun books about snowmen. I especially loved the three books I read by Caralyn Buehner. I really need to get "Snowmen at Night", "Snowmen all Year", and "Snowmen at Christmas" for my boys. They love them!

But I am getting ahead of myself. First we do "circle time" where we talk about the date, the weather, sing the ABC song and count to 20 . THEN we read the books. After we are done reading, next we cut and pasted pictures into our letter notebooks.

Eli loved helping me pick out the pictures that I printed. He is getting pretty good at cutting the pictures apart.

Next we moved on to the craft. I was a little apprehensive because I chose a messy craft. We used a concoction of part shaving cream and part Elmer's glue to make these puffy snowmen.

I found the idea on Pinterest (original idea here), but instead of using brushes to paint on the foamy stuff, we used balloons. We dipped different size balloons into the foamy paint and plopped them on the paper. That way the snowmen would be made out of circles. The paint dries kind of puffy, which is cool.

Then we had the treat, which were my favorite part of the day. Check these out!

Aren't these powdered donut snowmen cute? They just have candy corn noses and gel frosting eyes and smiles. They were a big hit with the kids!