Getting ready for Valentine's Day...

We spent the afternoon making some Valentine's Day crafts using felt. It was alot of fun, and Alan and Sarah got their first lesson in basic sewing. They both decided to make something for their teachers at school. Alan made a teddy bear, and Sarah made a heart. Kaitlyn had fun cutting snips of fabric.

This is not a picture of the hearts we made. Tom took the camera with him to the Netherlands. (Like there would be something interesting in the Netherlands to see. :) I'll put a picture up of the ones we made later.

Funny faces on a Sunday afternoon..

Giant Felt blocks

We have alot of capri sun boxes from school lunches, and they are made of really strong cardboard. Looking at them one day, I decided that they would make great building blocks. So I taped up the open ends and covered them in felt using spary adhesive. Then I trimmed the excess felt around the edges. It was pretty simple, and they made really big sturdy blocks that stack well.

Kaitlyn's fried apples

Lately, Kaitlyn has been asking me if she can play with the pans in the house. At one point, she was having a snack of apple slices when she asked me for a pan. She wanted to "make dinner" with her apples. I let her have a frying pan just to see what she would do. She proceeded to arrange the apple slices in the center of the frying pan. Seeing her do that gave me an idea.

I got out some butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, and we put it in the pan with the apples. I then put it on the stove and we cooked them up. Kaitlyn thought it was neat watching the butter melt and the apples brown. 4-yr old science lesson learned.

The cooked apples tasted alot like apple pie filling. Yum.

The 700$ clog

Our main line got clogged. I won't bore you with the details, but it was really bad. And really stinky. And really gross. It seeped into the hall way and into a bedroom, and into the hall closet. And the plumber worked on it from 9:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. Beyond the plumber, we also had to pull up the carpet and throw away the pad underneath it, and then rent a blower to dry out the stinky rug. That'll take a while. For it to dry I mean.

Now we have to decide whether we have to replace the carpet or just clean it really well. I guess it will depend on if we can get the smell out. If we can't then we're going to replace it. That will make it much more than $700. Anyway, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

I love wood

Ok, I'm really loving making picture puzzles. Yesterday I mounted a 11x17 picture of Helaman and the Strippling warriors onto some wood and made it into a puzzle. Then today I made a wood box to hold it in. (Well actually I took a pine ammo box and cut it down to size then re-glued it and clamped it, then made a lid for it with a picture of the puzzle on top)

Reading on an autumn day...

Last September when the weather finally cooled off enough to be outside, I let the kids take some books and blankets out to read. Alan loves to read to his little sisters and brother. I'm posting this now because for some reason I couldn't get it to upload before, and I thought it was worth posting. Notice Alan's goofy voices? He really get's into character when he's reading.

William's Furrowed Brow

William has a look that he gives anyone he doesn't know, or when he's just thinking. We call it his "furrowed brow". His face is very expressive. I'll try to get more pictures of his different expressions.

Family Fun Day

We didn't do our annual Family Fun Day on New Year's Day this year because Tom was spending time with his brother Chris who came here for a few days. So, this last Saturday we chose to have our family day. We usually spend the entire New Year's Day doing nothing but playing games and eating fun snacks we make. This year, because we have a new wii game system, we had a wii tournament. It was so much fun!
Here's a picture of Kaitlyn and William helping me make some caramel corn. Their favorite part is watching the popcorn pop. Here's a video of Kaitlyn and Alan playing boxing.

My arms are sore from boxing, but I'm the champ!! I even beat Tom!!

I love this picture...

The theme for this year in Primary is, "My Eternal Family". I found this picture on sugardoodle.net

My new favorite wood project: Pass-along puzzles

I was trying to think of something to give out for Birthday presents for the kid's in primary that reminded them of the things we're learning and yet still be appealing to them as gifts. So, I thought of making them some mini wood puzzles out of church pictures. All I did was mount "pass-along" cards on 1/4 inch plywood using spray adhesive, and then cut them into puzzles. I don't even need to spray a finish on them. My kids liked them so much it was hard to keep them from playing with them. I'll wrap them up in clear wrap with a nice ribbon, and let them pick what puzzle they want.

Happy New Year!!

New Year's Eve was a busy one at our house. In the afternoon, I decided that I wanted to make something special for the sisters I visit teach, and since December's message was about Jesus being the "Light of the World", I decided to make some simple little candles in jars. It was the first time I'd made colored candles, and it was really fun! I made layers of 4 different colors by putting the jar in the freezer for a moment between each layer. In the evening I went and delivered them.

Also on New Year's Eve we had about 9 young men stay over the whole night and play video games and eat junk food. Another couple in our ward brought their little boy over to play with our kids, and they stayed. We adults played games in the front room while the kids played games in the rest of the house. At midnight we all counted down and watched the ball drop on TV. It was alot of fun. We didn't get much sleep though.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve is always a day for making fun and yummy treats at our house. For the first time I tried my hand at making some home made candy canes. They turned out really well. And yes, I know they only cost a few cents each at the store, but it's way cooler to give away "handmade" candy canes.

I also like to make home made Almond Roca. I call them Roca Rocks. Here the kids are dipping some pretzels in chocolate as they prepare goodies for Santa:

Then we carried on the McGiffin (my side of the family) family tradition of acting out the Scriptural account of the birth of Jesus. Tom read the scriptures while I helped the kids act it out.

Here's Kaitlyn the angel standing in the "clouds". (It's a big white down comforter)

Then, Christmas morning Alan and Sarah wait patiently in the Hallway for the time when they can come out and see the gifts.

And here is the Family Room after Santa has visited, and before we all came in to open presents. Santa left a little 2-wheeler bike for Kaitlyn and a full-size basketball hoop for Sarah. Alan got some nice starwars stuff, William got some cute baby toys, and we all got a Nintendo Wii and a Wii Fit. I swore I'd never have a game system in our house, but Santa knew I wanted to be able to do the aerobics andyoga with the wii. I'll tell you how that goes as I use it.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Tree...

As I've said in previous posts, we have two Christmas trees in our house. One is in the family room for the kids to decorate, and one is in the living room that I call my "pretty tree". I decided to put some "snow" on the tree this year in honor of all the snow my family is getting up north. These pictures don't do the tree any justice. It actually does look alot like snow is on it, even if it is just quilt batting :)

Alan's Gift wrap

These were the first gifts under the tree at our house. Alan used everything from an empty plastic spoon container to one of his Dad's old gun boxes. He even put some printer paper around one present and wrapped it with a belt of his. I guess I should've told him where the wrapping paper was. He didn't buy any of these gifts. These are his toys that he is giving to his family and friends. So even though it just looks like there's junk under the tree, we're keeping them there.