The Queen of poop strikes again...

My baby is explosive. I have had two babies that are like that. Almost everytime she poops this is what happens. It doesn't matter what size of diaper or when it was changed last. She just errupts!! It sure makes for a lot of laundry. So, I am off to fold some clothes so I am prepared for the next explosion.

Where have the last 5 months gone?

My baby turned 5 months old yesterday. I can't believe how big she is getting. She even slept in her very own bed last night for the first time. She slept all night long without a peep. I, however, didn't sleep good at all because I was worried about her all night. I am sad that she is already big enough to be on her own....she will be driving before I know it.

Easter dresses....

I made the girls' Easter dresses this year. I owe a great big thanks to Blackeyedsue for this inspiration. These were the easiest dresses I have ever made. I am definately going to have to make more of these. I have been kicking myself since I bought the fabric. They had an adorable red, white, and blue bandana looking dress fabric. My girls would have looked so adorable in little dresses made from that for the 24th of July parade. I am just hoping that they have it when I go back to the store.

3 days of Easter fun...

We had an interesting Easter this year. We decided to spread out the fun over 3 days instead of one.

On Friday we headed out to the desert to have a little picnic, and in Grandma R fashion...an Easter egg hunt. Grandma R is the Queen of Easter egg hunts. She loves them. It is sad that she missed this one. The girls had a fun time. Dad learned that he can't hide the eggs quite so hard!

Little H didn't get to hunt for eggs, but she had fun watching the sisters.

We e-mailed the Easter bunny this year and asked him if he would start coming on Saturday, so we could spend more time on Sunday talking about Jesus and the Resurrection.
The Easter bunny always hides the girls baskets. It took them awhile to find them this year. The older the girls get the harder it gets to find their baskets. They got a fun new spring outfit and these cool shades along with some Easter candy.
Saturday afternoon we had fun decorating some boiled eggs. The girls were having so much fun that we dyed some more eggs too. We could have gone completely crazy and dyed all 6 dozen eggs we had in the fridge, but we contained our excitement and only dyed one dozen.
I guess we were having too much fun and excitement because by Sunday morning all the girls were flipping out, over emotional, and uncooperative, so this is the only picture we got of them in their new Easter dresses.

Sunday slipped by too fast and we didn't do some of the things we had planned, so we may be doing Easter stuff for Family Home Evening tonight too. I think 4 days of Easter will just about wear me out!

I hope you all had a Happy Easter!

Our Spring Break Adventure....

It is spring break around here so yesterday we set off on a little road trip. 11 hours later we finally returned home....exhauseted! We had a great day though.

Our original intent was to go to the 4 corners. This is the only place in the United States where 4 states (Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona) meet in one location. There is not much to see there, but you don't get the opportunity to be in 4 different states at the same time very often. We thought it would be fun to have a different girl in every state.

After our trip to the 4 corners we were going to take the l---o---n---g way home so we could do some shopping. On the way we decided we would go to Hovenweep National Park. We thought it wasn't too far away. Well it ended up to be a lot farther away than we thought.

It took over an hour to get there. We weren't planning to do any hiking, but we figured since we had already come this far. So we took a two hour hike to see all the indian ruins.

There are several buildings all spaced around a little canyon (or would you call it a ravine?). It was a great hike since you would hike for awhile and then stop and see a building, then hike for a while and stop and see the next building.

The girls had such a great time. We are glad we decided to go on the hike and see everything while we were there.

We even got to see a few bunny rabbits along the way. They must be getting ready for Easter!

St. Patrick's Day Fun...

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day yesterday. We usually start out the day with green shamrock pancakes and green milk. The day before I had made apple turnovers and I had leftover filling, so I just used that and made some muffins. I guess it was made from green apples so that counts right?

For dinner I made cheesy broccoli soup. Much to the chagrin of my wee folk. We had clover shaped rolls, green apples, and green punch to go with it. Those were a hit. After dinner we had Family Home Evening. We started out with a little treasure hunt. This is what we were looking for:

And yes, that is a frog! Would you expect anything less from me? We usually hide the cup full of gold chocolate coins, but I couldn't find any to buy, so we had Ande's Mints instead. For our lesson we ate one of the mints and talked about how quickly our treasure was gone. Then I had them find a green bag that I had put the scriptures in, a picture of our family, and some other books. The girls hunted for that, and we talked about how that was a greater treasure than food, or money or any other material thing. And we talked about how those treasures can last forever.
Then for dessert we had lime Jell-o poke cake with green whipped topping (which I left out on the counter too long, so it is kind of runny).

So that is what we did for St. Patty's Day this year. What fun things did you do?

Saturday Adventures....

We have started doing a new thing at the itybty house. We have started going on Saturday Adventures. On Saturday morning we get up and get all of our chores done and get the house cleaned up, and then we head out on an adventure of some sort. Today we are going sledding (for one last time before all the snow melts). Two weeks ago we went to climb on some rocks and visit a waterfall. Last week we went on a hike to find some indian ruins.

The girls have had a ball on our little adventures. They love getting out of the house and doing something new.

Even the baby has had a great time. She gets so excited and swings her arms and legs around. It is so cute. She is all kinds of happy to get to see some new scenery.

We packed a picnic lunch last week. It was a little windy and cold while we were eating, but the sun came out right after we were done and it was beautiful for the rest of our hike.
Well I am off to make lunch so we can eat and go on our new adventure for the week. Have a great Saturday everyone.

My new diet....

I thought I would share my new Chinese diet. So far it hasn't been working too well. I should have put it on the cupboard with the leftover Valentine's candy in it.

Play Blanket....

I pulled out this blanket the other day for my baby to play with. I made it about 5 years ago. I tried to put lots of fun things on it that a baby could play with. My mom (she is a saint!) helped cut all the fabric from old fabric she had laying around the house. It was such a fun project to make. My kids have all loved playing on it. And they still do (even my 7 year old!).

The dumping ground....

Come on, we all have them. Those places in your house where everything seems to be attracted...like there is some sort of strong magnetic force pulling junk towards it. Mine is my kitchen island. It is constantly messy. I try to clean it off everyday, but despite my best efforts, it quickly fills up with stuff again. I can get it completely clean in the morning, and by bedtime it looks like it was never touched all day. I thought I would share a daily evolution of my dumping ground...

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

So where is your dumping ground?

Not a Minor Anymore....

I had to get a new driver's license this year. This really bummed me out. For the last 10 years I have had a driver's license that said I was under 21. That is what happens when you go get your driver's license renewed the day before you turn 21. I loved it. Hardly anyone ever noticed, but it was a fun internal joke for me. I never tried to buy alcohol and was never "carded". It would have been fun if I did though. So now I am officially an adult. I guess I was hanging on to this tiny bit of my youth. Oh well, I guess I have to grow up sooner or later.

Happy Birthday big brother...

My big brother when he was deployed...taken by my sister-in-law.

Today is my big brother's birthday. I usually try to call him and wish him a happy day, but I can't do that this year. He was deployed last week. I don't know if he is able to see this either, but I wanted to do something special to remember his birthday this year. I can't even think about him lately without crying. I have never gotten to see him as much as I would like since we got married and had families of our own. I wish that could be different, and maybe it will someday. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the things we did when we were younger. I thought I would share a few memories.

Probably my earliest memories of him involve G.I. Joe dolls (is that an appropriate thing to call a boy toy?). We spent hours and hours playing them when we were younger. Not personally my favorite. I would rather have played Barbies. My brother was a good sport though, and would play Barbies with me once in a while. He always liked to play the baby. We would be playing along just fine, and then all of a sudden the baby turned into ninja baby and started attacking people. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.....

We had lots of fun playing other things too. We use to build forts out of the boxes in our basement. The trick was to make it look like there wasn't a fort in them because my parents didn't like us playing in them. He built a fort once and put his blankets and stuff in it to make a house. He was going to sleep in it, but I don't remember if he did. I just remember that he took a sandwich in there and forgot about it. I think it might have been tuna. It sure stunk when we found it.

We also played marbles until our fingers were sore. We built castles in the sand box. We had this green rocking swivel chair. If you turned it onto it's back it looked like an airplane with a propeller in the front. We had lots of fun with that. In the wintertime, we would be watching t.v. and during commercial breaks we would run outside and climb up onto the the rabbit hutch....with no shoes or socks on, and jump off into the snow. Then we would run back inside to see who could get to the heater faster. We had lots of fun sleeping out in our back yard in the summers.

I had lots of fun with my brother, but he also tormented me like crazy. You know those things that boys seem to be great at doing...burping, farting....that kind of thing. I think he experimented with every kind of grossness on me. He even threw up on me once. Even though he tormented me I still loved him dearly. He ran away from home once. He was only hiding in our dog house, but I was sooooooo sad. I missed him like crazy and he was only gone for like 2 hours.

It wouldn't be the last time I would miss him. Between his junior and senior year of high school he went to boot camp. I missed him tons that summer. Before he came home they shaved his head. This is his senior class picture. He's not quite as skinny these days, but he does have more hair.

During high school he was busy with his friends, but still made time to do things with me. Like play nintendo, or watch a basketball game, or talk me into doing his homework. I got pretty good at imitating his hand writing. After high school he went off to Military school, and things were lonely without him. He came back different....he grew up I guess you could say. He came back with big muscles and could walk on his hands. He wasn't home long before he went on his mission.

When he came back we were on the same turf. I had graduated from High School, and so we ended up going to college together. Some of my fondest memories come from those college days. We drove to school together sometimes and had some of our classes together. He had a night job, and had a hard time staying awake in school. I would hold up his head in Physics class, and elbow him if he started to snore. We took a sales class together too. He would often get home from work about the time that I was getting up in the morning. He would climb into bed with me and we would talk. We went on double dates together. We did a lot together during those two years of college before we got married.

This is a picture of us at my sister's wedding. Most of my pictures of him are in storage, or I am sure I could have found something good to embarrass him with! We ended up getting married 3 weeks apart from each other. It was a crazy busy time. My hubby and I drove all night long to get to CA for his wedding, but I ended up not being able to go in. I sat in the lobby and cried. I wish I could have been there.

Since then, my memories of my big brother have been from family camp outs, family parties, and watching him with his own little kids and his wife. I will miss sharing these memories with him over the next year while he is gone. He and his family are in our thoughts and prayers everyday. I love you big brother!

I Scrapbooked with Sandra Bullock....

I thought I would jot down some random ideas today.

Yesterday, was Rachelle's My Life Monday. I wanted to do it, but I forgot. She wanted you to define your life in just 6 words. This was rather hard. As I thought about it, I could say different things for different times in my life, but I wanted to do something that seemed to define my whole life. So this is what I came up with:


I'm always dreaming up something new.


That is how I am. I am always dreaming up new ideas or planning something new. I think I would die if I didn't have something fun to plan or think about. So those are my 6 words.

Now as far as the title of this blog goes, I really didn't scrapbook with Sandra Bullock. At least not in real life. I did in my dreams last night though. I was teaching her about paper with a white core and how you can sand the edges to show the white through. I don't know why I thought she would be interested in knowing, but she was in my dream.

I also dreamed last night that I was selling vinyl to my old boss, her husband, and her son. Something about a clock. I don't recall exactly.

I also had another dream about one of my kids, and I swore in the middle of the night that I was going to remember it, but this morning it was gone. Why are dreams so ellusive? I can usually vaguely remember what they were about, but sometimes they are just out of reach in my brain. And strain as I might, I just can't pull them into my cognitive mind. I hate that.

Oh, and a little kid funny. My hubby was getting my 2 year old dressed last Sunday for church and was having a hard time getting her zipper up on her sweater. My little K remarked, "Maybe it's batteries are dead." Ha ha ha! I think it was more a problem of Dad's fingers being too big for tiny zippers.

Well that is all my randomness for today. We will see what I dream up tomorrow.

Flower Head Bands...

I made these for my little baby. I used regular silk flowers and took out the middles. Then I attached the petals to velcro with a button on top. I added velcro to a few head bands, and now I can change the flower to match whatever she is wearing.

4 Months Old....

My baby turned 4 months old last week. This makes me so sad. 4 Month old babies are my absolute favorite. I know this next month is just going to fly by. I want her to stay this size forever.
She is such a sweet baby. She is happy all of the time. My 7 year old cries more than she does. She loves to play with toys and sings to them. She is starting to reach for everything...the cup I am drinking from, my hair, my sunglasses. She is going to be a little dangerous here soon. She has started sleeping for 8 hours straight every night. It has been so nice not to wake up in the middle of the night. OHHH I love her!

She is growing out of all her little clothes. It makes me so sad. She loves to smile and has the cutest little dimple. Her eyes are so far staying blue. Which makes us so happy. I hope they will stay that way as she gets older. She is such a joy. I just want to hold her and squeeze her and give her kisses all day long.

Visit my craft blog to see how I made her cute flower head bands.