Merry Christmas!

Last week I got off work early and we decorated our Christmas tree. It turned out ok. Next year I'm going to get a 'fraiser fur' as this current tree requires daily vacuuming. Argh! I've also decided that I should not pick out a tree on my own and while stressed out... it's a little crooked. =) All in all, the kids (and us) did a nice job and it's all in the right spirit.

In other news, I have officially completed my associates degree in nursing. =) It was a long pass/fail weekend of no fun. Though I did meet some nice people. I'm still waiting for the official paperwork but........ I'm a nurse now!

Duvet cover finally done!

I think that it turned out pretty well, as long as you don't look too closely at the edges. =) It's rough managing that much fabric thru the sewing machine. I haven't quite decided which color I'll have up, right now I'm going with the gray.


And it's of course important to break it in right away.

Now, I just need to decorate the rest of the room. Maybe starting with some paint on the the walls. Ya know, finally cover that contractor white-tone we have going.

If I stop moving, I'll fall sleep...

So, to keep moving... I worked a bit on my duvet cover. Here's a sneak peak...

Then we decided that after quiet time we'd do some baking. Our baking afternoon started with the idea to do something with the apples received from grandma this morning. We decided muffins sounded yummy.

And then I remembered that I still had some canned pumpkin chilling in the cupboard... pumpkin bread it was! Instead of just making loaves, we did a few muffins as well. Mmmm....

All of our cooking afternoon...

And here is a pic of the kids enjoying their labor as dessert.

Due to the kids REALLY wanting to watch tv and the rain and the need to cool the muffins (and that I'd like to keep my sewing area clean), we had a picnic and watched "Return to Neverland". Cute, though like all sequels, not quite as good as the original.

Happy Halloween!

Yes I know it's a bit late. =)

PIctures by Colby

And one from the "Black and Orange" party because it was so cute.

Monster Attack!

Lately we have been having a lot of issues with Mason being scared. He's come down any number of times before falling asleep to tell us that there's something in his room that scares him. Last night, it even caused him to wake up and come into our room at 1am. Yes, that was ONE AM. So, today I decided that we needed to come up with a plan to make his room a safer place to be. At dinner tonight we talked.

This is the design that Mason come up with to get the monsters.

The final product. We have it rigged like a trip wire. (The original design called for a mousetrap trip.) He also determined that the monsters maybe coming in thru the entrance to his secret lab, so he piled up a bunch of stuff on top of the entrance, as seen in the bottom of the pic.

A place to hide if needed. We also tacked up the one corner so he could jump down and slide inside quickly.

And, as a last line of defense, we have the protector robot. This robot will jump off the wall and become bigger to beat up any monsters that make it past the other defenses. It was explained to be similar to the movie Toy Story where the the toys only move when humans aren't looking at them. This line of defense is perfect for protection while sleeping.


All this talk just made Mason giddy that we were coming up all these different ideas together to defeat the scary monsters. He thought it was great! Colby on the other hand.... didn't have a monster issue with her beforehand, but she cried for a majority of the time we set stuff up, refused to leave my side and kept asking if we could all play downstairs instead. We might have created a situation there. =)

Happy Birthday Mason!

On Oct 3rd we celebrated Mason's 6th birthday. (Wow, I can't believe he's 6 already! Seriously, we have a first grader.) The party seemed to go well and everyone tells me that they had fun. Mason of course requested a Halloween themed party which is great because there is SOOO many things out there to decorate with but bad because his birthday is in the first part of October and none of it is on sale yet. =) We had lasagna for lunch followed by the wonderful cake you see below then presents and of course, the pinata. (Seriously what kind of party doesn't have a pinata.)

After going thru 8 bottles of wine, the kids were a little toasted...


I was hoping to have more fun pics of people in costumes but not everyone dressed up this year (sad) and our camera died (yes, BOTH batteries). We will hopefully steal pics from Lindsey in the near future.