*FAB*ulous weekend--Sunday

So on Sunday Brett went home teaching after church, and then we had spaghetti for dinner, and then we decided to go roast marshmallows for smores (since I had forgotten the marshmallows the day before--whoops). We went to the creek and ate our yummy marshmallows.

Then we bushwacked through the jungle to get to the creek and had a grand time throwing rocks and wading and shooting a few firecrackers.









Kami and Leo--aren't they cute?








Jethro climbed the log.

Brett is very prideful when it comes to skipping rocks. He thinks he is the best rock skipper...well, ever, really. He was teaching Ana the skill. Look at her determined face.










Me and my sis. We have good times together.

I took lots of pictures of Kami, because I thought she looked so beautiful. By the way, Kami is having her baby tomorrow, either by induction or c-section. See, her baby is breech (just as she was when she was born, Elena was, Hazel, and Ethne was. Also another of my sisters was born breech, and two of my sisters had c-sections for breech babies too. We have a strangely high incidence of breechness in our family.) So anyway, the doctor is going to try a version (which was successful for Elena, Hazel, and Ethne) and if it works induce her, but she has very low amniotic fluid, so if it is not successful, they will do a c-section. Let's hope her version works!!!!
Look at Elena's and Ethne's pants by the end! And the last picture is from when we were roasting marshmallows, and Hazel accidentally walked by a stick that had marshmallow on it, and it was completely stuck in her hair.

We had a great time by the creek. It was a BEAUTIFUL evening--really cool and nice. After we did a few firecrackers there, we went home and bathed the kids and got them in their p.j.'s so that it was darker when we did the rest. Fun fun fun.

Some things that make happy

This little girl always makes me happy. Because she's so cute.

Peas from my garden make me happy. I never try to serve them for a meal or anything. I just pick all the big ones, divide them up between me and the kids and eat them out of the shell. (Brett doesn't like them because they make his throat itch. How sad.)


Making this cute skirt was really fun and exciting! I have my sister's sewing machine sitting in my front room, waiting for her to come get it, and I also saw on a friend's blog some cute things that she made, so I got the sewing itch. I looked around a bit and found two tutorials. Here 's the one for the hat, and here's the one for the skirt.

Obviously, the hat is a bit much with that huge flower on it, but it's just kinda fun and the flower matches the red flowers on the skirt.

The tutorial for the skirt is from a woman who's a fabric designer, and her skirts were sooo sooo cute. When I went to pick out material I wanted to make three skirts to use different fabric. Anyway, I have enough leftover fabric and stuff for probably another skirt, if anyone wants to buy it -and all the coordinating stuff like flower and ric rak-off of me. Anyway, turned out pretty fun. I couldn't wait to try it on her today and take pictures of course.

The hat was a little trickier to make--Brett had to help me figure out the directions at one spot. So if anyone makes it, I could explain it easier to you.

Another happy thing is that my sister Kami and her family are on her way to visit me right now! Woohoo!!!!

Not so happily, I have a *D*I*S*A*S*T*E*R* of a house to clean before she gets here. Well, I'm off to see the wizard. Have a good weekend.

I thought this last picture would make a cool poster. At least I had fun messing with it. ;)

hello

So, last week my little (17-year-old) football-playing brother Ethan got injured. He was going for a pass, stretched out, and a guy running as hard as he could hit him with his helmet. He went down, but got back up and walked to the side where he proceeded to throw up. They took him to the ER and he had a broken bone in his back, a lacerated kidney, and a bruised spleen. A cool thing was that my dad, Ethan's coach, and the team doctor all gave him a blessing. The thing they were most worried about was his spleen, because it's bad news if your spleen has to come out.

Anyway, I told Jethro to draw him a picture to mail to him, and these are what he drew. I love all the guys that have fallen down trying to get Ethan, and how he wrote, "Jack, I win!" He knew my dad's name was Jack, but didn't realize that Ethan would call him Dad. Plus I just think it's funny that he would write that.

Oh, and just because I know you were all wondering, he didn't drop the pass.
And a pretty sweet truck.
On Saturday Jethro came up whining about having nothing to do, so I just said "Go make a book," just to get him to stop whining. Well, one book turned into a whole bunch--by both him and Hazel, and he even made a library, and on the back of each book he makes a bar code. He also taped a sign on our front door that said "Libray." I really like how this little smiley face that he drew on the back says "Read every day!" Ha ha.


My favorite story is a short one he wrote with no pictures but Brett and I both cracked up when we read it.

"the suNy DAY"
EVrY DAY WAS SuNY AT this PLAC
BUT ONe DAY WAS lik A OVeN.
iT WAS SO HOT eVryBODY Brnd.

Jethro explained that he accidentally wrote 'burned' when he meant 'sunburned,' but Brett and I kinda like it that way. hee hee.
These are some pictures from this morning playing in the backyard.


On Saturday we all went to the library together, and then we went to an icecream parlor where Hazel had received a gift certificate to for her birthday. (Thanks Elise!) The icecream was SOOOOO delicious!! Seriously, it was heavenly stuff. Anyway, it was pretty cool because as we were driving there we saw some cool old cars driving past, and they were going to a place kitty corner from the icecream parlor, so we got our cones and walked over to the car show. Of course, Brett loved that. They had a pretty sweet Camaro (is that how you spell it?) and GTO. And an International truck that Brett said he wants to have one like.


I just washed my kitchen cupboards, and even though I don't have very many at all, my arm is aching. That's probably a bad sign. Oh well.

Brett has a toothache and is going to go see a dentist. I am quite concerned as we haven't really kept up on his dental work since um.....we got married. It could be bad news for our pocketbooks.

And that's all I've got.

Then and Now

Hazel on the day she was born, and on the morning of her 4th birthday. I love her slept-in piggy tails (and the obligatory bruise on her cheek, since she's so very fond of walking into things).


Here are some of Hazel's favorite things at 4:

Movie: Beauty and the Beast

Place: Mall Playplace

Toy: Barbie

Song: I am a Child of God

Food: peanut butter and honey sandwich (so true...she wants one every single day for lunch)

Dessert: icecream

Animal: tiger

Color: pink and red

Book: Strawberry Shortcake

Favorite thing to do: Color
We love our Hazel bean!! One time I said to Brett, "She's just a big ball of..." and he said, "Bubbly." Yes. She is a joy.

Under the Sea

This is going to be a long, probably disjointed post, because I have a lot to write about. And my pictures won't move to where I want them. Oh well.

Here are some pictures of Hazel at swimming lessons, since I already showed some of Jethro. She loved them too. We are having a break for two weeks, and then doing another session (for two weeks). (Isn't her swimming suit so cute?! I got it at Once Upon a Child.)

Sheesh, I just tried to move a picture again and it went to a completely random place. I guess they'll just have to stay where they are.











So, Hazel's birthday party theme was Under the Sea, so we've been rounding up oceany/mermaidy type stuff. A friend lent me some mermaid costume stuff, but it was after I had found a really cool tutorial online (here it is) of how to make a mermaid skirt. So I made two. They were actually really easy and quite fun to make. I mean, you get to go to the fabric store, and pick out the most gaudy, sparkly material you can find--that's just fun, eh? Plus, all the material for one of them (minus the elastic and stuffing that I already had) came to $2.50 because I got it from the bargain section at Jo-Ann's.

So, the kids were trying all the stuff out, so I had to take pictures of my mer-children. :) Ethne especially was soooo cute. She had her little purse on one arm, a wand in the other hand, crown on head, and the big tail dragging behind her. Oh, the cuteness. (Oh, and I made them all using a sewing machine I bought for my sister Kami at a garage sale for $25--aren't I the best sister?!)

I made some fish barrettes for the little treat bags. I didn't really make them up myself, I just copied an idea I saw somewhere else online. And somewhere, there's a picture of Ethne modeling her little fishy barrette.

















So, on to the party. We had lots of little friends come to play and it was so exciting for Hazel. We started out painting some dowels with glittery paint for some seashell wands.

We had some bubbles to blow, and we played a sort of musical chairs-pass-the-water-balloon that was fun.
Then we had a whole bunch of relay races. The FOR SURE highlight was the relay where they had to pull on one of the mermaid tails and run with it across the yard to the "sandbox" (a rubbermaid container with about 25 pounds of sand in it), find a shiny pebble, race back and give the skirt to the next person on their team. It was fun having 4 boys there---they were HI-LARIOUS in the tail. Me and some other moms that stayed were laughing and laughing. Here's a picture of Harry sporting the merman tail.

Some of the other relays were to crab walk across to the sandbox, pick up a pasta seashell with your crab claws (salad tongs) and race back; run down to the pool, find a shark (water balloon) and squash it; and we tried one where you pass a cup of water and see which team can fill their bucket the highest. That one was a little hard, but we weren't too concerned with who won, and they were having a good time I think.



I made a mermaid cake that there's a picture of somewhere, and when she thought no one was looking (and actually no one was), Ethne helped herself. Devious little cutie.
















Here are some pictures of the fun we had with the balloons Hazel got as a gift.


This picture is hilarious because it's a new face Ethne makes when she's mad...Brett calls it the monkey face, cause he thinks she looks like a monkey. She sticks out her bottom teeth. Silly silly. And the very last picture (two pictures actually) of this post is also funny because it's the face Ethne makes when you ask her if she wants something (such as a treat) and she smiles and nods her head very emphatically. It's so funny.

Anyway, we had cake (the mermaid cake I found on familyfun.com---whatever DID people do before the internet? They had to be creative or something.) and Hazel opened presents, and we finished making the wands, and that was that. It was a perty good party I think.

We haven't actually given Hazel her presents from us, because Brett was working last night painting a guy's house, and he didn't get home until right as the kids were going to bed, so I think we'll do that tonight.