A Spring full of Projects...

We have had a busy project filled March and April. This post is in reverse chronological order. Or maybe that would be like retrological order, hmm? I don't know, anyway this earth day we planted our second year of square foot gardening. It really is a great way to garden especially if you are busy and overwhelmed. A lot of people have asked me about it and you can learn all about it at squarefootgardening.com.


Some friends and I sewed this these adorable aprons. It turned out really cute. The straps cross in the back, loop through the sides and then tie in the back-very complicated (: lol.

I bought a little bit of extra fabric so I could make Elise a dress with the left overs-It looks adorable on her, even though I combined two dress patterns to make it work. (Thanks, Joan for all the sewing tutorials:) I plan to make some red and white ones for both my girls to wear to our reunion this summer.

I bought this pillow to use as inspiration for the kids to do some paintings for the basement.Here are my little Monet, Rembrandt and Picasso.

We made stepping stones at Grandma's

Carter was reading about the solar system so we bought some foam balls and made one :)

Elise even painted a couple planets :)

Lauryn made the earth and it turned out really cute with little clouds and a moon.
Its now hanging from our kitchen chandelier.

Crushing up broken plates to make a future project-a mosaic...

We had a freak late March snow and so we got to build a snowman! :)

Quilting-

Grant finished up a quilt made of all his special t-shirts.

As a bonus-mainly because its a picture that I'm actually in, here are the kids and I on a field trip to the fire station.

Daddy Daughter Dance

Lauryn and Jeff went to a daddy daughter dance put on by a high school in Jeff's district. Lauryn planned for weeks what she would wear, what earrings she should choose, and exactly how she wanted her hair. To her it was as exciting as prom. They went out to a fancy dinner and then to the dance. She had a very special evening with her dad. They say girls learn from their dads how they should be treated by the boys they date. Lauyrn has a great example to look to. Her dad definitely makes her feel like a princess.

April Fools Dinner-Fish Sticks?

This year's April Fool's dinner was "Faux Fish Sticks and Beans" The fish sticks were actually wafer cookies covered in peanut butter and rolled in crushed up corn flakes. Then I spent a good chunk of time making watermelon Laffy Taffy's into lima beans :) Lauryn is not the kind of eater who digs into things with out investigating them first. She had to break her "fish stick" before she would bite into it and that kind of gave it away. It was still fun though. I thought they looked pretty real, and all the kids got a kick out of it. My kids are getting harder to fool. I may have to step it up a notch. Hmmmm.........

Yum!!

Disney Pics (long overdue...)

Of course, as you can imagine, I have way too many pictures from our trip. It would have taken you a day and a half to get through them not to mention how long it would take me to post them all. So to spare us all, I selected a few favorite moments. Of course you can't get any better than posing with Minnie-my personal favorite :) This picture will probably make a re-run as our Christmas pic this year. Grant was into all the big rides and was a great riding buddy for me-I used to have to ride all the rollercoasters by myself. My favorite rollercoaster at Walt Disney World? I definitely have to go with Rock and Roller Coaster at Disney Hollywood Studios.

We met all the princesses except Snow White. Of course it helped that we made reservations to have a Princess dinner one night, it was great to knock them all out in one night so we didn't have to spend the rest of the time looking for them and waiting in line.

I think Jeff would agree that his favorite thing was the food. We had a meal plan where we could eat anything on the menu at the places we went, plus we always got dessert and there was even a dessert snack in between meals. Whew! Talk about glutony! But it was right up Jeff's alley. I think he's still in withdrawal.

Lounging pool-side at the Wilderness Lodge. It only got warm enough to swim on the last day of our trip-Florida had record lows through our whole vacation. Brrrr!

One of Carter's favorite things was the little towel sculptures that the maid service made for us each day-he slept with them. :)

We had dinner at Chef Mickey which once again helped us avoid long lines. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto were all there. By the time all the characters had come by our table two or three times, Elise had had way too much. She started crying "I no like Donald!! I no like Pluto!!" Whenever they came around. :)

One of my favorite things about the trip was Epcot. I thought the different countries were awesome and it was a beautiful park-it has fun rides, too. By far the food at Epcot was the best. Most nights that is where we ate dinner. One thing I didn't know is that the ball actually has a ride inside it. Cool-huh?!

Dinner at Teppanyaki. I love the look on Elise and Jeff's faces. Obviously she was doing something very amazing :).

They were testing out the new American Idol Experience. I got to be part of the "soft opening". It was fun but nerve racking to sing in front of a judge. I made it to the next level and sang for the producer. If I had made it through I would have been singing in the finals in front of a huge audience. Yikes! To my relief-really-he thought my voice wasn't "pop" enough for the show. But he said some really nice things so overall it was a fun experience.

This may have been my absolute favorite moment of the whole trip. Sometimes the simple things make the biggest impression. Carter is allergic to poultry, so we told the waitress at Ohana. She gave the info to the Chef who came out and talked to Carter about what he could make him for dinner. When he came back he had this awesome custom creation made just for our little guy and Carter was on top of the world. To top it off, Chef also whipped up a custom-made dessert for him which was like a huge cookie, ice cream and chocolate volcano with pineapple. After all the times Carter has not been able to eat something because it had eggs or chicken products in it, this was so sweet. I will never forget that smile. :) (It still makes me teary just thinking about it lol)

We had a blast at Disneyworld. Jeff had so much fun that he started planning for our next trip as soon as we got home. :) Can't wait to go back.

Elise is Two!!!

Elise sat still on the chair in my bedroom for exactly two and a half minutes this morning so I could attempt to take birthday pictures of her. My original plan was to get her all dressed up in her Christmas dress, blow dry her hair, and all that good stuff. But as a mom of four, you learn to be real flexible really fast. Right at this moment, she was in a great mood and had one of her birthday outfits on so-plans changed! After the two and a half minutes, she was off and running with the pack again. I feel lucky they turned out as cute as they did. Happy birthday, Elise-We love you!

This is one of the cute shots of Elise with her Lambie. Just for nostalgia, I included a picture of her at four weeks with the same lamb-she's actually smaller than it is! Time really does fly-they're not lying! We had a fun birthday party for Elise. I can't imagine our family functioning without her. She is definitely one of the crew, and feels just as big as everyone else. :)

Some Christmas and New Years Memories :)

Decorating the tree.



Hanging the lights.

Christmas Eve :)

Christmas Morning:

Yes it was all a blur! :)

The most popular gift of all: Carter asked Santa for a gold trophy and the kids were amazed-he actually got it!!
We're inundated with Webkinz!

Grant helping Lauryn on the wii Guitar Hero game.

Dinner out with some great friends I knew from elementary school and through High School.

My "god-daughter" Grace.

Yikes! I need to teach this child how to brush her teeth!

Great Grandma Stratton cuddling with Elise.

Lauryn and Alexis broke the wishbone from Thanksgiving.

Julia and Lauryn helped me make wontons for New Years Eve Dinner.

New Years Eve Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Slacking...

Something about this season makes me into a major blog slacker. Here are a couple pictures of the kids this season and I'll be sure to post later. We are just keeping so busy doing so many things that blogging seems to fall last on the list. Hope you all have a Merry Christmas! :)