Family pictures

I told my cousin Courtney that Tyler and I hadn't had a professional photo taken of ourselves since our wedding day... but I forgot about this picture that was taken at the Stampin' Up! summer party one year. Tyler dis-agrees with the fact that I called the photo above professional. Do you like how the photographer made Tyler hold a pitch fork? When Courtney offered her $75 photo session, I thought it was a great deal, and although I was a little worried about how Ella's behavior would be during the photo shoot, I thought it was about time for a new family photo.



Luckily Ella didn't throw any temper tantrums, but she wasn't very cooperative either. Courtney did a great job despite the fact that Ella frowned and hid her face from the camera most of the time.

Ella finally smiled after we promised her a toy dinosaur from All-A-Dollar.
We will use Courtney's services again! Thanks Courtney!

Just for Dan

I have to admit I had a hard time with this one. I'm not very good at making things for guys. Just ask my brother or Tyler. I've tried, but somehow rhinestones & glitter make their way onto my projects no matter how hard I try to keep them off. I lived next to Dan while attending USU. He used to bring his guitar over everyday and make up songs about everyone. It was very entertaining. He also made his own shoes (out of bike tires) that he wore most days. I had quite a shoe collection at the time, but I have to admit, I was a little jealous of his. Last spring Tyler and I visited Dan and his family while we were in NYC (they live there... I'm jealous of that too!) We found out that his wife was not only very nice, but is an excellent photographer as well. I decided I could make some cool magnets with some of her great photography, but there were just too many great photos to choose from. Dan is a great picture taker as well (He even takes pictures with his kite). So I decided to make them a "Make your own bottle cap magnets kit" The kit includes 8 pre-glued magnet bottle caps, detailed instructions, and a non-toxic resin. This way, they can choose which photos they would like to make into magnets.
While in NY, we also met Hannah & Jane (their cute kids.) I was making Ella some new butterfly/fairy wings (her old ones are almost rags.) and I couldn't resist making a pair for each of them.

Along with matching "garden fairy" adjustable bracelets.

And of course, matching hair accessories.

Above is a picture of Ella getting ready to take off in her new wings. I hope Hannah & Jane have fun playing in their new wings as well.
Thanks for playing my game Dan. I'll put your package in the mail this week.

I think she knows

Almost exactly 2 years ago Tyler and I saw a cute playhouse at Cosco. It was the nicest playhouse we had ever seen for the price. There was only one left. We decided it would make a fun birthday present for Ella, so we bought it. Tyler went one night, bought it, & put it in our garage. We decided not to give it to Ella for her birthday that year however since we were planning to move soon, and it would be much easier to move in the box it came in (un-assembled.) Before Tyler had a chance to hide the playhouse, Ella (who has an eye for detail & a very keen memory.) Noticed the box with a small little drawing of the house & asked us about it. We played dumb like we didn't know what she was talking about & hid it quickly. We finally moved into the rental house we are currently living in. During the moving process we took precautions to make sure Ella didn't see the playhouse again. We've had the house 2 years now. Every now & then Ella asks about it, but as usual we play dumb. Shortly after Christmas this year Ella came to me upset.
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Ella: Mom, Santa forgot to bring me my playhouse.
Me: What are you talking about? What playhouse? (I seriously didn't know what she was talking about at this time, it had been almost a year since she had mentioned it.)
Ella: A playhouse that was in the garage at our old house. I saw it. It was in a box & dad will have to put it together. Is that so rude that Santa forgot to bring it to me? Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring it to me? Will you tell the Easter bunny to bring it since Santa forgot?
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The fact that Ella has seen the playhouse in our garage & is asking me to tell the Easter Bunny to bring it to her, makes me think that she knows that neither the Easter Bunny nor Santa are real. Maybe I'm wrong, but I get the feeling she knows, but she's playing along for my sake. She knows that Tyler and I are the ones bringing her gifts, and that we have fun saying they are from Santa & she doesn't want to spoil our fun.
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I've been so careful to hide the evidence. When she was only 2, I bought a different wrapping paper than our usual wrapping paper to wrap the gifts from Santa, because I knew that Ella (even at a young age) would notice if Santa used the same gift wrap & question it.
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I guess we'll just go on pretending there's an Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, & Santa Claus, and she'll go on pretending to believe.

This Weekend

We got to see Brian & April's new little baby boy. So cute!

We got our family pictures taken. Thanks Courtney!
Then took a stroll through Gateway.

We dropped Ella off at book club, and enjoyed dinner at Crown Burger.
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Ella got to go to Brielle's birthday party. She had a fantastic time!
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I went to meetings for church, worked a bit, then started on my next "just for you" craft.

We went to Nana's birthday party at Red Lobster (YUM!) While we were waiting for a table, Ella asked if she could draw something in Nana's birthday card. This (above) is my recreation of her drawing.
Tyler: Who is that?
Ella: My Nana.
Tyler: What is she holding?
Ella: a stick... a cane.

We were laughing, and hoping Tyler's mom wouldn't be offended by it.
Just so you know... She doesn't have a hunch back and she doesn't carry a cane. We are still wondering how she even knows what a cane is. (Ella's drawing was much cuter.)

Ella's drawing

Ella does cute drawings everyday. I wish I could post them all. This morning she drew a picture of Tyler and I as monsters. We are handing each other hearts. I like my hair bow. If I really were a monster, I'd totally wear one on top of my head.

Need more time?

In the past week, I've had 3 different people ask me how I have time to do all my craft projects. The answer is simple (but not necessarily easy). I don't sleep. This is not my choice of course. Both my girls have issues with sleeping. There are both benefits and side affects. The benefits include:
1) being able to be a full time mom during the day, where I have extra time to craft. Ella responds well to crafts, so we are making it more of a daily thing, as it makes both of our lives easier. (She made her own clock, I'd post a picture, but I think it may have been thrown out accidentally.)
2) having more time at night to get my work done, doing all the art & advertising for our 2 businesses.
3) Extra time late at night to do "extra income" projects such as designing for Two Peas & clip art sites.
4) Having more time to be able to go to all my church meetings, and do everything I need to do for my calling that requires a lot more time than I had anticipated.
5) The ability to easily fall asleep in any environment that is somewhat quiet.
The side effects include:
1) Accidentally driving home to my old house (that I haven't lived in for 6 months) and wondering why my garage door opener doesn't work, and who built a snowman outside my house.
2) Frequent moments of embarrassing insanity.
3) Whiny kids who don't want to cooperate during the day.
4) Fatigue.
5) The inability to think clearly and function normally on a regular basis.

Do you have a test you need more time to study for? Would you like some extra time to read that new book? If you would like to try my method of having more time, and don't mind the side effects, I would be willing to let you borrow my kids for the night. Between the two, they are guaranteed to keep you up most of the night, if not the entire night (you might be able to get 3 hours of interrupted sleep if you feel you need it.) I'll even drop them off to your home, FREE OF CHARGE! That's right! You can try this method for free! Just let me know what day works best for you.

Just for Jen

Jen is my sister-in-laws really good friend and neighbor. Ella has played with her daughter while over at Katie's house, and has told me numerous times how much she adores Addison. I love seeing Jen at all the Jones's parties, she's always super nice & friendly. I made Jen this gift box with an owl on it. Hopefully she can use it to put a gift in it for a friend or family member. I also made her some all occasion stationery. Then I made this clock. I've always wanted to make a clock. The picture isn't too great. (I'm too tired today to go look for my tripod.) Hopefully she can find a place for it. I think I want to make a whole bunch of these in different sizes & shapes to go on a wall in my new house. Thanks for playing my game Jen, I had fun making all of these.

Practice doesn't always make perfect

Ella: Mom, I'm not very good at flying. I practice all the time, but I'm still not perfect.

It's true, sometimes she'll practice flying for hours at a time. I keep telling her that she needs some sort of wings in order to fly, or maybe an engine, but she's determined to do it with what she's got.

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Ella: Mom, Lily's poop looks like delicious chocolate ice cream. (Emily should find this particularly funny, as she loves the way Ella pronounces Ice Cream.)

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Ella: Yuck, I smell something stinky... and it's that little woman right there. (points to Lily)

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Ella: Look at Lily dancing and singing. Her is such a rockstar!

(The last two quotes probably don't seem very funny if you don't know Ella, but sometimes she talks in this funny country sounding accent, and it makes me laugh.)

Just for Lisa

Lisa is a friend from my last neighborhood. We've been missing our old neighborhood a lot lately, so I was excited when I saw a comment from her. (We only moved 2 minutes away... but still!) I didn't get to know Lisa as much as I would have liked too, but I do know she is very friendly & kind. I've heard from other neighbors that she is an excellent cook as well. I had the opportunity when we first moved in the neighborhood to be her son's nursery leader. Another time we had her 2 cute girls over to play, they were a lot of fun. Since it's almost Valentines Day, and since Ella & I had so much fun making our Valentine tree, we decided to make one for Lisa & her family too. We made a few paper cones & decorations for the branches. Unfortunately the tree was a little hard to fit into my little car, so I had to snap off parts of some of the branches to make it fit. I also saw later that some of the paper ornaments & candy from the cones had fallen out. (Sorry about that Lisa.) But hopefully she can enjoy it for the next few days. I'm also giving her a stamp set, since I know she is crafty. I also made her a few Thank You cards.

After dropping Lisa's tree off, we headed to Emily's house for her annual Valentine Cookie party. Cait & Mayci invited all their cousins this year. Ella decorated several cute cookies. Thanks Emily!


Mayci couldn't believe her mom would put candy on top of her frosting mustache.

From Paula

I got my handmade item from Paula! These cute crafting embellishments came in this adorable mini box. I LOVE them! Thanks Paula, I can't wait to use them. I'm almost finished with my 2nd project, it will be for Lisa. I'm going in order of who left comments on my blog. Ella and I are both having a great time making things, hopefully I'll post my next item tomorrow.

Just for Briana

I just finished a craft "Just for Briana". I had a lot of fun making these. Although Briana and I went to the same High School, we didn't meet until we both attended Utah State University. Briana is an excellent musician. She introduced me to Jazz music, which I still enjoy. She is very photogenic & generous! (I still have and wear a cute shirt she bought me from the JCrew catalog many years ago.) Briana has 3 cute little boys and is living in Hawaii.
Since she is living in Hawaii, I decided to make her some hibiscus stationery with matching envelopes. I also made her a wiro-notebook filled with scratch paper. Since she's so photogenic, I made her a super strong magnet of her family (I stole the picture from her facebook profile.) I'm also sending her one of my stamp sets. I didn't actually make the stamps, but I designed them. I hope she enjoys her package!

Trisha-Claus

"Trisha-Claus" is the nick name I gave my sister. It fits her well year round. She is always giving everyone presents for every occasion or non-occasion. I think half the clothes & toys my kids own have come from her. Last year just before our family trip to Disneyland, she invited everyone to her house for a pre-Disneyland party. It was a lot like Christmas. She had presents for everyone. The girls both got some presents, even Tyler and I got some. My brother-in-law commented that he felt bad he didn't have any gifts for Trisha. I agreed, and thought we should have at least exchanged names to make it fair. Anyhow, not only is she very giving, but the gifts she gives are very fun. Today we used one of the early Valentine gifts she gave us. Ella had so much fun making chocolates with our Martha Stewart heart shaped molds! Thanks Trisha!

Last night we got to go to the Draper Temple open house (thanks to Trisha for getting us tickets.) It was very beautiful. I especially loved the fabrics that were used on all the upholstery.

After the temple, we celebrated my brother Ryan's 20th birthday at Sweet Tomatoes. Lily was very excited to be there. Ryan snapped this cute picture of Lily sitting on his gift for us. Happy Birthday Ryan!

A Typical Meal

Ella usually refuses to eat any meal that isn't breakfast. However, she has decided it's fun to put raspberries on her had, pretend like her hand is bleeding and lick it off. I'm not going to discourage it. What ever gets her to eat. Maybe I should try to make all meals gory & bloody. Maybe she'd be more enticed to eat?

Lily insists on mashing her food up and rubbing in onto her face and into her hair. Which is why I usually don't give her a bath until after lunch.


In this photo, she is having trouble opening her right eye. There's just too much food in it.

On a side note, I'm having fun making things for the first 5 people to respond to my last post. I'll post my first creations soon!

Something just for you

I saw this on Paula (my former boss's) blog today, and HAD to have something she makes, so I'm doing the same for you.

Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)

4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.

The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

8 Things

I've been tagged by Laura M!

8 THINGS ABOUT ME

Here are the Rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six '8' items
3) Let each person know by leaving them a comment...PS these 8 items in each category don't have to be in order.

8 FAVORITE TV SHOWS
1. the Office
2. Pushing Daisies
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
(Obviously I don't watch more than 1/2 hour of TV a week.)

8 THINGS I DID TODAY
1. e-marketing
2. Finished designing a stamp set, started designing product packaging & a banner.
3. quick trip to Target/Harmons
4. cleaned Lily
5. cleaned Lily again
6. cleaned Ella
7. Dishes & Laundry
8. started a Turkey for dinner

8 THINGS I LOOK FORWARD TOO
1. Exhibiting at the Scrapbook Expo in March
2. Hopefully & finally getting some help with Ella. (She's been a little out of control lately.)
3. Getting better. (I have Mono right now.)
4. Getting my new Stamps I designed in the mail.
5. Planning a craft night with friends.
6. Reading books with my kids.
7. Watching a movie with Tyler later this week.
8. Moving into our new house (hopefully this fall).

8 FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
1. Baja Fresh
2. Red Lobster
3. Mongolian BBQ
4. Zuppas
5. Cafe Rio
6. Crown Burger
7. NYC deli's
8. Sweet Tomatoes

8 People to tag: