Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Move That Bus



Just down the street from Ella’s school they were filming the "Move that Bus" segment for Extreme Home Makeover. I decided to take a late lunch break today, and head over to watch it with my friend Wendy.
Yesterday she and another friend were both filmed with the designers doing some work. Today Wendy went running and they filmed her shaking Ty's hand. I can't wait to watch it this fall and see all my friends in the episode (provided they don't get cut out during editing.)

Monday, June 27, 2011

School is almost out

Ella had her end of the year school performance today. Her class sang a few songs, then used their handmade puppets to put on a puppet show.
Year round school is especially hard on nights when we have fun family parties planned. Especially when the party starts 1/2 hour after my kids bed time. It's also hard when my kids can hear fireworks going off outside while they are trying to sleep, and they want to go watch them but it's way past their bed time on a school night. We will be excited to have a few weeks off starting next week.

We had a nice time at the park though. We celebrated the end of Trisha’s Radiation treatment. I wish we were celebrating the end of her Chemotherapy... We hope to be able to celebrate that later this year.

Ryan won all the cash.

It was a perfect night to wish Trisha well. We all hope you get well soon Trisha!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Crazy work hours

I haven't been posting much because of my crazy work hours (which will hopefully calm down a bit in a few weeks.)
Besides work, we manage to squeeze in a few extra activities. Here's what's been happening the past 2 months.
(In no particular order)
My friends and I volunteered to help build a house for Extreme Home Makeover. We laughed the whole time that we had to wear hard hats, especially since for every three minutes of work we did, we took a 30 minute break. I don't think they were ready to have so many volunteers the first day, but we had fun sitting around pretending to work anyhow.

Cousins in a dog cage makes for a perfect Sunday afternoon activity.


Ryan makes and leaves hilarious signs for the construction workers who are building my mom's house. Ha ha, it makes me laugh every time I see a new one.


I told Tyler I felt like I needed to quit my job at Di.e. Cu.ts because while, sitting at my desk I could see my co-worker downloading artwork from other artists, tracing it at claiming it as her own. It was making me mad because that is the exact reason I had to get the job. It's people like her who are too lazy to draw their own pictures that are ruining my business and reputation as an illustrator. He asked me what I'd do if I looked over and saw her tracing my owl artwork. I told him, I'd have to quit. The VERY NEXT DAY, I looked over and saw her tracing my owl image. Ha ha ha, we took it as a sign that I needed to quit my job. So I did. That day.
It was scary to quit, because I still needed the job. Anyhow, It turned out well, because they are letting me do contract design work from home now.

Lily had her dance recital.
She made "REAL" chicken fingers by sticking her own fingers into the chicken.
My sister Emily had a little baby boy.
We went to the Daybreak Garage Sales. My mom pointed out that we were probably getting better deals on things because people felt sorry for us. My kids were wearing strange pajamas with uncombed hair, and my sister Trisha was wearing her eye patch and needed support to walk, and Emily was nine months pregnant. I think my mom was right. We'll have to try this money saving technique again sometime.



We went to the Chalk Festival downtown, which inspired us to have our own Chalk Festival at Emily's house for FHE the next week.
Lily likes to wear leg warmers for the sole purpose that they hold more than her pockets. She walked around downtown sporting these fashionable leggins all afternoon. In them, she stored toys, money, and a few snacks.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Ella's Birthday - a little late


I'm way late on posting everything we've been up too. We celebrated Ella's birthday last week.
Katie & Brielle were going to be out of town for her party, so they took Ella to dinner at Chick-fil-A before they left.
Ella wanted to invite her cousins over for painting lessons, so we did a little painting party for her. I wish I would have had more time to plan it, but it turned out fun anyhow.




We invited the parents over to view our art gallery at the end of the party.


We hope you had a happy birthday Ella! 7 year old's are fantastic.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Happy Birthday Dear Garbage

Lily (singing): Happy Birthday dear garbage. Happy Birthday dear garbage. Here ya go. Here's a birthday present for you, dear garbage [throws away some garbage]. Happy Birthday dear garbage.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Spunky Lily


Last week after nagging Lily to put her cute white sandals on for church, she finally obeyed. When we got to church I noticed that she had changed her shoes to a ballet dance shoe & another random shoe. To avoid the same thing this week, Tyler and I both checked to make sure she was wearing her cute white sandals before heading out the door. She was.
When we picked her up from her church class when church was over, I was so confused because she was wearing too big for her miss-matched shoes again. I could have sworn that she was wearing her white sandals when we walked into church. I couldn't figure out what had happened, until I peaked into her backpack and saw her white sandals. She had brought a change of shoes with her and changed them out after we dropped her off for sharing time.
I have to admit that this makes me nervous for Lily and High School.

House for Sale









Yep, we are selling our house. We will miss this house a ton! But I could easily list a hundred good reasons why we need to move. So, that's what we are doing. We are moving. If you know anyone who wants a house with lots of windows & fantastic views in South Jordan send them our way!

Monday, May 16, 2011

The past few weeks


Two weekends ago, Trisha took us all to Planet Play for dinner. She wanted to do something fun with everyone before she got really sick. It seems like we should have been the one taking her out, instead of her taking all of us out... but she is Trisha-Claus.

We had a fun time. We played for 5 hours. Ryan was reluctant to be there at first. By the end of the night he was having a blast. Ella & Lily were tired and ready to go home. It was difficult for me to convince Tyler & Ryan that it was time to go. They were having a great time & wanted to stay longer.

This past weekend Ella and her cousins Katie & Brielle were in a play. Usually I don't like plays. I shouldn't even be allowed to go to plays, because I just end up making fun of them. The play was based on the following combined stories; Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, Star Wars, Cinderella, and more. It included songs like the Safety Dance, Imagine (all the people), Lean on Me, Sesame Street, Star Wars, & Edward Scissor hands. Despite finding the story and music combination strange, I actually enjoyed watching the play. Ella did a great job on all her parts. She had the opportunity to say a few parts into the microphone, sing, & dance. All the kids actually did a really great job. Ella played a toy doll, a flower, a hedgehog, & a droid. I might consider putting Ella in it again next year. She enjoyed it so much, and I think her teacher did a nice job helping the students learn their parts.



Ella was so excited to get a trophy.

Ella: Mom, I've always... ALWAYS wanted one of these. (Holds up her trophy).
Me: You've always wanted a little gold naked man?
Ella (embarrassed): uhhhh. Yes. I did.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Boutique for Cancer

My friend is hosting a boutique at her house tomorrow. All the earnings from the boutique will be donated to the Huntsman Cancer Institute. If you are in South Jordan, you should check it out. Visit her website for more information.
http://queenofdivadelights.blogspot.com/

Monday, May 9, 2011

Featured

I have some exciting news. My creative space has been featured in Creating Keepsakes special Issue magazine called Creative Spaces. You can pick up your copy tomorrow, May 10th. It's also available online. U.S. customers can use this coupon code for free shipping: SPACESBB (expires 5/27/11). or you can visit my other blog for more information on how to win a copy.

Below is a sneak peak of the magazine.

Open publication - Free publishing - More craftroom

Here's a sneak peak of my space. Found on page 72-73.

I have to confess that when Megan, the editor of Creating Keepsakes Magazine called me, and told me I had less than a week to send in pictures of my creative space to be considered for this magazine... my office was filled with boxes & we didn't have any furniture but a desk.

Knowing that this exposure would be good for my company, I told her I'd be happy to send her some pictures of my space.

Luckily my mom had some cute furniture just sitting around wanting to be used while her house is being built. We borrowed her furniture, and with our $5 budget whipped up some decorations out of plain white card stock. I spray painted some old items from around my house to make them "new". I picked up some artwork that my father-in-law was planning to throw in the garbage. I brought in my vases Trisha had given me as a Housewarming gift and a few other items from my kids rooms. In less then a week, my office was complete. It turned out better than I thought it would on a weeks notice and a $5 budget.

Feel free to visit my Creating Cupcakes blog for a chance to win a copy of this fun magazine.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

A dog that eats

Lily: Mom, I'm a dog that eats.
Me: You're a dog that eats?
Lily: Yes, but I don't eat moms.
Me: You don't?
Lily: Nope, I only eat dads and peace signs.
Me: You eat dads and peace signs?
Lily: Yes. Throw me a pretend peace sign so I can eat it.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Easter 2011


Easter Egg hunt at Nana & Papa Jones' house.