Change of Command Ceremony

Here is Derek's speech from his Change of Command Ceremony. 

Warning...do not watch if you are prone to Motion Sickness!

Change of Command Video

This is the video I shot of Derek's Change of Command Ceremony.  His BN Commander is speaking.  I don't know if you'll be able to hear it very well.

Warning: 

If you are prone to Motion Sickness....DO NOT WATCH....Charlie was in my lap and kept grabbing for the camera.

Merry Christmas

I love that my ward has a great Christmas Party every year and they invite Santa Claus to come and visit the kids.  It saves me having to take my kids to the mall, wait in an incredibly long line to sit on some nasty Santa's lap and then pay a small fortune for a bad photo of my screaming child.  THIS Santa was sweet and lovely and they had a wonderful professional photographer come and take pictures for us....for free.  Some of my two favorite words.  Both of my kids were so excited to see Santa.  Leah ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.  Charlie did the same thing, because he has to do everything his sister does.  I didn't hear what Leah wanted from Santa, but Charlie asked for Candy.  See that bag in his hand.  He's smiling so big because he realized it was CANDY!  He ate it all in one sitting.

Halloween

 Halloween around here was a little crazier than normal.  I over scheduled myself, took on more than I realistically could handle and therefore barely got to enjoy one of my favorite holidays. 

For the last several years, I've made my kids there costumes for Halloween.  This year I started early because I knew I had a lot on my plate.  I'm not sure it helped that much but the costumes at least got finished. 

Leah decided she wanted to be Ariel.  Since Ariel has a few different forms I asked her which Ariel, Mermaid or Human?  She wanted to be the human Ariel.  Again I asked, "Ariel in the pink dress or Ariel in the blue dress?"  After much deliberation and a little nudging on my part.  We settled on the blue dress.  It looked easier to make than the pink one. 

I tried spraying Leah's hair red so she'd look a little more like Ariel. It didn't turn out very well and her hair is still tinged pink after a week.  I won't be buying temporary hair color for her again.

Charlie still showed no real interest in picking out his costume.  I found a great looking monster/dragon pattern and thought that would be perfect for him.  It's warm and he's really been into monsters and dragons.  I took him to the fabric store with me and let him pick out the colors he wanted for his dragon.  He originally picked purple to go with the blue, but I gently steered him to yellow.  I didn't think purple would go over very well with Dad. 

I was helping organize our Battalions Halloween Party and we were planning on having a costume contest.  I didn't really have any costumes I could wear so I made a quick trip to the fabric store, inspired by a book I read over the summer and my haircut and bought some fabric to make a 20's flapper dress.  It looks better close up and you can't see the fantastic hat I made.  I may take a picture of just my hat someday. I was really proud of it.  I've never made a hat before. 

Friday night we had the BN Halloween Party and Saturday night we went to the Church for the Trunk or Treat Carnival.  The rest of my pictures are from Saturday night. I was too busy with the cake walk at the BN to take any pictures that night. 

 

 Trunk or Treating out in the parking lot.  It ended up being a nice night for it.  I thought we would get rained on but the weather held.  It started raining as we were leaving that night.  I've never been to our ward's trunk or treat and it was a lot of fun.  They had a chili cook off with cornbread buffet.  Someone brought some homemade root beer and I was transported back to summers at home on the farm drinking root beer that Grandma had just made.  So good!  The kids had a blast running around with there friends and playing.  Charlie really got the hang of trick or treating this year.  He would freak out if anyone came close to his candy bag.  No sharing allowed!  Leah was much more willing to share a little candy with me. 

 

By the end of the evening, both these kids were beat.  The sugar high was wearing off and all they wanted was their beds...and more candy. 

Cookbook Transfer

A few years ago I designed and created a cook book for a Super Saturday project, of course beginning  with someone else's idea.   As a Super Saturday project, I wouldn't recommend doing it again.  I didn't simplify it enough for the average crafter.  I had too many options and left it up to individuals to decide what they wanted to do.   It was my first Super Saturday... I didn't realize some people need to be guided and told exactly what to do or they become lost in a sea of craft paper and glue.  I am not one of those people.    

Now remember this was 2-3 years ago that I made this cookbook.  It has been sitting in my cookbook cupboard, unused, since that November Saturday.  

Instead I used this unorganized, chaotic mess, which consisted of scratch pieces of paper with recipes written on them, 3x5 recipe cards and full sized sheets of paper with recipes tucked between the sleeves of other recipes. 

Why do you ask, when I had such a fabulous new book to house all those recipes?  Oh, for the simple reason that I didn't want to tackle the task of transferring all my recipes from one book to the other.   Sometimes I'm just plan lazy.  I walk by countless unfinished projects daily and say to myself "I should really sit down and finish ______." I then proceed to walk away thinking "maybe tomorrow" and I sit on the couch and read a book.   

I'm still not finished, the story of my life, but there isn't much left to complete.  Most of it is converting the 3x5 recipe cards into a full sized sheet that I can fit in a plastic sleeve and typing up my recipe rewrites.  Those things I can do a little at a time or 3 years from now, whatever comes first.

Finished! Grow Charts

Okay, so I'm really not finished but I'm close enough to have pictures to post.  I have finished Leah's growth chart, I only have Charlie's left to complete.  Really I will finish it....it's almost done.  This was one of my Super Saturday projects.  I have a few that I finished that day, but since they are Christmas presents for a good portion of my family, you will NOT be getting pictures of those....yet. 

 I did not come up with this idea.  I'm really not creative enough for that.  I love to take other people's ideas and tweek them more to my liking. 

I'm loving that my cricut can cut out vinyl.  It's going to make finishing some of my projects so much more fun.  To think I've had it for 3 years now and am just figuring this out.  One of the other sisters at Super Saturday told me the Cricut can cut fabric too.  I may have to look into that...in the future...when I finish all these outstanding projects.

I'm not so good with tutorials.  That would require me to take multiple pictures at different stages of the project.  Anyone who knows me knows I'm not so good at taking pictures and I hate to stop working once I get a good flow going.  Maybe someday, but for now, you'll have to deal with before shots, if I remember and after shots.

I got an unfinished piece of wood measuring 6 feet by 6 inches by 1 inch.  I painted Leah's white with a bright pink trim that she picked out.   The 1" sides are painted pink.  You can't see that in these pictures. 

I spent a little time coming up with the perfect size of letters playing around on my new fabulous program Sure Cuts Alot, awesome.  The letters and numbers are all vinyl and the hatch marks are done with a sharpie.  I'm crazy most of the time, but there was no way I was applying skinny lines of vinyl to my painted board.  I kept them straight using my trusty old T-Square from my days in design school. 

The board is intended to hang 6" off the floor.  Obviously from the picture I haven't done that hanging part yet.  With my impending move, I may wait to hang them until we get to our new location.  Who knows, if I get board, I may hang them tomorrow...after I finish putting the vinyl on Charlie's board.  His has a nice blue trim.  He picked it out.

Finished! Trick or Treat Bags

Due to overwhelming demand (okay so one person probably doesn't count as overwhelming)....I give you.....

Trick or Treat Bags!!!

I am super happy with how these bags turned out.  They held a TON of candy and were the perfect size for my little munchkins to carry around. Now that I know the Arts and Crafts center on Post does embroidery, I won't hesitate to personalize something I'm making.  One day, maybe, when I win the lottery, I will buy an embroidery sewing machine.  Until then, at least I know I have options.