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Tonight as I was putting the girls to bed, Isabella gave me a compliment…I think.

“Mommy, you’re the best mom in the whole wide world!  But really, I haven’t met all the moms in the whole wide world, so you might not be the best, but to me  you are the best.”  ~Isabella (age 5)

Ahhhh, gotta love her and her little logical mind! (or should I say big logical mind?!) And I’m still going to take it as a compliment.

~Emily

Poor Alms has not been feeling well for a couple of days.  Here she is soon after she fell asleep on the couch yesterday (while trying to watch a movie).  She seems to be feeling much better today – at least she’s keeping everything down and has consumed more than just pedialyte popsicles.

Even when she’s sick, I could just squish those little cheeks!!

~Emily

Hi have bushels of apples.  I chose Ida-Red apples because they are good for so  many things.  Some are to eat now and for winter storage (so we can eat them all winter long).  Others are for making apple sauce, pies, etc., and the rest are for dehydration and making fruit leather.

This is my very first time to dehydrate apples.  In fact, this is my very first time to dehydrate anything!  Hopefully they turn out good and we can enjoy these as snacks very soon!  :)

~Emily

KNIT!

Yes, I have wanted to learn to knit and crochet ever since Isabella was a baby.  I had all these grandiose plans to make wool shorties and longies for her to wear over her cloth fitted and prefold diapers.  And then suddenly Alma came along and I still hadn’t learned.  So then, again, I made all sorts of plans to learn to knit and crochet for Alma’s diapers.  And now Alma is in panties during the day.  But I still want to learn to knit and crochet so I can make some shorties and longies!  They can wear them as regular clothes and not just diaper covers, right?

So, last night we went to Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill’s house to have dinner together with them and Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Tom, who were visiting.  Judy and Bonnie were working on knitting little dolls as an act of service for the community.  And Aunt Bonnie so graciously taught me how to cast on, knit and purl!  I obviously have much practice that needs to be done (as you will see from the pictures), but hey, I learned and I did it!  Not too shabby for my first-ever time to knit!  Now I just have to remember how to do it when I’m by myself. 

Thanks, Bonnie, for teaching me how to knit (and for having patience with me, too)!  I am so excited to get started on a simple project!  And, Judy… this is for you – pictures of my very first knitting practice swatch.    hehe 

And here’s one up close of the stitches.

It really fascinates me to see it all come together like this.  And really, who figured this all out?  It really is awe-inspiring to me how one string can turn into something so amazing.

~Emily

This year I’m giving you a double dose of Halloween, since in past years I’ve always promised pictures but then never end up putting them up.  This year Steve took the girls trick or treating.  I’ve been sick and have had a bad back so I chose to stay home.  They were soooo excited to go door to door.  We hadn’t done that in a couple years.  I hope they remembered their manners!

Here are some pics of them before they left.  Yes, once again, we had two vikings and a pirate – however, look closely and you’ll notice some changes…

Can you see what I’m talking about?  Here, let me post again, just in case you missed it.

I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now.  But if you need a little help, here are a few more pictures.

(When did she get to be such a little girl?  Where did my toddler go?)

(She might have looked cold in that second pic, but I’m sure she was saying “Arrrrrrrgh!”)

(She just gets one pic posted because all the other ones looked exactly the same.  She is good at holding a pose!)

I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, but if you are still having a hard time figuring out what is different, check out this previous post!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

~Emily

As alluded to in a previous post, further posts would follow about the art show.  These posts will focus on each person and the individual journey they took as they created their art project.  Today’s post is about Hannah.

After looking at several sets of scriptures (opened vs closed, standing vs laying down, etc.,) Hannah decided she wanted to create an open book set of scriptures for her submission into the art show at church.  She chose to make just the Book of Mormon because making all the scriptures seemed like a daunting task.

She chose Pluffy, a polyform bake-able sculpting clay, as her medium.  She started with the color closest to one of her own copies of the Book of Mormon and began creating by rolling it out at the (covered!) art table (yes, it stains!).

Once she had the cover the right shape, she started to work on the paper for the inside.  Clearly, she chose white for that.

Then it came time to work on the words printed on the cover.

This part was particular tricky and hard and made her extremely nervous.  But she did a great job!  (Because the spine was a much smaller work space, she asked if I could write those words for her.  I was happy to oblige. Yes, it was tricky writing words in Pluffy!)

Once the cover was finished, she began working on the pages.  She wanted it to be opened to one of her favorite parts in the Book of Mormon – 1 Nephi 3.  So she looked at her scriptures and made markings to make it look similar.  However, writing out all those words was a daunting task so she chose to just make lines for the words.  She even chose to create a bookmark – one of the built-in kind.  And she signed her initials on it as her signature.

The clay was still soft and pliable at this point.  But then we put it in the oven to bake and voila! out came her final product – made to last forever.

She liked how the paper kept it’s crinkly look after being baked, too!

She decided to spend some study time reading from her scriptures.

She was very pleased with how her project turned out.  Not too shabby for a six year old!

~Emily

As alluded to in a previous post, further posts would follow about the art show.  These posts will focus on each person and the individual journey they took as they created their art project.  Today’s post is about Isabella.

After working up a rough sketch,

Isabella sat down at the art table and began working on her art project for the art show at church.

She started by drawing Scripture Girl.

Isabella chose colored pencils as her medium.  And since it was a special occasion, Mom let her use the Prismacolor colored pencils.

Once Scripture Girl was complete, she moved on to Captain Truthfulness.  It was hard work!  She might have ventured off a little from her original rough sketch, but that didn’t matter to her.  She liked this better and was having fun (re)creating her characters as she went along!

After her drawings were complete, she began writing words.  She wanted everyone to know who was in her picture.

Great!  So now she had completed the drawing part

and the writing part.

One last final touch…

…signing her name to her artwork!

She was a happy little girl and very proud of her drawing.   Not too shabby for a four year old!

~Emily

Once upon a time, there were three little girls.

Two of these little girls were victorious vikings.

The other was a fierce pirate.

“Arrrrgh!”

Together they set sail on the high seas.  They be traveling afar to find good foods, games and, of course, hidden treasures! (perhaps in a trunk in a vast parking lot )

Along the way they found a frightened little girl, wearing a cape of red, fleeing from a wolf.  They offered her protection, to which she quickly accepted.  (Because, really, how could you say no to two vikings and a pirate?!)

“Shiver me timbers!” said the pirate.  “Land ho!”

So, these lovely fair maidens, er um, I mean, uh, these fierce vikings and the plotting pirate, (along with the girl in red), anchored in a vast parking lot.

“Methinks there be foods in this place!” says one.  They all drew their swords as they entered, ready to fight off any foe that might come their way.

They were astonished at what they found – a room full of food and many strange looking people.  No one seemed particularly frightening (except one wolf  – but he happened to be chasing after a different red-caped girl), so they proceeded to find a spot to sit, drink and fill their empty bellies.  They were overjoyed!

And, it only got better from there.  Behold, they found an area full of games, crafts and activities!  They knew they must be getting close to the hidden treasures they had sought after all year long!

Among all the fancy fun to be had, they became exceedingly excited to find a booth called face-painting.  They each drew their sword and demanded asked nicely for a turn.

They had all sorts of fun.  And there were so many options available.  It was a hard thing for the fierce pirate to decide what to do next.

“Hmmmmmm” she said, as she contemplated the fishing booth.

And then they knew they were getting really close to the hidden treasures when they found a dark, secret (and kind of scary) maze.  They entered and succeeded with great vigor!

And soon they found it.  Treasure galore.  Hidden in that same vast parking lot in which they had lowered their anchor.

A mighty fine journey for a mighty fine group of two vikings and a pirate (and their little friend in red).

The End.

p.s. Arrrrrrgh, Matey!

p.p.s.  When you come across a lot, such as these…

…I highly recommend staying on their good side and accepting their offer of protection!  It’s not every day you come across two vikings and a pirate!

~Emily

This past summer we had an Art Show at church.  The theme was “I Know The Scriptures Are True.”  This was presented by the Primary Organization and invited the children ages 3 years old to 12 years old to participate.  And, adults were welcome to join in, too.  So, our whole family decided to participate (well, except Alma Sue). Below are some pictures from our art show.  Remember to click the pictures to see them bigger!

We all chose various mediums in which to display our work.

Isabella chose colored pencils to make a drawing.  She drew the scripture heroes, by her own design, Scripture Girl and Captain Truthfulness (methinks Word Girl and Captain Huggypants on PBS had something to do with the names ).  They are “…on their Quest to help children get scripture power!” and their Theme Song is “Scripture Power.” If you notice, Captain Truthfulness has some awesome long hair that stands up and goes back down on his head!

Hannah chose to use Pluffy – a fun sculpting clay that you can bake when finished for a forever project.  She wanted to make a Book of Mormon.  Her idea was to have it laying open on the table as if she was reading it.    So, you can only see half of her project in the picture.  (The other side will be shown in a separate post.) If you look closely, you can see where she drew the lines and reference on her ‘paper.’

Steve wanted to use his photography skills.  He took a picture of the girls reading their scriptures together.  He then created a photomosaic of that picture by using pictures from a church publication, “Scripture Stories” (which is a children’s picture book with simple text to help them learn the stories from the scriptures).  It turned out quite lovely!  If you stand far away it looks just like the picture of the girls reading the scriptures.  But if you get up close, you can see the individual pictures that make up the larger one of the girls. (Hopefully you’ll be able to see those detailed individual pictures in a later post)

Emily enjoys to do pencil drawings.  She is the secretary to the Primary Presidency in their congregation and helped plan the art show.  She submitted two drawings just in case there weren’t many submitted.  One she drew in 1996.  It is a picture of Jesus based on Greg Olsen’s painting “O, Jerusalem.”  She drew the other drawing, a picture of Joseph Smith studying the scriptures in gold plate form – “a voice from the dust,” the night before the art show (and may or may not have had some issues with angles and so maybe – at the last minute – cut out a frame to hide some of the mistakes  ).  This drawing was loosely based on Del Parson’s “Joseph Smith Translating the Book of Mormon.”

We were honored to have Aunt Judy and Uncle Bill attend our Art Show.  The girls were so excited for them to come and they anxiously awaited their arrival by the front doors!  Once they arrived, the girls wisked them off on the art tour.

Hannah was able to be their guide as they came upon her artwork.  It was the first one you came to as you entered the room!

Isabella (and Alma) was able to be their guide as they came upon her artwork.

And Steve was able to be their guide as they came upon his artwork.

All in all it was a fun evening and a great opportunity for everyone to exercise some of their talents!  Stay tuned for some behind the scenes posts in the near future!

~Steve and Emily

Oh no!  I just ran out of my laundry soap.  I guess I’ll have to go to the store and buy more.     But wait!  Do I really need to go to the store?  No! I can just make some more with the items on my laundry shelf!      That’s right, folks, I make my own laundry powder.

Here are some pictures I took the last time I made it – in June of this year
(with the help of some little assistants.)

First, we gather together all our ingredients
(all simple and relatively cheap in the grocery store!)

Next, we start grating some soap – we prefer Dr. Bronner’s Castille soap. 
(We also have a recipe to use Fels Naptha. But we save our Fels Naptha laundry bar soap for pre treating stains)

Then, we let the littlest little sister help first.

And, of course, the bigger sister wants to help, too.  So we let the biggest little sister (or the littlest big sister) help next.

And, voila!  Once everything is mixed together we pour it into container(s) to use for the next few months.

It really is a very simple recipe as shown on the back of my container

You just combine all the ingredients together, mix and store in a container!

Easy Peasy and Super Cheap!!

And all it took was a handful of ingredients as seen below

So, why don’t you try to make some of your own sometime!  I’m sure you will love it, too!

~Emily