I'm thankful for pie

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend. Filled with family games and movies, great food and a little Christmas prep. Whenever I start thinking about all that I am grateful for I'm always humbled. We have so much. So much that I usually start to feel pretty guilty. But I'm working on ignoring that feeling because I don't think it comes from God. And I'm working on being thankful and trying to serve others as much as I can, even if I'm just serving my own family.

Some of the things that made our "Thankful" list this year were:

Freedom and Safety

For Family

4 R Food and warm house

4 our beds

For are friends

Hugs

Daily I am thankful for food. And more specifically pie. I am a total pie person. In fact one of my favorite Deep Thoughts is:

"If you ever get a choice between Pie Heaven and regular Heaven, pick Pie Heaven. It might be a trick but if it's not, hmmmm boy!"

So of course one of my favorite holiday traditions is pie making. For Thanksgiving this year we only made two because it was just our family. But dang they were good pies. We had a traditional apple pie with homemade crust. I could eat it for breakfast. Wait, I did. Twice.

Then on Thanksgiving day Curtis said he would make any pie I wanted. I ordered banana cream. I was just putting it out there- we've never made a successful cream pie and I wasn't expecting it. But Curt said "Done." So I pulled out some recipes and found one for banana cream. But when I told Curtis who gave it to me, he said that maybe we should look online because that person is really into low fat food. I agreed to do a quick search. WOW- was he right on that one.

The first (low fat) recipe called for 1 egg yolk, one T butter and low fat milk.

I found another recipe online with 3 egg yolks, 2 T butter and low fat milk.

I knew we were serious about taste and quality so I figured I needed to see what Martha had to say. Say what you will about Martha Stewart, her food rocks. Her recipe called for 5 yolks, 4 T butter and 2 1/2 cups of WHOLE MILK. We were sold.

Despite being a Martha recipe it really wasn't difficult and the result... well let's just say it was THE best pie I have ever had in my life. Seriously fantastic. So good that I never even got a picture of it because I could never think straight when it was in front of me. SO good. Oh and we even used a store bought crust because I had one on hand and it was still amazing. Check it out here if are in need of banana cream pie this holiday season. You won't be disappointed.

Cool Party Hats & Lu

I found this super easy tutorial here for making origami party hats. I am terrible at origami and even I could do it. The paper I used was scrapbook size so if you wanted larger hats, newspaper would probably work great. And here are some live action shots of Lulu's birthday. I love that everyone is blowing with her. :)

Ten things we love about Lucy:

1) Whenever I sneeze she says "Bess u mom." and then keeps saying it until I say "thank you Lucy." Oh and she knows when it's a fake sneeze and won't say anything.

2) She loves to color, everywhere. Important papers, my planner, the wall, her arms and legs. Arghh- it helps that the boys seem to leave around a never ending supply of markers and pencils for her artwork.

3) Lucy loves music. We do LOTS of singing. Some of her favs: Nursery Rhymes (espeically "There was a crooked man"), "I love to see the Temple," "Angel" by Jack Johnson and "Beautiful" by James Blunt. Curtis has the last two on his ipod and plays them on the guitar sometimes. She loves them and asks for them by name.

4) "Little Bear" is her favorite entertainment.

5) Right now her favorite bedtime story is "How do dinosaurs say Good-Night?"

6) She adores my friend from church Jen and just last Sunday was howling during sacrament meeting "I want JEN!"

7) Ogurt, boke (milk) and anana are some of her fav foods. Every morning she says "Mama, cookee egg?" So we eat scrambled eggs and ketchup, which she calls "Chechetch."

8) She's economic with words. Instead of "Open it" she'll say "Opit"

9) She LOVES to play with her brothers and is already skilled in sword fighting and trampoline wrestling.

10) She just started helping us read scriptures this week. It is so cute to see her sitting with her Bible on her lap repeating every other word we read.



There are lots more! We love Lucy

Puzzle Nerd

I love puzzles. Way back in my memory I can hear my mom saying she loved puzzles too so I guess I come by it honestly. But they make me so happy. Especially if they have good colors. I'm also a sucker for any game with pieces that have good feel- if ya know what I mean. I have been collecting these for the last 10 years. I cannot explain it but we've really managed to keep most of the pieces- a festivus miracle Jerry!! Here are some of my favs:

Color Puzzle:

My good friend Melanie just bought this for Lucy's birthday and I almost cried. Isn't it beautiful? Lucy loves it too and I'm having fun teaching her colors like Chartruese and Ochre. :)

In the background you can see some of the pieces from another great game/puzzle, Blokus:

I love the pieces of this game- they just look pearly and I like all the different shapes. It's very simple with only 2 players- perfect for a younger child but becomes much more challenging with 3 or 4 players. We really have enjoyed playing it.


Magnetic Color Cubes:

I couldn't resist buying this for Daniel last Christmas. And all the boys really enjoy making designs with these beautiful little cubes.

Make N Break:

I love this game and those solid wooden blocks. Really fun family game and I've played it with 3 year olds.



Lonpos Puzzle:

I found this one online for $6 a few years ago. Now the price seems to be $10-15 but I still think it's a great buy. Using the instruction booklet you can make the puzzle very simple or quite difficult- there are some I still can't do. Bonus: the pieces have excellent feel.

Jonah stacking puzzle:

I got this one at Target for $10 when Jonah was a baby, unfortunately I've never seen it since. I LOVE this puzzle and play with it as much as the kids. I can't believe we've kept all the pieces but I sort of guard with my life, so maybe that explains it.

Rubick's cube- you were all tortured by this one in the 80's so I'll forgo the pic. I remember many frustrating attempts to solve the cube that of course ended up with us breaking off the pieces or stickers. So you can imagine how impressed I was when I started dating Curtis and learned that he had read a book on how to solve the Rubick's and could do it in a minute or so. I'm not embarrassed to admit it was a total turn on. I know, I'm a nerd. Anyway, for one reason or another I had never learned myself until last year.

During Christmas break I spent 2 weeks watching youtube vids and finally solved it. My fastest time is about 3 1/2 minutes- how do those crazy people do it in 30 seconds? So far none of my boys have been interested long enough for me to teach them. If only they knew what a chic magnet it would make them!

Before for anyone interested

I found a couple of "before" pics of Lucy's room. I always forget to take those and it's so fun to see the contrast. Wish I had more!

Karma

Curtis is a superstitious person. If I walk in while he's watching a hockey game and things start to go badly he'll politely ask me to leave. If I ever talk about something bad happening he will with all seriously tell me to zip it and then knock on some wood. He also has a thing about certains socks when he's playing a sport. I've always laughed it off... until today. See, just this weekend I was talking with a group of people and sickness came up. I couldn't help it- I'm frankly sort of amazed about it and had to mention that I rarely get sick. And when I do, it's short and mild. I get sick maybe once a year and every 3 or 4 years it will be sort of awful. I have no idea what to attribute it to other than good genes.



But I spoke too soon because last night (just a few days after bragging about my good health) I started a pukefest that lasted all night. Horrible. The. Worst. Wanted to die. I still feel rotten right now but at least I'm not hanging over a commode. Curtis and his pagan ways may have a point. The bonus is that one of the only things I can do is sit at the computer so I'm gonna post some pics of Lucy's happy blue room. Enjoy. :)

PS: Per Angry Baker's request I've written a little about the stuff in the rooms. LY AB

Curtis made this maple bed frame when we lived in Minnesota. Someday it will be Lucy's but for now it's here for guests. The drawer chest was part of my best craigslist score ever!! Bought a set of 2 for $200! Oh and the wall paint is called "True Turquoise."

I'm having a thing with birds these days and I happend to find these book ends one day at "Home Goods" for $15! They make me so happy!

Birdie mobile from an online tutorial- seriously simple. I used all fabric scraps and the wooden hoop cost $1. I covered it in ribbon. The vinyl wall art was purchased on etsy for $30. I was so happy with it. Nice and thick vinyl and it went on so easy!



I made this quilt last month- really simple design so I didn't have to cut into that fabric (Little Folks- love it). I think it cost me about $40 in supplies I made the pillow for our downstairs couch but it looked all wrong. I like it here in Lu's room. (made it from scraps and stuffed with a pillow we've had for awhile). I rarely buy stuffed animals- almost every one in our house was a gift, but I saw this polar bear and knew he needed to be in Lucy's blue room because of this awesome room I found online. Lucy is also obsessed with bears, courtesy of the best cartoon ever- "Little Bear."


I bought this lamp at TJMaxx when Curtis and I were first married. The base was brown and I never found a good spot for it in this house. A little spray paint from Home Depot and voila! The horse frame was a gift my good buddy, Marci years ago. It was a shade of blue that clashed with the walls so I painted it squash- I love how it turned out. Pink vinyl chicks off etsy ($6). "Sweet Dreams" sign was a baby gift when Lucy was born from my sweet Aunt Robin. Love it! The dress bunting was a little experiment. Every since I saw the dress quilt in the "Land of Nod" catalog I've wanted to do something with tiny dresses. For now, this will suffice. Made from scraps, the ribbon and tiny clothespins were about $3.

Here's the other piece of the dresser set- such a score! The frame for Lucy's pic was just an old one that I painted cream. Her name plate was a baby gift from a friend at church (thx Samantha!). That puzzle is a toy I bought at Target when Jonah was a baby- I love it but have never seen it anywhere since. The frame box was actually one of three ($25 each) that I bought when we first moved here. I had planned to put art and stuff from each of the boys in them. They promptly broke the door off one of them and so the other 2 have been hiding in the attic ever since. I pulled them out and realized one would be perfect for baby gown my amazing mother-in-law crocheted for Lucy. And the "L" was a gift from my neighbor Terri!

Here are some "Little Bear" pics that I put in old IKEA frames (painted cream). This book holder was something I picked up at Hobby Lobby and painted.



Close up of the lamp- you can tell I'm not a perfectionist. Oh and I found a cute little pic online to go with the words: "Faith is like a little seed."

Close up of the dress. I love this kind of project. It doesn't take long and is just fun to play with.




The quilt on the crib was one I made for Lucy when she was first born. The other crib bedding is from Target. I actually framed those illustrations for the boys when Daniel was a baby. The frames were on clearance at Kohl's and then I cut out some of our favorite pics from good books. I did have to swap a couple out though b/c I had to add Skippy Jon Jones- love that kitty!

I love the way the sunlight pours into this room in the afternoon.

Birds in flight

So I'm sort of obsessed with birds these days. I found this tutorial and wanted to give it a go. Unfortunately I cannot find a decent branch in my yard (that isn't rotting or full of fire ants- seriously!) so I used a round embroidery hoop to hang my birdies from.

Very simple and fun project! And here are a few preview pics of the kid's rooms. I have had SO much fun decorating them.

Lunch Dilemma

School lunches are here again. (Okay, so I started this post 2 months ago but I think it's still relevent). I'm trying to figure out my master plan for making it all work this year. I bought a ton of reusable gladware to pack their food in. Using 12 plastic baggies every day just feels wrong! But then I'm dealing with this every night!

Here are some alternatives I found online.

This one is called "Go Green Lunch Box." They run about $30 plus shipping.

I think this is my favorite one so far and of course it's the most expensive. It's called "Planet Box" and if you get the whole set it's -gasp- $60!

These are called "EasyLunchBoxes" and are definitely the most affordable at $14 for 4. It's definitely a better solution than my current ridiculous tupperware disaster but doesn't feel like a long term solution. Also, I'm not sure 3 bins is enough and I might end up needing more containers anyway.

Anyone tried any of these or found a better solution?

Halloween Extravaganza!

Yea! Halloween has passed. I won't lie- the whole costume, candy thing is always a little stressful. To make the week even more exciting, Curtis went into "Minnesota do-it-yourself" mode and started 2 fairly ambitious yard projects. We spent ALL day Friday digging holes, pouring cememt and carting large wheelbarrels full of mud and cement around. Fun for the whole family. At the end of the day as we dragged our weary bodies into bed we talked about whether it was worth it. We saved a few hundred dollars in DIY mode but we both feel like the main advantage of doing work ourselves is that our family gets to work together. (Curt's shoulders beg to differ but I think he's still on board. :) We also score a basketball hoop and cememt slab for our grill out of the deal.

Anyway... I really hadn't done anything for costumes by Friday night and our church was having a trunk or treat on Saturday afternoon. Dan and Isaac had their playoff football games all morning on Saturday, so.... the costumes weren't going to get much attention. The good news is that the boys have grown up so much and they were actually really excited to make/refashion costumes of Halloween past. We spend a good part of Saturday afternoon working out in the front yard on costumes. Oh, and I stayed up late on Friday night sewing Lucy's "chicken costume."

Here's what we came up with:

2 Feather boas, some yellow fabric and a piece of red felt. I cannot believe this one came together. I looked at a few ideas online but really... pure luck, especially on the cap. She looked adorable for the 5 seconds that she kept it on and managed to win a prize at the church party and charm the neighbors. :)

For Daniel, it's all about the food anyway so he just wasn't that concerned about his costume. But he decided to be a Lego Knight. Costume from last year and lego head and arms (which were turfed early on) made out of yellow poster board.

This picture is titled "Cute Cannibal." Isaac wanted to be a pizza from day 1. This costume cost nothing and was really simple. We all worked together to paint, cut and tape the toppings on.

Jonah used the same Ninja costume he has for the last 3 years. This year he is Ninja grapes. He really wanted to be a Rubicks Cube but decided that costume would not be conducive to the kind of trick or treating he wanted. ie: too bulky for running from house to house!! Maybe next year.

Now, just tell me what to do with all of this candy. We have buckets of it and I will seriously eat it all day long unless something is done!!!! Help....