Ugly Elf??? What do you think??

Well, for those of you who do not get this little guy passed around your neighborhood with goodies, this is what he generally looks like................

Bill cringed when I showed him the elf we had to put on our window, I kind of thought he was a little lame myself. So I went online, found another elf I liked, redrew and modified him a bit, (I know Lindsay can do a WAY better job, but I had about 20 min before we wanted to leave and we needed a new elf). Here we are with another version.........

I also retyped the instructions that go with the elf. I thought with the boring font and type errors on the old one, that needed an update too. If I was brilliant with words, I would have thought of a better way to write this out, but I'm not, so I just copied what was done before. :)

Hopefully those of you who are interested can just click and copy these images and print them out for your own use. Get the "Cooler Elf" (as Josh put it) out in circulation. :)

Jade had SO much fun dropping off the goodies last night and running like heck so the neighbors wouldn't see her. :) It's a fun idea.

Painted rooms and Christmas

OK, here are the final paint jobs, as well as the decorating job the kids and I did. It's not major, we have kept it simple this year. But it does feel like home for us, finally!

Matt and Josh in the kitchen. Josh just bought himself another Webkinz, (the new BIG thing around here), and he is SO proud since he worked hard to earn every penny for these things.

Also, for paint, we continued the 3 shades of brown thing we were doing in the joining living room. I still think it's alot of brown, but next year when I get around to it, I think we just need to revamp some of our decorations to add more color. :)

Our favorite part of the paint job, the stripe that wraps around the wall and is finished off with distressed black moulding. (I LOVE having a neighbor who is an interior decorator, sure comes in handy! THANK YOU ALYSE!)

The colors did not come in that great with our camera, but the blue is kind of like a very muted slate-dusty-teal, and the yellow is a very pale khaki. It actually picks up the bricks and the grey grout pretty good, the picture doesn't really show that.
Also, another brilliant Alyse suggestion was going to DI and picking up a bunch of super cheap vintage suitcases and using them as toy storage instead of the plastic bins. With the plastic bins, Bill felt like he was in a pre-school room instead of our playroom/family entertainment room. :)

I wasn't too sure this would be enough color, I originally wanted a deep red, but Alyse assured me that in a basement room, with all the red decorations, this would be enough color, especially once we get our big paintings put up. It's just as fun as I had hoped it would be, while not being too "kiddish".

Yay, house painting is over until next year! (or maybe I can get my brothers to make my Christmas present, a service gift of completing the bathrooms on their visit) *hint, hint* :)

Random past pics

Kids are helping me unwrap all the Christmas decorations, while listening to Mitch Miller and the Band, that's our tradition. :)
This was a week ago, early in the morning before the sun came up, it was so quiet and still, I tried to capture that in the picture, but it turned out dark.
*btw-we have about 3 times this amount of snow right now as I type, and it's still coming.......

Temple Square visit. We went to see Mica's Matt perform in his singing group there, and had a nice time walking around and seeing the lights. It is so beautiful there this time of year. (It's always beautiful at Temple Square)

Josh and Alyson being silly by the pond.......

I was SO cold!!! But Eddie was bundled up in layers and layers, he just fell asleep.

I will sometimes find Eddie with this in his mouth, I thought is was cute.....

This is one of the Christmas Card picture rejects, so I don't feel bad posting it. For those of you whose addresses I have, you will get the good picture in a card. And thanks to Bill helping me to simplify Christmas this year, I might ACTUALLY get cards out on time after all!!! :)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Bill's sister, Diane, and her family, at her in-laws home. It was a nice, cozy gathering, not huge at all, and very relaxing. I made my first deep-dish pie, it was HUGE, so they gave me a HUGE knife to cut it. Eddie was asleep in the wrap, and I think I look like the mother of the year...........

Diane's oldest, Hannah, is one of Eddie's favorite people, he ALWAYS goes right to her and is a happy little boy.

Chillin' on the couch with cousin Hannah........

Sorry, that's it, I didn't take many pictures. I wish I had taken more of the other kids, I will have to do that next time. :)

Just for fun, because I was thinking about this while blogging. :)

The next post is about my friend Jamie's visit. After I posted that, I just got to thinking, and found these fun pictures from the past.
This is Jamie's mom, Pam, and my mom, Alex, who are still best friends to this day.
Jamie and I around 3 yrs old, I think. Our moms met when we were just a year old. We are more like family then friends.

I think this was a fifth BD for one of us at Chuck-E-Cheese right before they moved away.

In the next post, I explained our children-connection, but here we are with our number 3 babies. I had just moved into my in-laws house waiting for Bill to finish military stuff in Vegas and join us.

Fun memories. I feel very blessed to come out of my childhood with a few very dear, life-long friends whom I can say I have known nearly my whole life and kept in close contact with. Jamie is one of those friends. I am so grateful for friends and love all of you I have met throughout my life and through our travels, thank you for adding so much to my life and inspiring me, each in your own way.

Pre-Thanksgiving visit!

One of my oldest and dearest friends, Jamie, and her family, stopped by right before Thanksgiving for a quick and much-too-short visit. The longest we have been able to spend with them was in Japan when they came for a visit before she had Jordyn, (we were both prego at the time).

Here is the scoop on our kids......She came to visit us in Idaho a few days after Jade was born, (that's our only connection with my first). Then we were both pregnant at the same time, due only a few weeks apart, (she with her first, and I with Josh), but Jordyn decided to burst into this world nearly 4 months early, so then she had a beautiful red-headed daughter who is 4 months older than my blond son. Next she had lovely Lexi while we were in Spain. Finally we were both pregnant again, both with our third child, and again, she had a beautiful red-headed daughter who is 4 months older than my blond son.

Here they are.......

Jamie's sister stopped by as well, so Alyson is with the group. Jade was a SUPER babysitter during the whole time so we could visit and go over some of Bill's China videos, reminiscing about some of our adventures in Japan together.

Jay and PeyPey, (Peyton) in the office looking at the fun stuff Jade was doing with the kids. Surprisingly, we didn't get any pictures of Jamie's husband, Tucker. (He is one cool dude, and gives us hope that "normal" people can be raised in Utah and our kids have a chance :)

Love you Jay, we will try to make it a longer visit, one of these days, right? :)

Josh got me movin' again with blogging

Josh had this Old Navy hat from a few years ago, and he flipped when he found the exact same one, only in baby size, while I was pregnant with Eddie.

It has been hanging on a hook on the wall, not being used, since we moved. Josh finally picked it out and told me he wanted pictures taken with the hats.

Poor Eddie, his head is now WAY too big for it, but Josh didn't notice, he was just so happy to be matching with his brother............

Josh wanted to take a picture of me and Eddie as well. I am SOOOO tired, and it shows.

I have about had it with house painting, and wearing the same teal painting shirt for weeks now. I have washed it a few times, so it's not that gross, it's just killing my fashion expression to wear the same thing day in and day out. It takes SO much longer to get a room painted when you have little kids to care for at the same time, it's taking me like 10 times the amount of time I expected it would take to get these rooms completed!!!

The office, playroom, upstairs living spaces, and Jade's room are ALL complete. ( will post pictures as soon as I get the rooms cleaned up and looking nice, although the decorations will have to wait till after Christmas, they are not a priority right now) I only have my room, and 3 bathrooms left to paint, but it's going to wait till January. I am already a good month behind with Christmas preparations I have yet to start. :)

hmmm, oh well, I'm just glad this is the last year I have to deal with all this stuff, (moving, etc) for a long time. :)

***note - this may be another "Valentine Cards" year.

I love this season of giving!!!! Happy Holidays to all of you!!!

Lindsay the Brilliant

OK, I know that title is cheesy, but I really want to emphasize how SUPER TALENTED my sister-in-law Lindsay Heinzen is. ALL who read my blog should take a moment and go to http://penguinstandsalone.blogspot.com/ and see her work. Even though she is an animator by trade, she is starting a side business of freelance work like blog headers, family pictures, etc. I have also seen some pretty awesome birthday cards and invitations come from her direction as well. She can do anything fun, original, and personalized for nearly ANY occasion. (I think there might be some occasions she will choose NOT to do :) She has a price list on her blog. So for those of you who have admired my blog header and are interested, go to her blog. For everyone else, go to her blog anyways because it is just fun to browse. :)

Share this with your friends and spread the word!! :)

OK JESSICA!!!!

Alright, I know it's been a while, but I hope this will make-up for the lack of blogging.

I am posting a series of pics with "before" and "almost after" shots since I pretty much started most of the projects but did not finish them. At least this gives you a good idea of what my life has been like for the past two weeks. (Don't mind the mess in ALL the pics, I didn't bother cleaning before getting the camera. :)

**And a SPECIAL "Thank You" to my most fantastic neighbor, Alyse, who used her brilliant eyes to help me with paint and decorating!** (I can't take all the credit, she was behind me all the way, actually, leading the way most of the time :)

Bill came home last night, so we will finish the rest of the painting together. :)

First off, the kids playroom. I wanted it to be bright and happy, a fun place for them to play and hang out.

So I only got sample paint on the wall, but it's a start. :)

I am also working on some large paintings for the playroom. This one is going behind the couch on the red wall. *(I LOVE the scrap pile of wood at Home Depot. These huge plywood boards are normally around $11, but I got each one for $1.50 in the scrap pile and had them cut off the rough edges)*

OK, now for the project I REALLY wanted to complete to surprise Bill, but again, I missed the goal.

(He was still impressed at what I DID get done to his office, and he is in love with how it's turning out, so I'm happy)

It's hard to see well, but the brown is pretty rich, and the blue is a toss between a slate blue and royal, so it's a nice mix and picks up the colors in his smiling man painting. :)

This is part of the living room, Bill and I worked on this before he left, but I continued on it, and thought it was still worth putting in this post. EVERYTHING in our house was white before.

I added this picture because I was working on completing the paint above the shelves, and I painted and distressed the moulding on this center wall. Again, Bill is going to help with this stuff, since I discovered I am NOT good at mitered cuts. :)

OK, so on top of what I took pictures of, I was also busy starting the paint in Jade's room, my room and bathroom, changing light fixtures, repainting frames, completing winter cut-backs in the yard, and other misc stuff around the house. I think this lets me off the hook for not blogging over the past two weeks, don't you? :)

additional stuff

I also made about 40 beaded bookmarks to put in a boutique up the street for friday and saturday. Kind of a last-min idea. I sold about half of them, so it wasn't too bad for my first one in years. I took a few pictures of some of my favorites.

In case your wondering, I used magazine clips from fashion magazines for the background, it was THAT kind of boutique, so I needed to try and make these look less "crafty" and more "hip and "fashion-savvy". :)

I also have LOTS of black paint all over my hands since I made the mistake of buying "oil-based" black enamel instead of acrylic water-based. :) So I had some paint-issues......