I HEART NKOTB!

Are you ready for this? I have a million wonderful pictures from this night that will go down in my books as one of the best ever! Great friends + NKOTB = Happy ME!
There are no words to describe and instead of trying, here are a big chunk of the pictures, if you're dying to see more, let me know. And there should be no secret who my favorite is ...





Thanks to my good friends, Eliza & Christy (and Eliza's sister & daughter) for being as crazy about them as I was & am (and for the millions of good pictures)!

Eight is Great!

This past Saturday was Johnny's 8th birthday. I had the NKOTB concert that night(post coming soon), so we packed in everything we could during the day.
This is the birthday sign I made, have to sneak this in here):













He woke up to find balloons and his presents waiting for him, sad though because he couldn't open them until later that day. He still had fun poking and prodding them!













We went to breakfast at I-Hop,















and then went bowling at BYU


















and came home and opened presents and played.
















I had to leave, but his cousins all came over for yummy cake and to play later that evening. I think we can call it a successful birthday!

Our Doings ...

Johnny's birthday is coming up on Saturday, but Grandpa & Grandma Livingstone are going out of town so they came over this week and gave Johnny his birthday present early, he was very excited!











One of the exciting things about turning 8 is finally being old enough to be a Scout. Johnny has had his scout book and has been reading it forever, so he was super excited to get invited to go actually the week before his birthday. Doesn't he look great in his new scout shirt($$)? I remember my brother, Scott, being so over-the-top excited to get to go to scouts. I remember the Scout leader coming over and visiting with him before he turned 8, and when he got his scout handbook, and his new scout shirt. I remember going to pack meetings and I even remember the scout oath! I've been thinking about that a lot lately realizing that now I have my own 8 year old-- when did I get so old?
















Josie has been obsessed with wearing some type of clothing that she can dance in lately. As mentioned in my last post, she prefers her Ariel nightgown from the Disney Store. It is getting so dirty, but she will NOT let it be washed, heaven forbid she take it off! So, I found this amazing pattern for this skirt last week. I went to Walmart and paid $4.44/yard which was enough to make one for both girls. I had them both sewn up in barely over an hour they were so easy. She was very thrilled today to have a "twirly-skirt" (and I'm quite pleased with how cute it turned out).















And here is my new table runner. John asked why I've only been making table runners, there are 3 reasons: 1) they can be finished quickly (instant gratification) 2) easier to quilt 3) less fabric = less money. I do have a Christmas quilt in the works though, I just need to finish more squares and get some cozy flannel for the back. Doesn't this table runner just scream "put-away-Thanksgiving-stuff-and-get-on-with-Christmas?"
I'm happy with it!

Feeling Thanksgiving-ish

This is what we had for dinner tonight:

They are Pumpkin Pie Pancakes, and they were delicious!
Here is the recipe:
1 cup Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tbsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 tbsp. Sugar
1 cup Buttermilk
1/2 cup Canned Pumpkin
2 Eggs
1/4 cup Canola Oil
1 tsp. Vanilla
Whisk all the ingredients together until well blended and cook on hot griddle.

They were so yummy! Definately a tradition in the making ...
The other thing we made last week were these:

They are Pumpkin-Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Here is the recipe:
1 15 oz. can Pumpkin
1 Box Spice Cake Mix
1 Bag Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Cook at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

Easy, right? Johnny actually made these, and then ate about every last cookie! They were so yummy, I can't wait to make them again.

Josie

Josie is such a crack-up, she is a never-ending well of funny things to take pictures of and post.
My Mom bought her this nightgown from the Disney Store last time they were here, and if you're wondering if she ever takes it off-- no, she does not. To get her to get dressed today and get ready to go to Target I had to tell her she could wear it over her clothes, so YES, this is how she went to Target today.

My Mom bought Josie this shirt last time we were at her house. It says "TROUBLE", and it is right. She also has one that says "Little Miss Naughty", and it is also right.

Finished Product

I ashamedly admit that I actually like the way this table runner turned out after my depressing post about how I "ruined" it. The binding went well, and I love the colors. As long as I don't look too closely at the pattern I tried to quilt in, it's all good.














I've been working on a couple of other projects I'm hoping to get done by this week:

Happy Winter!

This picture was taken this morning and it is still snowing. I have my heater on, Christmas music playing, and I can hear my tree downstairs calling my name ...

Is there anything more frustrating?

So I spent my whole day yesterday finishing this table runner I've had cut out since September. It takes me forever to catch up on everything else so that I can sit down and sew. Well, I have a lot on my plate right now and feel like I'm being stretched in too many different directions, but I wanted it finished. I sewed it all really carefully, found a great tutorial for the binding, had a great idea to quilt it in a leaf pattern I tried on paper and thought it would be cute, and then ...

If you look really closely, you can see that the corner is actually SEWN like that. I had no idea! And I was ready to throw my stupid machine out the window yesterday because my tension knob kept eating and breaking my thread! So it already took me forever. And then my sweet leaf pattern?

Well, not so sweet after all. I think it looks terrible and I'm so sad that I kept going instead of starting over doing what I'm comfortable with and looks good!

So after stewing about it for hours last night, I cut off about 4-5 inches from the side where my corner was sewn, and I plan on binding it today, and then starting something new for Christmas. A quilt maybe? A new table runner I can look at and be happy with? A tree skirt? We'll see ...

Halloween 2008

Halloween day activities:
* Ate cinnamon rolls with ORANGE frosting
* Got everyone dressed up & sent off to school
* Helped in Johnny's classroom-- so much fun & the girls LOVED it!
* Went fabric shopping (dreaded by both my girls, although I remember hating it when my Mom would drag me fabric shopping too)-- I had a coupon that expired Oct. 31st & HAD to use it!
* Waited in line 1/2 an hour to get our jack 'o lantern pizza from Papa Murpheys-- me and everyone else that lives around here!
* After Johnny got home from school we made dinner & orange choc. chip cookies.
* Trick-or-treating while we got drenched in the rain, but no one cared and we all had fun anyway. We have enough candy now to last until Christmas!
* Staying late,late,late at Grandma Livingstone's so we could see our cousins from Las Vegas-- we paid a price the next day, but it was worth it!
We love Halloween!

Soup & Scoop 2008

We had our annual "Soup & Scoop" at Mom and Dad's this past Monday. It was so fun and the soups were so good and the pumpkins turned out wonderful. I got a little worried when John pulled out the saw, Marcie has pictures of that. And then he put beaters on the drill to clean out the middle. What happened to good 'ol fashioned scooping with a spoon and cutting with a knife? Here are pictures:

Random October Pictures

I have just a bunch of random things to post. This first picture is of John and I before a "Murder Mystery" Halloween party we went to. I was the Veledictorian nerd, John was the "Stud" of the class. You can read more about it HERE & HERE. It was a lot of fun!

This picture is of the cute felt Nativity puppets I made last week at a neighbor's house. It was so much fun and I can't wait to use them!

These are all the cookies I made yesterday for our Primary Halloween Party. Would you believe that they almost all except a few got snatched up? We had so,so,so many kids come! It was a little chaotic, but wonderful-- I hope everyone had a good time. Thank you to my cousin, Ashlee, that came and helped me all day-- I couldn't have done it with out her!! I feel really sad that I didn't get any pictures of it. I think it was successful, and I'm glad it's over with (deep breath)!

And last, but not least, this is what Sam does all day. He goes and plays outside all night until about 5:00 a.m. and then scratches on the door when he wants in. John is so good to hear him, just like with our babies! And this is how he spends the rest of his day ... How would it be??

Thoughts from the Armchair

Here is the link for John's new Blog:

Thoughts from the Armchair

Questions can be sent to his e-mail which is available if you view his profile. If you want to help advertise I have made a button that you can add to your template so that it will show up on your sidebar and when people click on it they will be directed to his blog.

Go check it out and get the word out there!

Directions for installing the code (you must be signed in):
1- Highlight the code from my blog, right click, and COPY
2- Go to "Layout" on your blog
3- On the side you will see: Add a Gadget, click on it
4- Scroll down to HTML/JavaScript, click on it
5- There is a place for a Title, add on if you like
6- Under Content, PASTE the code that you copied from my blog
7- SAVE.

Thanks so much, we're hoping for much success!

PuMpKiN PiLlOw

If I had lots of orange fabric scraps, and if Josie wasn't already asleep so I could go to the fabric store, and if I had more money this week after purchasing Halloween garb to buy fabric, and if I didn't already have so much to do today ... I'd do

THIS

:



Allison, I know you've got orange scraps, let's see your re-creation!

Tedious Tuesday

Okay, it's not really tedious, I just couldn't think of another word to go along with Tuesday. The kids were out of school from Thursday to Monday, so today is more like things are getting back to normal.
Here's what made me happy today (soundtrack from I-tunes released TODAY. We already bought tickets to go see it on Saturday, I'm as excited as the kids-- and don't tell anyone, but Johnny's way excited too!):

I listened to it while I did this (sew 25 hand puppets for a craft some of us girls from the ward are getting ready to make tonight-- I'll post pics of the finished product):

And the girls did this (can you tell what they're doing? It has to do with a witch and a broom):

Upcoming project:

I found this awesome tutorial HERE. This project will be coming up as soon as I get more time:

Husband Tag

I don't usually do these, but it may be time I give some info about my hot hubby who gets left out of this blog:
Another Tag.... The Husband

1. Where did you meet your husband? We met up at good ol' Ricks College. We were in the same FHE group (no, we were not the mother and father of the group). We started dating not long after we met, and then we broke up. We stayed good friends for about 8 months or so before we started dating again.

2. How long did you date before you married? When we started dating again we were together for only a few months before we decided to get married. We were engaged on Oct. 30 and married Dec. 19, how's that for fast? Thanks mom, you were amazing! John got accepted to start BYU the following winter semester (January), so we had to move fast! He ended up deferring so that I could stay at Ricks and graduate that April, aaaawwww.
3. How long have you been married? 10 years this December.
4. What does he do that surprises you? Sometimes he goes and buys things that are so not like him, like Rock Band, or his new phone. Not because he doesn't like Rock Band, but because he's not one to spend money on himself. I always like when he bites the bullet and comes home with something fun for himself.

5. What is his favorite feature? I like his hands. They are always warm and soft.
6. What is his favorite quality? I love that he is very motivated. We worked hard this summer to fix our back lawn, and it looks so good now after all the work he's put into it. I like that he can find a project and work hard on it, succeed, and be proud of his work.
7. Does he have a nickname for you? If you know us well, or have spent a lot of time with us, you will have heard him calle me "Peaches". I have zero idea where that came from, but it has stuck for all these years. When the kids are little (like Josie) sometimes they call me Peaches.
8. What is his favorite food? His favorite kind of restaurant is probably Italian. We don't go to many though, because it's not my favorite.
9. What is his favorite sport? BYU Cougar Football
10. When & where was your first kiss? After coping with MAJOR rejection when we dated the first time ... (another story for another day)-- our first kiss was over the summer when we were just hanging out (as friends I thought), and he kissed me at my parents house, he had other ideas apparently.
11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Ummm... :) We like to sit in bed after the kids are in bed and watch TV. I like to snuggle close while he works on his computer.
12. Do you have any children? 3 + 1 cat
13. Does he have any hidden talents? He loves to waterski, and he plays the guitar really well, and he wishes he knew how to play the drums. And one of his other talents is that he is very AWARE of me. He is always saving me treats from work, bringing me drinks or milkshakes, and knows when I need to get out of the house.

14. How old is he? He is 31, he'll be 32 on Feb. 6th

15. Who said I love you first? He did. It was over Conference weekend at his parents house.
16. What is his favorite music? Lots of old Canadian bands- Yaz, Barenaked Ladies, and Depeche Mode (not canadian).
17. What do you admire most about him? I love that he knew what he wanted to do with his life and he did it. We went through 10 years of school, and he's doing what he loves. It took a lot of work, and a lot of having zero cashflow, but we made it and he's proud of it (and so am I).

18. What is his favorite color? BYU Cougar Blue
19. Will he read this? Probably not.
20. Who do you tag? Charisse, Honey, Julie, Allison, Shauni and whoever else needs to pay a little tribute.