.....that ironman came to dinner

I've discovered that my favorite sentence begins with....."Pretend....."

Last minute teacher gift

1. run to target in between cooking dinner and cleaning it up

2. park as close as possible, run to the untensils section

3. pick the cutest/cheapest combination you can find of spoon rest or spoon holder

4. type up this little message

5. print it out on your home printer because i'm sure your not as cheap as me and you actually buy ink cartridges for your home printer/fax/copier.

6. tie on some fab scraps of christmas ribbon ya got lying around

7. eat lots of christmas candy for fuel.

8. tackle the rest of your insane christmas list

and that's it! i promised homemade christmas gifts, but i've yet to make homemade christmas gifts so.......

christmas decor bailout

here is some stuff i've been working on for my christmas decor. in these times of overly rich people profitting from hardworking middle class taxes, it's time to take the spendy out of decking the halls. i'll admit it, i like to make stuff anyway, tough times or not, okay i like to.....craft. ick. i said the word, let's get a new word, "crafts" reminds me of old mustard colored, toll painted, chunky words with little dots around the edges. let's call it "extreme diy decorating for very talented and motivated people." that makes it sound more productive. so before you start feeling bad that i made all this stuff, and thinking about how much you need and want to do, i am not self-promoting, i am sharing. so take these ideas and run with 'em people. switch it up, change the color, whatever just get........ew... craftin'.


Homemade stockings. just felt, ribbon, and some stichin'

Christmas banner, pinking sheers, fabric ribbon and painted letters. i used the punch out part of a lettering scrapbooking kit. does that make sense? anyway you could use anyfont you wanted, just print it out, cut it out, voila a stencil!

the ornaments. i made the white snow flakes and aged 'em with gold paint. those berries are just a pick from the....ahem.. "craft" store. I made the stars out of brown paper bags and gold paint and glitter, when we were in dental school, i still love 'em. and my fave ornaments are the olive wood nativities. you can only get them in Israel supposedly but i'm sure they abound on ebay.

the scrawny and skirtless alaskan tree. this is as beautiful as they get.

can't find a good star topper, i've looked for years and have yet to see one that grabs me. any ideas?

got this gold garland last year on clearance, painted some wooden tags gold (paper ones'd work too) and then used rub ons for the letters, tied it with some cheapo ribbon.


now i'm not pretending to be fancy and fabulous, some of you are probably thinking, "quick get me to the nearest potterybarn.com." i think that a lot too when i'm done with making stuff. but maybe just maybe i've got your wheels turning and maybe just maybe you'll share your wonderful ideas. next time: homemade christmas gifts! (oh stop cringing)

asphyxiation? not today.

the day started out like any other normal day, children trying to drag me out of bed begging for cereal and cartoons, scrubbin' toilets, forceing 8 year olds to clean out the trash can that is actually the underside of his bed, asking the six year old to please not pee on the toilet but in it, and reminding my little girl, that shorts and alaska don't mix. no black friday shopping, no early morning lines, and darn it, no cat fights in the aisles of target for the last star wars lego destroyer. oh but things did get interesting. We piled on our snow clothes, packed up the kids and some hot chocolate and headed out for the traditional day after thanksgiving.....tree hunt!! We took the sleds and found a hill on our hike to sled down, ate snow, poked each other in the eye with sticks and even spied a family of bald eagles crooning in a near by tree. too cool. oh, and yes cut down a crazy alaskan christmas tree. (more to come later)

but that's not the interesting part. interesting came after the tree hunt. it went like this. came home, extricated children from snow essentials, threw dirty snow coats and gloves in the washer and went downstairs to relax. oh but like usual the relaxation was short lived as we were jolted into focus with the mind numbing sound of co2/fire alarms blaring in our house. we made a mad dash to see what was burning (i know i know bad idea) found nothing, fiddled with alarms, no stopping, called housing were the nice lady on the phone told me to get out of my quarters as she was callind the FD! I said, "seriously" and she said, "m'am you need to get your family out of your quarters" yikes! well coats are in the wash, it's cold, so we turn on the car and park in front of the house and wait for the Firemen. they came and discovered that the washing machine was leaking and the water dripped down the ceiling and right into the fire alarm, quite alot of drama for just a little dirt!

happy austin

our sled hill

quinton daring the backwards run



jace had a great time eating snow.

the logger and son.


me, the boys, and fish face

opposable thumbs

Avery: (wiggling her thumb in my face) Hey Mom, Heavenly father forgot to put one of THESE on my foot!

garden

the only picture of the backyard in my possesion + lilly

Ode to my Momma

My mother has a wonderful and beautiful yard. Many hours of digging, moving hoses, unloading bolders, fortifing against deer, pruning, weeding and harvesting have been spent there. it's a place were the light seems to shine a little brighter, the rain must poor a little harder, therefore things grow a little better in the red clay of south east utah. Not true really, Monticello's is a harsh climate, my mom has done all the things nature should have done for her. even so, nature has rewarded all her hard work.

I remember as a little girl when our back yard was mostly just dirt. I loved it. Mom carved out a little "house" for us in the dirt, complete with a floor plan. We each had a room and there were stairs and even little chairs made out of the hard packed terra firma! One of my most cherished memories is mom making us a similar dirt house for our little holly hock dolls she made from the flowers. Purple blossoms were turned upside down for a skirt and the stems became a head of sorts. Then mom uprooted various wild flowers and weeds to make "trees" and gardens for our little dirt houses. It maybe took her 45 minutes. But the memory of it has lasted me 25 years.

Mom can grow anything in that garden of hers. I remember running out to the garden in my bare feet to pick corn, cucumber, tomatoes and peppers right before dinner, warm butter oozing down my chin and tomato juice stinging my chapped lips. We ate the peas right out of the patch. Standing to eat, then bending to pick more. My kids always get up early when we visit Grandma, to water the garden and eat some peas.

Of all the things my mom has grown, I'm sure she would say us four kids were her best harvest, and maybe so, but then again, have you ever tasted a juicy, perfectly acidic tomato grown of blood, sweat, tears and love in the red clay of southern utah? I sincerely hope that one day you will.

Burning question of the week #8

i've been inspired lately by quotes. most recently from songs on my ipod shuffle.
i love cake, the dessert and the band. saying that sounds like i follow them, really i don't know any new songs, just old 1990's ones. my new favorite quote comes from the song
"love you madly"
"....the ornaments are pretty but they're pulling down the branches on the tree."

two reasons for my new found love of cake:

it reminds me for some reason my old brain can't quite remember of these two.

em, because i think she used this song as fuel for her "i don't wanna get hitched" fire. which i'm sure she is glad, inevitably and thankfully burned out anyway,
and kell, because she was into cool music 12 years ago when i was in my pious, self righteous stage. self righteous maggie was not fun. i'm talking serious, sinful, self-righteousness. be glad you know "nicely balanced" maggie. anyway kell's cool music choices have stuck with me and now give me reason to contemplate some wisdom. yes people i do believe i've found a shred of wisdom in some rock music.

so let's get back to the quote. i like it cause it reminds me to be authentic, it reminds me to let go of dwelling on all the lists of goods i want, and focus on what we really need, it reminds me that i am at my best when i am stripped of all my make-up and beauty aids and am forced to find what really lies underneath it all. it reminds me to find the good in myself again.

so burning question: What totally random, thought quote or scripture refrence is inspiring you?

And because i am not totally stripped of piousness, here's a lovely scripture that has inspired me as of late. because, really, what could be more inspiring than that? 3 nephi 12:45

typing this has stirred up old memories of other songs that remind me of old pals.... i may have to list them someday. or maybe we'll make that a burning ? for the future.

birthday boy or the last leg of the birthday marathon

Whose decision was it to have everyone born in the fall?

I am wiped.

Luckily birthday season ends at our house with sweet Austin, who always makes me smile and is anything but demanding.

He's 6 whole years old and very proud. He got a foosball table, and says "foosssball" not foozball.

We had a b-day party last night with his buddies and went mini golfing and played Xbox.

To celebrate i thought i'd list a few of Austin's greatest quotes. The kid is a joke book.

Q: Mom how many pounds are in a ton?

M: 2000

Au: How many pounds are in a bunch?

Au: Mom, I can't wait until me and Q are 18 and then we are going to join the army and we'll never have to do what you say again.

Gpa J.: Austin what are you going to be when you grow up?

Au: A night watchman

GJ: what does a night watchman do?

Au: I'll watch lots of tv shows all night long.

Mom: austin do you want some doritos with your pb&j?

Au: I'm not really in the doritos business anymore

We were reading this book about a mouse. the pictures were drawn somewhat haphazardly. at the end it says, "all the wishes of the little mouse came true!" and austin said, "She must have wished to be ugly."

dear maggie: no more homemade costumes.

I have this deep rooted need to make Halloween costumes. Inevitably i spend most of Oct 31st(starting at 12:00 a.m. halloween morning) sewing, hot gluing, dying, ect, ect. I am an onery woman by the time trick or treaters start ringing the bell, and at least one costume is a disaster. This year only my little chicken was a winner, and it was mostly because of the little guy IN the chicken suit. Austin wanted to be a spider, i made a fabulous outfit complete with numerous eyeballs and large bloody fangs, but when we put it on Austin, he looked like Bjork on a good day. Needless to say we both refused doning the thing. so austin had to resort to the much used spiderman costume. Quinton looked faulous as a mummy for about 10 minutes, then he walked and the carefully wrapped fabric (it took me an hour to wrap him) began sliding from his scrawny frame. (which is something i can't comprehend since he eats 3 boiled eggs, two bowls of cereal and 3 pieces of toast everyday and that's just breakfast) He ended up being a ninja. Only avery made it all through the day in one costume. She loved the red hair. Not that costumes even matter up here anyway, we had to wear coats, hats, and gloves as Halloween night temperatures were in the teens! I hope next year some one will take pitty on me and smack me before i take out the sewing machine.

birthday girl

Avery turned 4! this week. Here she is bright and early in the morning ready to rip open her presents.

We had a princess tea party with a few little girls from the ward. Cupcakes anyone?

Where has the time gone? What happened to the chubby, squishy hands? the toddling? naptime? At least she still says cute things like, "it was an askident mom," or "can i take my babies a bath?" i'm holding on to these early years like madonna to her youth, only i guess i'll be more mature and eventually let her grow. Happy Birthday Avery!

Oh captain, my captain....

Annelisa tagged me in a photo tag! I was supposed to select the 4th photo in my 4th folder. i didn't even know i had that many folders, but mike helped me find it and now he is sorry he did. A little background, this picture is NOT SERIOUS!! Mike had just joined the army, and he and his good buddy Jeff from Louisville always grow a mustache with handlebars the week of BYU vs. Wyoming. It is sort of a mocking nod to the cowboys. The army only allows its soldiers to have a mustache, so mike had to resort to a handleless look. This was taken two years ago in Oklamhoma. We were laughing at how hard core army mike looked with his 'stache and decided to joke around and take some pictures. oh, i love a man in uniform.

Ode to Emilee

I think if you're lucky enough to have survived to the ripe old age of 30, you have some people to thank. i mean really people, death is just a needle prick away. we gotta soak it up while we can. you never now when time is up. i recently had the privilege of turning tri-denta if you will and upon the realization that old is now a discriptive word one could use when speaking of me, i became somewhat of a reflective person. Basically i started off feeling sorry for myself and decided to delete the negative and insert the positive by remembering some of the good things that have occured in my 30 years of living. one really good reason i've managed to make it thus far is because of my wonderful childhood best friend Emilee.

She was the kind of doting friend that never gave up on my sorry ole' hide. She stuck up for me and stuck to me and is the reason various good decisions were made rather than the inticing, but poisonous alternatives.

Em recently held a contest on her blog inviting readers to submit fascinating stories for a chance at an equally fascinating prize. I submitted something kinda lame, but thought i would share with you all one of my childhood memories courtesy of dear em. we spent much of our time trying to be mischievous and it was well worth the effort. besides the idea we once had of somehow leaving a trial of lilacs behind us wherever we went, this is one of our more important moments.

When i was a young' un growing up in a very small town, a fascinating product began to be distributed by the all important vendor of necessary kid items such as hello kitty chapstick and penny candies (since extinct). This newfangled contraption was known as a "water wienie" basically is was a length of rubber tubing in which one attached a plastic insert that resembled an empty pen. it also came with a little screw in lid that attatched to outside water spigots and allowed the lucky owner to fill the rubber tubing with precious water (only in times of plenty) and roam around the little town looking for victims. Em and I had been victims before, mostly of her brothers and my nieghbors the villianous trio of brothers who liked very much to bother us on occasion. Anyway pennies were saved and earned, tubing was bought and filled and me and em were out on the town looking for our own victims. We didn't get very far. At the bottom of my hill lived a lovely old lady and her somewhat crusty husband. They very innocently went for a drive in a nice shiny car and happened to pass us just as our mission began. Em looked at me with burning in her eyes, i looked back with a mix of horror and anticipation, and em let it fly on the silver Cadillac. We erupted with glee and sent squirts of victory into the air. said glee was short lived as the crusty ole owner abruptly stopped his shiny wheels, through 'er in park and stalked back to yell at two extremely careless, helpless, and harmless little girls. Those wienies instantly lost their cache. defeated we shuffled back home where we hid from the surety that our all knowing mothers would learn of our escapades and march us over to apologize. i think our hiding was in vain. i don't remember any further repercussions. although i am sure many a toddler was spared a good soaking by two well armed 9 year olds.

dearest em, i cherish all those memories, you are simply a hero of mine. my first 18 years benefited greatly from you. thank you for your bravery.

Lawrence Welk

Remember the good old days when SNL was funny?
thank-you Kristyn Wiig for making me laugh again, it's been awhile.

http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/the-lawrence-welk-show/727501/

a day in the life of Jace

avery sat down to paint today, and her good buddy jace was not having it. he wanted in on the fun. I gave him some damp water colors, a brush, and some paper and he was pretty busy for a good 20 minutes! only he was painting his hands and face and not his paper. Also today we decided to deshagg, and demop, his top. 1 peanut butter cup, 1 sucker and 10 skittles later we came up with our regular little judi boy haircut. how sad to say goodbye to his goldish locks! oh but isn't he handsome.

"my name is paul, and i play the guitar."

yes, he can make grown women swoon.

i should be folding laundry

Well the family has come and gone again.

"let me explain. no there is to much let me sum up."

it was a great weekend full of food, hiking, baptizing, confirming, laughing, coughing, stuffy noses, and my yearly allotment of tears. pictures are better than words. here ya go.

ps. can anyone tell me what movie that quote is from? i think the first one to tell me should get a prize.



my 81 year old grandmother, Dawn, hiked four miles with us and beat me to the car. ya, she's spry like that.
The reward: the Eagle River.

Mike and his Dad, Vaughn

Our family after the baptism. my mascara mysteriously melted.....

Quinton and his Dad

Haley and Grandma, she gave an excellent talk at the baptism! Thanks marianne!


Quinton and Avery at the beginning of the hike, looking for salmon.

This old cottonwood tree along the iditarod trail is called the "grandfather tree"

this picture should be hanging on the wall.

Grandma Cassie and Austin bringing up the rear.

One of many glaciers in Alaska. This one is huge.

Jace always has the best view. Grandpa Scott.

Aahhh! how adorable is that. if mike squeezes me really close i look smaller.

so sad this picture didn't turn out to well. My grandma and grandpa served a mission to the Anchorage Alaska mission 18 years ago. This was her first return trip. isn't she so cute?

Good thing that was only a summary, can you imagine how long this post would have been had i explained everything? THanks to all our guests for coming! Who would've thought 9 adults and 7 kids could all get along for three days together?

For me, it was bliss.