:)

It's going to be a LONGGGG summer!!




Tren, Belle and I are very excited!! Due in August, 2011!!

Bedroom Make-Over

Belle has been wanting to have her bedroom re-done for a long time now. She has been wanting lots of pillows for her bed, too. Different colors and sizes and textures. So, I decided I would re-do her room as my gift to her for Christmas this year. Conveniently, she was at her dad's the entire week before Christmas,so I had to get the things done beforehand that I could, like making pillows and getting supplies, and then do the actual work when she was gone. She came home Christmas morning and found this on her door:

I asked Russ to make her a new bed. He made it exactly as I had dreamed it to be! A 'loft' bed on 4 log rounds. It's perfect!

I did a ribbon curtain with a bit of flare at the top, because I wasn't happy with just the ribbon. This makes it a little more "Belle" anyways.

Then, all the pillows. (Rooster pillow from Aunt Charlotte.)

Then I made 40 or so of these sweet little puff birds...

I sprinkled them with glitter to make them a little more "Belle" too.

These little birds are scattered throughout her room in random places... just keeping an eye on things.

She was very happy with her room. The only thing she says it is missing is a big pink flower on the wall. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly she needs.

Painting #2 (and I guess #3 and #4)

Jesika asked me to paint her something. She wanted indian, but I decided on something different because my mind wasn't coming up with anything indian-y that my hands could paint. This however, turned out exactly how I wanted it to.

What do you think?

How I learned to Mind My Own Business

I was walking past the mental hospital the other day, and all the patients were shouting, '13....13....13.'

The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks, so I looked through to see what was going on.....

Some idiot poked me in the eye with a stick!

Then they all started shouting '14....14....14'...

Pretty in Placerville

A couple weekends ago, Jesika and I got away to Placerville, ID for a girls only weekend.... with her father-in-law Steve. Jesika's in-laws have a cabin up there. We bought wigs for my upcoming birthday party and headed on up.

While we were there, we did some 4 wheeler riding...

And we went to the 2 museums in the town of Placerville. There was so much SWEET old stuff there!

This is a pin-cushion.... Isn't she sweet? How could that not cheer you up when you are frustrated with your sewing?

One of the museums had this wall of hats and shoes! I so badly wanted to try them on.

So, I asked and we were allowed to try them on. It was so fun and funny!!

This one had netting on it that was super gross and nappy.

Here we are looking scary without our hair, and just our caps. I had a lovely red line across my forehead for 2 days from that thing!

We went to the cemetary. This one was very pretty with the pine trees and white grave stones.

It was a great trip and get-away from all the stresses of life. Can't wait to do it again!

Hello Kitty

Last night Jesika and I made a cake for a little lady (Maddie) who is turning 5 years old. The mother, Shaha, requested a Hello Kitty cake. I googled and she googled and then we both had this plan in our heads. Come to find out, it wasn't the same plan. I have since made a mental note to ask how many people will be eating this cake. (sorry Shaha) So, Jesika and I get busy building the cake according to the plan I had in my head and the requests from Shaha. We got the base of it done and I was just not sure how we were going to put this large Hello Kitty head on top. Ugh. So we sit and stare and think and stare and I'm about to tell Shaha it dropped on the floor and she will need to get one from Albertson's. I was getting very discouraged. Then Jesika, dear sweet Jesika says "lets put it right here in the front". So we lean the head up and take a look and it is going to work! I cut the shape of ears and part of the bow and then we got to frosting the head. After a long night and lots of frosting everywhere, we came up with this final little Hello Kitty. All the sides are not perfectly even and the frosting isn't smooth everyhwere, but that only gets better with practice. Shaha was happy with it and I think the birthday girl will love it too! I also made a matching tutu for Maddie to wear at her party. What do you think?!

Some things

I picked Belle up from her dad's after work today, so let's say around 5:15pm. Between 5:15 and 6:30, I have heard all these things and they have each made me laugh.

On the drive home, I ask her about school and her friends and she is telling me that she doesn't want to play with Lilly all the time because she is "all up in my nerves!". Is this the same thing as 'getting on my business'? Haha!

It is hot and I don't use the air conditioner in the car. Belle tells me very matter-of-factly "I can smell my sweat you know." This one made me laugh out loud and every time I thought of it again, I would chuckle.

We had corn dogs for dinner (barf, I know but my cook ((Tren)) is out of town camping) and I hollered to Belle who is in her bedroom, how many she wants. "Three!" "What?!" "THREEEEE!!" "Come in here... I can't hear you." In the kitchen now so I can see her mouth moving. "Mom, I want three corn dogs." "You can't have 3 corn dogs." "I eat 3 corn dogs all the time, Mom." "You're getting one and if you need more, I'll make another one." "Fiiiinnneeee"

Right as I am setting her plate on the table she runs off saying "I just need to go poop... It's only 1 little one so this should be quick!"

Lovely. Just another thing I love about being a parent!

Dih.Zass.Ter!!!

Jesika is having a birthday tomorrow and I wanted to throw her a nice little suprise party. Talking with her husband, we decided it would be easiest to do it at my house on Friday. We have it all figured out and I get home from work and run to a few places to get items needed for decorating and dessert.

Now. I tried a new thing for the dessert and here is how it went. I was trying to find a new great awesome thing for a dessert. I came across these sweet cups/bowls that you make out of chocolate. This can't be that hard, because the person doing the demonstration was a kid. Or so I thought. I bought some water balloons because it was suggested in the blog. I nearly blew a vein in my forehead from trying to blow up the water balloons. Forget that. So, I use regular sized balloons and just didn't blow them up huge. Perfect. Then I make my chocolate like I would make if I was doing peanut butter cups. Then I dip my balloons in the chocolate and it goes great! I'm excited. I get one tray done (containing only 6 of these monsters).

Then I started noticing how these babies are NOT looking like bowls/cups and how they are looking alot like plates. Oh well. I make more chocolate and get started on my second tray. I'm starting to feel pressed on time and Belle is itchin' to help which means my train of thought is broken and I'm getting heckled. I prematurely dipped the balloons. Soon they are popping sending chocolate all over my house and me.

I'm supposed to be hosting a party and there is chocolate flying everywhere!

(Belle and I just noticed this little spot tonight...)

I let the chocolate cool and start cleaning up the floor and then finish the lovely little project. I put them in the freezer and moved on to decorating. I saw on someone else's blog (I know. I'm a theif.) this idea...

Do you love it!? I do. I could decorate like this every day. It was fun.

Jesika arrives and is surprised and it is great! Then comes the big reveal of these "bowls" and I go to the freezer to pop my balloons and use them for sundae bowls. I pop them and the balloons do not come out. What.The.Sam.Hill.Is.The.Deal?! I was angry. I sprayed them just like suggested before dipping. Ugh. Luckily, I bought some little fancy bowls at the Dollar Store so we used them and it was still fun.

Only one successfully came out and was usable.

So tonight we had sundaes again and Belle used it for hers.

And she enjoyed eating (part of) it too.

If anyone wishes to attempt this delicious little creature, let me know how it goes for you. Best of Luck.

1st Grade ... already ?

Well, the first day of 1st grade has come and gone. Belle is now going to a year round school in Meridian with all her her step-siblings. The school is roughly 2 miles from my work and about 4 miles from her dad's house. This will allow me to actually attend school functions and will also make things easier having all the kids at the same school. I can drop Belle off at her dads in the morning and then she gets on the bus with everyone and dropped off back after school at his house.

I asked Belle how the first day went when I picked her up after work and she said "It was boring". Perfect. It was the first day, so I'm sure they didn't go hard on the kids and put them to work... just showed them around and things. She told me they went to music class and that she learned you cannot yell in the music room because it has an echo. She got rained on at recess and left her sweatshirt in the classroom so she just stood and shivered. (a bit dramatic, I know). For lunch, I packed her a cold lunch. It was a jelly sandwich, small bag of cheetohs, choc pudding, 3 oreos, a fruit roll, and a juice. She ate the cheetohs and drank the juice. She "didn't have enough time before recess". I told her she has to eat her lunch otherwise she will not have the strength to learn and do the things she needs to. We'll see what's in her lunch box today. She made friends with Lily and Sophia. There are no cute boys in her class. whew!

I think she will enjoy this school and I think she will learn a lot. It is 1st grade. I can't believe it.

Here she is in her outfit. We were literally heading out the door.

Skinny jeans, new boots, sweatshirt (zipped as far as it will go), tank top and a slicked back pony tail.

LakeFork 2010

A couple weekends ago, we took a crew to Lake Fork. There was 9 adults and 10 kids (5 families) and 3 dogs. We took Grace and Hannah, Belle's new official step sisters along with us. Crazyness. Friday night when we all arrived we had smores and chatted around the fire and the kids began digging holes and getting dirty.

Here are the girls ready for bed in the SWEET tent trailer.

Saturday we all woke up and had breakfast and the "men" minus Vince went to Brown's Pond to fish the creek. There was some creek playing:
(left to right) Josh, Cody, Kole, Logan

And bike riding and dirt digging and some naughtyness and laughs. Not alot of "mmoooommmmmmm blah blah blah". We decided we would try and get some group pictures of all the kids while they were in one place. ((Koen is only about 3 or 4 months old so he is not picutred))

(left to right, back to front) Logan, Belle, Grace, Josh, Evan, Heather, Kole, Hannah, Cody



For the most part, they all cooperated. Except one ...



Then we had them line up their bikes. Most everyone had one. Cody posed in a Tonka truck. (Henry seemed to follow them all around and just stop and stare during the pictures.)

We headed to the waterfall. Randi jumped in!

Then Vince jumped in... I was almost not ready for him!

Then Hannah says she wants to jump in. Hannah is 9 years old. She is not my child. I wasn't sure if her mother would like her jumping off a 10 foot rock into moving water surrounded by rocks. So, I asked a few more times and she still wanted to. So, Vince stayed in the water to retrieve her and as soon as the last breath of Vince's "yeah" came outta his mouth telling her he was ready, off she went!



She repeated this again. And loved it. Grace was starting to get incredibly tired at this point and wanted to head back to camp. So we did and Belle and Grace and I took a nap. Much needed.

I wanted to plan a fun little scavenger hunt for the kids. So, Randi, Amber and I made our little arrow trail clues and lead them on a wild goose chase. I stayed at the finish line and have no pictures of the action on the hunt.

Here they are at the finish line, gathering up their treats.



I made some most excellent tie-dye shirts for them, too.



Oh I loved it! And they all wore their shirts again the next day.

Sunday, Grace woke up and her "tooth was bothering" her. She asked for a tissue to rip it out. She sat on Vince's lap and wiggle and pulled on that stinking tooth. But it never came out.

Come Sunday, Rooster and Henry were so exhausted. Henry could barely walk to the truck. He would walk and then sit down for a minute. Then walk. It was funny. They rested up and by Monday they were back to normal.

I enjoyed the weekend camping trip with all the kids! I hope to do it again next year!

Ahhhh Belle

Tonight I sent Belle to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed. She came out with the tube of toothpaste and hands it to me and says "someone screwed it on too tight." I give it a twist and indeed someone had screwed it on too tight. So, I take it into the bathroom and start running it under water to see if that will help loosen up some of the over squeezed toothpaste come off. I ask her "will you get out my toothbrush and I'll just brush with you now?" I then turn to grab a towel and try to use the towel as padding to turn the cap because it is really hurting my fingers. Then I hear the buzzing sound of a toothbrush. I think "that's weird, Belle doesnt have a spin brush" and then I look in the mirror at her reflection and see her with a toothbrush in her mouth spinning it arcoss her tongue and teeth. "oohh that feels funny" she said. Then I get the cap unscrewed and REALLY look in the mirror and realize it is MY toothbrush in her mouth! (barf a little in my mouth!) "GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH! THAT IS DISGUSTING!" "Oh Momma, that feels awesome!" "Belle! You do not put other people's toothbrushes in your mouth. That was scraping food and grossness off of your teeth and tongue and now do you think I want to brush my teeth with that?!" Needless to say, I held my toothbrush under HOT water for a good 5 minutes before I had myself convinced it was safe to put in my mouth. Y.U.C.K.

A Happy Birthday Weekend

Belle turned 6 years old yesterday! Eek! We had her party on Saturday, since Annie and her kids and the Krucks were here to help celebrate.

I sent out the invitations:

For Belle's birthday, we had Grace, her soon-to-be step sister, come over for the weekend. Friday night we went swimming at Aunt Char and Uncle Tony's with the Krucks and Warrens and Baba and Grampa and Zach and Rochelle. This was a nice little start to a wild weekend. We got home from swimming and the girls were going to attempt to "stay up until midnight!" Grace fell asleep on the couch around 10:30pm. I noticed this and we told Belle "You aren't going to make it to midnight if Grace is sleeping." She went over and shook Grace and said "Grace! You have to stay up! We're staying up until midnight!" and Grace looked at her like "what the heck?!" and jumped up and headed to Belle's room. She turned off the bedroom light and got into bed. Belle was ticked off and flipped the light on and said "what are you doing?!" and Grace, emotional now, comes hauling out of the bedroom on the verge of crying "Belle won't let me go to sleep!!" So, Belle stayed up and Grace went to bed. Belle fell asleep about 10 mins later and Tren and I put her in bed with Grace.

Saturday I woke up to the sounds of the kitchen chairs screeching across the floor. I went out to see what was going on and found both girls on the counter getting down bowls. I see the cereal on the counter and the milk and sugar out. Perfect. SO, I decide it's time for me to really wake up and get on with the day ahead. They played nicely together and I would get the occasional "Mommmmm, Grace won't let me play with the blah blah blah" or "Emmyyyy, Belle won't stop bossing me around..". Then it was time to head to the party. They both chose to wear black dresses. Perfect for the kind of party I was having. (I didn't tell Belle anything about her party. I had shown her the invitations and she told me what kind of cake she wanted.)

Presents:

Then for the cake! Belle wanted an ice cream cake. I remembered Randi had gotten a cake for Vince once that had his picture on it. I got the details from her and had Belle randomly select the picture she liked the most, out of a few different ones and then had Albertson's make the cake and put the picture on it. Now, Belle loves the twilight stuff. Everything about it. She understands it and knows all the characters. She has a crush on Edward, of course. (Who doesn't?) I have never seen Belle truly embarassed before. When I brought the cake out, everyone was hooting and hollaring at the cake. (I think I heard a few yips! too.) Belle saw it and turned a little red. I think she almost even cried because she was pulling on her eyelids, which I think was her way of stopping from crying. She was embarassed that everyone was wooting because she had a crush on Edward. Then after things were calmed down I asked her if she liked it and to cover up the embarassment she said "Well, I wanted Alice on it, not Edward." Either way, she DID enjoy the cake and I think it was great. And it tasted delicious, too.

As usual, I had balloons for the birthday girl to release. Red, like drops of blood. :) he he..

After the party we went to the Dam with everyone and swam and soaked up the sunshine. Then we went home and the girls played with the new Polly Pockets. Finally, around 9:30, Grace stands up and shuts the bedroom light off and jumps in bed. This upsets Belle and she comes out practically crying "Grace just stopped playing with me and got in bed!" She sat on the couch with me and fell asleep a little while later. Girls.

Sunday we had another birthday party at Jesika's house. They had fun there, too, playing with all the other kids in the pool and slip-n-slide.

Around 5:30 we loaded up and headed to the meeting place to send Belle and Grace to Shem's house where they would have Belle's party there. What a weekend for those little ladies. 3 parties!

Needless to say, I think they were exhausted...

I was too. I think if I saw another kid or had to attend another party, I would have puked. Too much for one weekend. But I survived and Belle had a wonderful birthday weekend.

Love you tons, Bellami Bea.