We have the coolest purple flowering bushes in our front yard that attract butterflies and bees. I went out today and snapped a couple pictures :)

Halloween Flashback 2007

About August we start talking about Halloween costumes... the kids love it, and I do to. Some of my favorite memories as a child were the costumes my mom would make us. That probably makes it an even sweeter experience for me when I make them, thinking that my kids may have those memories too. So, in honor of Halloween, I'm going to do a series of flashbacks, leading up to what we have in store this year :)

Tally as a sucker-covered Halloween ballerina :) Savers special!

Girls are easy... princesses, mermaids, you know :) I totally scored at Savers and found all of the girls' costumes for $3 a piece. Alaura's was huge, so that took some altering, but much better than making it all.


It seems every year there's at least one costume that becomes a month-long endeavor... this year it was Ben's Transformer costume. Unfortunately we saw a YouTube where these guys, much to old to be doing this, had made Transformable costumes for the movie opener, and we showed it to Ben and that was that. I cut and glued the boxes together and the bigger Ben did the paint detailing. Who better than a guy to make sure the camo was just right.


Then if the costumes weren't enough, we had a blast with the decorations. We took their costumes from previous years and stuffed them with balloons, dolls and bubble wrap to have full-time "trick-or-treat"ers in our entry. I think this will be a yearly repeat!


Thank FamilyFun.com for this one! They used old tissue boxes painted with black paint... we used our Costco diaper box covered with a black trash bag! The kids helped with the shutters. I think this was one of my all-time favorites!

A Good Read

"The truest mark of your success in life will be the quality of your marriage."
- Gordon B. Hinckley

If you want a good refresher on having love in your marriage, I stumbled upon this article (click these words) that I loved! All about how love is a choice and the things we can do to create love in our marriage. Just one of those things that when you find, it's good to pass along :)

The heart grows fonder...

This weekend my husband gets to fly a helicopter to California and back. So of course, alone on a Friday night I find myself reading, again, about the whole NieNie thing, and read one of the re-posted entries that is just drewlable! Just had to post my Mr. Darcy... cheesy, but I love him.

Going overboard... Not me! More I Spy Fabric Choices

I had to have more fleece options for girls, and since little Ben was with me, the "battlefield" fleece was a must. Tell me if you'd prefer the bright girl stripes in fleece or flannel?

Fleece: Dots, Pink & Brown Flowers, Pink Flower Splash,
and Blue/Green/Purple Flower

Fleece: Sports Balls and Camouflage

The New I Spy Fabric Options

I am loving the idea of these I Spy bags. Here are the new fabric choices I've come up with so far. So what do you think?

Flannel: Girly Bright Stripes, Black and Pink Plaid
Fleece: Girly Pastel Stripes


Boy Fleece Options: Frogger, Stripe, Elephants


Boy Flannel Options: Basketball, Animals, Football,
Golf, and Helicopters (of course!)

I Spy Mini Backpack

Ok, due to the overwhelming response to the Hobo bag... ha ha... I had 3 people who liked it :) Anyway, I was in a quandry trying to come up with an equally cute boy version... with handles. I'm not so sure about the whole "man-bag" thing, but my sister said "backpack" and my mind went "zing!" Thus, the Mini Backpack I Spy! Does it come in my size too?

I Spy Hobo Bag

You know those times a project kind of takes on a mind of it's own, well for our ward's Super Saturday I was in charge of making I Spy bags. The project evolved from super simple, to a little extra cuteness, and then this one kinda grew it's own brain :) And to think I probably have half a dozen more kits leftover I could go even crazier!