Merry Christmas!

Who wants to build a fort with me?

Picture Day

 For a while now, Karter has been asking to go the mall to "buy some stuff." He is definitely my kid. When most people would worry that their 7 year old boy wanted to go to the mall, I got excited!

So, I decided to take him to pick out an outfit for picture day at school and this is what he got:

SOO cute, huh? It's not one I would've pick out (in fact, I tried to get him to get a different shirt for underneath but he insisted) but I think it turned out pretty dang cute. Er, I mean COOL. :)

PS. I entered him in a Back to School contest on the Children's Place Facebook page, so if you have a minute go vote! Please.

A scrappy post~

Oh, and some Halloween too...

I've been getting my serious *scrap* on this weekend and wanted to share.

I copied this idea from fellow blogger/scrapper Heidi Sonboul (Queen of Paper). I would've never thought of documenting the actual process of preparing for back to school.

I've been playing with mists a lot lately and have been having so much fun. The red is a little outta control here, it takes a bit to get used to it.

Not a huge fan of these pics, but I'm trying to get caught up on some old pictures and since I've been in the Halloween spirit, I figured I'd get these 4 year old pics out of the way.

I finally got my sewing machine fixed and have been using it like crazy on my pages. It's probably my most favorite technique right now. I've made pages that don't even have pictures on them yet just because I get these ideas in my head for sewing.

And Friday even though I was ill (bleh), I cleaned my house and pulled out the Halloween deco. I really have a lot but it doesn't look like much since it's all so small. But eh, whatta ya gonna do?

Here's a close-up of my lil' Halloween tree. It came with the ornaments but I made the garland with my pumpkin punch and some thread. I actually had a different idea in my head than how it actually turned out but I think it looks kinda cute.

My cute Halloween wreath that isn't actually on my front door yet...

...because I can't bring myself to take this down. I love that it matches my front door so well.

I think I might have to figure something out to cover up the red for Halloween.

I LOVE this time of year!

My deco obsession

Since becoming a home owner, I've developed a new obsession: home decor. There were times when that's all I thought about all day long and I was constanly looking for ideas to make my home feel more like my own (not to mention pretty!). In my searches, here are a few of my favorite finds:

I've become a bit obessed with purple, which was my child hood favorite. I love the yellow and grey accents here. Probably my favorite color combo right now.

I love the white book cases here and that pretty circle thingy (I believe that's the technical term..)

Is this not the most relaxing kitchen ever?

I'm so going to arrange my books by color..

I realize this is a girls' room but I LOVE the bright wall, colorful rug, huge window and super cute banners. I've posted banners before, I really need to get on that...

Someday... *sigh* :)

Yeehaw!

Lately, Karter has been a bit obsessed with cowboys. He even begged for cowboy boots so we got him a pair for his birthday and he wears them everywhere. Zach also wanted some when he saw that they had blue ones (they're blue on top).

My brother told me that the Davis County Fair was having their rodeo on Friday so we decided to indulge in Karter's little obsession and take a trip to the fairgrounds for the rodeo.

Here they are, all cowboyed up and ready to go:

Zachary (moments after he stole Karter's hat)

Karter (after Mom gave him his hat back)

They had fun watching the cattle roping and then the little kids riding sheep. That was hilarious, watching all these kids holding onto the sheep's neck for dear life. A few fell off right out the gate, one held on for a long time because her sheep decided to just stand there and one awesome little boy held on forever when his sheep wouldn't stop running and even when he was getting knocked around by the other sheep. It made me laugh to see the sheep huddle together after they were done.

I guess they really do stick to their flock:

After the kids on sheep, my kids got bored and this is what they did:

Then they announced the "Dash for Cash" where they tape a whole bunch of dollar bills to a cow and let the kids go wild. The poor cow was probably scared to death but the kids had a blast.

Karter's in this pic somewhere (not Zach though, they had to be 7):

We were just about ready to go but decided to stay and watch the bull riding which they saved for last. (You'll notice in the video it's after 10 pm!)

The kids enjoyed it (so did Rich and I):

And here's a video of one of the crazy cowboys that decided it would be fun to piss off a bull and see how long he could stay on it:

We had a good time at our first rodeo but there was one thing that disappointed me. At the beginning a guy rode out on a horse carrying "Old Glory" and rode around to this country song. Now I'm not a country fan but this song gave me the chills (I'll have to find it). Then it's customary to have everyone stand while they play our National Anthem (which also gives me the chills). I actually felt a little bad that instead of paying attention to the song and looking at the flag, my eyes were wandering the many people in the audience NOT PUTTING THEIR HANDS ON THEIR HEARTS AND NOT TAKING OFF THEIR HATS!! One guy even sat down half way through! It's so sad to me that people don't pay respect to their country's flag. I may not be happy with the way things are going in our country right now, but I know that we have it better than most people in other countries. I'll stop there, this could be a whole nother post (and it could get ugly:). I just wanted to say how important I think it is to be respectful of our country and be grateful for what we have.

Dirty Thirty

Well, I finally made it to the big three-oh!

Richard totally shocked me by throwing me a surprise party with my friends and family. There were a few times that it was thisclose to getting blown, but I was totally oblivious.

It was short-lived since I didn't know about it and made plans with these girls. These are my co-worker girlfriends and our birthdays are right in a row (July 16, 17, 18). The cute little one on the left got us VIP entrance to The Hotel where we danced the night away.

VIP baby!

We saw this cool group, whose name escapes me. It consisted of a hip hop guy and girl (look how hot she is!) and a drummer and I'm sure some DJ in the back. It was pretty cool.

After trying to sleep in and picking up these cuties, we headed out to see Toy Story 3 with my brother, sister-in-law and their 2 guests from China. I didn't get any pics at the movie but got a few when we decided to wander around the Junction. (Yes, Zachary had to pee.)

We made our way upstairs to watch the iFly, where both my boys decided they wanted to try it. It was fun watching and we all oohed and ahhed when this tiny little kid did it. When everyone had taken their turn, the instructor got to play around a little and my boys loved it!

In the end, I had an awesome birthday. Probably the best I've had in years. So, thanks to everyone who contributed! I love you all!