Luna

This is our second cat, Luna. Even though she is almost exactly the same age as Thunder, Luna is about half his size.  Whenever I see the two of them together I always think of David and Goliath. 
I came in the family room the other day to find Luna asleep and tucked into a blanket. 

Looks comfy doesn't she?

Xavien's Birthday!

Xavien turned 7 this past week!  He has been SOO excited for his birthday. I have always struggled a bit with Xavien's birthday presents because a month later comes Christmas.  This year for his birthday Xavien asked for Trash Packs.  So from Matthew and me he received Trash Packs and Nana and Papa took care of all sorts of other presents.

Xavien's favorites this year:
Colors - green, orange, black
Song - Fearless by Olivia Holt
Primary Song - Follow the Prophet
Scripture Story - Samuel the Lamanite
Story- Skippyjon Jones
Animals - Dalmatian Dogs
Food - Bacon (He requested BLTs for his birthday dinner! )

Xavien is an amazing boy!  He is all-boy but very sweet, loving toward all his family.  We are lucky to have Xavien!

Scarves

Recently I started making these ribbon scarves.  They are really easy to make but it does help to use wooden knitting needles.  It only takes about 3-4 hours and 1 skein of yarn.  I love the way they look!

I made one for my girls and I am giving some as gifts to various people.  Check out your local Michaels or JoAnn's for abetter variety of yarn.

Halloween

This year for Halloween the kids had 3 parties to attend.  Their school does a harvest festival which is essentially a Halloween carnival.  The Trunk or Treat at church and then the regular trick or treating.  I consider that a party as well because of how many friends you run into while walking around the neighborhood.  We even purchased some outside Halloween decor.  My favorite was the half buried skeleton...

Kanayla decided to be a blue sorceress.  She got a lot of compliments on the dress.

Ivie was Bloom from the children's tv show called Winx.  Basically Bloom is the fairy of fire(dragon flame).

Xavien was a ninja. Matthew found these cool knives to go with his costume.  Xavien loved showing off his skills. 

I think that they all had a great time.  We definitely have a years worth of candy!

Crafts for my Sister

My sister keeps after me to put up some pictures of some of the crafts I've finished lately.  So here you go Tiffany! :)

This is a Ribbon Christmas tree.  I was asked to teach how to make them for our ward's Super Saturday.  I had to learn how to do it myself first but I think it turned out well!

These are flowers made from brown lunch bags.  I found the idea on pinterest.  I love how they look and how cheap they were to make!

This is a stitchery patten I found on a website a while ago...I think it was youcanmakethis.com.  We need some more Thanksgiving decorations and I made this for some of our family members for a Christmas gift this year as well.

In our kitchen there is this random opening in the wall.  It would be perfect for artwork.....but since nice artwork is out of our price range I have been looking for something to do with the area.  I found this idea on pinterest for making an flower out of scrapbook paper on canvas. Soon the walls will be the bright blue in the flower.

First Day of School

School starts really late here in the Northwest...after Labor Day.  It still feels unusual to me because I am used to starting school the second week of August in NC.  But here are pictures of the kids on the first day this year.  Kanayla is in 4th grade, Xavien in 1st grade and Ivie is a Kindergartener!

Soccer 2012

Kanayla just finished another season of soccer.  We tried to sign Xavien up for soccer as well but he missed the cut off age by 3 months.  Bummer but next year for sure!

The cool thing about our soccer league here was that there were no games on Saturday.  All games were played on Monday and Wednesday evenings.  So our weekends were still free!  Kanayla enjoyed her season this year on the Orange Tigers.  (I don't understand why their team name was Orange Tigers, it seems kinda of redundant to me but whatever...)  Her coach thought Kanayla was a very talented goalie.  Matthew worked really hard with her on understanding the game and her ball handling skills. 

Team picture day-- it was pouring!

Kids Bathroom

It is no secret that we lived in apartments for a long, long time.  So I think it is pretty natural that I can not stand white walls anymore.  When I am done there will not be a white or beige wall in my home!!  But I have a husband who is a painting perfectionist and is unwilling to let anyone other than him paint so the color is slow going.  In fact for Mother's Day all I asked for was for him to paint a room. 

I knew that I wanted the kids bathroom to be turquoise. I had found a sea turtle with the color in it.  I designed and made their shower curtain to go along with that theme.  I still have a few more things to do in their bathroom but I love the color and the feeling like progress is being made in my home.  (I even got Matthew to agree to paint 2 more rooms before my parents visit in August. Yipee!!)

The sea turtle that gave me the color inspiration.

You can see the shower that I embroidered all the circles on.

Ebey Landing

Last weekend the weather was really nice so we took the kids on a hike at Whidbey Island.  It was by far the longest hike we have tried to do with the kids (4 1/2 miles).  Luckily they did a pretty good job with some minor complaints during the last mile or so.  We climbed a bluff that overlooked the ocean and a lagoon and then looped back around on the beach.  I loved the beach part of the hike.  The kids were able to find drift wood and some really interesting rocks.  Kanayla even carried a medium sized rock all the way back to the van to take home. 
Here is a bald eagle we saw while up on the bluff.

More shots at the bluff

Then at the beach we saw some seals and a coconut that looked like it drifted in with the tide.  Xavien and Ivie decided to make sand angels. :)

Ivie Birthday

Part of the fun of April is that my girls birthdays are 3 days apart.  It makes that week extra busy and I am thoroughly caked out for a while after their birthday.  This year I made a butterfly cake for Ivie.  She loved her special day!

Ivie turned 5 years old.  Her favorite colors are pink and red.  Ivie loves to play dress up, Little Pet Shop, Squickies and My Little Pony.  Ivie is extra excited for school so she can be big like Xavien and Kanayla.

Pinewood Derby

Our ward recently held a Pinewood Derby that was open to anyone in the ward.  Matthew was very excited to design his own car. The kids and I tried to do a car as well but it didn't work out.  Overall Matthew came in 3rd place!  Since he hasn't made any pinewood derby cars since Cub Scouts he was really pleased with how well he did! 

Pacific Science Center

During Spring Break we went to the Pacific Science Center....twice.  I purchased a year membership for our family so I suspect we will be going down there alot in the coming year.  The Science Center was really cool.  There was a butterfly room which the kids enjoyed.  It was hot in there but not humid.  There were large versions of checkers, chess and other games.  Xavien and Ivie enjoyed the play center.  Kanayla liked the Tide Water area.  Everyone liked the laser show ( I have to remember to bring ear plugs next time because it is TOO loud).   We are excited to go back when the King Tut visit is being exhibited.

Kanayla's 9!

Kanayla is nine years old.  The time has flown by!!  ( I know that is cliche but it is SO true!)
I made a marbled rainbow cupcakes and cake for her birthday.  Seriously, I made 5 cake mixes worth because of all the cupcakes she needed for school and Activity Day girls and then our family party.  I have no desire to do more cakes for a while.

Before icing...

After icing...

Kanayla's favorite color is now blue.  She is about 8 inches shorter than me so she will definitely be taller than 5 feet.  She still loves animals.  She has developed a love for legos (which made up the majority of her presents). 

Marbled Paper

At preschool we made marbled paper with shaving cream.  The girls loved the activity!  I let them make three sheets each and choose their own colors.  I remember making marbled paper in elementary school with chalk shavings.  It was one of my favorite art activities. I am glad I got to share it with the preschool girls.

Space Needle

The Pacific Science Center is located right  by the Space Needle.  I was able to get a couple of pictures while we were in the courtyard.  One day I want to go to the top...

Crafts

I have been pretty busy the past week with crafts and outings for the kids.  (It has been Spring Break.)
I made this magnet board mostly for the kids.  We have a ton of magnets for pretend play and I would like to start using the board for educational purposes too. (sight words, matching etc)  It was really cheap and I love how large it turned out to be.  I am making some scripture magnets for FHE and family scripture study so we will get a lot of use out of the board.

A couple of friends in the area have this ruler by their doors.  I have always wanted to have something to mark the kids heights as they grow.  So I went over to a friend's house and she taught me how to make the ruler.  We do not have the extra space by our front door to put the ruler but it is going in the hall.  I really like how it turned out! Plus the best part is that it's free!

Thunder-cat

 Around Halloween we adopted a cat from a shelter in the area.  He has been a wonderful addition to our family.  The kids named him Thunder.  So far he puts up with the antics of children very well, only a few scratches.  He tolerates being picked up constantly by Kanayla and Xavien.  Matthew is by far Thunder's favorite family member. Matthew made some shelves for Thunder to climb and get some vertical time.  He enjoys going up on the top shelf and watching everyone below.