Visitors!

My parents and I had been looking forward to this for a long time. My dad doesn't get much time off from his job, but they claimed two weeks off in August and flew out to Las Vegas. They visited my brothers down there for a week before driving north to visit us for a week.

We didn't take as many pictures as we should have, but it was a good week. Kaitlyn loved showing off her dress up skills. And perhaps casting spells on people, or whatever she is doing in this picture.



In fact, that is what prompted us to make the wings and cape I mentioned in the last post.

They also loved showing Grandma and Grandpa their new swingset.



We spent most of the week just hanging out, eating my mom's favorite donuts she can only get here, and shopping at the stores she can only find here. But their favorite part of the week was heading to the cabin. Saturday morning Christopher ran the Hobble Creek half marathon, which luckily enough was the same canyon our cabin is in! So I drove him down to the start in the morning, and then went back and picked up Grandpa and Kaitlyn to come watch him run.



Kaitlyn liked hanging out on Grandpa's shoulders. She also liked pointing at every runner that wasn't wearing a shirt and saying "Look, Mommy! Naked!" quite loudly.



Good thing daddy wasn't "naked". Daddy had a great time, actually! 1:32 was his official time. He was the most excited that he got a medal. Apparently they only give medals to the first 100 men that cross the finish line- and he was the 95th PERSON. Way to go babe!



Well, back to the cabin for food and family.






My mom's three siblings all live in Utah, and were able to come down to visit her with us. They are fun.



And Christopher loves to show off on his dirt bike.



My Uncle Bob took over the four wheeler, and started running around the track with Cydney (my older cousin's daughter). They had a blast - minus the time she fell off.



He also loved taking his older sister (Aunt Betty) on a spin. She spent most of the time shrieking, but I think she liked it.



It was nice for them to have their whole family together! My grandpa is 96 years old, and has only lately started to have health problems. I was so glad he was well enough to make the trip down to see us.

Gettin' crafty

I've been rather bitten with the craft bug for the last couple of weeks. First of all, I wanted to make little scripture cases. Our Primary has asked each kid to bring their own Book of Mormon each week, and Tyler is so young that I thought a little case would help the book survive.

But in order to do that, I needed to borrow a tool from a neighbor. I went over to borrow it for five minutes, and she was telling me about a project she wanted to work on. My husband was away at scout camp, and our kids were busy playing, so I stuck around to give her advice.

And then I did the whole project.



Well, it was a fun project. We turned a black sheet set into a cover for this little couch. Her girls (who were away at camp that week) had that couch in their room, and it needed a face lift.



Yup, ugly couch underneath. Nice black cover to match their "black and lime and blue" room.

Ta-da!

So, with that done, I could turn back to my cases.



I used her letter-cutter to make their names in leather, and then made the case. I especially liked having a fun lining.



But the best part was that all of this was from stuff I had in my basement. Total cost was $1 for the handles. That is what makes them awesome.



And the kids like them. What kid doesn't like having a little bag for treasures to carry around?



This picture is here just so I can laugh at the boots. I found these snow boots for Kaitlyn, who didn't have any last year. Not only are they second hand and a couple sizes big, the tags were still on, they had princesses on them, and they light up. I couldn't have designed them better if I tried. Kaitlyn decided she needed to wear them every chance she got.

Next, I turned to the play house I bought almost a year ago. It still isn't quite done, but it is almost there now. I found out that the frame is actually Pottery Barn, which means getting the official cover for it is out of anyone's price range. Boo.


And then, last week, I was getting fabric for curtains and decided to make Kaitlyn some wings. She had taken a blanket that I stiched around the edges of, pulled two parts of the stitching out, and then would put those loops around her wrists and declare herself a butterfly. Not happy with the cutting-off-circulation part of that, I figured I should make her some wings. I loved that the fabric had a scalloped edge (for curtains), because that made a fun bottom edge.



But then, I made it while she was napping, and used Tyler as my model so she could grow into them a bit. And he LOVED the girly wings, running all around the room and shouting "Super to the rescue!". So then my dad made him a cape as well. Oh, and he never takes that construction hat off. So it's Super Bob the Builder.

Oh, and I also made a curtain for the cabin. And the rod to hang it on. And a vinyl quote on a board for the cabin. None of which I took pictures of while I was there.

I really do like these little projects! Making them without patterns or guidance helps keep my brain alive a tiny bit.

New swingset

Where has this month gone? A lot of things have happened, so I guess I need to catch up on here. First of all, we had a recent addition to our family.



We have been thinking about getting one for a long time, and our kids love it so much! We were going to get a wood set, but it turns out that you need to restain those every year and most people complain about splinters. Yikes. This one is made by the same company that makes the nice folding tables at Costco, and the 10 year warranty covers even fading. Nice.







Yeah, I think it is safe to say the kids are in love. Especially Tyler. Most kids lose interest in things like that quickly, but he will stay out there for hours if we let him. And we actually had a lot of fun building it as well. It took a whole Saturday, but it was like a giant tinker toys set or something.

So with the new deck, things are really looking great in our backyard.



I know, the new deck looks exactly like the old one. But trust me, it feels better. The old one had reportedly not been used in a decade because it was so unstable that you thought it was going to collapse under you. I was pretty sure that a good shove would kick off the railings. But this new deck is solid as a rock. And I love the trex!