Explanations

You are probably wondering why my blogging has been slacking in recent months. Honestly it's been a wide variety of reasons...

...I am really crappy about taking pictures and somehow feel that I need to include pictures in a post or it's not worth posting.

...Over the summer, we were just so go go go and when I'd get a free minute to post I decided I'd rather do something else.

...Since school has started, we've been just as busy and I've been just as lazy.

...I also started a new business venture that has been taking a lot of my time to get things up and running....still working on that and a post about it will be coming soon.

Now that I feel like I'm getting back into my groove, I should have some posts coming. Look forward to updates...like Owen's 4th birthday Super Hero party, random cute kiddo pics and the like.

BKA Family Christmas Gift Exchange

Every year my immediate family draws names out of a hat (or perhaps a bowl if we are too lazy to get a hat) to determine who is going to buy a present for who. I think this tradition was started when I was a kid and it was easier/cheaper to have us only buy a present for one sibling. A rather ingenious idea I think. And now with the 6 original kids, plus 3 spouses, plus 8 kids involved it would become super expensive to buy for everyone.

For some reason we also decided to separate the adults from the kids....perhaps some of the adults are afraid to have a 3 year old pick out their present....personally I think it would be fun to mix it all up....maybe I'll vote for that next year.

This is our family's solution....So basically, for those you not in my immediate family, this post will have no redeeming value. Feel free to ignore this post completely. :) Or I guess if you want, you could post a comment about how your family handles a Christmas gift exchange.

..... Buys for ..... 

Adults ($20 limit)

Dad --> Nicole

Mom --> Matt

Steven --> Preston

Tiffany --> Melissa

Matt --> Steven

Melissa --> Sharon

Brian --> Dad

Nicole --> Crystal

Crystal --> Mom

Sharon --> Brian

Preston --> Tiffany

Kids ($10ish)

Kim --> Katelyn

Logan --> John

Hailey --> Owen

Katelyn --> Kim

Owen --> Hailey

Landon--> Evan

John --> Logan

Evan --> Landon

Logan's Star Wars Party

It all started a couple months ago when Steven was at DI and found a cake pan with C3PO. He asked Logan if he wanted to have a Star Wars birthday party. Of course he said yes. So after much consulting of Pinterest, much color printing, lots of cutting and some hot glue gun burned fingers later we were ready to party!

Here is the front of the invite. Just took a pre-made one and added a picture of a lightsaber and Yoda to the front.

You know I couldn't just fill in the spaces pre-printed inside. The invitation sets the tone for the party...so here is what I came up with:

When the guests arrived at the house, they were welcomed with this view:

Here is a close up of the sign. (It will double as room decor for a while.) You know you love my homemade lightsabers. You can't tell, but there is glitter glue in coordinating colors around each lightsaber to give them that "mystical" look...!

Inside we had streamers and this banner I made. It says Logan Skywalker, which is the super clever name I made up and my son thinks I'm awesome. I'm just glad the name Logan is somewhat related to Luke...it works good enough for a 6 year old and his mom. (It will also double as room decor.)

When all the Padawans (Jedis-in-training) arrived we commenced with the training.

First up, Sharpshooter Training Practice...Shooting at Stormtroopers of course. We gave them a nerf gun and they got 6 shots to knock down 2 Stormtroopers.

A couple kids got 1 down, most none. Logan was the only one to knock down both and he only used 4 darts.

Next the Padawans needed to learn from the Jedi Master how to handle a Lightsaber. So we played Pin the Lightsaber on Yoda. Here is Yoda before...

The birthday boy taking his turn...

And Yoda after...Little Mister in the foreground was the winner of this game.

At this point we paused from the training and had the Padawans refuel...on cake and ice cream of course. Oh, don't forget the Yoda Soda! Here is the cake. That was all Steven. Personally the night before the party I was ready to make cupcakes and whip out some toppers for them. Steven insisted that we use the cake pan. I told him if that was the plan it was all up to him. Due to haste, he made the frosting too thin and it "melted" all over the place. At least none of the kids cared and it tasted good.

After refueling, we proceeded with training. Here we are simulating Flight Training as we try and escape the Death Star. (Hot Potato with a ball covered in aluminum foil and Star Wars movie music.)

For our last training exercise we practised using our Lightsabers and the Force to keep balloons from hitting the ground. This was done outside because I'm not a idiot and I knew six 6 year olds with lightsabers in my living room would be crazy!

At last training was complete and the young Padawans were promoted to Jedi status. They were awarded goodie bags and their "badges". Here is our sole female completer modeling her Leia buns...

And my adorable little man modeling the Yoda ears.

After going back inside to open presents, we herded everyone back outside to the park to fight away with their Lightsabers until their parents came to pick them up. Much fun was had by all!

Recap in photos...

My mom has been giving me a hard time because I haven't posted in a while. Well, I have 4 kids and all the craziness that entails. To keep myself grounded, I think to myself...if they had blogs back in the day when I was a kid, my mom wouldn't have gotten anything posted more than twice a year...and I feel a little better.

So what have we been up to since I last posted? A LOT! Here is a photo recap. (And honestly, if I don't have a photo I probably won't remember it happened.)

There was Easter with egg decorating...

Then April 20th, sweet baby turned 2! He's so stinking cute. Every time I ask him, "Who's my big boy?" He responds in his adorable little voice "No, baby" and gives me the sweetest little smile. I think he knows I need him to continue being my baby.

Then there was Mother's Day. No pics there either because my children value their lives too much. But my husband started the day with Belgian waffles (from a recipe, not a box) and ended it with a French Dip Sandwich buffet complete with Boston Creme Pie for dessert.

Logan graduated from Kindergarten...Sorry guys, no picture of that one. And yes, I know I'm a sucky mom who forgot to take the camera. Thank goodness he is a boy and will forgive me one day. In fact, I don't think he even cares at all...maybe just in case, I'll ask his best friend's mom if she got any good ones I could steal :)

I did however manage to get a picture of the last day of school present for his teacher. It's a cup insulator sleeve. Inside is a giftcard to Starbucks and a matching lanyard. The tag on top says "Thanks a 'Latte' for all you do!" Pinterest is wonderful!

Logan started T-Ball. Steven is an assistant coach. They are having lots of fun and Logan isn't quite as afraid of the ball as he used to be. We're hoping maybe Grandpa and Preston could help some in that arena when we visit. And nope, we didn't get to pick the team...if I could, he would have been a Pirate. Then we could go to all the games in eye patches and yell "ARGH!" You know I would.

We cleaned out and organized the pantry. I had a lot of food shoved on those shelves...So much that I made Steven take a picture. He gave me a weird look and then followed my instruction. I think he might have been secretly afraid if he didn't listen I'd leave him to clean it all himself....My island, dining room table and all counter tops were full of food. We finally had to start stacking it on the floor....at least we are well on the way to a 3 month supply of food!

We got Owen potty trained! He had accidents for only 3 days before he got the hang of it. 3 kids down and only 1 more to go.

Notice the blue tarp on the floor...I know, a little Whiskey-Tango, but better than cleaning pee out of the carpet. Doesn't he look so happy in his plastic chair...he didn't get to sit on the couch until he mastered the potty.

Last Friday, Logan turned 6. Here he is opening his RC Monster Truck.

Then there was Father's Day combined with my 7th Wedding Anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long! And it also seems like it's been an eternity. But all the above craziness was made possible on that memorable day....

So that is what you missed. Along with many days of working...cleaning...laundry....baby showers....out-of-town visitors....

It's been a great couple of months. Hopefully with my loose-y goose-y planned summer there will be much more blogging fun.

Sneaky, sneaky

Discovered this morning that Evan can push a chair over to the island, get and open a banana, eat it and throw the peel in the garbage all by himself....all while I'm in the shower.

At least his was a healthy snack, Owen got into the mini M&Ms.

All while Logan watched PBS and said nothing.

Yep, that's my life. Oh, and my tooth hurts. Got a root canal done Wednesday. On a tooth that already had a root canal done ten years ago. Guess he missed a small canal at the bottom and it got infected or something. Sucks to be me. Alternating between Motrin and Tylenol (at my endo's instruction) has kept me from killing some little people. Luckily I got house cleaning done yesterday while it wasn't as bad....only Laundry to do today.

At least I can play with my Silhouette later this afternoon during nap time....so life isn't so bad after all.

Smurf-y Day

I had to work this morning. Which means, I needed to take a shower. To allay your fears, I do take a shower every day, but on work days I need to do it early in the morning while the children eat breakfast and watch TV. Sounds simple enough...have you met my children? Most specifically the middle one? He goes by the name Owen, which is frequently and immediately followed by his middle and last name since he is in trouble for one thing or another....

I'm upstairs taking a shower. I'm thinking all is going well because I can't hear a stool being pushed along the floor to get into the pantry. Guess I wasn't listening well enough. I walk into the kitchen and see this....

Hmmmm....don't remember the floor being that messy when I went upstairs. Knowing I need to leave for work in about 5 minutes I quickly investigate. Here is what I find inside the pantry...

Here is what I find leading away from the pantry...

Little blue footprints leading away from the massacre.

A view of the mess from inside the pantry...

Being the dutiful employee that I am, I yell at the children to get into the car and vow to deal with it when I get home. (Of course all of the pics were taken after I got off work and took Logan to school....)

A picture of the culprit.....caught blue handed. Also with a few smears on his face. Doesn't he look too happy for someone about to be killed?

Splotches of blue on the top of his feet...don't worry, those also continued upward onto his khaki pants...

The vile culprits of the footprints left on the linoleum...oh and a few prints on the carpet too.

Put little man on the side of the bathtub and washed off as much as I could. Then he went straight to naptime. He is still a lovely shade of blue. Good thing it's nice and sunny outside, because if he got frostbite there would be no way to tell.

After much scrubbing and silent "Mormon-approved" cursing it looks like this. Mostly clean with a slight blue twinge. There are still some spots on a couple things, but I don't really care that much. Just in case you were wondering, Clorox wipes work very well at getting blue food coloring off your floor. Along with a couple wet and dry paper towels...

My one word of advice to you....don't let your child play with food coloring unsupervised. Keep it under lock and key...

Oh, and when your child does play with food coloring upsupervised....wear gloves to clean up the mess. Or you wind up looking remarkably like your child.....BLUE!

Anatomically correct...well, kinda of

Logan's kindergarten class had a valentine party yesterday of course, it's like mandatory. They had a cookie decorating/eating table (btw...when your kid is in school and they have that table, get them there for the first round! You would not believe the knife licking and then sticking it into the frosting that I saw going on! It gave me the heebie-jeebies.), a bookmark with stickers decorating table, a coloring station, valentine bingo and a cute little heat shaped guy to put together.

So finally Logan makes his way over to decorate his valentine guy and I decide to strike up a conversation with another of the mothers there. Found out it was Alivia's mom (Logan's 1st little crush) and we got to talking about how it's shocking the need to have a "boyfriend/girlfriend" in Kindergarten. I don't remember it being that way, but Logan's teacher says it happens every year.

So while I'm in the midst of this conversation, Logan comes over to show off his valentine guy. Being the proud mom I am I look over and get excited to see what he has done....Here is what I see....

Logan proudly points to the green heart on the front and says "Look mom, it's a boy, I gave him a penis." (I debated whether to type the word, but it looked really dirty with astricks instead of the letters. At which point I figured we are all grown ups and could deal with the word...Hopefully I was right with that assumption.)

Then he proudly flips it over and says "and this is his bum-bum." At which point I try not to turn bright red, laugh and send him over to show his dad. Alivia's mom to her credit said something nice like "at least he got them in the right spot" and picked up the previous conversation where it had been left off.

It wasn't until Logan was explaining to Steven about his creation that we found out what the top two hearts are....guess in Logan land valentine guys have back boobs.

Thought you'd enjoy this small foray into the mind of a 5 year old....oh, while you are still laughing, let me show you the library book Logan checked out a couple weeks ago.

Safety Guide for Babysitters (I believe was the title)

When I asked him why he picked out this book he replied "I got it so Kim could read the 6 chapters and be a safe babysitter." What a nice considerate brother.

That's my Logan. Don't know if I would trade him for another...

Sports Wall Art

For quite some time, I've been trying to decorate the kid's rooms, but on the cheap. I started this project last summer and it has just fallen off the radar until recently. I finally finished these up yesterday....check out Logan's new decorations.

Soccer

Football

Baseball

Basketball

ASU's SPARKY

BYU's COSMO

Here are some extra photos I put in a floating frame.

How did I do it you ask? Simple.

1. Picked up some art canvas' while Michaels had them on sale.

2. Got some sports scrapbook papers on sale at Hobby Lobby.

3. Cut scrapbook paper to size and mod podged them on.

4. Found and printed my pictures.

5. Cut pictures to size and matted with plain colored scrapbook paper to give some definition.

6. Added some sports stickers for the sayings and decor.

7. Added a couple sports scrapbooking tags.

8. Covered the whole thing with 2 coats of mod podge.

9. Hot glued 5/8 inch black ribbon to the sides to cover uneven spots and "frame" it.

There you go...super cheap and cute art for for the "Sports" room. Now I just need to find some cool pics of cars to make some for the "Transportation" room.

Cosmetic Surgery

Got you there for a second didn't I? You checked to make sure you were on the right blog? If not, you don't know me very well...there are way to many projects that would get my money before cosmetic surgery....Like that beautiful Silhouette I've been eyeing for months, but I digress.....

Today I had to perform some cosmetic surgery. Good thing I was medically trained in my previous working career. Here are a couple before images of my patient:

Notice the one handle completely ripped off and the other hanging by a thread.

Poor little thing. So innocent. So cheap...glad I only spend a dollar on it.

After much love and tape she she was almost made whole again. (We won't mention that because of this needed repair I had like 2 minutes to shovel food into my mouth for lunch before taking Logan to school.)

At least whole enough for a little Kindergartner to take to school.

Now how did this happen, you ask? Well....I being the smart mother I am finished the decorating of the box on Saturday and placed it with also completed valentines on top of the coat rack where little men couldn't reach it. Logan in his ill-fated wisdom realized he needed to take it into school today and got it down and placed it by his backpack. Of course when he got into a fight with his younger brother (I won't point fingers here, but think about if for a sec and you'll figure out which one was to blame), said younger brother proceeded to pick up the box and tear it apart....

Ah, the tales of this lovely SAHM in Idaho. How was your day?