Fun Filled Fall Break

The kids had Thursday and Friday off for their Fall Break so we took one last motor home trip for the year.  We explored some of our favorite State and National Parks of Utah.  First we went to Goblin Valley, then to Capitol Reef and finally to Kodachrome Basin.   The weather was perfect.  We did some really neat hikes.  Leia even did really well on the hikes and had a great time.  Here are just a few pictures highlighting our trip.

Goblin Valley

Capitol Reef

Kodachrome Basin

sandstone

Shakespeare  Arch

Playing in the soft red dirt....the kids' favorite part.

A Craft Filled Weekend

This weekend I got to go down to St. George with some friends for a Stampin' Up get together.  It was so fun to get so many new ideas for the holidays and find out more ways to use the things I already have.  We got to do 20 make-n-take items!  There were some great tutorials!  I learned a lot and had fun.  Then we stopped at Rocky Mountain Chocolates for one of their amazing gourmet caramel apple treats!  Yummo! (It's become a tradition to get one for the way home.)

I actually won $25 in free product for my "SPOOKY" sign in the "wow" category!

Here are a few of my favorite items!

We have to make this witch hat treat box for club next month!

It's a little pocket inside for a gift card holder! Cute!

There were some great fall projects too!

Labor Day Project

What did we do over labor day weekend?  Did we rest from our labors?  No way!  We took on a laborious project.  Dustin was hesitant but he knew we needed to get it done.  We refinished our garage floor.  It actually took more like a full week than a weekend.  First we had to clean it out completely...no easy task.  Wish I have gotten before pictures.  There was still a lot of junk left over from when Mark owned the house that Dustin had wanted to go through and not hastily throw everything away.  So we cleared everything out and filled garbage cans.  The floor was so bad from years of being painted and repainted.  Every winter tons more paint would peel up and get tracked in the house.  It was such a mess.  There were 3 different colors of paint.  So we pressure washed it to peel up all the paint we could.  There were paint flakes everywhere!  Then we sanded what was left of the last layer and prepped it best we could.  Then we had to do an etcher wash on it and finally on Tuesday night we were able to paint it with an epoxy...which will do much better than paint.

Before...awful floor.

Now...beautiful floor. Finally, a nice garage.

One of our Favorite Things

Slushies!

We love our Slushie Express!  One of our kid's favorite treats is for dad to make them each a slushy.  Sometimes we get to try out new flavors and help dad decide which flavors that Palmer Wholesale will carry for our Victorio Kitchen Products. Yum!

It's Canning Season

We only had two cucumber plants but we have had plenty of cucumber so this year I have learned how to make pickles.  We've done both fresh and processed, sliced and spears.

Here are some processed ones:

And last but not least, some black berry jam.  My favorite!

Thanks for the berries Hollie!  

Oh I also did a two batches of raspberry jam.  I had a huge box of frozen raspberry crumbles that I got from Alison's Pantry and decided to make jam out of it....so good!

My Baby's Going to School!

I can't believe that Leia is actually starting preschool!  She's my baby!  She can't be old enough to go to school!  Her teachers already adore her because she talks so cute and in such a grown up way sometimes.  I have to admit I am so excited for the 3 hour break (on most days) that I can do errands with no kids!  I can actually stop and read labels at the grocery store, or even try on a pair of pants somewhere without a little one crawling under the dressing room stalls trying to get away.  Yesterday was her first day and what do ya think I did?  I ran right over to JoAnn's and was able to get some things I needed for upcoming project with no one whining or crying and I could go at my own pace.  It was wonderful!

Leia chose a Toy Story back pack....there were lots of cute girly ones but she wanted the Toy Story one.  I shouldn't be surprised.

Back to School!

RV Road Trip

We went to Yellowstone National Park for our 

last big trip before schools starts.

I took nearly 300 pictures and tried to put a sampling of our trip here in the following groupings.  We also visited friends and family in Idaho.  At Yellowstone we saw an amazing assortment of geysers, hotsprings, fumaroles, and mudpots.  

I love this picture with the rainbow from the waterfall that you see the mist from...and the yellows in the rock.

Happy 4th Birthday Leia!

I can't believe how much you've grown!

Leia's Birthday was all about Toy Story 3.  In the morning I always let my kids open one present because it is so hard to wait until later in the day...so that was her Mrs. Potato Head present you see.   All she wanted was Toy Story toys and a Toy Story cake.  However we did go to Pirate Island for her birthday dinner and have some pirate pizza and pirate fun.

Just Keep'n Cool

Thanks Eltie for the tickets to Seven Peaks!  We had a great time!

Crafty Mama

Is it me or do most women have this insatiable need to beautify everything in their home or surroundings?  I see things and they bug me and I want to make them look better.  So I finished a few craft projects to beautify storage and make use of space.  First I turned some plain white photo storage boxes into cute color coordinated boxes for my cards that I have out for sale.  They have cute color ones out there with different designs and such but nothing matched the colors in my craft room....so I had to make something if I wanted it to look right.  I used Stampin' Up ribbon, designer paper and brads for this.

Before I had cards in a functional plastic photo organizer, but it was not at all nice to look at.

So here is what it all looks like now.

I also added some vinyl accents to my wall.

I just love the flower accents. Die cutting is the best thing ever!

Next I have been wanting a cute magnet board for my craft room as well...to display more cards and ideas of course.  So I got an unfinished one at Robert's with a 40% off coupon and decided to finally do it.  I painted it white. 

I then did the faux ribbon hang to make it look cute.  And best of all I found an old ornate hook in the garage to use for my hook.

I also made the magnets with some Stampin' Up pattern paper and those clear stones.  I plan on making some more magnets...perhaps flowers or something.

I was going to add some brown vinyl accents to the frame...some type of flourish...but I haven't found just the right thing yet.    I always feel better about my day if I have made something cute or organized.