Flashback Friday - Guess Who!

Can you guess who each one is???  Some of the similarities are amazing as I look back at old pictures - nobody really looks exactly like someone else but once in a while I just come across a picture and think, "wow, that looks like so-and-so!"

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Halloween Fun

For a look back at our Halloween costumes over the last few years, click HERE!

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This year my girls wanted to be...guess who...

Well, hopefully you guessed characters from Star Wars.  They love to watch the Clone Wars on Cartoon Network, so that was where we started! 

Kaylee chose Ahsoka Tano

Brianna choose Shaak Ti - I'd never even heard of her until we watched the first episode of Season 3 back in September and as soon as Brianna saw her she knew that's who she wanted to be.  As I started researching the character, I was surprised at how much I found on her.  I started the face make-up for Bree but she changed her mind, so we don't have the full effect.

Brailee at first wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast and I was a little bummed that they weren't all going to coordinate this year but then as her sisters were picking their characters, she got into the Star Wars spirit as well and decided to be Padme.

Since Trysten is still too young to pick his own costume, I got to pick for him, and decided he would be cute as Yoda.

And here are some various pics from our Halloween Fun this year!

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Brianna helped me color in her headpiece for her costume - it took a LOT of permanent markers to get that whole thing colored ;-P  But that and the stuffing were the only things I had to buy for her costume, the rest I had just around the house.  Her robe was made from some old curtains that were left with the house when we bought it.  The headpiece I drew out on some old white curtains that I had, sewed them together, stuffed, colored, and attached them to a headband.

Brailee thought she'd try the Haunted House at the Trunk-or-Treat activity at the church - she freaked out the moment they shut the door ;-)  It took her a while to recover after that!  Look at that face - tears, pouty lips - poor thing!

That Yoda can move fast!  It was hard for me to get a picture of that kid this Halloween ;-P  For his robe, I used an old sling hamper that I had saved for some reason - the frame to it broke years ago but the fabric hamper was still good, and it was the perfect color and perfec size for Trysten's robe, with a few adjustments.  Sometimes I'm glad I'm a hoarder ;-)

I was in charge of Mommy Preschool last week, so the kids came in their costumes and I even got a little dressed up - just grabbed some cat ears from the dress-up box, put on a little eyeliner for whiskers, and I was good to go!  Brailee took this picture...

We were making sugar cookies and were going to make skeletons using gingerbread men cookie cutters.  One of the heads fell off one of the gingerbread men, so Kaylee turned him into the Headless Horseman - which is also what she carved on her pumpkin!

Trick or Treat!

We made a new favorite treat this year - Monster Eyes!  Just a package of Oreos, a package of cream cheese, some Almond Bark, M&M's and red gel and we made lots of these - yum, yum!

Making the costumes this year I realize what few options I have here in my new little town.  I used to be able to run to WalMart and find just about anything I needed to make costumes.  Well, this year I ran to one of our only shopping options, Pamida, to find some white pants for Brailee's costume since I didn't have any white fabric and no fabric stores here either.  Well, I found nothing that would work for Brailee until I browsed the women's clearance section and found a large pair of white pants for $4 - I was able to cut them down like this and they actually turned out perfect, the easiest pair of pants I've ever had to sew, I was even able to use the original elastic waistband and pockets!  What was left of the pants, I used to make Kaylee's headpiece - not bad for $4!  For her shirt I just used an old white turtleneck and added fabric paint and silver cuffs (which were recycled from Kaylee's costume last year).

If I had bought costumes this year I could have easily spent over $100 and not even found one for Brianna, but by making them and using what I had around the house (felt, fleece, fabric paint,  I only spent $4 on pants, $5 on stuffing (which I still have a lot left of), and about $5 on permanent markers.  But next year I will NOT wait until the week before to make costumes - I will get started well in advance!

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Thanks for visiting!  I hope you had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Wordless Wednesday

Nothing's better on a chilly Fall day...

...than stamping and baking!  Last week I was asked to help with the Relief Society Enrichment Activity - I was asked to make a 3 ingredient recipe to share and I had the perfect one!  This is the second time I've made my favorite pumpkin cookies this fall, but this time around was much better since it actually feels like fall (maybe a little like winter this morning).  Brailee, Trysten, and I made the cookies...more like I made the cookies and they cleaned up after me ;-P

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Brailee got the beater...

...which resulted in this...

Trysten got the spatula...

...and ended up like this...

I had to print up the recipe to share, so I took that chance to add some fun stamping!  We had cleaned out the garage the weekend before so I was actually able to access a lot of my stamping stuff, even though I don't have a place for it inside, at least I can still play once in a while.  I used a fun pumpkin from a set I hadn't used yet - Friendship Patch.  They turned out cute and the cookies were delicious as usual.  Here are our creations...

If you missed the recipe that I've shared in years before, here it is again because it is oh, so good, and so easy - plus, I love how it makes the house smell!  I make this many times through the fall!

1 box spice cake mis

1 can (15 oz.) pure pumpkin

chocolate chips *optional* (butterscotch and white chocolate are good, too)

Mix all ingredients and spoon onto cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.  Enjoy!

May the Force be with me...

I need the Force or some sort of miracle since I FINALLY decided to get started on Halloween costumes yesterday - YIKES!  Ever since we moved this summer I have debated whether to make the kids' costumes like I usually do or just buy them.  I was leaning more towards buying them since I don't have a craft room yet, and since my sewing machine was now 1 hour away, but I just couldn't get myself to spend that much money on a costume!  David finally talked me into getting a new sewing machine as an early Christmas present earlier this month - it is awesome, I'm so glad I finally broke down and let him get it for me - no more borrowing my old one back from my SIL ;-P  My other dilema with making costumes, there is no fabric store here, and my shopping options are really limited so it's going to be hard to find what I need for the costumes!  Luckily I found some of our moving boxes with my fabric and craft supplies and was able to whip up this quick hat for Trysten out of some fleece scraps - SO glad I had the right color!  Tell me, are the ears too big or just right?  I just got Trysten's robe done (which means his is completely done unless I change the ears) and now I'm starting on Brailee's costume (she needs it tomorrow for Preschool) so wish me luck - I'll share them all when/if I get them done.

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Thanks for visiting!

Colorful Garden

The girls and I have had fun making flower clips - my girls LOVE to wear these big flowers.  Here are some that we've done so far...we would have made more, but we ran out of alligator clips, the place I used to order them online no longer has them, and no one around this small town sells them!  So, if anyone knows where I can get some, please let me know!  I did find some other clips that will work for now, and we have some fun Halloween clips to make tomorrow.

Can anyone guess what their school colors are?  They made a lot of combinations with that color and are so excited to wear these on Friday Spirit Days, or whatever they call it here ;-)

Here are my little models being goofs - they love to fix their own hair and don't like to take a lot of time, so these have been nice for them to dress it up easily!

Thanks for visiting!

Finally Complete!

My dining area, that is!  Here is a picture of it when we first moved in...

Here it is after we painted it...

But wait, I'm not done yet!  We got the painting done at the beginning of August, but it just wasn't complete until yesterday.  Once I decided on black appliances for our new kitchen, I started looking for the perfect dining room table - the table we had before (the one pictured above) has been a great table, we had just outgrown it and it didn't fit very well in our new house in our dining 'nook'.  The problem was, I was very particular to what I wanted and was having a hard time finding it.  First, I wanted a black table.  Then it needed to be round or oval to fit well in the dining nook (our old table was a rectangle and awkward in the space).  Third it needed to be large enough to fit 6+ people.  Last but not least, I wanted a gathering height table.  We have a gorgeous view from the windows in our dining area, but with a standard table we had to stretch our necks to see out the windows - a gathering height would be perfect.  It was so hard to find a table with all of these requirements.  I found one that I liked here but for some reason I just wasn't ready to settle on it.  Then with the help of a local furniture store, we found this table, while it still wasn't just right, I didn't think I was going to find exactly what I wanted, so I was getting ready to order it.  Since it's made by Intercon, I visited their website to view the details on it and show it to David before I ordered it.  While browsing around the website, I found a collection name that caught my attention - Hickory Square.  My kitchen cabinets are hickory, so I wanted to check it out, even though I didn't want a square table.  Guess what I found in that collection - a ROUND table, BLACK, with a HICKORY top, and a 20" butterfly LEAF that makes the table 54"x74" which will easily fit 6+ people!  I was SO excited so I started looking into it and found out that this table is brand new - perfect timing!  So back in August I ordered it, and since it was new they had to build it, so it took a while but I finally got it yesterday!  I LOVE it - it's not exactly what I wanted, it's MORE!  I never expected to find the table I wanted with a top that matches my cabinets, how cool is that!  We ate dinner at our new table last night and we like it so far - I was amazed at the size difference.  It's only 15" longer and 19" deeper than our old table, which doesn't seem like much, but it's amazing how much of a difference that makes - we can actually fit our food on the table with us!  Anyway, enough jabbering - here is a pic of our new table - I think it really completes our kitchen!

For my birthday back in August I got the black bar stools to go around the island - when needed, we can pull them up to our table to seat 10 people total.  Sorry this pic seems a little dark - I took it while the sun was coming up this morning and the pic looked fine on the preview on my camera but is really dark on my computer.  I'll try to get a better pic later today.

Here is the fun table runner that my mom made me for a house warming gift.

And our old table is moving to the basement to serve as a craft table - I'm hoping to make it taller so I can work at it while standing.  Thanks for visiting my new dining area!

Wordless Wednesday