Holiday Pancakes

I thought I'd post some pictures from our pancake breakfast this morning. Since it was Halloween, I thought I should do something festive - ghosts, bats and tombstones! This was super easy to do, and I've even done it before for Valentine's day, but Lisa was still amazed and Sophie and Travis loved them.

Here's the step by step:

1. Trace out a pattern in tinfoil
2. Cut it out
3. Position it on the griddle and spray it with oil
4. Pour the batter on the center of the pattern
5. Flip and carefully remove tinfoil
6. Voila!

For my culmination I created a monster pancake with all 3 designs.



Obviously, you've got lots of flexibility as the main limitation is your artistic ability! Basically, if you can cut it out of tinfoil, you can do it.

I think these may become a family tradition for most holidays.

Current Project

When my mother-in-law came to visit in May, she inspired us with a vision for our formal dining room. We were going to use a Boston theme for the artwork and dress it up with some new curtains and picture frame molding on the walls. Before she left, she drew a little sketch of the finished room to guide us, and finished the curtains literally right before she left.

It was so motivating, I couldn't help but get started too. First I had to go visit my neighbor to borrow all the tools I'd need. Shop vac, electric sander, mitre saw, air compressor and nail gun. Just for fun, he threw in the brads (nails), a large spackle trowel and a bucket of spackle too!

Since our walls are textured, I sanded them and then applied a skim coat of spackle. Then I sanded it and applied another coat, and then I did it again, and again.



Lisa and I picked out the molding and I got to buy a new tool - a T-square! There's definitely a learning curve to building this, but I caught on and was able to make all the frames pretty quickly.


We had a big celebration when I got the first frame onto the wall. The rest went up in quick order too.



When I got to the last frame, I hit my first major snag. The last frame dropped directly over the outlet. I couldn't really change the frame since I'd already established a clear spacing pattern. I got stuck for weeks trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then another couple weeks to find the right tools. In the end, I got a table saw to cut a block, a router to shape the edges (see closeup photo below) and slapped it over the outlet. I trimmed the frame and mounted it.


I think it came out ok.


Now I need to finish caulking the frames, do another past to patch blemishes with spackle, and finally paint it! This is taking much longer than anticipated but I'm loving it!

New Headboard

Earlier this year we graduated Sophie to a twin sized bed. While she was initially very excited, she now complains NON-STOP at bedtime about how she needs to sleep in our bed and not hers because:

1. It's too hot
2. It's too cold
3. It's too boring
4. She just can't take it
5. Trav won't let her fall asleep
6. She's tried and tried to fall asleep
7. She already fell asleep and woke up
8. She already fell asleep and had a nightmare
   
9. But without a doubt, her most common excuse is that her bed is not comfortable (how can someone who weighs 30 pounds and who can be found sleeping like this picture complain about a mattress?)

Anyway, I decided to make a small investment and upgrade her bed. We found the parts on craigslist and I made the headboard. The turrets have bookshelves and a miniature cabinet.

The princess stickers were a gift from Grandma. Sophie will play castle with them and moves them from turret to turret, or they all gather around the windows to talk. She really has gotten our dollar general money's worth out of them!

PS We still get all the same excuses about her bed.

A New Reason to Make Bows

So I'd kindof fallen off the bow-making bandwagon since oldest daughter refuses to wear them. Sorta takes the wind out of your crafty sails when your SUPER CUTE crafts are underappreciated and removed from very cute placement on the head mere minutes after an attempt at a hair-do. BUT, last night I realized two very important things!!

1) Bridget can't yet refuse to wear hair-bows
and
2) She also can't remove them herself!!!

And as long as I don't make them toooooooo gargantuan, Bryce won't murmur, either! I pulled out my bag of ribbons last night and started making plans. When you have a head this adorable on which to place bows... I mean, really, can you blame me?!
Snapped these before church this morning. Today was the Primary program and Sophie did a stellar job of singing at the top of her lungs and waving at us the entire time. :)

And many of you already know, but Aunt Renee has been here this week and we have LOVED having her here!! I felt a bit sheepish about having her come at first. And while, yes, I am sure we would have technically survived without her presence... she has made the newborn transition so much more enjoyable. For all of us!! So call me a wimp if you want to, but she's made what could/would have been a more stressful time into a fun time! Plus, we just love having her around. There have been lots of games of hide-and-seek and tag, lots of playdough animals formed, pictures drawn and puppets made, trips to the park, etc. etc. A visit from Aunt Renee following a visit from Grandma (which I have NO pics from...?!) -- Sophie and Travis are going to think having a new baby around is the best thing ever! She's made catnaps during the day feasible and for that alone I THANK YOU, RENEE!!!! It sure makes our current nighttime routine easier when I can catch a couple zzz's during the day. We have all loved having her here - and dearly hope the feeling is mutual...!! :)

Buddies :)

Renee's awesome playdough animalsme and the wee oneta-ta for now!

By Request

A few more pics for those of you who wanted more...

The big Texas bow...

SO darling.

love those cheeks!!

Travis checking out his replacement as baby of the family

love from the siblings

Travis was happy to meet Bridget

turns out... we ALL were happy to meet Bridget!

Sophie can't get enough

I guess these next few are a bit out of order... sorry, folks, but I'm not going to re-order them
Bryce cutting the cord

The newest form of pain management = hypnotexting! Works like a charm.
brand new babyBridget checking out her dad
The end. Hope you enjoyed!

A picture says it all

Sophie drew a family picture today

She's here!! Welcome Bridget

Isn't it about...time

Bryce mentioned that it's been a while since I posted anything on here. And he's right. So, here I am posting a few pics for you loyal fans out there. That is, if we have any loyal fans left out there...

Anyway, we just got through with birthday mania - September is always a fun month around here. And the birthday mania will increase in the next years with another birthday coming soon for whenever this baby decides to arrive. But since she's not on the scene yet, it's still just Bryce and me. awwwwh. :) This year Bryce said he wanted to play with a nail gun for his birthday - I will admit that I've never even thought to put "nail gun" and "birthday" together in the same sentence, but Bryce did and I must say he was plenty happy with the outcome. He found some birdhouses at a store nearby and bought enough for some friends who joined us in celebrating his birth. The kids and dads all had a fabulous time - and the birdhouses turned out, too!Sophie didn't finish her birdhouse till the next day - here they are working away!

so happy to be wielding a hammer...

the finished product (and still happy about that hammer)

For my birthday we went out to a Thai restaurant with some friends - it was wonderful (both the food and the company!). Bryce got all sneaky on me and - since he arrived at the restaurant before me - handed off a bouquet of roses to the waitress who brought them out and gave them to me when we were finishing up. Sweet guy. It was very reminiscent of similar things he did when we were dating/engaged. I don't have any pics from our outing, but Sophie happened to take a couple pictures that day and captured the flowers in one of them:
Bryce also made his traditional lemon-blueberry muffins for my birthday breakfast. It was an EXCELLENT batch - perhaps his best yet! We decided that meant it was going to be a good year.

In other news... we went to our first Texas high school football game last night! That saying about everything being bigger in Texas... it is DEFINITELY true when it comes to football. We were especially loving the football players that came running through the blow-up dragon tunnel. Complete with smoke!When Bryce was telling the kids that we were going to go to a football game, Travis went tearing upstairs and came back with his football... which he insisted on taking with him to the game. I think Texas could be the right place for this kid...
I think I mentioned before that we've been fiddling around in our dining room. Here's a little teaser for those who are interested. Bryce measured, sanded, puttied, sanded, puttied, sanded, puttied, measured, cut, glued, nailed... and made these frames to put on the walls! It is looking really good. I am excited about what the finished product will look like. With Bryce on the job I know it will be practically perfect. Maybe you should all come visit us to see it in person!! GREAT IDEA!!! Ok, see you all soon.
Of course, you know I can't post without at least one little mention of an AWESOME DEAL. Here's a pic of my run to CVS and Walgreens from a couple weeks back. Don't you love my Vanna Whites??
I don't have my receipts in front of me... but I do happen to remember (b/c it was so freaking awesome!!!) that these items cost me $5.63 and I got back $3.80 in Extra Buck Rewards. So, if you want to factor that in (which I do when recording the cost per item. but don't worry, accountants, I still count this as $5.63 out of my budget for the week), all these items cost...

$1.83!!

Oh yeah, baby. That's what I'm taking about.

The oatmeal was $0.50 per box. The soap was $0.49 per package. The lipstick was free (which was the only reason I bought it since I wear lipstick about as often as it snows in Texas). The shaving cream was... I don't remember. And I MADE MONEY on the deoderant! About $0.50 on each one. Love it.

And that's all I have for you tonight, so signing off for now. Until next time...!