Kate's Birthday Cake

Kate turned 4 yesterday. I still can't believe my little girl is already 4. Time flies. I think time has somehow sped up as I've gotten older. Anyways, Kate decided she wanted to have "A Bad Case of Stripes" birthday party. "A Bad Case of Stripes" is a children's book by David Shannon. If you haven't read it, you should. It's very good, and it's Kate's favorite story.

It begins, "Camilla Cream loved lima beans. But she never ate them. All of her friends hated lima beans, and she wanted to fit in. Camilla was always worried about what other people thought of her.

Today she was fretting even more than usual. It was the first day of school, and she couldn't decide what to wear. There were so many people to impress! She tried on forty-two outfits, but none seemed quite right. She put on a pretty red dress and looked in the mirror. Then she screamed."

The story goes on to describe just how bad Camilla's bad case of stripes is. The doctors are stumped, as are the specialists and the experts. Then a sweet old lady knocks at the door, and thinks she has the cure. To find out what the cure is, you have to READ THE BOOK! I'm not telling!

Anyways, this is the cake I came up with for Kate's "A Bad Case of Stripes" party. The green dots around the bottom are supposed to be lima beans (even though they look more like peas). Kate couldn't tell a difference.




Anyways, it's a cute story, and it sends a great message. The message I got from this story:

NEVER BE AFRAID TO BE YOURSELF!

If you've read the story what message did you get?

Super Saturday *EDITED*

Since I've had so many requests to find out where I got the plates and the camelback board, I thought I'd just post the info here instead of answering every email.

I found both the plates and camelback board at a shop in Lindon, UT called Simply Splendid. I live close enough that I just drove there and picked everything up. However, they do ship as well.

The plates included the plate and the vinyl lettering.

The camelback board included the board (it comes in 2 different sizes, we did the large), vinyl lettering and the star. I had to provide clear liquid nails to glue the star on.

Simply Splendid does have a website dedicated to enrichment projects: http://www.enrichmentprojects.com.

Hopefully this helps everyone. The website also has their contact information. Have fun!!!

This Saturday is our Ward's Super Saturday event. For those of you who've never heard of Super Saturday, it's basically a day where all the women in our neghiborhood get together and do a whole bunch of crafts.

I was recently called as the Enrichment Leader in my ward, so that means I am in charge of Super Saturday.

That means I am in charge of deciding what crafts will be offered, making sign up sheets, collecting money, and basically getting everything ready for Saturday.

Here are the crafts we are offering this year.

Camelback Board $15.33 each.

The board comes unfinished, you paint it what ever color you want, put the vinyl words on, and glue on the star.

Metallic Christmas Plates $5.21 each.

The plates come in Red, Silver, or Gold, and the vinyl can say Believe, Peace, or Noel in Gold, Silver or Black. You just put the vinyl on the plate, and you're done.

Wood Blocks with Vinyl Letters $1.00 per block.

The blocks come in 4"x 4", unfinished squares. You paint them whatever color you want, choose from black, beige, white, or gold vinyl colors, and they can say whatever you want.

Some people have ordered Merry Christmas in white vinyl, Family in beige vinyl, Santa in white vinyl, Star in Gold vinyl, their children's names, dream in white vinyl, ect. You get the picture.

Flowerpot Nativity $4.00 per set.

You paint the pots, heads, hot glue on the heads, and head scarves, paint the manger, glue in the hay, and baby Jesus. Pretty simple.

Here are the other things we are doing, too. The tile picture boards are $13.50 each, unless you want to supply your own pictures, then the price goes down to $8.50. The Large Christmas Tree Countdown will have a scripture scroll in each box that contains a part of the Christmas story, and is $8.00. The Small Christmas Tree Countdown has ornaments that are put on the tree everyday, and is $4.00. The Pajama Pants come in pink snowflakes or blue snowmen, and are $4.00 for children's sizes and $8.00 for adult sizes.

Here is a close up of the Pajama Pants.

So, until Saturday night, when Super Saturday will be over, this is all I am doing. Buying, organizing, dividing, setting up, and making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. So, wish me luck, and pray for me not to be to completely stressed out!

I Wanna Be....

So, in true "Kate Style," Kate went through several ideas before she decided on a Halloween costume this year. First she wanted to be Avril Lavigne from the music video "Girlfriend."

I said NO WAY! I was not thrilled with the idea of my 3-year-old dressing like this.

So, then she wanted to be Cinderella.

But I couldn't find a decent Cinderella costume for a decent price. This one retalied at $59.99. Not in my budget this year.

Then she wanted to be a witch. I was okay with that, so we looked and found one she liked, but at $34.99 it was still not in the budget. Then she decided, with a little persuasion from her dad, that she wanted to be a Pirate. Okay.
I found this one, but at $42.99 it still was way more than I was willing to spend on a Halloween costume.

Then she saw the movie "Barbie as the Island Princess," and she just had to be Ro, the main character.

I searched and searched online for a Ro costume and found this one for a whopping $44.99. Not going to happen. Sorry, Kate.

I really wanted Kate to be a butterfly this whole time, because her kid sister was going to be a bumble bee (which was what Kate was when she was 2). Plus, how cute would it be to have a bumble bee and a butterfly?

This is Kate when she was the bumble bee for Halloween. The jacket even has a stinger on the back. So cute!

Then Kate asked, "Can I be a 'Ro' butterfly?" I said of course! So, a beautiful "Ro" butterfly was born.

Cost:

Leotard - FREE (we already had it)

Skirt - $6.00 at wal-mart

Wings - $5.00 at wal-mart

Antennas - $3.00 at Taylor Maid

Ballet Slippers - FREE (we already had them).

TOTAL COST: $14.00. Definitely a more reasonable price for a Halloween costume.

The Finished Product

Andie got her hair fixed today. I was so worried that we were going to have to buzz it all off. Thank goodness for good hairstylists who know what they are doing. Jamie (the stylist) said it was probably the worst haircut she'd seen (and she's seen several on her nieces).

Andie ended up with a cute, trendy style which will require lots and lots of product. We have to slick the top over to hide her "unicorn patch," as I call it, and then put a little tiny clip in it. This is followed by lots and lots of hairspray to get all the butched pieces to stay in place. Then we use some pomade and flip out the back. Again, this is followed by lots and lots of hairspray. Then I hope and pray we don't have to go anywhere that requires her to get in her carseat. Because once she's in her carseat, there's no hope for the cute little flipped back.

The front. Notice the cute little clip. I'll be investing in a few more, because I'll most likely lose more than one.

The side view. It turned out much better than I thought it would.

The top view. Notice the "unicorn patch."

By the looks of these pictures, I don't think Andie cares too much about her hair. I'm just happy she still looks like a little girl.

What do you think?

Kate the "Hair-Cutter Man"

So, it's been a day. One of those days.

Last week I was talking to my sister about how Andie needed a haircut since she was sporting the "Baby Mullett." Well, Kate must've heard me talking about it, and decided to take matters into her own hands.

Yep. She gave Andie her first haircut this morning. Mom wasn't too happy about it. In fact, Kate spent about 2 hours in her room, cleaning and thinking about what she had done. Mostly those 2 hours were spent in her room for her own safety, seeing as I wanted to ring her neck! But, I was a "good mommy" today, and discussed with her the dangers of using scissors (which, by the way, we have discussed before), why Kate isn't allowed to use scissors without Mommy's supervision, and why we don't cut other people's hair. The sentance of the day was, "We don't cut hair, we only cut paper, and we only use scissors when Mommy has said it's okay and is watching."

My little sister, Crystal, came over on her lunch break and told Kate, "We only cut hair if we have gone to school to learned how to cut hair properly." So now Kate is aspiring to be a "Hair-Cutter Man." (She knows that my friend Mike cuts my hair.)

One might ask how this happened. Let me fill you in. I was in my bathroom applying minimal amounts of make-up and pulling my hair into the ever so mom-friendly ponytail. While I was at the mirror, the girls were laughing and giggling out on the back deck. Nither one was crying, screaming, or quiet (you know what happens when it gets too quiet). So I thought all was well. Obviously I was mistaken. In the 5, maybe 10 minutes, I was in the bathroom, Kate got ahold of the scissors and went to town being a "Hair-Cutter Man."

Here are some pictures of the damage. I have an appointment to get it "fixed," or at least as "fixed" as possible tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully we won't have to buz it all off. There are several spots that have been cut right down to the scalp. Guess, we'll see. Tune in tomorrow for the sequel.

As you can see, Andie could care less, and as Rob put it, "At least it's just hair, it'll grow back. At least she didn't stab Andie in the eye with the scissors."

I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to get Andie's hair "fixed," or at least as "fixed" as it can get. There are several spots that have been cut right down to the scalp. I'm just hoping we won't have to buzz it all off. Guess we'll find out.

Tune in tomorrow, and see the "fixed" product.

Accident Prone or Something...

It seems we have children who like the emergency room, or urgent care at least. On Saturday evening Andie climbed onto a chair, grabbed a glass decorative ball out of a basket and fell over backwards onto the kitchen tile. In the landing she managed to shatter the ball on the tile and cut her wrist (about 3/4 to 1 inch). Now, seven stitches later she's happily playing again.

We have now had one accident per child this year (knock on wood). We have filled our quota (knock on wood). NO MORE ACCIDENTS (knock on wood, knock on wood, knock on wood)!!!

My New Baby

I am the proud new owner of this beeeeeeeeautiful 2003 Yukon Denali!!!!!!

We had been thinking about getting a bigger vehicle for some time, but had never decided on anything. We were basically waiting until we found the PERFECT vehicle. This was all thrown out the window, however, when Rob's mom and little RM brother came to town for General Conference.

Terry, my mother-in-law, had mentioned several times before that she was looking for a car, so that Kyle, Rob's little RM brother, could have his car back. When they came to town for Conference, Terry mentioned that she still hadn't found a car. I replied, "Well, do you want to buy my Malibu?" She surprised me when she said, "Sure!"

So Rob and I searched and searched lot after lot of cars for "THE" car. No luck. Then we went to KSL.com and searched the cars there. Finally, after Rob was sick of searching the web, he told me to knock myself out looking for a car.

Rob headed up to bed on Monday night, and I headed down to the office. I went to several dealership sites, and found nothing interesting. Then I searched KSL.com, and still found nothing. Then I searched autotrader.com, and I struck gold!

I found "THE" car!!! I went up and showed Rob the stats and pictures I had printed. He was asleep, although he claimed he was really awake, and remembered nothing of our conversation in the morning. I waited until I could get a sitter, set up a test drive, and went to pick Rob up at work. We drove it a little ways up the canyon, and were impressed with what a smooth ride it provided. I was really excited about this car, and I WANTED it.

The next morning Terry and Kyle left with the sold Malibu, and I was left without a car for the day. Rob and I thought about it, decided it was a good deal, and bought it.

It was ready the next morning at about 10. Rob came and picked me up, we loaded in carseats and kids, and I took him to pick up his Honda. It was finally MINE!

I love my new car. It has heated, leather seats, and is in great condition for a used car. If you can't tell by the picture, it is charcoal grey, not black. I love it!