Family reunion, part -4

Saturday night it was more family reunion fun. Pizza, salad, yummy treats, and good conversation. For the kids there was a fishing pond, for the adults, memories of Grandpa Ison, and a competitive and fun auction for really cool items. Followed by the family tradition of the "liars" game.

Katie and her cousins found a box, which provided about an hour of entertainment...who needs toys, when you have a really big box around.

Lauren and Cassie. Both looking way too old!

Katie won a princess crown and wand in the auction.

Colin and Ciarran.

Kallie and Katie, on the move as usual.

Mark, well he found sugar, LOTS of sugar.

We had so much fun, and it was especially fun because most of my cousins have blogs, so I came to the family reunion feeling like I knew them and what was going on in their lives. None of that awkward silence and asking what you have done in the last four years.

See you in 2013!

Beach towels.

If you are looking for a fun gift to give those newlyweds in your life, try beach towels and and cooler. I mean china and silver is nice, but really when is the last time you hosted a formal dinner party? When is the last time you went to the beach or the pool? My point exactly!

Card making, family reunion, part- 3

We came, we invaded, and we conquered card making, even those who considered themselves "craft" challenged. The hotel had a breakfast room, which we took over. Since it was mid-afternoon, we determined the breakfast rush was probably over, and it was safe for us to invade. Plus the hotel said we could!

Here are Alisha, Amber and Martha exercising their creative talents.

Arianne using my Sizzix machine, for advanced card making.

Karen and her daughter, both of whom tackled advanced card making.

Emma and Melanie, both of whom considered themselves "craft" challenged, but left with a renewed sense of their own creative selves.

This is my prized photo, Ariel making cards! Its true, Nelson's can be crafty!

Amber and Kim. Their smiles reflect how much fun our activity was.

I now have four years to gear up with even more cute cards!

Pool time, family reunion part -2

Kids pool time was scheduled at the same time as card making, which presented a challenge for me, how to direct card making, yet ensure that my children were adequately supervised...

Up stepped Colin and Ciarran to the plate, and offered to watch my children while I directed card making. I felt relief, because Mark and Katie each need their own set of eyes watching them in the pool. Lauren she has enough sense of self preservation that I never worry about her.

Here is Lauren floating around on her boogie board.

Here is Ciarran floating Katie around on the boogie board.

Mark laying claim to the pool toys he wants.

Katie in the hot tub. Katie went back and forth between the hot tub and the pool, carefully followed and monitored by Ciarran. At the conclusion of two hours in the pool with my kids, Ciarran was exhausted, and questioned how I kept up with them all day. Don't look for her to be taking on the title of "mom" anytime soon. For now the title of "aunt" is just fine with her.

Family Reunion - part 1

In early August I packed up my car and my children and headed to Idaho for my family reunion, and considered myself very brave for attempting this feat by myself.

As you can see from my packing job we were fully loaded, at least mostly. I got to North Salt Lake when I realized I forgot to pack my hanging clothes. I had a small debate with myself about going back to get them or going on a shopping spree in Idaho. I considered the fact that any shopping spree would also involve taking my three children to a mall of sorts, and that given the clothes that are available this time of year I would also have to find t-shirts and tank tops in order to not be to revealing. Decided going home was the better option.

By the time I added my clothes, I really had no room to spare. And to think my original intention was to take my BMW. No way could I have fit all my stuff in.

Once we arrived at the hotel the kids went CRAZY. Between being in the car for 8 hours, and being in a new place, the kids were literally bouncing off the walls. Good news for us, the hotel got wind of the wildness of my kids and put us in a corner room on the first floor, near the conference rooms, hence no other occupants of the hotel within a reasonable distance of us.
Katie got her hands on the telephone and would not let go. I finally had to unplug the phone and put it in the top of the closet before she destroyed the phone and I had a $150 charge to replace a hotel phone. I think what she was most curious about was that the phone had a cord attached to the receiver.....

Here is Mark jumping on the bed.

Lauren assumed control of the television.

Katie and Lauren slept in a hide-a-bed together, and Mark took up residence with me.

It was four days of late evenings, early mornings, but a lot of fun.

America's next top model.

Just in case you wanted to know, America's next top model resides at my house. She is in such high demand she booked two modeling assignments in one day. The first modeling assignment was the 4-H fashion review, 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning.....her agent, (mommy) was not pleased with the early call, especially considering the assignment was at the Spanish Fork fairgrounds, requiring an early departure from home.

She struck a pose as she modeled the dress she made.

After a quick outfit change, we modeled again. This time our accessory was Katie in a matching outfit.

I instructed Lauren to model and not worry about Katie, knowing full well that Katie would simply follow Laurens' lead.

The best part, when Lauren would stop to strike a pose, Katie would stop and shake her booty. The entire audience was laughing.

At the end they all lined up to receive their medals for modeling.

Katie was quite impressed that a pretty girl with a crown gave her a medal, and called her a princess. Reality, she was Miss Utah County.

After we finished modeling at the fair, it was off to our next booking, Stake Activity Days, where a fashion show of modest clothing was presented. You can see Lauren feels most at home on the cat walk!

Lauren decor.

Last year Lauren moved into one of the best bedrooms in the house and I did a little decorating when she first moved into the room, with the intention of doing more. Finally got to it this summer.

I painted this shelf yellow, antiqued it, and painted the knobs pink.

She already had all the fun trinkets to put on the shelf and pegs.

To complete the look I took a metal star and cut out scrapbook paper to cover the star, and used of course my favorite thing in the whole world, Mod Podge, to cover the star.

She loves her new decor!

The first day of school!

"Its the most wonderful time of the year..." I know its a Christmas song, but when Staples plays it on their commercials for back to school time, a smile can be found on my face. Now I have loved having the kids home for the summer, I have especially LOVED sleeping in and not having to get everyone out the door by 8:45 a.m.

That being said, I will not miss being the entertainment committee chair, along with chief referee of all disputes, and the short order lunch time chef. So bring on school, mommy is READY!

The third grade fashionista.

(We spent HOURS selecting just the right outfit for the first day)

FYI, message bags are the "new backpack."

The "un" fashionista. Quite frankly we are hoping he will wait to pull down his pants to go to the bathroom until AFTER he reaches the bathroom stall....as opposed to home where the announcement of potty activity is made and the pants are immediately dropped. The boy has no shame.

We are also hoping to NOT get kicked out of kindergarten. We will consider our kindergarten experience a success if both of these mile stones occur.

It leans...

Is my tree supposed to do this?

One good windstorm = leaning tree and $125 charge to remove said tree and prevent lawsuit against the judge who lives at my house.

Permission

In July Mark got grounded for the first time. He has been in a real destructive phase for about two months now. In two months he has not met a piece of paper, cardboard box, plastic, or just about any other object that has not been torn or ripped to shreds. Despite my best efforts to encourage him not to be destructive it has continued. Now I can deal with the paper, cardboard boxes, plastic etc., that he destroys, but he has also been destroying toys and other objects that have value. His response to me when I chastise him for destroying property is "We can just go to the store and get a new one." Sooooo NOT the correct answer.

In about mid-July I found one of his Thomas the Tank Engine books that he decided to rip apart and it was the final straw. I told him for the next month there would be no going to the store, no toys, no books, no DVD's. NOTHING. I got his attention. He kept asking me over and over again when his grounding would be over. I told him August 14, 2009. He had a whole list of items he thought I needed to purchase for him come August 14, 2009. I told him I would not be purchasing any new items for him, and that if he wanted new items he would need to do chores around the house and earn the money.

Grounding came and went, my point was made, and he got over the fact that on August 14, 2009 he was not showered with new toys. New toys could be requested for Christmas, and birthdays, or he could earn the money to purchase the toy himself.

On Monday night we were driving to the store, he asked me who gave me permission to ground him. The question caught me off guard, I mean after all I am the parent, I DON'T need permission to ground MY children. I told him that. He was not satisfied with than answer and persisted in knowing who gave me permission to ground him. I told him the doctor at the hospital gave me permission after I carried him for nine months and gave birth to him. Still not satisfied. He then asked if Heavenly Father gave me permission to ground him. I said yes he did. Answer satisfied him. Can't wait until he asks me who gave Heavenly Father permission.....

The dancing queen.

Congratulations to Lauren, my dancing queen. She made both the ballroom team, and the hip hop team at her dance studio. What does this mean for Lauren? A whole lot of dancing fun. What does this mean for mommy? A lot of driving and a lot of $$$$$$.

Americana

Made, or rather painted, this cute shelf to add to my American decor in the basement. The shelf is dark red, and I added scrapbook paper with my favorite crafting took Mod Podge, to the center part of the shelf. The decorations came from Tai Pan Trading, one of my favorite home decor stores. (I feel sorry for those of you living in Idaho, which is devoid of a Tai Pan Trading, so you know if you are looking for excuse to come and visit me.....)

Just one more...

Just one more random Mark quote:

On Tuesday Mark was spending the day at Grandma's house. It was late in the afternoon, toward dinner time, and Mark asked Grandma for a treat. Grandma said "no" due to the proximity of dinner and the fact he had a treat just a little while earlier. Mark replied, "So what you are telling me is, 'maybe later?"

Random Mark Quote.

Mark has several trains that require batteries to function properly. While in the process of changing batteries, Mark who was supervising said: "Let's make this annoying thing work." I could not agree more.

Ace of Cakes????

Recently, one of Rick's good friends had a birthday, and Rick enlisted my help to design and decorate a cake in the shape of a tennis racket, which is Eddie's life passion.

Here is the cake, it is life size to an actual racket, we used Lauren's as a pattern.

Rick working on the fondant.

We put a fondant ring around the edge to give the cake some dimension, and then painted the fondant with black food coloring. We added silver pearl dust and by the time we were done it really looked metallic.

The finished cake. The birthday boy was quite pleased, and the cake was delicious to boot.

4-H Project #2

In addition to doing a sewing project, Lauren also completed a project called "decorate your duds." This is where you take a finished article of clothing and decorate it. You then get to model it at the fair. We decided to do an iron on, that would match a skirt I made for Lauren.

We cut these flowers out of the skirt fabric.

Put sticky on the back, and ironed it on.

Here is the finished outfit. (I know the t-shirt looks really long, but it actually bunches up around the waist of the skirt when Lauren is wearing it.) I made Katie a matching skirt, and Lauren did an iron on for her t-shirt as well. They will be modeling together at the county fair, and trust me you don't want to miss that!

4-H Project #1

In order to stay in the good graces of my mother, I decided I had better not only teach Lauren to sew, but ensure she carried on the tradition of 4-H. So we tackled her first 4-H sewing project. A dress.

Here she is using the surger.

You have to pin, right sides together.

Then you must sew in VERY straight lines.

(Note, my mothers old Elna sewing machine for extra good karma)

The finished product! (Ok, I admit I did the straps, they were a little beyond her ability, and the fabric came pre-gathered, but still for a first project...) I think my mother must have been smiling on me, Lauren did a great job, and can sew very well for a beginner, much better, and much more patient than I was her her age...but then again it could have been the instructor....oops did I just say that?

Oat Bars.

Since Fabulous Card Friday is now over, I have decided to start a new tradition for my Friday posts, I am going to post cooking and craft things I have done. Because in case you haven't noticed, I have been a little overboard in the crafting department lately.....thinking an intervention might be necessary.....

One of my good friends, Sue, has a daughter who is getting married on August 15, 2009. To honor Jane Anne we of course had to have a bridal shower. I made these yummy treats for her shower.

Chocolate Caramel Oat Bars

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 sticks butter, chilled, cut into pieces.

Combine ingredients in either food processor, or mixer. Add butter and cut in, using off/on until crumbs begin to stick together. Remove 2 cups of the crumb mixture and set it aside. Press remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan.

1 12oz package of semi sweet chocolate chips

Sprinkle chocolate chips over the mixture pressed into pan.

1/2 cup whipping cream

20 pieces of Kraft caramel

Bring cream to a simmer over medium heat. Add the caramels and stir until melted. Pour over the crust and chocolate chips. Sprinkle the reserved 2 cups of crumbs over and bake 35-45 minutes or until the edges look golden brown. Cool and refrigerate.

Summer Dance Intensive.

All this week Lauren has been attending summer dance intensive. For those of you not familiar with summer dance intensive, (because I sure wasn't) she has three dance classes a day, for three days in a row. When they say intensive, they mean intensive, she literally dances for three hours each day, with half hour break for lunch. The classes are hip hop, jazz and ballroom. In each class she is learning a routine to be used today, Thursday, when she auditions for the company team at her studio. We know she looks like a professional dancer, and we are hoping today she dances like one!

Results next week.

Advanced Card Making.

On Friday night Lauren and I attended a send off party for a daughter of a good friend of mine. This daughter, Meredith, is Miss Utah's Outstanding Teen, and she is headed off to Florida to compete in Miss America's Outstanding Teen. The Outstanding Teen pageant is part of the Miss America organization, and they compete just like the Miss America contestents, with interview and talent, but instead of swimsuit they have lifestyle and fitness. At the send off party Meredith modeled her gowns, played her harp, and did a mock interview. She was outstanding, and if I do say so myself has an excellent chance and doing really well in the national competition.

I wanted to do something to support Meredith, and her mom had told me how important it was to the girls to receive cards and letters of support while at the pageant. So on went my thinking cap to design a really cute card for Meredith, which reflected what a girly, girly she is, and her love of dolls.

This is what I came up with......

(ok, this card was not actually for Meredith, but after I designed the cards for Meredith, I made this one for a friend who had a birthday)

Pink is Meredith's favorite color, good thing its mine too!

In this card I tried to copy one of the dresses Meredith wore.

This card is my favorite, out of all the cards I made.

Meredith didn't wear anything gold, but I still thought the gold with the silver shoes was cute.

This is the first card I designed, which is similar to one of the gowns Meredith will be wearing in the competition.

I had so much fun with the project I decided I needed to share my fun. So for those of you attending my card making activity at the family reunion, I am going to bring materials to make these cards. Now these cards will be different from the other cards. The other cards have everything cut out and ready to be glued on. I am not doing any pre-cutting with this card. I am simply bring the supplies, and anyone who wants to make this card should be prepared to bring their creativity, however I will be available for consultations.....