24th of July lesson recap of last Year

I thought I would share this again since we are living in a new place and I know there are a lot of primary workers especially for the little ones that would like to do a special 24th of July lesson. This is what I did with my nursery class last year and it turned out wonderful. The kids listened and all had fun at the same time. If you are not a primary worker this would also work for preschool or even family home evening. Hope you enjoy.

 I had the lesson for nursery and I wanted to teach the kids about how the pioneers lived. How they traveled, what they played with, how they made their own food and ect. So I made aprons out of hot pads, ribbon and wash rags with a coffee filter for a bonnet, then I made rag dolls out of my fabric scraps that I keep around because Itylee likes to pretend they are noodles, and finally I got little baby food jars and put heavy cream in it to make butter and we all sat on the floor and sang some primary songs while we shook the jars. Or you can play primary songs on a CD and every time the music stop you freeze and when it starts playing again you pass your jar and ect. I was planning on make some bread but got way to busy. but the best part was my dad and I built a little handcart out of my old bike trailer. The kids had soo much fun and to top it off I made an amazing cake! Thank you Alessandra. Check out her website at howicook.com for the recipe and directions because you will be the hit of the party if you show up with this cake.

The top picture from left to right is James, Jesse, Hailey, Itylee, Henry, and Brynne The rest of the pictures you can figure out yourself :)

Celtic Celebration 2011

So Celtic Celebration was AMAZING this year. Everyone did so good. I want to say thank you to Liesl, Emily, and Amy for working hard and choreographing some amazing dances and of course Leia even though you are not there you did a wonderful job on Mother Nature and you are not forgotten. But also for all my fellow ADC dancers for working their butts off to make this happen. And also a shout out to all my friends and family for their support. I couldn't have done it with out you guys. My husband recorded our dances on his phone so sorry if you don't like the quality and thank you James for recording them for me. If anyone is interested in learning to Irish Dance come join us at An Dragan Ceilteach Irish Dancers I hope you enjoy our fun dances. Sorry about the Pirate dance if you want to watch the whole thing I shared a video on my facebook that someone else recorded. Its amazing! Check it out

Got to love free

So as many as you know I am prone to free stuff. Which I am very blessed since money is super tight. So the latest thing I got for free was this really cute playhouse that needed some work. I had to sand it all down, fix the bench, and take fix the door that was coming apart. I then found a new can of deck stain and sealer in my basement so this whole project didn't cost me a dime! I did it all and it only took me 2 days due to the fact that the door had to dry for 24hrs after gluing it. I think this is my first project that I actually got all done in such a short time. I am very notorious for not finishing what I start or it takes me months. So I am very proud of this. I would like to stencil in some designs to make it look not so plain. So if anybody near has some cute stencil designs let me know.

BEFORE

 AFTER

Unity Pass we meet at last

I DID IT! I made it to unity pass! Ever since we moved here in August my goal was to jog to Unity Pass and back. Well I have decided I suck as jogging so I put the girls in the bike trailer and haul then up it with me on the bike. There was actually a point where the girls and I started to go backwards but instead of giving up like I usually do and turning around I got off my bike and walked them up the rest of the way which was a workout in itself! But I needed that picture to prove to myself I can do anything. I cried almost the whole way back. For those who know me know why. I start many things and never finish exspecially in fitness. Over the past year I have lost 40 lbs and 20lbs have been in the past 8 weeks. These 8 weeks have totally changed my life no more yo-yoing for me. So I deserve the right to cry. Well until I get the feeling back in my legs and butt I will continue to sit on my sidewalk an let it ice the back of my legs and butt

First Slipcover

Yeah! I finally Finished my first slipcover. It didnt take long to actually put it together but holy crap it took a lot of planning. First off I do not suggest doing a layZboy for your first project, second do not pick stripes for your first project especially if you have minimal to work with, third if you do not have Shelley's how to dvd your screwed and should stop right away and head over to http://customslipcoversbyshelley.blogspot.com/ and order your dvd right away. Trust me you will not regret it! The only way I made it through my project was with her amazing dvd.

I had to make 3 seperate pieces because I still wanted to use the recliner and be able to take the back off so I can easily move it around. My girls love their new pink chair and the best part is I bought the layZboy on ksl for 10$ and the material was a king size sheet in the "as is" section at Ikea for 10$ so for this lovely new addition I only had to spend 20$! Now I need to get to work on some pillows to top it off. Thanks again Shelley for putting that dvd together!

72 hour kits reality check

My heart goes out to all the people in Japan and also to everyone that has loved ones there. We have been so blessed over here in Utah to not have the "Big One" hit us yet. All these natural disasters that have been going on around the world have been a warning to us to be prepared. So i decided to go through my 72 hr kits that hasnt been updated since 2008 and discovered my family would probably last only 1 day if we were away from home and because of my job its probably likely that I would be away from home. It was quite frightening. First I had to run down stairs to even find the 72 hr kit when really it should of been in my car. Then discovered it only had a few food items in it that had expired in 2008. So my shopping list was made. Then I realized there wasnt anything for Vienna due the fact she was born in 2009 and my bag was made in 2008. I was totally not prepared. Luckly while I was going through my kit I remembered James had gotten me a solar powered phone charger for Christmas but I never put it in my in kit. How mad at myself would I have been If i was in need of it and didnt have it because I was to lazy to put it right away when I got it. I think it is something everyone should have if you have a cell phone. Expecially if your like me and that is your home phone too. Also it was a great reminder to establish an out of state contact that both my husband and I could call to check in to incase I couldnt get a hold of him. So my list is made, food shopping, and calling my sister to let her know she is my contact. So I challenge all of you to just check your 72 hr kits and seriously let me know if your kit was up to date! I will give you a gold star if it is :)And seriously consider getting this solar powered charger. Its also good for more thing than a  phone too!

Refinished Piano

So I have really been dying for a piano and luckly I had just found someone who was getting rid of their piano for FREE! Yes there was a catch. It was really old built in 1925 but I LOVE old things so itwas no problem then some of the keys were not working and they had started to paint it and never finished. Luckly for me I was actually excited for those mishaps. First I had to take it apart and fix the keys that werent working then I painted it black with some left over blck polyshade. I didnt like how the black hid a lot of the dimension of the piano so I sanded around the edges and LOVE it! The Picture doesn't do it justice. There is not a better feeling than taking something broken and fixing it! So all and all I didnt spend I dime on this project which is a double bonus!