Bringing Out the Tiger in YOU

Yesterday Ashlyn and I went to the zoo with some friends!  Thanks Jessica!!!! When we got home I thought it would be fun to face paint Ashlyn. She asked a TON about the giraffes but for some reason we never saw any. I should have painted her as a giraffe but went tiger instead, and a pink tiger to boot. I thought she was VERY cute! Next time we go I am for sure painting her face! I think she would have a blast!

Three Little Ghouls

Here are our three little ghouls all decked out in their Halloween bleach tees I made. All three really liked their shirts, Ashlyn didn't want to take hers off after I took the pictures. The boys wore them to school yesterday. Rayle likes his but complained it was too long. The only size in youth shirts I could find at Dollar Tree was XS and Medium. There were not smalls and that would have been better for the boys, but oh well. The fit was okay on Teagan. I really liked how they all turned out after washing them. What a great and easy project, and there are endless ideas as you could make any kind of design!!!

Get the most out of it!!!

Today has been a very productive day! This morning we were able to help out and clean our ward building. Not sure how much the kids helped, but Brian and I were able to get some cleaning done. When we got home the boys raked the dogs...um pooh and then I went and shoveled it into the trash. There were loads of laundry, dish washer unloaded and reloaded, bathroom cleaned, and boys room cleaned. After all the work it was time for some FUN! The weather was just about WONDERFUL today so the boys rode their bikes most of the morning and into early afternoon, Ashlyn "rode" her bike too, e.i pushing it because she WILL NOT pedal! While they rode I worked on a craft project and Brian worked on the car. It was very nice to feel accomplished with all that got done today. Tomorrow we can defiantly rest from all our labors!

Here is what I made today: a bleach silhouette tee. Last week I was invited to a craft night but could not go as I never know when Brian will be working. I thought he would have worked that night, but then he ended up not. It was already past the time for me to leave when we realized he would not have to work...BUMMER. So I have been wanting to make these tees up for awhile and today fit the bill. It helped that I bought my supplies I needed yesterday too! :) 

What you need: a t-shirt I got mine from Dollar Tree! I bought three one for each kid so spent $3+ tax!!!

 You will need a silhouette of some kind. I opted to make some Halloween themed tees. Ashlyn wanted a witch and a moon. I found this witch doing a Halloween Silhouette search. Make sure you turn your design the way you want it. I wanted the witch to face right not left, so I flipped the paper over and traced on that side, and then traced the picture onto my contact paper. Also the more angles you have the hard it will be to cut out. This one was tricky.

 Then you will need contact paper or freezer paper. I choose contact paper, because one it sticks to my tee and I also needed it to finish up my Thanksgiving place mats from LAST YEAR the kids made!!! I got mine at Hobby Lobby, don't forget to use a COUPON!!! ;)

 I meant to take a picture before I started to cut, but forgot, here is the witch and moon, I free-handed the moon in the background. And noticed she is facing right now, not left.

 Peel your contact paper off, THAT TOOK F-O-R-E-V-E-R I think it was the longest part of the project, trying to peel the pieces apart! Stick the contact paper onto your tee where you want the silhouette. Place some cardboard in between the shirt so the bleach will not bleed through.

 I used bleach also from the Dollar Tree $1+ tax and a spray bottle another $1+ tax it was a 70% bleach to 30% water. With the witch and the moon I went a little over board with spraying. First try so I was not sure how much I needed. I also sprayed really close. I barely made a dent into my bleach solution in the water bottle and it was one of those small hair water bottles. You will not use very much.

 When dry or you just can't wait any more, peel the contact paper off, and reveal the silhouette. I loved  how it turned out! I was too anxious and some of the droplets of bleach fell back onto the none bleached area, but it's okay the shirt still looks great.

 The boys didn't really see a fun design they loved so both came up with an idea they drew out on a post-it, and then I enlarged the idea on paper, and traced and copied it onto the contact paper. Rayle went with a Vampire: evil eyes, fangs, and blood dripping down. Pretty cool!!!!

 Here is Rayle t-shirt all done. I like!!!

 Teagan went for cool and laid back, a monster with some shades and fangs.

 I folded the tee over and that created the line, but the important part is that they love their shirts!!!

 I was also able to work on a prop for our upcoming family pictures. I wanted to create a banner with our last name on it. I got some burlap at Hobby Lobby, couldn't use a coupon because I used it on the contact paper :( I didn't want to go back another day!  I cut out a triangle pattern and then cut out enough pieces in burlap to make our last name plus two extra pennants on each side. Oh I wanted a little darker color than this tan, but they had this or dark brown, so I went with this color.

 I used some stencils we had and painted our last name on the pennants. 

 I had some twine from forever ago and started stinging the pennants to make our A.W.E.S.O.M.E. banner.

 Here it is done. 

 To sting the banner I just used my scissors to make a hole for the twine and feed it through.

Easy cheesy and we are that much closer to getting some snappy snap shots of our little family!!!

Pumpkins Shumpkins

Some friends invited us over on Monday to carve pumpkins, and it was a lot of fun. 

(Sorry if I talked so much and gave unwanted advice. I have that problem, I will blame it on being my mother's daughter.)

 I really love Halloween, and carving pumpkins is so much FUN. I know we carved some before the kids were born the first few years of marriage as well. I found both ideas on pinterest and knew that the boys would enjoy them. Rayle drew his picture on the pumpkin before I could stop him and it needed to be a certain way so that it would work. I think he was happy that I took over. Well maybe I guess I should allow them to help out more, but with artwork it's hard for me to allow it done in their way and not mine. UGH I have a problem! Teagan did the drawing for his pumpkin and I carved. I fixed a few areas so that the image would not fall into the pumpkin right away. Can you guess what we did?

 Pikachu and SpiderMan.

 Here is Pikachu from Pokemon.

 Here is SpiderMan.

The pumpkins with the lights on. 

Still need to work on Ashlyn's! And these guys are looking sad after only a few days carved. Darn AZ Heat! WE WANT FALL!!!!

Thanks again Perkins for having us over!!!

A PINK DS for ...RAYLE

Gotta love extended family with older kids. Brian's cousins are a few years older than our children and the oldest Sierra is almost 16 and has out grown her PINK DS. I had asked if they had any that we could have for Rayle since he likes to play Teagan's. They had a pink one to give. We knew Rayle would be just THRILLED to have a pink DS. Since Brian is SO handy he went ahead and found a black case to switch out the pink cover. Didn't know you could do that, and how handy as the new case was only $10! So with a little time to wait from the eBay purchase and a little more time for Brian to switch the cases, Rayle was able to get a new case on his Pink DS. When the case got here though it was blue instead of black. Ok it still worked, anything is better than PINK for a boy...RIGHT!!! Now Teagan and Rayle can play their DS's in style and enjoy each having their own with no sharing involved!!!

 I meant to take a picture before Brian start but he beat me to it and started to fast. Here is the light pink case being taken apart.

 Now the blue case being put together. I like how Brian wrote out the steps so he would be able to do the task! My man follows directions...sometimes!!!

I like to keep that plastic shield on my devices for awhile, when Brian asked Rayle if he wanted to leave it on like mom does, he ripped it off before Brian could even finish the question. Silly boy!!!

Glad for a handy dandy husband that will use his skills instead of just getting a new "boy colored" DS. With a couple of hours of time and $10 Rayle got a "new" DS!!!

ESCOPPEA Hey it's spelt just like the word ESCAPE

Nap time and bed time are NOT an enjoyable time for Ashlyn. Nap time is now out of the question. She will not lay down and sleep but would rather destroy her room...literally! Yesterday she stuck a metal necklace in the outlet that had her night light in it. Yep tripped the breaker thank goodness nothing worse then a burnt outlet, and not a burnt Ashlyn! Well a few weeks ago Brian was installing a new window AC unit and Ashlyn locked her door. Notice the door knob is turned around, why because she can pop off the handle covers and was able to get out of her room. Her closet handle cover is covered in duck tape so she can't open it. And girls are SUPPOSE to be calmer! HA!!! Anyways Brian was locked in and banging, but we couldn't hear the help he was calling so he let himself out. Well we now need a new door. No worries just put some cardboard in the hole until we can get the door. Well that won't deter our little escape artist if there is ANYTHING she can climb she will. One night we were watching TV well after we had put the kids to bed Brian had a feeling we were being watched. He turned around and there was Ashlyn on our stairs. Brian was POSITIVE he had locked her door. So we investigate. She must have stood up on her quad and put her arm through the door and unlocked the door! Man what that little mind must be thinking all day! So we take the quad out and put her back to bed. Five minutes later she was out again. This time she used the Batman Cave that Rayle had "given" Ashlyn. Well now we made sure nothing except her bed and pillow was in her room. Bedtime was finally achieved. But unfortunately naps are out. She still needs them as right now she is in a fool mood and screaming at me. UGH what to do what to do. 

 The door! The hole and the lock are pretty far from one another.

Her first tool of escape!

 Her second tool of escape!

Showing mommy how she helped herself out!

PINK

So I had no idea that they made different colors for key fobs/remotes. Seriously how cool is it to have something other than plain old BLACK. Brian was able to find me a pink one. LOVE IT!!! But I thought that it need just a little more!

 I took a black sharpie and did some zebra lines and made my already cool pink fob into an even cooler pink fob with black zebra lines!!! LOVE IT EVEN MORE!!!

I can totally spot where my keys are...most of the time!