It's official she can sleep anywhere!

Happy Halloween

On Thursday night the girls went with my friend Jenn to a Trunk-or-Treat at our church while I had to attend a meeting. Before hand I tried to get pictures of the girls in their costumes but it wasn't easy...Emma was on the move but I managed to get a few ok shots of her. Allison wasn't moving but she makes the most interesting faces sometimes so getting a good picture of her is also a challenge. I love the close up picture of her...when did she get so grown up?

And these little Ghosties are what we had for breakfast...scary huh!?!?!

This is the House that Jack Built!

Halloween Craftiness

We decorated our pumpkins today here is the before shot... And here are some afters and during photos
Aren't they lovely?!?!

I got the idea for this cute wreath from my friend Jenni. I changed mine a little bit and I am very happy with how it turned out.

So Far This Week...

I took dinner into a lady from church who just had surgery and I thought I would make a festive dessert for her. I saw these on Bakerella and had to give them a try...super easy! These pictures are for Grandma...the girls love all their new clothes. Emma cried when I took her monkey shirt off to be washed. And look closely at Allison's face in these pictures...so many emotions!
We went to build-a-bear for family night because I found a $5 off coupon for each girl so we got 2 bears for under $20 not bad!?!? Allison's Polar Bear is named Fuzz Ball and Emma named hers Go-Go.

Let the Halloween Fun Begin

Allison is going to be Minnie Mouse this year My mom sewed her costume and I made her ears. She couldn't find her yellow shoes for the pictures but there will be more Halloween adventures where I can get the whole outfit in one shot.
Emma is Ruby from the books/cartoon of Max and Ruby. My mom sewed her yellow jumper and I tried to paint the little designs to match but Emma was helping...let's just say they are far from perfect. Luckily Emma can make anything look cute. I looked everywhere for a purple colored shirt and couldn't find one...the closest thing I found was a purple t-shirt with polka dots so...I cut the bottom off and attempted a collar...it will have to do because that's the best I can manage:)

Today the girls and I braved the crowds at the Sea World Spooktacular...We loved all the bright colored decorations and fishy costumes. We did have to wait in some long lines but they moved pretty fast and the girls didn't mind. The girls got some candy and a few other treats like mini bananas, peanut butter, and pip squeak markers...I liked that it wasn't all candy and so did the girls surprisingly. It was a fun start to the Halloween season.

Bedtime

Emma knows if I see her come out of her room at bedtime that I will put her back and shut the door. Apparently her new trick is to come out of her room but not round the corner so I can see her...seriously this can't be a comfortable way to sleep.

Nap Time

Emma kept coming out of her room during her nap time yesterday so I shut the door and let her cry. This is how I found her ...toys everywhere and her asleep on her tuffet.

Another Stained Shirt is Saved from the Garbage

I found this cute dress idea from my friend Rebecca's blog . I didn't think I had a shirt to try this with but then I remember that one of Ben's old shirts had a big stain on it and was in my get rid of pile. So I dug out the shirt and was bummed that the stain was right in the middle ...but no worries I added a pocket and a painted flower that covers the stain quite nicely. The sleeves aren't the same as the tutorial because there were also stains on the sleeves...however I used the cuff of the shirt (it was long sleeved) as the straps...I was hoping to turn the cuff into a little ruffled sleeve similar to the tutorial but the cuff wasn't long enough to gather so they became straps. Thanks Rebecca for finding that great tutorial!

Not Quite a Pumpkin Patch

I was less than impressed with the pumpkin patch where we got our pumpkins this year. So it wasn't actually a patch but I knew that before we went...we didn't feel like driving forever to get to an actual patch. The pumpkins were a little pricey I thought but maybe I am just cheap. Also the rides and petting zoo were way over priced. Ok enough with my complaining...I thought of a few positives despite the lack of "pumpkin patch" ambiance.

1. We got to spend family time during the day on a Monday...that is a rare occurrence!
2. Allison loved the bunnies in the petting zoo
3. We got some cute pictures
4. It made me remember good times at a real pumpkin patch. I hope all my Washington friends and family appreciate how blessed they are to have amazing pumpkin patches to go to.

I was less than impressed with the pumpkin patch where we got our pumpkins this year. So it wasn't actually a patch but I knew that before we went...we didn't feel like driving forever to get to an actual patch. The pumpkins were a little pricey I thought but maybe I am just cheap. Also the rides and petting zoo were way over priced. Ok enough with my complaining...I thought of a few positives despite the lack of "pumpkin patch" ambiance.

1. We got to spend family time during the day on a Monday...that is a rare occurance!

2. Allison loved the bunnies in the petting zoo

3. We got some cute pictures

Sacramento Zoo

After Fairytale Town we went across the street to the zoo.
I think Allison is the cutest spider I have ever seen!

The girls loved the giant blow-up frog and the squirrels. Man there were an abundance of squirrels :) Our favorite animal at this zoo was the red panda.

Dragon Fruit

Today my friend Ruth gave me a dragon fruit off one of her many amazing fruit plants. It is such a pretty fruit I would love to have a bowl of them to just look at.

It's funny but this little fruit made me so grateful for so many things...for my sight that I could see such pretty things, for Heavenly Father giving us such wonderful diverse things to eat...for friends who bless my life for many reason including but not limited too giving me fruit. So after thinking of all the things I was grateful for the girls and i cut it open and gave it a try.

It's texture is very much like a kiwi but its taste is much more mellow. It is sweet but in a very bland sort of way. It was exciting to try something new...it isn't something I would have around all the time obviously but it could be fun to add to a fruit salad sometime. Thanks Ruth for the pretty dragon fruit!

Fairytale Town

As I said in the previous post we went to Sacramento on a little family vacation. We left San Diego at 3:30 am and arrived at Fairytale Town in Sacramento around 10:30 and we were all glad to get out of the car. The girls had fun at Fariytale town...there were lots of slides. And Emma loved the hippo drinking fountain.

Can you find the Cheshire cat?

The gold thing is the key that the girls could stick in to these boxes and it would tell them a story or sing them a song. I think I found that more appealing than they did...they just liked sticking the key in and then toddling on to the next thing not waiting to listen to the story. The garbage cans looked like toy soldier which I thought was really cute(can trash cans be cute?)

This was in Sherwood Forest, Allison loved the fox.

This goat was awesome...someday Ben wants to have Pygmy goats...someday I would like to live in a home with a yard that could accommodate Pygmy goats :)

The crooked mile was our favorite we had lots of races!

A New Nephew

This past weekend we took a family vacation up to the Sacramento area. Ben competed in a Barbershop competition and we were able to stay and visit with his brothers family. I will post more pictures from our trip later but I wanted to share these pictures of our new nephew Trevor that was born while we where visiting. Isn't he adorabe?!?!He was definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

Create

Allison has been begging me to sew so I was brave and gave her a real needle and a little hoop for her to use. She did pretty good, she never poked herself and she only needed my help a few times when it got tangled. And I made a table runner to practice more stippling.
I gave each of the girls a canvas and let them paint however they wanted. First they started out with only a few colors and paint brushes...by the end it was almost every color and their hands. These masterpieces hang in their reading corner and I love looking at them.

2 New things from one Old Thing

My favorite dress of Emma's was her cupcake dress. Recently it got ruined by a big stain and after many attempts to get the stain out I gave up. But I could not bring my self to throw this adorable dress away so..... I cut off the top that wasn't stained and added new fabric for the bottom so Emma now has a new cupcake dress. Then from some of the bottom of the dress that wasn't stained I made a new skirt for Fancy Nancy. Nancy was an excellent model but Emma didn't want to do a cute pose with a smile...oh-well. I think both new things look pretty good and I still have a little bit of fabric left over for some other project in the future.

A whole lot of Sea World

I took Alli to Sea World on Labor Day and then we went again with our friends the Welckers the next weekend so here are pictures of the fun we had. Barbara manatee......
LA-la-La-la it's Elmo's world...Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea...

Ok I ran out of clever music lyrics to use as captions.

Andrew had no fear when it came to the water he LOVED it Emma took awhile to warm up to the idea and even then she stayed pretty dry.

Ben and Tyler proving their strength...they one sharks for the kiddos!

I love how the girls wanted to be queen of the mountain.

Just for Grandma & Grandpa

We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you!We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you! We Miss you! We Love you!

Forgotten summer photos

This summer we had our Holmgren family Reunion in Utah...it was a blast! I love visiting with all my relatives. I don't have many pictures I hope my sister will send me a disk from her camera soon (hint hint!) The kids loved playing in any type of water...it was hot enough that I wanted to jump in the kiddie pool!
I love muttin bustin! I did it all the time as a kids, And to my shock Allison actually rode a sheep this year at the 24th of July celebration in Bear River, UT. The guy helping grabbed her off before she got to far because I didn't think she would ever do it again if she got stepped on on her first time. Looking back I wish I would have just let her go all by herself...maybe next year!

The girls also got to be on the family float this year...it was most of the great-grand kids of Phyllis and Gordon Holmgren and our floats theme was "It took all kinds to make the West" We had pioneers, Indians, cowboys, Brigham Young, Dance hall girls, Cowgirls, Mountain men etc. I loved being in this parade when I was little we would always win a prize. This year I believe we got 3rd. My favorite year was when I got to be a mermaid on the float...I think we won the grand prize that year.

It was a fun reunion and I hope to see my family again soon. I miss you all and love you very much!