Make a Smilebox greeting

Leprechaun trap

We saw some leprechaun traps in the Family Fun magazine
and the kids wanted to try, so they can hopefully catch a leprechaun.
Tyler is looking forward to his"Three Wishes"!

• The yellow pom-poms are is the trail for gold to lure the leprechaun to the trap.

• The sign "Do not disturb", is because

"Leprechauns love to break rules.
Warning signs are sure to lure them in."

• The "Pot of Gold" is there lure the leprechaun up the latter, and on to the top of the hat that will give way and trap the leprechaun inside.

Watch the demonstration video to see how
" it Will Work"!


I just over heard the kids playing with the trap in the other room
and they are saying things like:

"That's not Gold!", and" get back in
the Time Out Jar because you put fake money in the pot!" "Can I get
out know?" "Money I can smell Money". "Help, Help, Help" "I have
something to tell you." "let me have the Little Guy". "I have some
Gold!" "Goldy, Goldy, Goldy", "Get the Ladder, quick!"

Over the weekend we went on a snow machine trip, and stayed
over night at the Caribou Ranger Cabin (?). It was pretty close to
Gray's Lake. We pulled two big sleds behind our snow machines full of
our supplies! Just after we got there it started to snow so any riding we
did it was really hard to see. I went looking for the kids (Cam was pulling them
in the sled behind the snow machine) and I could not tell if I was going forward
or back! That night it was a little interesting! There was plenty of beds for the nine
of us, but with five of the nine being kids, and being seven and under. It look some time for
everyone to fall asleep. Thanks to Mike and mentioning the wolves howling I was not
about to venture to the outhouse that night! The next day was beautiful blue skies and
we went on a ride to Caribou City ("it is a old gold town in the mountains that once had
10,000 Chinese living up there", so Mike said).
Tyler drove his own snow machine the whole time!
The kids had a great time sliding down hill and playing on the bunk beds! I thought
it was great to get away on a mini vacation close to home.
Thanks Mike and Katie for going with us!

Majestic Presences

Sunday afternoon the kids and I went to the River with Cam to check the
cows. When we got close to the river I could see a big bird I did not recognize.
Cam said he thought it was a young eagle(they were several colors of brown and black clumps of feathers, not anything like that majestic parents). Then we saw another one that must have
been a sibling.
For the last month we have seen a bald eagle flying around.
Before we left the river two parent bald eagle
were flying around chasing each other and landing fairly close to us.
They made the grand total of bald eagles we saw Four!!!
They were so beautiful and they flapped there wings only a few time and the rest of the time they were gliding!
They are so big!!!!

This is another reason I love living in Grace! Not to many places are people lucky enough to see eagle out there (almost) front door!

:( after trying for to long I gave up in trying to get an image off the Internet. The image I was trying to get had two eagles soring together in a blue sky with snowy mountains in the background. You will just have to use your imagination. Sorry (I wished I had brought my camera).

I did it!

I have had Cam's grandma's sewing machine for awhile, and have
made a few thing with it (doll clothes and an apron). Yesterday
my rotary cutter, ruler and cutting mate came in the mail (we
had an enrichment activity on strip quilting, and they said I would need
these things, and I have wanted my own for awhile).
I was excited to make this pillow to match my bedspread! I have
been wanting to do it for a long time. I used to have the center
material safety pinned around an old pillow!!!! The kids stuffed
it form me, and it is so comfy.

I have fought against the idea of sewing for quite awhile. It just seemed
like all sewing machines were out to get me!

Finished!

Cam started to put the wall frames up this morning before I got up.
Tyler and Tate were helping.
We watched a video on "Ask This Old House" to find out the correct was to
do it. I would have just eye bald it and put them on the wall. Cam is much
better at measuring and getting things even, level, and the right size.
I'm so excited I just keep looking at them!
We lived in a house before that had molding like this in the dinning room, and I
have loved it since.

Create

I was looking at the website yesterday (I put a link for it Little Window Shop), and saw these cute flower magnates. I had a friend coming over and I thought it would be a fun thing to do. So I ran up to Carol's house (thanks Carol) for some of her felt. I also made bows for Adele.

This got me thinking about President Uchtdorf's talk in Relief Society General Broadcast this last October. Do you remember it? If you have not heard it, or would like to be reminded here is a section of it.

The Work of Creation

"The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty—and I am not talking about the process of cleaning the rooms of your teenage children.

You might say, “I’m not the creative type. When I sing, I’m always half a tone above or below the note. I cannot draw a line without a ruler. And the only practical use for my homemade bread is as a paperweight or as a doorstop.”

If that is how you feel, think again, and remember that you are spirit daughters of the most creative Being in the universe. Isn’t it remarkable to think that your very spirits are fashioned by an endlessly creative and eternally compassionate God? Think about it—your spirit body is a masterpiece, created with a beauty, function, and capacity beyond imagination."

There was a lot more quotes I wanted to add, but I did not want this post to look so long that no one would read it.

Two years and three weeks Old

I had a lot of helpers with Tate's Birthday cake. Tate licked the mixer for the batter and the second batch of frosting. Grey and Adele helped smash the chocolate cookies in to crumbs. Then they dumped the crumbs on the frosted cupcakes to look like a load of dirt in the toy truck.




These are the things all boys Birthday Parties are made of:

• Juice bottle bowling
• Bing bag Throw into the trucks
• Then Tate's favorite activity was when we all built block towers and he got to knock them over with his loader (no crying or complaining about a distorted "masterpiece".) After Tate demolished the towers he loaded up the block and delivered them to a pile then distributed different blocks back to that person.
• Ate Cake (he had green frosting to because I got so cared away with dumping the chocolate on the cupcakes in the truck and on a smaller oval cake I forgot about the remaining cupcakes) It was a big recipe apparently.
• Opened presents.
• We had a great time just being together as a family.
  

Another First

Tyler learned to drive his Grandma's 500
(snow machine) last weekend. He even went to Baldy
(a mountain close by) I thought he would have gotten
tired on the ride, but he drove the whole time! He looked so
small when I was riding behind him on my own snow machine.

Adele went on the trip. She rode with Cam. The picture was
taken earlier in the day when they were riding around on the
farm. Adele seemed perfectly comfortable with Tyler.
Tate was with me and we stopped to fix his glove, and
he thought I was taking to long and pushed on the throttle(?) and
I screamed, and I thought for sure I was going off the back.


(He is cranky looking in the picture because I'm taking a picture and
not giving him a "showshine ride".)
He is crazy about snow machines. When ever Cam goes to the door
Tate grabs his goggles to go for a ride.

First Performance

Adele had her first dance performance on the 23rd.
She was very excited until I started to put in the hot curlers. Then she was not happy. Fortunately by the time she danced she had forgotten about the hair drama.

.

Adele is the second from the left.

The song is form the movie Enchanted if you did not recognize it. It is about a cartoon princess that gets sent to the real world by and evil soon to be mother in law. She experiences a rude awakening to the real world. I has a lot of singing in it.