(11-14) 2 Months

(P.S. Scroll down to see more posts from today.)

(11-13 ) Shiner

 And this is what the black eye looked like a few days later. Kind of cool, and kind of awful. The bloody part worried me, and I made Adam go see the optometrist. He said everything was fine and the blood was just from a couple of burst blood vessels. Ewww.

(11-10) Martial Arts

 On the tenth Anicka, Adam and my sister Crystal (who just recently joined Adam's martial arts class) had a belt testing ceremony and they all advanced a belt level and got to break a board.

 And, in case you didn't notice, Adam got a black eye during the sparring portion of his test. It was some pretty intense sparring. I wish I had been able to video tape it, but at the time I was nursing Alexa and couldn't get the camera out in time.

(11-6) Alexa's Blessing Day

(11-2) Mission call

 I am tired of trying to catch up on this project, so I'm just uploading the most important things.

 On November 2nd my youngest brother was called to serve a mission in Lansing, Michigan. He'll be gone for two years, doing the Lord's work.
This day was full of rollercoaster emotions for everyone. Jesse will be such a spectacular missionary, and we will all miss him so much.

Nice kicks

 I was looking through old pictures (working on a Christmas project) and I found these. They were taken a little over a year ago, and I always meant to blog about them. Better late than never, I guess.

One day I bought some cheap canvas shoes for Anicka from Family Dollar with the intention of drawing all over them. But the second I pulled out the shoes and the markers Anicka popped over and asked "Can I color on them, too?"
She was so excited by the idea of coloring her own shoes that I just turned the whole project over to her. Her shoes turned out pretty great, don't you think?

Little brother wanted to get in on the picture taking action

Sadly, these shoes no longer fit her, but for a long time they were her favorite. I think we need to do this again soon.

(10-31) Halloween night

 My family really loves Halloween. My mom still dresses up every year, and I love it. Adam pretty much only dresses up because I make him. This year I was too stressed to think of anything very original, so we just dressed like punks.

 I helped my sister make an awesome 'Robin Sparkles' jacket, though. (Any HIMYM fans out there?)

 I made Alexa a super cute penguin costume, loosely based on THIS one from Make it and Love it. I simplified it and took a lot of shortcuts, and probably spent about an hour on it. I need to get a better picture of Alexa in her costume before I pack it up with the Halloween stuff. (yeah, our costume stuff is still in a pile in my bedroom. Don't judge.)

 And this is the Halloween 'wreath' for our front door, inspired by Dana's. The glue ghosts were made by Anicka a couple years ago. We thought they made a nice addition.

(10-30) Jack-O-lanterns

(10-29) Trunk -or- treating in Leeds

Anicka has her crazy face on.

What do you think of the trunk-or-treat tradition? Is this just a Utah thing? I think it's kind of lame compared to the excitement of running door to door through the neighborhood. But it seems like every year there are fewer and fewer trick or treaters out on Halloween night. Everyone does a trunk-or-treat over the weekend, instead.


I made Ryker's vest using THIS tutorial from Dana. Super easy. It seriously took me about 15 minutes. I really wanted to paint his face like this image that I saw on pinterest:

source

But, alas, you can't force a 3 year old.

(10-28)

(10-27) Dress up

Anicka loves to help dress Alexa. (Don't worry, I supervise to make sure no little arms or legs get twisted.) Alexa is just like a baby doll, except for the fact that she wiggles a lot more than most dolls.  Anicka was particularly pleased with herself for picking out this outfit.

(10-26) Broccoli Cheese soup

I am sooooo not a food photographer, but I had to post about this delicious soup.
I love Broccoli Cheese soup, and this was the first time I've made it myself. I used THIS recipe from Mels Kitchen Cafe (great blog, btw). I chose her recipe because it didn't have velveeta or canned condensed soup in the ingredient list. Mel has a recipe for bread bowls on her site as well, but I just used some dough that I had sitting in my fridge from my last batch of artisan bread. SO. GOOD.

(10-25)

(10-24) Stained glass window

 The kids helped me paint some coffee filters with liquid watercolors, and then we cut them into leaf shapes and used a few dabs from a glue stick to attach them to our big sliding door to the backyard.

 It looks really pretty in the afternoon sun, almost like a stained glass window.

(10-23) Model material

My cute little man all ready for church.

(10-22)

This is how we spent our afternoon. (taping a rug so that we could paint it.) In a few days I'll let you know how it turned out.

(10-21) After school craft session

An hour ago this room was clean.
(And yes, my craft room is a bit pathetic looking. One day I will have the money to make it beautiful.)

(10-20) Shadow Puppets

We got the idea for our shadow puppet theater from giverslog.com

(10- 19) Roads

Ryker turns just about everything into roads for his cars. The stripes on the rug, the lines on the linoleum tiles, and the pattern on the quilt that sits on top of my cedar chest...

They all become highways and parking lots.
So, I've been working on this:

A car mat. It's pretty big, and it has some of our favorite places on it. I actually started this over a year ago, so it has our old apartment on it, and both grandparents' houses. It has an airport, and a desert, and some mountains. Soon it will have the St. George temple. It is slowly coming together. Even though it isn't finished Ryker asks to get it out almost every day. Hopefully by the time I finish it he will still be interested!

(10-18) Keeping it real.

 Sometimes motherhood is just like this. All. Day. Long.

(10-17)

Bath time. I try to bathe her When Ryker is sleeping, or else I find myself trying to wash Alexa with one hand and ward Ryker off with the other. He thinks he is being extremely helpful when he tries to dump water on the baby's head. Sometimes I think it will be a miracle if this child survives her big brother's affection.

(10-16)

 1 day old:

1 Month old:

She has already changed so much. They grow too fast.

This is my last post for the day, I'll do some more catching up tomorrow. Don't forget to check out the others if you haven't seen them!

(10-15) Cotton Mission Parade

 On Saturday Anicka and Adam were in a parade celebrating the pioneers in the Dixie Cotton Mission. A wagon train came to St. George from Parowan and paraded down Tabernacle. You can read more about it here if you are interested.

 I'm glad that i thought to grab this picture of Anicka before the parade, because I wasn't able to get a good picture during the parade.

Ryker, Alexa and I sat on the sidelines, and Ryker had a great time watching all of the big wagons and tractors go by. His excitement tripled when some of the people in the wagons started throwing candy. He hasn't ever been to a parade before. (Also: It's really hard to take a picture of your kids when they're sitting on your lap...)

p.s. scroll down if you haven't seen Alexa's one month pic. It's really cute!

(10-14) Alexa's 1 month pictures

This was fun. I plan to do a picture like this every month. I wanted to write her stats on the chalkboard, but it just looked messy (my handwriting is not that great) and she kept covering things up when she wiggled around, ha ha. I'm not completely happy with the chalkboard font, but it's the best one that I could find. The funny little stuffed animal is a rabbit that I crocheted for her.

P.s. I am going to keep updating the blog as the day goes on (playing catch-up), so keep checking back, and scroll down if you haven't seen this morning's post!

(10-13)

I can't believe I've gotten two weeks behind on this project. I haven't given up, I've still been taking pictures every day; but I haven't had time to edit and post them. They should all be up this weekend.

Here's the  first one. This is another one of my carriers for Alexa. I made it following these instructions. It was super easy. The ring sling is nice because it's quick and easy to put on (there's nothing to tie) but is not as versatile as a wrap.