Rods and Dogs Pinewood Derby for Adults

Tomorrow night Dan and I will be competing against each other in a pinewood derby of our own. Our ward at church is having a "Rods and Dogs" activity. It's a pinewood derby race and a chili and cornbread cook off. I will be competing in the chili cook off and I am pretty excited about that (I make some amazing chili) but I am even more excited about racing my very own car! It is my very first. I've always been on the spectator side growing up with brothers in scouting but I've never actually had the chance to make my own car before. It was a lot of fun.  Check out our cars!

Dan's Car

 "Bullet Bill" from the Mario Cart Wii game (Ethan had the honors of helping Dan pick the design) and yes I helped on the paint job too. Dan helped me hog out my car so I could put the weights in on mine. Fair trade if I do say so myself.

My Car

This is the "Zumba(R) Hourglass" (trying to go with the hourglass shape you can achieve by doing Zumba) it's a stretch I know but it represents me. This is a picture in its paint phase. I added a little Zumba (R) love once the paint and clear coat were dry.

And Wha La! Here they are all ready for the track. Wish us luck!

I thought it best to take pictures now in case we have a casualty at the racetrack...

I hope my chili will do well. I've won once before at our Halloween chili cook-off.  I hope I can do it again.

A Photoshoot Just for Emma

Today was Ethan's picture day at school. So I decided to get Emma all dressed up and cute as well and took her to have her pictures done as well.(I love that Ethan's preschool allows siblings to take advantage of having a photographer in the building!) They are awesome and I can't wait to get them!  But since I can't wait til then I took some when we got home too. I love how they turned out and I am loving my backdrop stand! I just might had to make some fun backdrops just as an excuse to take more pictures!

 But aren't these adorable?!

Rainy Day Photo Shoot

Saturday I had an itch to do a small project that I had seen on Pinterest to make a photo backdrop stand from some PVC pipe. So as soon as the kids had settled down for the morning I packed them in the car and went to Lowes to get my supplies.

I found an employee and he showed me where to get all my T-shape, 90 degree angles, and end caps, and then I asked if he'd be able to help me cut the 10' lengths of pipe into smaller pieces to fit in my car. Lucky for me I had written down all the measurements I would need for the completed project and this dear old man made every single cut for me! I had absolutely no work to do when I got home except to slip on the adapters and connect everything to make the stand. Can you say coolest project ever?!

So of course, once the stand was put together I just HAD to test it out (you know me). I got a bunch of shower curtain rings I had been saving, one of my white shower curtains, and had a mini photo shoot with the kids. It was the perfect rainy day activity too. I put the backdrop near an open window so it could reflect as much natural light as possible and went for it. Here are a few of my favorites.

 Notice the little barbie she has in her hands? This girl always is carrying around something with her.

The best way to get genuine smiles in shots with little kids is to have some silly face shots in between. And even these were fun because you can really see their real personalities.

I am looking forward to our Easter pictures we'll be getting done in a couple weeks! And if the weather doesn't cooperate we'll have this handy dandy backdrop stand to use just in case.

Emma's 2nd Birthday!

I can't believe my little baby girl is 2! Time has flown so fast. It seems like we were just getting ready to move into our house by painting and installing our hardwood floor. I was 8.5 months pregnant with her then. Has it really been 2 whole years?!

Emma is the little sun ray in our home. She is our happy, carefree, have no fear little girl. She is very aware of those around her and if she sees you shed a tear, she is the first to come over and lay her head on your lap or pat you on the back and tell you in her own special way that everything is going to be ok.

Emma is now in size 3T clothes and a size 6 shoe. She loves everything girly and is constantly wearing beads around her neck or carrying a bag, purse, puppy, or doll in the crook of her arm. She always has to have a friend to take with her on errands or rides in the car.

Emma is starting to take an interest in potty training. We've even had a few successes! She is also starting to pronounce words a bit more, and it is getting much easier to understand what she wants. But I think my favorite word so far it her word for water, "loolooloo."


Here are a few pictures from Emma's birthday party we had last night with Uncle Steven and the cousins. We had a taco bar dinner and of course some cake and ice cream. 

We love you beautiful girl! Happy Birthday!

Tonights FHE Lesson Prep

 

Today I decided I needed to put a little extra effort into tonight's Family Home Evening Lesson. I didn't get this off of Pinterest or anything I just came up with it last night as I was talking to Dan about our plans for tonight. It just so happened that I picked up some wooden frames from Goodwill yesterday along with the Lamp I fixed up. I didn't have any specific plans for them but I am always needing frames for something. 

So here's our temporary temple pics for tonight's FHE (Family Home Evening). Just some spray paint, some $1.29 cent frames, and wha la! We're going to have the kids choose their favorite temple tonight and will order the temple photos them from the distribution center to use in the frames later. The clip art that I used is from FREELDSART.com.

 I love the way the pink one for the girl's room turned out with the brass corner pieces. I just taped those off while I spray painted the pink. The red one matches the car theme we have going on in Ethan's room. Now I am off to decide on what to make for refreshments. Can't have Family Night with out those!

The Girl's New Bunkbed!

So it's official. The bunkbeds for the girls room are finished! And I would like to take a minute to just brag a little and say that I did it all without the hubby too! This momma took on the entire job from start to finish!

I ordered the bunkbed online from Bed Kingz on Ebay and had it shipped to the house. It came right on time and I was so excited when I saw the 5 huge boxes it came in on my front step! I didn't waste a minute and I brought those babies inside.

Now being the impatient interior decorator that I am (amongst other things) I decided not to wait til my darling husband got home to start the project. Instead I hauled each of the boxes up the stairs one by one. Mind you...each of these boxes weighed well over 40 lbs and one was even over 70 lbs! This mama got her workout in for the day! I disassembled Kiera's bed and hauled it out of the room piece by piece and then opened EVERY box to find the instruction manual and hardware. Then I spent the next couple hours assembling the bottom bunk. 

I forgot to take a picture of the progress I made that day but I did take a shot of the bedroom with Kiera's bed taken out of the room. (excuse the bad pic quality)

 

I was pretty worn out after this so I took a break til the next morning. But from 9:00-4:30 the next day was spent solely on the bunk bed (again on my own). Dan had to work that Saturday since he was the weekend manager for that week. It was a long long day.  The only breaks I took were to feed the kids and the occasional drink/potty break. I even had to start using one of my winter gloves to nurse my right  hand from the little Alan wrench I had to use to put everything together. My hand was killing me. 

This bed came as individual boards. Nothing was preassembled. I had to assemble everything from the railings to the drawers to the individual bed slats. Even with all that work I would still do it again. This bed is awesome! It has drawers in the steps that go up to the top bunk and side shelves in the spaces behind the drawers. It also has a trundle bed that pulls out! We have some pretty happy kiddos too. You can see Ethan and Emma hanging out on the top bunk in this picture. I got the bedding on the bottom bunk from Target and it matches the quilt and silhouette canvases I made perfectly! I love when that happens!

 

Now we need to fix up Ethan's room and get all the pieces from the crib and old bed out of there so he can move around again too.

And I am happy to report that Emma slept the entire first night in her big girl bed without any problems!