Little Blog Award

Katie, my BFF who recently moved far away from me, has nominated me for this little blog award. And no Katie this does not make up for you moving to CO, but every little bit helps.


My reward is I get to answer these questions in one word (or pretty close). Let's get started!

1. Where is your cell phone? purse

2. Your hair? clean

3. Your mother? caring

4. Your father? hard worker

5. Your favorite food? Many

6. Your dream last night? A mystery

7. Your favorite drink? strawberry lemonade

8. Your dream/goal? secret

9. What room are you in? family room

10. Your hobby? scrapbooking, photo shopping, refashioning, thrifting, crafting... oops...a little more than one word

11. Your fear? Loosing my hubby

12. Where do you want to be in six years? here

13. Where were you last night? home

14. Something you aren’t? rich

15. Muffins? YUM

16. Wish list item? new kitchen

17. Where did you grow up? Arizona

18. Last thing you did? picked Addy up

19. What are you wearing? shoes

20. TV? hulu

21. Your pets? messy

22. Your friends? awesome

23. Your life? lovelly

24. Your mood? content

25. Missing someone? Them

26. Vehicle? Caravan

27. Something you’re not wearing? jacket

28. Your favorite store? Ross

29. Your favorite color? all

30. When was the last time you laughed? today

31. When was the last time you cried? monday

32. Your best friend? Ammon

33. One place that you go over and over? Goodwill

34. One person who e-mails me regularly? Spamers(so I made this word up)

35. Favorite place to eat? Outback

Now I nominate... two dedicated bloggers......

1. Bobbi's Busy Book of Life (a private blog)

2.A Slice of Missy Pie

It was a Lovelly Halloween this year!

Addison decided months ago she wanted to be a witch. She may just be the prettiest witch I have ever seen, but don't tell her that because she might become a bit witchy and bite your head off. She wanted to be scary and everyone kept telling her she was a beautiful witch, which did not make her very happy.

Hannah decided last year she was going to be Belle next time and much to my surprise she still wanted to be Belle when Halloween time came around. She really was a beauty and even seeked out her Beast although she never found him. Now She says Elijah will be Beast next year and she will be Belle again.

I tried to convince Elijah to be Superman since we already had the costume and initially he agreed. Then somewhere he came up with the idea that he was going to be Bad Spiderman. He has never seen the movie, but he does have a black Spiderman toy. Needless to say, he won. Luckily my sister had a costume, but it was a 6/7. Elijah not even three disapearred in it, but luckily I was able to temporally alter it to fit.

I wasn't sure what to dress Emmy as, but when I saw this flower headband in my girls dress up stuff, I knew she just had to be a flower, so I found an old onesie and made a stem to match with some ribbon I already had. I have to say that I picked the right costume, she made an exquisite flower and smelled so sweet too.

Ammon I were a bit boring and didn't dress up this year. We had been sick the whole week before and weren't feeling up to it, but I am intent on finding some clever costumes for next year!

Happy Birthday Addy.

Has it really been six years? Celebrating her birthday takes me back to the moment we met. As the doctor layed her on my chest and her eyes wide opened looked up into mine and I melted. In that one moment my whole world changed and I became a mother. Her birthday marks six years of struggles, tears, laughs, smiles, and priceless moments as I have learned and continue to learn to be a mother. Motherhood is beautiful and I love you Addison.

Addison Nicole Lovell 10/17/2003

That being said, Addy started planning her birthday months ago. She wanted a carnival birthday party. I have no idea where she got that idea, but I decided I would do my best. So I begged, borrowed, and bargained. Addy was so excited and for less then 50 dollars, I was able to throw her a pretty cool party. We had popcorn ( the dollar store has awesome popcorn bags), pretzels (recipe to follow), and cotton candy ( dollar store variety). We had a (cup) cake walk, a horse race (I got stick ponies from the dollar store), a fishing booth, a tin can toss (food storage cans work great), a bean bag toss (borrowed), a bouncy house (borrowed), snow cone station (borrowed), face painting, and even a photo board ( dollar store foam core poster board). It was a fun-filled Saturday!
Addy and the home made photo board.Bouncy house and snow cone face.
Cute daddy daughter moment. Notice the cute ice cream cone on Ammon's cheek, he was told it was a dragon =)!

Hence this photo of Ammon acting like a dragon. And yes that is snow cone syrup all over Ammon, he is a messy vendor.

* Thank you for all those who came and celebrated with us. I would have posted a bunch more pictures of everyone, but blogger was giving me trouble.

My baby is growing so fast. I can't believe she is already 9 months. She recently got her first two teeth and learned to climb the wooden stairs. She usually only climbs a few steps before she stops, since they can't be to comfortable to crawl on. She loves to wave and say hi and claps all the time, sometimes she will even through in a yea. I feel truly blessed to have her in our lives. She is straight from heaven and such a joy to have around. She's got all five of us wrapped around her little finger. In the words of Emmy "YEAAAA"!

My first refashioning adventure!

So a few days ago I ran across a tutorial on how to make a dress out of a pillowcase. I just had to try it, even though I haven't touched a sewing machine in like 10 years. 

So I borrowed my Mom's sewing machine and took a quick trip to Goodwill (on Thursday, dollar day) and purchased a pillowcase for a dollar.

I forgot to take a before picture, so here it is sideways, you can kind of see that it is a pillowcase. It was really easy, even though it took me 4 hours. It should have taken a lot less, but like I said, I haven't touched a sewing machine in a decade.

Here is the finished product. Addy wanted a ribbon, so we just tied one around it and she even wore it to church. I think it turned out pretty good for my first sewing adventure, but just don't look close up at the stitching =)! I think it is pretty cute for something that cost me a dollar and some change. I will definitely be making more of these in the future.

I am now making plans to turn one of my old skirts into a cute little sundress for Addison.  If you have any cool refashioning ideas, let me know. I think I may have to purchase my own sewing machine in the near future. I may just become a refashionista.

A NO POOP SIGN!

So the other day I was in the kitchen cleaning, while the kids were eating lunch. I looked out the patio doors to see something stuck on the window, I opened the door and I found the picture in the previous post. I instantly thought what the heck, who put that there and what is it? Then I began to peel it off and instantly Addison proclaimed, " NO MOM DON'T! I DON'T WANT POOP IN THE HOUSE!" It was hilarious. It still makes me laugh when I think about it.  I have no idea when she did it, but later I found one on the doggie door as well, so I guess they were meant for the dog.

?

I found this oh so funny artwork the other day, can you guess what it is a picture of? It has a pretty funny story behind it and I will tell you it, if you can guess what it is.

Here is a quick update on my little army........

Emily is growing so fast. She is all smiles. Her favorite transportation is still mommy, but she also likes to roll all around and push herself backwards quite a bit. 

Elijah started potty training and is doing great. (I know what you are thinking, but that is chocolate.)

Hannah just celebrated her fourth birthday with daddy. (Daddy turned the ripe old age of 28!)

Addison got glasses and looks so grown up in them. We aren't sure if they are permanent, but for now she will be strutting her glasses around.

"The Glad Game"

So I  realized I have been focusing on the negative a lot lately and decided to follow Pollyanna's principle and play  The Glad Game. I picked 5 things this past month  that I have to be glad about and here they are in no particular order.

1. A healthy baby and the awesome Bumbo(Thanks Kati).

2. Making flower clips for my little ladies.

3. A new kid size picnic table made by my terrific hubby.

4.  A phone to keep in contact and a replacement plan (the hinge and screen don't work, which means no texting, calendar, or contact info).

5. Finding cheap strawberries and making delicious Jam.

Dyslexic?

Our Hannah will be four at the end of July and has never been in preschool although she will be starting pre-K this coming year. Sadly I haven't worked on teaching her much because I was in school full time taking 16 credits and then I student taught. I finished Student teaching just in time to celebrate Christmas and welcome little Emily into the world. I have really felt guilty that I haven't worked with her very much, so I sat down a couple weeks ago and showed her how to write her name, she has been writing her first letter "H" for about a year now, but I wanted her to be able to write her whole name in the right order. I just wrote her name down and she copied it on to her own paper. I thought she did pretty good, although her "N's" were backwards and her "A's" were sideways even after several attempts. I was still impressed at how well she did on her first attempt to write her name by herself. Anyways, life got busy and we didn't work on it again, but about a week later, she comes out of her church class and says mom look I wrote my name and she had (sideways A's and backwards N's and all). I was so impressed that she remembered.  So yesterday after primary, her primary teachers were telling me that they were impressed with how smart she is. They said she knows all her letters which surprised me since I haven't worked with her too much. Then this morning I was sitting down and watching Super Why with her (don't judge, you know you wanna watch cartoons too)and she knew all the super letters they found and most of their sounds. I knew she knew some, but I didn't realize how much. So I decided to see if she still remembered her name and sure enough she did. Here it is below,  sideways A's and backwards N's in all it's glory:

It may not be stellar, but for not having been in preschool and having a mommy that didn't work with her enough, she is doing pretty well. I am happy to see that my child has picked up a lot on her own and I haven't totally failed her. I just hope she isn't dyslexic =)!

Comforts vs. Pampers

Okay I feel stupid posting about diapers, of all things, but I change a lot of diapers (I know, I know, not as much as you Amy, blah blah blah).

Anyway. recently we discovered that Kroger has introduced a new brand of diapers called Comforts for Baby. Stupid name, decent branding, but the diapers are awesome! They don't have the plastic feel of the cheap ones, but they cost almost half of what the Pampers cost, and they are almost as good. We have tried Huggies, White Cloud, and various cheap diapers, but they never measured up. So if you shop at Fry's and like Pampers, try them.

For my first post I have . . . chickens!

Thanks to the Chicken Whisperer (my brother-in-law Ryan), we now are the proud owners of 6 chickens. We have 5 Americaunas who will lay green eggs when they're big enough to squeeze 'em out, and one little tiny frizzy or whatever she is, cute as a button. Mesa city code says that on an acre or less we can have up to 10 chickens, as long as the coop is so many feet away from other houses.

So the plan is to add 4 or 5 more Barred Rocks (they'll lay brown eggs) to the brood so we can be fight the man and be corporate-egg-independent . . . Nah, I'm too lazy for that, I'm really just doing it for fun. So any of ya'll who'll want eggs, just holler, we'll sell them for the low, low price of $20.00/dozen. Primo grade AAAAA eggs ya dig?

Any takers?

Oh and in two or so years we get to eat 'em. And then start all over again. Yummy. What could be more fun?

P.S. To add to the experience, I visited the Mesa Feed Barn, which I thought was defunct, and it's weird because it's a farmy-oasis-thing in the middle of downtown Mesa. And for anyone who cares they sell chick crumbles for $0.40 per pound.

Lovell—out.

Jammin' with Ammon!

Thanks to my awesome friend Katie, I learned about Bountiful Baskets. When ordering my basket, I noticed they had a case of blackberries for only $12.00. So I decided there was no time like the present to attempt my first jam session. I was a little nervous making jam with all my munchkins, so I waited until night when Ammon and I could tag team. Let me tell you, it rocked. I loved making goodies with Ammon. It is way more fun to do it it together. We even decided to buy a water bath, so we can start making our own jam. It is perfectly spreadable and taste terrific. I am so grateful for a husband who likes to rock the kitchen with me and last night we had an awesome Jam session. Ammon, you are the best.

 

Kid grown carrots!

So anyways a while back, we decided to plant a garden. We didn't do any research, we just planted everything according to the package. It was such a fun family project and we all planted together. The kids even ended up dumping extra seeds all over, but we really had a good time so it was all good. Needless to say not much started growing, and everything that started growing didn't survive long. Then one day we noticed some little plants growing, we looked it up and found out they were carrots. They weren't where we planted them, but where they had been ever so nicely dumped. So it turns out our kids our better gardeners then we are, at least they got something to grow. We did some research and decided to give it another shot. Who knows, but we hope to have a whole bunch of good looking carrots in a couple months.

Surrounded by Sisters!

In our family girls out number boys 2 to 1. Sometimes you can't help but feel bad for our poor son always surrounded by his three sisters. I can't help but think being around his sisters is rubbing off on him, but for him it might be a good thing. Underneath his sweet boy appearance, he is all boy. This kid throws, climbs, kicks, fights, and all in all is not very gentle. I can't help, but wonder if being in a family of girls softens him just a little. Maybe having lots of sisters will teach him to be a little gentler and prepare him for when he is older and dating girls. Regardless he is stuck with his sisters, so he better get use to it. 

Although, I have to say he is pretty chill about it most the time.

Besides, being the only boy can have it's perks too!

A style that makes you smile!

I usually help my girls pick out their clothes for the next day when putting them to bed. Occasionally this doesn't happen, mostly on the weekends. As seen in the picture above. When it comes to dressing themselves, there are a few things that they haven't quite grasped yet

1. Brown and Brown don't always match.
2. Long sleeves don't go well with shorts.
3. Just because two things have flowers, it doesn't mean they match.

Anyways, so last night we forgot to lay out clothes. This morning I was busy getting Addy ready for school, and when Hannah came out dressed later, this is what I found,

I thought it was so cute, so we decided to go with it. This is totally Hannah. She is totally into her own style. So here she is later after I fixed her hair and she added a few finishing touches to her outfit.

Blessing Baby Emmy

Our sweet Emily Ann on her blessing day. She looked so beautiful on her blessing day. She wore a beautiful dress made by my friend's mom. Her dress even had a beautiful embroidered E. 

We feel so BLESSED to have our beautiful Emmy in our lives. She has brought such a wonderful spirit into our home. I know she is where she is meant to be.

Thanks to all who shared this special day with us, we are grateful for your love and support. Emmy is a lucky girl to have so much love around her. 

Since my daughter was very young, we have had many people say she looked like Natalie Wood. At the time we had no idea who Natalie Wood was by name, because she was an actor before our time. We soon found out that she was a very famous actress of her time before her early death. She starred in many well know movies, such as Miracle on 34th street and West Side Story. So we looked up pictures of her and were shocked to see that she did resemble her. Then one day I was looking through pictures of Natalie Wood's early years, when I stumbled upon this particular picture (below) of her and it blew me away. My daughter really is a Natalie Wood look alike, at least in this particular picture. I just had to get a picture of the uncanny resemblance. Anyways, check it out below.

The funny thing is that she loves to watch West Side Story,it is one of her favorites. She loves when we tell her she looks like Maria. Anyways, if this is any indication of what she will look like when she grows up, then she may look something like this

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!!

So I finally decided to join the world of bloggers.  Here is my life since high school graduation in an eggshell.

 ({::college::marriage::kids::college::house::degree::baby::}) 

So now from here I begin my journey as a blogger. I won't blog everyday day and I don't promise to do it every week, but when I have a quiet moment or a need to express myself, my blog will be right here waiting for me!