Bows!

The other day my cousin taught me how to make these cute bows. They are so fun!!
It is very strange doing this kind of stuff after three boys, but it is very fun.




Oh and we're just getting started ;) I can see how you can get carried away making these things, I just love the one that is all curly-Q s.


Conversations with Hudson:

H: Uh Dada? (where's Dada?)
M: Working
H: Why?
M: Cause
H: Cause

This one happens daily, sometimes even multiple times a day, he is such a daddy's boy.


The other night it was getting close to dinner time, Hudson brought me a pan out of the cupboard...

"Mommy, soup pleeease."
apparently I was starving the poor kid. ;)

On Sunday we celebrated Nate's b-day I made a german chocolate cake, and we went up to Albion, Kurt and Terril made dinner-Kurt style, with every type of meat available-(well almost.) Chicken, steak, pork and sausage, I was so stuffed I didn't even enjoy eating the cake, but I did the next day and the next and the next.... It was a good B-day for him. And he is so thoughtful he bought himself a b-day present we all can enjoy ;)

Feeling Crafty!

Sunday morning we woke up to Braiden and Brody running into our room and yelling, "it's snowing, it's snowing!" Of course I had to get up and see for myself...sure enough. Then Brody asked, "Mom is tomorrow Christmas?" (he he) It snowed all morning and into the afternoon but it was gone by Monday night. Thank goodness! I wasn't ready for snow, it seemed like it went from very nice autumn-summerish days to winter literally overnight! Well that put me in a very crafty mood. So I've been having a little bit of fun.



I made these for the boys' teachers. We NEED hand sanitizer these days in the worst way, so why not make it cute!?!

One of the reasons I love to blog so much is because there are so many creative people out there and they inspire me. All of this stuff I found on other blogs and I did not come up with any of these ideas myself (I'm a good copier)

Some Halloween decorations




I loved that scrapbook paper so much I wanted to frame it. ;) But I thought: "you can't just frame scrapbook paper." So... I added BOO letters and ribbon and that made it legal. :)

This project is not quite finished. I still need to get more ribbon, a leafless tree branch and some black spray paint, I will try to post a picture of the finished project later.

Cute little "Ornaments" for the "tree":



And last but not least my mom, my SIL and I made these nifty card holder-birthday reminder books.




At the beginning of the year write all the birthdays of family and friends on the calendar and put the cards in the appropriate slots, then you have to remember to send them out. Oh if only I were that good. (maybe this book will help me be better.)

Now I need to focus my crafty attention to figuring out primary singing time for Sunday. ;)

I love this time of year when we can finally switch the fireplace on and get cozy by the fire. When you can eat yummy soup for dinner. I love walking outside and smelling the wood burning stoves. The first night that it really got cold everyone around must have fired up their stoves, mmm I love that smell. Oh and I cannot forget potato harvest, on Friday the kids and all their cousins were out of school so we went out to my parents house and played. Of course the kids ran down to the cellar to check out the potato action there. Hudson was enthralled with the "truck"s and "cractors" (tractors) and would have been happy sitting back and watching all day. Now he is OBSESSED with "cractors"

With the coming of colder weather means a change in the wardrobe. So I decided it was time to go shopping for Hudson and Brody at Bins of Clothes in my basement. :) Well one thing lead to another and pretty soon I had ALL the bins dumped out and was sorting out, the good, the bad and the the "just plain UGLY" With a little girl on the way I couldn't think of a better excuse to do this. So I ended up with a mountain for the DI, and a mountain for my SIL (who is finally having a BOY after having 4 girls! Woooo Hoooo!) So Kristy, if you end up throwing ALL of them out I WILL NOT be offended, but hopefully you can find something good in there. So tell me after getting rid of so many clothes how did I end up ADDING 2 bins to the stack????? hmmm beyond me...

So the washing machine worked overtime yesterday and I found out that I can fold 6 loads of laundry in about 30 min. but now the kiddies have some weather appropriate clothing to wear. ;)

Where Should I Begin?

I think we should start off with a good laugh, don't you??



I saw that on a friends' blog and HAD to have it! HILARIOUS!!!


Well, I just ran around the house cleaning up rooms so that I could take pictures of them, I'm trying to fool you see. We FINALLY got to move into our house on June 26, and what a happy day that was.



Our beautiful railing, don't you all want one just like it??? As you can see there are a few unfinished projects, but we're here and that's all I care about.

Front Entrance, we still need to stain the front door (see, told you)


Hudson's Room


Fireplace


Downstairs TV room


Braiden and Brody's Bathroom (downstairs)


Braiden and Brody's bedroom


My VERY favorite feature in the kitchen is the bake center. Open the doors, do your mixing, all ingredients, measuring cups and spoons and pans are close at hand.


Then shut the doors and no one sees the mess ;)


More pictures of the kitchen




Laundry Room


Awesome clock I just bought, that is still not up on the wall ;) LOVE IT!!


So you see I have a LOT of decorating to do, I did score some cutsie pink stuff for the baby girls room at Real Deals a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't help but to put it out. When I got done Braiden says, "Uh mom, Hudson has to sleep in here too you know" Ha!!! Looking out for his little bro, so cute.

Kurt and Terril (Nate's dad and mom) wanted to take Braiden and Brody to Jellystone the monday after we moved our stuff in, and I said, "Don't have too much fun without me!!!" So I got a TON of stuff done while I was kid free for a couple of days. Then on June 30 Nate and I celebrated our 9th anniversary!! We drove to Pocatello (aka "The City") and went to dinner, it was fun to get out of town and do something-just the two of us.

Some of the little things I noticed that I missed the most about having our own place was sitting down and eating dinner together as a FAMILY. And having a dresser to put clothes in! ;)

In July the boys did swimming lessons and loved it. I got called to be the primary chorister, that one came out of the blue and shocked me half to death, so any ideas on that subject would be greatly appreciated! But the highlight of the month was a summer BBQ with our dental school friends Josh and Amy came from PA, Jason and Jolisa came from AZ and Tyler and Jen came from MT (all were in ID visiting family so we decided to get together and party.) We went to Paul and Karla's to do some boating and eat yummy food, it was so fun to be together again! I'm sad that I don't have any pictures to account for it.

In August we had the Mickelsen reunion and it's tradition that all the guys go golfing before the family picnic (I have to brag on my hubby for a minute) Nate went golfing with the guys and hit a HOLE-IN-ONE!!!!!! First time in the "history" of the tournament that this has happened, and there are some pretty good golfers in the Mickelsen fam. As soon as the picnic was over we hopped in the 5th wheel and drove up to Red Fish Lake for our yearly camping trip. The boys look forward to this all year they always have a blast. This year we went on a little day hike to Fourth of July Lake which is only about 1-1/2 miles or so, well at the trail head there was a sign posted: "Bear spotted at Born Lake" (Born lake was a few miles past Fourth of July Lake) So I think I was more worried about running into a bear, but luckily there were no bear encounters. :) The boys thought that they were going to die the whole way there, but when we finally made it to the lake it was all worth it. (these pics are on the dead laptop)

On August 22nd we celebrated my Grandma Smith's 80th Birthday with a family picnic at my mom's house.

This is my grandma isn't she beautiful! I love her so much.


The whole gang! (well, we are missing some, but this is most of us.)


Grandma with most of the Great-Grandkids, and they keep coming ;)


Grandma with most of her grandkids:


My family:


My brother, Casey and his family:


My brother, Christopher and his family:



Grandma looking at her gift:


After the picnic there was plenty of fun to be had.

I think Hudson liked the fact that there was "Cars" on the pinata rather than the actual pinata itself.


CHEATER!!!




Who is this cute boy?
Teague has the bluest eyes I've ever seen!


Like I said plenty of fun to be had.
Horsey rides from grandpa.


Scott, Kyle and Kenz


Jerica and Ellie


And this guy watched it ALL happen!


August 24th was the first day of school
Braiden started 2nd grade this year.


Here's proof that boys will be boys. The other day Braiden got sent to the office because he had a grasshopper in his pocket that he brought in from recess. OK I couldn't even be mad at that I just laughed out loud.

Brody started preschool and loves it!!!


Started a little bit of yardwork ;)




We have GOT to get rid of this half acre sandbox, I know it's every boys' dream but the sand is driving me CRAZY!!!

We went up to Lake Cleveland on Labor Day and look what the boys found:
More proof that boys will be boys.

Karla-I updated the pics on the sidebar just for you!! ;) Love ya!

FINALLY!!!

It's enough to make me want to cry...I finally have the internet!!! YIPEEEEE!!! Let's see it's been almost 6 whole months without (ahhh) We signed up with Cable One, then a month and a half later they finally hooked us up, way to be on the ball Cable One!

Any way, I planned on writing a nice little update with lots of pictures and all that good stuff, but all my pictures are tied up on the laptop (who kicked the bucket, THE day after we got a new computer, how convienient!) I'll see what I can come up with. See you soon.

There's a Bun in the Oven!!

Obviously an update is LONG overdue :) Yes, baby number 4 is on HER way!!!! We found out this morning that we are having a GIRL, the boys are ecstatic to finally be getting a little sister. When I came home from the ultrasound Brody asked where the baby was. I think he was disappointed that I didn't bring her home today. I think our little princess will be loved. ;) I am almost 20 weeks (half way!) so the due date is Jan 8 we are SO excited!!

Have you ever heard the saying: Boys give beauty and girls take it away. Well I can say for sure that it is true because I've never had so many zits in my life!! With my boys my skin was never better. ;) Other than that I have been feeling great and this has been a super easy pregnancy so far.

They SHOULD be coming to hook up my internet tomorrow so we'll see, it will be strange having the internet again, I have gotten a lot of house work done in the last 5 months. :)

The End

I think I am seeing an end to this internetlessness ;) Look for an update soon. Oh and can you tell from the background that I am not at all excited for school to start? 10 more days!!

Good News

We got the WHOLE basement painted on Saturday WAAAHOOOO!!!! Thanks to my two older brothers who came to help, and mom who brought food and babysat. Oh and the PRO MASKER 2000 I don't know how I ever masked with out it, the best tool you will ever use!!! Puts tape on in 1/8 of the time in a perfectly straight line, ahhh I'm in love. Oh and Frog Tape means no paint seeping! Now all we have left is the entry, den, hallway, and family room. Yeah, still a lot to do but I'm not touching those rooms, vaulted ceilings. All of the cabinets were installed on thurs and fri. WOW it's starting to look like a liveable house. :)

Painting PAINS!!!

I have been at the house when I can painting one room at a time. Slowly but surely. So yesterday I went and started on the downstairs bathroom, didn't go so well. I got one coat of paint on and the older boys were having fun playing in the furnace box. Hudson somehow got around my barracade and got paint all over his clothes, now this is the second pair of clothes that he has ruined. I needed to refill my pan so I went upstairs to get the bucket, As I was trying to get around my own barracade I tripped and dumped half the bucket of paint on the floor (good thing the bucket was only 1/4 full) what a mess!!! So that was the end of that. It is too hard to paint when the kids are around.
Last friday my dad came and helped me paint, he was so much help, he wasn't a fan of my colors though, he preferrs white.:) Nate's grandma thinks it looks like we smeared cow poop on the wall, and I say cow poop is more green than brown but hey, who's looking. I'll have to post pictures and see what you think.
Nate has been laying tile and grouting, the kitchen area laundry room and pantry are done so now the cabinet guy can start installing the cabinets (he has been breathing down our necks for the last 2 weeks) Anyway so the house is coming along.

Brody only has 2 more days of preschool and Braiden only has 7 days of school left WOW! I am so ready to be done driving up and down the hill, it is such a pain!!! When school gets out the boys will start T-ball, they are very excited.

Hudson's new favorite words are "taint tou" (thank you) and today when I was calling for Ivy out the front door he stepped behind me and started yelling "Iya" (Ivy) he's a funny boy. He likes to pick up my cell phone and say, "hlo" (hello) and "bye". Everytime we walk into Nate's office he says Hi as loud as he can and all the girls come running to make a hugh fuss over him, hmmmm do you think he likes attention??

Nate got me a Cricut for mothers day (what an awesome hubby!!!) I have been having so much fun with it. I made some cool posters to announce the upcoming mother-daughter enrichment that I am in charge of so it couldn't have come at a better time.

Knock-Knock...

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Oink, oink.
Oink, oink who?
Make up your mind are you a pig or an owl. :)

My kids are constantly making up knock, knock jokes that usually don't make any sense, but I laugh any way. So Grandma bought Braiden a real knock, knock joke book so he enjoys reading jokes to us all the time. That is one of his favorites.

It has been so long since I last posted, I think I broke a personal record. I do check on the blog a couple times a week, and I do check in on my friends and family but I don't ever have enought time to comment to every one. I usually go to Nate's office when I want to use the internet, but Hudson is usually yelling and making a scene so I try to keep it short.

So this is what has been going on with us... Nate has been working until all hours of the night every night on the house. Hopefully we will start painting tomorrow, if not Monday. The cabinets will be done around the 30th and they want to start installing them so we need to get the kitchen and bathrooms painted and tiled so they can put in the cabinets. Yeah!! So while Nate is working on the house I am hanging out with the in-laws. I am so grateful for them, they are so helpful with the kids and it is nice to have another adult(s) around to talk to. And Kurt has helped Nate at the house a ton. We will be forever in debted to them.

Braiden is doing well in school and is looking forward to summer and playing baseball. Oh and telling lots of knock, knock jokes.

Brody and Hudson get toted around with me all day, because once we leave the house up there, there is no going back until everything is done and everyone is picked up. They are really good about it though. Brody also gets to play T-ball this summer, he is so excited. Hudson is a funny little boy who, just recently started to love books (more then his brothers ever thought about loving them) so this is new to me. He brings me book after book and just sits and listens and laughs. He really likes this Cars book and so he will go from person to person until every adult has read it to him, he even lets Braiden read it to him. Yesterday he was so funny he kept walking into the bathroom and tearing off tiny pieces of toilet paper and then he would walk to the railing and drop it over the edge. He got a kick out of watching it flutter to the ground below. When it finally got old we had a little mess on our hands but he was having too much fun.

We had a good Easter, we had to (I mean got to) speak in sacrament meeting for the SECOND YEAR IN A ROW!!!!! What is up??!!!?? That is such an intimidating task to me, because even people who don't come to church, come to church on Eater Sunday! So the pressure is on to have a great talk. I told an awesome story and bawled my way through it. UGH! I read it 15 times at home and didn't shead a tear but when your telling it up on the stand it's a whole different ballgame! Well at least that is over with for now anyway. We are still waiting for callings, I'll be interested to see what happens there. A lady from the RS Presidency called me the other day to see if I would be in charge of the Mother-Daughter Enrichment in June because they don't have an enrichment leader yet. Hmmmm is this a test??? Should be right up my ally but I need some ideas. Got any?????

Blonde Moment of the Month:
So anyway I got a little side tracked, back to Easter, I did the dumbest thing. The night before I hard boiled a dozen eggs and put them back in the fridge. (along with 2 other cartons) So the next day we got our eggs out and colored them and hid them all around the house. It wasn't until Braiden dropped the second to last egg to be found on the hunt that I realized that I had colored the RAW eggs!!!!! Duh! I was suprised that we made it as long as we did without breaking one. We all got a good laugh out of that one.

Hopefully it won't be another month before I post again. :)

Surviving

OK, so I'm surviving. Living without the Internet, I suppose. I'm getting a lot of house work done. It seems like I'm living in my car too, because Albion is just too far to drive to go home and wait for Braiden to finish up school. Ugh I'm glad it's spring break this next week. I can take a break from all of this shuttling around.

Right now I am posting from my mom and dads house ( I must be desperate because they have DIAL-UP) I tried on Mon and Wed to go to Nate's office and get on the Internet while Brody was at preschool but Hudson was super naughty and cried the whole time both times, so that is not going to work, on to plan B.

On the 2nd we celebrated Braiden's 7th Birthday. There was no school that day (teachers inservice) lucky kid. Grandpa called his name into the radio station and they said happy birthday to him on the air, then they drew a birthday name out of a hat and Braiden won the birthday cake!! He was so excited. It was an ice cream cake from dairy queen so when we went to pick it up he was very disappointed that he couldn't eat it. So I took him to McDonald's for lunch and he had fun playing on the toys. Later after Nate got home from work we went bowling and had a little party with family at the bowling alley, he had a fun day.

The house is coming along quite nicely the Sheetrock is hung and they are texturing the walls today. It is a whole different house now, Sheetrock changes everything! Yesterday I went with my "interior designer" (wink wink) Auntie Karla, and picked out paint colors. Now we are getting to the fun stuff!!

Hudson is walking everywhere, crawling is now the secondary mode of transportation. I knew it wouldn't take long.

We have all been sick I had to take Braiden to Urgent Care ON moving day and sit there in the waiting room for 2 hours to take care of an ear infection. That was the last thing I had time for, but it all worked out in the end. And today I am still coughing my head off. It's like our bodies just gave in to sickness after the stressful week of moving.

I felt the need for some pampering so on Wed I got my nails done and yesterday I got my hair done. It was SO blonde I had to make her go back and put more dark in and I never say anything, so can you just think how blonde it was??? It is still more blonde than I am used to but I guess I am getting used to it.

I don't think I will be able to post any pictures for a while with the current computer situation so I will have a lot of catching up to do when we finally get settled. How sad is this, I didn't get to take ANY pictures on Braiden's birthday with all of the chaos of moving, the batteries in my camera were dead grrr. We did get a picture of him with his ice cream cake that he couldn't eat.

Well I better go, I am tying up the phone line (ha ha) and H is throwing a fit.