Happy Birthday Noah!

Happy birthday to Noah!  He turned 4 on February 15th.  It's hard to believe that he's already 4!  He started talking about having his birthday party at Alta this last summer.  Almost every week during the winter the boys head up to Alta (one of our ski areas) and go skiing.  It's great because they have a great deal - it's free after 3pm...that's my kinda price!  Anyway, it's perfect becuase the Sunnyside lift stays open until 4:30, pretty much the perfect amount of time for a 4 and 6 year old to practice their stuff.  Mark has been taking the boys since Jack was about 3 - he's braver than me!  Needless to say, they are both great little skiers.  The only thing we need now is some good ski buddies for them.  That's why we agreed with Noah, that would be an ideal place for his birthday party! 

Being a mom of all boys, I find ways to get a little crafty here and there.  There aren't any ruffles in our household, unless they're on me:)  So, when a birthday comes around I like to indulge in some creativity.  This year I made some super fun party hats out of scrapbook paper (around here that's about all it gets used for...I'm a horrible scrapbooker!).  A space/airplane theme emerged when I found some Paul Frank party stuff on sale at Target (I'm a total sucker for monkeys - strange I know). 

One of my favorite things to do for my kid's parties is put together the little favor bags.  I LOVE putting little gift packages and sets together.  This year I made the gift bags out of some felt I had sitting around.  I appliqued little planets on the front and put some ribbon handles on.  They were stuffed full of goodies like parachutte army men, gel stickers, die cast cars etc.  The best part was NO candy!:) 

We ate pizza and french fries....in honor of Noah's skiing techniques!  The funny part was it didn't dawn on him until we were headed home, when he said "Hey!  We make pizzas and french fries with our skis and that's what we ate at my party!!".  That's right buddy! 

These guys drew quite a bit of attention as they headed down the mountain with their party helmets!  It was a great day overall.  All the parents were thrilled, most of the kids had never skied before and no one (seriously - no one) had a meltdown or even a sad face!!  Oh, I forgot to mention it was almost in the 60's!!  When we got home, our temperature gauge at the house read 65 degrees...unbelieveable.  We couldn't have asked for a better day! 

Christmas Cards

If you're like me, the whole Christmas card thing is kind of an ordeal. I always procrastinate on taking our family picture, then take forever looking for the cutest card with the best price and before I know it, it's January and no one has heard from us yet! But not this year. This year I took that bull by the horns and my cards are DONE! Ok, not in the mail or anything but printed at least. And the best part? I spent a whopping $28 for 200 photo cards! Yes, you read that right. Here's what I did....

We took a family outing about a month ago and bribed the kids with ice cream if they behaved and smiled for the camera when I asked them to etc. Sadly, they did NOT earn their ice cream...they were complete turkeys - yes, I'm the kind of mean mom who follows through on things like that. I was very unhappy at the end of the experience and we ended up taking our screaming clan home without their ice cream. Ugh. But, that's not the whole story. Here in SLC we have such beautiful fall colors and I wanted to capture them. I decided taking the clan up to the foothills of the Wasatch front would be ideal. There we found a kind biker who volunteered to snap some pics for us while we posed (did I mention we are CHEAP and don't pay to have our pictures taken? Yes, we use the self-timer and a tripod). Anyway, this is the kind of thing we ended up with:
 

Ya, turkeys right? And what the heck am I thinking with those two huge white power poles in the background? I thought that the wagon would be a fun prop but it ended up being a death trap for the tiny tot who wouldn't sit down to save his life.


So, we got into the car and headed off in search of a better location. I remembered a little bridge, tucked away in the middle of the city next to Old Navy. It is a little piece of nature inside the city. So, that's where we ended up. Really, I couldn't believe we actually got any 1/2 decent pics out of the day but I did end up with one that was "editable" enough to use (since I'm not about to subject us to that kind of torture again).

Next, I took said image and imported it into Picnik. I have photoshop on my computer but it takes so long to open and use on my 4 year old ancient laptop that I prefer to use something quick and easy like Picnik. If you haven't found it yet it will change your life! I am addicted. It's so easy to boost color and edit photos with fun effects! You'll love it. Here is the photo that we started with:

No one would sit still. But I guess it kind of captures our life right now! So, I then headed on over to picnik.com and made it black and white, boosted the contrast and faded the effect a little so that some of the green showed through and then I added text to make it our Christmas card. They have a ton of fun fonts you can use and it's all FREE! Here's the finished product:

No bad eh? So THEN I got online and sent the sucker to Costco's 1-hour printing service (I've searched around a bit and have found that Costco really does have superior quality compared with the other brick and mortar businesses I've tried). I ordered 200 copies, matte finished with a white border for $.13 each and picked them up 1 hour later! Yahoo! Anyway, I'm supposed to be printing out my envelopes right now but instead I'm blogging about my great deal. Again, I'm a procrastinator. Happy holidays! 



Happy Birthday Baby Bug!

We've celebrated two birthdays this month at our house.  November has turned into quite a busy month for us!  My birthday is the first week and then we have Jasper's on the 21st then Thanksgiving.  I can't believe he's already 1!  This year has gone by so quickly.  I know everyone always says that, but it's true!  And it's also true that the older you get the quicker time flies. 

Instead of adding to our already over populated toy collection (and really, what 1 year old cares about new toys anyway?:)  I decided to referbish our old grimy carseat since he has officially graduated from his infant seat.  We've had this seat since Jack was 1, it still has some life left before it has to head to the dump (carseats expire!  Can you believe it? Ugh.  What a racket!).  So, instead of putting up with that barf encrusted seat cover for the next few years I wanted to give it a nice little facelift.  Let's face it, the third boy doesn't get many new luxuries. 

This project was not for the faint of heart.  It began by disassembling the existing cover with my dandy seam ripper.  There's something so satisfying about taking that little knife to a seam and just ripping away!  I took off all the existing binding etc. and turned it into four separate pieces.  Then I washed the pieces in the washer to get the years of barf build up and snacks off, then dried it by the fire all night.  At this point, Mark looked at me sideways, wondering if we would be able to leave the house for the next week. 

Next morning I headed out in search of fabric (coupons in hand of course!).  I found this fun owl print at the local quilt shop and the minky at Joanns.  I washed it all when I got home.  Then I just layed my old padding on the fabric and cut around it (I'm a lazy seamstress).  I then serged the new fabric to the outside of each of the old pieces.  For the center I just cut slits and then zig zagged the edges to make buttonholes for the straps.  Then I sewed the pieces back together and bound the whole thing with FOE (my new favorite sewing essential - Fold Over Elastic:).  All I had was yellow so that's what I used....I think it turned out quite nice!  In fact, I'm pretty proud of it.  It fits like a glove and online you can't find these for less than $75.  So there ya go!  A referbished, homemade job...not so bad for homemade huh? 

On his birthday, the poor baby guy had a horrible fever and cold.  He was miserable...so sad.  So, we celebrated as a family a day late.  The party was complete with elmo hats (that I've actually had since Jack turned 2) and little marionberry hand pies. 

I'm obsessed with pie....I love it.  And particularly hand pies....they're just perfect, a little heaven in your hand.  You can eat them for breakfast or dessert or whatever!  Ever since I got my new Cuisenart last year for my birthday I can't help but make a pie crust once a month at least!  I just love it...and so does he as it turns out. 

Earlier in the day I noticed Jack went missing.  I finally heard him yell "Mom!  How do you spell happy?"  I then discovered him making a birthday card for Jasper, all on his own!  What a precious memory for the scrapbook (that is...if I ever get it to it...).  This little guy has the best big brothers EVER! Not to mention one fine Daddy.  :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  We enjoyed a wonderful smoked turkey courtesy of our fabulous friends.  We also had one of our students over who had no place to go.  That's one of the best things about Thanksgiving, spending it with friends, and actually just seeing who ends up showing up!  Our little house fills up quickly I have to admit, and we run out of counter space easily.  But, that makes it all the more cozy!  This year it was super cold out.  All last week we've been building up to a super big storm, actually they were calling it a blizzard on the news so when Tuesday night came we were all braced for the storm of the century.  Anyone who has lived here for more than just a year should know that whenever there is that much hype...nothing usually happens.  Tuesday night 'Snowpocalypse 2010' hit us with very disappointing results.  Ok, we do have a few inches of snow to show for it but really, we were looking forward to 4' snow drifts, power outages and the whole nine yards...Bummer!  All we have left is some frozen snow and super cold temperatures.  Oh well.  It makes for great powder - Mark is out skiing today - so that's one bonus I suppose!  I think we'll take the kids skiing tomorrow for the first time this season.

Anyway,  back to Thanksgiving.  A few years ago my parents had a bunch of wild turkeys (like a dozen or so) perched up in their hawthorn tree right outside their front window.  How strange is that?  They're not small birds and to see a small tree FULL of them was quite a site!  Anyway, my dad couldn't pass up the chance to shoot one.  So, a little while later I ended up with a bag full of fabulous turkey feathers!  I had no idea what to do with them....still don't really.  But, I had to hang onto them because they're just spectacular!  Finally this year they've finally made their way out of the craft room.  Jack made an indian headress out of some and took it to school.  Everyone else had to wear their headresses they made at school with one colored feather on a little paper strip, but he got to wear his very own, genuine turkey feather headress - and boy was he proud of it!  He's been painting his face with washable markers and he finally pinned down Noah and painted his face too.  He has made headresses for each member of the family.  And the most fun of all was taking a few feathers to his teacher at school!  He got to stand up in front of the class and show off the cool feathers and then present his teacher with her own collection to keep.  He's one proud boy:)

Well, on the homefront the feathers graced our Thanksgiving table as a centerpiece this year - a turkey feather bouquet actually.  I thought it made a unique and fun, whimsical table for us to eat at.  Each place setting was also marked by it's own smaller feather.  I think next year I'll make a wreath or something out of these.  They're just so beautiful!

The Giant Doughnut

It's been quite the week here at the Lovejoy household.  Just busyness...our schedule is close to unbarable.  I feel like we've been transitioning to our fall routine now for about a month!  This week was really the first that gave me a taste of what is in store for the next year and wow!  It's really crazy!  I feel like this parenting thing just keeps getting busier and busier.  At first, when I became a mom and had one little infant I thought it was sooo difficult to manage...lack of sleep, loss of my independance...but if I only knew then what I know now!  I would appreciate all those naps.  I could really use them NOW. 

Last weekend Mark did an outreach with some military guys (our military movement is called Valor for those of you who aren't familiar).  He took them out in the desert and played paintball - it's always a huge win.  He was exhausted when he left here at 7 a.m. on Saturday, but hopeful.  He came home with a great report (4 guys who had never heard the gospel got to hear it for the first time) and felt really encouraged!  That's always great.  The Valor movement has been slowing picking up speed over the past few years as we've seen some really key leaders surface. 

The next day, Mark took Jack and two other guys (one student and one graduate - Jake) up to the mountains to get firewood.  He's got this deal with Jack who wants to buy a lego x-wing fighter.  He has to go on a certain number of woodcutting adventures and also stack wood at home to save up and earn enough to buy it.  He's VERY motivated.  In fact, our neighbor has said that he will hire him as well.  They have it all figured out, how much he has to save in order to tithe, and then have enough to pay tax and buy the legos he wants.  It's been interesting to talk him through his purchases...he's had some things in hand at Target and then reconsidered when I reminded him what he's saving for...and that Darth Vador umbrella is probably not really what he wants. 

Well, this last week I think I realized that I CANNOT do it all.  I can't play taxi all day long, make lunch, pack lunch to eat in the car on the way to pick someone up and drop someone off, wake my napping baby twice a day to do all this, have dinner on the table and homemade snacks for Bible study, all with a smile on my face and a clean bathroom.  I'm not sure what has to give (well, the clean bathroom is really just a pipe dream anyway)...maybe the Bible study snacks?  Thank goodness my kids love peanut butter sandwiches. 

Over the past year, God has blessed me out of the blue two times with heaven sent snacks for Bible study.  Each week Mark has several college guys come over and they meet in our garage for small group.  I used to love making them treats, they're so appreciative and I love to bake.  One week Mark even made a lesson out of making bread and had me show them my method, then they got to eat fresh homemade bread as their snack.  They still talk about it now, after two years!  Well, I will never forget one day last year when I was feeling particularly UNmotivated to make them a treat...I was standing in the kitchen pondering what I had in the cupboards to throw together-quickly-becuase they were going to be here in about an hour.  Then the doorbell rang, I remember being kind of annoyed since I didn't have the time to answer the door!!  But, as I opened the door, there was our next door neighbor holding a perfectly beautiful chocolate cake (the double layer kind with truffle frosting-yum!) and a smile on his face.  He had just taught a cake making class at the gourmet cooking store he worked at (as a chef instructor) and had this leftover...would I like it?  Hm...let's see...WOULD I??!  To this day, I wonder at how God can use my athiest neighbor to show me He loves me! 

Well, I tell you all this just to set up yesterday's scenario.  As you can guess..something very similar happened.  I was sitting in my dining room writing my grocery list and thinking about what I was going to make for dinner and Bible study snack later that evening as my friend pulled up and ran up to the front door with a lovely coffee cake in hand...for no apparent reason.  She said she just felt compelled to buy it for me at the local bakery!  It makes me laugh out loud at how God cares for such trivial details in my life (and it reminds me of how important those Bible study snacks really are...), things like cake for heaven's sake.  So cool!  Oh, and in case you're wondering, the boys thought it was a giant doughnut....the Bible study guys loved it and this is all that's left. 

Garden Bounty

Every year we plant a garden.  Even though we leave for several weeks throughout the summer, it has worked for us.  We come home to a tangled mass of weeds and some dead plants but after two days of weeding and pruning we are usually able to finish out the summer with a fun variety of plants that suppliment our summer diet.  Through the years I've branched out in my selection and tried some new things and I've also planted several things that stick around for multiple years without much tending to.  We planted raspberries and an apple tree last year.  We have yet to see ANY raspberries and the one apple we had fell off in a wind storm so we ate it as a family - it wasn't quite ripe but it came off OUR tree!  Anyway, those things where kind of a flop this year (I know apple trees take a few years so I'm patient, but the raspberries - come on!).  But the rest of the garden has been great!  We've had tomatoes, zhuccini, corn, strawberries, beets, carrots, radishes, pumpkin (by accident, it came from our compost) and potatoes.  The kids and I pulled several goodies out of the ground the other day and made some baby food for Jasper - totally homegrown.  Take that Gerber! 

We Did It!

We made it through the first week of school!  It was super fun and Jack loves it.  His teacher is wonderful, we are so thankful that we chose the right school for us!  We are loving the charter school so far.  yesterday when Mark was out climbing with a group of students he ran into a teacher who said she had applied to work at this school.  She said it was a great place to be!  That's reassuring. 

Doesn't he look cute in his school clothes? 

So now we are just need to nail down our schedule.  I am already feeling like a taxi...if I'm not in the car on my way to take someone somewhere, I'm sitting in the car waiting for someone to get done with something so we can go to the next activity.  I don't know how parents do it, and then add the extras like soccer or karate to the schedule!?  That just seems impossible. 

In other news, LarryBoy has resurfaced.  This is acutally another milestone that we met this summer (not LarryBoy, but the bike).  Noah started riding his two wheeler!  I got to be the one who was there for it too.  Usually Dad gets to witness these things but on this particular day I was hanging out with a friend outside our hotel in Crested Butte when Noah just decided it was time to start peddling and go for it! 

It's funny when people come and ask us how old he is...'isn't he young to be riding a two wheeler?'  Yes, he's only 3.  Mark is very opinionated when it comes to training wheels, the ones that came with this bike have never been used.  I was a skeptic at first but it has worked for two kids so far!  Now they're both buzzing around the neighborhood on their bikes.