A New Stand

With some of the scraps of wood Scott made this cute and easy monitor stand. Before I had it on a box, now it looks so much better. Papa sanded it and stained it to match my desk! How fun!

Gavin and Brigham's New Cubbies!!!

We fell in love with these adorable cubby holders from Knock Off Wood (Pottery Barn!!) Thank you so much Scott and Papa for doing such a wonderful job on these! I can't wait to fill them up with toys, books plush toys...

Here is the finished project!! WOW!! Scott and Papa will be taking orders soon! :)

Cupcakes anyone?

The other night for dessert I made chocolate cupcakes and headed outside on my moms patio to decorate and eat them. It was fun, yummy and messy.

"Beauty"

It's that time of the week again, I need your input. I am needing some help to figure out what picture is best for the word, "beauty".

There are so many beautiful things in the world it was hard to figure out which avenue I wanted to first go down. I posted it on face book and one of my friends sent me this clip to watch My New Life. WOW. Beauty really does mean motherhood and women. I took my camera to church today and wanted to capture one of two women I had in mind. Both are wonderful mothers, grandmothers and even great grandmothers. But as luck would have it both were not in attendance. Boo! So, I had to rethink my idea and came up with the beach. I have always loved the beach in all her beauty. So I went with the boys and we drove around snapping shots of different beaches down the coast. The fog rolled in and got a little thick out there, but I think I got a shot or two. Which do you like best from my beach shots?

If you look close there are 2 hang gliders high above in the air...

The cold water rushing over some rocks with a sail boat in the background...

Some neat rocks on the edge of the cliffs, with the ocean in the background.

Sailboats, sand and the ocean with blue sky. (I think this is my favorite, which is weird because I'm not a huge sail boat fan)

So, what do YOU think??

Safety Town

Safety Town is a wonderful camp for children to attend here in Santa Barbara. Will, Jackson, Tyler and now Gavin have all attuned this fun camp. Children can go 1 year before kindergarten and 1 year after only. So, it's for real young kids. They are in different groups in a little town. The Post Office group, Fire Station, Bank, Police Station...This was Gavin's first year and he had a blast. The camp runs for a week and is from 8:30 to noon. On the fist day The fire fighters came and all the children learned fire safety, how to call 911 and their home number, not to play with matches and spray water from their hoses. Here is Gavin after day 1.

On the 2nd day of camp some members of the police department came and taught the children not to talk to strangers and learned a song.

On the 3rd day the MTD came for a visit. (The bus system). The children got a free ride around town in a a bus.

On the 4th day Smokey the Bear came and they had some people from CALM teach them about bad touch/good touch.

On the last day they have a graduation ceremony. They sing songs and teach child receives an award.

Here are Gavin's counselors in front of his area, the Post Office.

GREAT job Gavin!! THANK YOU Safety Town!!

Will's Storage Bed

Time for Will's bed! He's in his own room and needed his own bed. Scott and Papa made this awesome day bed with drawers. In the plans from Knock off Wood she shows a day bed and a different bed with drawers. They were able to mixed the two to make their own creation!!

Next they made a custom headboard for the bed.

THANKS boys for all yor hard work!! It looks great!!

Our New FARMHOUSE Bed!!!

By this time the boys had made two sets of bunk beds, Will's storage bed, and a separate headboard. This was pretty simple in comparison. This is the exact Farmhouse bed Pottery Barn sells for thousands of dollars! It cost us about $200. (wood, hardware, sanding supplies and pain). Not bad!!

Just a little FYI on painting...if you're going to paint a lot of stuff buy a spray gun. The boys have LOVED it!!

Doesn't it look fantastic? I can't wait to sleep in it! Thanks boys and Knock off Wood!!!

Bunk beds for Jackson, Tyler, Gavin and Brigham

Scott and Papa drove to Utah and moved all our stuff into our new beautiful home. How great are they!! They've been there for a week and plan on staying another week and they've been building furniture. Here is their first, ever, project!

TWO sets of bunkbeds! Thank you boys for your hard work, but also a BIG shout out to Knock Off Wood !!!

Twinners

These two boys had on the same shirt for church on Sunday. Too cute!!

Freezer Jam...YUM!!!

Well, it's that time of year again.....JAM MAKIN' TIME!!! We made a batch last summer and ate it all year long. It was awesome. While we were up in Solvang the other day we decided to head to Lompoc to get some fresh, huge, juicy strawberries. For an entire flat it was $15.00. Pretty good. I ended up making 2 batches. One, Strawberry Freezer jam and the other Strawberry-Raspberry jam. Oh. My. Goodness. Both turned out so, so good. My mouth is watering just typing about them both. Enjoy the pictures of some of my cute boys that helped and BOTH recipes are at the bottom. Enjoy, I know we will!!

Add lots, and lots of sugar!

Fresh lemon juice from a lemon Will picked from my moms tree. (Whenever you're cooking and using lemon; Lemon Bars, Pies, whatever, try to use real lemons. Try to use lemons picked from a tree that you can see. The grocery store lemons are small hard and don't hold a lot of juice)

STIR, STIR, and KEEP STIRRING....

In the freezer they go! See you soon yummy, sweet, tasty jam!!

Strawberry Freezer Jam (this is half a batch...5 2C plastic Ziploc containers.

1 qt Strawberries (4C.)

1 pack Certo

2T lemon juice

4C sugar

Wash and smash strawberries, add 1/2 the sugar, stir well. Let sit 10 minutes stirring regularly. Mix Certo and lemon juice in small bowl then add to berry/sugar mix. Add in rest of sugar, stir 5 minutes. Pour into containers and place in freezer. Done! Easy! I got this recipe from a friend of mine who inherited it from her grandmother. The grandmother used it for over 40 years! Yes, it's that good!!

Strawberry/Raspberry freezer Jam is from my friend Angela at Creative Homemaker. Check out her blog for the recipe!

Monte Vista

Back to my old elementary school, Monte Vista. The big boys rode their bikes and I walked with the 2 babies in the stroller. We played at the park right behind the school first, which is always fun, then we crossed over the bridge to Monte Vista.

The boys wanted to go through the Thorson Obstacle course a few times. They had been asking me to return several times a day during the past week. So, finally, we returned. They loved it!

We had a blast and it was fun to go down memory lane with the boys. I told them a few stories of when I was little and attended that school.