Camping FHE

We have quite a few camping trips scheduled for May/June (have to fit it all in before the beginning of July) so last night for FHE we got a camping box ready and set up our tent to get everyone ready and excited for it. I thought it would be good to have a box full of camping necessities that's ready to go so that we don't have to look for these things everytime we're packing up to go. Everything came from the dollar store or the Walmarts so it was pretty cheap too. Here's what I included in it:
-Plastic bowls, plates, and cups
-Garbage bags
-Bug spray
-First aid kit & anitbiotic ointment
-Tylenol packs
-Flashlight
-Wet wipes
-Itch relief stick
-Paper towels
-Toilet paper
-Rope
-Sponge
-Push light
-Lighter & Waterproof matches
-Aluminum foil
-Dish soap
-Hand sanitizer
-I'm also going to run to DI and pick up a knife or two, some old pans and cooking utensils.

The girls had a fun time helping me set up the tent,

Doug built us a good fire,and we had fun roasting mallows.

Lilly thoroughly enjoyed her smore.

Sophia liked hers as well but didn't like having her picture taken.Overall it was a fun night and now we're all excited to get outdoors! Our first trip is in a week and a half when we join Doug and his brother's family on the turkey hunt! Let's hope for some success this year (with both turkeys and camping).

Sewing and Such

I recently picked up a sewing machine (thanks again Jen!) from DI - don't judge. It was cheap at it really works great! It's an old metal Singer built in to a table similar to the one my moms has (her's is still better and will always be the best machine in my opinion). Anyway, it's super sturdy and after a quick tune up it really is working great and doing everything I need it to (which is pretty much just a straight stitch). Anyway, here's a few things I've made so far. I attempted this pillow and I think it turned out okay. I probably should have picked a different material and I think I would have not spaced the pleats so close together. Oh well. It works.
While we were potty training Sophia a few years ago, we promised her an animal from Build a Bear once she was done. We finally made good on our promise (once again, don't judge) and took her there on tax day (I made a promise to myself that I'd do it during tax season so it was in the knick of time). Anyway, she picked this beautiful enchanted pony that she just loves. She was looking at all the accessories and dress ups for it and I realized the things she loved the most looked pretty easy to make and I was determined to figure it out. I thought it turned out okay. They used a gold material that matched the hooves but I'm cheap and pulled this silvery stuff from my mom's stash. Sophia was satisfied so that's all that matters.

My next project is some curtains and pillows for the girls' new room. We decided to move them to another room and give the baby their old room. We're going to use Doug's old big red bunk bed so I've decided to do a Wizard of Oz theme. I have some fun ideas I'm excited about and can't wait to get started on it (I've also had some serious nesting kick in). I'll be sure to post pictures when it's complete!

Here's a bonus one of the girls. They got all set up with their animals and baby and wanted me to take a picture and I couldn't resist.

Margaret Wise Brown

My amazing mother loves children's books and has some amazing collections. One of them is a collection of Margaret Wise Brown books. She has everyone ever published. You may know Margaret Wise Brown best for Goodnight Moon or The Little Island but she wrote over 150 (I think) books and my mom has over 200 copies of them (including everyone that has ever been published - did I say that already?) I know it took her quite awhile to collect all of these and she has some fun stories behind them all. She told me her favorite one is called The Man in the Manhole written by Juniper Sage (Margaret Wise Brown wrote under that name as well as Golden McDonald (She won a Caldecott Award for The Little Island written by Golden McDonald - they since have published it under her real name)). Anyway, she found The Man in the Manhole at a little antique shop in a Chicago subburb amongst a few dozen books for $4.50. She'd never seen it before anywhere and she knew these people had no idea what they had. She hurried and snagged it and was so happy to get it. She did find it on Amazon the other day for about $350 (I think) but it was the first time she'd ever seen it anywhere. The only copy she doesn't own is one of The Little Fur Family that was originally published in real rabbit fur. She has one in fake fur but not an original. She found one the other day on e-bay that was currently going for $1000 but she didn't get it.

Anyway, Margaret Wise Brown led a pretty amazing life. Her biography "Awakened By the Moon" is next on my too read list next. She was engaged to a Carnegie and a Rockafeller in her lifetime and was engaged to one of them when she died suddenly at an early age from a blood clot (I think - I really should have checked my sources better before I wrote this). Anyway, after her death her sister found an old trunk of hers full of manuscripts and ideas for more books. Many of them were published after her death including this one that is due to come out this month.

Anyway, her birthday is in April and so the Provo Library is doing a little display on her from April-May and they're using my mom's books. If you're in the area you should check it out. It's kind of fun to see! I know it looks like a lot of books but it's really only a fraction of how many she actually owns!

The top row on this one has books she was commissioned to write that have photos by Ylla. These two windows show what some of her books looked like when they were first published and how they looked when they were republished many years later.

The Hidden House is about this tiny house she lived in in New York City that was sort of hidden between all these big buildings.

Here's a bunch of Golden Books she wrote.

These are her most famous books: Goodnight Moon (in a few languages), Runaway Bunny and The Little Island.

These are all from her Noisy Book series.

Thanks indeed! Go check it out!

Post Edit: My mom cleared up a few things - her birthday is actually in May (23rd) and she was engaged to James Rockefeller but he was also descended from the Carnegie family. Thanks mom!

Easter and Wales

We had such a fun time (aside from hitting the deer) at the Wales house celbrating Easter and watching conference. Here's some of the things we did:

Here's the girls sporting their new dresses and necklaces:
We read stories with Grandpa:

We played with no pants on (until mom discovered I'd taken my pants off. Good thing I had cute chick socks):

We made resurrection cookies with Grandma:

We colored eggs:

We got to take rides with uncle JD in the Gator:

We played a lot and were silly:

Tickle those cute bellies!

We dressed up to look like Easter eggs:

We got to go the the Wales Town Easter Egg Hunt

Dad helped Sophia and she got quite the haul! Her basket was so full she was shoving them in her pockets.

We had a Daddy who took a break from Tax Season and got to spend time with us! (he also forgot a jacket and got to sport this beautiful sweater for the remainder of the weekend).

We got to hekp grandpa burn some limbs and have a hot dog roast!

It was such a fun weekend. Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma!

Easter Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago Doug took some pitcures of the girls in their new Easter attire. I think some of them turned out pretty cute.

We also found this cute mushroom growing in our yard. I think we'll keep her!

Sad Cookbook

My little brother just sent this to me. I literally cried because it was so sad (and because it made me laugh so hard!)

Not the best end to the weekend

We had a fantastic weekend at Wales with some of Doug's family. It was nice to enjoy Conference and relax with them. It was nice to have doug with us too. He left around 7 this morning to head back to work. He debated if he should go home last night but I convinced him to stay one more night with us. About 20 minutes after he left his mom came to wake me up to tell me he hit a deer and he was coming back. Luckily he was okay and Black Magic wasn't hurt to bad either. It really could have been worse so we're counting our blessings. He said the deer ran away so we're hoping he's okay. His brother teased him about not being able to wait until October (hunting season) to get one. Notice the hair sticking out of the wiper blade and windshield. It was quite the hit! When I told Sophia what happened she was really quiet for awhile and then she said "Wow! Are we going to eat it?!"

Doug took my car and went to work (and managed to not hit another deer) and my nice father-in-law drove Doug's car back to our house while the girls and I rode with my mother-in-law behind him. He even drove through the rain without the wipers on. What a guy! Luckily we had a little break in the weather and we were able to get anew windshield delivered this afternoon. The nice man who installed it even vacummed out the broken glass in the passenger's seat.

Aside from that, the weekend really was fabulous and I'll post better pictures than the one below of the girls in their Easter dresses. The Wales Town Egg Hunt was a particular success that I'll be sure to post more about later.
Good thing we had this one there to keep us smiling!

Not Really

So we like Cletis because it rhymes with fetus. Get it? Ha ha. Thanks to everyone who humored me by thinking I'd really give in and find out. The really April Fools Award goes to my friend who announced the delivery of her child 4 weeks early. She even spelled out "April Fools" in bigger letters throughout her post. Pretty funny.

It's a...

So about a month ago we had our ultrasound and with our other kids we haven't found out what we were having. We had a spontaneous moment and made a quick decision to find out. We decided not to tell our families and friends though and keep the little secret to ourselves. Well, I can't keep it in any longer and so I have to spill the beans. We're so excited to have a little bit of...snips and snails and puppy dog tails in our house. That's right, it's a boy! We're so excited! Doug's excited to have a son to do boy things with and I'm excited because it means I'm done! (We'll see). Anyway, for now we're liking the name Cletis. Any thoughts?