check this guy out!

So here's a black, male, conservative Republican and he has some good things to say! He has more videos on YouTube under "machosauceproductions".

Isn't this cute?

I love this idea! It's cheaper than buying reusable grocery bags or bags for the kids to take on trips or whatever. Here are the directions, easy as pie--I promise!! Actually, easier than pie! Unless you're talking about eating the pie....

Very distressed

Here's my latest sign. I love this one; it's been very distressed and beat up nicely. :)

Great Giveaway!

Who doesn't love family pictures?? Here is a giveaway for a free family photo session. Check out her cute blog and great photos. If you book a session with her, be sure to say I referred you (if you get her info. from me) and maybe I can get a free session that way. Go check it out and start planning that picture! :)

We had a birthday girl!!

Our little miss turned 5! (a couple weeks ago, but who's counting?) She had a real homemade birthday party, as we are on a tight budget around here, but it came out fun! All of her friends came and we played Pin the tail on the kitty (drawn by her oldest sister),
did face painting (the biggest hit of the day),
played dance and freeze, where you dance while the music is playing then freeze when it stops, a couple of relays including squeezing the sponge into the bucket to transfer the water from one bowl to the other and carrying a spoon full of water to the other bowl. The relays at this age were not the best activity, but we made the best of it.
Then delicious homemade cupcakes and ice cream, and opening presents! She got so many cute things that she has been playing with a lot. Overall I'd say it was a fun party and she is such a great addition to our family. Little miss is as smart as a whip, funny, speaks WAY above her tender age of 5 (which scares me a little sometimes!), and she is definitely a mama's girl. She LOVES to help me in the kitchen and go with me wherever I go. Yesterday I was taking some pictures of the kids and I told them to walk down the sidewalk holding hands so I could get a picture from behind. She piped up and asked, "Why do you want to take a picture of our butts?" Yep, that's my Little miss.

The Debut of a great new blog!!

Dah-dah-dah-dah!! (to be sung like a trumpet sound announcing the opening of something great)

I would like to announce that my new craft blog is open for business. There aren't actually prices on anything yet, but at least you can see what I have. I'll add prices as soon as I come up with them. You can bet they will be very reasonable!

Take a look at www.salsacrafts.blogspot.com Go visit and let me know what you think! I also take special orders, so if something inspires you, or you like something but would like to put a twist on the way I did it, please ask! I would love to make something special for you!

Spread the word, visit, and share your thoughts. See ya there!

Babies, babies everywhere!

We have another baby in the family!! DH's sister Lisa had a baby girl this morning. And what's with these teeny tiny babies? She was only 6 lbs. 6 oz.! 18 inches long and her name is Brimley. Isn't that the cutest name! It's sooo darling. I'm sure she is, too. Congrats, Lisa and family! We love ya'll!!

On another note, I have been working on some more crafts to possibly sell in an upcoming boutique and I will be posting them soon!

Picture Tag

I got a fun tag today. It's a picture tag. You go to your sixth folder and get the sixth picture and post it. Here it is: (thank goodness it's a good one!)


This picture was our family picture last year. It was taken outside the Salt Lake temple.
I'm tired and can't think of anyone specific to tag, so whoever wants to do this, please do! And leave me a comment letting me know you did it so I can come see. :)
Thanks for the tag, Karalyn!

Cool Giveaway

Check out this blog for a giveaway. Katydid and Kid is hosting a giveaway of a hand carved wooden spoon made by Jonathan's Wild Cherry Spoons. My favorites are the Lazy Spoons, which have a notch so you can rest the spoon on the side of your pan. LOVING these Lazy Spoons!! Great for Christmas, yes? DH, are you reading this? hahaha

My Favorite Things

I am feeling grateful today and a little reflective on what I think makes life great. I had a mental list going of things that I love about life, aka my favorite things and then I decided to make it a little more concrete and write this list down. Where else to write such a list than one's blog? :)
My non-inclusive list of favorite things:
* singing with my family, and hearing my kids sing or play a musical instrument
* playing the piano
* seeing my kids hug each other and help each other
* watching DH sing hymns with a "rock star" microphone because Little Miss brought it to him while we were singing.
* smell of rain/wet dirt -YUM
* reading a good book
* knowing Christmas is coming which means Christmas songs, decorations, crafts, colors, food, smells, lights, stories, trees, family parties, etc.
* crafts, baby!
* painting (as in walls or furniture NOT portraits)
* hearing DH teach Sunday School (or anything else. he's a GREAT teacher)
* going to school
* selling my crafts
* taking pictures and discovering I've taken some good ones
* clean kids and babies
* newborn babies. period.
* great finds at Goodwill or yard sales
* visiting with a good friend
* playing outside in lovely weather
* the Temple
* watching my kids be creative
* coming home to a clean house
* making new friends
* making a great meal
* going to musicals
* playing my flute in a good symphony

Maybe I'll add more later, but those are the things that are on my mind right now. What are YOUR favorite things?

OK, here's more baby info!! :)

Well, little Eliza is a tiny little thing weighing in at 5 lbs. 9 oz. She looks just like her brother, according to her mama and has just a little bit of hair. She is about 18 1/2 inches long. I got her name wrong in the last post, it is Eliza MacKay. What a doll!! Mom and baby are fine now. The section went well, and hopefully C will get a little more rest now that Lizzy is here and she's not pregnant anymore! Yahoo! That's always such a great feeling. Congrats, C and D (and T and J), and I hope to see you soon!

I'm an aunt!!!!!!

I'm so happy! I'm an aunt again this morning. My SIL C just had her baby #3 c-sec this morning, and all is well. Her name is Eliza Mirrett (ok, I know I didn't spell that right). I don't have any more details yet, but will post them when I get them. I am here whining because I can't be there to see her yet--they are in El Paso. I am DYING to see them!!!!!! Ok, I better quit whining and get on with things. (but I'm still whining inside!)
Love you, family! Welcome Eliza! I'm blowing kisses your way!

Halloween craft

I wanted to share another little Halloween craft that I made the other day. It was inspired by something I saw at Domestic Bliss, a gorgeous yet overpriced boutique near me. These little babies probably cost like $50 over there, but they cost me less than $5 to make. I went down to Home Depot and bought a board. The whole board was around $4. They wouldn't cut smaller than 12 inch pieces, so I brought it home and used my jigsaw to cut pieces the lengths I wanted. (totally eyeball it, it does NOT need to be precise) I bought 3 pieces of scrapbook paper, which cost a total of $1.79 or something like that. I then printed out the words "Trick Or Treat" and cut them out with an exacto. This is the hard way. The easy way would be to just print the silly words onto the scrapbook paper. I was afraid I wouldn't have enough paper to cover the blocks front and back, so I did it the hard way. Whatever. It worked! I painted the sides of the blocks black, then mod podged the paper on. Then I mod podged the words on. Voila! They are SUPER CUTE and way cheap. I think I will do a modified version for Christmas. Maybe even Thanksgiving. There is enough board left to make several...hmmmmm I'll have to think about it.
BTW, the font was a free font download and the name is Zothique. Love it!!

SPOOKY SUPPER

Oh, yeah. It was a blast! Every year my friend SH and her family host a "spooky supper". We get together and everyone brings some sort of "spooky" food, we play games that SH's mom plans and she always gives the kids cute goodie bags (THANK you for not being into tons of candy!!). This year we had quite the feast. Dinner included witch's stew,


yak-a-muffins,

eyeballs,

moth wings with puss for dipping, grimy greasy gopher guts,

bones, chips and dirty diaper dip.



Yep, we're disgusting. It's AWESOME! Here's the translation--bean soup, corn dog muffins, jello stuff in eyeball shape, pita chips and lemon hummus, teriyaki meatballs, bread sticks in bone shape, chips and bean dip served on a diaper. :)
Everything was delicious, oh and there was ice cream cake for dessert that was FAB! I admit, I liked the eyeballs but could only eat one of them because they felt so gross! haha I did eat the leftover jello stuff out of a bowl, though. We also put out a bowl of Jelly Bellies and called them Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. (we didn't have to deal with the yucky ones that way) We also made our own Butterbeer with club soda and caramel flavored Torani's syrup. We wanted to use butterscotch flavor, but couldn't find it ANYWHERE. Oh well, it worked. :)

Now for the games. We split into two teams and each team got a bunch of stuff like tissue paper, foil, plastic tablecloth, tape, and garbage bags.
We had to take the materials and construct a costume for one person on the team. We ended up with one Hulk and one bride. Cute!


We played the flour game where you un-mold a cup of flour onto a plate and place a lifesaver on top in the middle. Then you take turns using a knife to slice off the flour and whoever makes the lifesaver fall gets to pick it out with their teeth!



Then there were balloons with papers inside that had halloween themed characters written on them. We had 3 minutes to pop the balloon and act out the character. Whoever guessed the character got to go next. I love charades!

The kids got to decorate orange lunch sacks for their goodie bags, which had organic chocolate milk, halloween pencils and erasers and little halloween shaped bags of pretzels. Dr. D liked putting his stickers on his belly, though the next day we found that he must have been allergic to the adhesive or something. He had sticker shaped welts on his tummy and a rash all over it! Didn't seem to really bother him, though.


What a great time to spend with friends and family. Isn't that what holidays are all about?

Our birthday boy!!

Today Dr. Destructo is 2!!! I canNOT believe how time has flown with this little guy! It's so true that time seems to be speeding up and I can hardly keep up with it. Our boy is such a gem. This little man is full of sweetness and cuddles (especially for his mama, lucky me!!). But he is all boy in his other interests, such as a love for firearms, dirt, swords, motorcycles, and other vehicles (tractors in particular). His favorite things are cereal "ceeyal", hot dogs "ha gogs", macaroni and cheese "ca-woni", and drinking water (water bottles are most fun).
It has been such a fun experience for us to finally have a boy in our household. Wouldn't it be nice if the next one is a boy to be a playmate for him? I guess whatever it is, they will play together. But still...
I thank Heavenly Father every day for our children, and certainly thank him for this little dude that has blessed our life so much. I love you Dr. D!!! Happy Birthday!

The picture above is Dr. D with his new Halloween bag that he thought was a hat.

Money matters

Ok, so finances/money has been on my mind lately. Well, more like constantly for a long time. Anyway, I found these little pointers on this blog and thought I'd post them here. I think they are good ideas. I also read another article on being frugal and the differences between being frugal and being cheap. Like, when you are cheap you always buy the cheapest thing because, well, it's cheap. If you are being frugal, you realize you may have to pay more initially for something in order to get a better product and save more in the long run. Frugal people can pass up things they don't need, even if they are cheap. I haven't figured out which I am yet, but I think I possess qualities of frugality and cheapness.
We have gone through stages in life, of course as everybody does, and have been in debt free status as well as in deep doo-doo status. It's interesting how quickly one can go from debt free to deep doo-doo. I found these ideas pretty good, so enjoy, and leave some feedback and your own ideas for being financially responsible. :)

7 things you can’t do if you want to be debt free

You constantly need to be on guard because if you aren’t, you can quickly find yourself back in debt.
Here are 7 things you can’t do, or continue doing, if you want to stay out of debt.

1. You can’t spend more than you make! If you need to, cut back on expenses, or increase your income.
2. You can’t keep moving forward without a plan. Set up a zero-based budget, and give every dollar a job! Know where your money is going, how much you need to save, and how much you’re going to spend on every category.
3. You can’t continue buying on a credit. Save up for big ticket items instead, you’ll be glad you did, and it’s more rewarding. Just plan on those big expenses, and make them a line item in your budget. Sometimes you’ll find by the time you save the money you don’t want or need the item anymore!
4. You can’t constantly buy the new things just because they’re new. The lure of the newest Iphone or digital SLR camera can be so tempting. But if you already have an old MP3 player or a point and shoot digital camera, make do with what you have. Hey, it still works! That new thing will be old again in a few months anyway!
5. You can’t try to keep up with the Joneses. Things can’t make you happy, and trying to buy status with things won’t work. Wow them with your ability to save, not your new Escalade!
6. You can’t use credit when you have the cash. Sometimes it can feel nice to buy something on credit thinking that you’ll pay it off within a paycheck or two because you’ll have more of a cushion then. The truth is that credit card debt often starts off small, and builds from situations like these. If you can’t pay it off comfortably with cash right away, don’t buy it!
7. You can’t depend on a credit card for emergencies. Instead, save up an emergency fund of 3-6 months of expenses for those inevitable “emergencies” that always have a way of cropping up at the worst possible times.

Those are just a few things that you can avoid doing if you are serious about getting out of and staying out of debt. While it’s not an exhaustive list, it’s a good start.

What are some things that you are avoiding in order to stay debt free?

double tag

Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and list these rules on your post.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, by leaving their names, as well as links to their blogs.

4. Comment to the people you've tagged and let them know they've been tagged.

Hotmama tagged me on her fun blog! She has a great post about Down Syndrome kids. Then I got tagged by Hollie on her blog. It's fun meeting new blog friends! I'll try to think of 7 facts about myself that I haven't shared before, let's see...

1. I am a self-taught piano player. I knew how to read treble clef notes from playing the flute, and one of my young women advisors taught me how to read bass clef. I took it from there and practiced at my best friend's house whenever I could. I can play pretty well, but I feel like my lack of proper instruction really limits me so for that reason I won't teach my kids how to play. I want them to learn the right way to finger and other techniques so they won't have my limitations.

2. I am the only member of my immediate family that has only been (and ever will be) married once.

3. Christmas is my favorite holiday and favorite time of year.

4. I used to hate brown (all growing up) and now I LOVE it.

5. I wish I had a horse and knew all about how to ride and take care of it.

6. It is my goal to one day learn to play the cello.

7. I would loooooove to go back to school and take all kinds of classes just for the fun of it. Well, a degree would be nice too. I have always enjoyed school. One of these days I WILL go back to school. It will be great!

So there you have it, seven random, hopefully new facts about me. I tag C, Molly, Lorie, Amy, Nik, Katie, and DH.

Win a free handbag!

Go here to check out a free handbag drawing! They are giving away one bag per hour on the 15th, so go enter!

Propositions

I just wanted to post a shout-out here to anyone who wants to learn more about the propositions that are coming up on our ballot. Tomorrow night, so Tuesday, October 7 at 6:30 pm at our church building (Mesa Dr. and University) DH is going over all the propositions for our Enrichment night. I'm tossing out a blanket invitation to anyone who wants to come. It should be very informative. See ya!

Cute giveaway

Check out this blog to enter a cute fall decor giveaway! She has some great craft ideas on her blog.

Random info.

Here's some really random gag info:
My DH has a super-sensitive gag reflex. He can puke at will, and the slightest texture issue will make him gag. Like apple skin or peach skin. He likes the taste of the fruit (sometimes), so he'll chew it and then spit out all the skin and chewed pulp. (strange, if you ask me :) Well, every day for the last nearly 14 years, I hear DH go into the bathroom to brush his teeth, and then comes the serious gagging and choking. A few weeks ago we needed some new toothpaste and I got Arm and Hammer baking soda toothpaste because it was the cheapest one I saw. Guess what? He DOESN'T gag on it!! I don't know if it's just not as strong of a mint or what, but we are in heaven!! We also like the slightly salty quality of it. And no more tooth brush gagging at our house. Yahoo! So there's your bit of random info for the day. heehee Who knows, maybe someone reading this has the same problem...

Yeah, right. :)

One more day

We have only one more day with our visiting family. It feels like we have known these people forever. I believe Heavenly Father had a hand in this whole thing. How else could this arrangement be explained? We have seriously bonded with them, and the thought of not seeing them ever again is just not right. I know we will keep in touch somehow. They are not our same race, not our religion, not our culture. But they are so like us in many ways. Completely and totally devoted to their family, for one. They are charming and fun to be with. (did I just compliment myself with that one? heehee) We couldn't ask for more gracious people to have in our home, and they are welcome anytime. They actually may need to come back in 4-6 months for the second surgery if they can't do it in Mexico. I will miss our new good friends, and wish them the best.

My house tour

I love seeing other people's home tours, so I decided to start mine. You know, since it's pretty clean right now. ;) I'm starting with the master bedroom, but to me the pictures don't look as good as it does in real life. Not that it's super designer or anything, but I do think it's prettier than the pictures. I only photographed two walls this time, I'll do the rest later.


As you can see, my current color scheme is dark brown and light blue. The walls are a "custom color" of all the brown paints I had left after painting other areas of my house. :) I like it. It goes really well with the bathroom. I wanted a neutral wall so I could change up the colors of the bed if I wanted. I love red, so I would like to have a red look to interchange with the blue. One of these days...This is my dresser wall. I am eventually going to paint the dresser the dark espresso color of the shelf above it. I have had this shelf for...about six years, and just put it up this year! I love it (a friend's husband made it for me) and wanted just the right spot for it, and wasn't sure what color to paint it. I bought this gorgeous dark brown for my bathroom cabinets (which I haven't painted yet) and used it on this shelf. I LOVE it!!

Here's a close-up of my shelf:



So, if you decide to post pictures of YOUR home, which I think everybody should because I'm nosy and want to see :), please let me know so I can come look.