My Boys

Jeff and Max got tickets to Monster Jam for Christmas. This is the picture of the two of them as they left to go...could Max be any more excited?!?

He is my sunshine

Momentous occasion today: Max drew his first REAL drawing today. He can color like it's going out of style, but when it comes to actual things to draw, I have yet to see anything close, until today! The sad thing is that it wasn't on paper it was on his aquadoodle mat, which means that it will fade away in minutes.

So, here is his Smiley-faced Sunshine. It's the cutest thing ever!!!

Repurposed Shirt

OK, I really liked this shirt. So much so, that even though it looked silly to wear it because it was 1995 short (with my long shade hanging out underneath it), I still wore it. So, with a little help from my friends (hee hee) I decided that really, it was going to go to DI...

But sorry, DI...I copied a little sun dress my friend Rachelle just gave Ivy and made her another little dress out of my old one.

It turned out so cute, I think!

Now I'm trying to think of what other shirts I can toss!

the sad thing is ...I like the pattern so much, I'm having a hard time throwing away the sleeves that I have left. Am I sick?

Vintage Car-Azy!

We got our carpet cleaned today, and since we wanted to make sure we stayed away all day, we decided to do something I've been saving for just such a day!

We drove to San Diego to visit our friend Jeremy's shop! He is a part-owner of an vintage car restoration shop ( I think that's what you call it)...they fix up old cars! They even had my favorite: a woody!

Max was Car-azy excited when we were there. We got to look at all the engines, see a ginormous monster truck, watch the cars go up, up, up on the lifts. Totally cool...Max was in Heaven!

Thanks so much, Jeremy, for letting us come and interrupt your work for an hour and taking us around your shop...and to see the amazing stuff next door!

Here are Max and Ivy in front of a Jaguar that they were working on...

Attached to his shop, a guy keeps his own personal collection of automotive beauties. Oh My Goodness! Emily, Jeremy's wife, had told me about it, but it far exceeded my expectations! It was chock full of the most beautiful cars and trucks... They all looked like Flo from Cars...with the pretty wings on the back, they were such pretty colors, I was drooling... and they all sparkled. There were sooo many!

This is Babe Ruth's actual car! I think Jeremy said the owner of the Yankees gave it to him...we had to take a picture in front of it for Jeff. So cool to see!

Such a cool place, I bet Jeff would like to go back with us!

After Jeremy's shop, we drove up to San Marcos to visit our friends Becky and Hailey who just moved from HB. We got to have lunch at their house, and then Becky took us to a fun little park, we went for a walk and PLAYED! Thanks for a fun day, girls!

When we got home, the carpet was dry...perfect day!

heartfelt felt heart Valentine

Did this with a few of my friends on Tuesday.

So yummy.

We did another project, but I'm not quite done with it yet.

got the idea here.

Silhouette Pillows

I've had this project in the works for a long time, too...

I'm trying to make a dent in my unfinished projects box{es}, can you tell???

I have been super excited about this one! I have other plans for sillhouettes, but they'll have to wait until later.

got the idea here.

Sword fighting

Max and Jeff have become some serious sword fighters...It is the best was to expend energy on a week full of rain! Max fights with a hanger in one hand (captain hook style) and his pink (no less) sword made just for him from Grandma Mousser.

Jeff tries endlessly to defend himself, but always ends up the man with 4 nubs and a head (all of his limbs get cut off by the end)

Max (I mean Captain Hook) thinks it's hilarious!

these two are pretty cute.

Our Family Rocks

I finally put last weeks FHE activity outside, and thought I'd share it today...Max had so much fun painting the rocks!

We just re-used our Family Fun Magazine's idea for Father's Day (My Dad Rocks) and made the rest of the family to go with him. We talked about how our family is forever, and that's why our family rocks!

Look how tall and skinny I am...I love it! who picked those rocks??? hee hee

Monday's FHE Topic

I just finished a project and wanted to share it, so that anyone who wants to do it can! We're going to learn about this on Monday for FHE...and I can hardly stand to wait that long. I think Max will really dig it.

My sister sent me this idea that she found here. I copied.

The Mousser Family's Sunday Sundaes

...good excuse to eat ice cream, for sure!

At the beginning of Sacrament meeting, Max {and Ivy} will make their ice cream cone. Each time they are taken out, or maybe threatened to be taken out, we'll remove a scoop from their cone. Sunday night, when it's ice cream eatin' time, we'll whip out our folder, and however many scoops are left from church is how many {mini} scoops they'll get in their bowl. They can also win back scoops if they are awesomely reverent, or earn toppings.

Ivy has had a hard time being reverent in sacrament meeting as you can see...so I'm excited to see if this works for MY family!

Wheat!!!

My friend Kristin brought her wheat grinder to our little Relief Society cooking group on Thursday, and let us grind any wheat that we might have. I was so excited about it!

Today, Max and I made homemade, church-ground, whole-wheat bread and ate it with our favorite: homemade freezer jam. If my hair starts curling, you'll know I've turned into my sister Erin.

All Max could say was: oh my Dosh, Daddy will LOVE this!...we'll see. :)

Puzzle Predicament

I'm anal about wood puzzles.

I LOVE them...think they are so fun and awesome, and I LOVE it when Max asks to play with them, but I'm totally OCD about them (alright, I am about absolutely everything). We won't go into the rules that I have with playing with wood puzzles or you will all think I'm nuts (probably already do, but whatever) but, I saw this idea on Cluck, Cluck, Sew forever ago, and just hadn't gotten around to doing it yet...this will make it 17 times more fun to play with these things!

We have a lot of wood puzzles, but I'm scared of losing pieces. This way, they can be stored upright {aka, easier to store} and the pieces can be stored where they won't get lost.

a little wood puzzle pouch! Love it!

Unfortunately, I ran out of my stash of awesome velcro tabs...

Cheryl, can you send me more, more, more?!?

so, I have 2 more to be done, but they are cut and ready to be hot glued on...I'm in love. :)

{and all done from cut to color in 1 nap time...with loads of time to post a blog about it...and sweep the floor...}

Im so lucky!

I have the cutest kids.

They are just amazing, and I'm sooo grateful for both of them.

How'd Jeff and I get so lucky?!?

This picture just made me smile, and made me think today about how smart and amazing both of my two little kiddos are. They are both constantly making me laugh, and I love watching them learn new things.

I love being a mommy!

Play dough Lollipop Cookies

My friend Amber showed me these the other day on a blog. As I was scrolling down, I immediately drooled over that idea and vowed to do them. Max was a great help making them this morning,

They didn't turn out as pretty as the girls on the tutorial did, but they are still stinkin' cute; you can tell what they're supposed to look like, right?

and no sugar cookie is complete without some frosting. I sure made some up, and even colored it pink, but it certainly didn't look as cute on the cookie as they do just plain. fun huh?

(This girl is sooo stinking awesome...lots of fun ideas!! get excited!)

here ya go, Peach!

http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/2010/01/play-dough-lollipop-cookies.html

Best Puddle Ever!

The planets aligned this afternoon. Ivy was asleep, the sun peeked through the grumpy clouds and Max was going stir crazy. Perfect time to take advantage of the precipitation! The best puddle ever lives in the parking lot just behind our house. Oh man! I seriously want some galoshes myself!

It's like 15' x 15'...

Do you think it's summer here? 'cuz it's totally not. I think my neighbors thought I was crazy letting my boy out in his swimming suit when it was 58 degrees out...and a little windy, but Max was all about it, so I wasn't worried.

Don't worry, a nice, long, warm tubby followed.

other things

a menagerie of our other rainy day activities...pretty much nothin' ps...baseball players are like cats...when it's raining outside, they run for cover. which means: Jeffer's home! woo hoo...well, more than normal!

another project....

It's pouring outside!!!

Way good excuse to stay inside and get my craft on!

Sooo, today's task was to make 2 of the three window valences I've been scheming.

My friend Kristy inspired me at our last apt to buy fabric to make some sort of window coverings while she was doing it. She was so gung-ho, it was contagious! So I bought some fabric online and then put it out of my mind while it was being sent...So, Kristy totally finished hers...and my gung-ho up and left, and then Christmas projects happened...and then we moved, which could have thrown my project in the can...but it worked out so much better because I used less fabric then I would have had to at the old place AND I didn't have to buy any rods or anything...! the reason? VELCRO! Is that white trash? probably. Anyways...here they are: The vertical blinds had this frame thing around them that poked out, so I really couldn't have put a curtain rod up...but I had some velcro that I bought on accident about a year ago that was sticky on one half and sew-able on the other half...so, I just velcro-ed my hemmed fabric right around the frame-y thingy and I'm done. Super fast! My mother in law did something similar to this...but less WT...around a 2 x 4 and then hung the 2 x 4 up on the wall above her window. Fun idea, huh? So, it's little home-ier in here today...bring on more rain!

Ibes

Ivy is 9 months old now!

It's going so fast (cliche, but really)

she is 28" long, and weighs 16 lbs, 2 oz....(65% for height, 12% for weight)... little peanut.
she cruises around the house holding onto walls and other various objects like crazy
she signs 'all done' and 'more' when she's eating, appropriately
she loves to talk about her daddy, but
she is a momma's girl
she still sucks her right thumb constantly
she does NOT enjoy getting dressed
she does not enjoy getting her diaper changed
she does not enjoy baby food
she does not enjoy being fed
she does not enjoy being in the car when Max is not in there next to her (she yells: 'bubba, bubba')
she takes 2 naps a day
she loves to feed herself little bits of food
she still has no teeth...at all
she loves the little pretend breadsticks that they got for Christmas
she loves to play kitchen
she loves to play with the garbage can...dude, get a new hobby!
she loves to stick out her tongue at herself in the mirror
she can roll her tongue (Maxer can't do that)
she loves to sleep on her tummy

...and we love her!

More Counter Space!

So, as you know, we just moved, and I realized as I was cooking waffles on my washing machine, and mixing banana bread batter on the washing machine that the counter space in this kitchen is prime real estate...see the two little square of space? This is totally fine...there are plenty of other fabulous things about our new place to be too bugged by that! So, my mother-in-law, Cheryl, told me to go to Home Depot and get a board cut that would exactly cover the washer and dryer, and then cover it wish some vinyl fabric, or oilcloth. This would work as more counter space...and when I need to do the laundry (which is always the same day each week), I can just slide it down next to the fridge, and replace it when I'm done. Soooo, that's what I did... So, probably no one else cares about this fun project, but every time I walk into the kitchen now, it makes me smile to see a little bit of happy in there, instead of a little bit of W/D.

so cute?

Grandma's here! and our new place

Grandma Mousser drove back with me and the kids to help us move. Thank Goodness! She was a huge help, and we had the job done pretty much in 3 days...including totally cleaning out the entire old apt. It sparkled if I do say so myself. So, we took a break the last day and a half that she was here and took her to the Traveltown Transportation Museum up in Glendale which is one of our favorites. We thought Grandma would think it was cool, too! So many fun trains, and Grandma treated us to a ride on their train. thanks!!! we love you! Back on the home front, we are business as usual, with 2 added bonuses:

Exhibit A)

Max makes a dirt angel in the back yard while talking to himself about how much fun this new backyard is. Oh my goodness....little boy heaven back there. why there is a little plot of dirt with no bushes, etc is beyond me, but we are happy about it...

So happy!: he proceeded to make a dirt angel face-first as well. So, in other words, if you see me or my kids out sometime, and max is completely dirty. Don't judge me as being a horrible Mom. Rest assured that we've just had a fantastic time in the dirt and give me a pat on the back for trying really hard not to care about dirty clothes and faces! :) he's having so much fun out there.

no really, I'll probably need a pat on the back.

Exhibit B)

Ivy's new drawer of plastic things that I don't so much care about...have at it Ives! So, Ivy turned 9 months old, we are in a new house, we have a backyard and life is GOOD!

Happy Noon Years!

The day after Christmas, we moved to Jeff's brother, Steve's house for the rest of the time we were there. It was Heaven! Both kids slept in until 7:30...that's huge, by the way, but for some reason, we can't recreate it here). Steve and Becky's girls were constantly entertaining Max, and we had so much fun playing card games and cooking and crafting. I even borrowed one of Aimee's shirts for Church...we need to move to your house next! (Becky is sounding the alarm while reading that) We played with every Mousser cousin imaginable, had 37 family dinners and parties and outings...it was a whirlwind of fun! Again, I didn't take many pictures, and Arizona was FREEZING, but here are a few that I did take: All the cousins made new years glasses...we celebrate Noon Years on New Years Eve at, obviously, noon, so this is there Noon Years picture.
When the Clock struck Noon, we gathered up some of Becky's Pots and wooden spoons and braved the cold to bang and bang and bang for one minute. Soooo fun! max wasn't scared this year!

Lexi and Kaite joined our celebration...dare I call them potheads?

Those girls were so cute with both of my kids...I really really really appreciate how much help all of them were! thanks girlies!

Christmas in Arizona

We had such a fun trip!!! We did so many things and I didn't take very many pictures...but other people did! We had an amazing time getting to see all of our family again! The day before Christmas Eve, we went to see the Temple Lights with my cousin Cody and his family...Arizona was COLD (does that happen) and we weren't really prepared for that, so it was a quick trip to the lights and a little less peaceful and enjoyable than it probably should have been, but so fun to get to see my cousins!! Bryce, Cody, Michele and little baby Callie (who looks like a doll, by the way...so perfect) Ives, Me, Jeff and Max
We stayed at Grandma's and Grandpas for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Max never wants to be out of reach of Grandma and wails "Grandma, don't leave me" every time we leave or she leaves. so cute, but so sad!

Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve, and Ellsworth Tradition...love it! Ivy enjoying her loot on Christmas Morning...

and one of Jeff's presents from that crazy Santa Claus: Tix for Maxer and Jeff to see the REAL Monster Trucks in January! soooo fun!