11 Make-You-Smile Lessons in Motherhood from the One and Only... Mrs. Incredible

Source: TIME 

I've been wanting to write this post for a long while now. When Rachel from R&R Workshop asked if I'd be part of her fun series, A Month of Disney, I knew just what I'd be posting...

Fun Lessons in Motherhood and Wifery from the One and Only Helen Parr/ Elastigirl!

You get teared up sometimes during your kids' cartoons, right? I know I'm goofy, but I sure do! And some of them are kinda dumb, which means I simply didn't get enough sleep the night before- ha!

But there are quite a few scenes from my favorite Disney Pixar movie, The Incredibles, that get me choked up or thoughtful for good reason... all of them involving the awesome lady that holds the family together :) We're already super excited for Incredibles 2 next summer!

There could be lots more than I've written here even, but for today I've chosen 11 tips and scenes worth thinking about...

Helping Kids to Think of Others First with Disney FROZEN

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It feels like this week has been revolving around Disney FROZEN the movie coming out! Our little band of men loves this flick too- certainly not just a girl show :) We've had the chance to comb both our local stores for fun Walmart toys and the FROZEN DVD... all with the intent of giving them away...

This quote above is my favorite from the movie. I believe this, I know it to be true. That I'm happier when I'm not so self-absorbed and narrow minded. That I love, even crave, the deep-down good feeling of giving, of selflessness.

The kind of selflessness, or love, that made Kristoff turn around from having left Anna behind to (he thought) be saved. The kind of selflessness that governs Anna throughout this whole movie; that puts her on a horse to go after her sister when she could be scared or angry instead. The kind of selflessness that makes Olaf refuse to leave Anna when she needs to find a solution, even if it does mean melting. Maybe even the kind of selflessness that keeps Elsa locked in her room, alone, not wanting to ever hurt her little sister again.

Wow, FROZEN can sure get a person thinking and feeling and learning, huh?! I want my boys to learn from it, to learn in general how to think of others before themselves. Not the simplest concept when you're four or six, right? We do a lot of gift giving, card making, knock-and-running to that end. Hopefully they don't realize it's all a big life lesson... otherwise, the gigs up ;)

Thanks to #collectivebias, we got to visit both of our Walmart stores here in town looking for toys and other FROZEN goodies. 

We knew that we wanted to send a #FROZENfun package to Coop and Ry's cousins, my nieces that are fairly close to their same ages. For real, my sister had two girls and I had two boys- it's cut and dried in this family ;)... They live just far enough away that we don't see them as often as we'd like. Unfortunately, the boys seem to like to tackle them without their consent when they are together, but it's really just because they are bursting with excitement for getting to see them at all. (I know, it's true, boys can be pretty weird. :P)

Really, the two little girls whom this package was for are incredibly special in my boys' minds. They love their cousins and this was a great opportunity for us to put that love into action, sending them FROZEN items that we all knew they would enjoy. Little did I know how unique the result would be...

I just grabbed what we found- some books and the Anna and Elsa Sparkle Dolls- and didn't think anything of it. We also chose some candies in FROZEN colors and some sparkly tulle to complete the package. The boys announced that girls love glitter... see, they get a small glimmer of feminine influence around here ;) 

Seriously Amateur Photographer. Yep, That's Me

Is this not the cutest little family ever?!

I kinda think they are pretty wonderful... maybe because that handsome Dad is

my one and only little brother with his cute wife and my little nephew,

who might just be the cutest baby ever :)

I recently took some new family photos for them and it was so FUN! Even Conner (my brother) said that he thought it was fun- I took that as a compliment! Guys are always less than thrilled about getting pictures taken, right? :) Anyhow, just thought I'd share a few here with some of my thoughts on the experience of being a seriously amateur family photographer, as well as links to some great photography tutorials I looked through beforehand...

Nine Years: Marriage is Bliss

Nine years ago today, Stephen and I each married someone we couldn't live without :)

I'm so blessed to be able to be married to my best friend, to truly have good, solid communication with my husband, to have him be the person I am most comfortable around. Nine years- wow!

Being married to Stephen has made life what it is and through it all, I'm so happy and grateful for what we have, for the goodness of our life! It's not posh or pretty or perfect, but it is blessed and bright. I love you, babe! Thanks for loving me :)

It's true, we're pretty darn cute together ;)

Diabetes, Disease, and Genetics

Can you believe that was me!

I was six years old- Cooper's age! Amazing how blond my hair was!

Now we know where Ryder's blond comes from, eh? :)

This picture would've been taken right about the time I was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.

(That's the kind that has nothing to do with what you eat or if you exercise.

It's the kind where your pancreas just stops working, rather than gets over-worked.)

And when mine stopped, I was this tiny little blondie... and I was pretty. darn. sick.

Insta-Blessed

I haven't been Instagram-ing for very long, but even just in the time that I have,

I can scroll back through my vintage-y cre8ivesky pictures and realize that

they tell the story of our everyday life rather well...

Like how I can tell my husband is in love with me

because of this look on his face during a  lunch date the other day;

and how this sandwich from our favorite local lunch spot is always fabulous.

I can tell that the boys are happy when we visit Dad at work and he spins them in his office chair.

I'd say really they are just happy in general :)

I can tell I am blessed by the stunning aquarium in my front room.

Admittedly, I'll feel more blessed when the aquarium mess from the swap to a bigger tank he's doing right now is gone... :/

For sure, though, the aquarium stuff is more a blessing than a curse-

Stephen has an aquarium maintenance and stocking side business.

And that income makes it so that life as we know it is possible :)

I can tell that I have a little boy who enjoys being with Mom

when all the other brothers are off hunting with Dad.

And that he looks so sweet when he's napping, taking me back to when he wasn't this big.

My Instagrams remind me that I might actually be one of those fun type Moms

who takes her kids sledding... even if  they look like they can barely breathe all the while!

They prove that I love holding hands with my boys;

love it when they want to hold my hand back. :)

I look back on my pictures and remember our sliding door being frozen shut because it was -20!

And that, no, the hair dryer did not work...

I scroll through and smile that I'm married to an amazing man

who does more than just looks good while he smiles at me...

he also brings purple flowers home from work on a whim.

I am Insta-Blessed with a Capital B!

I would love to see your daily blessedness on Instagram too!

Leave a link or your user name in a comment so I can follow along!

You can find me HERE :)

Snow and Blood and Gore

snow outside in October.... must be in Idaho- ha! 

So early last week it snowed a skiff and I was so excited I took this picture above! For sure not the first time I've had snow pictures in October, but still. Well, then just a day later we woke up to...

... seriously enough snow to make my original excitement laughable! Overnight we got something like five inches- it's only just now melting! The boys were over the moon- they could hardly wait to get out and play in it. We had snowball fights all morning :) When Taron and Keaton were here this weekend, they dug out the snowpants and sleds. They all rolled some massive snowballs that will likely be in our front yard for a fair while! Any bets that we'll have more snow for Halloween than for Christmas around here? :)

I've also been seriously consumed with the boys' costumes and can hardly wait for them to trick or treat in them! I'll take lots of pictures to share :)

And why do I mention blood?

Stephen and I got all decked out to be zombies for a Halloween party we went to! We kinda thought our makeup turned out pretty great- and it was really fun to do! We watched THIS video (from the makeup artists for The Walking Dead) and went on a search around town for liquid latex... to no avail. 

Sooo.... I read THIS article to figure out a replacement we could do at home. It was so easy and, I thought, really effective! Taron and Keaton loved it- Stephen had fun trying to scare them! The little boys, though, I think were happy to see us wipe it all off when we got home :)

Gross, eh?!

The replacement for liquid latex was simple- white tissue paper and school glue!
Thought I'd share a quick list of how we did it, just for the fun of it:

1) We spritzed torn strips of tissue paper with a spray bottle, then pressed it where we want to create a gash on our face. I left it kinda wrinkly on my skin instead of smoothing it.
2) Then we just used our fingertips to apply a thick layer of white glue around the edges of the paper and on top. I kinda left it thick and bumpy, like that part of my face had been cut into.
3) Stephen mixed his glue with oatmeal to give it a rotting type of look :)
4) We dried it with the cool setting on my blow dryer,
5) then sponged on white cream makeup over our entire face, mixing grey some too.
6) Next we hollowed out our eyes and lips with black.
7) Then we blotted the gash portions with grey, black and green costume makeup- just the cheap stuff from Walmart that I've had since we did these costumes for Taron and Keaton in 2008!
8) Then we sprayed Zombie spray blood on the gashes- it was thick like gel.
9) We also put tons of conditioner in our hair to make it look gross! It doesn't even show, but I grossed my hair up way more than I was comfortable with! I pressed, seriously, probably 6 or 7 handfuls of conditioner into my hair, then ratted it while I was bent over- it was a mess! But still, it hardly even looked too much worse for the wear! Oh well... ended up putting it in a yucky knot once we got there anyway :P
10) We ripped and blood sprayed our clothes a little too- nothing major. We also rubbed some mud on our clothes, but not much at all since we didn't want to ruin furniture!
11) Oh- just remembered- Stephen's teeth are some zombie teeth he found- they came just like that! He had to take them out while we were at a party so he could talk normally :)

Fun night! And leave it to to me to take something fun and simple and turn it sentimental, but I do want to add that I love my husband! I am so grateful he is the kind of man that will do things like this with me, that he will put effort into things even when it maybe isn't the safe or easy thing to do. I appreciate that he truly enjoyed doing our costumes and wasn't unwilling to take the risk of showing up having dressed up. It's more comfortable to not do anything, ya know? But, together we are comfortable going out on a limb somewhat- he makes everything fun and much more comfortable for me! I love you, my zombie babe ;)

Soon to Be: Engagement Gift

My baby sister is about to marry the luckiest guy on earth... 

... and I couldn't let the chance to give a gift pass me by ;)

I thought they turned out awfully cute...

... the cups and the pics :)

I got these very mugs at Walmart- any mug should work great for this project :) Then I cut these words out on my Cricut using SCAL. If you have a Silhouette instead, this design is obviously really simple! Then I applied the vinyl right to the cups like any other thing- it adhered beautifully! I did have to warn them that the cups weren't dishwasher safe :)

 Kinda neat to document this awesome time in their lives :)  

Click through to Places I Link to see where I'll try to share :)

New Family Pics!

Recently while Taron and Keaton were with us we hit up Stephen's cousin Melonie to take some new family photos! Mel never fails to impress me with her photography- I love keeping up with her work at her Head to Toe Photo blog. It's awesome how she's taken what she enjoys and turned it into a hot commodity! Here's a few for starters- click HERE to see more of how we turned out!

Thank you again, Melonie!

SEVEN years and more...

SEVEN years ago yesterday, I wore a cascading, perfect white dress.

There were purple flowers and ribbon and vests and ties.

There was a continual stream of  supportive people that meant a lot to us.

There was an elk across the back mountain that captivated the groomsmen.

There were two adorable little boys chasing each other around the grass.

July 10 marks our anniversary! (of course) :)

This year my parents offered to have Ry and Coop at their house for Friday night and Saturday while we celebrated! It was Ryder's first time with them alone overnight and I was so relieved he did great. We spent the day at an archery shoot above Ririe and had a great time! We totally enjoyed being in the mountains and just being together.

Thanks Stephen for making my life begin seven years ago and being my very favorite person to be with!

 I love you!

In other news today...
I am kicking off a fun week of giveaways for my blogging friend Ginger over at Ginger Snap Crafts!

While Ginger is on vacation with her family, she's scheduled two giveaways each day this week! You can find a simple mix of handmade goodies from me up for grabs this morning!