Safety and Strength Printable

This last week has been... what can I say... disappointing?

Heart-wrenching. Overwhelming. Sad. Unreal. 

The events of this week didn't go like we had so hoped.

And I know we're not alone.

Were you looking, searching, praying for something

to help ease the foggy, indescribable emotion you felt Tuesday night, Wednesday morning,

maybe even still now?

I know I was.

I found it in a lunch date with my Mom, a relieving conversation with my Dad,

a cuddle with my baby that's not so much a baby anymore. And in this quote shared by a friend...

October 2001... no one needs reminded why that date was significant enough to be significant.
And the way I felt Tuesday night watching Fox News... was about like dejavu for how I felt back then. That might be rather blasphemous to say, but there you have it...

To think about the future, about what America will denote for my boys vs. what it is to me, is too much right now. I can't manage it too much. When I talked to my Dad the next morning, he was reassuring that there was certainly strands of optimism in that outlook. And those are something that I can manage... crazy, considering I'm often more of a pessimist type.

"Our safety lies in repentance. Our strength comes of obedience to the commandments of God."

I LOVE that phrase! I need strength and I don't feel safety in a lot of ways at this point. I sure don't know what's to come at the hand of a national leader I don't personally resonate with in the least. But, I do know that I can trust and find hope, comfort, joy... in the words of our religious leaders. And that I can, always, no matter what outside unrest, create goodness for myself, and even my family by default I suppose, through repentance and obedience.

To think of it all in a spiritual perspective, I feel immediately how blessed life is,

how necessary even the evil and corruption of our day are...

and how I know that, indeed, always, my Heavenly Father is in control.

I can't affect or change the national scheme of things here and now.

But I can have an influence on my immediate surroundings...

reaching out, standing firm, living worthily -

I think I can handle that, ever better, hopefully.

And as such, even all considered, I can Be Still.

So, obviously this is a free printable ;) Click on the color you'd like, then right click and save to print your own 4x6. This one is smaller considering it's a lengthier quote that I thought was probably best served as a card you could tuck in your scriptures or journal or whatever. Enjoy!

Thankful Tree

I've seen this idea a number of times and thought the boys would enjoy it through the month,

so we whipped up a simple "Thankful Tree." I thought it turned out pretty fun!

I printed off these leaves from cloud street lab- I rather liked the colors and they were higher resolution than most others I seemed to find. The boys latched right on to the idea and wanted to write on a bunch of them at once- luckily, we were several days into November when we started ;)  I got a kick out of the things they said they were thankful for:

Ryder really just draws on his and then "translates" for me what he's happy about :)

I loved when I asked him, "What's something you're happy to have in your life, Ry?"

and he excitedly said "You!" Things like that are the BEST Mom moments :)

He scribbled another one for Keaton, too :)

Don't ya just love kids' sounded out spelling?!

TRDTL= turtle. TECIR= teacher :)

I love it!

And "Dad"- you guessed it- the first one he wrote!

They had fun taping them onto the tree too:)

By Thanksgiving, our little tree will be fulled-up pretty well :)

Halloween Fun!

I feel like it's been Halloween for the entire last month! All the work made for a really fun night, though :) 

The boys woke up to these fun little treat bags, which I made using these printables:

Inside they found these fun jack-o-lantern juices and some Halloween stickers :)

Then I made fun pancakes again, only without the red dye like last year ;)

This year Cooper wanted to be a lizard and Ryder, well... he wanted to be about 65 different things.

Sooo... I had to just kinda roll with one of them...

I decided his "rocket ship" idea was one I could do. Sooo... I did:

Fun, eh? I thought it turned out cute- something original! The thing is though... he didn't.

Every time I put it on him to adjust this, that or the other- he hated it.

He couldn't wait to get out of his little costume jail.

Sooo.... two days before Halloween, I began a whole new costume for him-

with, ya know, 64 other options to choose from. He became the cutest green dinosaur ever :)

Could you die over his tail?!! It kept Stephen and I laughing all night long!

I used this awesome tutorial at Running with Scissors to make it-

just subbed ribbon for he straps for the sake of time ;)

He had fun shakin' his tooshie for sure :) It bobbed along behind him cuter than cute :)

For his hat, I just winged it based on the lumberjack style  hat he wears for real.

Cooper's costume was certainly more intricate, but also more straightforward too. It was based largely on this one found at Stumbles and Stitches- without the posts regarding the costume she made, I would've been really stumped on where to even start! As I got going, I felt more confident in doing things my own way, like the belly portion, his hat and his feet.

I would go in to look at our leopard geckos on occasion for inspiration too- their bellies are ribbed, not circular patterned like my inspiration. They also don't have spikes on their head, just more scales.  And I got the shape for his feet from watching a new "gecko power" episode of Wild Kratts with the boys- they really added to the whole thing! 

 In the end, he was thrilled as thrilled!

You get the lizard effect best when he's crawling around like this one above :)

He got to wear it to school earlier in the day also-

he thought it was so cool to get to have a snack at school! (His teacher had cupcakes for them) :)

I couldn't have been more pleased watching the two of them enjoy Halloween together! Having made three costumes, I was glad for it to get here- no matter what, my two little men made it so worth it! They got lots and lots of nice comments on their costumes- it was pretty handy having them both be green for keeping track of them in the parking lot! Cooper did great at letting Ryder stick with him and taking care of him all night...

I daresay next year, we'll skip this part of the night and stick to traditional trick or treating, but it was okay too- fun to see a few kids we knew :) After we went to Grandma Laura's in Rigby- they made her night for sure! Then we went to a nearby neighborhood and they got to go from house to house- which they seemed to like much better! Stephen and I laughing over Ry's bouncy tail all the while :)

Love them :) Hope your Halloween was great too!

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 ;)

Handsome Fall Boys

They really are, huh? :) Once in a blue moon I'm able to have everyone ready in enough time before Church to grab a quick picture of them- I love the little boys' sweaters! Even less often do they all have nice smiles together obviously, but I'll take it! 

And this is what happens when you leave your sprinkler system on while it freezes overnight... Coop and Ry thought it was awesome and loved the icicles! Cooper even said he was happy to wear pants now that there was "snow on the ground." Normally it's a daily battle to get him not to wear shorts anymore :/ Needless to say, we turned the water off after!

Yes, yes, jumping is still a number one sport around here...

and I still can't resist taking pictures of it all!

A few notable events in our everyday lately... the "batting head against wall" stage of potty training came and went and overnight Ryder just got it! My last box of diapers has long since been bought- woo hoo! He seems to love being like his big brothers :) And... 

Cooper is reading! It is so cool to see your own kids "get it!" Sometimes it really frustrates him because he'd rather be doing something else. But when he slows down enough, he does so good and is so proud of himself to gain new words everyday!

And for fun...we recently made these fun "Monster Eyeballs" using THIS printable-

the boys loved teasing Dad with them when he got home!

Snagged this cute shot of Coop recently too- love :)