Jack's Friend

Jack has a new friend.  He thinks he's the coolest.  :)

 



Sweet Blankie

Today

Arden has a security blanket.  The blanket has a name; it's called "Sweet Blankie."  Sweet Blankie is a girl.  Sweet Blankie has feelings.  Sometimes Sweet Blankie is happy.  Sometimes she is sad.  Sometimes Sweet Blankie is sick.

Minute To Win It

 

On Friday we had game night with the Greens.  Crystal mentioned wanting to play a home version of the popular TV game show, Minute to Win it.  That sounded like a great idea to me.  I scrounged up a bunch of household items that I thought might be useful for our game, and we headed to their house.  I took a trash bag full of stuff like Q tips, paper plates, cards, napkins, cups, string, etc, etc. 

Oh my gosh!  We had SO MUCH FUN playing our crazy game.  It was a blast watching everyone look and act like idiots!  

We divided into two teams: boys vs girls.  We created seven rounds.  We had a minute to complete each task (duh.)  Some of the rounds were very easy, and some were almost impossible.  I cannot emphasize how much fun we had.  At first we thought that the three year olds, Myleigh and Arden, would be too little to play, but they were able to hang with the older crowd.  This was truly a game that could be played by all ages. 

Here's a few pictures of the game and our awesomely fun night.

Challenge 1: Blow a cup across the table with a straw - Easy

Jakob and Halle blowing the cups

I made up the rule that you couldn't leave the starting end of table. I bent my own rule by laying on the table, ha!  My cheater husband kept poking me while I was trying to blow the cup;  I kept laughing and almost lost this challenge.

Challenge 2: Put a cracker on your face and use only your facial expressions to get it to your mouth - Moderate

This round was my favorite to watch.  You've got to watch the videos.  Everyone looks so stupid trying to get the cracker to their mouths.  Arden was freakin funny because I guess she thought it was just a balancing act.  I'm laughing as I type this just thinking back to this round!   (Excuse the quality of the pictures.  One of these days I'll have a camera better than my phone camera.)

Crystal and Nik's pic is my favorite.  They look absolutely ridiculous. 

Here's videos of Myleigh/Arden and Brian/Me

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge 3- Swing an inflatable dolphin with your hips to move a plastic thingamajig into a hula hoop - very difficult

Another really fun one to watch.  We were not good at this one at all.  We were a little worried that Crystal might end up going into labor after squatting like that!  Although no one actually accomplished this challenge, we think the kids had an advantage since they were shorter (and therefore closer to the ground.)  The little girls got the right idea with this challenge.  They gave up and just kicked the plastic ball thingy into the hula hoop

Challenge 3- Using only your mouth, transfer penne pasta onto a single spaghetti noodle - Moderate to Difficult

Challenge 5- Use a straw to transfer candy corn into a cup - Moderate

If you ever play this, make sure you don't have a hole in your straw like I did.

Challenge 6- With Vaseline on your nose, transfer cotton balls into a cup - Easy to Moderate

 

And Nik grossing me out by pretending that the Vaseline is a popped pimple.

Challenge 7- slingshot rubberbands into toilet paper to tear it - Difficult

Crystal and I are holding up the TP rolls.  Crystal's face says it all.  We don't want to get hit by the rubberbands!

I definitely recommend this for a family night.  It cost us no money since we used household items.  Costing $0 is a miracle considering it was fun for 9 people!  Halfway through the game we forgot to keep score, so I'll just go ahead and say the GIRLS WON!!!!

Name writing

Today Arden wrote her name and drew a self portrait. You can see 'Arden' on the top and 'Rose' on the bottom.... sort of. I wish my arms came out of my head, too. Oh, and feel free to detangle your hair with the 'E.'

Love her :)

Red and Aqua Baby Shower for Delaney Love

PART 1- Preparations and Decorations!
This past month I have been planning and preparing a baby shower.  This shower was for my dearest friend, Crystal, and her fourth baby!  Crystal is planning on decorating the nursery in red and aqua.  The baby's name will be Delaney Love,
so Crystal wants to incorporate hearts into the theme as well.  We decided to stick with the nursery colors for the baby shower.  I absolutely love this color combination!  It is so bold.  I think that it can be portrayed as either elegant or whimsical.  I searched online and on Pinterest for decorating ideas and noticed that a lot of brides had chosen these colors for their weddings.  The only problem with the color combo is finding the right shade of aqua blue.  This was very difficult for me.  I searched high and low for this color.  I typically found only turquoise or light blue.  Finding anything in a red/aqua pattern was nearly impossible.  Therefore I really had to improvise to get this shower put together.  Now don't think that I'm complaining.  I LOVE (no pun intended) party planning and I was up for the challenge.  I love to re-create pinterest ideas, but I also enjoy being creative.  This shower was a mixture of both.  My goal for the shower was to make decorative baby shower items that could double as nursery decor or functional items for the baby.

We bought a camper!

Camping is one of our family's favorite activities.  We love getting away for the weekend, hanging out with friends, enjoying nature, eating bad food (and by bad I mean bad for you), having campfires, roasting marshmallows, making s'mores, and letting the kids be kids.

Goldie Locks

One of my favorite things about having girls is doing their hair. Since I can remember I have loved fixing hair. My mom said that I could braid by the time I was two years old, and by the time I was in second grade my teacher had me french braiding her hair on a regular basis. This probably isn't too surprising since my mother and grandmother were both hair stylists.
The trend right now are braids and twists. All kinds: side braids, waterfall, fish-tail, five strand, you name it. I've been having a good time watching YouTube tutorials and trying out unique braids on the girls. Here's some of my new favorites.  If you want to see any tutorials then check out my "hair" board on pinterest: http://pinterest.com/premierbobbie/hair/

waterfall braid

Best Dressed

Last year Halle got the "Best Dressed" award in school.  This can be accredited to ME, my wallet, and my keen fashion sense.....NOT!!!

Really, Halle's Aunt Sarah, Papa Mike, and Gigi keep her outfitted for school.
 
This year Papa Mike and Gigi hit up the downtown Macy's which means that Halle scored big.  They brought all of the goodies by the house the week before school started.

Christy (Gigi) and Halle have similar taste in girls' clothes, so it makes for a great wardrobe.  Papa Mike's selections aren't shabby either!  He picks out some of the pieces, too.

Arden also benefitted from this shopping spree.

In addition, Halle's Aunt Sarah takes her shopping every birthday.  Shopping with Sarah is serious busines!  Let's just say that Halle has learned to wear comfortable shoes!  After ELEVEN hours out with Aunt Sarah, Halle came home with all kinds of outfits, shoes, jewelry, perfume, and accessories.   

Sweet Halle was methodical in planning her first-day-of-school outfit.  She made sure to include pieces from both Aunt Sarah and Papa Mike and Gigi.  :)

Shirt complements of Papa Mike and Gigi
Jeans and shoes by Aunt Sarah
Hair by Yours Truly

Arden also made out like a bandit this Fall.  She has been blessed with two slightly older twin cousins, Alyssa and Alexis.  Arden's Tia Hope and Tio Rodney brought over four jam-packed boxes of gently used clothes and shoes that their girls outgrew!  We now have shoes overflowing from Arden's closet, and so many clothes that we ended up sharing the wealth with Myleigh.  Hope has great taste, so Arden's "new" apparel is super cute!

Thanks to all the family for keeping my girls in style!



    

Baby Fat

I adore my fat baby.  He's got some serious chunk going on.... and squishy legs.  I absolutely love it.  Check out those thigh rolls!

Busy

Haven't had much time to blog this past week because we have been busy with back to school and fall activities.  Halle started Awanas, Arden started back with the Fall semester of dance, my Thursday bible study starts this week, and MOPS starts soon.  Brian and I officially started our training for the November half marathon, I worked a couple of days at the hospital, and today the whole family has a cold.  Big news: we bought a pop up camper!  We went camping this past weekend for Labor Day. 

I had intentions of writing a full new post today, but was called out at midnight last night for work.  I didn't get to bed until 5 am, so I spent most of the day sleeping instead.  Will blog more soon!