Holding Tight

My thoughts have been sad lately...thinking of Casey Anthony, a family in our ward that lost their son, another friend that found out her little 5-year-old is really sick and there's nothing they can really do besides watch him and tend to him as best they can...all these things combined with the nightly news, just rips your heart out.


On the way home from the playground today there was a father with his arms wrapped around his son, carrying him down the sidewalk.  It was something that just warmed my heart in an incredible way. 


I realized that even though there are awful things happening every second of every day...there are so many wonderful things happening as well. 


I don't think I'll ever feel that I'm a "good enough" mother.  I will be haunted by my decisions forever and wonder always ... what if? 


My grandpa says that, "yesterday's gone, you don't know if you have tomorrow, so all you've got is today." 


All I have is right now.


I have right now to wrap my arms around my children and love them with all my might, holding them tight in hopes that they'll know how much they are loved.


I have right now to not holler at Jake for leaving his boots in the middle of the living room...to just be grateful for all that I've been blessed with, as I am an incredibly fortunate girl.

Happy Birthday Gage!!!

My baby boy is SEVEN!!!  Yikes! I know everyone says it all the time, but I cannot believe how quickly seven years has gone by.  I am SO grateful for my little boy...he's hilarious and sweet and kind and super cool!  :)  We had some of his friends over for a "boy party" -- which in the end included some girls...but, Addy's pretty tough so she doesn't count.  :)  It was an awesome day...

It was quite a chore trying to keep Abigail out of the cupcakes...she finally scored one, ate it underneath the kitchen table and then sported the "Jack Sparrow" for the rest of the party.  :)

 The grand finale of Gage's party---The Pinata.  I had this really great idea to make a pinata out of a Huggies wipes box--because who wants to spend $20 on something that it literally going to get beat to bits within a matter of minutes? ...not such a great idea after all...


after each kid went through the line twice blindfolded, they all went through twice without the blindfold...and then Alfonso and Jake had a few turns....It eventually broke---along with the bubble gum packs and all the pixie sticks that were inside (FYI -- Pixie sticks are really NOT a good candy for a pinata) LOL...I honestly didn't think it would be that hard to break--but, now we know!  :)

The party was a blast--and all of Gage's friends were so fun to have over...they're a really awesome bunch of kids--we LOVE them very, very much.

Peeps

I hate Peeps...but they are a mandatory purchase every Easter. 

Hope your Easter holiday was really wonderful!

xxx~Mandy

Easter Egg Huntin' ... Heber Style

Natalie called me the Saturday before Easter Sunday and asked if we wanted to go to the park for the "town" Easter egg hunt.  We got all bundled up and headed over to the park -- we'd never gone to this before, so we weren't sure what to expect.  They had the park divided into sections by age...so the kids spread out to their designated areas and got ready to go.

Abby and Gracee were SO cute waiting their turn...I don't think they really knew what was going on, they just sort of go with the flow.  :)

Gage and Ashton were together in the 5-6 year olds and of course they were hilarious...they're two peas in a pod and seriously laugh nearly the entire time they're together.

Madison and Taylor went down to the end with the oldest kids and Wyatt to the 8-year-olds.

There were TONS of people there...major competition.

When it was all said and done...Gage made out like a bandit...Abby and Gracee were cool to sit and snack on their candies that they got...Wyatt got knocked down, dropped his bucket and got elbowed in the face-so he didn't end up with a lot of candy, he was pretty sad for awhile after...and Madison and Taylor did pretty well.

Yes...that is our son with the bucket on his head...we couldn't be prouder!  :)  LOL.

And this is what happens when you tell two little boys to say "cheese." 

It was a pretty great day--thanks Nat for inviting us it was really fun.

xxx~Mandy

Abby's Super Cute $3.50 outfit (Not counting the boots!)

-k- so I don't know if you guys have ever been to Make and Love It or not, but it is OH SO inspirational...I love checking it out.  She does tons of re-purposing and things like that, so I decided to try and make up a way to sew a skirt from a t-shirt ... here's what I ended up with.

So then she needed a shirt to go with it, so I got an old t-shirt from her drawer that I actually got at the dollar store one day--and I jazzed that up to go with it...I gathered the chest and trimmed the sleeves and did the flowers up the front---CUTE.

Anyways...it was fun and totaled (not counting thread) -- $3.50 for the whole outfit...I got my t-shirt for the skirt at Walgreens...but Michaels has them for $2.00 and THEN if you had a 40% off coupon.....Just imagine my dears!  :)

If you wanna try it let me know and I'll tell ya how.

Here's Maddie's pillowcase skirt and flower belt...(I'm still trying to master the drop waist thing---so it pretty much looks like a pillowcase, but whatdoyado?).

Modest Denim Cut-Off Shorts

Madison needed some shorts for summer,which I thought was nearby, but it turns out I was WAY off ...we've woken up to 3" of snow the past two days!  :)  But, anyway, I went to the outlets in Park City with my mom while she was here visiting and then looked around online...and although there were TONS of cute things -- the shorts were really, really, really short AND $32.00 a pair!  So, I came home, grabbed three pairs of her pants from the last year that happened to be too short...but still fit her otherwise and got to work. 

First, I looked online and found some really cute shorts at Justice (one of her fav stores...thanks to our Kaitie!).  Those are the ones I've shown below, but you can mimic pretty much anything these days, especially convenient is the whole "grungy" pants thing...it works out really well when you're cutting up pants from a year ago.  :)

I laid out the pants and just cut them where I wanted them to fall on Maddie (just above her knee)...

I stitched around the bottom of the shorts to keep the edges from fraying too much...

Then...I grabbed my fabric scraps and pulled out a couple of pieces I thought were cute and "Maddie-ish" ... I cut them up and then ironed the pieces to some interfacing (pellon)...you can use a used dryer sheet for this too if you don't have any interfacing on hand...just something to help stabilize the fabric pieces, it keeps the piece of fabric from fraying all apart and the piece falling off in the wash.  (you wouldn't iron the dryer sheet-just place it between the shorts and the fabric patch as you sew on the patch).

I cut the pieces of fabric and then laid them on the shorts and stitched around each of the patches.

*Don't sew too close to the edges of the patches of fabric, they'll come off as the edges will fray when they're washed and dried even with the interfacing.  I sew about 1/4" inside the edge of the patch.

I tossed the shorts into the wash to fray the edges of the shorts and the edges and the patches...

and ... WahLah!  A cute little pair of trendy-but modest shorts for my 10-year-old little girl!  :)

Now, we just need some sunshine!  :)