Pick Up Sticks

Have you ever played that game, Pick Up Sticks?  When you have a bunch of small, plastic sticks and you pile them up and take turns trying to get a stick without moving any other sticks? Well, we tried playing that same game, but with real sticks.

We sent Atalia on the quest to get a bunch of sticks..

Her dirty, smudgy face :)

Our stick pile.

We each took turns. Atalia didn't quite get the point of the game, but listened to our orders lol. We pretty much just let her have a stick each round. It was actually really hard. Much harder than the real game that has slick, straight, plastic sticks rather than our nubby, crooked, real sticks.

Hold on, Atalia is getting off task. 

Atalia's sticks that she "won".

James' sticks that he won so far... making a far off, dreamy pose. 

I think James actually ended up winning.

Awwwwwe

We've got to head back home. A sad Tali :(

We had headed up into the canyons for this (James' favorite thing to do). We made a fire for fun and just relaxed and then played our game. It made me want to go get the real game to play.

Tali's New Box House

Sometimes, after travelling, it takes me a few days, if not a whole week, to recuperate and get back in the swing of things at home. I can't remember exactly what trip we had taken before this, but I had a week of not being with it. I was feeling bad for Tali that things have been kinda lame lately at home, though she's been a good sport about it. So, I thought it would be fun to get some boxes and make her a play house out of them.

We picked up two boxes, duct taped them together, and used a box cutter to cut out a door and a window. All three of us decorated the outside of the house.

I think she liked it! 

Not sure why she's shirtless...

Daddy wasn't feeling very good, so Tali told him to go sleep in her other tent house. 

And he did.

She's taking very good care of him :)

Project Crazies

 I feel like I've been doing a lot of little projects lately and I love it! I love having little projects, it gives me the happies.

 For this little project, I've been looking for some baskets to put in our hall tree. (I was finally able to get this hall tree a few months ago that I've been dreaming about from this post ) It hasn't been easy, the shelves are a lot shallower than I thought and that's been making it hard to find the right baskets to put inside. 

My mom came and spent a day with us and we went to Hobby Lobby and found these little baskets. The only thing is that they came in white, which meant they needed painted. 

We got a grey spray paint, but when I was done it was darker than I thought it would be and didn't reflect any light. I thought since our hall tree is already black and dark, I needed to add some metallic silver to the baskets to give off more light. So, I happened to have some metallic silver paint that I just lightly brushed the baskets with and then it still had the under tones of that flat grey color show through too. 

I am very happy with how it turned out!

Oh, hi Tal.

A closer look..

The baskets weren't long enough to fill the space, so I needed to add the vase (one that I found at the DI in this post here) and a couple of photo albums to help fill up some space.

Oh the simple things that make me happy! I'm a big believer in if you can't find what you're looking for at a store, create it or find another way to make something work.

Thanks for your help mom!

Snuggles In Snuggies

 Snuggling in a snuggie... it can't get much better.

Love seeing how much she loves her daddy.

4th Of July 2012

 Here is our 4th!! 

I wanted to get up and go to a parade... but the parade started at 8:30.. which felt way too early that morning. Maybe next year!

Our red, white, and blue outfits..

Daddy wasn't as festive, but he did wear blue!

This was my jello fiasco. 

I stayed up late making it and then it didn't turn out very good. Boo. The cream cheese layer didn't mix well and ended up having a weird texture. 

The jello part was still good though.

We went outside to wait for James' family to arrive. 

I ended up feeling really tired, so I went back inside to rest.

Growing a baby is hard work sometimes.

I peeked out at James and Atalia outside the window while I was inside. James was chasing Atalia around a tree and she was giggling up a storm. Then they stopped so that James could fix her hair clip. Watching all this warmed my heart.

The Hansen's arrived and we got some food to take with us to Sugar House park.

Tali's favorite thing to do is to run up the big hill with someone. Just glad I didn't have to do it this time lol. I think she pooped everyone out.

We got some hot dogs to grill and later made s'mores.

Muscles!

Everyone just relaxed.

We walked around a bit to look at the kind of food and venders they had around. We came back and moved our spot to the hill for a better look at the fireworks to come.

Starting to fill up a bit more! By the end of the night it is so packed!

Tali had fun playing with everyone.

The fireworks were really good! A good show! 

Tali fell asleep on our walk back home. 

There are so many people trying to leave at the end, it's crazy! Last year, we drove and it took more than an hour to get home and it's normally a 5 minute drive. So, we walked this year, but it's a weird feeling walking with so many other people. James and I thought it felt like a zombie apocalypse with people fleeing a certain area or something. Yeah, we have dorky thoughts like that.

All that walking was not feeling so good on my pregnant body. I hate how pregnancy slowly takes you out of commission from normal things.

Another good 4th!

4th Of July Wreath

I wanted to make a festive 4th of July wreath... for the 4th of July. 

I found this idea on Pinterest. I modified it a little bit. I think theirs is a thicker foam circle that they used as a base (which I like a bit more). Theirs also looks like an off-white for the white stripes (I also like that more than mine). I do like the idea of doing rosettes or something instead of stars, like I did. It was fun. You just hot glue the yarn around and around into the pattern you want. I think it cost me in all, $17.00 (the 3 yarn colors, white felt, gems, and a wreath hooky thing). I would like to try it again to perfect it.. that's the perfectionist inside of me though.

And there you have it!