Adventures in bow making

So I got the itch to start making bows! I have bought all of Brooklyn's bows from this lady I know and she does an excellent job, especially with the boutique-y style bows. My sister, Becky, has a 6 month old little girl who I decided needed some cute bowbands. I headed over to the Ribbons & Lace (wall to wall, ceiling to floor ribbons to chose from, every size, color, print imaginable!) and bought a few basics to get started. I printed off my instructions and away I went! Here are the end results, I'm pretty darn proud of myself! Just ask Matt! ;)

This is an interchangeable headband I made so you can put any bow on it.These all have alligator clips on the back so they can attach to the headband

My favorite so far!An example of it on the headbandA couple headbands-

I think I may have found a new [potentially expensive] hobby! Maybe if I get good enough, I can actually sell some of these!

Brooklyn kept asking if I was making any bows for her and when I told her these were all for Lexi, she was totally bummed!! I told her we can make a special trip to the ribbon store so she can pick out her own ribbons and I'll make a couple bows for her. How much longer do you think she'll let me put bows in her hair? I think I need another baby girl! ;)

Six Years of Wedded Bliss

THENNOW

Today, Matt and I celebrated 6 years of being married!! We always talk about how it feels like we've been married for forever -- in a good way, of course! ;)

Matt started off by surprising me with a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on Tuesday. I think this is the prettiest bunch that I've ever received!! Thanks Haws Flowers! Every morning, Matt put wrote a little blurb about what each different flower represented- pink tulip (my fave!), lavender daisies, purple iris, white stock, yellow rose, pink rose then red roses. Very sweet!Last night, we went out on a date to celebrate since our anniv is on a Sunday. We ate at BJs, which we agreed is our new favorite restaurant! Then we headed to the bowling alley for a little friendly competition. Haha! Here we are (bad pic) - How'd we do? See for yourself....

Notice a trend here???????
I *had* to let him win ONE, as not to crush his fragile male ego! ;)

That's all I asked for was a night out with my honey and we had a great time. Thanks to my sis for babysitting our kiddos for us!

It's been a crazy six years, with getting married and having babies and doing the grad school thing, but I wouldn't trade it for the world!!!!!

I LOVE YOU mucho mucho mucho, Matthew!

AZ Science Center

Brooklyn had been begging me and begging me and BEGGING me to go to the kids museum for the past couple weeks and I'd managed to hold her off until now. I looked up the one I knew around here and determined that it might be a little too young for my 5 year olds. So, we headed over to the big time- the SCIENCE center! It has been YEARS since I've been there and I didn't remember there being that many things for young ones to do, but it was perfect for the twins!! We spent 2.5 hours exploring and playing. It was a little pricey, but worth it in my opinion! Brooklyn asked the next two days in a row if we could go back!

Blake explores the layers of our skin ~~ Brooklyn learns how our lungs work
This was the funniest thing!! You push a little blue button, try to throw these soft balls into the nostril (it's just one side of a nose up against a mirror) and then it SNEEZES the balls back out at you!!!!!! It scared the heck outta my kids!! Gavin kept saying, "I don't want the sneezer!" Haha!B&B in front of an animatronic T-Rex ~~ B&B trying to lift 300 lbs off the ground
Another crazy thing- you stand on this platform and push yourself with your foot around and around this pole. Then you put both feet down and you spin so fast!! After Brooklyn had stopped spinning, I told her to get off and she said, "I can't!" She had this terrified look on her face and was clinging to the pole!! I think she thought she was still spinning!! LOL! I had to grab her arm and help her off the platform! Check out her hair in this picture!
Here they had to lift a percentage of their own body weight in order to get themselves up in the air-Brooklyn rolls a ball along the wall ~~ Gavin calls France
This is the visual cliff experiment (if you've taken Psych 101 in college, chances are you probably learned about this) where there is a platform of sturdy plastic, but it looks like there is a drop-off or "deep end" where the pattern goes vertical, then along the bottom of the box. Gavin was fooled for a second. Here he is testing to see if it's ok to proceed across.... sucking his thumb, of course!A fun water feature ~~ Thanks for coming along with us! :)

Pioneer Women of the 21st Century

Last week, my sister-in-laws, Jen and Kristin, and I got together (my mother-in-law was there for a bit too) to grind wheat from our food storage and bake bread! I've for sure determined that I would NOT have made a good pioneer woman in the olden days. I rely too heavily on modern conveniences and tend to be a whiner *ahem* when things get "hard." Obviously, we had electric wheat grinders and a Bosch mixer to do the knead the bread for us, but I kinda felt pioneer-ish! ;) We have a long way to go before we perfect the art of bread making, but it's a good start! We're hoping to make this a regular thing, trying different bread recipes each time. Even though the bread didn't LOOK pretty, it sure didn't last long at our house!!

I'm just laughing looking at these pictures of our lumpy, flat-topped bread! We sure had a good time, though!

PT Mission Aborted

Potty training Gavin is at a stand still for the time being. He was doing really well, but I got super-duper sick for two days when my allergies went haywire and I just couldn't keep up with getting him to the potty and cleaning up messes. He also started refusing to go to the potty at certain times, like right after his nap. So for now, we're just gonna go with the flow (no pun intended, ha!) and let him lead the way. Gavin is staying dry more often between naptime and bedtime and peeing on the potty almost every time when he's put there. That's definitely a good sign! We'll "officially" try again, cold turkey, when he's closer to 2.5 years old.

General Conference notes

I have a lot of catching up to do on my blog, but I wanted to get this down while it's still fresh in my mind.

Brooklyn and Blake, at just their tender young age of 5, have just amazed me through this Conference.

I had both sessions of Conference playing on tv today (Sunday) while the kids were playing. I was making cookies toward the end of the second session so I was a bit noisy in the kitchen. All of a sudden, Brooklyn walked over to the tv and turned the volume up. I asked her, "Why did you do that honey?" and she answered, "I couldn't hear President Monson!" My heart just swelled to know that she WANTED to listen to what the prophet was saying. Also, just as a side note, she calls President Hinckley "President Gordon," which I find completely endearing; like he and she are on a first name basis or something!! :) Brooklyn also told me that she misses President Gordon, but she loves President Monson.

I also had all three kids sit down with me Saturday morning and before Conference started, I explained to them that we get to raise our hand to sustain our new prophet in the Solemn Assembly. As soon as President Monson stood up to preside, Blake knew exactly who that was- President Monson! And he was proud to tell everyone that day that "I raised my hand to say that I would follow President Monson!"
I have to say that I KNOW that President Thomas S. Monson is the true prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! I felt it in my heart that he is chosen and called by God to lead us at this time. I already feel a deep love for this man. I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to sustain him as our prophet and listen to his council.

I have to say that my favorite talk was given by M. Russell Ballard regarding mothers. It's always nice to have someone, especially a church leader, recognize and acknowledge the hard work it takes to be a mother in Zion. His words really spoke to me. Elder Ballard was my dad's mission president and I've had the opportunity to meet him and shake his hand.