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Super-easy Pumkpin "Candle" holders

Growing up, we did holidays. And we did them right. Halloween was no exception. My ever so crafty mom always made our costumes. I don’t ever remember wearing a purchased costume. Ever. One year, I was a ballerina, then next an orange crayon. I remember the year I was Jasmine from the movie Aladdin. The year after that I was Betty Rubble from the Flinstone’s movie; complete with the sand dollar glued to my blue felt dress. Oh yea, I rocked it. Oh, and do you remember when Troll dolls were all the rage? Yea, I was even one of those. {not one of my finest moments…}


Now, compared to the talent my mom has, I’m pathetic. However, I do try. And so, I give you…the extent of my Halloween Crafty-ness…


Pumpkin “Candle” Holders


I’m not going to lie, I was not creative enough to come up with this idea on my own. I saw the idea in a magazine. Taste of Home, if I remember correctly. 


First…gather your supplies:

  1. Various sizes glass jars. This is a great was to upcycle jelly jars, clear liquor bottles, etc. I also ventured to Goodwill and found some old stemless wine glasses for 50 cents each. SCORE!
  2. Tissue paper- orange and black {for pumpkins, obv} or even white and black to make ghosts
  3. Mod Podge
  4. Paint brush
  5. Rafia or twine to tie around the top of the jar
Next, cut your tissue paper into strips. I ended up folding those strips over to make the tissue paper a little thicker. After your strips are cut, go around the jar putting a good layer of modge-podge directly on the jar, carefully laying a strip of paper on, then covering the strip with another layer of the modge-podge. Once I went all the way around the jar I let it dry. Using your black tissue paper, cut out pumpkin faces and use the modge-podge to apply. Afterwards, I put another good layer of the modge-podge over everything and let it dry over night. {For the record…I tried to get photos of me actually deco-podging…do you know how hard that is!?}

Once they are all good and dry, get some of those LED “candles” and drop them in the bottom.
Vioala!



Happy Halloween!

Really Kid? REALLY!?

I’m pretty sure that compared to Auntie Kristen, I’m nothing but chopped liver. I’ve always had the slight suspicion, but now? I have photographic evidence.

I mean, just look how sweetly Ry is smiling while sitting on her Auntie’s lap…

And I get this…

I mean come on…really kid!? Is it really that bad sitting on your mama’s lap? I gave birth to you…the least you could do is smile.
Turns out, not even empty threats work on a two year old.

It’s ok though. I’m not holding it against her. If I were her, I’d probably do the same thing. All of her aunties are pretty dang awesome.
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Do you feel bad for me? You should. You know what would make me feel better? If you took a few seconds to spare a couple of clicks for me. Thanks in advance…I’m feeling better already!

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A Father’s Pride

Friends, I am giving you this disclaimer right now…this post involves a photo of a dead deer. I have debated even writing this post, but I hunt. It’s how I was raised. It’s what I do. It’s such a part of who I am. We don’t hunt just to kill animals. We eat the meat. We use as much of the meat as possible. So, there…you have been warned. Feel free to close your browser now. If you keep reading and you get offended, I don’t want to hear about it. 


Moving on…


2 for 2. As my dad said…a one shot wonder. After hunting for nearly 12 years with my dad and never taking a shot, I took my first deer. What a rush. My heart was pounding more than I had ever felt before. I could hear my heart beating wildly and, to be honest, I was surprised the deer at the other side of the clear-cut unit couldn’t. I rested my gun on a branch of a dead tree, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger. My dad shot 1 second after I did. The deer dropped. I had taken my first deer. That was in 2008.

In 2009 I bought an archery tag and hunted a total of 2 days. No luck.

This year, I bought a rifle tag again. My dad and sister had plans to go out and they invited me to come along. I hadn’t planned on it, but Andy encouraged me to go. After driving some roads and stopping to glass a few units and even hunting one, we had only seen a few doe. It was starting to get late in the day, so we figured only had one more shot for any sort of successful push. The plan was to head up to the orchard. The apples were dropping and there was sure to be a deer or two in there. Well, we never made it that far. On the way to the orchard we passed this clear cut unit. We stopped to glass it and saw this buck. Since dad was driving and Kristen was in the back seat I got out of the truck and chambered a round. As I pulled up to see the deer through my scope a doe came walking up behind it. So I waited. And waited. And waited some more. They weren’t in any hurry. I started to get antsy. Dad calmed me down telling me he didn’t seem to be going anywhere. As soon as the doe moved out of the way I took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger.

This time, it was all up to me. Dad was still in the truck. There was no back-up shot.

It was all me.

I looked up, the deer dropped.

2 for 2.

Celebration ensued. High 5’s all around.

And then the real work began…

A Father and His Daughter.
{I love this photo of us even more than the one taken on my wedding day!}
The look of pride.
{Now, quick, blow this photo up by clicking on it and just LOOK at the pride in my dad’s face. I can’t help but smile every single time I see his face.}
My monster buck. 
{Ok, not quite a bruiser, but I’m still proud of it. And, as you saw by my dad’s face, he was too! I mean, come on…look at that shot!}
The hike to the buck.
{I think my dad is part mountain goat. I may also just be really out of shape.}
Now the real work begins.
{Yes, it really was that steep!}

A dad and his two favorite hunting partners.
{and me with my two favorite hunting partners.}

Monster’s Monster Cookies

So, every Thursday since Rylee was about 3 months old she has spent the day with my mom, AKA: Mammy (or Grammy). As Ry gets a little older, my mom and her do special projects. We all know what a big helper Rylee is…well she loves helping Mammy.

Now, if you didn’t catch all that: She’s making “Cookie Monster”. They’re putting in “potty treats” and “No” she’s not supposed to be licking Grammy’s peanut butter spoon. Ok, now watch it again and this time pay special attention to her tongue. Go ahead, I’ll wait…

Super cute, right?!

Post Summary: Since I can’t be a stay at home mom (and don’t want to be)It’s pretty awesome my mom is able to do this stuff with Rylee. She’s a pretty awesome Mammy, no?

What happens to owies and taco eating horses.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been noticing my lack of posts. There’s a funny little thing about life…it never slows down when you want it to. Between Andy being back in school and working long hours, my work picking up and Rylee being a little 2 year old monster, I’m…tired. And to be perfectly honest, I can have the best of intentions to sit down and blog after Ry goes to bed but on those night she’s being a challenge, the last thing I want to do after she’s put me at my wit’s end is blog about how cute she is. In fact, I really don’t even want to think about her after a night like that. All I want to do is go to bed. Or drink. And sleeping is less expensive. And now that I’ve written that, I kind of feel like an ill-equipped, bad mom. I know the “terrible twos” are a phase and ever kid goes through them. But, wow. That’s all I have to say about that right now.

Moving on…

Rylee has been talking more and more. More often than not, when we ride in the car we don’t even have the radio on because she’s chatting away in the back seat. With her talking more and her mind working in new ways there have been some cute and/or funny things coming out of her mouth…

Example A:
While driving home one night after picking Rylee up from daycare she notices the horses grazing in the field on our road. She yells “HORSES!…sree (three) horses!”
To which I reply with “Yes, Ry! Very good. Three horeses. What are the horses doing?”
She says “Eating dinner”
So I say, “What are they eating?”
“Uhhh…TACOS!”
So, in case you didn’t know, horses eat tacos.

Example B: 
Friday night after dinner I asked Rylee if she would like to help me get my stuff ready to go hunting the next morning. She loves to help, so she says yes. As we’re taking my pack out to the living room she asks,”Mama, I go hunting too?”
I say, “No Ry not this time. Maybe you can come hunting next time.”
She says, “Ok. I bring my blanket.”
Because, you know, a silky pink blanket is an essential when hunting deer.

Example C:
I took Ry to the specialist to have her acid reflux check-up. Since we were there I had them give her a flu shot. She cried. A lot. But, she got a sticker and a sucker. She kept calling the sucker a popscicle. She’d never had a sucker before. In the jeep on the way to Papa’s house she kept yelling, “I GOT SHOT! I GOT SHOT!”

Example D:
She got a paper cut on her thumb recently. I kept a band-aid on it here and there…mostly when she remembered about the cut and asked for one. Suddenly one day she looked at her thumb and noticed it was gone. “Where my owie go!?”
“Oh Ry, you’re owie is all better now and it went away.”
“Where it go?”
“It just went away honey, that’s what oweis do when they are all better.”
“Oh. My owie went home?”
“Yes Ry, your owie went home.”
“Okay”

I know there’s more things she’s been saying lately but I can’t remember right now. I’ve actually been writing them down so I can remember to blog about them. I also need to update you guys on my first ever attempt at a french braid. I swear they should give lessons to pregnant mothers expecting girls. This crap is hard.

Oh, and one more piece of business before I go. Our friends over at Top Baby Blogs have reset the voting. That means I need your help to get back up there. I was holding strong on page 4. Can you help me get back there? All you have to do is click on the banner link below. It will take you to a page that says: “Cast a vote for your favorite baby blog”. Just click on that link and you are all done! If you feel like it, you can click on the button link I have over there —> each time you visit. Well, once a day actually.

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Ok. That’s it. That’s all. I promise I will try and be better about keeping up on the blog!