Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I'm gettin' nuttin' for Christmas, Mommy and Daddy are mad...

So, my kids will each be getting less Christmas presents this year as I have to replace the camera that none of them will fess up to breaking....If I subtract the cost from our Christmas budget...they each get NOTHING!!! I am kidding, but it does stink. I have to have a camera for Thanksgiving and Nate's birthday this week, and Christmas...So, expect completely boring blogs for a while...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Favorite Quotes

Dana - "I'll just put it right there and you can watch it and if anyone comes near it you protect it, pie, cause I forget what it's called. Oh yeah, lemon bars."
Translation - "Mom will you watch my lemon bar while I go upstairs and take a shower so that Kimmy doesn't get into it and eat it all gone."

Dana - "Mom, so you know who we are I have one of these around my neck that is green diamonds, and Kimmy has one that is purple circles, so you don't forget, okay?"
Translation - "Mom, don't you like the green necklace I am wearing and the purple one I put on Kimmy?"

Nate - "Mom guess what I did? Did you know that 12,468 plus 11,221 is 23,689?" Mom - "Awesome Nate, how did you know that?" Nate - "I counted it on my fingers, duh."

Kimmy, after walking over to me, grabbing the remote off the couch next to me, walking about three feet away, turning around, and smiling like a tricky trickster at me - "Mine now, mine now, mine now, hahahahahahahaha!"

Monday, November 10, 2008

Trick-or-Treating with the Wold family

Jared had to work on Halloween night again, but he was able to sneak away for a minute to meet us at the mall, where we went trick or treating again this year with our friends the Wolds.

We always have a really good time with them because their kids are so close to the age of our kids.

MaKenna who is almost 8 was dressed up as Minnie Mouse

Sydney who is just a couple of months older than Dana was dressed as Ariel, the Little Mermaid.


Jackson, who is in 1st grade with Nate was dressed up as Dracula.

It took us an hour and a half to cruise the mall, which gave the kids plenty of candy, so we only went to a few friends houses after that. It was a fun evening.

Daddy ain't THAT bad


So, whilst reading the last post about Kimmy's costume, Jared became upset. He claims that I made him look like a callous, uncaring father when I wrote about how he told me not to bother with making a costume for Kimmy. I need to clarify that. He was only telling me that I didn't need to make a costume for Kimmy because she could wear an old one of Dana's; he was just concerned for ME. He didn't want me to make myself sick by staying up all night sewing and then not feel well enough to take the kids trick or treating the next night. Jared had to work on Halloween night, so I was going to have to take the kids all by myself, and it was my second night staying up all night to sew in one week. That's how much he loves me!

And from this picture, you can see how much he loves Kimberly too!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting


So, when it came to Kimmy's costume, I had decided that I wanted to make something warm for trick-or-treating. I actually bought the fabric and the pattern for a panda costume 3 years ago for Dana, but for whatever reason I didn't get it made. So I decided that I would make it this year for Kimmy. Nate and Dana didn't think that being just a panda was exciting enough for Kimmy, so they decided that she should be Po the Kung Fu Panda. So, that's what she was. Here is Po in action in the movie:


And here's the finished product:


I spent the least amount of time on this costume, and it was actually my favorite one as far as cuteness goes.
This was my first time working with faux fur. It took me a while to figure out that you only cut it out one layer at a time, but then it wasn't so bad.

The hardest part of the whole thing was keeping the black fuzz off the white fur.

I made the head-piece and then lined it so it wouldn't irritate her. Then I stuffed it full of batting to give it some shape. I was afraid that she wouldn't like having something on her head all the time, but even though it made her head sweat and gave her "panda-head hair," she didn't try to take it off once! In fact, she wore it around the house for about an hour yesterday.

Since the movie doesn't come out on DVD until this next week, I didn't have any reference for how to make Po's shorts. I spent about 3 hours total searching Target and Walmart for a Kung Fu Panda book so I could get an idea for how to make them.


The most distinctive thing about the shorts is the red and yellow waistband, which you can see in the pictures. If you look closely, you can also tell that I waited until the night before Halloween to start Kimmy's costume, and pulled an all nighter again. All the finishes on the shorts are pinked (ie cut zig zagged with pinking sheers).

The suit was also supposed to have soles on the bottom of the feet with leather paws. Instead I skipped the soles and wrapped the foot edge with 1/2 inch black double fold bias tape. I had also planned on doing some sort of fabric wrap around the ankles, like Po has in the movie, but by 7 am on Halloween morning, I just stopped caring. Jared made fun of me because he said that Kimmy didn't know any better, and I could have just used one of Dana's old costumes, but that was just not fair. Whether or not Kim cares, I care, and she is just as important as the big kids, and when she is a teenager and hates me, I can pull out pictures of this costume and show her proof of how much she matters to me and how much I love her!

Isn't this last picture just classic? She is not upset about the costume, rather she was ready to go and play outside, but the big kids weren't ready and it was raining and wet, so I made her come in and wait. KIDS ARE AWESOME!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Batman - The Dark Knight

When we were talking about what he wanted to be for Halloween, Nate knew he wanted to be somebody tough and cool, so when Dad suggested Batman the Dark Knight, Nate was sold. Here is a movie still shot of Christian Bale as Batman. As you can see, the suit has been made way cooler than it was in the 90's movies. In fact, one of the coolest things that they did to Batman's costume was give him this cool cape that when charged with electricity or something, it would become stiff and he could like hang-glide with it. Here's another movie still of him doing just that:
I was totally excited when I found this really cool, shiny pleather material at the fabric store. I knew that it would work perfectly. However, I had to squint over movie stills to figure out how to design the top. Here's my finished product:Here's a closer look at the bat design and the muscles I "built-in" to the costume (this is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Nate too, he's just so good lookin'!)
In order to make the top, I sewed lines in it where his muscles should be. After that, I had to stuff between the lines I sewed with batting, and the top hade to be lined so that the batting would stay in place. It was kind of time consuming, and I don't know if my pictures do it justice, but I really loved the way it turned out.
We were also able to find Batman's utility belt and his expandable wings online. The wings were really cool, cause you wore them like a backpack. When you wanted them to pop out, you just pulled the ripcord, and they would shoot out. When it was time to put them away, like to walk through doors, you pulled the rip cords at both shoulders like 4 times and they would gradually retract. Nate kept forgetting to pull his wings in though, and ended up poking a lot of people.
Funny story about Nate's costume though. I got all the supplies for it pretty early, but I put off making it until the night before our Ward Halloween carnival. Nate was getting a little stressed because he thought that he wasn't going to have anything to wear to it. But I assured him that I made him a promise and that I take my promises really seriously, so no matter what it took, I would get his costume made.
So, it was bedtime, and I was just starting to cut out the pieces for the costume. As I was ushering the kids up the stairs for bed, Nate turns to me and says, "Don't forget to drink a lot of Diet Coke so you can stay up all night and finish my costume!" I couldn't help but laugh at that, he's so funny the way he expresses himself sometimes. Of course, I did end up staying up all night to get the costume done. Nate is an early riser anyway, but he woke up at 6 am and before he even came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs and saw me, he calls out "Good job staying up and making my costume Mom. I am really proud of you." It was too funny. He was so excited about the costume that he put it on right then, and I couldn't get it off him all weekend!

The last few pictures have been of Nate and his 1st grade classmates in their Halloween costumes. It is such a fun holiday, and the school does such a good job making the day special.

During the parade at Nate's school, we were walking behind Nate and his "girlfriend" Paige, who is pictured below as Scooby Doo. Kimmy LOVES dogs, and since we were right next to Paige the whole time, she couldn't stop doing her little high pitched "bark" that she does. I put bark in quotations because she doesn't actually say "ruf," she just squeaks. It is the sweetest thing!

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Giselle from "Enchanted"

Dana and I have the same favorite movie, a Disney classic, "Enchanted." If you haven't seen it, you truly missing out. It has all the sweet princess magic you would expect from a Disney film, plus wonderful music, and many clever jokes. So it was not a surprise that Dana chose to be Giselle for Halloween. However, she had to pick the most over the top costume from the whole movie for the one she wanted to wear, Giselle's larger than life wedding dress. Here is a picture of the actual dress itself, on display earlier this year in the Disney Store on 5th avenue in NYC. I tried to upload some movie stills here so you could see what the dress looked like on, but the quailty was crappy, so instead here's the link to check them out: http://www.costumersguide.com/enchanted1.shtml
Now that you have seen the real dress, here is my simplified version that I made without a pattern...
I agonized long and hard over the organza ruffles in the front, and (this is for Tiana) finally decided that they needed to be cut on the bias and then sewn vertically to hang correctly. The original dress was made from more than 40 yards of fabric (420 square feet of fabric), and had 3 layers of petticoats and two 6-hoop crinoline skirts underneath, and weighed more than 40 pounds! Dana's version only had one petticoat and a 3 hoop skirt, but they were so heavy for her, she had to wear white suspenders under her dress to hold them up. (You can see them under her dress in some pictures.)

You will notice Giselle holds her hands really delicately throughout the movie. That is what Dana is tryin to do in this picture, with her pinkies out, but it looks more like she's doing hang loose instead.

All the glitter detail you see on the dress are not ribbon or trim, they are actually lines of fabric glue sprinkled with glitter, with the excess shaken off. It was a nightmare to do, I will probably be finding glitter everywhere for years to come.
I didn't do the orchid flower at her waist, because the one I got seemed really too big, and it was very cream compared to how white the dress was. I also had some trouble finding a good set of butterflies for the neckline. After endless hours at various fabric and craft stores, I finally decided to make one out of sparkly foam, and glue rhinestones to it. I skipped the small one all together, and added small bridal flowers on the left instead. You can't really see them very good in these pictures.
Dana's preschool doesn't let the kids do Halloween costumes cause it's just too much trouble, so she went with Nate to his school so she could walk in his Halloween parade with him.

She had an awesome time hanging out with Nate in his 1st grade classroom.

We also got to participate in our Ward's Halloween Carnival.
Everyone had a great time, and Dana loved being able to show off her beautiful dress. The best part, everyone knew that she was supposed to be Giselle, not just a beautiful bride or queen or something.
I was really pleased with how the dress turned out, even though I found traces of glitter in my dishwasher yesterday!

Sunday Best

Since our kids always look so nice on Sundays for church, Jared decided to do a little photo shoot with them.

Dana loves to wear necklaces and perfume to church...such a girly girl!



Nate has the same problem as Chandler from Friends. He can't smile on cue. It always comes out funny!


Aren't they so cute?!?!?!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Birthday Party Fun

These are just a few pictures of the kids participating in their first water ballon fight at a friend's birthday party.


By the time that we got down to the last few ballons, the kids seemed to have either figured out how to aim, or how to pop the ballon over someone's head with their fingernails.






Completely Gratuitous Kimmy

These pictures are just because she's so stinkn' cute! And she's a member of Red Sox Nation
I don't know if you can tell, but her hair is in 1 inch long piggies in this picture.



Just because she's so stinkn' cute in this picture!

KISS Live in the living room

So, every year at Nathan's school, they have a back to school night. They do a dinner and a carnival to help raise funds for the extras at school like fieldtrips and supplies and stuff. At this year's carnival, they had a professional face painter. I know that sounds like it's not a real profession, but it's true, this lady had a whole portfolio of all different kinds of face designs she had done (Okay so maybe you would probably call her a professional makeup artist).So Nate had her paint a firebreathing dragon on his face, we thought it was going to be more dragon face, but it was fun and Nate felt like he looked tough.

Dana got a butterfly face painting. She wanted pink and purple, but the lady thought the orange would go good with her hair. I think she kind of looks like a lion or something.
Dana also purchased a blow up guitar toy at the carnival with the tickets she won. When we got home she wanted to rock out.
Holding the guitar like that with all the face paint, I thought it looked a little like a KISS rock concert in our living room. Aren't kids awesome???