Temple Trip

Ever since President Monson's talk in April, we've been trying to go to the Temple once a month. We usually rotate between the DC temple which is 3.5 hours away and the Palmyra Temple which is 4 hours away. Whichever Temple we choose, it takes a full day to drive there, each get a turn in the temple while the other one watches the kids, and drive back. It's worth it though! We've felt really blessed since we started this!

Yesterday was the day we had set aside to go. It was going to be over 100 degrees in DC (and humid) so we decided to go to Palmyra. In order to make it to the sessions in time we had to leave by 5:30am. Well, we ended up sleeping in too long to make the session so we thought no problem, we'll just drive to the DC temple. We drove all the way there only to pull into an empty parking lot! The temple was closed for cleaning! What do we do now? Our girls were sick of being in the car and we'd seen everything in the visitors center so many times. We ate our picnic lunch on the lawn while we brainstormed. It was so hot though that we couldn't think clearly. We hopped in the car and searched the GPS for ideas. After much debate, the Air and Space museum was our choice. Traffic was bad and it took an hour to get there. On the way Clara pooped. It was smelling more ripe than usually, and I just blamed it on the heat. A little while later I noticed how unusually quiet Clara was being. I turned around to check on her and she waved at me, revealing her pooped covered hand! It was everywhere!! We still had a little ways to get to the museum, so I tried my best to clean up what I could from the front seat. As soon as we got to the museum, Kirk dropped me off at the front door and I ran in carrying her airplane style hoping I wouldn't get poop on my white skirt. Before I could get to the bathroom I had to go through security. The security guard searching my bag looked at me funny when he saw how I was carrying her. Then he noticed the lovely poop streaks and soaking wet shorts and immediately directed me to the bathroom. Clara was so covered in poop that I stripped her down, soaped her up and gave her a bath in the sink. She was not happy! Luckily the changing table was in it's own room so no one had to see what a gross mess it was!

Life can sure be crazy! I wouldn't change it! We'll always look back on this day and laugh!!

While Clara was entertaining herself with poop, Luci was going through my purse and trying on my glasses. She wanted me to take this picture with the glasses on the end of her nose.


The space shuttle was the coolest part! It was huge!



This was Kirk's favorite. Not the greatest picture though!

Dollhouse

So remember a few months ago, the doll house I gave Luci for her Birthday? I said I'd post pictures of it later and I finally am (a little later than planned). A year ago I ran across a blog with this cool play kitchen she made out of an old Entertainment Center. I really wanted to try it, but couldn't justify it since Luci already had a play kitchen. That's when I decided I was going to make a doll house out of something.

I headed to the good will, and was very happy to find this piece of furniture.

It was old and stinky, but had lots of potential.

It had two drawers on bottom and the top opened up to a storage area. I'm not sure what the original purpose of it was, but to me it screamed doll house!

Here's what it looked like during the transformation process.


We took the holey piece of wood off the back and replaced it with a solid piece, took the drawers out and divided it into three levels. The middle shelf was already there, the upper shelf we made with the piece of wood from the front, and the bottom shelf we made with the extra wood from the back.

We sanded, painted, decorated, and furnished it so now it looks like this . . .




The Kitchen

At first I made a movable table with little stools. That was a big mistake!! The pieces were always all over the house, and the chairs wouldn't stay up when Luci tried to put the people on them. That's how I got the idea for a booth table. Now it is easy to slide the people onto the benches and the table keeps them in place. The table is made from a wooden spool and plaque and the benches are made from miniature wooden spools and wooden rulers. The china hutch was a nice dollar find at Michael's and the sink, stove, counter and cupboards were custom made by me out of the some balsa wood we had lying around.


The best and most time consuming part in the kitchen was the wood floor. I made it out of popsicle sticks. I cut them by hand with scissors and glued them down with wood glue. After cutting all those pieces, my thumb was numb for almost two weeks! When the floor was all dry I stained it with watered down brown paint, then "varnished" it with modge podge to make it look shiny.


Everything in the kitchen is glued in place. For me that means, less pieces scattered all over the house!

All the walls in the house were decorated with scrapbook paper that I got at TJmaxx for really cheap. I glued them down with modge podge then put another layer on top to make it look nice.

The Master Bedroom

This room has had changes too. The master bed was one of the first things to break. It has been refurbished with a special foot board made by Luci :). There used to be a crib that I was so proud of, but that was broken too, and I haven't replaced it yet. I made it with the lid half of a wooden box from Michaels and made legs and bars from tiny wooden spools. The carpet in the house was made from the free square samples at Home Depot--all patched together. The couch was made from popsicle sticks then covered with batting and fabric. The blue cupboard was another dollar find at Michaels.

The Attic

In the attic I did a bathroom and a bedroom. Eventually I'd like to install a small wall in between the two rooms, but for now they'll have to do without privacy :)


The bunk bed was made out of popsicle sticks and the mattresses and pillows made out of scraps of fabric (they're hot glued down so they don't move). I made a lot of stuff out of popcicle sticks because we had a gazillion lying around our house.


The toilet was made out of the top of an empty floss container, super glued to the floor. The tub was made out of the bottom half of the wooden chest that I made the crib out of. The sink was carved out of balsa wood by Kirk, and the mirror I had lying around the house.

The only problem with these dolls is you can't take their clothes off. Luci gets frustrated when she can't get them naked to give them baths. As you can tell from the picture, he has to go with his pants up :).

So there you have it! Lots of work, but it was a fun project! All in all, I think I spent about $30 for everything. $15 of the $30 was for the seven dolls! I was able to use a lot of stuff we already had, and got everything else for really cheap.

Summer in Pennsylvania

If I let myself, I can really feel down about living so far away from family. I miss them a lot! and wish I could be near them! The other day I read a scripture in Philippians 4:11 that stuck with me " . . .for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." I can choose whether or not I'm content with life. I can't choose to live close to all my family, but I can choose to find joy in my beautiful children and wonderful husband that I'm so fortunate to always have with me! There is always good to find in life! We can always be happy with what we have!

Here are some of the blessing in our lives:

Kirk has a job now! Ever since last fall he has been religiously applying for jobs. In May he finished up everything for his Masters degree, but still hadn't gotten a job offer. At the beginning of June there were still no job prospects, despite the number of jobs he'd applied for. So, we signed our intent to vacate form and thought we'd just drive across the country and move back in with family while we figured something out. Meanwhile Kirk continued to work hard at applying for jobs, and we continued to pay our tithing and pray. Even though we weren't blessed with a job right away, we were blessed with the gift of hope. A few weeks later Kirk was offered a job here. We feel so blessed! By the time we found out our apartment had already been filled, so we still have to move, just not across the country. The past few weeks have been stressful trying to find a place to live, but we found one. Another blessing!

We are blessed with such great kids! Our girls bring us so much joy. One of the best things ever is seeing the love they have for each other. Now that Clara is older, they have been hanging out more. Luci is a great big sister and really looks out for Clara!

We've been blessed with lots of time to spend as a family. Here are some of the things we've done lately.

Fourth of July Bike Parade. Luci rode her bike in a parade with her friends. (Clara rode in her stroller).


The parade ended at a park where watermelon was served.

I sure love these three watermelon eaters.




Clara found that hat with Luci's dress up stuff and insisted on wearing it throughout the parade. She would get so mad every time Luci tried to take it off.

Beach Time. Over the Fourth of July weekend we went to two lakes with nice sandy beaches. We had a really good time! Luci spent most of the time swimming with her tube. At one point she came back in to play in the sand. Almost immediately after she set her tube down Clara picked it up and headed out for a swim. So cute!



Free Food. Dress like a cow for free food? We're in!!


And yes, everything was free! Our order total came to $20.70, but because we let our inner cow shine through, it was all free! Definitely worth dressing up for! We had a really good time!