Fall Recital Party 2011

Here are the only pictures I got of the after party. It was so much fun! I also wanted to say how awesome my husband is for setting this all up for me, and with the help of only one guy took it all down! I'm such a lucky gal to have him! And isn't Katelyn's face painting so cute!

Fall Piano Recital 2011

This was such a fun recital! I was missing about 8 students though, and I was missing all of my flute students:( But it was still a really great recital and everyone did so well! Afterwards we had food (including a really fun cauldron of pink lemonade potion using dry ice), parachute games, balloons, glowsticks, and face painting. Unfortunately I don't have many great pictures of the party because, like I say every year, I wish there could be three of me!

Preschool Halloween Party

This year for preschool it is just Ben and other friend. I really like it! They play really well together and I've never had to intervene like I did last year with more friends. For our little Halloween party we made cereal treat pumpkins, had orange crackers, and orange milk. We decorated a paper pumpkin, did a little school work and then played. It was so fun!

Ghostbuster Party!!

We found a ghost pinata, and all of our ghostbusters did a great job busting this ghost!

Ghostbuster Party!

We blew up a bunch of white balloons andwhen the kids got to the party they got to decorate the balloons like ghosts. Then we put them all on the trampoline and they bounced around with ghosts!

Ghostbuster party!

This was Ben's first friend birthday party. He is really into Ghostbusters, so since it's Halloween time it was super easy to find a bunch of ghost decorations. I was having a hard time getting those ghost cake pops to stay on their sticks, so I did cake balls for the rest, and actually ended up liking those better. I bought a ghost cookie cutter and made peanut butter sandwiches for everyone, and decorated the plate with ghost peeps. For the cookies I took Nutter Butters and dipped them in white chocolate and then used a gel icing for the eyes and mouth. The purple cookies were from a package.

Corn Maze 2011

Last year we went to the World's largest corn maze on a double date. It was so much fun we wanted to do it again. So this year for my birthday we invited eight others to come join in the fun. It was a blast, and such a fun birthday! We have such a fun group of friends! Afterwards we went to my friend Nikki's house for ice cream and games. I'm thinking we should make this a tradition!

Chuck E. Cheese

Ben got to pick anything he wanted to do on his birthday, so he chose Chuck E. Cheese. Grandma and Grandpa Clift even tagged along to join in the fun!

Benjamin's 4th Birthday

This was on Ben's actual birthday. Can't believe it's been 4 years since he came into our lives! He is a little class clown, usually to lighten up the mood. He's helpful around the house, and loves to help mom. We love you Ben!

Harvest 2011

Katelyn 12 years old and 57". She's tall enough this year to go on all the rides at an amusement park, guess we'll have to get some season passes soon!

Benjamin is 4 years old and 42".

Alex is 9 years old and 55". Is there a way to stop my children from growing up??? Or at least slow them down!

Pumpkin Patch

I really love Fall! I love how the leaves change colors. I love how the weather starts to get cooler. I love pumpkin patches, pumpkin pies, Halloween, Thanksgiving, I just really love Fall!

This pumpkin patch was a lot of fun. We did a hay ride, mazes, got pumpkins, and had a really great time.

Ride at the pumpkin patch

Grandma and Grandpa Clift came with us to a pumpkin patch. We want on a little quad ride where they are all connected and pulled by a larger quad around the pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun!

Benjamin is 4!

Katelyn

Katelyn is 12!

Katelyn got a new outfit to wear for her birthday party, skinny jeans, shirt, vest, hat, and a shawl!

Our friend Nikki made this cake for Katelyn! She made a bed because it was a sleep over:) Isn't it beautiful!!

Katelyn's table spread. Chips, goodie bags, torilla roll ups, veggie tray, sodas, and the pizzas weren't here yet when I took te picture.

Katelyn's friends at her party (minus one who came late).

Katelyn and her frends painting their fingernails, a must at a girl party!

We love Katelyn so much, and we are so proud of her. She is a sweet, thoughtful, caring, loving, generous, and just plain fantastic young woman. (AAAAHHH she's officially a young woman now!) We are so lucky she is in our family. She is literally the BEST daughter a mom and dad could wish for!

Alexander

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest, so I copied it:) It's a couple months late from his bday, but better late than never. We love you Alex!

A few sneak peaks at our home

Not the greatest pictures because my camera died and I'm using my phone for all of these pictures. But this is the boys' room that is painted. There's still some organizing and decorating to do in there.

I just had to throw this in because Ben made a big mess with the packing material and I was cleaning it up, and he came running up the stairs and said, "That's my mess, I'm going to clean it up!" Then he took the vaccum from me and cleaned it all up!

This is my garage floor. This floor was a lot of work. We used my dad's pressure washer and he got most of the old gross paint off the floor. Then the guys putting in our new carpet let me borrow a scraper tool and I worked for over 2 hours on my hands and knees scraping off the stubborn paint. Then my dad came back, pressure washed it again to get it all sparkly clean. Scrubbed it clean. And then he and Joel painted with the apoxy paint for a beautiful garage floor. Now if only we can find the time to go through all of the boxes that are still in the garage so I can see the pretty floor again:(

Our front door needs a lot of work. We need to put the screen door on. Paint the front door, can't decide what color yet. I like this color, it matches the trim of our house, but we'll see. I also made the curtain in the front window, and didn't even realize that it matched my door!

Our downstairs bathroom is in the middle of a remodel. We got a new toilet. Ripped out the old countertop, put in a new counter and faucet. Now we have to put in new baseboards, and repaint the walls, and I'd also like to paint the cabinet.

We had a door on our master bedroom, but it had a huge hole in it and there was no door knob, and no way to put one in. So we bought a new door and new door knob. I love this door and slowly we are going to turn all of our doors into these doors!

An eagle eye's view of our front room and beautiful new carpet. Since this picture I've moved things around a little. I put bookshelves on the wall where the halltree is, and moved the halltree to the wall on the bottom left of the picture. I'm also going to add in some nice chairs. One of these days we're going to buy a new sectional sofa. But that's probably a little ways off.

This is the kids' bathroom. We put in a new toilet. We bought a new curtain and a new rug that's not in this picture. Also we hung hooks on the wall instead of a towel rack because my kids have hooded towels and I'm trying to get them in the habit of using them instead of using a different towel every day, leaving them on the floor all over the house. It's halfway working, and my laundry pile has already showed improvement. Now if only I can get them to stop putting clean clothes in dirty hampers and vice versa!

Katelyn's room. It has gotten a lot more done to it since this picture, like she actually has a bed frame instead of mattresses on the floor. And she has a bunch of pictures on the wall.

Well, that's it for now. We have lots and lots of projects, and it's kind of overwhelming. But I'm trying to tell myself that we'll be here for a very long time and there's plenty of time to get it all done!

Father's Day

This Father's day was pretty crazy, we had lots of visitors, and we were right in the middle of buying our house. But we still managed to take time out for Dad. We spoiled him with treats, and we gave him a day of rest and relaxation. He even got massages! We love Joel so much and are so grateful for all that he does for our family. He is our rock. (Especially mine!) Somehow he managed to stay out of the camera's way the last couple of months, so no picture:( Happy Father's Day!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Alex receiving his Wolf award at Cub Scouts. He moved on to Bears!

Alex's first time holding the flag.

Alex and his cake pop cake. This year we just had a family party with presents, cake pops, pizza, and soda. Yummy!

Alex turned 9 this year, right in middle of all the crazy moving. He also got his Wolf award in Cub Scouts and moved up to Bears. He really loves scouts.

Alex is a great brother, and is always willing to help out. He is the first one to the scene when somebody is sad. He loves to play video games. He is very charitable and tries to spend his money on everybody else. We love Alex so much and are so lucky that he is a part of our family! Happy Birthday!

Our Home

I don't have any pictures for you on this post because my camera is packed somewhere, and I can't find it!

We got the keys to our new home on June 28. Got new carpet on June 28. And moved in June 30. We've already done some fun projects around the house and I can't wait to show you pictures. We are just so in love with our new house, we feel at home here. And really, we can't believe that this house is ours! Just a couple of years ago we thought we'd never be able to afford a house here in California. And here we are in a house we never thought we'd be able to afford to rent, let alone own!

Piano Room

I thought I had included this on my downstairs post, but it's not there! So, here is a picture of my piano room. I am so excited for one of these. Now my children and husband don't have to hide upstairs while I teach piano lessons, they will now be free to roam as they please! I also love that the doors are glass and I can see out to make sure my children aren't running around like mad men!