Who am I kidding?

I have these grand ideas in my head for photo shoots for Katy. She will be happy to take her "princess pictures" as I like to call them. She will smile on command, and all in the land will be happy. This is my mind here, we can wish!

In all actuality, I have to deal with Katy being a big poop! I don't know what it is but this girl will go out of her way to make sure I have a very bad, horrible, no good experience!

My friend Nicole and I planned on meeting to take a few snaps of our kidos in celebration of them turning two. I had high hopes for this one for sure. We found a fun location down town and we would go out to eat afterwards. It all started when Katy was not happy that I was giving attention to Oakley....who was great, poor thing... Katy ended up making her cry she was being such a poop as noted before! Then she was not happy that Oakley was playing with her Minnie doll. I think the thing that got her going the most, though, is when I the balloons I bought flew away because I didn't tie them tight enough to the stroller! AHHHHHH, poor thing. I am laughing in my head because the last time Katy and I got together with Nicole and Oakley, Katy had a break down in the pool because of the buckets of terror!!!! So I am thinking that Nicole probably thinks that I am CRAZY when I tell her that Katy is a pretty easy going kido.

Any who, this is the best picture I got of her before I didn't even try to take another one of her. I do believe this is also right before the balloons flew away! Ha! I was so mad! Steve had to remind me that Katy was probably just trying to tell me that she needs a break from pictures. When I got back to the car, calm as could be on the outside when I was screaming on the inside, Katy managed to get out an "I love you mommy" thought her sobs. Then I felt like a jerk for feeling so disappointed when all I wanted was to have a fun time with Katy. So that is exactly what we did when we went to lunch, we had a great time!

I decided that I would try again today to take some pics of Katy. I guess she get's sick of having the camera out all the time and pretty much doesn't like to take actual pictures because we were having a hard time again. I decided that the best thing to do was to go ahead with my photo shoot anyway. I went into the kitchen and was laughing and talking to all of her "friends" saying how much fun we were having!

JJ Bear, Monkey Baby, Foot Book Guy and Minnie.....they were great models. Katy was immediately interested in what was going on that she had to come over and check it out. She thought it was hilarious that we were taking pics of her friends.

Katy insisted that we had to take some of chuck too.

He didn't mind especially for a treat! Oh and please pardon the fact that Chuck looks like an Alien! He just got his hair cut, and don't laugh too hard that we had to pull out the sweater since it's been so cold! Ha, we bought this up at the book store when we were in school for a few bucks as a joke....who knew it would come in handy one day! GO UTES!!!

She even decided that it would probably be a good idea to take a "princess picture" of herself too. She wore her new snow hat....

And even sported her Minnie ears.

So I guess it goes to show that sometimes you just need to get a bit creative when it comes to taking pictures of your kidos. If nothing else you can have a great time taking pictures of your kidos "friends" or going out to lunch afterwards with your own friends! And even thought your photo shoots may not go according to plan you can still get some fun pictures if you just keep at it!

Shape Ups...

So I mentioned in my last post that Steve's sister Heidi couldn't come to get trees with us this year. This is why......

Yes folks, you're eyes are not deceiving you at all. This was what Heidi's leg looked like. The bone punctured through her skin too, lovely! So how did this all happen? Shape Ups! Yup, those dumb fitness shoes. She was at the Murray farmers market with her three kids and they decided to go play on the playground afterwards. She was carrying her youngest Brynne down to see the ducks and stepped into a hole, twisted her ankle trying to not fall on her and it just snapped in half!

Poor Heidi had to pay who knows how many hundreds of dollars for a ambulance ride across the street to the IMC! They took great care of her over there and this is what her leg looks like now...

I think she has about 6 screws and a rod or two in there. But we all joke that those cursed shape up shoes are the reason for this little predicament! This all happened the week of Halloween, and I am happy to report that she is actually up and walking on it a bit. So we are getting there. She has been a champ through this all and my BIL Kyle has been awesome too! He is a crazy busy lawyer working tons, then comes home and holds the fort down even doing the laundry! I guess the moral of the story is BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU ARE WEARING SHAPE UPS!

Griswold Christmas Hunt

I'm imagining a few quotes coming out of this trip once we get our tree up:

"Is your house on fire, Clark?"

"No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights."

AND

"Hey Griswold. Where do you think you're gonna put a tree that big?"

"Bend over and I'll show you."

Both very memorable quotes from a classic, Christmas Vacation. I can imagine that people will both think our tree is on fire it will have so many lights and that it's just too BIG! That is how you get the holiday season started off with a bang.....a Griswold Christmas Vacation (day trip) to get a tree.

The first year we were married we got back from our honeymoon I think on the 23rd?, maybe even Christmas Eve so we of course did not have tree that year. The following year Steve and I invited ourselves to go with the Amundsen's (Steve's neighbors and very good friends growing up). Let me tell you it was a BLAST! We decided to keep up the tradition and we have gone back every year. Some years we go by ourselves, we've had our friends Rachel and Davis come once and Roger and Joanne a few times. One year we even had to tow back the Tacoma (thank you Roger's AAA) when the clutch went out. In fact we even went when Katy was less than a month old! I cut a tree down in the comfort of the warm car that year....and pointed to one that Steve could get! So you never quite know what might happen.

This year was no exception. We were joined by most of Steve's family....minus Heidi's and her broken leg. More about that in another post.

Griswoldism #1: Getting stuck in the snow. Katy rode up with Roger, Joanne, RaNae and Ken so Carter joined us. We were almost sideways before we knew what had happened. We weren't going anywhere but Carter was convinced that we would, in fact, roll over! He was out of there lickity split :) Steve was more than happy to finally get to use his Birthday present....the winch! Worked like a charm, but I like to think it was my driving that did the trick.

Doesn't look as bad as it felt inside. We were really sideways there! Steve's proud moment. I secretly think that he may have done that on purpose.

Griswoldism #2: Having your kid look like Randy from Christmas Story, my favorite holiday classic. I knew we were going and I knew that Katy needed snow pants and boots, but somehow time got away from me and I found myself the day of without....good thing Robyn brought some extras! The boots were a bit big but they did the trick! Anyone else having a flash back of Randy on Christmas Story getting ready for school? I think Katy is a dead ringer! Love it!

So as you can see we are living up the the Griswold hype so far, right....there's more!

Had to snap a pic of Roger and the grandkidos! Ha, look how happy they look. It's amazing how cutting down a tree can make you so happy!

Griswoldism #3: Going anywhere in the snow with the Olson's. I do believe they think we live on an island where it never snows. Case and point...this is what Wendy decided to wear! Needless to say she spent most of the time in the car trying to de thaw those toeseys!

Griswoldism #4: Not having your chain saw work to cut your tree down. Good thing that BIL Steve was at the helm. He had that thing down in no time! Oh and I think he should join forces with the Olson's because he decided to wear shorts! Ha, nothin' but love Steve!

RaNae and Ken didn't need a tree, but opted to come along for the adventure aspect. Which I think was defiantly delivered!

Robs and Hayden.

Jordyn making a snow angle. Love it Jord!

Oh my goodness, could I take a bad picture of this kid? Grayden is the cutest!

Hangin' out on the trailer. Katy seriously was having the time of her life, if you'll notice in all of her pictures!

The mighty triumphant Steve with his "kill", what a beaut....Steve I mean!

Team Beardshall with our cute little tree. I don't know if you can tell here or not but Chuck got SO much SNOW caked in his coat! I keep thinking that he will be too cold if I cut his hair but I am seriously contemplating one of those sweaters for him to wear after they shave him. He looks like this after every snowstorm!

I had just picked her up from falling over in the snow....."Ralphy, I can't get up, I can't get up!"

I LOVE this girl!

Katy, Ken and NaeNae.

Grandma and Katy.

The cute Dahl family.

Team Steve here.

Ha, this picture is one of my favorite from the trips. So cute.

The Olson's found there perfect tree too, even though it wasn't a palm tree :)

We started throwing snow balls and Hayden. He was making us laugh so hard....

we had to throw some at Katy too. And then she made us laugh too.

I do think in the end that the chain saw ended up working, I'm sure thanks to Roger!

And Chris topped everything off by doing a face plant in the snow. You gotta love that for sure!

This little fella bid us adu on our way home.
Griswoldism #5: Having to take your tree through the car wash on the way home! Because it had snowed the dirt road on the way in it was mud city. Roger thought this one up, and I have to give it to him...we had a shiny new tree afterwards. All in all it was a great Griswold trip as usual!

First Hair Cut

Well Katy got her first hair cut, or hair trim. Actually we cut her hair when she was a few months old because her beautiful black curly hair all fell out and left her with a very stylish mullet! Steve made me cut it when a lady at the store pointed out that she had really weird hair! People are so random sometime!

Well ever since then it's been growing like a weed and Steve has mentioned a few times that she needs to get it cut. I of course refused kindly but decided that it might not hurt to take her to Aunt Katie for a trim, because that is pretty much all we did! Ha.

Katy seem to be most amused by the booster chair. That is all she talked about all afternoon! She really did a great job. She was so serious in the chair it was making us laugh. I guess this girl is serious about her fashion sense!

See what I mean? Very serious!

"Mom seriously with the camera!" This is what she must have been thinking.

The finished product! Oh and I don't know if you can see it here but Katie put a "hair pretty" in her hair. A strand of bling I guess you could say. I am not sure what it was made out of. Katy love it so much she had to pull it out of her hair on the way home to get a better look at it!

Thanks Katie we loved out hair trim!

Christmas Craft: Hand Wreath

Ok....it's cold outside and a girl can only listen to the serious satellite channels and dance so long before we have to do something a little more productive!

I was trying to think of a fun idea that Katy and I could do without having to go to the store. I remembered when I was little in school and making these wreaths. My mom always loved anything I made and I figured we could use the decorations around here.

Oh and Katy had a BLAST might I add.

What you'll need:

Paper

Glue Stick

Pen or Pencil

and Scissors.....

Trace your hand. Looks impressive but I had to help her with that part!

Cut out your hands....

Don't forget to trace your buddies hands too!

Glue together.....

And hang on your door! We love how it turned out. Katy kept crinkling up the hands but it ended up adding something to it don't you think? Now we have a pretty door that all our Christmas cards can go on!

My Quilt!

Well I pulled out the Martha Stewart skills to update/revamp Katy's bedroom. Mostly I just wanted an excuse to make Katy a really nice quilt. I had so much fun making her crib quilt that I convinced Steve that she needed to have one for her bed.

For her first quilt I only spent about 30 dollars on all the fabric and materials I used in the entire room....including the valance and the pillows amongst other things. My quilt? Well it cost more than 30$ for sure but I broke it down into sections.

It all started when I visited Material Girls Quilt Shop on 106th and Redwood. I saw this quilt in the back and I was in love! Previous to that I had found a really cute quilted pillow sham at the Down East Clearance Center for a 1$ that I wanted to try to copy. I was having a hard time though finding the right fabrics, which is why I went to Material Girls (love that place by the way!). Any who I saw this quilt and thought that it would be perfect in Katy's room with what we had going on in there already. So I bought the pattern, a few weeks later I bought the material (I was still able to use a lot of the left over fabric from her first quilt). I next sewed this thing. I was a crazy woman, I couldn't stop I had so much fun. I completed this quilt in 2 days watching dateline at night after Katy went to bed!

My next dilemma all started when I didn't know what to do next. How was I going to put this thing together? I am NOT a fan of the tied quilt. And although I would have loved to quilt it myself I decided that I didn't want to ruin the thing! The only problem was that everyone that I talked to up here wanted like 125$ or so to machine quilt it...and that didn't include the batting! I finally found a gal up in Bear River through my sister Britney's SIL Angie. I figured I was up there enough that I didn't mind taking it north. Her SIL Angie picked it up from Brit when she was in town and the rest is history. I really didn't know what to expect because I told this gal just to do whatever she thought would be best. She BLEW my mind because when I got this thing back I was in love! And she only charged me 80$ and that included the warm and natural batting! I am SO PLEASED with how it all turned out. I guess I will have to get a better picture of how the whole thing turned out overall but this is something that Katy will have forever!

I am in love with the paper flowers and had to make some for Katy's room. I love how they add a touch of whimsy to the corner over there. They were super cheap and easy to make. You can find the tutorial HERE.

She sewed "veins" into all of the leaves....I think there are like 40 leaves on this thing! She took so much time paying attention to the detail. I think the reason that I love this quilt so much is because of these cute flowers. She also made sure to quilt around each one of them so that as it wears the edges of the fabric will curl up and create some dimension like they were supposed to!

I used the super soft minky dot fabric for the back. I was lucky to get this for less than 9$ a yard. I wouldn't have though to even use this on the back but the one in the store had it. I love how it feels and it turned out great!

This part is still a work in progress. I am working on finishing the pillow sham in the back there....you probably can't even see it. And I found another one of my great finds at Down East, another quilted sham in green....so cute! I also decided to grab some cheap white pillow cases from Walmart and sew on a flower to each of them. I love how they turned out!

So basically I just need to finish my pillow sham, and call me crazy I think in the spring I am going to attempt this bed found HERE, they have a twin I just like this picture better. I am also contemplating painting her dresser white? Who knows I guess I'll figure that out in the spring! For now I am proud of my Martha Stewart attempt!

Oh and another great tip. I love Pottery Barn. I get the catalogs and rip out all the pages to get inspired because I cant afford it for sure. Well I always love the paint they use and of course it's Benjamin Moore which is like 40$ a gallon. I got this paint at ACE. It's Benjamin Moore "Steam Green" color but it's scotch guard paint which is less than half the price. Also good if Katy decides she wants to write on the wall! Mom helped me paint when I was still preggers, too fun!