HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Sierra is 3!

Sierra had so much fun opening her presents. She was so excited to see what was inside. She had a beautiful Cinderella castle cake and almost blew out all the candles in one breath. It was fun to watch her have so much excitement. I can already tell this is going to be a fun Christmas.

Festive

I decided to be festive this year. I saw these cute pumpkin shirts in the Family Fun magazine and knew I just had to make them. I figured that I already know how to tie dye and I already have the dye - so why not? I cut the pumpkin faces out of felt and ironed them on. I think the shirts turned out so cute. I dressed the girls up and took them outside for a few festive pics.

Bee Sting

Poor little Maddie got stung by a bee yesterday. It got her on the inside of her lip ( I guess she was trying to eat it) . She came running over to me crying with the stinger still in her lip. It was pretty swollen. It happened sometime yesterday evening, and this morning her lip was still a little swollen -but it's all better now.

gone

My beloved Bozeman Hot Springs is gone. It caught on fire yesterday,and a good chunk of it is destroyed. What wasn't burnt was severely damaged from the smoke. I am pretty bummed about the whole thing. I worked there for over 2 years. Long enough to become the supervisor for the night crew. I met most of my good friends from working there. Now they have to tear part of it down, if not the whole thing. I really hope they rebuild someday.
It was a pretty exciting day yesterday - I was on the phone all day talking to person after person about the whole situation. I had 52 phone calls and 20 texts in about an 8 hour period. That is a ton for me! I guess it is good because now I can go to bed at a decent hour (I usually worked until about 1-2 am).
Here is link to the newspaper article in the local paper if anybody is interested in reading it. I am trying to find video footage from the news station. I had heard that they had some really good footage of the building in flames. If I find it, I will post it.

Same

I had never realized how much Sierra and Maddie look alike until I took this picture. I have always thought they look so different, but you can definitely tell they are sisters.

Furniture Galore

Jake has been busy making more furniture. He made this new table top this last weekend. He kept the table legs from our old table and just made a new top. It only cost about $30 to make! It looks so great in our kitchen. Our old table was mostly white, so this dark table really adds a lot to the space. He made the bench too. He made that a while ago when Megan first moved here when we needed more seats around the table. It really works out great. He stained the table top to match the bench. They are a great pair.



Next we have a little end table (or night stand). It was made using leftover tiles from his work. It is so cute. This is one of my favorite things that Jake has made. Everytime I look at it I just think "Wow, that really looks nice."


After Jake made our new bed, we needed a new thing for our TV to go on. We needed something tall since our bed is so tall now. Jake just whipped this up real fast. It is exactly what we needed. I love having custom furniture made. Can't get any better than that! Now if he could make us a new couch...

Tie Dye!

We had a party yesterday. A Tie Dye party! I love tie dying. I haven't done it in probably 4 years. I told my friends to buy white and come over. We all bought cute little white dresses for our girls, but I am too afraid to dye mine. I want them to turn out perfect - so I guess the best way to make sure they turn out perfect is to not dye them at all - right? I am glad I didn't though. A few of the color schemes turned out different than I thought they would. Now I have a better idea of what I want. I guess I just needed a little practice first. I knew this would be a messy project, especially with kids, but the mess pretty much stayed on the tarp. I am thankful for that. I was afraid someone would walk through the dye then walk into the house. That would be a disaster! It turned out to be really fun. After the kids squirted the dye for a minute they got bored then ran off and played with the hose the rest of the time. Which was nice because it left us to do the real tie dying. Everybody's stuff turned out very cute and colorful. Now I just need to get the courage and dye those little white dresses.

A few of the items. Megan's tank top. A couple pillow cases (Sierra did the pink/orange swirl pillow case). Sierra's panties and a shirt I did. Cute eh?

Part of the crew doing some tie dying.

The Artist

Yesterday during quiet time (in my room), Sierra got into my markers and colored. She colored all over herself, on the carpet, my bed spread, the new bed frame Jake built and on the dog. When I walked into my room there were purple and blue scribbles everywhere. It was kind of cute. Luckily it all came off.

I like her toenail painting job.

If you look closely you can see she colored on Daisy's eye.

The New Bed

Last weekend Jake decided he was going to build a bed for us (It's about time). Our old bed was just on blocks of wood with a makeshift headboard. He had it built within a few hours, but it took almost a week to complete with all the different steps it takes to get the finish he wanted. He did a little each night after work, let it dry over night, then did a little more the next night after work. Luckily it didn't rain the whole week. Just when we were ready to put it in the house a storm started to blow through. We got it in the house just in time. I looks great. Sierra thinks it is the coolest new toy ever. Megan that we have a parent bed now. I am super excited. It looks awesome!!!

Just built

We put on Jake's Secret Aging Concoction then sanded most of it off. This gives it a black weathered undertone.

The finished product.

Another angle