CHRISTMAS CARD

             

This year we decided to give the whole Christmas card thing a try. I have this slight problem where I always underestimate how long projects will take. I have done this since I was a kid, you can ask my mom, every time a project was due I would wait until the night before and reassure her that it would only take me an hour. Five hours later I would be finished. This happened with the Christmas cards. I was sure it wouldn't be too time consuming, or expensive.... I was wrong. We attempted to hand make the actual card part. Zach drew the design (except the lettering, that was my job) then transferred it over to the linoleum and carved it out. After that was all finished we spent many long hours printing them. Rolling on ink, stamping, repeat. It was pretty fun, but a tedious project. I didn't even do half of the work in the design process, and it felt long. Thanks Zach for being awesome, and talented. 

Taking and printing the pictures wasn't an easy task either. We attempted some pics one day, and got home to find out they were all super unfocused, we didn't even check while we were there because we were freezing! A couple days later we went back and got some pretty good ones. We literally snapped these in ten minutes or less. Zach set up the tripod while Nola and I waited in the warm car, then we ran out in front of the camera while it snapped a bunch of pics, then we ran back to the car, grabbing the tripod  on the way.  I was loving the way the pictures turned out on the computer and but we were disappointed when we printed them at Sam's Club and they looked super dark. So i tried the next day to print some at Smiths, and they weren't great either, but they would have to do.

Another thing that was crazy annoying was that no where sells 5x7 envelopes!  You'd think thats a pretty standard size... but they don't have them at the 7 different locations we tried. Everyone kept telling us we could get them online, which isn't very helpful when we were one week away from christmas.. once again we are back to my overarching problem of procrastination.

 After spending an entire day addressing envelopes, we finally got them all sent off or delivered, and man was it a relief!? I'm glad we pushed through all the obstacles of those silly christmas cards. There are a lot of thing we will do differently for next year, one being starting in October!  

IN THE EYE OF THE MINION

Man we sure do love when the Wrights come up for a visit! We get to show them all the cool places up here starting with the puppy barn! I love the puppy barn, mostly... its kind of a love hate relationship. I love seeing and holding all the cute puppies, but then I just feel sad and empty when I have to leave pupless. Anyway I think they were just as smitten as me, and Nola, she is a girl after my own heart. She loves dogs! I think we better get one pretty soon. (wink, wink, zach)

We spent some time exploring the aquarium, and an eventful evening at Corn Belly's, it was my first time to Thanksgiving Point, and it certainly did not disappoint. We shared some delicious corn on the cob, played a little tether ball, conquered the corn maze, thanks to Kasen and his amazing skills. We thought we were lost, and kept singing "in the eye of the minion" sung to the tune "In the Arms of an Angle" by Sarah MacLachlan. We also had some intese corn wars happening. Dad and brynlie were chucking those corn kernels like you wouldn't believe! The kernels are surprising hard too. Once we finished the maze we watched the tiny pigs race around in circles. which is cute, but a little bit sad. I have a soft spot for animals though... I'm sure most weren't as effected as i was.  We played pool with our feet, and colored soccer balls, it was incredibly clever. I went through a minor haunted house... which is really saying something, I HATE haunted things. It wasn't scary, just dark and inside a giant lizard thing... weird. mostly. My favorite part of the night was riding on the tiny little train. We all crammed into one car and laughed the whole 3 minute ride. Gosh I wish it was longer! Brynlies little face kept getting squished between dad and Kasen everytime we went over a bump, we were laughing so hard!

The entire trip was a success. lots of laughter!  Baylie and Brynlie drove with Nola and I to the aquarium. We had a dance party in the car, and made up super cool moves to that x's and o's song, cause were cool like that. Nola absolutely loved having them stay with us. She looked forward to running into the living room in the morning and having her aunties and grandparents sleeping and ready to pounce. It was really a fun time! I hope they come back up soon!

PUMPKIN PATCH

       

This pumpkin patch was a dream! I was loving all the unique colored pumpkins, but the normal pumpkins were nice too! We ended up with one of the pretty blue green ones, which we recently threw in Zach's parents garden once it was time to bust out the Christmas decor. Hopefully we will get some pretty green pumpkins next year!  I had the perfect pumpkin picked out, and when I left to grab a wagon another group snatched it up. I was only devastated for a second. It is only a pumpkin after all. Our efforts to make Nola love the pumpkins and want to sit by them was a fail, so instead I had to sit by her hidden behind the pile of pumpkins and duck when Zach snapped the pics. The things parents will do to get a cute picture...