Playing Catch Up

After last weekend I haven't really felt up to doing much lately so I've been lying low, enjoying the last of the Easter candy and catching up on my laundry. This post is going to be just a catch up post since I haven't done anything super amazing this week (warning- if you are looking for something good to read hit your back button, yes I'm that boring today).
Ashlyn discovered that she was actually operated on and super girl is no more. I know I told her but for some reason she thought they just put her to sleep to look at the problem, so when I changed her dressing the other day and she saw it she wigged out- tears popping out in every direction. She's back! She's been taking it easy since then which is good because she was trying to wrestle her brother and slide down the stairs on her tummy- a no no.

My great grandpa passed away earlier this week and his funeral was yesterday. I wanted to go but I wasn't up to it, sorry I missed it and missed everyone! My Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary is in a few weeks so I'll see everyone then.

Thursday night I decided that Mary needed a hair cut and since I think I can do everything myself I tried to give her a cute Lucy from "Narnia" do. I've been thinking of cutting her hair like that for over a year now but just couldn't commit until she threw an absolute tissy about getting her hair brushed. After an hour and a half of trying to even it up I gave up and decided to take her in Friday when I was getting my hair trimmed. Because I hacked her hair and one side was really short we decided to give her an "A" line bob. I regret cutting her hair but it looks so much cuter than what I did to it. She loves it- no more tangles!


Cody and I stayed up late watching "Dave in Real Life" and "I am Legend" last night. I could live my entire life without watching either ever again. After I am legend I had to have Cody escort me to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then he had to go upstairs ahead of me to bed. I'm such a baby.



Today I helped the kids build a super deluxe 2 person fort while I made banana muffins and cleaned. We are a thrilling bunch!
If you made it this far without skimming (come on admit it, we all do it) then you deserve a muffin!
Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll have a really cute idea or two and a new blog look to share.

Super Girl

Ashlyn had outpatient surgery yesterday and everything went great. She wasn't scared at all and acted like the entire thing was no big deal. She's our drama queen so I was prepared for a lot of tears but to my surprise she never shed one. She told me last night she almost thought of crying in the operating room but didn't. I'm so proud of her! She told me they had her smell "monkey perfume" and it smelled like garbage and then she went to sleep.

She had a hard time with the anesthetic and couldn't hold anything down for a few hours after she woke up but was fine at dinner time and got to eat french fries. Today she looks a little green but she's been telling me it feels a little better and that she doesn't need any medicine. She actually likes medicine so I was surprised and a little relieved because the medicine they gave her to take home was supposed to make her throw up. I gave her some regular Tylenol last night so she could sleep better and she asked me why she was taking it, she said she felt fine. She's a super hero!

In a couple weeks she can beat up the boys again.

Happy Belated Easter

We had such a great Easter, it's definitely my favorite holiday! How can you beat 3 day old peeps, chocolate, pretty dresses, everything pastel and fluffy, and new baby animals- LOVE IT. I love having so many little ankle biters around, it makes it so fun. They get so excited about everything and this is one holiday where they get lots of surprises over and over without the pressure and stress of a million gifts.

I finally finished the last Easter dress at 10 Saturday night and then I needed to finish up my Relief Society lesson. Next year I will be buying dresses! It was yucky outside so I didn't get good outside pictures of them dressed up, I'll be staging a photo shoot in a week or two when my yard is cleaner and the weather is better.



We spent the day at Cody's parents house with his family and it was so much fun. As long as I can remember they've always had chili after church and homemade bread with the best salads and desserts. After the moms get done eating we all go into a bedroom, lay a basket for each kid on a bed (there's usually a ton of them), and throw candy at them until they are full to the brim. Then the dads take them and hide them outside for the kids to find. Through the years I've seen baskets in the creek, up in the trees, under buckets, and even one that was buried in the ground. There's also an egg hunt which was Kaci's favorite, she passed up her candy basket to keep hunting eggs. It ends up being a huge sugar high for the kids with a basket in the morning and an entire basket full of candy at grandma's but I'm not afraid of a little sugar coma. Maybe I'll get a nap today ;o).




Oh, I almost forgot. I gave the kids their Easter shirts early so they could wear them to school for the school egg hunt. That left a "hole" in the basket layout and I couldn't have that, so I asked Cody if he would pick up something for each of them. Something small that would fit in the palm of his hand and that wasn't candy- a toy or book or something. He said sure and this is what he brought home.... remind me not to ask him to pick things up for me anymore. I didn't think I had to specify "oh, and something that doesn't eat, drink, or poop".


Today it's back in the trenches I go. My bathroom looks like a bachelor lives here and we are out of spoons and skivvies. Hope everyone had a great Easter!!

...because everyone should have one!

In the spirit of my favorite holiday and season I thought I would share a little tutorial on a project I've been working on. I should be sewing dresses but they aren't turning out, in fact I pretty much hate them, so to distract myself from the hideous chiffon things in the corner that need a zipper and hems I made chocolate bunny shirts for the kids. I plan on tucking them in their Easter baskets to wear after church on Easter. They are so easy, in fact I made Jeremy's and finished his in 2 hours this morning- and that includes drying time- very easy and plenty of time to make at least 4 dozen before Easter ;o).

Here's the list of "ingredients"- a plain t-shirt, brown and possibly black fabric paint, freezer paper, a paint brush, ribbon, exacto knife, and an iron.

First you need to find your image. I wanted mine to be a traditional chocolate bunny shape so I found a picture of a real chocolate bunny. You can use whatever image you wish. Next I printed out my bunny in a few different sizes and held it up to the shirts to pick my size. Once you have the size down (mine is 4" high) you print your image out preferably in the middle of regular printing paper. I printed mine out using a photo printing program so I could get 4 at a time for my 3 munchkins so that's why they're not in the center which you can do if you are making more than one... I digress.
Now you cut a piece of freezer paper so it's roughly 8" x 10.5" or so and tape the top and bottom edges down on top of your printed regular paper making sure you are covering your image completely with freezer paper, shiny side towards the image and paper side facing you. With the edges taped down, send that puppy through the printer again with the taped on freezer paper.

Now that you have your image printed on the freezer paper it's time to cut your image out with the exacto knife. Once your image is cut, trim your freezer paper leaving generous space around the image so you don't get flyaway paint on your shirt but make sure you cut the tape ends off- you do not want to iron the tape- trust me. Set your stencil aside for just a second.

With your iron set to the high or cotton setting (no steam) cut a big chunk of freezer paper about 6" x 6" square or an inch or two bigger than your stencil and iron it to the inside of the shirt, shiny side to the fabric and paper side facing you, in the area where your stencil will be on the front. This keeps the paint from bleeding through to the areas of the shirt you don't want paint to be. Now flip the shirt back right side out.

Now you're ready for the fun part. I wanted a few of my shirts to have the bunny smack in the center so I folded the shirt in half and ironed it to make a crease for the center line to help guide my stencil placement.

Once you find your bunny's "happy place" put the stencil on the shirt, shiny side down and iron with the iron on the cotton or high setting, no steam. It will turn the paper kind of yellow and it should if it's hot enough. Try not to wiggle the iron around to much or it will shift your stencil or tear your paper. Keep the iron on it for about 20 to 30 seconds or until it's set. The stencil should be really stuck and you can check by trying a corner, it shouldn't pull up at all.

Now you get to paint! With your stencil stuck and cool to the touch apply a thin layer of fabric paint with your paint brush. If your brown isn't brown enough you can mix a little black in there until it's the shade you want. I would recommend letting the first coat dry and adding a second coat, but I didn't do that and I should have...

Once the paint is dry you can peel off your freezer paper from the front and from the inside. Viola`, you have your rabbit!

I wanted mine to look a little more girly so I added ribbon bow ties. If you do this just make sure to heat seal or fray check the ribbon ends for the wash.

And because Jeremy needed a shirt to I had to make a boy version using Jeremy's favorite phrase. I did the same technique for everything on Jim's shirt, only I used layers and cut the title... yada yada

So why don't you give it a go... because everyone should have one and it's not as hard as I made it sound, really!

What to do with a mullet...

I love Kaci's hair- it looks just like mine did when I was a tiny thing, really short and straight on top and curly in the back. The short on top thing isn't so cute but the curls are fun and it keeps her looking like my little baby for a bit longer. I've been plugging away at my machine sewing the girls' easter dresses when it just hit me. How in the world am I going to fix Kaci's hair for easter? What can you do with a mullet? The picture doesn't show how short the top truly is, about 2" max, because I use so much spray gel and hair spray it just "flows" toward the rubber bands even if it's not in the rubber bands.

I usually go over the top on their hair but short of throwing a matching hat on her I'm clueless as to what to do and she won't leave anything on anyway. Of all the problems in the world right now I'm sure this one is on the top of the list, or really high anyway, right next to pollution and wearing white socks with dress shoes...

Mary was cracking me up on Tuesday with this picture. She looks just like my dad when she's concentrating. She was trying to string a foam bead necklace with a ginormous plastic needle and kept sticking her tongue out and huffing when she got to a tricky part. Such a Musgrove thing to do, that's what I get for naming after that side of the family!

I really need to get off here and get back to my sewing, I feel like a small 5 yr. old factory worker- get back to work! If I get quiet over the next few days don't worry, I'm just going to be sewing for 16 hours straight for the next 9 days (AHHHH! only 9 days of sewing left!!). Have a great weekend!

Future soccer player?

I felt the baby move yesterday for the first time while I was at church! I was just sitting enjoying the peace and quiet (Cody stayed home with the sick girls) and I felt a little lump of pressure very low on my middle right side all of the sudden. I don't like being pushed around so I pushed back- and so did the baby! The more pressure I applied the more it squirmed, so cute. Okay now that I think of it, maybe it's mean to poke a poor defenseless little baby that's trapped and has no where to go, but the things a mother must do for some proof of life...

Late last night Cody was able to feel it move around as well so I know I'm not nuts. I can't believe I'm feeling it already, this is the earliest I've felt any of my kids move around and I'm especially shocked Cody can feel it to. Either this baby is going to be another over 9 pounder or one fierce little fighter, maybe I should stop provoking him or her??

Adding my crazy for the week...

A double post I know but I don't think I've shared enough craziness lately, some of you probably beg to differ and wish someone would medicate me, but I just had to share something really random that really bothers me this week. It is after all my blog and since I treat it like a journal I have a duty to share all of me for posterity, quirks and all so here goes...

Has anyone else noticed my widget baby floating out of it's bubble? I've seen his/her little head peak out of the bubble more than once. This really really bothers me, enough so that I almost want to take it off my blog. The kids think it's actually a movie of the real baby though so if I take it off I think it will be devastating to a few of my brood. I just wish it would stop crowning and stay in it's little grey home. That's a Baxter for you- stubborn with an unusually large cranium.

And with that have a great weekend!

Oh Martha...

If she could only come to my house and decorate for me. I love all her spring decorating ideas but I'm just a titch too lazy to actually do any of them. They are so simple but so cute at the same time. I love simple and cute. Here are a few of my favorite ideas that I want to do but probably won't since I'll be knee deep in dress making for the next 3 weeks. If anyone does them send me the link so I can see!

Love this egg idea, how cute is that!

Or this would be a fun thing for the kids to make, and super easy.

When I hold my fancy black tie dinner party each guest will be getting one of these party favors (yeah right, but a cute idea anyway).

Or if you actually know how to knit (I'm jealous by the way if you do) these are super cute. These are from the Little Cotton Rabbits blog and she shared the pattern for free, how sweet of her!

For my visiting teaching ladies I'm going to give mini egg cartons filled with eggs that have plants in them. Also a Martha idea but no picture to share so I'll just have to fill you all in when I actually do it in a week or so. Hopefully none of them read my blog, I'm almost positive they don't but if I visit you and you do read my blog act surprised when I come o.k.!

Before I go I have to share that my uncle who's in his early 30's is in the ICU right now in a coma waiting for surgery. He has a heart condition that got the better of him unexpectedly Thursday night so please keep him and his little family in your prayers for me.

Just the same old, same old

I was going to come up with a gripping title or a fantastic first line but I think my lack of sleep is really catching up with me, I can't think of a single interesting thing to start with and I have so many things to go off of, like this...

The view of my backseat at 12:18 today. I didn't know we had such fetching hats in our collection...

Or this, quilt block #5 and it actually came out alright and I like it!

Or this, I'm going to be good and use fabric from my stash (I'm too cheap!) to make the girls easter dresses this year. I would have loved to use the other fabric but I'm running out of energy and time to so I better just get crackin'.

Or this, I tried to cook pioneer style this morning and decided to fire up my electric oven with a cozy fire. Okay I didn't try to do that but I did have a fire in my oven and it was quite scary- the house still stinks. Self cleaning oven my rear end! If I wanted to "clean" my oven that way I would have used lighter fluid and played with it, maybe even finding a stick to burn or pine cones or all those other fun things boys do with fire.

Nothing interesting to write about around here... ever.

Nothing good comes from a bacon and chocolate high...

With the exception of a really fun birthday girls night out and cheap diapers. Happy Birthday last night Melissa! She blogged about our night and I don't think I've laughed as hard in a long time. My face still hurts when I try to smile. That may be because I was out until 2 a.m. on a school night and my face is tired but it was worth it- every minute. It was so much funnier in person but I guess you had to be there... we made a few people in Denny's blush, good times!

Tonight I'm headed off to another installment of "Quilting 101" so wish me luck. I'm still not convinced I like quilting yet but it's improving a little.

Germs be gone.

I absolutely love winter, it's my favorite season, but enough already! It's time to sweep winter under the rug and all the viruses and germs that go with it. Jeremy came home early from school on thursday with a fever and had a fever of 102 or higher all weekend. It finally broke Saturday night and he spent the day home from church with me yesterday just in case. He's fine now but I'm not one that likes to risk getting other people's children sick so I keep them home if there's even the slightest chance they are contagious.

Cody decided to take all the girls to church with him by himself (brave, brave soul) and while there Mary threw up during primary. Great- just give me the most awesome mom award right now for that one. She didn't have a fever or give any clue that she wasn't feeling good when I sent her. I'm so sorry to whoever cleaned that up. They told Cody to just take her home and they would keep the other two at church until he came back, I'm sure they wanted him to take the "canon" home so it wouldn't go off again at church. She did fine when she got home and hasn't been sick since so I'm not sure what that was all about. If I could ask the easter bunny to bring me something this year I would ask for airborne, zicam, tylenol cold and flu, kleenex, etc..., or maybe just bring Spring please.

Last night I had a wicked craving for doughnuts but my conscience (and my gelatinous thighs) wouldn't allow me to do it so I tried a recipe for baked doughnuts instead of fried, cause that's so much healthier ;o). They turned out really good. They tasted like a baked doughnut though, not quite crispy creme if you catch my drift. Ashlyn had a blast helping me decorate them and I ignored my thighs for a second and decided to fill a few with lemon and make some into maple bars. YUM! I don't have to get weighed for another 3 weeks so bring it on!