Ballroom Dance

Liv has been taking early morning ballroom dance this year at school.  She has really enjoyed learning all the various dances.  On Jan 4th, they had a team match competition at her school.  This was a mock competition to prepare them for their first competition in Orem next week.  Olivia was selected to dance the fox trot as her  chosen dance and then she also had three surprise dances.  On the surprise dance, you do not know what you are dancing until you walk out on the floor and they draw a slip of paper out of a hat announcing your dance.  She did a fantastic job with her team placing GOLD.

Liv and her friends at competition

While calculating scores Liv chose to do the swing with her dad.

Neil even won a Creekside Ballroom bag for his dance skills.

Craftiness

I've caught a bug of sorts lately.  It's called the crafting bug.  Not sure why but I have a bug.  So the obsession of late has been creating wreaths.  I love all the cute felt flowers you see.  So I took to my other addiction pinterest for some motivation.  After finding several wreaths and felt flower tutorials I took to creating.  Now I have to say I am novice at best but still happy with my creations.

The first wreath came from sixsistersstuff.com.  Now I have to say I was so SAD when I visited my hard not to spend money store of Hobby Lobby and they had no orange burlap.  I opted for this green burlap hoping in would still look "fallish" and yes it does. 

Materials:
Wire wreath form (comes in varying sizes)
1 1/2 yards of burlap cut into strips
Felt square pieces
Embelishments for middle of flowers
Hot Glue Gun

I cut my strips into 1 inch wide strips by about 6.5 to 7 inches.  There is no rocket science to it.  That's why it is my kind of craft.  Then tie the strips to the wreath form until you get the desired fullness you like.

Some of the websites for the flower tutorials are found at  thecraftedsparrow.blogspot.comfor the looped mum flower. Or try http://fabricbowsandmore.blogspot.com/2011/01/ultra-easy-felt-flower-tutorial-by.html for the pom-pom type flower.  The yellow flower on the wreath.  For instructions on making a felt rose visit http://santabarbarawedding.com/blog/?p=4417 and then for my favorite flower but most time consuming the website http://makeanddogirl.com/2011/10/tutorial-diy-felt-flowers/ has step by step instructions (the orange large flower above.) 

Next, I wanted to use some pine cones my mom had and some fall berries I had.....This is what I came up with.  I had a few extra felt flowers so I incorporated them as well.

Lastly, I found this Santa Belt wreath on etsy.com and also at itsmeanic.blogspot.com and loved, loved, loved it.  My neighbor told me she wanted a wreath so I thought to myself, "A project to try and a gift to give!"

 Teacher Gifts for 2012 Christmas were a saying found via pinterest. The blue is actually a bright, fun color but the amateur photographer didn't get a very good picture :(  Nonetheless, I really like the saying.

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Elf Shoes made from thediaryofdaveswife.com

 

 There a few more crafts in the unfinished category (I am notorious for this) and will hopefully have them finished by next Christmas for display.

Halloween

 I realize Halloween was two months ago but I am playing catch up on the blog today.  My kids love holidays and Halloween is one of  their favorites.  Carving pumpkins, trick or treating, Halloween dinner, and making crafts is always on the agenda.  This year  Liv and her friends decided they were going to be M&M's.  We spent an afternoon (with help from the silhouette) doing freezer paper stencil M's on their shirts.  The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Liv painting her M&M shirt

Modeling the finished product

The M&M package (minus orange)

Bellar as a fairy - she HAD to have a tiara and wand

Yearly carved pumpkins - dad and Liv did her initials.  I carved Tangled for Bellar.

Even the dog had a costume - thanks to the kids!

Liv by her initial carved pumpkin.

 Our Halloween Dinner this year consisted of band-aids, ear wax, snot nose burgers, and a spider mocktail.  I have to say the drink was a bit too sugary even for my tastes.  The kids loved the band-aids.  We also made our now traditional bloody toes and jello brain.  Neil thought the snot nose burgers were a bit too much on presentation even though we eat burritos all the time at our house.

Band-aids made with graham crackers, frosting, and red decorating gel

Ear Wax - sucker sticks, marshmallows, and caramel dip

Snot nose burritos - tortilla folded to look like a nose

Jello Brain!

 

Making bat craft at annual neighborhood Halloween party

Spider Mocktail - way too sugary!

Olivia making her bat craft.

Bellar with her finished bat.

Fall Pumpkin Patch

 What a fun day we had at J&J Nursery Pumpkin Patch this fall.  For a can of food for the food bank, we went on a wagon ride to the pumpkin field to pick our own pumpkins. 

Bellar with a pumpkin she later rejected for a larger size.

Neighborhood kids at Pumpkin Patch

Wagon Ride!

On the way back from the pumpkin field.

Salt to Saint

Driving from Salt Lake City to St. George, to me, is sometimes a tedious and somewhat boring drive having to be inside a vehicle for 5 plus hours.  Now think about the length of time it would take to ride your bike that distance.  That is exactly what we did this year in the 2012 Salt to Saint Bike Race.  Team C4 cycling with Marc Stryker, Neil, Gordon Mertens, and Steve Barnes made up the 4 man team who cycled 430 miles in 23 hours and 45 minutes. 

Julie Mertens and I were the "pit crew" driving and helping with the transitions.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun and the guys rode awesome.  They finished 12th overall and fourth in the 4 man team division. 

Oops, I posted one picture twice.  It isn't allowing me to click on the picture and delete it... I suppose that is ok because my nephews are so cute that having their picture two times is  just a nice bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBsHuQMCDpE



Team #211 Salt to Saint

Way to go team C4!  So fun to be part of this accomplishment!!!!

Purple People Eaters

Liv decided she wanted to give soccer a try this year (that makes for one happy mom) :).  Her team name was the Purple People Eaters.  She was on the same team as her friend Jade.  To date, they have lost five and won one game.  I love going to the games and seeing her improve week to week.  Here are a few shots from this season.

Team Banner that is stinkin' cute.

Liv played her friend Cassie.  She is the goalie in the yellow jersey.