New Jammies!

When Ga-Ga & Pa got back from vacation they had all sorts of surprises for the kids. They all got new jammies, but Zeke got two pairs since Pa just couldn't resist. 

Of course they slept in their jammies that first night and then wore them the entire day. It was the day it rained so it was perfect! Zeke did want to go outside so I put him in his "cow boots". 

He thought he was pretty hot stuff in his boots! 

Stompin' in his boots! 

He was checking out the big boys playing with another one of the surprises....inflatable rockets!

Owen and Jack both got the same jammies and Ella's were similar they were just girly colors. The rockets were pretty cool. They are made of Mylar so you blow them up with a straw and then it self closes. Yeah well Owen thought he could just blow them up normally so he pull the self closing part open so his ended up in the trash after about a day! Poor guy was so bummed....but he learned a good lesson...listen to Mom! 

Later on that night I gave Zeke a bath and rubbed him down with all his eczema cream and then this new moisturizer his new dermatologist recommended...CeraVe. It's so much easier to rub on then the Eucerin!  

These have the little flap in the back and it has a bear on it and says...Bear Bottoms! So cute! 

Thanks for the new jammies Ga-Ga & Pa!

Jamberry Nails!

I heard about Jamberry nails a little over a month ago. My friend Angie had an online FB show. The Jamberry representative sent me a sample since I was curious. The challenge was to put one Jamberry on and then paint the rest of your nails. 

 

Here is my pinky nail with my Jamberry nail wrap on it and the other four are painted. I painted my nails like normal with two coats of color and then a top coat. 

This was my hand just 4 days later!! The nail polish didn't stand a chance! In fact I ended up having this nail polish on until it was almost completely chipped off and then I painted my nails again and the Jamberry was still going strong. All in all I had it on for over two weeks and it looked great the entire time! 

Of course after seeing those results I order some. I bought 3 sheets and then got the 4th free. Here is all the stuff you need to apply Jamberry nails. Nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, heat gun or hair dryer, nail wraps, nail file, cuticle stick, cotton swabs and little scissors. 

Here is one sheet...now I have huge thumbs so I was worried they wouldn't have one big enough, but the biggest size is actually bigger than my thumb. I was shocked! I have short nails so each wrap can be used for 2 fingers if I cut it in half so this one sheet will get me 3 full sets of wraps and I'll still have 3 more wraps to use if I mess one up. 

The first thing you do is remove all your nail polish, push your cuticles up and then clean your nails with rubbing alcohol. 

To apply the Jamberry nails you cut them in half and then heat them up to activate the glue. I used the cuticle stick to hold them in front of my embossing gun. They start to curl on the edge so you know they are warm. Then I put them on and rub down all the edges. The nail wrap will be hanging over the end of your nail so that's what you use the little scissors for and then the file. When you file though you have to make sure you are only filing down. You have to hold your nail file at a 90 degree angle to your nail and then just go down. After that I stick my finger in front of the embossing gun just for a second and then press them down again.

I think it took me about 30 minutes in all. The hardest part was doing my right hand since I'm right handed!! I will say I think I rushed a bit. Jack was hounding me to watch him play with his new toy so I probably should have paid a little more attention to the pressing down and filing down part. These still look great, but there were a couple spots where the wrap got a little wrinkle in it because I didn't press it down. You can't see it, but I can feel it....think about when you have something stuck in your teeth and your tongue just can't help but mess with it. So far I've been super impressed with them. They don't feel weird and they are not going to harm my nails. They even have ones for kids! And the designs are so fun and they have a ton of different designs....so many it's hard to choose! 

Sub Zero!

Last Tuesday the kids and I went down to my parents house so I could clean it for them. They were coming back from vacation and I wanted them to come home to a clean house. We got there around 10 since I didn't know how long it was going to take with 4 kids in the house. I usually clean their house and Michael has the kids at home, but since it was a work day...no can do! 

Thankfully I got it clean....I stepped in the shower at 3pm. I told my mom that cleaning an entire house with 4 kids probably shaved about 2 years off my life. My parents were still a couple hours away from being home so in order to keep the house clean I figured we should get out of the house!!! 

Thank you Groupon! 

I took the kids to Sub Zero in Puyallup since I bought a Groupon a little while back. 

The whole process was fun....picking your base....we got premium! 

Picking your flavor....we got chocolate! Picking your mix in...we got brownies! 

Then watching the lady freeze it with liquid nitrogen. 

She would freeze it for a bit and then scrap it off the sides of the bowl and mix it in and then freeze it some more. 

The fog came out the little gap in the glass and the kids thought that was cool....hahaha! Sorry I couldn't resist! 

I think she froze ours a total of 3 times. We picked the middle freezing ground. You can have them freeze it so it's soft serve or rock hard. 

Then we got 5 spoons and dug in! 

You scream...I scream...

We all scream for ice cream!!! 

Of course Zeke didn't like it. Seriously this kid has issues! 

As for the quality...the ice cream was okay...Cold Stone is better, but the experience was fun and the waffle bowl was amazing! 

How Does Your Garden Grow!

About a week ago I went down to check out the garden and snapped some pictures. 

This is my Yuca plant that my friend Stephanie gave me a few years back. This is the first year that it has grown a stalk and had flowers. I love it!!! 

The stalk did make it a bit heavy so I ended up having to tie it to the stair rails. 

Our Hostas are so full this year! 

This blueberry bush was from our old neighbors. We had it planted in the garden beds on the easement, but I think the heat from that side of the house was just too much for it. This year we relocated it to the garden bed under the stairs for our deck. We have berries!!! 

These are our two tomato plants! We have never had tomato plants grow this big. Michael has had to stake them twice. We had a little tiny bit of wind last week and they both fell over. There are so many tomatoes that I'm going to be canned them this year. Homemade tomato sauce here I come! 

My zucchini on the other hand has not done very well this year. We had a mole probably and I think the roots got a little messed up. They are still producing, but just not like they have in past years. I'm bummed because I was looking forward to pickling zucchini! 

Lots and lots of carrots!! I'm pretty sure that Ella will eat at least half of these...probably before I even get them up to the kitchen to cut the greens off of them. 

My beets....I have another section on the easement with more, but this section is by far the best. I'm so excited to make pickled beets and just roast them and eat them. I better do the pickling first or I'll just eat them all. Yummy!! 

Breakfast Helpers!

Man I really need a kitchen island! :) 

Star Wars Shirt AKA Craft Fail!

I had this grand plan to add to the boys vacation shirts by making them Star Wars shirts. I figured I would use the same technique I did when I made the kids their super hero capes.  

I found these cool LEGO silhouettes online and then I typed out the characters name using the Star Wars font I downloaded for Jack's 5th birthday party. Then I printed them off at the library to give me a template to work with.  

I had to cut the shapes out which took quite awhile. 

Then I used scrapbook adhesive to stick it on a plain black t-shirt I bought at Wal-Mart for $3.46 

Then came the bleach. So far so good! 

When I removed the paper I noticed that the bleach had bled through a little since it was just normal printing paper and not cardstock. Oh well...it still looked good. 

Then I washed it!!! 

I was so bummed! The beach got everywhere and it was completely messed up. I think I probably should have rinsed the shirt prior to washing it??? I was looking back at my blog post about the capes and I didn't say anything about washing them. I'm thinking I didn't just because they weren't going to be wearing them up against their skin. Any tips on how to make this actually work? I think it's a great idea and I really want the boys to have Star Wars shirts. Jack's is Vader, Owen's is Yoda and Zeke is a Storm Trooper! 

Discovery Park - West Point Lighthouse!

A couple Sunday's ago we decided to play hooky from church and we go on a family adventure. The day before had been a rough one and I really needed some good family time. One of the things on our summer bucket list is taking the kids to a lighthouse. We have a lighthouse close by us at Brown's Point, but the only problem is it's south of us. During this particular weekend Michael was on call so he has to be able to get to the district within 20 minutes and going any further south from our house will put him outside that time frame. So I got to clicking on the computer and found a couple options. Alki has a lighthouse, but seriously it was a gorgeous Sunday and I did not want to be around a ton of people so that was out of the question. The only other option was West Point Lighthouse in Seattle. It was 40 minutes from home, but since it was north it was only 20 minutes from the district. Thankfully Michael didn't get a call so it didn't even end up mattering. 

The West Point Lighthouse is located in Discovery Park. It's a huge park that used to be a military base years ago. It's so big that the park lots are forever away from the beach. Thankfully I read online that if you have small kids you can stop by the visitor center and obtain a parking pass for 1 of 8 spots that are down by the beach. This is a parents dream!!! We stopped at the visitor center and after actually bringing one of our kids in she gave us a parking pass...seriously what was I think...she'd just believe me! :) :) 

On our way to the lighthouse we saw this huge bell. The kids had fun throwing sticks and rocks at it to hear the different sounds it made. 

The lighthouse was so cute and quaint! Since it was at the further west point of this section of land it really didn't need to be tall. It was very visible! 

You can't go in the lighthouse...I didn't think you would be able to, but we did check. It was crazy windy out there and even though it was a super hot day it was almost chilly out there. 

This is the view north of the lighthouse. 

After letting Zeke walk to the lighthouse we figured out that just wasn't going to work! I walked back to the van with him and put him in the Mai Tai. He still loves to be carried around like this. I have a feeling this will be how he gets carried around a lot on vacation. 

The tide was way out on the beach so the kids go to look at all sorts of fun stuff.

This beach had lots of hermit crabs! 

King of the rock! 

Wild woman!!! 

Such a pretty view! 

I'm not a photographer at all, but this picture to me looks frame worthy! 

Since the tide was out there were a bunch of little sand islands. The kids had so much fun traipsing through the water to get to them. 

Of course all of our shoes were soaking wet! 

There was quite a bit of seaweed in the pools so we had to watch out for that. 

See how huge the beach was! There were a lot of people there, but it was also so big that it felt like it was just ours! 

While were were there we saw two shipping container ships coming in. This particular one was honking at that silly little sailboat on the left. They were right in the way of the HUGE ship! 

Rushing to the next pool! 

Some of the water pools between islands were too deep so the kids had to turn back. 

Pretty girl finally stopped long enough and gave me a smile! 

Looks like Jesus walking on water! 

Happy boy safe and dry! 

After we were done at the pools and terrorizing the clams....Owen loved to throw rocks at the ground to make the clams spit up...we headed for the beach. There were a bunch of drift wood forts that people had made. 

Checking out the inside of one of the forts. 

Mama and my girl! 

Fun little place to take a rest! 

The Christmas card pose! 

Zeke has recently taken to Daddy so much! He is 2 and that's when the other boys did. He loves his daddy! 

Jackson Daniel - 6 years old! 

Zeke Russell - 2 years old!

Ella Grace - 4 years old! 

Owen Michael - 7 1/2 years old! 

The kids were freaked out to climb up on top of the fort, but I showed them it was safe so we all got up there for a photo op! 

This was by far one of the funnest family adventures we've ever had. The outdoors had something for everyone to enjoy and it was absolutely free! The only money we spent was on the gas to get there. If you have kids you have to go explore Discovery Park.