The Crafts

This past Saturday Matt and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! My folks watched our girls and we dined at The Spice in Ames (amazingly delicious Thai food!) followed by a visit to an Iowa State men's basketball game.  Nothing says love like Panang and sweaty, swearing basketball players!  :) We wrapped up our anniversary the same way we celebrated previous anniversaries...with freezer burned cake! Not unlike many other newlyweds, we saved the top of our wedding cake to eat that good luck bite on the first anniversary.  Most people then toss out the cake...but not us!  We save that baby and take a bit of it every year.  It was tasty 6 years ago but not any longer.  And it isn't all that pretty either.  It did have a gorgeous bow-like fondant thing on top but it has since been squished into a blue frosting blob. Despite it's bad looks and freezer burn taste, we look forward to it every year. Let's hope we have enough anniversaries that we eventually eat the entire thin

A budding mozart lives in our house. We visited my grandparents in Ames and they have a piano. Kids are as drawn to pianos as an ant to sugar or a stay-at-home mom is to nap times.  It's a given. Here is CJ taking her turn. Notice her itty bitty foot peeking out from below the piano bench! Also, notice the little orange and pink ball below the piano bench? Well in the next pic the ball has turned brown? Huh? I'm sure it has something to do with lighting. Well we had a great Thanksgiving. Visited family, slept in strange beds, others slept on the floor. My mom, sister and I shopped Black Friday morning for 8 hours! That's a record for us. And now we rest. Psst...that's a picture of the girls with my sister, Lindsay. In case you weren't sure.

My little gobblers are traveling from house to house today. Cooking and eating and socializing. Hope you are doing the same. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving! Note: I realize these are Halloween pictures but I just pulled them off my mom's camera and they were too funny not to share.

Do you remember playing house when you were small? Dreaming of having lots of kids to take care of. Babies, little kids and big kids. All those kids needing your attention and you wanting to do nothing but give them that attention. But while playing house your mom would yell, "time for supper," and you'd run downstairs to enjoy a meal your mom and/or dad cooked never once thinking of the time and effort put forth. Never worrying about clean up or money spent on ingredients. I loved playing house. And most days I love living the game 'house.' Living it is quite different than playing it. More back aches, more work, more tiredness. And most importantly, more rewards. 

What a weekend! What a birthday! I had a fabulous time...a fabulous, exhausting time. To begin my birthday Matt took the girls and I out for breakfast at the bakery where I ate a whole lotta french toast! We then made a trip to Matt's Grandma's house for a Thanksgiving celebration. Matt brought along this to celebrate... A super cool, swimming pool birthday cake. And it wasn't just a replica of a competitive swimming pool, it was also a banana cake. LOVE! Isn't it so fun?!  Complete with gel lane lines and fondant racing flags, starting blocks and ladders! (Although pool ladders are always removed before a race.  Just a little swimming trivia for you.) The cake was created by my friend, Megan. It was so delicious! Thanks Matt!  Thanks Megan! Here I am in Union, IA waiting to dig into my banana, pool cake with CJ. (Miss Claudia didn't nap that day so we were all dragging a wee bit.) Afterwards, we dropped the girls off with Gma and Gpa Craft and hit the town.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Meet my... These two are so powerful they can destroy a room in 3 seconds flat. They are skilled professionals at dumping toys and scattering. Watch out!  Obliviation typically occurs within a 500 foot radius of their target. No one is safe. They will torture you! Don't let their sweet faces fool you. They are always scheming. Turn your back and another room will bite the dust! Kaboom! Oh, wondering about this super cool, amazingly beautiful dining room table, chairs and bench? Watch for a future blog post of awesomeness! Happy Friday to you!

There is a chill in the air. And while I'd always choose summer over winter, I do like the snuggly feeling of spending hours indoors with my favorite girls.  Playing toys, watching movies, drinking hot chocolate and baking brownies. Love it! We've spent a lot of time with fuzzy, messy bed head and our funny farm animals. We've stayed in our jammies longer. We've tied on our aprons to do some baking...in the real kitchen and in the pretend one.  :) And sometimes we can't stop smiling! Until mom makes one of us wear a hat.  :( But isn't she sweet! (Notice she is wearing jammies in this photo, too!) I hope you've found some time to snuggle up with your cutie pies, too!

This girl is about to turn four! Well, not until January, but I've been thinking a lot about four. In what feels like a blink of an eye, my oldest has gone from baby to big girl.   And before I know it, she really will be driving a car and talking on a cell phone. Tonight Matt and I attend Kate's first ever school conference. She is doing amazingly well, by the way.  Her teacher didn't have one bad thing to say. She is awesome in every way and we couldn't agree more. She plays well with the other kids, she knows all her colors, letter, numbers. She can count to 100 (though she occasionally needs help.) She LOVES reading books. (Or having books read to her is more like it.) She can find things she needs in the classroom on her own. She is just thriving. And while she sometimes drives me bananas with her constant questions, I know she is just trying to absorb as much information as she can.  I am honestly excited for what the future holds.  Not just for Kate but for

Okay.  So I'm not really, truly mad at Rachael Ray.  I'm just disappointed.  I have the same feelings towards her as I currently have toward Martha Stewart and Real Simple magazine and Better Homes and Gardens.  Why?  Because they lied to me.    When I was first married I tried my darndest to make fancy, delicious meals that would take eons to cook and would impress my new husband.  And I kept trying after the girls were born.  And I have still been trying all the way until last week.  I have since given up.  No one likes those meals except me and sometimes Matt.  A lot of work for a lot of whining.  So, I've hung up my apron and exchanged it for good ol' fashion church cookbooks with their casseroles, cream of chicken meals and meatloafs...or would it be meatloaves?  Anyway, simple is the name of the game now.  And since I've given up on fanciness I have had happier eaters...well, everyone but CJ.  She only eats toast, mac and cheese and fruit.  That's it.

Using my super scientific method of writing both entries on a piece of paper, throwing them into an empty laundry basket and drawing one...the winner of the book Garden Spells  is....MEGAN KREMER! Megan  makes super awesome cakes, cookies and desserts. Check her out by clicking here. Oh, and Megan's house is almost an exact replica of our house...except her's is PINK! Congrats, Megan! I'll be in touch.

Miss Claudia has said her very first word. Kinda. She wanders around the house declaring, "uh-oh!" So that may not really be an official first word but she appropriately applies it to various situations. For example, when she wakes in the morning with a dirty diaper, she sits in her bed hollering, "uh-oh!" until someone finally comes to her rescue. Or when she spills her snack cup on the floor, you'll here a very quick "uh-oh!" And my favorite, when we are reading books and she sees a character with a problem...yep, you guessed it, "uh-oh!" Or how about the above, she dives on this ball a lot.  And quickly falls off with an "uh-oh." Now, I know she isn't performing anything ground breaking.  Plenty of kids say "uh-oh." But I sure think it is cute hearing "uh-oh" come from my baby's mouth. Speaking of "uh-ohs," here is another one. This isn't a real bottle of beer.  It is a key chain. And

Don't you just love a good book! I was never much of a reader. I didn't like reading books for school and I didn't like reading books for fun. But somewhere between college and marriage I found a love for books. That love for books is a bit of a roller coaster, though. I will read and read and read for a couple months and then take a break. Part of the need for a break is finding the right book; a good book. One that will get you excited to sit down and read. One that makes you look forward to quiet time.  Yah, what's that?!  :) Well I just finished a great read. Garden Spells   by Sarah Addison Allen Now, there is a couple of instances where they curse, but for pete's sake, I hear those same words while grocery shopping.  I can get past it.  I could tell you to go read this book until I'm blue in the face but that doesn't mean you will. So what I'm gonna do for you is buy it. That's right, Christmas comes early on Craft Tales. Here's the

Friday I bought the girls new winter coats. Because they didn't have any. And it felt really cold Friday. But today? Today is November 8th, and it ain't cold out there. In fact we spent hours playing outside in t-shirts!  T-shirts, people! The girls are confused. New winter coats during 70 degree weather and we gained an hour with the time change? Very confusing for little girls. The time change, especially, has messed with their system. They are sleep deprived, t-shirt wearing, winter coat wishing, little girls. So I thought, why not throw another wrench in there and let them eat dessert, in their jammies, under a tent, in the living room while watching a movie. Now that is living!

During our nightly game of hide and seek (yes, we play hide and seek A LOT!), I spotted Kate and CJ looking for my hiding spot while holding hands.  My heart melted. Lately these two have just been in love with each other. Kate has never complained about having CJ around.  Kate simply accepted her and never thought twice. And now that CJ is walking, Kate occasionally takes her hand when cruising around the house. I love it! Something else I love...CJ in bib overalls. Every time I see her walking in these things I burst out laughing. She resembles my Grandpa Smith...minus the pink leopard print onesie. (Now GGMa, don't tell him I said that!) And a couple more goofy overall pictures before I say good night. Good night!