cracking up and cracking it out

Preslie is cracking me up lately. She loves to listen to music and is a wiz at memorizing song lyrics. BUT sometimes she misunderstands the lyrics...

Like the song "Tennis Court" by Lorde. 

The right lyrics: 

Baby, be the class clown

I'll be the beauty queen in tears

It's a new art form showing people how little we care (Yeah)

Preslie's version:

Baby be the class clown

I'll be the beauty queen in Sears

It's a new Iphone showing people how little we care (yeah!)

And the song "Girls Chase Boys" by Ingrid Michaelson

The right lyrics:

All the broken hearts in the world still beat

Let's not make it harder than it has to be

Ooohhhh it's all the same thing

Girls chase boys chase girls

Preslie sings:

All the broken hearts in the hospital bed

Let's not make it harder than it has to be

Ooohhh, so sick that 

girls chase boys chase girls

She cracks me up!

I took my girls to a Relief Society mother/daughter activity. We took a cupcake decorating class, and Quinn got her nails painted at the nail polish station. She was in heaven! I looked over at her and she said excitedly, "This is SO fun!" She also told me, "Your friend who was painting my nails didn't even mess up!"

We made dropcloth pillow covers. Mine turned out fun.

Mack was the "smile of the week" in his class and I helped him make his poster.

I may have swayed his answer on his favorite thing to do...

Dax's birthday kicked off the crazy season at our house! I made him a delux-o cheesecake like last year.

I love my little cuties!

I finished: Dax's closet is organized! 

His shelves used to hold his collections of manly gadgets and accessories.

 I installed a shoe organizer on the blank wall next to the shelves and put his collection of pocket knives and other stuff in there. I like this because it uses a space that previously had no use and it freed up his shelves for clothing.

Before shoe organizer..

AFTER:

The opposite corner of the closet looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

 I put up wire baskets (Ikea) to hold Dax's collection of hats and my FIL helped me screw a piece of wood to the wall so I could display Dax's collection of patches. I also attached bulldog clips (Wal-Mart) to the wood so it doubles as a memo board. I screwed a little magnet board (DI) under that so he could hang pics, receipts, and home teaching contacts.

I grabbed an empty pink leopard jewelry organizer from Quinn's closet and put in Dax's chapstick, earplugs, batteries, lighters, keys, and other random smaller items. It has pockets on both sides so it holds a lot in a small amount of space.

He likes the improvement, I think. He works really hard for our family and I want his closet to work for him.

I finished painting my bathroom. It only took a week and a half to get it done. It is frustrating to work that slowly but I'm still a Mom, Wife, primary worker, piano teacher, cook, chauffeur, maid, slave driver, etc.

I picked so many delicious raspberries from my friend's garden. OH they were yummy.

 My kids got out the Halloween decor and had a blast looking at it and leaving it all over the floor in the front room.

Mack's birthday came quick. He is my lucky Seven-year-old! Wow. That seems too grown up!

On Mack's birthday, I took the kids to see my parents. I told my Mom of my plans to makeover my bedroom and she immediately started orchestrating the making of my headboard. My mother LOVES projects and she is very fast and organized. That woman gets crap done. She also has MS and can barely walk somedays. BUT she had me set her up a station in the shop so she could chop wood for my headboard. She is so fun and amazing. I feel super bad that the chopsaw had a mishap so her fun came to an end. No one was hurt but the saw is out of commission. Boo.

The kids and I had a nice visit and listened to general conference with my parents and my sis and niece. Preslie and I did some thrift shopping with my sister and scored some goodies in her closet. I also brought home some rad furniture from Dax's bro's basement. It was originally from Grandma and Grandpa so Bro and Abbey were wanting to update and I couldn't pass up this badboy.

I asked Dax's dad about the couch and he said his Mom had it custom made in 1970 so the length would accommodate how tall he was (6'6"). Many a nap has been had on the couch. The chairs can also be turned toward each other to make a makeshift crib/nest for cousin sleepovers.

Back home, my bro Matt took me and my kids to his boss's house where it was DECKED out for Halloween.

Even inside their house was decorated wall-to-wall.

We're going back at night so we can see the music light show!

I think time is speeding up. The months go by so quickly like we are in fast forward. I am not a fast person and I don't like to be rushed. I feel the rush and the speed of time racing by and I don't like it! I feel a sense of urgency to do the most important things because there is little time for anything else. I will not be signing my kids up for soccer next year. I'm in the mood to simplify so my time can be spent on things that are top priority. My goals are:

Keeping our belongings to a minimum so there is less time spent cleaning and organizing
Building food storage
Paying off debt
spending quality time everyday with my family