Thanks Granny!!!

When Levi and I went to Florida... I forgot to do Lettie's Gingerbread Man project with her!

Bad Mom!

Lettie was to take a paper cut-out of a gingerbread person and make it into anything she wanted. She wanted to do a ballerina, and I had no clue how I was going to pull it off. Luckily, I left Lettie in the very capable hands of her Granny!

When we got back, Lettie was gushing over the beautiful ballerina she got to make with Granny! Then she brought it home... and behold...

A sewn pink tutu, ballet slippers, curly hair, and a bow!!! How perfect! This was the highest quality paper gingerbread person I have ever seem! And Lettie was so proud! Granny truly has amazing sewing and crafting skills! I would have NEVER been able to pull this one off in a million years!

THANKS GRANNY!

As Lettie would say, this ballerina is "right up her alley"!

Tape + Toilet Paper Rolls = One Weird Kid!

Silas was walking around the house with 2 toilet paper rolls asking for tape. I figured he was making some binoculars. Which he did... he just too it a step further...

and made them HANDS-FREE binoculars!

I love my crazy Silas!!!

Why I Have Not Been Blogging Lately #1

I like to keep my blog updated... but I have been SO DARN BUSY lately!

Seriously Busy!

You know how sometimes people say "I have been busy" and you know they really have not been THAT busy?
(I am guilty of using "busy" to liberally... sometimes it means "I did not feel like it" or "I forgot" or "leave me alone for Pete's sake").

But I have been the real kind of busy! I have a list of things I have been up to to prove it. So, when I have time, I will tackle telling you about them one at a time! So I have a moment now... actually, I am putting off something else I need to do... so I will tell you about one:

So, reason for not blogging lately #1:

Started Selling Ukuleles at Aloha Snow!This sort of fell into my lap. But is a good thing for a variety of reasons. Some of which are:

-Ukes do not spoil or go bad, if I do not sell them right away, whatever. No biggie. My goal is 1 a month. I sold 3 the first month. I am 2 months ahead.

-They are like a functional decoration. Like the artwork or antiques on the wall of restaurants that you can buy. They look great, fit the theme, and you can take one home if you feel like it.

-It makes the shop even cooler than it already is!

-This is a lot of fun for me to do! I got to make a new Uke order yesterday and was absolutely giddy!

-I get to spread some Uke love to Charlotte!

-It brings in a little extra income! Fun stuff!

It took some doing to get everything rolling. It is not as simple as ordering ukuleles and hanging them on the wall. I had to hand make those Ukulele hangers (which look rad if I do say so myself. The design is a Mim original. But at the same time they are a pain in the butt to make). They look linear and industrial, and awesome! Then I had to hang them, which I did single-handedly and that is not easy and even caused me to get aggravated at those who said it could not be done. They replaced my shirts (which I need to figure out somethign else for) so that left some touch-up to be done on the wall. I needed to touch up the rest of the shop anyway. So I touched up the rest of the shop too. Then... I needed to make a web-site for my Uke stock. So I created and designed:

mimsukes.com

Which, again, I think looks awesome if I do say so myself! I use the cheapest program known to man. It is kind of like using paint for photos instead of photoshop. So, all things considered, I love the site!

I still need to set up an ebay store or ebay listings. Still working on that one and that is perhaps one of the aforementioned things I am putting off at the moment (I am SUPER tired, I was up till 1:30 last night painting and Callie slept very restless last night and yes, she ended up in our bed. I can't think strait).

So, now I sell Eleukes and Ohanas! Great Ukes!!! If ya want one, let me know, I will get ya a deal!!! Oh, and if you have any other musical needs, I am a Chesbro dealer now. So anything in their catalougue I can get for you if they have it in stock. I can even get it shipped directly to you if you want!

Tomorrow is IKEA day! HOORAY! There will be a blog post about that too because my upstairs in unrecognizable right now! Lets just say it looks flippin' awesome! Awww... yeah!

Our Own Little Oscar Night!

We had our own "Oscar Night"!

We watched all the video submissions for Kangatheroo7's Disney Ukulele Contest and then I let Nolan read the post that announced the winner!!!

Here ya go:

The kids are so excited! But now they thing we can hop in the car and go immediately to Disney because we have 2 tickets... haha!

I read the results last night and was so excited... but I figured I would save the announcement for the kids until we had our own "Oscar Night"! So tonight we sat down as a family and watched all the Disney Uke videos complete with brownies and then I let Nolan (your ghost host) read the results!!!

If you have not yet checked out our video... here it is! Extrememly corney, but Epic in a Windows Movie Maker kind-of way!

Callie's Birthday: Part 2

After Chuck E. Cheese we went to Build-a-Bear! Callie made a bear the week before for Carrie, she wanted a bear for herself as well, but never wavered that she was making a bear for Carrie and not herself. When I asked her if she wanted to build a bear for her birthday she just kept saying, "I make another bear for Carrie". When I finally explained that she could make a bear for herself as well, she was really excited.

So... when we got to the mall... she and Jovie ran for the door. You can see the excitement in their run!

When we got to Build-a-bear Callie stopped in front of the bear to pose for a picture because that is what we did the week before. She is such a creature of habit. She even made her favorite funny face.

Callie knew what she wanted... a panda. Jovie wanted a panda too, but she did not even look down the row of bears. Then. She saw it... The PERFECT bear! I mean... LOVE... at first sight! So here she is with her bear.

Jovie getting her bear stuffed. The lady was SO nice! She was great with the kiddos!

Jovie still did not trust her... haha! She just is shy. So when they lady asked her to rub the heart and kiss it and make a wish, she just glared at her!

Callie then got her panda stuffed. Here she is giving it a test-squeeze after it being stuffed. It was just right! And seriously, this lady was the best! Every time I went in previously I had to beg the workers not to stuff the bears too much where they were hard! She had them perfectly squishy!

Callie is a great sport! She gave the heart a really good warming with her hands.

I love this picture. When Callie is unsure she cocks her head to the side like this.

Giving the heart a kiss before putting it in her panda!

While Callie was doing her thing, I looked down at Jovie. She was lovingly looking at her bear. Then she would hug it. Pull it away from her, and then lovingly look at it again. Then she gently put her bear to her face and rubbed noses with it! It was so sweet, loving, and gentle. Then when I said, "Oh! You love you bear!" She got embarrassed and then scowled at me. She does not like to show her mushy side. But it was a sweet moment! Here she is giving a loving look at her bear.

The girls giving their bears a "bath".

I am not into buying a ton of clothes for the build-a-bears. The kids don't leave them dressed anyway. But they each picked out Hello Kitty panties for their bears. Then we went to the computer and named them. Callie named her panda... well, "Panda". Jovie named her bear "My Sweetheart"! Now just "sweetheart" "MY Sweetheart". Which was really sweet for me because the week before she said she would not be my sweetheart when I asked her until I explained to her what it meant to be my sweetheart and then she insisted she was in fact my sweetheart. She kept saying, "Mom! You're my sweetheart!" So for her to name her bear Sweetheart is... well... sweet!

And since she made her, Sweetheart is never far away. She is always sleeping next to Jovie, at the breakfast table, and even at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Silly Callie being goofy with her Panda. She loves her Panda too. But not at the same intensity as Jovie. Callie is more of a baby doll girl.

All boxed up and ready to go home!

A video of them giving their new friends a "bath". Callie cracks me up! At the end she is saying, "It's for Carrie!" She was still wanting to buy bear accessories for Carrie. We had a really good time together.

Callie's Bithday: Part 1

My Baby is 3!

It is bitter-sweet because she is my baby. My last little-one.

But she is growing up and becoming such a fun and sweet big girl!

She is full of personality and always keeps us laughing!

For her birthday, I decided to do her favorite things with her for the day. So the first thing we did was go to Chuck E. Cheese. It was just her and Jovie, so she got a lot of special attention. Our Chuck E. Cheese opens at 9, and often when we go they have not even turned on the music yet. People think it opens at 10. It is great to have the place to ourselves. So we had a good time. I have a game I like called Raptor's Revenge. I hit 200 tickets twice, so we had a lot of tickets by the end too! So she got to be spoiled some. It was a fun outing with my girlies!

Her favorite thing to do is ride the carosel! If there are more people there she usually parks herself on there and lets other people pay the tokens and she hitch-hikes.
Jovie's favorite is the horsie-ride. She rode this one 3 times in a row!

She is the queen of goofy faces!
We took a picture. It turned out really cute! I love the Chuck E. Cheese pictures! Only 1 token and you have a keepsake!
While waiting for your picture to print they always play this song, so the tradition is to dance to the music while we wait for the picture to print out!
See... Momma's gots Raptor's Revenge Skills!
Our loot! Last year at Chuck E. Cheese Callie won 200 tokens on the Big Win wheel. This time she won a coupon for Cotton Candy (which is equivalent of 150 tickets). And we ALWAYS get cotton candy first, so that freed up a lot of tickets. I can never get anything like that, even when I try. One token and she randomly pushes the button and wins.

That girl has really good luck!

More later...