Let this be a lesson . . .

Sunday night I got all ambious and decided that the fridge had been sitting in it's disgustingness long enough and that it needed to be cleaned and washed out. Yes, it was Sunday. I was breaking the Sabbath. That was my first clue that I shouldn't have been cleaning out the fridge.

I always try to use just luke warm water when I'm washing the glass shelves. Ideally, the instructions suggest using cold water on cold shelves, but when you have gunk stuck to the shelf it's a little hard to get it off with cold water.

I had gotten 90% of the fridge cleaned when I started on the bottom shelf, you know, the big piece of glass that covers the crisper drawers. It's so big it barely fits into the sink. As I was scrubbing away, I thought to myself, 'Knowing my luck, I'm going to end up breaking this thing-since this is the piece that would be the most expensive to replace'. Not even 5 minutes later this is what happened:
It just shattered-everywhere. Into my hands, down my shirt, into the sink, windowsill, and on the floor.

You think maybe the water was a little too warm?

It kills me. I've been cleaning out fridges since I was 12 and have never had this happen.

So, I drug out the shop vac and proceeded to clean up the mess. Unbeknownst to me, the valve on the vacuum that covers the hole where the air blows out was missing and I ended up blowing saw dust (from my last project) all over the kitchen. That really made this experience all the more enjoyable.

I finally had to have Kory come and hold a wadded up towel in the hole while I vaccumed everything up. *Don't ever loan out your shop vac to your husbands work-it will come back missing pieces.

Although I guess I should just be happy that I got it back!

Once I had cleaned up the fiasco I had to hop in the shower because I had tiny little shards of glass and sawdust all over me. I got a couple little scratches on my hands, and some on my chest, but that was it-thankfully.

Here's the fridge looking all nice and pertty. It's a little hard to tell it's missing the bottom piece of glass, but let me assure you-it is.

I checked online for a replacement piece of glass and it will cost $85. That's without shipping.

I think I will just have a glass cutter here in town do it. Maybe I should get plexiglass?

So, what have we learned from this?

1). It's a bad idea to clean out your fridge.

2). It's a bad idea to clean out your fridge on the Sabbath.

3). Even if you think the water is really not warm enough to shatter cold glass-it probably is.

4). Make sure the cap the covers the blower on your shop vac is securely in place before you start it up-especially when the vac is full of sawdust.

Going Shootin'

I've been married to an avid hunter for 15 years now, I own a gun (a birthday gift from my hubby), and I've never been shooting-until now.

That's my man, looking all professional with his gun (along with my BIL & SIL):
A couple of weekends ago Kerry and Amber (below) went out shooting on one of their dates.
When I heard about that, I figured it was Kerry's idea. But no, it was actually Amber's idea-and she loved it! So, somehow we got invited to go out shooting with them.

*Please excuse the horrifying pics of me below. It's hard to 'suck it in' and show your best side when you're holding a deadly weapon.

I actually did pretty well shooting shot gun shells with this gun-once I figured out how to use the scope. It's harder to hold a gun then I thought. It gets heavy after awhile.

This is Gordon, cheating, by using that interesting little device that holds the gun for him.

Here's Kerry and Kory. Kory's sitting in a little contraption (don't you just love all my technical terminology) that shoots clay pidgeons, and Kerry's getting ready to shot.

And now, the scariest part of the evening, shooting a hand gun:

That baby is loud, and really 'kicks'. If you don't hold on really tight that thing just might get away from you!

So there you have it, my first shooting experience. Not bad. Kinda' fun. Guns still make me nervous.

And now that all the Christmas decorations are put away . . .

I figured it would be a good time to post about our Christmas.

We had a special visitor come to our ward party. Sophee refused to sit on Santa's lap, so here's Audree:

Kaylee also refused to sit on Santa's lap, but we made her stand next to him so I could take a picture. (Note-she's not afraid of Santa, she's just too cool to sit on his lap).

Josh couldn't wait for his turn to ask Santa for a bike.

Then Dad joined in on the fun:

Here are some of the Burgess cousins. Those are Kerry's kids with ours. Sophee figured if she could be at least 2 people away from Santa she would be in the pic.

Christmas Eve presents turned out to be P.J's again. This might be a new tradition for us.

I must say, before we move on, that I am aware that there are a lot of pics of Sophee-Yes, I know. She's the baby. Plus, she was the most willing to pose. I also just realized that the date on my camera was off by a day-so no, we didn't open everything on Christmas Eve.

In our family we recycle all the boxes we can find shortly before Christmas (I'm doing my part to save the planet), then use them to wrap our gifts. Here's Sophee saying, "Capri Sun! It's not Capri Sun!"

Sophee and her loot. Don't you just love the pose? I tried to get her to sit there normally, but this is how she rolls:

An earring holder from Grandma & Grandpa Evans, and a new outfit:

Posing in her new clothes:

More new clothes:

Here's Audree with her presents. Notice the 'Touch n' Brush'. This child asked for that for her birthday-before they came out in stores. I thought it was such a funny thing to ask for, but she was way excited about it.

Cute cupcake earrings from Grandma and Grandpa Evans, and new clothes:

Kaylee in her new clothes, complete with sneaker earrings from G & G Evans:

*And here's the part where I realize I did not get a picture of Kaylee with all her presents.

I know I told that child to gather up her stuff so we could take a picture! Yes, she's a middle child.*

Here's Josh and all his presents. Santa actually came through with that bike. Whew, because Mom and Dad sure heard (non-stop) about how he was going to get one.

Taking the bike for a spin:

Looking good:

And just so that all my kids are represented in this post, here's my 5th child:

We had a nice, quiet Christmas Eve dinner at Kory's parents house-just us and his parents, since all his siblings had other plans. Then we spent Christmas day at home, just enjoying each other, and rocking out to the new 'Band Hero' the kids got. Then, to wrap up the holidays, for New Year's Kory and I left the kids with Grandma & Grandpa Burgess for a couple of days and went up to Vegas with his brother to just hang out, shop, see a magic show, eat lots of good food. It was a great Christmas/New Year's holiday for us.

We hope everyone else had a great holiday too!

Welcome to my home

I finally put up my Christmas stuff. It's nothing to shout about, but I'd thought I'd share anyway, since we don't get a whole lot of visitors.

So come on in! My stockings are actually hung in the hallway, and not over the fireplace. Kaylee is a bit put out about that one, but I didn't want to put nails in my mantle to hang this cute board. Yes, if you're counting, there are 7 stockings. We had to put up a stocking for Coal. He is family after all. (Plus, when you buy your stockings at the dollar store, it's not a big deal to throw in an extra one for the dog).

I made this snowman a couple of years ago. He's been loved a little too much. Every time I turn my back the little girls feel the need to pick him up and dance with him.

A few dollar store Christmas signs:

We put up our big tree in the family room, since that's where we spend most of our time, so I put up my cute little alpine trees in this corner in the living room:

Here's the family room. I completely gave free reign to the kids and let them put up all the ornaments on the tree. Needless to say, we have a lot of ornaments that are all clumped together:

Here's a bigger view of the family room. Complete with a cute little black dog:

Thanks for coming to visit!!

When Sophee gets angry . . .

Last month Sophee's teacher let her borrow this book:
Or maybe she specifically sent it home with her for a reason. Hmmm. Possible.

Anyway, we read the book that night. It's a cute book. Basically the story line is about a little girl who gets really angry when her sister takes a toy away from her, and how Sophie runs and runs until she finds a nice little spot to calm herself down. Then she goes back home and everyone loves her, etc. It was a nice 'warm fuzzy' moment book.

So we finished reading it, and were gathering up blankets and things for bed when my Sophee says, "This book should say 'When Sophie gets angry, really really angry . . . She beats her sister up'!"

Yes, maybe her teacher did mean for her to take the book home and read it.

If your little boy loves hot wheels . . .

You really have to check out this site! It's a tutorial on how to make a 'car cozie'-a place for him to keep and play with all his cars. It's so adorable. Go check it out.

Look what I made!!

We recently had a 'Super Saturday' craft day at our church for anyone interested in making some super cute crafts. I was in charge of coming up with some fairly inexpensive things for the ladies to make, so here's what I did, a simple way to display the proclamation (only $2):

And some temple blocks for $5. If you're interested in printing some temple pics out just go here scroll down until you see 'temple printables' then click on it. They have a bunch of different temples to choose from, and a lot of them also come with the saying 'Families are Forever':

The following pics are of things I just made, that I wasn't in charge of. Obviously they are way too cute of projects for me to come up with.

Here's a festively decorated star. I love stars and have quiet a few scattered around the house to add to my "Texas Decor" (as my sister says):

"Home Blocks". Inside the 'O' it says " . . . is where our story begins" :

I love this next one. Our Homemaking leader actually found this online here. It comes as a kit that you paint, then assemble. It was the most expensive item that we offered-at about $28, but I think that's an awesome price for such a durable nativity set!! The metal pieces are already cut out and sanded for you. I love that I now have an 'almost' indestructible nativity set. I say 'almost' because, as my loving SIL pointed out, with my kids there is no such thing as 'indestructable':

And last, but not least, some seasonal blocks. It's a set of 3 blocks that you can rotate for different holidays:

Aren't these just the cutest projects you've ever seen?