Finger Licking Good!

Our house smells so good ... the air is thick with the aroma of BBQ and I don't think it's going to go away any time soon.

Today was the ward BBQ contest. After we got home from Sam's party last night and got everyone in bed, the adults in the house set to work preparing for today. My Dad (who came in town to visit my Mom, attend Sam's party, the contest and celebrate Alex's birthday tomorrow) bounced Anna who was wide away for hours last night! - while Mom and I made the BBQ sauce and applied the rub to the ribs. GR and Dime, worked late into the night putting together Dime's smoker and prepping his meat. Saturday they had everything ready to go by 11 so they could be at the park to start smoking their entries by noon.



(Don't you like GR's apron? The apron was a wedding present from a very good friend in college - using freezer paper stenciling the kids and I added the "GR 8 RIBS" - he hee hee - as a little something fun for Papa to have for the contest.)

This years entries ... ribs and chicken ... were oh so tasty! Lots of great cooks and great recipes! Ours didn't even hit the top five - but all those that did, were very deserving! And everyone who sampled our ribs and chicken were quite complimentary (like I said we had stiff competition this year!). Alex really loves this recipe and cleaned three ribs of all their meat with no problem!

Sam's Birthday Party

Sam's birthday party this afternoon/evening was a success. Three of the five boys he wanted to invite were able to come and they had a blast playing in the water. GR asked one of the young men from church to come and help him out in the pool. This worked out perfectly! Our 15 year old helper had a really good time playing with the boys and swimming, GR's stress level was slightly reduced and thankfully/amazingly, everyone stayed safe!

I think we did a better job this time around at actually keeping things really simple. Sam wanted to have a water birthday party and a piñata. We threw in some bake-at-home pizza's, fruit salad and baby carrots capped with huge black olives - viola, a simple dinner 5 year olds will eat. Add cupcakes, 5 sparkler candles and bag of ice cream cups and you have yourself one successful party!





*NOTE: I've been wanting to make a "Birthday" banner for a while now (top picture). I had hopes of getting this one made for Sam's actual birthday, but quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. I used this template, and once again I made this one a little more complicated than necessary and consequently it took forever - so gone are my thoughts of possibly selling them - no one would be willing to pay what I would need to charge to make it worth while! Despite being a much more involved and time consuming project than I had first anticipated, I LOVE how it turned out and it should last us for lots of future birthdays!

(I opted to keep the back side plain - all the bright colors, but no letters - so I could use it for occasions other than celebrations.)

Freezer Paper Stenciled Ts

So a few of you asked for more details about the freezer paper stencils I used on the onesies.

There are a couple of crafty mama blogs that have good tutorials:

Celtic Mommy, Angry Chicken and Soule Mama has lots of good inspiration for this project.

I used clipart from Microsoft Office, filled an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with different designs in varying sizes so I could see what would work best on the onesie, traced it on freezer paper (about $2.50 for a huge roll at the grocery store), cut out the design using a craft knife, and ironed it into position on my onesie. Iron a second piece of freezer paper to inside of the shirt where you are going to paint to keep the paint from bleeding through.

I used regular craft paint - although I saturated the area with paint. I did look at the craft store for a medium you could mix into regular craft paint to make it more permanent for fabrics, but I couldn't find it anywhere and didn't want to buy all new paints when I know they hold up just fine to repeated washes.

So there you have it ... the cutting out of the stencils is what takes ages ... on one blog where they needed to make multiple shirts with the same design, they stacked up the freezer paper and cut multiple stencils at once. Another site said they were reusable. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but want to. I think these little onesies would make cute baby gifts paired with a few color coordinated burp cloths.

Good luck ladies - I'd love to see your finished Ts ... wouldn't this make a fun summer craft project with the kids?

Ready for more?

Wednesday, July 16
Alex is never far away from Anna. He is constantly checking on her and making sure she has a special toy in her cradle to play with ... usually its a small tractor, or a stuffed animal.


Thursday, July 17 - One Week Old!
I've been wanting to try freezer paper stencils on clothing for a while now and I decided I'd give it a try while the kids were in Nauvoo, and I was suppose to be cleaning and organizing the house. I used a couple of older newborn onesies I had slated for the donation pile as my testers ... they aren't getting donated any more! Isn't this one just too cute on Anna? I did two designs - both from Microsoft Office clipart - and I love how they turned out!


Friday, July 18 - My Big Brother
Anna is starting to stay awake more during the morning hours. This morning I laid her down on a rolled up quilt and Alex immediately lay down with her. He is so proud for this little baby!