The Costumes Are Finally Done!

I finally got them done! It was definately work trying to accomplish this while having the kids every second I wasn't working. I would have to sew when they were taking naps or down for the night. If I put on a movie for them and tried to sew, about 5 minutes later I have a 1 year old on my lap and a 3 year old pushing buttons on my machine saying "What is that mama?" I do have to say I am very impressed with how the mask turned out. I read how to make the mask on the internet and it turned out exactly how they described. I was so thrilled. We were a hit at our ward party. So many people were stopping us to take pictures. So hmmmm..... what to be next year.

It worked!

So the Grinch mask worked! I was so excited that I couldn't stop smiling. It was a huge process but it worked! I first made a mold of Adam's face with plaster bandages. I could have poured plaster on Adam's face to make a mold but I didn't want to deal with the mess, didn't want to worry about his breathing and also didn't need perfect detail. I had to lube up his face with Vaseline, wet the bandages and criss-crossed them around his face. He sat there not moving for 20 minutes. Once it dried I pulled it off and poured plaster in that to make a reverse mold. I used this face to sculpt a grinch face with pottery clay. I did this so I knew exactly where the nose and eyes were and it would be a better fit for him. I saw another method where you just paint layers of latex onto the face you sculpted but when I pulled it off it stuck together like a deflated balloon. I was so bummed. I then decided it would be best to make a mold of the grinch face and paint the layers of latex in the mold. I was crossing my fingers that pouring plaster over my hours of sculpting would work because I didn't want to have to sculpt it again. Well it did and I started the tedious painting of the latex layers. I colored the latex green by mixing in the face makeup before I painted it on. The latex dried green and is the exact color of the fur I got. Score! I used baby powder when I peeled it off the mold so it didn't stick together. Tada! it worked. I still have to cut out the eyes and the mouth to fit it to Adam. I am a little nervous about that part because if I cut wrong then I will ruin it.

Halloween Costume Dilemma

So here is the deal. Adam is going to be the Grinch (Jim Carey version) and I am wondering what I should do for his outfit. There is one part of the movie where the Grinch is deciding to go to the town party and he tries on different outfits. One is a lederhosen. Melanie has a lederhosen for when her and Casey went to Austria so I thought it would be funny to use it. The options are to just have grinch in no clothes, in a Santa suit or in lederhosen. The Santa suit would be the easiest because I would make his jacket and hat. Then I would make "fur" pants, and gloves for the grinch part and of course paint his face. For the other options I would have to make a full body suit with more detail but it would be cool looking. I don't have much time since both Adam and I are working full time and I have the kids when I am not working. You know how it is trying to get things done with kids running around tearing the house apart. Therefore I am leaning more towards the Santa suit option. I thought it would be cool to see what people's opinion is. Take my poll to the left or on my facebook page http://bit.ly/zdZ4p
Thanks for helping me out!

Halloween Is Coming!

Looks like everyone else is more on top of it than me this year. Every year, as most of you know, I make our Halloween costumes. I usually start in August so that if I need to order something online or something goes wrong with the production I won't be stressed. The other reason why I start so early is because I like to plan out fabrics to buy when they are on sale and I don't have to pay a fortune. I have been so crazy busy with the kitchen remodel that August rolled around and I haven't even thought of it. Everyone at work kept asking me what we were going to be this year. One night when I didn't have to work they were all trying to come up with ideas and they posted them on Facebook for me. Some said Goldilocks and the three bears. Others said Cinderella or Snow White but none of those really caught my interest. One day I was sitting at a friends house and noticed that Addison's ponytail had migrated to the top of her head and was sitting straight up. I said, "Hey doesn't she look like Cindy Lou Who?" Ah Ha! That's it! I have always debated whether to keep our costumes a secret until presenting them in flesh and blood but I do have a big mouthed sister who tells everyone everything. Plus I would get sick of everyone begging me to tell them what we are so I give in.

Adam will be the Grinch, I will be his girlfriend Martha May Whovier, Addison will be Cindy Lou Who and Landon will be Max the dog.

The one thing that I am concerned about it how am I going to get Landon's one antler to stay on his head. Suggestions anyone? I don't want to attach it to the dog costume because if I need just a plain dog costume in the future or if someone wants to borrow it then I don't have to remake it or take it apart.

So I will post my progress until October!

My Crazy Life

I know that I have been saying that I am almost done with my kitchen for a long time but now I can really say "I am almost done!" I came to the conclusion that I can't do it on my own anymore. My dad took his tools back since he started building the cabin. I still had to cut all of the baseboards but had no saw. I thought, Do I try to borrow a saw, buy a saw or just put the money towards someone doing it for me? I found one of my friends from high school on facebook and he has a tile business. He is doing the backsplash and also new tile in the bathroom. He told me that he had a brother-in-law that is a general contractor and could come finish the doors, paint them and also do the baseboards. SOLD! Everything is taking me ten times longer. I work full time and am with the kids when I am home. I try to get things done when they are asleep but only if I am lucky to get them both asleep at the same time. Mostly I am trying to paint right now. By the time I get the paint out plus all of my supplies and start painting one of them wakes up. I then have to clean everything up and wash the brushes before my 3 years old "helps" me paint. There is a certain moulding around the doors that I want but I had to special order it. It will come in this week and then they can install it. Woohoo! Then I am really done. I do have to do a good cleaning from all of the dust of remodeling. I can't wait until Adam quits his job in November then I will have more time to finish things.

Addison decided to start walking now. I knew that she knew how to walk but she just didn't want to. We would barely hold her by one finger and she would walk fine but when we let go she would just sit down. She still crawls a little bit but now when she falls she will pick herself back up and start walking again. She is kind of bow legged which is a little funny but hopefully it will straighten out the more she starts walking. I think it's her big thunder thighs.

Landon starts preschool tomorrow and he is so excited. He has been asking me everyday for a month if he is going to school yet. He will say things like, "Mom I will take a nap and then go to school okay?" Or he will run, get his backpack and say, "I go to school now okay!" On Sunday morning he even made Adam play school with him.

So I am thinking about going back to work in the ER. I love the babies but I miss the variety of the ER. I am also losing all of my skills. Since we don't use much medications for babies then I forget things. I used to know tons of medications, what they do, how they should be taken etc. Now when people ask me questions about meds I unfortunately say, "I don't know." I applied for a couple ERs so we will see! I have to get recertified in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS). My class is this Thursday and next Thursday. I have to review all of the cardiac rhythms and medications to give when someone codes. It's a lot to remember and since I haven't done it in a long time I will need to study. This is one more thing I have to do on top of my crazy life.

I am trying to eat better and lose weight now. I gained about 30 pounds with this kitchen remodel. I wasn't able to cook anything with having no kitchen so I went out alot. I am also going to not drink soda anymore. I had my last soda today. I will let everyone know about my progress. If people know my goal then I am more likely to do it.

Addison's 1 Year Pictures

So I went to picture people and they were actually good today. They didn't make me wait an hour like last time. Addison did not have a good time though. I sat her in the middle and went behind the photographer to make her smile. She got about 2 pictures where she was straight faced and wouldn't smile. All of a sudden she looked all around her and then busted out in the biggest cry I have ever seen her do. She was crying so hard that she was shaking and hyperventilating. So the photographer decided to give us some blocks to play with and stepped out to get her familiar with her surroundings. She played for a while and crawled around gathering and stacking the blocks. Once the photographer came back in she dived towards me and clung on for dear life. What we had to do then was have me sit in the picture and sit her on my outstretched legs and have her play with the blocks. She was still able to be with me but they got some head shots of her without me. She then started warming up, crawling around by herself playing with the blocks but the second the photographer would try to take a picture she would see and dive towards me again. We finally got some good shots so I decided to forgo the second outfit that I brought. The pictures that I posted are from the website so they have that logo on them but atleast you can see them .

Check One More Thing Off My List

So I spent all day yesterday making the shelves for the pantry. I didn't have room in my garage to cut the big sheets of wood down so I had to do it in the hot sun on the driveway. Atleast there was a little breeze. I am so glad they are done. All I have to do is sand a little bit of the edges to make them smoother and to paint it which shouldn't take too long. Now that's one more thing to check off my list. Today I am going to work on putting in the doors. I guess I should atleast have a door on the bathroom since my mother-in-law is coming to visit this weekend. So all I have left is putting up and painting the doors, the moldings/baseboards and tiling the backsplash. I might price out how much it would cost to have someone do the backsplash because I just want this to be done. If it is not outrageous then I will just have them get it done. If it's a crazy price then I definately will be doing it myself. Below are some pictures of the shelves I built.