Kreatively Yours,

You hear a lot about the evils of the internet.

A LOT.

But I have to say that I love it. Mostly because of all the old friends and family I've been able to track down and keep in touch with.

One of these long-lost-relatives that I love is Mrs. Blair, here. She found me through her hubby's cousin's bloglist (my hubby happened to grow up with afore-mentioned cousins. Confused yet?)

Anywho, looking at her blog is my fav. I love her projects that she does, like these awesome pumpkins (I'm hoping the cheap plastic things will go clearance after Halloween for even cheaper). Oh, and how could I forget this chair? I'm still jealous that someone else bought it :( I also love her movie reviews. Nothing like having someone tell you how bad a movie stinks before your hubby makes you go see it!

So, have I thanked you and complimented you enough yet, Blair? Honestly, you should be blushing right now.

So, this wonderful cousin of mine gave me this fun little award:

Don't you love it?

I do, mostly because I never win anything...

I'm supposed to pass this lovely award onto seven other wonderfully creative people. But since I try my hardest to never follow the rules, I'm not going to (that, and because I like to drift namelessly from blog to blog without people knowing I stalk them).

But, I will fulfill another obligation, which is list seven things people may not know about me.

1) I do not like store-bought art. Except for these awesome temple pics and certain Christ artwork. I believe that I have my own little masterpieces (meaning the three little ones running around here) and prefer to pepper my walls with them.

2) I was in honors and AP english all throughout junior high and high school (and a bit of college) and have read so many of the great classics. Yet, I still prefer to sink my teeth into a good old vampire novel. And not just Twilight. If you've seen them in Walmart or Target, I've probably read it.

3) I'm a homebody. I prefer to stay at home (unless going shopping). And I prefer doing things with family. That way I don't have to make excuses for my randomness- I can just relax and know that even though they may not like me, they do love me :)

4) I am addicted to the DVR. I really am.

5) I prefer to laugh when my kids do naughty things than to correct them. Alas, I must play bad guy and punish them, though.

6) I still bite my nails. And probably will forever.

7) If you want me to do something for you, buy me a Dr. Pepper and I will be your endentured servant as long as the bubbly-sweetness lasts.


So there you go. My deepest, darkest secrets.

Good thing this blog is private...

Pumpkin Heads

Last night, while the snow fell down outside, we carved our Jack-o-Lanterns for Halloween.

Guess who belongs to which one:



Give up? I knew you would.

OP "helped" Adi carve hers (meaning he did it. I mean, we may at times be a bit irresponsible parents, but even we wouldn't give our accident-prone 6 year old a knife).

Pipes wanted a crown on hers. I gave it heart lips instead.

It's about compromise, people.

P.G. loved his. He carried it around all night giggling.

This picture was taken courtesy of Miss Pipes.

I do believe that Orrin's is my favorite this year.

I had to include this last pic for all my amigas and familia in Arizona. Can you believe it? Snowflakes!

We had chocolate cake for dessert then played a little old-school Donkey Kong on the Super Nintendo.

Good night.

Snow's Grand Introduction

Yes, today was the first day of snow.

Even though I am not looking forward to a season full of unpredictable Utah weather, I couldn't help but feel the glee when I let Snickeys out this morning and saw the fluffy stuff floating down.

In fact I ran downstairs to alert the rest of the fam.

And trust me, it takes a lot to run in the morning (like, I've been known to mosey to bloody children if it happens too early in the morning- bad mommy? Perhaps).

Anywho, I yelled for everyone to come up and see.

The girls were so excited they ran out into it, and luckily I had the sense to call them back in so as to not ruin their recently done hair.

P.G., on the other hand, wasn't quite sure what the stuff was.


I couldn't get a good enough setting on my camera to really capture the moment, but I guess I'll be satisfied with this pic.

And I wanted to share Adi's rockin' boots that I got for her about 7 months ago on clearance here
I love shopping online there!

She sure thinks that she is something great in them!

Polite Mr. Porter

Here is my little man asking for some more crackers, please.

Except he sounds more like he's saying "Mooooooooo, peas" when he says it.

And yes, he did get more even though dinner was only twenty minutes away.

Could you say no to that face?

Please allow me to introduce...

A wicked vampire bride, an oh-so-glamorous prom queen and an unmasked Batman.


Well, I finally did it. I dragged the kiddos out into 50 degree weather without proper layers (umm, you wouldn't be able to see their hand-tailored costumes if they had on jackets for warmth) today.

Fortunately for them the little shoot only lasted 5 minutes. Unfortunately for me, the shoot only lasted 5 minutes.

I didn't get nearly as many shots as I wanted, but it was cold and Porter kept stripping off his costume...

Oh, and did I mention that I forgot to charge my camera's battery so as soon as I turned it on "low battery" was flashing at me?

Duh.

Anywho, scroll on down to see the chillens in all their glory. Oh, and please forgive me for the number of photos, but I couldn't choose favorites!


First off, there is Mini-Batman.

He would not wear his mask. No amount of coaxing could get him to leave it on at all.


And here he is flexing his muscles for the camera.


Don't you love his "flexing face"?



I designed and made the main part of Mr. Porter Pot's costume. I didn't like any of the patterns I could find in stores (can you say girly-man?), Not that his costume turned out any better, but at least I know I did it!

I did, however, use a pattern for the boots and the belt. And those three things took me longer to sew than the whole rest of the outfit.

Go figure.



Here is Little Miss Vampire Bride (who refuses to wear her vampire teeth that we've spent the last two months searching for). The editing on this photo is actually a bit freaky.


I also designed and made this little outfit. The veil is not at all how I imagined it, but Miss Nae likes it, so I guess I can be satisfied.


She HAD to have fake blood. HAD TO HAVE IT.


Don't you love the necklace?





And now, Miss Piper Pauline as the Prom Queen.



Another messed-up Courtney Original. This is actually the second dress that I made for her. The first one was too light.

But I had a bit of a difficult time figuring out the waist on this second one.


Piper loved posing for this one. She wants to be a model when she grows up.

I hope she doesn't really pursue that dream.


Pip is the only one of the three who really loves her costume and does not want to take it off. Ever.


This is why I love this little punk-rock-Prom-Queen:


Now, keep your fingers crossed for me that these costumes will make it until Halloween and won't get lost or destroyed.

A little Christmas Sewing

The girlies are getting an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas this year (from Santa, of course).

I wanted to make them a cutsie, retro-y kind of apron to go with it.

I surfed the net and found a couple of different aprons that I liked, then just starting cutting and sewing (once again, braving the world of no patterns). Then I saw a cute lil' chef's hat, and thought to myself, "I can do that."

I did. But not before messing up a few times.

Unfortunately since these babies are for the upcoming holiday season, I haven't been able to see how they'll look on the girls, but I think that so far, I'm liking them.

Now I still need to make little matching pot-holders...

The best seat in the house

This is Porter's favoritest place in the house.

It also happens to be my next lil' project.

My momma got it from a garage sale, but after stubbing her toe on it for the millionth time, she gladly passed it on to my greedy hands.

So I was trying to take some "before" pics tonight (shocking, I know, that I actually remembered this time), but Mr. PG refused to move his cute lil' booty out of it.

And I think I like it this way better.

Children of the Corn...

We took a trip to Cornbellys at Thanksgiving Point on Saturday, and since OP is in school, I dragged my mama with us.

This place was pretty stinkin' awesome. Although the price was not all that awesome- 11 bucks a person (except for lil' man who was free). OUCH!

But we all had fun, so in the end, it was worth it.

Here is lil' Princess Pipes riding on the Pumpkin Princess' horse

They had scarecrows set up for the kiddos to decorate like princesses and knights, and they also let the kids themselves dress up.

We had to pry the dress off of Pipes.


There was a giant stack of hay bales set up with big ole' tubes for slides...

most of the slides were wet though, so my kids had a serious case of wet-bottoms for a couple of hours.

Riding the saddle...


Jumping on the ginormous air pad thingy (I'm not sure how else to explain it)



I was so excited about this- I saw something like it on Jordan's post and wanted to try one out.

The kiddos, however, didn't share my enthusiasm and only stayed in there long enough for me to get a pic.


And the mini corn-maze that Adi said, "If I would have known that it was going to be this boring, I wouldn't have done it."



And the snake maze. The girls stood there in front of it, eyeing down the dark tunnel they had to enter into-

and then they turned around and decided that it just wouldn't be any fun if Mommy or Nana couldn't go with.


Doesn't Porter-Pot wear his cotton candy well?



The girlies got to use a pumpkin cannon. Piper felt like she was on Nitro Circus.



Speedster Adi



Riding on ole Penny


Face painting!






o

I had to post this one since I rarely catch Porter in the act...


How was your Saturday?

This is how the Merrills do dinner and movie...

Picnic style!

Oh yeah, we are that awesome.

We do this for a few different reasons. 1) For a break from the norm schedule. 2) To get out of having to do the dishes. 3) To watch all of those Disney movies we have collected in the 7 + years of marriage that no one watches.

Anywho, last night the feature presentation was Tarzan.

Yeah, I wasn't too excited about that.

But the kiddos loved it. And afterward, that went a a little jungle on the stairs.

OP and I, being the ever-responsible parents that we are laughed and took pictures.

Now, just picture them doing the Tarzan yell as they do this.

And, no, no one got hurt.

Taint

That is what Mr. Porter Pot calls painting.

And that is what is all over his hands.