The most beautiful flower in the world!!

Last year I saw this post about how to make a felt dahlia and I've been waiting for the perfect time to create my own blossom.

The Gardner ladies got together while the fellas viewed the Priesthood session of Conference.

Some chose to make easter egg wreaths but I wanted to make something that was going to last longer than just this month.

So I did some searches and bought some felt:

There are so many colors for such a cheap price... I love it! That way I don't feel bad if a project doesn't turn out quite like my dreams and I have to throw it away.

But that never happens, right?

So then I got started on my beloved dahlia.

It was slightly timely for me because I didn't have a rotary cutter or board, so I had to hand measure and cut everything.

Oh well. It turned out to be the perfect Conference watching craft.

My finished flower with the perfect spring fabric I found:

I wish I'd taken more "in the process" photos but basically, I cut 3x9 inch strips of fabric and hot glued them around the wreath form. HOWEVER, if I were to do it again, I would've made the strips wider and folded the edges under to save myself from some polishing (hiding) steps. I placed the ribbon and felt strips along all the raw edges of fabric that made it look a little too organic.

And here she is:

Welcome Spring!!

Griffin's Rainbow Plane

I promised a post dedicated to Griffin's colorful creation.

Plus, I love my new camera.

Any favorite photo editing sites out there I haven't heard of yet?

Let me know.

Beads

"I don't want to do Family Hour! It's not going to be fun."

--said by a grumpy Griffin

We had planned a trip to a local craft store in hopes of finding an activity for Family Home Evening.

Behold... Perler Beads presents:

Fun Fusion

Score!

You place these little beads on forms from the kit and iron them slightly to fuse the plastic together.

(And, yes... my hands always photograph whiter than the rest of my arm. Weird, right?)

Jeff finished Trey's airplane first:

First creations:

Kai - lizard, Carolyn - Bumblebee car, Jeff - plane, Griffin - turtle

Over the next few days, more Bumblebee cars were needed to stop the fights (Griffin made his own). A Ratchet Transformer plus a few more turtles and planes.

So easy and so fun!

Don't you love Griffin's rainbow plane?

I took enough pictures of that for it's own post.

Coming soon.

High 5 Kai!!

March 19th was Kai's 5th birthday. The morning started out with breakfast, of course. Now usually I would add "in bed" after "breakfast". But Kai is our earliest riser. 'Nuf said.

A birthday drawing from Griffin and a few gifts to open:

We had his party a few days later with family. I love making the cake when I get the chance.

This one was pretty fun. I got to use fondant but opted out of covering the whole cake in it.

My brother-in-law, Rob, was more than happy to destroy my work of art.

(Evil Decepticon!)

Kai loved ALL his gifts and thanked everyone.

I always love the overly sugared, all my friends are here, I'm getting all the attention, excited expressions:

Now, I'm pretty sure the present count was 10 at the most, but, for my dad (who gets up at 5:30am to play raquetball, works hard all day long, and has bishopric responsibilities).....that was 9 gifts too many!

(Not a posed shot. He's totally sleeping!)

This "Toothless" dragon was Kai's last minute request and ended up in one of my favorite shots.

The very next day at school, Kai was able to bring in life pictures and one show and tell for his birthday celebration.

Griffin's classroom is right next door so we were able to pull him over for a few hugs (Mrs. Axtell was Griffin's Pre-K teacher as well) and a picture:

And since this is all about Kai, I wanted to throw in this last shot of him.

It makes me laugh every time!

Kai was informing some new friends at the park of the rules for their game.

Canyon Lake Trip 1

My brother, Jason, bought a boat recently and we were invited to be a part of his first boat-owner-trip-to-the-lake.

Canyon Lake was picked because they had RV set-ups right off the lake and because of it being Spring Break, my parents had planned on camping.

They are making it tradition to take the grandkids on RV campouts and my boys have LOVED them!!

Jason, Kevin, Katie, Shannon, and Allan all braved the chilly night, sleeping in the boat.

Grammy, Griffin, Kai, Lukas and Treyson all slept in the tent while Grandpa, Celynda, and Brooklyn were cozy in the RV. Well... as cozy as an RV could be.

For the most part, the boys were happy on the shore, making shadows and throwing rocks.

I designated myself to being photographer on the boat.

Here's Kevin:

The water was SO cold, thus Katie's face:

Jason:

Shannon did a marvelous job being flag girl:

...And this is my favorite photo of the trip:

We worked hard, convincing Griffin to go out on the tube with Allan. "You won't get wet Griff. Jason will drive slow and you'll just stay on top. Come on! Be brave! It'll be fun!"

We finally got him out on it:

But slow boat driving + Allan forgetting to pull up on front of tube = water coming up over the front and practically forcing them to let go for fear of drowning.

Griffin was NOT happy about the cold water:

He still went on a short ride but insists that it was not fun at all.

Oops!

It's going to be awesome having a boat owner in the family. I look forward to many pictures like the one seen above. :)

Guess who got a new camera?

ME!!!!

Out with the old:

...in with the new:

I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it.

Hopefully this new purchase will encourage me to post here more and share the AWESOME photos I'll be taking. There's so much to learn with this new camera but I'm going to love every minute of it!

We went to see Amococo at the Mesa Arts Center. The last day it will be here is March 20th so hurry and go!!

My boys LOVED it!!! They could have stayed there for hours.

It was this inflatable, architectural, light art.

I thought it was amazing!

Go. Now.