that's not my name

Jonas: what's your name?

(not sure why this in question in the first place considering he's her cousin but anyway)

M: My name is Megan.

Jonas: No, it's Megan Holman.

M: No, my name is Megan.

Jonas: No, it's Megan Holman.

M: No, that's my whole name. My name is Megan.

Jonas: No, you're full name is Megan Aulien Holman.

M: No, that's my name when I'm in trouble.

(sad, but true)

Speaking of games...

Do you know we love games?

My hubby would play chess or Trivial Pursuit, well, more often than I participate, that's for sure! We have four versions of it to prove it. I'm really only good at the Lord of the Rings one (great clearance buy!) but we make a great team at the other versions!

When we were engaged, a lady in my ward cautioned, "let him win at scrabble every once in a while." I thought nothing of it, until I started to pay attention to his strategy....and beating him!

We have been known to fight over games because we're competitive, but it's all good fun, right?

We definitely have old standby games. But we're flexible. If it's a game, we probably like it!

We have loved this one since we were engaged. It's the best of scrabble and cards in one game! Except when we introduced it to my family, we had more fun creating nonsense words (some that we actually use!) than playing the game which annoys my rule-abiding husband!

We gave this one to each other for mother's/father's day one year. We haven't regretted it since! It's fun because it can be fast or slow, easy or hard and you can pace it for new players or experts! :)

This is M's favorite card game. She doesn't get it really but it's fun to play anyway and let her pick the queens. The queens and kings are delightful and it's worth playing just to see how cute the pancake queen and the peacock queen are!!

We were introduced to the Munchkin games by our favorite game playing friends (and cousins to boot! sigh!) who live in Utah (sigh again!). Munchkin bites is my favorite (W's fave is Munchkin Fu). You fight monsters, loot treasure and collect all sorts of fun and funny armor and weapons along the way! It's great fun! (sigh a third time!)

We love Bananagrams! It's bananatastic, as my sister in law says!

We are bigger fans of Cities and Knights of Catan than just the original Settlers on its own. It's more complicated but worth it! (and maybe out of production? it's super expensive on Amazon! we did not pay that much!)

Any classics we're missing??

Cooking with M

when I was a little girl, my mom would let me "cook".

I remember strange combinations with ingredients like

bologna,

salt and pepper,

ketchup,

mustard,

bread,

applesauce.

all stirred together. I learned quickly that it didn't taste very good.

M loves to help us cook. today however, she wanted to make "noodles with mushrooms".

enter:

salt,

pepper,

leftover quinoa,

ketchup,

mustard,

olive oil,

and italian bread crumbs.

I just hope I don't have to taste it!! :)

"Sizabeth" likes words with friends

I love Sunday dinner!

I love that it is our special day reserved for family.

It was my turn to cook so I made one of my favorites that I rarely indulge in.

I know. Me? Willpower? Who knew I had any????

I made Alice Springs Chicken and garlic mashed potatoes.

I love anything smothered with mushrooms, bacon and cheese!!!

Yes, please!

Then, Mom, Dad, W and I sat around and played words with friends on our phones and ipads.

We have multiple games going.

I'm sure we'll lose Dad as an active participant when his knee heals.

Until then, I just beat him by 130 points!

boo-yah!

Why we didn't break out banangrams or scrabble or something where we interact in the real world?

not sure, but it was still fun!

Case

We have a lovely laptop.

It has no case.

I watch my husband load it into his backpack. And scratch it. And I worry. And I cringe.

So...

I saw this tutorial on Crap I've Made.

It was a bit more complicated than I thought at first, but we made it through.
And she's lovely. And will keep our laptop safe.
And I successfully made another item with a zipper!! yay!

Lulu Lately...

A few weeks ago, I bought a box of mini donuts for a treat.

I came home, opened it up, gave Lu two and left the room.

I came back to find that she had snagged ten more, taking a bite of each and leaving them on her plate or putting them back in the box.

This little culprit makes me laugh!!! but she wasn't very hungry for lunch later! :)
The girls had "new" fall outfits for Sunday recently.

Lu has the perfect two year old shape. M's old clothes fit her so differently, I can't help but think some look cuter on her!
However, Miss Lu still just wants to be one of the big kids, and put on her sister's socks and shoes this morning. All by herself!
In other areas, the plight or flight of the num nummy is ongoing.

I am a sucker.

When she's fussing, I give in.

Wouldn't you, if this was how she looked when you took away her nummy?????
I could eat this girl.

Seriously!

That's my bear!

When M was two, her Grandma Jan took her to get a Build-a-Bear. She was overwhelmed, awed, and came home very in love with Princess White Bear.

So, with Lu's second birthday coming up, and an aunt in town who is "Miss Build-a-Bear" herself, we thought it would be fun for her to get her own bear!!

Grace set it up with her old coworkers so that she could help stuff Miss Lu's bear (shhh... don't tell anyone that she doesn't work there anymore!)

Lu was just as overwhelmed and in awe.

She could barely decide what stuffed friend to pick.

But she settled on a hot pink new friend.

Don't worry, grimaces were the face of the day that day! I promise, she was having fun inside! :)
She was very overwhelmed and concerned about each step of the process.

We have to get a close up of that face. Does she look like she's having fun????
Then I spotted the thing that would fix it all! pink sunglasses!

Any bear with a penchant for pink sunglasses is good enough for Lu!

And it hasn't left her side much since then!

Thanks Jason and Gracie for helping make and dress Lu's bear!

Hey Joe!

Did you steal my napkin??

on plastic dishes

I got these beauties a few years back when Ikea first opened in Minneapolis.

my hubby HATES Ikea! he would rather go anywhere but there.

i personally wish we'd utilized it more now that our closest one is six hours away!

but these cups are great, cute, sturdy, and CHEAP!

and i've regretted ever since that i didn't buy the entire set in triplicate!

so my mother in law asked me what Lu wanted for her birthday.

Lu is so easy she's tough. she likes everything.

so sometimes i have trouble thinking of things she "needs" when we have so much already!

so i asked for dishes.

they will benefit Lu.

she will enjoy them.

and so will I!!! :)

so happy birthday to Lu and me!

aren't they beautiful? i mentioned wanting enough to feed all the cousins.

so they counted out the eight cousins and decided we needed two sets!

hooray!!!

we love them! the bowls are perfect snack size! the plates are perfect meal size!

and i love matching!
then to delight us more, they also gave us these bowls and plates.

i am in LOVE with the plates. they have a big lip around the edge to contain things better, they're super thick but light, and they're also the perfect kid-size!

thank you thank you thank you, grandpa Bill!!!

What I learned in PreK this week!

Mrs. Strom (her cute teacher) is married but doesn't have kids so she must have grandkids.

And she doesn't live at school. (one of my favorite books as a kid was about investigating where their teacher REALLY slept!)

It is WAY more important for a word to start with a letter than to just contain a letter! For example, during "g week", it was way cooler that Gavin's name started with G than her own name had a G in it.

octupus stew is made with hot dogs (I still haven't figured out where the stew part comes in...)

M can now write her whole name but the e, g, and a look suspiciously alike and tough to read!

The "titty-tata" song is REALLY the "tooty-ta" song! (phew!!!)

The BIG gossip is "who got moved to yellow" during the day. (We talked about how this was none of our business to talk about! Especially when the poor culprit is standing right next to us!!)

The cool mom's club starts all the way back in PreK. I expected this one day as a former "last kid picked for the team" kid, but in PreK? Really? They have to sit around and chat about church and already know each other and ignore the newbies?

Separation anxiety can be purely, purely manipulative! (no, not a shock!). M LOVES school! She bounces home full of tales of what she learned and did, but she hates to leave me in the morning. It is still a struggle after a month, threats, a happy face chart, rewards, punishments, and I'm pulling my hair out! Today was the first easy day in ages and it was because her TA met me at the door, took her from me (she's my new hero!) and let me immediately leave rather than dragging out the trauma while she put up her lunch bag and backpack!

A bag for a lady!

This is fun! I should do this more often!

Or just let me know if you want to commission a bag. And someday...etsy. sigh...

In the meantime!

I had my lovely assistant help me in my, oh, so scientific, task!

Our first "winner" didn't want to be entered. But I threw everyone's name in just because I was curious how it would throw the results!

And it did! So, Em, if you want one, you can have another! :)
And so our "real winner" is Teriney!! (no, no nepotism was involved despite the fact that our first "winner" was W's cousin and our "real winner" was my sister in law!)
I'll let you know what they choose!

and THANK YOU for the lovely birthday wishes! I had a wonderful birthday week from a date with my hubby to a family party to my favorite spaghetti dinner to a wonderful girl's night out last night!! Hooray for birthdays!!

Last Day for a free bag!

Have you wished the birthday girl

(aka ME-and no, I can't believe I'm actually posting this picture of me voluntarily either!)

a Happy Birthday yet?

You could win a free bag!!!

Fabric Pumpkins!!!

I have loved these pumpkins since I saw them on the Idea Room last year!

I never got around to it last year.

But I showed them to my mom last week and she immediately jumped on the idea and so we made them!!

Today!

We pulled out our fall stashes, added a few new fall fabrics, and sewed away!
The two paisley ones at the end are my favorites.
And the tall skinny ones!! Okay, I love them all!!
Go make some! They are so easy and fun!

Palindromes

I love palindromes!

I love the symmetry of a word that is the same forward and backward.

kayak

level

Anna

Hannah

Yes, I'm a nerd.

Today is my palindrome birthday!

No, that's not a real thing, but I'm getting a total kick out of the fact that I'm turning

31

on the

13th

so to celebrate this backwardness, I'm giving YOU a present!

Leave me a comment, wish me a happy birthday (because let's face it, every one loves being wished a happy birthday!), and I'll give one of my commenters one of my bags!

(it will not be this one, because I already gave this one away, but it will be this style/size-ish)

You can even pick the color theme:

brown,

green,

blue,

pink,

red

So have a lovely day and don't forget to comment sometime during my birthday week! (aka, before the 19th)

warm heart

I was on google reader this evening during story time. It had been a long day for mama.

I sat on my bed while the girls giggled at The Three Bears.

Dad even did voices for the three bears.

It is so good to have us all back under one roof!

He is soooo much better at story time than I am!

itching

I broke my fabric-buying-moratorium for this delicious beauty! (it was more of a guideline anyway!)

And it was totally worth it!

I want to make cute skirts!

First, however, I have to tear apart the half-made jumper from last year, resize it to fit the younger, but not necessarily smaller, one and make it!

And bags, always bags to make!!!!!

I feel a sewing weekend coming on!

10 Things

I loved this list from the Pioneer Woman.

I love her. I think she's funny. I think she's a fabulous cook. I wish I could look that pretty when I cook. Mostly I just try not to sweat to death in my stifling kitchen when I cook. TMI. Sorry.

Enjoy her list.

Labor Day = Change

Grace and Jason left to go home today :(

Grandma and Grandpa Holman go home tomorrow :(

I want to get my pumpkins out even though it's 94 degrees today!

I will miss my white capris and shorts! (do I really have to put them away? do YOU follow that {no white after Labor Day} rule?)

I want to make pumpkin bars and sew quilts and buy fabric and crunch leaves with my shoes!

or make this!

or some of these!!!

Fall is in my bones!!!!!!

What we learned in PreK this week

how to write the letter C

a bandana makes any cute kid into a cowboy!

cowgirl starts with C

karrots do not

sometimes a Friday at home for just a runny nose is a necessity

Dream Analysis

This picture came home from PreK today.

I'm sad. and worried that I should be worried.

should i be worried?