Round These Here Parts

Well, as you may know, it is winter time here in the Northern Hemisphere, and the weather has actually decided to act like it is supposed to here in Wisconsin. So we have had lots of snow, ice and below zero temperatures. It is super fun! I remember when we lived here before I had a toddler so if it was snowing outside or super cold we could just stay at home. But now I have an almost eight year old and we actually have to leave the house, like, everyday!!!! One day I had to clean snow off my car EIGHT times! Oh it was a good day. Good thing I invested in some snow boots. Side note: Here are the winter weather guidelines for Trum's school district...
~ Schools are closed when actual air temperatures are 25 degrees below zero, or windchill factors of 35 degrees below zero.
~When the air temperature is 0 degrees Fahrenheit or colder and/or the wind child factor is -10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder, all students shall be permitted to enter the building upon arrival to school, and will be kept indoors during recess periods in grades K-8.
So if we want a day off all we need to do is pray for the temperature to drop below -25. Love it!
Anyway, here are some pictures of stuff that has been happening round these here parts.

 Well this is from a looooong time ago. We had our annual Christmas sing along/gingerbread house party this year and this is Trum's excellent house.

(By the way, how do you like that mat burn on his face from Judo class? He looks pretty tough.)

 The Olbrich Botanical Gardens are one of our favorite places to go here in Madison. It is great in all seasons. At Christmas time they have a beautiful poinsettia and toy train display.

 And it is fun to visit the toasty warm Conservatory on a snowy day! 

 Here is our first REAL snow. Trum isn't dead in that picture below, he is just burrowing into his snow fort.

 So Jack and I are both working with the Cub Scouts at church. And since he has to be there with us, Truman has been participating. Even though he isn't 8 until next month. This was his first "real" pinewood derby. Jack and he actually put the wheels on straight and put some effort into making it fast.

 Trum's car is the yellow #6.

 Here he is with his best buddy Coel. I think the PVC pipe fence around the track is GENIUS!

His car ended up getting second place. We had discussed how to lose gracefully but we had to have a quick discussion on winning gracefully when he started to win most of his races. He was feeling pretty triumphant.

 This picture has nothing to do with anything. I took it a long time ago. 

But doesn't it make you think that we are...

A.Super Religious

B. Super Servicy

C. Super Lucky to Live in Wisconsin

&

D. Super Cool cause we own leather gloves

???

I thought so.

Freezer Paper Love

Well here it is. After the many (2) requests. I am finally posting instructions for making a freezer paper stencil and using it. Or at least I will you show you how I do it and you can try it as well.

The First thing I do is to find a SIMPLE image. 

It is super important for the image to be simple because you are going to be cutting it out and you don't want to spend a long time cutting out little details and trying to keep track of little pieces. 

So here is an image I got off the internet. 

Print it out at a size that will fit the shirt or whatever you are going to paint it onto.

 Next you will trace the image onto the papery side of some freezer paper. 

Note: You can find freezer paper at the grocery store next to the tin-foil and plastic wrap. It comes in a HUGE roll and you will never use it all so just get some from me. Especially since I now have two GIANT rolls of it. (I thought I lost the first one when we moved.) Of course I could always use it as it was originally intended and wrap up meat for my freezer. I will make sure to do that the next time I butcher an animal at my house.

Anyway here is how I do that.

Next you can use an exact o knife to cut out the image. Pretty simple, just be super careful and use a good cutting surface underneath.

There may be little pieces that you will need to keep for your image to look right. Like the middle parts of the R's in Merry. So keep track of those.

Next you will need something to put your image on. I chose a soft/cheap T-shirt from Target.

Now it is time to iron your stencil onto the shirt. Make sure to place the stencil waxy side down or it will stick to your iron. I am not sure at what temperature I iron mine at.

Maybe a medium-ish??? 

Also make sure your steam is turned off. 

So there it is ironed on. Notice that I added in the little middle parts of the R's. I usually iron the large piece of the stencil down and then add the little pieces one at a time. It is easier to keep everything in the right place that way.

 Next, gather your painting supplies. You need some Soft fabric paint, a sponge brush, a little water, some paper towels, a piece of card board to slide under the fabric you are painting on and it is imperative for you to have a RedVine at this point. Otherwise your stencil will just look horrible.

 Now, I like for my sponge brush to be just slightly damp so I dip it in the water and then squeeze it out and dry it with the paper towels. And make sure your card board is under the layer of fabric you are painting. NOT under the whole shirt (or whatever), just the layer you are painting on, or your paint might bleed through to the back. And we don't want that now do we??

Then go ahead and paint a nice thin layer adding more if you need to.

 Here it is after I finished painting and as it was drying.

 After a few hours it should be dry and then you can peel off the freezer paper and viola!!! You have a personalized shirt or bag or onzie or cape or napkin or whatever.

It really is a most satisfactory craft! Peeling off the freezer paper at the end is so fun. It is kind of like the fun you get from peeling off a band-aid, except it doesn't pull out any hair and there is a fun picture underneath instead of a gross scab! Hurray!

What happened to November?

Seriously!?! It is already Christmas time??! I can't believe it. Anyway, here is what happened around these here parts way back in November of 2011.

 My brother and his wonderful wife and family came up and some of us went to a Badgers game. It was fun to get all decked out in Red and head down to Camp Randall with all of the rabid Wisconsin fans. Our team ended up winning by like 50 points so it wasn't exactly an exciting game. But we had a great time nonetheless.(Nonetheless is a funny word.)

 Jack's mom, Paula, came out and visited us for a week. She and I went shopping almost every day. It was really fun. She is a much better shopping companion than Trum is. She almost never crawls around under the clothes rack. We also took her down to Nauvoo and Carthage to see the LDS church sites there.

 If you can believe it, this is the only snow that we have had here in Madison. And that melted the next day. Truman is feeling pretty gypped. The main reason he was cool about moving here was the fact that there was going to be "tons" of snow for him to play in.

 Here is Trum down on the "farm" at my brother's house for Thanksgiving.

I am sure that other stuff happened, but let's face facts...I am way to lazy to write about it.

October

I don't know why I have been so lax about posting anything on the blog lately. But I will makeup for it now by sharing a ton of information in one post. So here it goes...In October we...

Went to a pumpkin patch,

 where we ate some apple cider brats, (Oh, they were so good.)

and we picked out a pumpkin or two, 

and we almost went on a hayride.

 We also...

Hosted a little Halloween Party!

 That's right, I dressed like a pirate and made the kids do crafts. That is just the kind of person I am.

 Cuties!

We also went to Chicago to go to the temple,

where Truman suddenly turned into a giant!!

While in Chicago we also visited...

Chess Records 

Howlin' Wolf and lots of other Blues artist recorded there. I am sure you all know who Howlin' Wolf is and love Blues music so you are green with envy now.

We ate a CheezBorger, CheezBorger at the famous Billy Goat Tavern . Click on the link or watch this to see why it is famous.

 

We went to 

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

The museum was great! It wasn't very big so Truman didn't have time to get bored and it had some truly beautiful displays. (It helps to have Jack there with you to explain everything. So if you go, I recomend you take him with you.) It is, of course, located on the University of Chicago Campus, which is also beautiful.

We went to the Shedd Aquarium. which was large and full of fish.

Look at Trum in this penguin suit, hilarious and cute at the same time!

and of course we couldn't miss the site of the

Haymarket Square Riot 

or the Lego store for that matter

 Chicago was definitely fun.

Back at home we carved pumpkins

And went Trick-or-Treating.

Notice that Truman's costume is different in these pictures. He wanted to have a "scary" costume for the actual trick-or-treating. So we turned him (with the magic of the glue gun and face paint) into a knight who had been stabbed. 

So all in all a pretty good month. Do you feel like I shared enough info about our family? Do you want to hear about the day Trum and I got our hair cut as well??????