tricks-or-treats

Halloween was a little test of our sense of adventure this year.  Our costume budget was slim to none because we had to pinch pennies thanks to the government shutdown.  By the time Halloween rolled around, the Mr. was back at work but we decided it would be best if we continued with our original plan to have the kids wear costumes made of things we already had around the house.  I may have snuck out to JoAnns for some felt, cheap blue fabric and glitter snowflakes, but kept my spending to a minimum.  The kids opted to be made up superheroes.  I guess wearing capes is too cool to pass up - even if you are eleven.  We ended up with a Super Nerd Guy, Super Shadow and Super Snow Girl outfit.  And at the last minute, Hailey decided she wanted in on the candy action too & threw together a cat costume.  I don't blame her - I like chocolate too.



If you follow me on instagram, you know that we had quite the adventure on Halloween night.  Rain was in the forecast but we managed to get through the whole night with beautiful weather and only a few drops fell from the sky.  The kids had such a fun time running from house to house with friends, filling up their treat bags with lots of chocolate candy for the Mr. & I to eat later.  Just kidding.....sort of.  

Did you have fun trick-or-treating adventures with your little ones?

crafting with the kids: finger knitting

We are in the thick of summer.  It seems to me that the few weeks that fall smack dab in the middle of summer vacation are the laziest of them all.  The excitement of no school has worn off and the kids are getting super lazy.  My kids want to watch netflix all. day. long.   Or just play with legos all. day. long. Don't worry, I don't let either of those things happen (hardly ever) ;)



In an effort to teach all of my kids (which range in age from 6 to 14) something new, I pulled out my basket of yarn and taught them finger knitting.  I remember doing this early summer mornings after my mom dropped my sisters & I off at my grandma's home so that she could carpool to work with my grandpa.  It kept us busy for hours upon hours and they were so long we used them as jump ropes.  My two oldest were hooked right away and finger knitted chains that stretched down our hallway.  I even caught them finger knitting for a couple days after that.  Tatum seemed to enjoy it on the first day & Noah gave up all together within the first hour.  You win some, you lose some.



If you are keeping up with my instragram (username: annieandm), you know that we also used yarn one afternoon to make a maze in the hallway for the kids.  Getting to our storage room and the hallway bathroom proved to be a challenge for the Mr. & I, but the kids had a ball climbing over, under and through it.  It was the perfect boredom buster.

Need ideas?  Look here!
Great finger knitting tutorial here: Flax & Twine
Yarn maze examples HERE & HERE

life lately (via my iPhone)

Hello friends.  Life has been surprisingly busy for our little family this summer.  All is calm during the daytime and then evening rolls in and we have somewhere to go and something to do every night of the week.  I am looking forward to things slowing down a bit now that the Independence Day holiday has come and gone.   Thanks to my iPhone, I was a able to capture a little of the craziness these past few weeks.

The Mr. & I had signed up to walk a 5K in our community.  The funds were going to update a park so that it was handicap accessible.   I was super sore from the crazy 3 mile hike we did while camping the day before and the thought of skipping the 5K was seemed like a pretty good idea.  But like 20 minutes before the race, I decided we should do it.  You can see the thrill written all over the Mr.'s face, can't you??   I'm just happy we finished in under an hour.



We celebrated birthdays that weekend too.  The Mr. turned 39 the day before the race & Tatum turned 9 the day of the race.  We celebrated small, eating cake and ice cream throughout the weekend and enjoying time as a family.   Nothing crazy this year, but I hope they both know how much they are loved.



The Mr. had a furlough day for work last week and we decided to splurge and take the kids to see Monsters U.  We let the kids pick where we sat and ended up on the back row.  We're such rebels, I know.   It was cute & I was in love with all the marching band music.  High fives for all the band nerds out there!    



Before I knew it, the 4th of July rolled around and we packed our day full of yard work, patriotic cake baking, dinner with friends and fireworks in the mall parking lot.   I considered the yard work my workout for the day and then ate a piece of cake so put back all the calories I had worked off from pulling weeds.  Life is all about balance, right?? ;)   The fireworks were pretty blah and somewhat hard to look at because the city left the mall parking lot lights on & they were totally blocking our view but the kids really enjoyed them so that is what matters.



Happy Monday!
PS - Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' & instagram (links are on my sidebar)!

general conference weekend

General Conference weekend ended up being much busier than I had planned it in my head.  I thought it would be a quiet weekend at home, our eyes glued to the television with naps between sessions.  It ended up being soccer games Saturday morning, the Mr. running over to the church to set up the broadcast for those who wanted to watch it there, watching conference, making homemade bread and rolls because we were out, working on the fencing for our new little garden, chatting with our very elderly neighbors about our soon-to-be planted garden, and kids playing with neighborhood friends somewhere in the middle of all that.  By the end of Sunday night, I was exhausted and ready to hit the sack when the Mr. found The Hunger Games on netflix and the next thing you know we are going to bed waaaaay too late.  Late bedtimes are my nemesis.  I need to practice much more self control when it comes to going to bed early.

Conference was very good (isn't it always, though?).  I was happy to hear some talks that touched on parenting and am anxious for them to be available at lds.org so I can read them again.  The 10 commandments were also spoken of and the kids suggested we learn all of them in order.  This will be a Fun Family Home evening challenge over the coming months.  The activity basket I put together was a big hit with the kids.  It kept them occupied 85% of the time, which makes this mama happy.  In the past, listening to conference was never that easy.  Keeping littles quietly busy for a whole two days was practically impossible.  Last year, we watched conference at the church, which was a total failure in our attempt to have them reverently watch our church leaders speak.  I am grateful they were quiet enough for me to hear and digest most of the inspired messages given this weekend.

life according to my iphone

I'm pretty sure I have food on the brain.  We celebrated a birthday (which means a box mix cake, of course) and rekindled our love for Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches.  We went through a little dry spell with our juicer but have been getting it out to sneak extra veggies into our diet in a delicious way.  Popcorn is our go to snack for family movie nights & I pack it in the kid's lunches once a week.  And one day I was scrolling through pinterest and found a recipe that claimed I could make a brownie in a cup in my microwave in just one minute.  I was delicious but so sweet I couldn't finish it.

What little treats have you enjoyed lately?  Find me on instagram: @annieandm

life according to my iPhone

It's been a busy couple of months. I haven't blogged much which means three things.

1. My big girl camera has been nice and snug in its new bag which the Mr. gifted me for Christmas. I've been too darn lazy to get it out.
2. I've been spending way more time with my kiddos. It hit me one day that I was spending more time on my iphone than I was with them. Shame on me. So lots of quality time it is - reading books, baking cookies, playing with toys, watching favorite movies, and doing yard work together. It's made a big difference to make time to spend with each of our 4 kids individually. It's easy to let life get in the way but I have to remind myself that one on one time is so fun!
3. I'm getting more done around the house. I have begun working on fun little projects to spruce up our little brick rental home since we have officially decided we will be renting for at least another year. I was hoping we could have saved enough up to buy a home but life gets in the way and things break down and need to be fixed. It's life.

The Mr. & I found a countertop for 80 bucks at Home Depot last week. Major score. Now I have an official craft space and can't wait to fill the cabinets with all of my junk so I can craft again. If I'm not posting here, I do instagram lots (where most of the pics above are found). I'm hooked. Follow me: @annieandm

Do you instagram?  Give us your link in the comments!

my vote is in

The Mr. and I went to the voting polls together this year.  He is home from work, sick with laryngitis.  Poor guy sounds like Barry White.  In September 2011, the Mr. moved to Virginia ahead of the rest of our little family.  We didn't have cable, so to pass the time in the evenings, I would watch PBS shows like Washington Week to learn about the candidates and politics.  Not only would I be better informed by the end of each night, I'd be dead tired as well which made it much easier to fall asleep without my Mr.   That said, I feel like I knew enough by the end of this campaign to know who I wanted to vote for.  I am grateful for women of our history's past that made women's suffrage a priority.  It's such a blessing to be able to participate in the voting process.



Happy voting,
--Anna

Photo A Day Challenge//via Fat Mum Slim

Chantelle authors the lovely blog Fat Mum Slim.  I happened upon her Photo A Day Challenge for October while instagramming last month.  I decided this would be the perfect project for me to join in on since it doesn't require any heavy lifting.  I can't lug around anything weighing more than five pounds for 2 more weeks.  It's torture for this momma, who wants to rearrange all of the furniture in all three of her kids' rooms.  But whatever.  It can wait.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to share my weekly photos with you at the end of each week.  The challenge has made me more aware of small moments and to enjoy simple things.  Dishes stacked a mile high in the sink?  Reading Judy Moody: Girl Detective with my 2nd grader is much more fun.

If you'd like to follow along, click the link to her blog (above) to join in on the fun. Otherwise, follow me on instagram: @annieandm

Have a great weekend!
--Anna

a sleepy hello

It's been a quiet week.  The kids are gone all day to school and I am home all day twiddling my thumbs.  Okay, not really.  Truth be told, I don't sleep well at night.  Really it's more like tossing and turning carefully with a little sleep thrown in between.  I am still recovering from my recent hysterectomy and the tummy sleeper in me is dying to have to sleep in any other position.  I know all you tummy sleepers know exactly what I'm talking about.  It's killer.  So while the kids are being educated and the Mr. is makin' the bacon, I am catching up on my sleep.  I am happy to report, however, that I have healed enough to drive again.  And that means trips to the craft store are in order.  I have a few projects in the works and am excited to start sharing them with you next week.  In the meantime, I am soaking in the quiet of our little brick rental home and watching episodes of My Fair Wedding on netflix.  Holy crap I am addicted to that show.  It kinda makes me want to be a wedding planner.  Kinda.

In the meantime, I am helping Noah with hairstyles (all of his own wanting) & learning from Tatum that reading upside down must be better than right side up.  Who knew?  



When things get quiet on the blog, I'm still on instagram. Find me: @annieandm 

 xo,
--Anna

life according to instagram

Life has been busy in the Buis household as of late. The kids started school the day after Labor Day. We celebrated with homemade cinnamon rolls.  It reminded me of how much I love to bake.  Somehow, that love got put on a shelf a couple of years ago and I haven't done much with it.  Now that all of the kids are in school, I plan to make some of the treats I've been dreaming up in my head.  I'll share, of course ;)

In other news, I am healing from my surgery well.  I have another whole week before I can even leave the house and two weeks before I can drive again.  During my down time, I am watching netflix with the Mr. (today is was Rocky 3 - his choice, not mine), nap, do minimal house cleaning.   I am sprucing up this little blog here & there too.

What have you been up to?  

I am working on some new curtains (that I started before my surgery) and hope they'll be done next week.  I'm a slow worker ;)

xo,
--Anna

LA trip - part 1

I haven't posted in a month.  And what a month it was!  I became an aunt again (congrats Danny & Sam - we can't way to meet little Evan!), I planned a trip to Disneyland for the Mr. & I to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, I was a bridesmaid for a best friend's wedding, we settled into our rental home and spent hours & hours working on my new church calling.  I'm exhausted, yet fulfilled.  It's a satisfying feeling.

I thought I'd share the first leg of our trip to LA (Santa Monica, to be exact) first.  I grew up there from the age of 11 to 17.  And I loved it.  We moved around a handful of times and our final move landed us in a condo that was 4 blocks from the beach.  It's odd how when you go back to a place you once knew, how familiar, but not familiar, it is.  Does that make sense??  I wish we could have stayed longer.  We didn't have enough time to explore the city.  But it was good to see familiar faces, make new friends and soak in some one-on-one time with the Mr.

Most of the weekend was spent doing wedding stuff - dining out for lunch at Ivy By The Shore with the bridal party for lunch, eating crab for the first time and savoring the most delicious piece of red velvet cake.  It practically melted in my mouth - so heavenly!  After lunch, we got a mani/pedi and I am hooked.  Why have I never done this before??  I think I've found a new, fun addiction.  The wedding itself was ever so lovely.  The church was decorated with candles and flowers and filled with loved ones.  I've known  the bride and groom for years and it was so wonderful to see them fall in love and get married.  The reception was lovely.  The bride thoughtfully put the Mr. & I at a table that had a view of my old apartment.  Across the room, we could see my old high school, where I knew the bride & groom once upon a time.




This trip was just what I needed.  It's been years since the Mr. & I have had a real vacation together.  We promised we wouldn't wait so long to do something like this again.

I'll be back soon with part 2 of our little vacay - stay tuned!
xo,
--Anna

instagram//mother's day date

Mother's Day could not have come at a better time for me. Although I was fully recovered from surgery by then, I needed an excuse to get cute & go out with the Mr.  Recovering from illness or surgery sure does have a way of making you feel much less than attractive, doesn't it? So it was off with the pajama pants and on to the thrift shop for a new-to-me vintage dress, 2 sweaters, 1 skirt & top.   After a quick detour to the library (Because let's face it, we are parents to four kids who LOVE to read and we can't get through an entire date just to do date stuff. We must always sneak in an errand or two because it is soooo much easier to do it sans kiddos), we hit up Panera Bread for yummy sandwiches for dinner.  I think it's our new favorite date place to eat.  I brought home a carrot cake cupcake to share with the Mr. on Sunday evening.  It had a cream cheese filling that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.  And then we decided last minute to see Avengers.  The only showing left was in 3D and we paid a pretty penny for it too.  Sadly, the junior mints we got to eat with our popcorn (Have you ever had them together?  It's the perfect salty & sweet combo)  were stale & the Mr. returned them & got m-n-m's instead.  Not my favorite but I do love chocolate so it worked out.

Much love,
--Anna
PS - Find me on instagram - my username is annieandm.

last week in instagram

I love instagram - follow me: annieandm   Do you instagram? Comment your username so we can all follow you :)

Today is full of the usual - paying bills, a trip to the grocery store, a quick afternoon nap, & house hunting.  It's 10am and Noah is still in his jammies.  I like lazy mornings.  What are you up to today?

xo,
--Anna