A Pinewood Derby Thanksgiving

We are home and recovering!! Thanksgiving was exciting as well as exhausting. For the first time in years, my family traveled down to Las Vegas. My parents are originally from there and basically all my family lives there. My Aunt Cindi (my Dad's sister) was getting married, and my Mom's family was having a huge reunion since ALMOST everybody was going to be in town. This tends to be difficult because my mother is the oldest of eleven. However, we only were missing two people. My cousin Dean who is on a mission, and my brother Kimball who had to work, which was heartbreaking!

I hope I can get a hold of some pictures from my Aunt Cindi's wedding, but the videos of my sisters and I dancing were the only things available at the moment, and as fun as dancing was, I don't wish to share those videos. :) But here is Madi and I enjoying ourselves in the chilly weather on a beautiful golf course waiting for the bride.

The Faught Reunion ( my Mother's side of the family) was as crazy as ever. With 52 grandchildren, and 1 great grandchild, the fun never let up. The agenda was full of food, sports, games, family history, dancing, and of course babies (at least for me). I am lucky enough that Madi loves her naps and will take them anywhere. We packed her pack n' play everywhere and she took long naps at my uncle's home during Thanksgiving, and in a little room at the church where we had breakfast and a PINEWOOD DERBY!! My Grandpa Manner even came to this to take pictures. He had seen my Dad and brother Fielding work hard on their cars and wanted to be there to document the fun. Little did they know that Jordan and I were a force to be reckoned with!
 
Jordan and I created a car with a simple cut out, but an awesome theme. We love Avatar: The Last Airbender, and decided to create the 'Avacar'. We worked hard on getting it to the correct weight, applying graphite to the wheels, and smoothing out the axles. We have a few other tricks up our sleeves, but they are for those that make the time to do the research only!

The finished product!The Avacar!

We had a digital track that kept track of the time. Each car went down 4 times on each lane and an average of the times were used to calculate the top 4 cars.

My parents getting reading for the races

Leslee putting graphite on the wheels of the family car.

Jordan and I putting last minute touches on our car.

My Uncle John announcing the races.

No matter how low key I try to be, I still get stressed and like to win.

Colin and Uncle John averaging the scores to find the top 4 cars.

The top for cars: My brother Fielding's car, My family's car, my Aunt Mindee's family car, and Jordan's and my car.

We ended up beating my family's car..... I told them they should be thankful or another family would have taken home the win. ( My Aunt Mindee was 2nd by a 100th of a second, my family was third)

My cute husband and cute baby

The Fuqua's for the win!!!

 Each family has their own color of shirt. I love all these people. Obviously I didn't get the original file, or it wouldn't turn out so blurry. We are missing a couple of husbands, a missionary, and a brother. Still... 52 grandchildren and counting, plus one great grandchild..... Not to shabby.

Grandkids Display

I decided to get a head start on some of my Christmas plans this year. The holidays get busy. Plus we are moving to Iowa right after the 1st of the year. For my mother in-law I decided to make a wooden plaque to display pictures of her grandkids! I found some inspiration on Pinterest and then tweaked the project to fit my liking and budget!

This was my inspiration!

The materials were pretty simple for the project and I had a lot of them on hand.

I knew I wanted a white wash look for the plaque, I wanted to bring out the grains of the wood, and not just paint over it with white. Actual white wash stain ended up being a little more expensive than I wanted and didn't come in a container smaller than a quart. Instead I mixed white paint with water (half and half). Painted a layer onto the board little by little, and rubbed it in with a cloth. I got the same subtle look, but for a fraction of the cost, since a bottle of white paint 66 cents. (By the way, my inspiration picture is not white wash, she actually painted the board and then 'artistically' drew in her grains. I didn't think I could do that)

Everything else was pretty straight forward. I cut out the vinyl lettering with my Cricut, screwed in the eyelet screws, tied the twine across tightly, then glued on some decorative flowers!

The Little Black Kitty Cat - Halloween 2015

Halloween had its ups and downs this year. I love dressing up and was so excited to have a baby to plan a costume for. I had costumes decided in the middle of September. I ordered a pink 'supergirl' onesie and planned to make a little tutu to match. I was going to be Lois Lane, Jordan was going to be Clark Kent, and Madison was going to be our little super daughter..... Then life happened.
Jordan had a conference for work in California and my brother, Kimball, was giving his homecoming talk in Rexburg the weekend of our ward Halloween party. That may sound like no big deal, however, that was the only reason to have a costume. All of a sudden Halloween lost it's excitement. Spending time and money on cute matching costumes seemed silly and a waste.

Madison's Fall church outfit. I did decide that it was worth the time and money to make this.

A week before Halloween, Jordan made the ultimatum that he was going to take Madi trick or treating even though I thought she was too young, plus he had a last minute graduate student party that we needed costumes for.

Thus was born, Madison the little black kitty cat.

The costume was definitely last minute, but I loved how it turned out. I used a black outfit that I bought on clearance for two bucks last winter and sewed a cheap feather boa around the ankles and wrists. The ears are made out of felt, pipe cleaners, and some boa embellishment. I made the ears into a hair piece so she couldn't tear it out. (brilliant idea by the way!!) The tail, I made out of a wire hanger and more of the feather boa. 

 Happy Halloween!!!