Out of Towners

My parents came to visit! We had such a great time, and it was so good to see a really familiar face or two. We did lots of fun things, showed the around Nixa and the Springfield area, ventured down to Branson for a day, and did a lot of talking along the way. It made me somewhat more homesick the rest of this week, after they left, but I'm glad they got to see where we are and that we love it here and are doing fine. So thanks for making the LONG drive here just to stay for 3 days guys, it was worth it, for me :) Here's a few pics from their visit.

Branson Landing where they have a fountain show similar to the one at the Belagio in Vegas. The kids couldn't help it and splashed and got soaked.

The famous "foot" of chocolate for 99cents, which is actually a foot made of chocolate. It was yummy :)

We rode the "Ducks" in Branson, which are old military vehicles turned tour buses. They drive you around Branson and give you the history of it, then you get to go onto TableRock Lake in them, they are both water and land vehicles. Maci and Gavin both got to drive the Duck!


View of Table Rock Dam from what they call a "mountain" It ain't no mountain! But it was a pretty view.
Gavin with his quacker, which they hand out to everyone. Needless to say ours need to disappear mysteriously here soon.

We went to the Discovery Center, a children's museum here in Springfield. It's a great place, the kids loved it, and we ended up buying a season pass to it. I'm sure we'll be back again soon!


We went to the Fantastic Caverns, which is one of only 3 caves in the world that allow vehicles to drive through it. You're on a big wagon thing hooked to a jeep that drives you through the cave. It wasn't quite as picturesque as Timp Cave, but a heck of a lot easier to get to :)


Thanks for coming Grandma and Grandpa! We love and miss you. We can't wait for more family on both sides to come and see where we've landed ourselves in the world.

Proud Mama

Maci had her first Parent Teacher Conference yesterday. I have such a great kindergartener! Mrs. Mays says she's on track and beyond in lots of areas of what they're learning, and she gave her not just checks, but plusses, in all her social categories. She said she's always playing with everyone, has so many friends, is always responsible and doing what's she's supposed to when she's supposed to, is always willing to help the teacher and other students, and is all around just a great kid to have in class! All of that of course I already knew :) but it's always nice to hear what they're doing when you're not there to hold their hand. Maci loves school and I'm so glad she's willing to learn and excited every day to go to school. I can't believe I have a 5 year old! She's such a good kid and I couldn't ask for a better one. I love you Maci!!

What I've been up to this week

So I haven't posted the last week, just thought I'd give you a rundown of what we've been up to. I've done 2 Super Saturdays, a couple orders for Etsy, and one craft night and day for my own ward here. I've cut
35 sets of Harvest blocks and 35 pumpkins
31 sets of Peace blocks and 31 angels
9 JOY letter sets
2 Witch letter sets
1 Spooky set
1 Boo set
and a partridge in a pear tree!!

Well, not really, but I'm sure something I've cut would count as a partridge. My garage is covered in sawdust and my garbage can is full of scraps. It's been a busy week, but Chris has helped a lot and all have been shipped and painted with success. My parents come into town tomorrow! So I'm glad the craft craziness is over and I can focus on having a fabulous time with them. Thanks for listening to me whine!

I made Maci throw up today.

So I had a really bad mom moment today. I packed Maci's lunch, and specifically found the last granola bar that was just chocolate chip, no peanut butter. She's allergic to PB. So I THOUGHT I put that one in her lunch, but turns out, I didn't. I got a voicemail from the nurse around 2:30, saying she'd thrown up because she thought she ate some PB and that she was fine now, but they'd given her a shirt to wear, etc. Uggg talk about guilt! I figured out what I must have done. I didn't call the school, cause I figured if she was fine, no need to do that now. And they called like 3 hours after they each lunch? I'm sure she must have thrown up around 12:00, she usually throws up right after she eats something with peanuts. She said she smelled the granola bar and it didn't smell like PB, ate one bite and knew that it had PB in it. 1 bite! and she throws up. Oh well, I guess I should be glad she doesn't have some deathly allergic reaction. I felt really bad though. She was a trooper and said everyone was nice to her and didn't tease her. I am a horrible mother! today anyway.

Snack of Champions

I ate Bugles today. They were beckoning me at the Dollar store and I succumbed. I love Bugles. They remind me of my grandma. She would often have them at her house, something my parents rarely bought. They are crispy, crunchy, irresistibly salty, shaped like little cornucopias, yummy. They made me think of happy memories and fun times with my sister's at my grandma's house. Just thought I'd share my jaunt down memory lane. Eat some Bugles :)

Fun Fall Traditions

Tonight we did a fun fall tradition, baking sugar cookies and decorating them. The kids helped me make the dough, cut out the shapes, and then frost them. We gave a plate away to a neighbor with one of those "Pass it Around the Neighborhood" poem things that Chris's mom gave to us. Our neighbor caught us, but that's ok. We had a nice chat and passed on the cookies, (only adult frosted ones). We had a great time.



A couple nights ago we decided to have a movie night, and bought the Great Pumpkin off of iTunes. We blew up the air mattress, our kids favorite thing to do to make a night special, and made some popcorn balls. I found this recipe online and it was really good, the goo was just gooey enough but not crunchy. I like the chewy kind. So try them out! We put orange food coloring in too for festive fun.

This made 10 popcorn balls, plenty for our family, you could double for 20.
1/4 c + 2 TB light corn syrup
2 TB margarine or butter
1 tsp cold water
1 1/4 + 1 TB powdered or confectioners sugar
1/2 c marshmallows
10 C plain popped popcorn ( I needed about 3 bags because our microwave stinks and doesn't pop it very well. I'd go with air popped if you've got it!)

In saucepan over medium heat, combine all the ingredients but the popcorn. Heat and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. (I probably let it boil for about a minute just so it would set up a little) Carefully combine the hot mixture with the popcorn, coating each kernel. Shape balls by hand or use a greased measuring cup to press the popcorn in to form a ball, then set on a greased cookie sheet. Wrap with cellophane or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.


What are some of your fun fall traditions? We're always looking for fun ways to fill our time and make new memories!

You can all say I Told You So

So I sincerely thought we could keep these fish alive longer than a month, and we did, by a week or so :) Tiger passed away this week. The kids and I were not having a terrific day, and when I saw Tiger looking not so lively at the top of our fishbowl I must admit, I lost it and started crying. Over a fish! ridiculous. It was more for Gavin than the fish. He was pretty upset, and cried for a bit. He didn't quite understand what had happened, especially since Jewel was still alive and swimming. These were some classic kid lines from the experience.

Gavin: "Can't we take him to the hospital mommy?" Gavin after I said the fishy was sick.

Maci: "I guess he'll be in Fishy Heaven with Fishy Jesus" after I reassured Gavin that the fish was in heaven now.

Gavin: "The fishy stopped breathing" is his explanation to everyone we tell about Tiger.

We sent Tiger down the toilet and up to fishy heaven, similar to the scene on the Cosby Show with Lamar. It was a solemn occasion. We have not yet replaced the fish. . . I'm kinda waiting for Jewel to kick the bucket too so we can get two at once :) So you can all say Told Ya So!

Fall is on its way

Well, we've had a busy week this week. We started school, made a scarecrow, went to a festival, and got some cooler weather which was fabulous! Here's a few pics of our week.

Chris has been planning this scarecrow since about July, kind of a rendition of the one in the opening scenes of Nightmare Before Christmas, I think it turned out pretty well.
Scary, huh! We cut the face from one of those fake ones you can get at Michael's. Then we painted the inside black, and I did some brown paint in the creases to make it look old.

I have found my replacement for Swiss Days! It's the Ozark Arts and Crafts Festival, with over 400 booths! and delicious carny food of course. These spindles are cheap knock offs of a kind my Aunt used to paint, hers are SOOO much better! We had fun browsing the booths and talking myself in and out of doing a booth next year. We'll see.

This was the best part of my week, as the gas prices kept coming down! We got below 3$ for the first time in what seems like forever. I even saw a 2.85 today. At least one thing is getting cheaper, for now anyway. I'll take it.

Chris delved into his first week of grad school. We've realized this is going to be an exciting, yet very challenging chapter of our lives! Chris has spent a lot of time this week studying and even writing a paper already. I've spent a lot of time with the kids :) So we're both going to have to take it all in stride and realize this too shall pass! I'm proud of the start Chris has gotten and know that he'll do great in the coming weeks and year. Any of you out there who have done this and have pearls of wisdom on how to survive, please send it on!

We also got our first taste of general conference outside of UT. We don't get the Mountain channel here, we could, we just don't want to pay for it. So we listened to it on KSL through our AppleTV, which was really good actually. I did a bunch of craft stuff while listening, and I think I got just as much out of it as watching it, hopefully. The kids. . . I'm not sure they caught any of it, but we tried. We were going to try and get to one session at the church, we'll see if we get there. It's weird to watch it a 11 and 3 though! Chris went to the priesthood session tonight at the chapel. It's nice to still be able to take part in these traditions even if it's not with those we usually share them with. The church is the same wherever you go! but we do miss our family we usually share this time with. Love you guys!!

Ally's Attic Website Relaunch

So I know I haven't updated my craft website in FOREVER, so now was the time. I redid the design a little (you may recognize the look from this blog :) and have updated it with some of my newer stuff that's on the etsy site as well. There's also a blog section where you guys can post comments, I think? and I'd love to hear about what you like, don't like, etc. I'm ready for one of you guys out in Saratoga to start up a new craft group! Or any of you other lucky readers who'd like to delve into the wonderful world of crafts. So I just thought I'd let you know that it is updated and to go check it out! I just did a blog section on some blogs I'm being featured on, so go check those out too! Thanks for looking :)

www.allysattic.net