An Attempt at Craftiness

Every year I get a ton of Christmas cards in the mail and never have a good spot to put them. They usually end up on the entertainment center or the piano, but this year I wanted to do something different. I searched and searched for a greeting card holder. Well okay, I searched Target and found two that I didn't like. I thought, I'm sure the Internet has some great ideas. So I really did search and search the Internet for a good idea. I found this really cute Christmas wreath made out of clothespins. You just string them together on a wire with some beads between them and Voila! You have a greeting card holder wreath. Sounds pretty simple until you realize that each of the 42 clothespins had to be painted inside and out. That took me a couple days to complete. My cute little brain didn't even think to take them apart to paint. That was the great and wonderful Stevey's idea. So after painting all that I could on the outside, we finally decided to take them apart and paint the middles. Don't ask me how I was going to do that part with them still put together.

The instructions said to use a hanger wire and pony beads. I chose these cute red and green beads over the pony beads, but a hanger wire just would not fit through them. I bought some wire that was just perfect. I put it all together and Voila! It was as limp as a noodle. It looked really nice sitting on the table, but once you picked it up it just sagged. The wire was not strong enough.

So after another attempt at shoving the hanger wire through the beads, I decided I would just hot glue the hanger wire to the back of the wreath. This time the Voila, worked! It stayed together, it didn't sag, and you can hardly tell the wire is on the back!

The only thing that the hanger wire changed is now I can't move the clothespins forwards and backwards, but hey who cares? I think it looks awesome!

Click here for the Woman's Day article where I found the idea.

A Transformation in our Lives

We have a very exciting new addition to our family! We recently bought a black lab puppy and we named him Optimus Prime. He is a true Autobot Transformer. He even has the dog tag to prove it. Optimus was born on September 4th. We picked him up from a breeder in Provo on October 23rd.

When we took him to the vet for a check-up the week we got him he weighed 11.6 pounds. Now he weighs 26.5 lbs! We were told to expect him to be 80+ pounds full grown.

It has definitely been a big adjustment in our lives. We plan on Optimus being an outdoor dog, but I think we bought him at the wrong time of the year since it has been so cold outside. For the first month or so he slept in a little crate my grandma had bought for us inside the house. Then during the day he stayed in his dog run with his dogloo. Don't worry, we put up wind barriers and a roof. (Which coincidentally collapsed in with all the wet snow today) :(

Optimus started puppy kindergarten a month ago. He is doing great! He knows "Take It," "Off," how to sit and lay down, "Bed," "Go Potty," and "Up." Potty training is going well. Every time we think he's got it though, then he goes and pees on my mom's carpet or poops in the hall. Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle cleaner and hardwood floors.

Optimus and Dammitt have a love/hate relationship. Optimus loves her and she hates him. I think she may be a little jealous of the attention he gets. Typical first child behavior...ya know, growling, hissing, scratching... But the more training Optimus gets, the more Dammitt doesn't seem to mind him.

We love him to death, well, Steve loves him most the time; my love is unconditional! ;)

There is lots more to tell, but I will explain with the pictures.

This is my first picture with our little boy!

I picture Steve saying "Duh Duh Duhs" in this picture. Just look at that little belly.

This is when we put him in the crate in the car. He wouldn't even eat his treat. The dog toy was from the breeder. It has the scent of the litter and mom on it, so it was supposed to make him feel better.

Our first stop after Petsmart with our little boy was Carolyn and Bob's house. Here Optimus is with his Auntie Carolyn.

This was the first time we saw Optimus transform...it was a true miracle. I'm not sure why he transformed into his fellow Autobot, Bumblebee though. I thought he was supposed to be a semi-truck.

Dammitt and Optimus meeting for the first time. That was fun!

Our stinky little boy getting a well needed shower. Just look at the brown suds in the tub.

He was shivering so bad. Next time I'm totally getting out the blow dryer. FYI his eyes are not really blue, although they look that way in most pictures. They are brown. It's kind of like red eye for humans.

We read the dogs love peanut butter...the sign of a true Cutler.

Look at his adorable peanut butter face! Duh, duh, duhs...

His humongous dogloo! Its the extra large size. We partitioned it off so he could only use a little bit or else they will sleep in one side and go potty in the other.

Taking a well needed nap on one of his first days. This is usually Dammitt's favorite position. I don't think she has anything to worry about though, because Optimus is too squirmy and now way to big to do this anymore.

This was the second time Optimus transformed. This time it was on October 31st. I just love the little white stinger on the back.

My dad with Optimus. He is such a sucker for puppies. My mom and dad puppy-sat for us and apparently my dad's hands were Optimus' chew toys.

Optimus getting his favorite toy...his stuffed pheasant. No need to get up though, he'll just stretch.

Steve took this adorable picture. He said it took him quite a few tries to get it perfect. Well worth the effort honey!

There is the manly man himself putting together the dog run. It's pretty big, 7 1/2 ft x 12 ft, and 6 ft tall.

Optimus decided he needed to help too. He was bringing us (running away with) some of the parts.

There are my boys! Oh so cute! You may notice the laundry baskets filling up the rest of the dog house.

Well, our poor boy grew so fast he could hardly fit in his crate anymore. You can see his scrunched up body in the little crate. We bought the big one on KSL.com and it barely fits in the Subaru. Now he sleeps in that at night, at least while it's cold outside.

Here is Steve about to go on one of his walks with Optimus. I'm not sure if Optimus did any walking or not. :)

We partitioned off the big crate at first, but now he has free rein of the whole crate.

I wanted to show you a comparison picture from the first day and from a few days ago. He fell asleep on my chest that first day.

And here is how he fits now. Such a cute little boy!

Here is his Christmas picture. I love the sweater. Dammitt has a matching one.

This is Dammitt's cyborg eye...she senses an Autobot. We really think she might be a decepticon.

He is telling us he is bored with taking pictures.
Oh, the puppy dog eyes...love it!

UEA in Yellowstone

Sorry it has been so long. There has been a lot going on and I got out of the blogging mode. Over UEA break Steve and I decided to go to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. Now if you don't know what UEA break is, it's the Utah Education Association's yearly conference. Now you may be thinking, "Why is a teacher not partaking in a conference for educators?" The truth is, I've been to it at least 3 times in my 5 1/2 years of teaching and I think that is a pretty good track record. So this year I took a real break. We wanted to stay at the KOA in West Yellowstone, but they closed the day before we wanted to go. So the next closest place was the KOA in Jackson Hole. Jackson Hole, we found out, is still quite a ways from the actual entrance to Yellowstone. You first have to go through the Grand Tetons then into Yellowstone. Unfortunately Yellowstone was also doing major road construction and had a active fire while we were there. So it took even longer to get through all of that mess. If you haven't been toYellowstone or don't remember, the majority of the park is on one grand loop road. From the entrance we went in through you could go left and go to Old Faithful and the Basin Geysers or right and go to everything else. The first day we decided to go right. It would have been a lot faster to go to the right and come down the left, even if we didn't have time to go to Old Faithful, but there was a small strip of road closed down right above the West entrance. So we went about 3/4 the way around the loop to go the Artist's Paint Pots, then had to turn around and go all the way back. It was dark the whole way back. We saw more animals in the dark then we had seen all day. We passed multiple HERDS of elk along the side of the road, almost ran into a buffalo casually walking in the middle of the road, a few deer eating on the side of the road, and one frightening cow elk that jumped in front of us.
Well enough talking...let's see some pictures and I'll describe them if needed. They are in no particular order.

We happened upon a cattle drive in Wyoming.

Our KOA Kabin at the Snake River KOA.

The other side.

Our cute little "Kabin." Just behind Steve taking the picture was a drop off to the shore of the Snake River. Pretty neat!

On the shore of the Snake River.

Steve chucking a big rock in the Snake River.

Me about to make the big plunge.

The natural slide we found at our KOA.

The antler arch in Jackson.

"Champagnenenene," our car, under the antler arch.

Sarah holding up the Tetons.

Steve holding up the Tetons.

The active fire in Yellowstone.

An acid lake. Anyone for a swim?

Need a drink?

One of two waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

A huge glacial bolder.

Cool overview of one of the basins.

I like the blowing one behind us. It only took me like 10 tries to get it right...that's why we look so excited!

I love this picture.

This was the sunset when we went to the Artist Paint Pots.

It's hard to see, but there is the buffalo strolling across the road. It was awesome. We could see his breath blowing out and there was frost all over his legs.

We also took quite a few tries to get this one right. Steve ran and jumped to get in this picture.

This is Jenny Lake. Steve calls it Sarah Lake because "it's sooo beautiful!" Isn't he sweet?

Here is Steve looking cute, putting his waterproof shoes in the water off the dock.

We decided to carve our names in the tree stump. It was taking forever because of the wood grain.

So Steve had a great idea just to put SC^2. (SC squared)

Can you tell it was snowing...and cold!

One of three times we passed the Continental Divide.

Awesome buffalo with hot pots behind him.

This elk was bellowing. It was so cool!

A panoramic of Jenny Lake. Sorry it's so small.

More entries to be made...hopefully soon. But it is now past my bed time.