Pallet coffee table

Look what we made (idea came from Ana-White):

Cut a pallet in half:

Prime the pallet and let dry:

Paint!: (Even Lily was out 'helping' us paint)

Our little painting helpers:

Put the finished painted pallets on top of one another

Screw the two sides together and affix the wheels:

Turn it over on the wheels and touch up where needed:

Here it is with nothing on it, just drying overnight:

For Lunch the next afternoon while the girls were napping. 

We had fun putting stuff in the 'shelve' areas:

This was super easy, and such a fun family project. ANd now we have a coffee table! YAY! 

Abstract Stuffed Bear

I was headed to a friend's baby shower and had made a super soft quilt and some matching burp cloths for her second baby boy. I had some fabric left over and decided to make a matching teddy bear. My girls loved the bear, so the next day we went down to the fabric store and got them some of their own super soft fabric. I was on a roll, I ended up making the girls each a bear, one for their friend, and another for the baby to be's brother. Here's a little step-by-step for this super easy fun project...

-Draw a bear, cut it out, trace the cut out onto the 'inside side of a chosen fabric. (I used a solid color for the back of the bear and a fun pattern on the front):

-Sew button eyes onto the fun pattern fabric (or whichever you choose to be the bear's front). (No picture)

-Place the two pieces together front to front (you are going to pull it through once they are sewed together, so whichever sides you want to eventually be facing out are placed facing each other). Pin the traced bear:

-Sew along the black outline. Start at one side of the end of a leg, and finish at the other side, leaving the leg open at the bottom for stuffing. Trim the excess fabric once sewed together:

-Pull the bear through the open leg:

-Stuff with stuffing or leftover scraps of the super soft fabric or a combination. When stuffing, fill the extremities (ears, arms, other leg) first so they form their shape. Continue to stuff the bear to desired fullness and close up the open end of the leg with a hand stitch or use the machine:

(The five bears, the back of Dahlia's just for reference on the solid vs. pattern. You can see the button eyes in the picture below as well)

-Give the bears to the kids and watch them enjoy:

It was a super fun and easy project. I know I will eventually make another one for Lily when she get older, or when we find some fun fabric at the store.

I just love how these are such a perfect size and are so unique and not perfect. The buttons aren't centered and the ears and arms and legs don't quite match. The belly is a little too round, but they are so fun that way. And the girls sleep with them every night.

Happy creating.

Crayon melting FUN!!!

So I was browsing the old internet for some craft ideas and found this: Crayon Cars. SO we decided to have some fun making some crayon bugs and zoo animals this morning....

First you take the paper off all the crayons:

Next, spray the pans with cooking spray, and break up the crayons to fill the trays with the colors you want:

Put the filled trays in the 200 degree oven, and keep checking the progress every 10 min. Once most of the first crayons melt, there may be room for more crayons, so add some more and keep baking:

Take them out and have them cool and re-harden:

Then you have FUN crayon bugs and animals in fun multi-colors, YAY!:

FUN FUN FUN! Now we have some animal crayons to draw with! Happy crafting!

She's here!!!!

Lilian Joy Scanlon.

Born 6.16.2011.

10:04am.

At home.

8lbs.

21in.

We are in love.

This Thanksgiving, we are very thankful to announce....

Banana Slug Pals

Living in the Santa Cruz mountains, we see TONS of Banana slugs. So far this summer it's been about 3 a day when we leave in the morning to go to the pool. Today, our friend the banana slug stuck around until the afternoon. We were walking back up to the house from swim lessons and the girls hung out with their pal on our walkway for a bit. It allowed me to go inside, grab the camera and capture this precious time....

T-Shirt Quilts

When we had baby showers for the girls, we had an AWESOME idea to make personalized onesies with puffy paint... It was GREAT, and everyone participated.

Here are some from Cami's baby shower:

And this is the table with us working at Dahlia's:

It was super fun, and the girls had unique clothes to take home and wear:

Since they were so personal, it would have been weird to give them away, and kinda useless to keep old small onesies folded away in the closet. So, I decided to make a quilt for each for the girls out of their old shirts.

These were my first quilt attempts ever, I didn't know really where to start. I had ideas in my head about what I wanted. I found a SUPER easy quilting tutorial here: Quilt-in-a-Day. I found some fun fabric, a SUPER soft backing, and got started. I cut out all of the onesies, cut out squares in the colored fabric, sewed the t-shirts onto the squares, then quilted all of those together. (I really followed the tutorial, except I didn't sew the last step along the horizontal rows, I just sewed bullets in each four corner intersection of the squares).

And here are the finished projects:

Cami's:

Dahlia's:

The girls are actually napping with them right now. They are super cozy and heavy. It was fun.

Bucket Baby

A couple of weeks ago, on one of those hot days, we had a bucket of water/soap on the back deck to play with, while I did some dishes. Dahlia LOVES water. She decided she needed to get in. Diaper and all. It was hilarious.

BOB Ironman Duallie Stroller

We recently purchased (with A LOT of financial gift help from the grandparents as a Mothers Day/Cami's birthday combo gift) a much needed double jogging stroller. One of the best. The BOB Ironman Duallie We love it, well the girls LOVE it. Whenever it is unfolded and ready to go, the girls climb in as fast as they can with excited noises. I repeat, they LOVE it.

One of the main motivators for this stroller has been to scheduling difficulties we have been running into with me trying to train for half marathons (or get out and run in general) and Ian's work schedule/availability to watch the kids. We have had a couple days where some unexpected scheduling things come up for Ian's work, or weather, or something where my planned running had to be put on hold. Anyway, we are SUPER excited now to have mobility for the girls and I during all hours of the day.

We have also been able to run as a family. This last Saturday we ran about 4 miles with the stroller. (In our Five Fingers of course) It was so great, Ian and I were able to have some quality time while working out, and getting the kids outside. I also walked the girls down the the grocery store and got some dinner items. We are SO happy to have this new piece of equipment. It even folds up enough to fit in our little Honda Civic trunk. YAY!

Hobie Polarized

About a month and a half ago, I received in the mail a new pair of Hobie Polarized Sunglasses. Now there is a bigger story here than just that fact. While Lifeguarding for USOS for 6 years, I really came to understand the fundamental fact that good eyewear is one of the most critical purchases you can ever make (if you have an active/outdoor lifestyle) We use our eyes SO much, and they need to be protected. Having Hobie as a sponsor for USOS, allowed me to purchase some amazing sunglasses (pictured below)

Now these glasses stuck with me and endured some tough times for 8 years, ocean, sand, river, snow, Central America, marriage, babies, hospitals, swim lesson instruction, countless hours in the car, and more. They have protected my eyes from all the stress I put them under. Eventually the glasses broke. I was devastated. They came with me everywhere, and they were broken.

I contacted Hobie and they mentioned the manufacturers, so I contacted them as well. Since this model was pretty old, and I had forgotten the name of it, they were able to offer me a new pair of my choosing at half price. On a trip back to OC, I went into the store to try on some new glasses and found a few that I liked. We ended up purchasing a pair of 'El Capitans', and though I really loved the 'Topanga' style, they didn't have the lens/frame combo I was looking for. Anyway, we were fine with the El Caps, and they actually fit Ian a bit better. So he started using them, and really commented on how amazing a great pair of sunglasses changes things.

Well, about a month and a half ago I started following @HobiePolarized on Twitter. They had a contest for their first followers. I won a pair of Sunglasses through this contest. I was pretty sure the contest glasses would just be a model that they pick, but just on a whim, I mentioned how I liked the Topanga model when I was giving them my address. Two days after my birthday, I went to get the mail, and they were there. I opened the packaging, and saw 'Topanga' written on the box. My heart literally leapt with JOY! The Topangas are pictured below, and I have been SO blessed to once again have some quality glasses that I love. I just thought I would share. Hobie is a great company, and they make QUALITY products, so if you're ever in the market for surf/boat/kayak/eyewear/SUP, I highly recommend my friends at Hobie.

River City Half Marathon

Yesterday, 4.18.10, I ran my first half marathon in Sacramento. It was a perfect morning for the beautiful bicycle trail run.

We drove up to Sacramento on Saturday and spent the evening with Ian's Dad and step mom. We went and picked up the race packet and then headed to our carb dinner at 'The Old Spaghetti Factory' in Elk Grove. We met our friends for dinner. Tim, Sara, Asher, Lori, Robin, the couple they were staying with, and Lauren all were there for our delicious dinner. Amy and Jeff arrived while we were leaving. Amy had work that day.

Sara and Amy ran the full marathon on Sunday, they're start time was 7am.

Woke up at 6:40. About 7 I started eating. I had a wonderful loaded breakfast salad I had prepared before we left for our trip (knowing the hotel would not really have anything), a banana, and some hummus on whole wheat flatbread. Yummy, energy filled grub. The salad was great for replenishing some water loss due to sleep, and the potassium filled banana and yummy hummus were a great filler. About 15 minutes before the race I downed a Luna Bar and a Cliff Energy Gel. With a few swigs of water, I was ready to go!!!

Ian drove me to the start for the half and the air was filled with runner's anticipation and excitement. I was ready. Here Ian snapped a fantastic pre-race picture.....

I ran in my Vibram Five Finger Sprints. (pictured below) It was so funny walking around before the race. Without fail, everyone mumbled among they're friends about the 'shoes.' Things like "Wow, oh look she's wearing those barefoot things...." or "I've heard about those..." or just nudging and looking and chatting about how they've heard something about running barefoot, and/or these shoes, or the Nike Free's or something along those lines. It was fantastic. No one did anyone approach me about them until we were about to start. There was an awesome guy who had tried them at an expo and was asking about my experience with them. ( I LOVE THEM BY THE WAY) My feet are strong, and I have NO injuries at all.

Once the race started, I had about 6 or 7 people trot with me and chat about the shoes. We talked about the science and info behind the running barefoot trend. If you know me, you know I just love to be barefoot anyway I can. These are SO light, I don't feel like I have heavy clunky shoes weighing me down. I feel myself landing on my mid/fore foot more often, my posture is straighter, they let me feel the ground and let my toes have some space. My feet are stronger, and I am not depending on any fancy cushy inserts that would just weaken the tendons by having them stay inactive. It's just like working out any other body part, allowing my feet to naturally strengthen with work. I guess it would be like trying to lift weights with cushions around all of your muscles supporting them and doing the work for you. Your muscles would never strengthen properly that way. Also, a lot of running teams spend training time barefoot, and Nike has there new 'Free' shoe that simulates a barefoot feel. I just love them. I am not running in them to be trendy, (and seeing how everyone was just looking at me and chatting about them and not really approaching me) I TRULY believe that they are the best thing for me, my feet and my running. It seems like there are just a few people running in them right now anyway. We'll see how it is in a few years. Some people just can't give up their shoes.

The following are some pictures from the start of the race....

I finished in 2hrs 20min and 06seconds. (according to my official foot chip time)

I am super excited about it. This was my first run at this distance ever. I was super back and forth about wether or not I was going to run this race anyway. I really started training seriously only 3 1/2 weeks before the race, so I wasn't expecting a lightning pace or anything. I am vert satisfied with my pace. I ran the whole thing VERY comfortably. I was expecting to hit a wall, but never did. I just kept it steady and relaxed and stayed at a pace that was challenging, but not too much. I had one guy run with me for a few miles. He wasn't entered in the race, he was just out for his long run. He was encouraging me that my pace was great. I was consistent, comfortable and kept it relaxed. With about 2 1/2 miles to go, I passed another guy going the other way who commented... "you're doing GREAT, nice and relaxed, keep it up." I was so encouraged.

I finished strong, and though I probably could have pushed it a bit more, I was glad to get a feel for the distance. I am planning on running the Disneyland 1/2 with my sister and some friends on September 5th. I will be training for that a lot longer than I did for this one.

I will post some finish line pictures, when I get them back from the course photographer.

Ian and the family were unable to get to the finish before I made it back. There was a mix-up with the time and everything, but they supported me the rest of the day with love and admiration!!

We finished out our time in Sacramento with a visit to Sutter's Fort in the city, here is a picture of us all...