Second Star to the Right and Straight on 'til Morning

Orson's costume kind of looked like Robin Hood... Oh well... I should have make his hat green.





You can see Dan's hands in this picture but Orson's face is priceless and he looks like he is flying.


He can fly...

He can fly...

He can fly!

How Do We Get to Neverland?

Come with us of course :)



For Halloween this year we wanted to be Peter Pan, Tinkerbell and Captain Hook. I wanted to make our costumes this year. I didn't make Dan's but I put it together and jazzed up the jacket with some awesome buttons. Orson did NOT want to take picture this year. There was too much going on and he didn't want to stand still for long.


This is what we call Orson's "sour puss face"


"I'll get you Captain Hook!"

...and strangle you...

...just kidding... "huggies"


Eating at Trunk-or-Treat


I love this picture because Orson, I mean, Peter Pan's dagger looks like it's photoshopped in. It's jut the angle though :)

Sewing week

So... this was the first time I sewed a pattern before. Usually I would pick out a pattern and D'Laina would do most of the sewing :) (by the way, thanks to D'Laina for making me such awesome costumes, you made Halloween fun for me all those years)

This year I decided I wanted to learn how to sew on my own. Well, I don't know who does it but I commend the people out there that can pick out a pattern for the first time and know exactly how to read the pattern. I had no idea, I didn't know really anything about sewing... such as, what the heck is basting?! I know the cooking term ;) But I didn't think that would work for sewing. I decided to get help from Dan's mom and thankfully she decided to help me! She explained the directions and taught me some need-to-know things about sewing. I cut out the pattern before I went over to her house to sew. It so happened that Danielle was sewing Jason's ninja costume as well. He just had a house FULL of projects!



Orson "helping" Aunt Danielle. We actually had a hard time keeping Orson from stepping all over her fabric.


So, thanks to Melinda for helping me sew my costume. I did the sewing but she helped me with SO much! THANKS!

I've decided to enter the Simplicity pattern contest so this is the picture of my finished costume that I will be sending in.

Pumpkin Carving

On Halloween Eve we decided to carve our pumpkins. I love to carve pumpkins! I'm a little OCD about it actually. I have to clean out the guts REALLY good (you could probably eat out of it with no pumpkin floaties.) Anyway, this was the first year that Orson got to participate. Last year he was sleeping while we were carving.

I had Orson help me pull out the guts...


He didn't like it very much. He just liked to be by me while I was cleaning out our 2 pumpkins.

Of course Oscar had to check out what we were doing

After I cleaned out Orson's pumpkin, I took a break to put him to bed. But before he picked out what he wanted for his carving.

Orson LOVES Elmo! This was the pumpkin he wanted to do... I thought I did a pretty good job with it.

This is the carving I chose. I wanted to do a scary one this year.

This is Dan's. He did such a great job! I don't have any pictures of Dan doing his pumpkin because I was putting Orson to bed and he was pretty much finished by the time I got back to the kitchen.


Here they are! We love pumpkin carving and Hallween!

Lemonade Anyone?

I'm starting to really hate lemonade.

Dan went off to work this morning and called me a little while later to tell me he was coming home. He lost his job this morning. He wasn't making the numbers they wanted him to be making. I have no idea what we're going to do... I feel like every few months we go through the same thing. I don't get. I don't understand. Life gives us lemons and time and time again we make lemonade. I'm starting to be a lemonade expert and I am also starting to hate making it.

So if anyone has a job they know about that would work well for our family... let me know. At this point relocating anywhere is an option as long as the price is right.

I don't really know what to say... I think I'll just go cry for a while and trust the Lord enough to know we'll be ok.

Singing for all the world to see

Well, I finally did it. I put my voice out there in the world to be judged however it might be judged. I wanted to try out for American Idol for a really long time but as I thought more about it... I didn't want the lifestyle for myself. So I gave up and moved on to other things and other dreams. D'Laina told me that I should audition for The Glee Project and as I thought more and more about it I realized that I liked the idea. To be able to sing, act and dance is something that I want. I would be able to play a character that teenagers could connect with and not feel so alone in the trials they face. If you win you get to be on 7 episodes of Glee (or so I recall). If it's something that doesn't fit my family's lifestyle or mine, I don't have to continue with another contract. Dan really likes the idea and so do I.

If you want to look at my audition video go to www.thegleeprojectcasting.com and search the auditions for EmberDeeB. You could also take it one step further and if you like my video click the thumbs up (like button) underneath the video screen.

Wish me luck :)

Like Mother Like Son

So I have to explain this because it was like a flashback to the stories my family told of me when I was young. Obviously I don't remember this but I thought it was pretty funny...

When I was young I used to watch The Little Mermaid over and over again (among other movies as my family would say) and when Ursula would come on I would leave the room. My family would always know when Ursula came on (or the witch from Robin Hood Prince of Thieves or the trolls in Willow... you get the point). They would say "Ursula must be on huh?" and I would nod my head very scared. She is pretty scary though don't you think?



So what does this have to do with Orson? Well...

Orson's favorite movie right now is Finding Nemo. I went to the kitchen to help Dan do something with dinner and the next thing we know Orson runs into the kitchen whimpering. I went to the living room and this is what I saw on the screen...


Orson is totally scared of Bruce the Shark! I might be a bad mom for this but I laughed. It was what I always heard my family telling me that I would do and here was Orson doing the same thing I did when I was his age. Like mother, like son.