DIY Kids Puzzle

I was playing with the puzzles with Olivia one day and thought to myself, "You know, these wouldn't be that hard to make."  And I was right!  It might be a little hard if you don't have tools, but I do : )  So if you are a little handy, here's how I did it.

Materials needed:
1/4" wood.  I used a wood panel I found at Home Depot 2'x4' for about $7
spray adhesive
wood glue
Table saw/ Jig saw/ Circular saw - any kind of saw to cut your wood panel into 2 pieces
scroll saw
drill
sandpaper
Mod Podge

Step 1:
Make your photo you want to use and print 2 copies (I did one black&white, why waste colored ink).  I used Paint.net, it's a free program you can download.  Or you can use Photoshop, or if you don't want to mess with editing, you could just use a family photo instead of making a new scene.  (For me this was the longest step, finding the pictures and putting it all together)

Step 2:

Cut your panel to size.  I made an 8"x10.5" photo, and then left about a 3/4" around the edge.  So cut 2 pieces that are the same size.  I used a table saw, but if you don't have one you can use whatever saw you can find to cut your pieces out

Step 3:
Spray the spray adhesive onto the back of your picture, and stick it in the middle of one of your panels.

Step 4:

Using a drill bit that is just bigger than your scroll saw blade, drill a hole next to every puzzle piece you want to cut out

Step 5:

Run your scroll saw blade through the hole, then attach the blade again.  Cut out your puzzle piece.  I just free handed mine, but if you are going for specific shapes, you could trace the shape onto the picture first to give you a line to follow.

Repeat Step 5 until all of the puzzle pieces are cut out.

Step 6: 

Remove any paper that is peeling up, and sand all of the edges

Step 7: 

Here is where I will change what I did for the next puzzle.  With this puzzle, I taped my final photo to the front, flipped it over and using my exacto knife, I cut the paper pieces out, so they could be glued onto the puzzle pieces.  Then I used Mod Podge and to glue the paper to the wood and covered the paper with mod podge to seal the paper on.  But that got the paper a little wet and created air bubbles that ended up making a crease in the paper.  So what I would do differently is stick a little painters tape around the edge of the wood panel, spray more spray adhesive onto the wood panel, then stick my photo on, then cut the piece out.  I didn't have any problems with using the Mod Podge to glue the smaller pieces onto the wood, just with the main puzzle part.  So do it whatever way you feel more comfortable doing it, I think either way would work.

Step 8:
Once everything is all Mod Podged together, get your second piece of paneling.  Using wood glue, glue the 2 pieces together and set something heavy on top of the puzzle.  Make sure your heavy thing covers the whole puzzle or else you might have a gap inbetween the 2 pieces.  Let the glue dry.

Step 9: 

Sand down the edges and round the corners (don't want any accidents with pointy corners).  I used my orbital sander for this, makes it go a little faster : )

Step 10: 

Decorate the edges- you can leave it just wood if you want.  If you do paint the wood, make sure you seal the paint with either more Mod Podge, or some clear spraypaint for sealing crafts.

Step 11:  

Play with the puzzle with your kids!  My daughter has had so much fun playing with her aunts, grandparents, friends, and cousins : )

The Mason Update

We always thought Mason's eyes weren't acting quite right, but just thought he was a new baby and didn't have much control of his eyes. But when we were in Seattle for Christmas we found out he had cataracts. We first thought it was only in one eye, but found out later that he had congenital cataracts in both eyes. We were able to get an appointment at Primary Children's Hospital on Jan. 9th and the doctor told us he needed surgery ASAP because the brain would eventually give up and shut down that part of the brain. His first surgery was on the right eye on the 11th and then the left eye was done on the 20th. Both surgeries went really well. The doctor said that the second one was much more difficult and it took longer, but he said he got it and it turned out perfectly. When we took his patch off after his first surgery we immediately noticed a difference in his eyes. His eyes stopped bouncing and whipping back and forth. In between the surgeries we went into another doctor and had Mason fitted for hard contacts. He HATES his contacts! We will have to slowly get him used to those, and during that time he has a pair of glasses to wear. We were able to get a loaner pair until his real glasses come in. He looks pretty silly in his coke bottle glasses haha. We are just so grateful for the advances in medicine so that our little man can go through life with sight. We are so grateful for everyone keeping him and us in their prayers.

Question when will Brooke update the blog next?

I don't really know how this whole blogging thing works-- but I figured that since Mason was born 2 months ago there has been a steady decline in blogs.

Oh and just to let you know Mr. Blog page thingy, don't feel too bad. At least you are not the chickens which have also been forgotten about. Kinda makes you concerned that if another kid is ever born Olivia might too get forgotten. Olivia if you are reading this you might want to start preparing to fend for yourself. I'll try and keep the pantry stocked with easy Mac; if only the microwave wasn't so high.






Olivia got a nice taste of Snow. She wasn't too sure about the skiing, but did like slidding on her bum.

Also Olivia has finally had success in her ability to jump. Previously she could 'jump' but never actually was able to get off the ground.



Olivia's Aunts have decided that in case she has to start cooking for herself they might as well show her how it's done. She seems to be having some trouble with the difference between baking powder and baking soda.



Oliva has also learned how to decorate her brother.

Spook Night

Saturday night Winnemucca had Spook Night at the Fairgrounds. It is a Halloween Party with a bunch of booths set up for kids to play games. Olivia DID NOT want to wear her costume. I even practiced a couple of times before trying to get her to wear her costume and she hated it! She would just pull at it and say "OUCH!" So anyway, I got her dressed and told her we were going to see her friends and she needed to wear it so we could go. We arrived at the fairgrounds and once she saw her friends, Capt. America and Scooby Doo, were dressed up and that all the other kids around were wearing funny outfits, then she liked being an elephant. It was like something clicked and her thought process was "Oh I'm not the only dork dressed up in weird clothes". Olivia the Elephant with Scooby Doo and Capt. America

Playing the Spider Toss Game. She even got one of her spiders through the net and in the bowl.

Reaching in to pull out some "An-ey" or candy

Mason didn't wear his costume, but he still had fun : )

Mason Grant Smith

Mason was born Oct 3, 2011 at 11:47am. He weighed 7lbs 7oz and was 20 in long. Olivia loves him and is a little smothering, we have to keep telling her to be soft or give Mason his space. "Macy" is her favorite.

Our Summer So Far

It has been a pretty good summer so far. Our garage is coming along. The garage door is in, but due to technical difficulties we are waiting for more hinges in the mail so that the garage door can be functional. We started putting up siding yesterday and worked until about noon, then decided it was too darn hot to be working outside in the sun. But we are hoping to have all the siding done by labor day weekend so we can paint the house. After the house is painted we just have a little bit more landscaping to do in the backyard and around the garage and our house will be finished! Well at least it won't look so junky, I don't think our house will ever be finished : ) But I am really excited to have our house painted, and hopefully the color we picked out will look better than the awful blue it is right now.

As for other summer happenings, my brother Jordan was married in the Salt Lake Temple June 17th. Olivia had fun playing with all of her relatives on the temple grounds while we waited for the newlyweds to come out the doors for pictures. We stayed in Winnemucca for 4th of July this year. I am to cheap to pay for a 4th shirt for Olivia, so I made her one out of a cut off onesie and sharpies. It looked pretty good until she started drooling, drinking, and eating. We had our friends over for a BBQ and then watched the fireworks. I was pretty impressed with the fireworks, I was expecting a really lame show, but Winnemucca came through. Liv kept saying "Wow!" It was a fun day.

Olivia had her friends over for a fingerpainting party. The three didn't really care to much about the fingerpainting, but they had fun playing in the backyard together, especially when the hose got turned on to wash them and all of the toys.

I was able to go up to Rexburg for my 2nd cousins wedding. It was so much fun to go back there. Alot has changed! Alot of my family was there so it was fun to spend a weekend with them and to be in Rexburg. I went into the Geology department and Olivia liked looking at the rocks and the fish that they have in the museum. I guess it runs in the family.

The biggest bummer of our summer was the Jenkins moving to Texas. Olivia and Elena were like sisters (they even shared the same birthday). I think Olivia thought that Chayla was her second mother because when I went to Girls Camp for a week she stayed at the Jenkins house. Andrew would pick her up at night for a couple of hours, but because he gets up at 4:30am to go to work, Olivia spent the night at the Jenkins house too. When I came home I thought Olivia would be sooo excited to see me and would have missed me. But no...she was more excited to see her van and wanted to play in it instead of giving me a hug. I was a little hurt, but I was glad that she wasn't sad while I was gone. The girls had alot of fun together even though they were constantly fighting. Olivia has asked for Elena just about every day this week, which makes me miss Chayla, so it has been a rough week : ) We will miss them very much!

Utah Trip

This weekend we went to Utah for our niece's baby blessing. Andrew's sister Jessica came out for a visit, and it was so much fun to see her. We gave Teresa a break and took the kids to the Hogal Zoo. Olivia liked it alot more than the last time she went, although alot of the animals still scared her. They have a life size T-Rex that moves and roars and she just about had a heartattack. Her whole body would tense up and she would scream everytime it would roar. After the zoo we went to Sonic for Happy Hour and got limeaides and slushes, our favorite : )

Olivia picked up a new ride while in Utah. She thought she would give us a break and drive home for us. We got alot of weird looks as we drove home with this on our car. It looks like a real car now with all the bugs on the front


My cake I was so proud of. I made it for our Girls Camp Dessert Auction. It was so much fun to make!

Our most recent project is coming along. It is going to be so nice to have a garage! A place to put all of our stuff. Olivia loves being out there and helping her Dad.

One Sunday afternoon Andrew went to take a nap and I was reading my book and noticed Olivia had wandered off somewhere in the house. No biggie, she can go and play and leave me be. After not seeing her for about half an hour, I thought I'd better go and check on her. I walked down the hall and noticed her door was closed. I opened the door and found this. She must have been really tired or bored. She didn't cry at all, just grabbed her blanket and layed down for a snooze.

Our little boy is now 23 weeks along and starting to get big. I'm really starting to get the pregnant belly instead of the I just look like I've gained weight belly. Seeing our niece Amelia who is 2 months reminded me of how small they are. And I am not looking forward to my jealous Olivia meeting her new brother. I held Amelia for a couple of minutes this weekend and Olivia freaked! I'm sure if she could talk she would have said, "Hey! I'm the baby!" So we will see how it goes in October.