Our Nativity

"And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea unto the city of David, which is Bethlehem, to be taxed, with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while they were there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, becuase there was no room for them in the inn." (Luke 2:4-7)

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:8-11)

Christmas Projects

So it seems that every Christmas I take on too much. So this year I started early, yet there was still too much, so day by day I had to scale back. But I have had fun making things (even though I have had to stay up to 3 am most nights). I decided this year to make new stockings. I was going to figure it all out and do it during the summer, but of course that didn't happen. So I was learning how to knit socks for the first time as I knit our stockings. I chose to do strips in colors that represent the person, that way when more children come I can just pick colors for them and knit it up using the same pattern. :) Below is Michael's stocking, I have Kent's done, and Emma's almost done, just mine to do still.

Michael also worked with me in making ornaments for family and teachers, ect. It was a fun craft project for us to do together.

This year I have also made many gifts, most of which I can't mention here for fear that someone reading will have a christmas surprise spoiled. :) But I did learn to make fabric dolls. I'll post pictures when they are done. I also am learning some thriftyness, I don't know why I didn' do this earlier, but this year if I didn't have the fabric I wanted, I went to good will, and found the colors and fabric that worked from using the sheets, and curtains there. I got tons of fabric for so cheap this way. Just a tip for others who may want to try it. Just look for stains, and wash well before you cut and use it.

Christmas Time

Our new Christmas family picture. Michael was upset that he couldn't wear a short sleeve shirt to church, and we were lucky to catch this one without Emma's thumb in her mouth so you could actually see her face. So here it is. :)

When I have time, and we just have fun taking pictures, they can really be photogetic.

I guess I'm growing up

So just some thoughts, take them or leave them.....

I was just thinking how a year ago, I was worried about me, my community, church, family, but politics was something boreing. I didn't understand all the government stuff people were talking about... and being one who likes to please and keep the peace I would avoid political conversations so as to not upset anyone...... But now I have discovered Fox news network, and Glenn Beck.

Is the world really this bad? Before, I thought that people were good, and that at least the majority of people were trying their best to do what is right. Was I niave? I am not a person that likes to "rock the boat" but really what is going on.... so I know this may not make too much of a difference, but I have taken to writing to my senators about what I, as one they represent, would like them to vote on, etc.

I'm sure most of you are already there, but I just wonder what would happen if all of us did write to our Senators more often about what is happening.... would they listen to the majority of those they represent? I would hope so......

I certainly hope the end of the world is not near.... but some things in the government are really getting me worried, making me double check my food storage, etc. Am I the only one... or are the rest of you getting a bit worried too?

Again, just a thought I wanted to throw out there.

New Pants

Finished new pants for Emma. I think I am done "tweaking" the pattern, except for size increases. Here is adorable Emma showing off her new pants. If anyone is interested, ask and I'll send you the pattern.

Bragging

Ok, so every mom thinks their kids are totally adorable (as they should). So please bear with me as I tattle on just how cute my Michael is. :)

I've been really trying to teach him that Christmas is Christ's birthday. He has really gotten the Jesus's birthday part (although I still think he thinks Christmas is something different). So we talk about gifts we are going to give to Jesus, and that we are going to celebrate with a party (a family Christmas get together). Yet, Michael keeps asking about Jesus's birthday cake (I think I may have to make a birthday cake and make it a part of our traditions). Today, during quiet time, I listened as he scribbled on a piece of paper and dictated out loud what he was writing.

"Dear Jesus,

Happy Birthday. Thank you for being such a great friend. Thank you for our food and our clothes. I love you Jesus.

From Michael"

Then he asked me when Jesus was going to come to His birthday party so he could give him, his present.

What mom wouldn't think this was cute! So Anyways I just had to brag. :)

Thanksgiving

So learning about Fall, Michael and I made our decoration for the front door. He fingerpainted the leaves I cut out. Then I wrote Fall and Michael sponge painted over it. I have to say I am loving the book, "Kitchen Table Play and Learn" by Tara Copley and Andrea Custer. It has themed lesson plans for preschoolers. Sure you can find lots online, but it is so nice to have them all together in one place in a lesson plan format, and online I got the book for around $3. It is awesome! So we had fun doing many lessons about Fall from it the last few weeks.

We had a good Thanksgiving yesturday. This year I didn't teach much about the actual Thanksgiving, but we focused on what we were thankful for. FHE was the Thankful lesson from the nursery manuel (I use it for all our FHE lessons). In the manuel it taught the kids to be thankful for; family, clothes, home, and food. So later as we were driving I decided to chat with Michael about what he was thankful for. Guess what he said?, "family, clothes, home and food." He had memorized it. I asked him if he was thankful for toys? "no" are you thankful for Emma? "No" are you thankful for mommy? "No". What are you thankful for? "family, clothes, home and food." I tried to explain that Emma and I were family, he didn't beileve it. So I see I have more teaching to do in that area. :)

We had a nice Thanksgiving with Kent's family. Each year it is tradition to make cranberry scones (my family tradition) so I was making those, and we all couldn't help but enjoy some fresh from the oven, nice and warm. The best! Then Michael asked me "Can I have another crannberry stepping stone?" Guess he didn't quite understand what a scone is.

Also Thanksgiving morning I made two turkeys, one for each (thanks for the idea Andrea!).

It has buttons that you use to put the feathers on and off. Great to work on the fine motor skills, and even better, a new something to work on/ play with while mom was cooking. :)

I am so grateful for this wonderful holiday to help remind me to have more gratitude for everything! I am not grateful nearly enough to our Heavenly Father for the COUTNLESS blessings He has given me! We are so blessed for loved ones- near and far, for our health, our home, and most of all for the knowledge of the Gospel here on the earth, with the priesthood power, and a living Prophet to lead and guide us. I could go on and on...

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year!

New Creations

Ok, so just some new creations we have at our house. I am just amazed each day as I see Michael doing more and more. I saw this picture and couldn't believe it. A race car on a race track. Can you see it too? Maybe it is just a mother thing. Michael also started drawing people with arms, legs, fingers, facial features, etc. Maybe it is the educator in me that is aware of these developmental milestones, but I love celebrating them.

Michael and his tower of blocks. :) He insists I take pictures of them before Emma knocks them down. It also helps him not be too upset when she does. He loves building things, so I thougth I would just throw this one in there. :)

And lastly, my new creation. I figured out a new style of fingerless gloves. If you have followed my blog for awhile you know that I have been trying to figure out fingerless gloves for Emma's sake (she has COLD hands, just like me). What's the saying? "Cold hands, warm heart"? If it's different don't tell me, I like to think of it that way. :) Anyways, I think I have found it. Plus I found the perfect yarn, washable wool, sport weight. Wool because it doesn't absorb water, but wicks it away, so when Emma sucks her thumb the entire glove doesn't get soaked. And they are machine washable, which is needed when you have little kids with gloves on their hands! They are simple, yet cute. Emma and Michael have a pair, now I need to make some for me as well. ;)

Book Review Time

So I have found myself really enjoying a number of books lately. So I thought I would let others know about them incase they may be interested in them too. These are not novel books, but more informational books. So the first book is...

The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule

I have always wanted to be more creative when it comes to letting my children do crafts, and such. So I found this book and just LOVE it. It talks about how to help facilitate creativity in your home with your kids. It talks about simple things like keeping the crayons, and paper accessable. Plus things like providing musical instruments for the kids to play. And tips on how to display your kids artwork. As well as encouraging parents to draw along with their kids. Now of course I'm not able to do everything. But I have gotten a lot of good ideas from this book that I have and will impliment in our home. And I have to say, just sitting down and drawing with your children, to enjoy it and not expect some masterpiece is tons of fun too.

So I recommend it and say it is worth a look. So go check it out from your library.

Pictures

Now if I just keep the pictures maybe I will forget about everything else that happened and look at the pictures and believe that we had a wonderful Halloween. :)

Mr. Jack o' lantern survived the fall and made it to the front porch, minus the stem.

Michael as, of course his most favorite thing in the world, Lightning McQueen. And of course he had to wear his hat backwards, because that is how daddy wears his hats. (And thanks to Nancy for letting us borrow this costume)

Emma as our baby chicken. Very cute, and thanks to Lori for letting us borrow this costume. :)

Some cute knee high socks that I bought cheap and made into baby leggins for Halloween.

Our happy time carving our pumpkin.

Cute, adorable Emma sitting on our front porch with the pumpkins, prior to carving. :) (she is loving having her picture taken, and will now pose for me when the camera is out.)

Good times, with our pumpkins on the front porch.

I do have to say I love the Fall. :)

Our Halloween

So Kent and I have never been really into Halloween. Before we had kids we didn’t do anything, but buy candy and pass it out. Maybe it is because we are both the youngest (him of 6 and me of 5) so by the time we came along our parents were tired of Halloween and didn’t do much either. Anyways, we are not Halloween people. I LOVE fall, and love to decorate for fall, but really not much with Halloween. But when Michael came along I felt obligated to give him some Halloween experience. So we carved the pumpkins and he dressed up, and I would take him around the block to trick or treat.

But this year has not been so much fun and I really have found more that I don’t like about Halloween than I like. I’m sure my sour disposition has more to do with what happened than Halloween itself, and maybe next year I will have a better disposition and happier outlook.

This year I had been sick for the entire week prior. Making Pumpkin carving, and all things Halloween, fall to the bottom of my priority list. The days were TV/movie days as I rested and tried to feel somewhat normal, tried to keep the house not a disaster, and think of something to feed the kids that would be remotely healthy. After a week of being sick I decided to see the doctor to make sure it wasn’t strep throat or the swine flu (although I doubted that; however my niece who babysits my kids as I tutor does have the swine flu, luckily due to my cold tutoring had been canceled the last week, and (crossing my fingers) I don’t think we have gotten it).

So Thursday I went to the doctor’s office, and due to my own mix up didn’t have a babysitter for my kids. And due to the banks mix up they had canceled my debit card so I had to find another card to pay at the doctor’s office. I was told from the doctor I only had a cold so I got in the car with the kids to go home to found that the battery on my car died. So I called my sister-in-law to jump start my car, only to find that it wouldn’t even jump start (the battery was TOAST) so I got a ride home from her. When Kent got home he had to buy a new battery for the car, and realized that one of the headlights on the car was also out, he bought the headlight, but as he was getting sick too he didn’t feel up to fixing that at the moment.

Friday I was feeling better and thought things were looking up. I went to the store for much needed groceries, and it felt good to get out of the house. Then Michael and I worked on our cutting skills as we cut out paper jack-o-lanterns and ghosts. I think that was my favorite part. I decided that pumpkin carving was either going to happen then or not at all, so Michael and I carved one of the pumpkins (thanks to Tracy for giving us 3 huge pumpkins from her garden!) while Kent was at work and Emma slept. As I went to put the jack-o-lantern on the front porch with the other pumpkins I slipped on the wet steps carrying the 10 pound jack-o-lantern. The jack-o-lantern survived, the stem broke off, and the flower pot below was toast. My back and side have the bruises to prove I'm not making this up. After that I was DONE with pumpkins, and the others did not get carved at all.

Kent got home and was sick as could be, so I dressed up Michael and Emma and us three went to the ward trunk-or-treat. It was ok, but somehow I felt like I was teaching my kids to beg for candy… I just didn’t like it. It seemed like a bunch of kids running around as fast as they could to get all the candy they could before it was all gone (which only took 30 min. for everyone to be out of candy!). Michael of course liked it and Emma enjoyed the candy too, she would not let go of her bag for anything!

Now Michael and Emma did have the start of the cold, but I had thought it wasn’t too bad, and that they could still trunk or treat. But as we got ready for bed Michael’s asthma kicked in again (I really thought we were over it!) So the breathing treatments increased to even more than recommend because he was struggling so much. Around 10pm Michael woke up crying unable to breath. I knew he needed the oral steroids and so I took him to the local ER. The ER here is known to be bad, but I thought since I knew what was wrong and what he needed it would be ok. But no. The doctor didn’t listen to me, insisted it wasn’t breathing problems but was pneumonia and wouldn’t give us the steroid, but instead an antibiotic. So we left there no better.

On the way home in the dark, or course I got pulled over by a cop because one of my headlights was out. Mind you this is the first time I have ever gotten pulled over by a cop. But I was too TICKED OFF at the hospital to even be a little nervous. I was MAD! The cop must have noticed I was not in a good mood as he walked up I said, “I know the headlight is out. The light is in the trunk, I can show it to you, my husband was too sick to fix it, and my son had to go to the ER tonight.” He took my license, registration, and insurance. Then decided to stop another car by foot coming towards us, and let me leave with no ticket.

But the fun didn’t end there. No. Since Michael didn’t get what he needed at the ER, Michael and I were up all night, as I gave him breathing treatments every 2 hours (instead of the recommended 4 hours) because the poor boy couldn’t breathe! His pediatrics walk in clinic opened at 9 am the next morning and I was there with Michael in the parking lot at 8:30am. Luckily as they opened the nurses who saw me waiting in the car told the other 6 people that we got to go first since we were in the parking lot first. Michael saw the doctor, who realized he was beyond the oral steroid and had to give him a shot of steroid. He confirmed that the ER doctor misdiagnosed Michael. And he gave me extra oral steroids to keep on hand if that ever happened again. This doctor was worried that Michael would have to be admitted to the Children’s hospital. We went home hoping for the best but with instructions to return immediately if things got worst. Well, Michael’s breathing got a little better, yet he started to get really pail. Luckily a second dose of oral steroids did the trick and he got his color back and started to help relax his airways and he was able to breathe much better.

Needless to say Saturday was not a celebration for us. My cold came back because of being up all night with Michael. So all 4 of us are now sick. I was not in a good mood and poor Kent took the brunt of it as I insisted that he fix the headlight and put traction strips on the front steps even though he was sick. The kids did not dress up and there was no trick or treating for them. We actually only had like 10 kids come to our house. I passed out pencils ;) and Michael didn’t seem to think he was missing out as he said he did his trick or treating Friday night.

So sorry for the LONG blog and if you read the entire thing you are a true friend, and thank you for taking the time to listen to my venting and I’m sure you now know why I was not a big fan of Halloween this year. Let’s hope next year is a better one!

plant seeds

So I know I haven't blogged in awhile... our computer is in a transitional phase, but I thought I would take this minute and post something I had learned.

So with learning to garden and all that I also learned that most seeds you buy at the store are genetically altered (so they look pretty, etc) but they are only good for one year, yes, they are sterile. I wanted to be economical and save the new seeds, but then I learned that there was no point to it, unless you get the heirloom variety. So in case others of you out there didn't know that and wanted to start a garden, just a little tip. It makes me wonder though, what if WW3 broke out and we all had to do our own gardening, after the first year many people would be in a lot of trouble. So I think I'll stick with the heirloom type and save my seeds from now on.

Doing Our Thing

So we've been busy having fun. And I have to admit I have enjoyed some good books lately. I'll do a different blog post about those later. But anyways. The latest for us is....


Emma's new pants. Just finished today. She's been needing some as the weather has now turned cold, so I knitted some, combining my favorite parts of different patterns. I think they are cute, but of course have a few improvements I want to make for the next pair (I'm sure I will constantly been changing my pattern!).

Then on to the daddy time. Kent has been loving the fact that Emma now wants to cuddle with him and not just mommy. So I had to take this cute picture of the two!

And then Michael had the time of his life helping daddy wash the truck. Kent scrubbed and Michael got to spray the hose. He had a blast and both came in the house soaked!

He was very proud/ excited about his job in helping daddy!

Learning Empathy

I figure I must have been due a lesson on empathy. You see, Kent is very much a macho man. If he is injured, sick, etc. he will not complain all that much and just tough it out. So when he was having a lot of back pain, he complained some at home, asked for a few massages, yet went to work each morning and did all that he had to do. So I guess I didn't give him too much sympathy. I was fine letting him come home and go in straight to rest while I handled all the night time things, but I didn't really "take care" of him.

So then the other day I woke up to find major pain when I moved! Kent was already at work and I just wondered how on earth I would be able to take care of two little ones with such pain. A long hot bath didn't help, so I set up the movies and lay on the couch while kids watched movies/snuggled with me laying down. I was lucky to get them feed and Emma's diapers changed. Luckily for me Kent was home early that day so I was able to get in to the chiropractor and learn that my tail bone was out, which gave me the lower back pain, pain in my right leg, and made it so that I couldn't bend over in the slightest. I figure God was just telling me I need to have more sympathy now empathy for my hard working husband.

Kids

Just two videos of my kids.

Emma has been so cute and hilarious as she babbles while reading a book. She moves her tongue in and out of her mouth to make the babbling noise, too funny. (and yes that is laundry you see behind her... I promise I will get to it later. :)

We had a busy Saturday, up early, Michael's swimming lessons, then trips to a few stores, since we are already out. We got home in the afternoon. Michael was asleep in the car seat but usually when I pick him up and bring him in the house he is wide awake again ready to go. So I set him down on the floor by the door expecting him to take off his shoes and start playing, but when I came back I found that he had just laid down on the floor and gone back to sleep. I guess those swimming lessons and walking all around the stores wore him out!

Harvest

We are excited about the wonderful food our little garden is producing. Apparently I didn't catch a few cucumbers in time and they got BIG. The picture below is compairing them to my hand. But I am loving all the food, now I think it may be time to can some more pickles!

Current Projects and Cute Kids

Aren't they just adorable! :)

Ok, so first I have to say my kids were just looking so cute today, I had to pull out the camera, and get these photos, and of course share them with everyone. :) Thanks for putting up with me. :)

But really I've added more to our play room. The first idea came from a comment from Andrea on her blog. She mentioned how she had a kids calendar with pictures for her kids so they knew what was coming up. Andrea, what an awesome idea! So I took it and made it work in our house.

One thing I LOVE about my home are how many big windows it has. I LOVE the windows and wouldn't trade it for anything. Yet it makes wall space limited. So to do a calendar I decided to use the window. I bought some of those chalk pens at the store and made the following calendar for Michael. (I took the picture at night because the camera can see it better). Anyways I am using it to teach Michael the days of the week, as well as the concept of today (we will move to yesterday and tomorrow in a bit). I love this concept because each morning we do our calendar and talk about the things that are going to affect Michael that day.

Next I saw these big clothes pins at our craft store. I had seen them in a nice house before, but they had purchased them at Pottery Barn I think? Anyways I wasn't going to spend the money. So I was happy to find them at the craft store. I just painted them, with Michael's help (my philosophy is that all things on the wall in the play room involve a kid in creation, or that is my goal) and wa la! No more random papers/art taped to the walls. They now have their place of honor and it looks nice too.

I have three, blue, red, and green. But here is the up close of the blue

And Michael happily painting the green one.

First Day of School

Here is Michael's picture before his first day of school... preschool that is. :) A group of us moms got together and are doing a preschool together. Michael was so excited that he got to go to school and wear his backpack. And though he knew the sisters' house that it was at first, he had never been to the house, and when we arrived he wanted Emma and I to stay in the car. He was going to go and knock on the door and go to school all by himself (according to him). Fortunatly for me I had to take them the calendar I made for the preschool, so Emma and I went with him. It was kinda sad to think he is so grown up that he can do things without me now. What a different feeling, GOOD and yet a little sad.

In other news, we went to the fair, Michael started swimming lessons, and Michael helped me in adding decoration to the toy room. (pictures of them all coming soon) And poor Michael doesn't seem to get much of a break when it comes to sickness. He got a second infection and had to get a higher dose medicine, that made him break out, head to toe, in a rash. Add that to the list of things to inform the doctors about, an allergy to medication. Gesh, wish he would at least get a little break so I could get him the few vacinations that I actually want to get for him. But at least he is getting back to normal, still on the breathing medicine, and a little ichy from the rash, but back to his loveable, energetic self.

Baby Gifts

So I just have to say thanks to all my friends having babies. First they are just so adorable who doesn't love seeing cute pictures of babies? And second, I then have a reason to make cute things for them. Now that I know the packages arrived I can share the addorable things here. :)

And of course I have to give credit for these great ideas to the wonderful crafty blogs out there. I am just so amazed at how many wonderful ideas are out there. I have added a few more of the "make it yourself" blogs to my favortie sites lists. I love that I can go there and click on a topic and find a wonderful gift to make for an occasion, or find cool things for my family. I am loving it!!!

Following are some gifts I sent out. I think they are adorable, but hey I guess I would since I made them. :)

Tornado?

yes, apparently we had a tornado in the small town just south of us by 10 min! Usually when you think of Washington you don't think of tornadoes, but I learned Washington averages 2 a year. Just crazy to me, and to think it was so close! Luckily no one was hurt and the only major loss was a barn, but it left the house unharmed. I know we have wind storms and usually lose our power 2 to 5 times a year, but tornadoes? really?

Fun Projects!

Ok, so here are some of my fun projects that I have been doing, and loving. I am enjoying my new found time. It's wonderful having 2 children, sure parts are harder (like shopping), but now Emma is starting to be more independent, and because there is Michael nearby she is fine playing next to him, whereas Michael always had to be playing where I was, meaning no break for me.

But anyways on to my projects that Denise asked to see. :) So here you go.


My wedding gift, their initial framed. I like it, I hope they did too.

A new soaker for Emma. I followed a new pattern, I like parts but other parts I don't, so I'm going to combine the best of the two I like and try to make another one.

New shoes for Emma. So the story behind this is my Sister-in-law, Jennifer, clued me in on Robeez, these wonderful shoes made of leather that don't come off the feet. (Poor Michael was always barefooted in our wet climate because no shoe or sock could withstand his kicking). But I found Robeez at a garage sale for $2.00 and totally fell in love with them. I couldn't stomach the $30 for a new pair now that Emma has out grown the ones I got. So I made some for her, same style/idea only out of fabric, and the bottom has little feet grippers so she has traction when she walks. I love them, I think they turned out totally cute, and much cheaper. And since I can make them I want to have a few of different colors etc. Which probably means I will spend $30 but have a nice variety of shoes for her to wear. :)

Too many "want to"... not enought time

So I have had a hard time sleeping the last few nights. I have so many ideas, (crafty stuff) that I want to get done and work out (thanks to all these crafting blogs I am discovering!) but hardly any time at all. I do have more time than I use to, after 3 1/2 years I feel like I have a chance to get a few things done, yet now I want to do it all. I have a knitting project (new soaker combining a few patterns, and making it up as I go), painting project (I want to do the kids silhouettes and put them up in the play room), a sewing project (new shoes for Emma), a wedding gift project, and Christmas projects to get to. And I want to do them all NOW. If only I had the time.

Which just makes me think of the Twilight Zone episode (yes I saw it growing up when I was way too young and had many a nightmares from them!) where a mom had a stopwatch that could stop time. I thought that was awesome then, but oh how I would love to have one now! Of course the ending is that an atomic bomb is going to hit and all will die, and she paused time and can't unpause it or life would be over. So she is left lonely. I'll take the stopwatch, but hold the atomic bomb, thanks. :)

Birthday!

Well, I just had to say something about my birthday on here. :) Another year older, and I'm realizing that I am getting really close to 30! How did that happen? But I did have a good birthday. We celebrated on Saturday, and my gift from Kent was a paper that told me to show up at an address at a certain time and call a certain phone number. The anticipation was fun! In the end I drove to the place and got a wonderful body scrub and massage! Then Kent watched the kids while I took all the time I wanted and shopped at my favorite craft stores (I never get to just randomly walk through there because of the kids!) It was wonderful! That evening we went out to dinner with my 2 sisters-in-law and their hubbies. And one brother-in-law actually took the challenge and ate 7 chicken drum sticks at level 7 hot sauce in 7 minutes. He got his meal free, a shirt, and his picture taken. I'd never actually seen anyone do a challenge at a restaurant before. It was hilarious and quite the entertainment as into the second drum stick his face turned red and sweat started to poor down his face!

In the end it was a fun celebration. Michael asked me where my birthday balloon was (because we had gotten one for Emma) I told him he would have to make me one. So he drew two birthday balloons for me that we hung up under the birthday banner. :) I also got phone calls from friends and family. Thanks to everyone for making my birthday a special one!

Sleeping

So since Michael and Emma sleep in the same room we have to put them down at different times. If we didn't it would be a party in there. One night I just let it happen thinking they would eventually fall asleep, after one and 1/2 hours I finally went in and pulled Michael out and made him sleep in the toy room that night.

Usually in our routine, Michael would be the first to go down. But lately it has been Emma, since she went down to only one nap during the day, she needs to be in bed first! So last night Emma went down at 7:00. That meant that Michael got to stay up for half and hour. But we are mean parents and our rule is 7pm we are "off duty". So for Michael to have the privilege to stay up he has to stay on the couch. He can talk to us, but we will not get anything for him and he doesn't get to choose what to watch on TV. So usually he watches the "Food Network Challenge" show because that's what I want to watch and it is kid friendly. Well, apparently he was really tired, because around 7:15 he was out like a light! I couldn't help but laugh at how he was sound asleep sitting straight up. So I had to take a video, and share it on here.

I have heard other stories of funny places/positions children have fallen asleep. So share with me, what was the funniest place/position your child has ever fallen asleep in?

Emma Walking

Just for proof that Emma is walking and for those living farther away who would like to see just how cute she is. :) Check out the video of her walking.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ok, so I am just happy that everything didn't die! But am excited about actually getting vegetables and fruit now to enjoy. Food you grow yourself just tastes better than store bought. :) We have now been enjoying cherry tomatoes (the orange and red type) strawberries, and cucumbers. We are anxiously watching and waiting for the big tomatoes, green beans, pumpkins, and carrots. I also hear I can plant lettuce again, I was bummed that I had missed the first growing time, but am excited I can do it again this summer! Next year I have visions of onions and broccoli as well. It just feels good to see the fruits of your labor. :)

Family Update

Two little ones have colds, and for Michael that means every 4 hours medicine, plus steroids twice a day, plus still getting over an infection with antibiotics. Sorry to say but with the abutoral every 4 hours, Michael is getting good at Mario Cart Wii, he actually beats the computer (although, I think it some how makes it easier for him. :) It is either that or TV to keep him still so that the mask stays on and he gets the medicine. And with the abutoral it makes him so hipper that at night he wont go to bed, and to top it off I am waking him up every 4 hours in the night as well. But I think we are close to an end and breathing will be back to normal without an emergency visit. YEAH!

Emma also has the cold, but in spite of it, has taken off in walking. I knew it was only a matter of time. Prior she would take steps, but would prefer to crawl. Now she is walking tons! She just had to have the desire, and off she goes. :) She went from not walking, to walking long distances while holding a toy in each hand. She is so hilarious and adorable.

Soon Emma will be going into nursery, it will be fun to see how she likes it, I think she will love having friends her age to play with. Then shortly after Michael will be a sunbeam. I can't wait to have him in primary with me! I am so excited, he will be a ball in primary. :)

Kent and I are just trying to keep up with our children, and trying to remember to enjoy it too. :)

Sewing Project

So I had this problem. Since all our children books are in bookcase, sideways, Michael will pull out tons til he finds the one he wants, and leaves a mess behind that Emma finds, and has a grand time with. The solution, I thought of those hanging bookcases that I could have sworn we had as teachers, but after spending a couple of hours looking for them on the web, I gave up (I know not much time, but I wasn't going to waste my time!) So I decided to make one myself. I had the idea in my head, I just hoped it would work and made it up as I went along. The end result works just great (I would make a few changes, but hind sight is 20/20 of course). I hung it high enough out of Emma's reach, yes Michael has to get the stool, but he can, and gets to the books he wants. I can monitor him more with the books this way and I figure every week or so I will rotate the books. I have noticed that since I have had the new bookcase up, Michael is only choosing books for there because he can see what they are. I'm just happy it turned out how I visioned and not as a great disaster and waste of money. :)

It Makes a Difference!

I am blessed to have a nursery leader that loves Michael and it really makes a difference! The other day when I went to drop Michael off at nursery, the leader asked me to stay a minute and handed me a book. She told me how it was Michael's favorite, how he was continually asking it to be read to him. She decided that since he liked it so much she would buy him a copy. And of course wrote a sweet note to him on the inside cover. It was so sweet of her to even think of doing that. So we came home with the new book. And Michael asked to be read it over and over. It is a cute book, about a car race, so of course he loves it. :) He basically has the book memorized now and will "read" it by himself when he is unable to get us to. :) I have to say my boy is totally adorable, but it is nice to have others adore him too. :)