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?