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. :)

Wool Soakers

Ok, first I have to apologize for doing so many posts in one day. But I transferred all the pictures to the computer, and knew that if I didn't blog about them now I would forget to.

Now on to the wool soakers. I have now knitted 4 total soakers, so I thought I would show off the last 3. Aren't they adorable! Ok, well I think so. I just use them as shorts and diaper covers right now, when the colder weather comes they will go under the pants. I am loving this, there is something very satisfying about making things yourself. :)

Cousins

So our family got a little bigger for a few days as we had 3 and at times 4 of Michael's cousins staying with us. So of course I pull out my teacher side and had a plan to keep them all busy so that the chaos would be kept to a minimum. (Doubling our family in such a small home was an undertaking) But in the end it was fun. And Michael LOVED it! Their wii remotes added to ours gave us 4, and so all the kids (except Emma of course) were able to play Wii Mario cart together. They had a blast, yet at times we had to drive for the younger two (Michael and Alain) so that they could actually finish the race and the older kids could move on. :) Then came out the sock puppet decorating, naming, and skits. (Those who knew me during my junior year in college, know I LOVE sock puppets!) And in the end Michael had a BLAST having a sleep over with the boys in the toy room. Here are some pictures of the fun.

Street Fair

We were headed to the park, when traffic was diverted because of a street fair. So I decided to stop there and check it out. It was actually not as good as I had hoped. Too much $ for simple things! But Michael did get to check out the fire truck and ambulance, and try on the fire hat, which was very heavy! Michael got to pick one thing to spend money on and he choose to buy balls to throw at a dunk tank. I was fine with that as it went to support our local fire department. So Michael got three balls and got to go up extra close. He actually hit the bulls eye twice, but didn't have the force behind it to dunk the firefighter. So another firefighter hit the bulls eye for us. Shocking the one in the dunk tank, but the one who hit the button felt very justified as he declared that Michael did hit it twice. :) After that a quick walk through the fair and then on to the park.

Michael in the back of an ambulance, at least this time he is not lying on the bed headed to the hospital! :)

Driving the fire truck

Hitting the bulls eye and the other's surprised that it didn't dunk the firefighter.