Motivational Art

I decided to put some white shelves up in the blue bathroom just to make it look a little more fun. For decoration, I added some wonderful framed art that I hope will inspire the children as they use the bathroom each day.

Cousin Time

I got to babysit Blaze this past Saturday. He's such a good baby! He hardly fussed at all. I think he really liked having other little people to look at and entertain him. Noah talked for at least a half hour while Blaze laid on a blanket, staring at him. Leah read him a few books. I changed his diaper. And for those Grammies, Aunts, etc. wondering, yep, I squeezed his thighs. So good, so chubby! Then, after a nice, warm bottle, he took a little snooze. It was so easy, I might just offer to babysit him again.

This is what happens when you turn 8

You get a rocking, super cool outfit for your birthday!! This is what Mike and I got him for his birthday. He's now a cub scout and he needs to look like one! Yesterday was supposed to be his first time going, but unfortunately it got canceled. But next week is the Blue and Gold Banquet, which we are all looking forward to.

When Mike (who has been a cub scout leader) was telling me all the stuff he's supposed to get, I kept asking him, "Are you sure? Do the other boys wear all that stuff? Is he going to look dorky, because I don't want my kid looking dorky!" He assured me that the boys do wear all this stuff and then bluntly admitted that all scout uniforms are dorky. So I figured he might as well get the whole outfit. If he's going to look dorky, at least the other scouts will look about the same.

Once he got all the stuff on, however, I couldn't help telling him how cute I thought he looked. He didn't look dorky at all! Just look at that little face! There's not a single bit of dorkiness there, at least not until he turns about 12 or 13. Then he will probably look dorky in his scout uniform.

Eli's 8!!!

Eli turned 8 just the other day and we had a fun-filled day of activities for him. He started off with donuts from the grocery store. He came with me to pick them out because he wanted to make sure he got ones with gummy worms on them. Yep, gummy worm donuts!

Then he opened up some fun presents from us and my parents. That was immediately followed by an hour or so of sledding.

The kids got sleds for Christmas and were FINALLY able to use them. There's a perfect hill near our house that we all played on.

After getting all warmed up from playing in the snow, we played video games for a while. Most of us took a nap after that, but Eli spent the next several hours putting together a very complex Lego helicopter he got as a present.

We started the evening out with a dinner of his choice. He picked pizza with peas and lima beans on the side. I don't understand why, but he (and his sister) love lima beans. Finally we had a family party for him with more presents and dessert. His dessert of choice was banana, blueberry, and strawberry milkshakes and chocolate chip cookies with nuts in them. I have to admit I have never made cookies with nuts in them before. NEVER! I had to ask for advice when buying the nuts, because I didn't know what kind to get. I hate nuts. But it was his day, so I made what he wanted. And of course I took out a few scoops of dough and baked them before putting the nuts in. And I hid them so no one would eat them. He never specified that ALL the cookies had to have nuts in them.

January Project

There's January's project. It was more of a redo, like last month's. Eli had a nightstand that didn't fit in his room, but desperately wanted to be used. Well, my little pinky pie happened to have enough space in her room for it. So I took the once brown, then blue nightstand and made it white, with a touch of pink. The best part was this entire project cost me about $2.50. I already had the nightstand, primer, paint, sandpaper, and varnish to refinish it. I just needed a new knob. I picked that up at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 (it was on sale, lucky me!). It didn't take too long and the price was definitely right! Now Leah has a fun place to put all her secret papers and special things.

December Project

The past few months, I've managed to squeak out a few creative projects. I thought I'd share them. Here's December's:

This project was an inexpensive Christmas present for Leah. I started by going to Old Navy and rummaging around their clearance section until I found two shirts that were the right price and the right color.

This shirt was about $4. It's black, but the stupid flash on the camera makes it look dark gray.

And this is what I turned it into:

I just cut off the bottom of the shirt, folded it over about an inch at the top, sewed it and put elastic inside. I cut out two flower shapes and sewed them on by hand with white thread and put white buttons in the middle. Cute, right??


Now this shirt was even better. It was only about $2 and started off like this (once again, stupid flash makes it look lighter):

And it ended up like this:

I wish I had a skirt like this in my size!! I did the same thing as with the black one, but instead of flowers, I added a ruffle. I just took a long strip of fabric, gathered it and sewed it on. It's so cute!

Doing this is tons cheaper and easier than buying fabric from a fabric store. AND there's no way I could go to a store, pay $5 and get two skirts that are cute and long enough for my tall daughter.

A learning moment

Just now, Leah asked me what wedgie is. I explained it to her, but felt that she didn't quite get it. So, being the good, thorough parent that I am, I demonstrated it on her. Don't worry. I didn't do it hard or anything. I just wanted to make sure she clearly knew what it was. Now I can check that one off the list of things I need to teach her in order for her to skip kindergarten.

Did you get it?

So, did you like my Pics of the Faves from last week? Did you catch the subliminal message I was trying to send? Yep, that's right! I'm pregnant and due in the summer time. July 26th to be exact. That means I'm going to have four little pairs of feet running around here this summer. I know, I'm crazy, but I think I can do it.

So, I'm almost 16 weeks, which means in 3 1/2 weeks we get to find out what color the little pea pod is, pink or blue. I think it's going to be a boy, but it's still nice to have proof one way or the other. So look forward to that post in the beginning of March. Until then, make a guess at what you think it is and just know that if you guess girl, you're wrong. I'm so sure it's a boy!

Pics of the Faves

I know it's only February, but we're getting ready for summer anyway!

It takes a while to count to 100

Today is Eli's 100th day of school. For homework, he had to make a poster with 100 somethings on it. It had to be neat, creative, and accurate. So I took out all the stuff I had at least 100 of and let him come up with what he wanted to use. I did give a few suggestions and this is what he came up with:

Yep, that's 100 googly eyes. He wanted to make a monster with 100 googly eyes. The reason why I wanted to post this is because this project is such a good depiction of what Eli likes. The body and blue pants are made of fleece. The hair is made of really soft yarn that happens to look like hair. The claws, mouth, and belt (purple part on the blue pants) are made of dyed noodles. It's super soft and fuzzy, yet still scary. Those are two things Eli loves, soft and scary. Eli likes his monster so much he asked me if I would make him a stuffed animal patterned after this creature. I'm not so sure I feel like attaching 100 eyes to a stuffed doll, but helping him glue them all on this poster was fun.