Temporary Fix

I took my glasses in to the vision clinic to see if they could fix them up. The lady was able to replace the temple arms with some from some other glasses. They don't match the original frame, or even each other. But they hold the glasses up and work much better than the yarn! They ordered me some new frames, similar to the ones I had before but a different color, and we'll put my lenses in the new frames when the clinic gets them.

And from now on, when I take a nap, I'll put my glasses on top of the entertainment center where the kids can't reach them.

What's wrong with this picture?

You know what's wrong with this picture? My glasses are being held on my face by yarn. Yep. I woke up from a nap this evening to find that Thomas had completely snapped the arms off of my glasses. Grrrr.

We'll have to take them in to the glasses place to see if they can do anything about it. If not, I'll have to buy new ones. In the meantime, I have to wear these wobbly things and hope that they don't fall off or give me too big of a headache.

Green Tomatoes...

I feel so homemaker-ish lately! Because the weather has turned rather chilly, we figured it was time to bring in our green tomato crop and get busy preserving. We have got lots of green tomatoes to use, let me tell you! We didn't even pick all of them, and I haven't even used all the ones we did pick, and already I've put up 6 pints of green tomato jam, 8 pints of green tomato relish, 3 pints of green tomato pickles, and 2 quarts of green tomato chutney. I'm planning on doing green tomato salsa next, and some green tomato ketchup after that. Then maybe I'll do green tomato pie filling, green tomato mincemeat, and I'll probably do some more green tomato jam because it was easy and turned out pretty good.

I might need to get more jars.

Ward Spaghetti Dinner

We just got back from our ward's spaghetti dinner. It was a Halloween party of sorts, so costumes were encouraged. I didn't get any pictures (camera batteries are super low) but we all had a fun time getting dressed up in our costumes.

I was dressed as a witch, with a witchy hat I made the other day (using this tutorial), a black dress, black tights, black choker, black shoes, and a beautiful hooded cape that I made back when I was in college and still single (in my social group, capes were all the rage back then).

Zaylee wore a fuzzy pink poodle skirt and a matching bandanna around her ponytail. She was the cutest little fifties girl ever. Thomas wore pants and a leather jacket. We were going for the "rebel without a cause" look, but everyone that complimented him said he looked great in his Elvis costume. Oh well, it was cute regardless.

Audrey wore a ladybug costume. She fit in really well - there were about four other ladybug babies there, as well as a few teenage girl ladybugs too. I guess that ladybug was the thing to be this year!

Jeff came as a Medical Laboratory Technologist - he took a couple-hour break off of work to come to the dinner, and just wore his outfit and employee badge. I think his was the most realistic "costume" there. :-) Anyway, I was just glad he could come and be with the ward and the family for our fun evening.

These are the costumes we plan on wearing for the ward Trunk or Treat later this month, I'll be sure to take pictures and post them then.

Fall Decorating - Playful Pumpkins

Remember this?


This sweater was my Halloween costume last year. Since I don't have a baby bump this year, I thought it would be fun to use the fabric from the sweater for something else. I cut the legs off to make some warm fuzzy pants for Thomas. Then with the rest, I used this tutorial to create these:


Aren't these the cutest little cutie pumpkins ever! I am absolutely thrilled with how they turned out. In fact, I was so thrilled that I had to raid my scrap box to find even more pumpkin-appropriate fabric to make more little pumpkins.


Look at how tiny they are! This one's only about three inches across, and there are a couple that are even smaller.


Here they are on the mantle with my other pumpkins.



Since yesterday, I've made 18 little pumpkins! These are so fun and easy to make, I wouldn't be surprised if I end up making a few more...

Art work

All three kids have been expressing their artistic sides lately. I thought I'd share some of their recent works.

Zaylee:

The Solar System
(complete with asteroid belt around the sun, lol)

Molecules
(when you smell something, it's because
molecules are going into your nose)

Self Portrait
(with her favorite green shirt and blue flowered skirt)

Thomas:

A Study in Color, Part 1
(he's had as much fun with the watercolors as Zaylee)

A Study in Color, Part 2

Audrey:

Simple Scribbles
(she loves this magna-doodle, and will spend
minutes at a time scribbling)

How 'Bout Them Apples

Here's my mantle, all decked out for autumn. At first it was just the plants and the pumpkins. Then last night I decided it needed something more.


I got this canvas at the thrift store for a dollar, it already had the green rectangle and dark red border. I added the apples and leaves for a slightly abstract painting. I know I'm not much of an interior decorator, nor am I an experienced painter, but I really like how the painting, and the whole setup, turned out.

Emergency Preparedness Fair

Yesterday was our Stake Emergency Preparedness Fair. There were lots of booths set up, everything from the police department and railway safety to food storage and how to check your gas meter in case of a natural disaster. Lots of cool stuff. But for the kids, the most popular area by far was the emergency vehicles. Zaylee and Thomas, along with all the other kids, enjoyed a full hands-on tour of a fire truck and an ambulance. Zaylee and Thomas like watching the TV show "Rescue Heroes," and Zaylee was so impressed and awestruck when I told her that she was meeting real life rescue heroes, the fire fighters and EMTs and police officers.

Partway through the fair, the super ultra main attraction arrived - an AirMed helicopter that landed right in the parking lot. Zaylee and I got real close to where it landed, and it was so awesome to feel the wind kicked up by the rotors, and see how excited Zaylee was as it hovered and slowly landed. The kids got to sit in the helicopter and see all the equipment, which was a real highlight for them.



It was a fun day out for our family. I learned some stuff about emergency prep, the kids learned a lot about fire trucks and ambulances and helicopters, and everyone had a good time.

Ouch!

Yesterday morning when I got up, my back was inexplicably hurting. I had a big pain in my lower back when I would pick something up, sit down, stand up, shift position, or pretty much anything. It was so frustrating, because I couldn't do anything! I wanted to do some decluttering in our bedroom, but bending down to pick stuff up was painful. I had to have Jeff change all the diapers (thank goodness his week off started yesterday), because just kneeling on the floor made my back hurt.

This morning when I woke up the pain was gone. I was so excited at the thought of not hurting all day. But after getting Audrey out of her crib and changing her diaper, my back started hurting again. Now, an hour later, it's as bad as it was yesterday. I'm just so frustrated. I really wanted to get stuff done today. There's decluttering to be done, toys and clothes to be put away, kids to be played with, dishes to be washed and put away. And I can't do any of it because my back is hurting so bad!

I guess I'll have to sit around knitting all day like I did yesterday. Nothing wrong with knitting, and I'm glad for the chance to practice. But when I'm only doing it because I can't do anything else, it loses a bit of its charm.

Random updatey type stuff

Cute conversation I had with Zaylee the other day:
Me - "Hey Zaylee, why is Thomas crying? Did he hurt himself, or is he just sad?"
Zaylee - "He's just sad."
Me - "Why is he sad?"
Zaylee - "Because he hurt himself."
(Turns out he was fine, just upset with something)

Audrey has started pulling herself up to standing, and occasionally will cruise along the furniture a little bit. We lowered her crib mattress so she couldn't climb out. She is learning how to use a spoon, though I still do most of the work. I'll get the food onto the spoon, and she'll grab it and guide it toward her mouth. She has a vivacious smile and a contagious laugh. Zaylee and Thomas like playing peek-a-boo with her to make her giggle.

Thomas is doing well in preschool, and talking a lot more at home. I love that I'm able to understand him more and more, and that his vocabulary is increasing so quickly. It's nice to be able to have better communication with him.

Zaylee and I went to a Mother/Daughter primary activity yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We had breakfast burritos and fruit, painted our nails, made pretty bead bracelets, and took pictures with fancy hats and feather boas. Such a fun activity, and it was nice to be able to have that special time with just Zaylee.

We're nearing the end of Jeff's work week. Around this time, we're all getting a little tired out and totally ready for his week off. I'm looking forward to hopefully finishing Thomas' bed this week, and working on a variety of projects. Zaylee's excited to get to the library and check out more books with her very own library card. I made her a little wallet to hold her card, which she just loves. I'll have to find the camera and take pictures of it.

And now, it's about time for me to get to bed. Yawn...

Audrey Plays Peek-A-Boo

Audrey enjoys playing peek-a-boo. I enjoy it too, she has the cutest giggle! This time she was especially cute, ducking her head onto her tray and popping back up. The fact that some of her food gets stuck on her face in the process is just an entertaining bonus. :-)

Five Years Old

Zaylee turned five years old today.




Look at that smile! She has such a fun and cheerful personality.



And she can sometimes be a little wild and in-your-face. :-)


To celebrate turning five, Jeff took Zaylee to the library and helped her get her very own library card, which made her feel very grown up! She got to check out her own books and everything.

We gave Zaylee the royal treatment of being able to choose what to eat today. She chose pancakes for breakfast and pizza for dinner. She has good taste. :-)

I made her birthday cake to look like a jeweled crown. Yellow decorator sugar, ice cream cones, and Jolly Ranchers made for a sparkly cake that Zaylee just loved. The kids helped me to decorate - Zaylee by choosing the colors for the jewels, and Thomas by making sure that the frosting still tasted good every few seconds. The cake didn't turn out quite like I was planning, but it was fun, tasty, and we all liked it.


We gave Zaylee two great gifts - a watercolor paint set, and a pillow buddy (pillow that folds up into a stuffed animal).






I made this pillow buddy last night, and it took so much longer than I expected it to! I thought it would be maybe an hour or two, but no! I was up until nearly 2:00 in the morning, having started making it around 8:30, after putting the kids to bed.




I used this two-part tutorial (part 1, part 2), using a faux mink blanket I got at a thrift store. I have to say, I LOOOOOVE the way it turned out! And Zaylee was really excited about it. So excited she wouldn't stand still long enough for a decent picture. But who needs a "good" picture when you can capture joy like this? :-)


She has named her pillow buddy Polly, and is snuggled in bed with it right now.

All in all, a great day for everyone.

Time to Make the Bed

Image taken from Ana-White.com (new home of Knock-Off Wood)

This is the bed that we're making for Thomas. We started on it today, cutting out the pieces for the headboard and footboard. I learned that it's a lot of fun to use a table saw! Next step is to assemble the pieces we just cut, then build the frame, then put it all together to make a bed. I'm so excited that we've finally started making the bed.

The Book Case

You know that book case I started working on ages ago? I finally finished it. It's been built and sitting in the shed for a long time, then a couple weeks ago I primed it, and today I painted it and we moved it into the kitchen! Hooray!

I'm waiting to post pictures until I finish the hutch. We have this media hutch thing that we got at D.I. a while back. It's been downstairs taking up space and not being used, but I'm going to paint it to coordinate with the book case, then set it on top of the book case to create one big unit. It'll be gorgeous! I got lots of pretty dishes at D.I. to display/store in it. I can't wait to get it all finished and start using it.

Next up on the woodworking agenda: build Thomas a bed. We have all the wood and tools we need, it just needs to be cut up and put together.

I like making stuff and being productive. It feels good.

Quilt Blocks Website

I know that there are a few of you that enjoy quilting (Melinda, Karen, I'm mentally looking at you). It's something I've been thinking about starting as well. It's not as if I have too many half-finished projects lying around already!

Anyway, I came across this great website that has instructions and templates for TONS of beautiful quilt blocks, for free. Thought I'd pass it along to anyone interested.

Quilt Blocks Galore: http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html

Mommy Feelings

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted. There's been a neighborhood parade, a visit to Idaho, a family reunion, a purchased table saw and treadmill, a house that's been through varying shades of messy, a lot of new dresses made for both Zaylee and I, a lot of crocheting done, a bookcase primed and ready for paint, eight batches of fudge cooked, diaper rashes galore, and basically a whole lot of life going on.

Right now though, I'm thinking about my baby Thomas. Tomorrow I'll be sending him off to preschool for the very first time. I never intended to send any of my kids to preschool; I'm more the homeschooling type. But Thomas has speech problems that need to be dealt with. He qualified for speech therapy for a few months through early intervention, which was great. But he was no longer eligible for that program once he turned three. Now he'll be going to preschool to continue working with his speech and development. I've been doing what I can for him here at home - reading, labeling, puzzles, having him imitate words and sounds - but he needs more than I can give him. That's hard for me to say.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll take my precious curly-haired little guy to school (I seriously need to post pictures of his curls, they really are quite amazing). And I'm starting to cry while writing this - gah, what a mom I'm being, crying at the thought of sending my baby to school. I just keep picturing him with his little backpack (even though it won't have anything in it but diapers and wipes), holding my hand as we walk through the halls of the school that will seem far too big for such a little boy. I never saw myself as the kind of mom who would cry when she dropped her child off at school for the first time, but now I feel like I just might.

Wipe the eyes, sniff, regain composure. It is only twice a week, and it will give me time to do some preschool stuff here at home with Zaylee. She'll be starting kindergarten next year, through the online k12 program. Wistful sigh. They grow up so fast. You always hear parents say that, but then all of a sudden it hits you that it's actually true.

3 Years Old

Thomas turned three years old today. My happy, friendly, good-natured little guy, with curly blond hair and a smile that can turn gray clouds into sunshine.


He's a boy of few words, but lots of cheerful and expressive jargon. He loves cars, silly dancing, and pretending to be a monster or a dog or a dinosaur. Sometimes he's talkative and sociable, other times he's quiet and thoughtful. And he's downright adorable all the time!


Right now Thomas is all about cars. Like he has been pretty much his entire life. :-) So for his birthday gift I made him a little car playmat, with roads to drive his cars on, houses and trees, a store, library, and fire station, and a little pond.


Then I decorated his cake to match. As usual, I did it using the sugar-overload method. A Hershey's Minis road, chocolate rocks, gumdrop bushes, lollipop trees.


It was a big hit with Thomas, who was too excited about picking off chocolate rocks to sit still enough to get a clear picture.


He was so cute singing "Happy Birthday" along with the rest of us. He loves to sing! I have a video, but Blogger is acting up so I can't post it right now.

Thomas LOVES his playmat. You know it's a successful gift when the plate of cake and ice cream sits ignored and all attention is focused entirely on playing with the present! He never did get around to eating his cake and ice cream, choosing instead to zoom his cars back and forth on his new playmat all evening. And he brought the playmat to bed with him. Yes, he definitely likes his present. :-)

Happy birthday to my wonderful little man.

Computer Stuff

I really haven't been wanting to write this post, because this is something I don't want to even think about, let alone write about.

About a week ago our computer crashed. Completely died. We think it was a virus that got through and did its thing. No hardware problems or anything, but our entire system was wiped out.

We had to re-install everything on the computer, all the basic software, we basically started it completely from scratch. The computer is working fine now, running fast, we have better anti-virus software.

But everything that was on the computer before the crash is gone. Completely lost. I don't mind losing all the random documents and unused software. But my pictures... more that two years of pictures and videos have been totally wiped. Gone. Anything that I didn't post on the blog is lost. And there were a ton of pictures and videos that I didn't post on the blog.

It just makes me sick to my stomach when I think of the moments we captured, the kids' adorable antics, the trips we've taken and documented with pictures. The video Jeff took when I was in labor with Audrey, when the midwife said hi to the camera knowing that someday Audrey would watch that video. The sweet little videos Jeff took of Audrey in that first hour after her birth, as she started opening her eyes and mouthing her hands. Pictures of Zaylee and Thomas playing with Audrey.

They're all gone. It's devastating.

Audrey Update

My baby's growing up! At seven months old, she finally has a tooth. The bottom left front tooth has popped through, and the right one looks like it will be following soon. The other kids got their first teeth around five months, but Audrey marches to her own beat.

Speaking of marching, Audrey has also discovered her mobility. She's not officially crawling yet, but she scoots like a pro. She can get just about anywhere in a room by pulling up to her hands and knees, then plopping herself forward onto her tummy. We really need to put up a baby gate on top of the stairs. We even have a top-of-stairs gate already. It's just the problem of installing it - we have iron stair rails and they don't line up evenly with the wall on the other side.

Lastly, we have started Audrey on solid foods. She gets rice cereal, coarsely mashed fruit (she especially loves bananas), and breads. I've given her bits of pancake, muffin, biscuit, wheat bread, etc. and she really enjoys being able to mush it around in her mouth. Her diapers aren't quite as inoffensive as they were before she started solids, but it's fun that she's growing up and trying new things.

Family Visit

Okay, this visit from Jeff's parents and brother happened the week before Father's Day, so I'm a little late posting this. Oh well, better late than never.

It was a very fun, very busy week with Jeff's family. We did fun stuff every day with Grandma Jean, Grandpa Richard, Jeff's brother Curtis, and Jeff's sister Joy and her family.

On Tuesday, they arrived and we went out to Golden Corral for dinner. So much yummy food! I love all-you-can-eat buffets. We even gave Audrey some mushed up peaches and a bit of ice cream, which she thoroughly enjoyed. And the kids ate so much ice cream I wouldn't think that their stomachs would hold that much!

On Wednesday, we decided to tour the Pioneer Memorial Museum.


But when we got there we found that it was closed for renovation. We were a bit disappointed. However, since the Utah State Capitol building was right next door, we decided to visit there instead.




I really loved the beautiful arched ceilings in the building. They were covered in paintings depicting the history of Utah.


While we were there, there was this group of Japanese tourists who were absolutely enchanted by Zaylee. They kept taking her picture as she posed and smiled. She loved it, she acted like she was born to be a model, basking in the limelight while cameras flashed all around. I wish I had gotten some of her cuter poses, she really was hamming it up for those tourists!


Here's the kids on the steps leading up to the Supreme Court. They liked being able to run up and down the stairs. My goodness, where can I get that kind of energy?


The kids and I posed in front of this replica of the Liberty Bell. Not the best picture, but it's the only one that I'm in.


Outside the building, after the tour, Jeff found a little grasshopper and pointed it out to the kids. He started prodding it gently with a stick so it would jump. Suddenly it jumped really high, right into Zaylee's overalls! We were all laughing like crazy as I unsnapped her overalls to free the poor little grasshopper.

On Thursday we visited the Sweets Candy Factory. It was founded by the Sweets family, and they are the makers of such favorites as saltwater taffy, cinnamon bears, and orange sticks. We got to walk through the factory and see the rooms where they make their delicious candies. My favorite was the chocolate room. There wasn't anything going on in there when we toured, but the smell was intoxicating! We also got a few free samples, yum. Then at the end of the tour was the shop, where Jeff and I bought enough candy to last several months. We've already finished off all the chocolate and now there's just a bit of taffy left. *sheepish grin*

They had us all wear these hair nets when we were in the factory, even Audrey. Hers was super cute, even through she didn't care for it much.


On Friday we visited the Hogle Zoo. We started off with a picnic lunch. Joy brought some delicious chicken salad and crescent rolls. Oh, that chicken salad was soooo good! I brought homemade cookies, which were also quite yummy.


After the picnic, we spent several hours wandering around the zoo, seeing all the neat animals. Zaylee's favorite animal was the enormous elephant sculpture. Whenever someone walked or stood in front of its trunk, it would "sneeze" water on them. It was hilarious to watch it happen to someone who didn't know it was going to - like when a mother was taking a picture of her children posing on the trunk. It didn't happen to me, but several unsuspecting picture-takers were squirted. I didn't get a picture of that elephant, unfortunately, but I did get a picture of the new baby elephant, Zuri, and her mommy.


A really neat thing about the Hogle Zoo is that they have peacocks that just wander around uncaged. The kids really enjoyed being able to see them up close. Here if you look closely you can see Zaylee trying to chase one. When the kids got a little too close we called them back so they wouldn't upset the peacock - they may be beautiful but they've got some major claws!


On Saturday I was too worn out to participate in the fun, but the rest of the family visited Wheeler Farm. It's a real farm, with animals and crops and everything. People can visit and see the animals, and basically just see how a farm is run. Apparently everyone had a good time. I stayed home with Audrey, and we got in some nice relaxing down time.

Sunday being Father's Day, I gave Jeff his gift of a really nice fishing rod and the Avatar DVD. We had a yummy dinner of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, with cupcakes and ice cream cake for dessert.

Jeff's parents and brother left on Monday morning, and we took several days to recover from the whirlwind visit. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and we're glad that they came to visit.

Whew! Finally finished the post, pics and all. Only a couple weeks late...