Project time!

With my time to catch up on things this weekend I have been inspired to work on some projects. The biggest being a re-design of our playroom/family room....I'm currently painting the cabinets I bought for toy storage and I'll be sure to show some before and after pictures of the room....... when it's done that is.....which might be a while. Baby steps, right?

Anyway, I saw this CUTE skirt Michelle (a friend of my friend Christi--I know, blog-hopping) make for her daughter several weeks ago. I used the tutorial at Grand Revival Design to make one for Anna. I didn't follow it exactly, though (big suprise!). The pattern was for a size 5-6. And Anna is only 2 so I figured I'd just minus a couple inches off the measurements. Which worked out pretty well for her waist size. But, as I was putting it together I quickly realized that it was going to be WAY too short. I didn't take into account that it has 4 tiers so that was like subtracting 8 inches off the length (this is typical of how I do things). It looked more like a tu-tu than a skirt. So my fix was to add another tier and ruffle. It is very ruffle-y, but not too bad. Anna loves it. As you can see in the first picture there are still a bunch of threads hanging off it because she was so excited to try it on when she saw me sewing it. I used fabric from my tubs, and I'm excited to try another one. I'll do a little better with following instructions next time.

Here's the beautiful model....she happened to have this hand-me-down yellow top which didn't really go with anything. Now it's an outfit!
And just a close up of the finished product!

My Weekend

This weekend Craig and the kiddos headed down south to visit Ama and Papa and gave me one of the bests gifts ever: a whole weekend at home by myself. While my family was enjoying the sunshine, fishing, playing outside on the rope swing, picking wildflowers, swimming in the hot tub, and getting spoiled by Ama and Papa, I was hanging out here in a quiet house with tons of projects on my to-do list.

(Will and Papa, steering the boat)

(an early morning up fishing, makes for a tired boy on the ride home)
Here’s just some of what I accomplished while the fam was away:

I took two nice long walks
I slept in two mornings in a row
I completed 15 layouts in my scrapbooks
I watched two “girly” movies
I spent 4 hours shopping in stores I can’t take my kids to, like TJ Maxx and Spencers Alley
I bought two new cabinets for our playroom
I had my first-ever-in-my-entire-life pedicure. I don’t know why I waited this long. It was heaven!
I changed the sheets on two beds and washed and folded 4 loads of laundry
I cleaned my entire house, even vacuumed out under the couch cushions, and cleaned out all the bathroom drawers
I took out about 7 bags of trash
I went grocery shopping for the next couple weeks
I missed my family so much and was happy to see their smiley faces Sunday evening!

Thank you to my wonderful husband and in-laws! You guys are great. I am a much refreshed mommy!

Another funny

Lately Wyatt and I have been saying the 23 Psalm (after watching that little girl on Godtube---so cute!) and he's been learning some of it. He says the cutest thing though. The last verse where it says, "surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life..." Wyatt says, "surely goodness and love and mommy all the days of my life...." I can't bear to correct him because it is just so cute. And hey, if he wants goodness, love, and mommy all the days of his life, that's ok. Well, at least until he's 18 or so on the mommy thing :)

A Fun Little Meme

What I was doing ten years ago:

I was in my junior year of college and about to be married to my sweetie!

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. cheese and crackers
2. my homemade granola bars
3. a really juicy orange
4. apples or celery with peanut butter
5. chips and salsa or guac

Five jobs I have held:
1. hoeing weeds from onion fields- summers in jr. high
2. Nordstrom – I worked in BP cleaning out dressing rooms and putting the clothes back on the floor, and wrapping gifts in fragrances.
3. Oregon Cherry Growers (my dad’s office, I worked in accounts receivable and, tracking, and did LOTS of filing)
4. US Bank Teller-I worked there for 2 summers after Craig and I were married. My second day as a teller I was robbed! No I’m not kidding! But besides that it was a fun job. I loved playing with money all day.
5. State of Oregon Licensing Board for Clinical Social Workers- I started this job when Craig started student teaching and worked for almost 2 years before having Will, and staying home.

Five habits:
1. Exercising has become a habit. I hate getting up, but I feel so guilty when I don’t.
2. I drink coffee every day
3. I go to the library about once a week
4. I wash my face before going to bed. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have not done this.
5. I pray out loud in the van on the way to school. If I forget, my kids will remind me.

Five Places I have lived:
I have only lived in three, Dallas, Salem and Portland.

If you are reading this and haven’t already done it, I tag you. But only if you want to be tagged.

I googled myself, just for fun, and besides finding lots of other people with my name, I also found these (click on link below). They look pretty cute. To bad they are out of stock or else I might be tempted to order. I mean, a pair of jeans named after you is pretty cool :)

http://www.anntaylor.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=9372&categoryId=685&pCategoryId=101Ns=CATEGORY_SEQ_685

Friday Funny

You know about my love for Lysol household wipes.....

This morning I found these two in the kitchen. Anna looks up and says, "I want clean!" What could I say, the girl wants to clean!

So I took a picture :)

Wy-boy

It’s been 5 years since God blessed me with my Wyatt Samuel. As I neared the end of my pregnancy, my body swelled up as if I’d been stung by a giant bee, and Wyatt came two weeks early due to my development of toxemia. How relieved I was to have him out and healthy and hold him in my arms. For five years Craig and I have tried our best to teach, shape and guide him. Wyatt has challenged me and caused me to rely on the strength of my Father in heaven, which I count as a blessing. He has also caused me to smile and laugh with joy every day at the unique little boy he is, and the love he shows me. Here is a picture of our boy at age 1:

(Wasn't he the cutest thing??)

I heard this verse at a couple’s retreat Craig and I attended a couple months before Wyatt turned 2 years old. I have clung to it as a promise for Wyatt’s life.

Isaiah 51:11 The ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Wyatt is full of energy, passion, and determination. My prayer is that he will use these God given qualities to give glory to God. That he will be passionate for the Lord, all the days of his life. Just a few weeks ago Wyatt and I had a conversation about asking Jesus into his heart. To my knowledge he has never done this in true seriousness. But that evening he repeated a prayer after me and I believe his heart was sincere. Maybe he will ask Jesus into his heart a few times more before it really sinks in. But I know in my heart that he belongs to the Lord.

Wyatt is curious, fearless, and takes things to a whole new level. He is spunky and quite the charmer and loves to laugh. He is musical, artistic, very good with words, and despite being strong-willed, he is oh so easy to LOVE! Wyatt’s name means “brave one” and while we didn’t name him Wyatt for the meaning, he has lived up to truly being our little “brave one”!

(5 years old today!!)

So Happy Birthday to my big 5 year old. You are a blessing to me and so many others!

from boys to men

Last night, after a very fulfilling dinner of Chicken Broccoli Calzone's (thanks, Alysun, my family loves these...see FOOD LOVE for the recipe) carrot sticks and cut up fruit, Will headed over to the fridge, pulled out a yogurt, and scarfed it down. A couple hours later both he and Wyatt were saying they were "starving" and could they please have a snack. I cut up an apple, threw out some carrot sticks, sliced up cheese and a few handfuls of pretzels for all three of them to share. A few minutes later the food had vanished...well all except one lone carrot hanging out on the paper plate.

As I was tucking Will into bed he said, "mom, can you wake me up early tomorrow?" I said, "yes, tomorrow you go with daddy so you'll have to get up a little earlier." And he replied, "well, I need to get up early cause I want to have time to eat a big breakfast.....I'm really hungry!"

So this morning this is what they ate:

Will- one toaster waffle, a homemade hot pocket (eggs, ham and cheese), and a bagel with cream cheese.

Wyatt- (my skimpy eater) 2 toaster waffles and a homemade hot pocket!

Families with older boys have been telling me this was bound to happen sooner or later. But my goodness! Will often eats two packets of oatmeal, plus some toast, a bagel, or yogurt for breakfast! I can see my trips to the grocery store becoming more frequent. These boys are becoming MEN!

The "Knight" Party

Wyatt is turning 5 next week, so we had a couple of his friends over for a party on Saturday. He chose a castle cake....and below is my best attempt. Don't laugh! He loved it and helped me decorate!

What weather!! We lucked out and were able to play games outside. Here's Wyatt and his buddies playing "slay the dragon". Basically throwing balls and seeing if they could hit Will aka the dragon.
Firing the cannon! Craig brought home these big sling-shots from work and let the kids fire bean bags across the yard. I love Wyatt's tongue!!
Pinning the fire on the dragon. Will, so graciously volunteered to be our resident dragon and the kids stuck pieces of orange tissue paper "fire" on him. Great fun for all!
And finally, the birthday boy making his wish!
Stay tuned for another birthday post this week! The celebration continues....

Tulips!

Wednesday the little kids and I drove out to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm. It was cloudy and very muddy, but thankfully I remembered the rubber boots. I rarely do these kind of spontaneous outings with them, and it was really fun. We weren't there long, but they had a fun time. I need to do things like this more often!

And it was also time, to cut and color the hair! I went from this.....
To this!
I am still getting used to the short cut. I don't think it's been quite this short since around the time Anna was born. But it was getting too stringy, now it feels a lot healthier, and I think I'm gonna like it! My sister colored it for me and did a great job. It had been almost 4 months since I'd had it colored....yikes!!!

A little overdue...

It just dawned on me today that I never blogged an update to the Romans 12 challenge I posted about at the beginning of March. We were pretty consistant about reading it out loud every night, but once we past Easter, we kinda forgot about it. So we didn't do it for the full month, but still, toward the end of our reading time the boys would say a lot of it along with us. Craig would even stop and let them finish sentences. And the best thing was they LOVED it. I anticipated them getting tired of it after a few days, but they so eagerly rose to the challenge. Several times on his way to bed Will would say, "don't forget the challenge, mom!"

I was reminded of all this when I watched this "godtube" video today. Have you ever noticed how kids pick up on something you may have only said a couple times? They are so quick to learn and memorize. This little darling inspired me to become more diligent about teaching my kids to memorize more scripture. Copy and paste this link to view. It will make you smile!

http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9e7c4b40cf5a13cea6ca

John 3:16

Wyatt is always singing this little song that he learned at pre-school. You can tell I bribed him to do it for the camera cause at the end he asks, "NOW, can I watch Enchanted?"