Spreading the love

{Lucky you!}
The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2- What I create will be just for you.

3- It'll be done this year.

4- You have no clue what it's going to be.

It may be a story. It may be a picture of myself, or a handmade piece of artwork for your living room. I may sew you something. I may bake you something. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch?
Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! LETS PLAY!

Kid updates

Elizabeth: is learning to read. She tends to guess a lot though, instead of doing the phonetics, but we'll keep trying. She's also starting to grow out of 4T and into 5T. Time to shop!! And she did the cutest thing last night. I was sleeping in the family room with Tristan, who was having a hard time, when I heard her crying. I ran out and comforted her while Tristan cried himself to sleep, and I told her how why I was in there, and that I would never leave her alone, when I just couldn't keep my head up any longer and laid it on the couch. She grabbed my hand, led me into my bedroom, pointed at the bed (as if to say, get in!), then climbed in after me and slept with me. So cute.

Kael: has taught himself how to burp on command. As I've said from the beginning, Kael is 100% boy. He's also behaving better since I stopped expecting him to be just like his sister, who continues to spoil me with good behavior (most of the time). Kael is different, and since I started respecting that, he's been better. We need to respect the fact that our children are different.

Tristan: finally has all his baby teeth in, and is done until around his 2nd birthday. Today he is sick with a cough, sneezing, and itchy eyes. He's getting better, though. He adds words to his vocabulary every day, and is always proving to us that his lack of words has nothing to do with his intelligence. He also knows how to put his own shoes on (and likes to put on everyone else's too).

Toothless

A week ago I got my wisdom teeth out. All 4. I was awake the whole time, but thoroughly numbed and medicated. I had the laughing gas (which did not make me laugh, just calm), and they put two shots of novacaine in each area, except the bottom left, which required an additional shot because the bottom right took so long. The top two came out very easy, but the bottom two were impacted and still in bone, so there was some drilling. And they put sutures in the bottom right. I looked like a chipmunk for a few hours, but there will be no pictures because I forbade Matt from taking any. I got an antibiotic and a very nice painkiller that makes me sleepy. I ran out of the pain meds on Saturday, but I still hurt, so yesterday I went and got the doctor to renew my prescription. I'm feeling much better now, and should be able to eat crunchy foods by the end of the week. I'm very happy they're out.

Finally!

I'm finally getting my wisdom teeth out and I'm so excited! Some of you might think I'm crazy for saying that, but they've needed to come out since I was pregnant with Elizabeth, and they're driving me crazy! My appointment is for next Tuesday, first thing in the morning. Yay!

Change is good

Okay, I better post a blog for my poll over there --->.

I want to change my hair color again. Most of this past year I've been a red head, and I think I'm ready for a change, or at least a touch up. So I'm asking your opinion! I've been blonde and brunette in times past, never black or anything crazy, but it's time for a change, and I promise to abide by the poll results, although if it's Other, I'll have another poll probably to determine what color that should be.

And to the person who already voted... please comment on this entry as to what color you'd like to see on my head.

The poll closes on March 15th. I will color my hair that week and post pics.

p.s. I've found, that if you'd like to vote more than once, you may, by using other computers, or sometimes, even just refreshing, if you're not logged in! If you really want my hair to be a certain color, that's the way to cheat.

Skirts for Elizabeth

Elizabeth loves skirts. No, she LOVES skirts. And I can't find a skirt ANYWHERE! So I went online, and found some patterns, and since my sewing machine is in storage, I'm going to pay a friend of mine with my awesome toffee and she will make them for me! I've posted a link to the blogs where I got them here so if any of you want to make some for your girls, you can!

http://www.kukyideas.com/journal/2006/07/tiered-skirt-tutorial.html
http://redcurrent.blogspot.com/2005/11/skirt-pattern.html

I can't wait!

Getting serious about FHE

So a few weeks ago, we decided to get serious about having Family Home Evening. We set aside some money to make a chart (which I'll describe in a bit), and assigned roles. A week ago I bought the stuff, and last night I made it. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures.



I really enjoyed making it! Everyone I've ever talked to says vinyl lettering is hard to do, but I didn't think so. The whole thing took about two hours, including painting. I decided that black and silver were good classic colors to make our family colors, and I chose teddy bears because there is already a teddy bear theme in the birth samplers I make for each of my children. Elizabeth has asked me to do something like that with her name on it, and I can't wait! I've already got a picture in my head of what I want! Woo hoo!

Spanking is...fun?

Okay, so today we were having trouble getting Kael to get himself dressed, and we had tried all the motivations we could think of. On a whim, Matt picked up Elizabeth and said he would spank Elizabeth if Kael would get dressed. It worked! Now, you all may be thinking, what kind of motivation is that? What did Elizabeth think? Well, after Kael was all dressed, Matt put her down and sent her on her way. Elizabeth chased after him, saying, "Can you spank me until Tristan gets dressed?" This was funny enough, but then I asked, "Elizabeth, you WANT to be spanked?!" To which she replied, "Yeah! It's FUN to be spanked!" I swear, that's what she said. I almost peed my pants laughing.

First talk! But so clingy...

So today, Kael gave his first talk in Primary. It was on family. It went very well, he did a great job. The only problem was, he didn't want to be left in Primary after while I went to Relief Society. Ugh. So he ended up going to Priesthood with Matt and I stayed in the hall with Tristan, who thankfully has only 3 weeks to go until nursery.

Anyway, why is Kael so clingy? Maybe I was just spoiled by Elizabeth, who all but pushed me out the door of nursery and hasn't looked back since. But about half of the time Kael was eligible for nursery, he didn't want to go (apparently there was some bullying in play there, in both locations, but still...), and now he freaks if he sees me in the middle of Primary. I can only hope Tristan isn't like that, although, it seems very likely. Tristan is slow to warm up to things in general. I don't know what to do about Kael... ah well, we keep on trudging.

A new bed... well, sort of.

It's been almost 7 years since Matt and I tied the knot. One of the wedding gifts we received was a bed set, from his sister, Vicki. It was a very nice set. The sheets never quite fit right, but it was pretty and comfortable. About a month ago we looked at the comforter, and were shocked to notice that it had so many stains you could hardly see the blanket for the stains. I may be exaggerating a little, but not much; it was looking pretty sad. So when we saw an ad for a bedding sale at Family Dollar, we jumped on it and bought a new one. The set from FD only had the dust ruffle, shams and comforter, so we went to Walmart and got coordinating sheets there: 300 thread count! Nice... I'm including a picture so you can see it. I'm already planning in my head what our bedroom will look like when we have a place we can paint and decorate. It's satin topped, with little green embroidered flowers, and a ribbed section on each side. I LOVE it!!!!

I once was blind but now I see!

Somewhere back before Thanksgiving, maybe Halloween, my right eye decided it didn't like contacts, and in trying to get it to accept what it did not want, I ran out of contacts for my right eye. We did not have money at the time to buy more contacts for me, and consequently, I've been partially blind for the last 3-4 months. For those who don't know, yes, I wear glasses and contacts, mostly contacts because I don't think I look good in glasses, and my eyes are pretty bad: -5.00 in one, -5.50 in the other. But today, after a slight mix-up and delay (the strength in the first shipment was +5 and 5.5 instead of negative), I can now see with both eyes! It was a little trippy at first, but I feel like my old self again. The kids can sit on either side of me when we read books and I can see, and I don't have to have a mirror super close to do my makeup on one eye. It's marvelous!

Sir Sick-a-lot

What a week! Last Sunday, I stayed home with Elizabeth because she said she didn't feel well enough to go to church, which is a big deal for her, because she LOVES church. And then Tristan stayed home too because Matt had to teach in Priesthood and he couldn't take care of Tristan at the same time. Then the next day, Kael woke up puking. Then Friday, Elizabeth woke up puking. And now today, another Sunday, Tristan woke up puking, so here I am, at my computer, instead of at church. Sad day, too, because today is the Presidency message in Relief Society and that's usually one of my favorite Sundays. That and 3rd Sundays, I believe... whenever Nita Miller teaches, she's awesome.

I read an article in my latest Parenting magazine about how kids are sick an average of 10 times a year with various colds, flus or other bugs. I kept thinking to myself, wow, my kids are sick A LOT. But then I thought about it a little more, and individually, they're not sick any more than normal, it just seems that way, because there are 3 of them getting sick the average number of times. That's an average of 1 sick kid a week for 2 weeks, and then one week off, as opposed to having just one, which averages once a month or less. Does this mean when I have another child that I will always have at least one who is sick? Oy to the vey.

Sewing it up

So this morning, I sewed up Kael's bear, Joe, for the 5th time, or so. (Yes, Joe Bear. Hey, it was 3:00 in the morning when I named this object for attachment, so give me a break.) I've sewed both arms, one twice, his leg, and now his crotch. It was a delicate surgery, let me tell you, but Joe came through like a champ. I'm just wondering how many times I'm going to have to do this. What will threaten to fall of next? His head? An ear? He's already lost an eye I still need to replace or something. He's a well-loved bear. I should start making a big deal out of it, you know, make a hospital gown for him, some casts and slings that are reusable, maybe a little heartbeat machine.

Ewwww!

Kael is sick today. The bad kind. Throw up, or whatever you like to call it. I'm lucky I missed the first two times he puked, but I just experienced the third one. He coughs and coughs and coughs and suddenly it's more than a cough. Projectile vomit all over. If he'd eaten any cookies, he lost them. I almost lost some myself. A sensitive nose and gag reflex are not good qualities in a mom. Does anyone have any tips for getting over/coping with such a thing? Thank goodness Matt was here to clean up most of the mess. Bleh. And Kael feels fine between "episodes."

Now I'm just hoping the other kids don't get sick. Yikes. I would rather it be me, as much as I would hate that.

The good news is that I have started craving fruit (as opposed to candy, chips and other not so great things), and it was on sale today at the store! Yay! Fruit will hopefully help the rest of us stay healthy.

Panic Attack! and other things.

So Saturday was Kael's first Primary activity. He and Elizabeth had a great time. But apparently Kael gave the leaders quite a scare! They noticed Elizabeth playing in the gym with some other kids, and asked each other, Didn't she have her brother with her? Answers in the affirmative set off a mild panic and search. They looked all over the church, yelling his name. Finally, after they were thoroughly panicked, they found him in the nursery room downstairs, playing with the toys. I'll have to make sure to tell him to stay with the other kids next time.

Homeschooling is back in full swing after my recovery. Today we learned F and G. The kids really enjoy school, and this morning, Elizabeth even said I was her favorite teacher ever. I'm happy to hear that, since they'll be stuck with me for 12 years of school or so! Ha ha.

A sad day is fast approaching. I think Tristan may not need naps much anymore. He's not even in Nursery yet! *sigh* Luckily, they let me take a short nap every afternoon. Today, I fell asleep on Kael's bed, which has the side guard, and Tristan doesn't know how to get over it, so he was stuck on the bed with me. He played at the window and with the blankets while I slept! It also helps that Elizabeth is such a little mommy, and the boys listen to her. I'm so glad I had a girl first! lol