Baby Shower Hand-made Gifts By Me!

So! We had my sister's baby shower last weekend and even though not many people showed as I had hoped, enough did that my sister got a lot of great stuff! Some of that stuff was from my Mother and I! Of course! And I have PICTURES!!!! Ha ha!

FIRST! This is my first quilt ever and I was so proud of it! Obviously!!! LOL I had to post all the photos of it that I had so that you could see all the neat details! The materials I got to make this blanket were all fat squares, so I got them for a great deal! There was Blue, Orange, Green and Yellow for the solid colors and then I found some assorted fat squares that just so happened to match! They had alphabet letters and gators and helicopters on them but they were all different! This was also made when we weren't sure if the baby was a boy or girl and I am glad that it worked out that the quilt looked slightly more boy. The backing is a minky style backing that I still have some left over to make a Mombo cover with and some extra material as well. I also have extra after that I can make other things with! (If my sister makes me a pattern for her nursing pillow I will be using some of it to make a cover for her as well, she has a different nursing pillow) And then I got silky binding for the edging. I absolutely love this quilt and I now have enough material (Thank You to my Cousin) to make more quilts! And a super Thank You to my Mother who was there helping me create this quilt for my sister (pouring her sweat and blood into it, blood literally as she randomly started bleeding after being poked by a pin) and bringing me wisdom from her Mother and Grandmother that without her help I would never have! I hope everyone enjoys the photos... There are several! My 4 year old even made it into one!

NEXT, there is the "wet bag" I made for my sister! I figured that I know how it is to have to run out the door with a baby and be going fast and not want to forget anything. So, I made her this bag to hang by her door with a couple cloth diapers and wipes plus any other things she sees fit inside of it. (I also made cloth wipes for her, 20 of them, I hope to show those here too! LOL) 

To make this bag I took 2 different types of yarn and began to make them on my largest knitting loom. The base color was a pale yellow (6 weight) and the other yarn was a multiple baby color (2 weight) yarn. I simply used them at the same time to create this beauty. Once I got the bag to the length I felt it needed to be I ended it and closed one end and turned it inside out. The second picture shows that it was "supposed" to look like, but I liked the other side better. Then, I took my smallest loom and created a " double pocket" just smaller than the bag itself, in height, and attached it to the front. (I actually attached it at a slant at first so I had to detach it and then had my Mother pin it in place and reattached it.) After the pocket was on there my Mother attached the strap and the lining (she did those with her new sewing machine we had to get because her old one broke mid project on the 4th of July!) and then all I had to do was fill it with baby goodies! My sister really seemed to like this gift. It was the first one she wanted to look at again after the shower was over! He he he... I am really glad I was able to get this finished (with lots of help from my mom) in time for the shower. It was the first gift started, but the last thing finished! Eek! 

Outside of bag, still on the knitting loom!

Inside the bag!

Interior of the finished bag! I love it!

Finished Bag with PUL liner,
strap and pocket both attached!

THIRD, we have the cloth diaper wipes I made for her and baby. This was a really neat idea from a website I will provide the link to at the end of the post. On the site you are supposed to use chenille, but that stuff costs $15-20 a yard!!!! Yuck! So I chose to use terry cloth instead, only $9 per yard and I think they are extra cute! I fell in love with these other 2 materials as soon as I found them in the store too! In any case, I took my 4 materials (white terry cloth, green terry cloth, green with owls and blue with barn yard animals) and cut them into 8"x8" squares each and ended up with 10 of each. Next up was putting them together with the printed material on the inside of the project. My Mother was nice enough to pin all the squares in place so that all I had to do was sew them together with leaving a 1" or so gap so I could turn then inside out and have the print on the outside so it could be all cute! Once I had them sewn together, the corners cut to avoid bulking and flipped right side out my Mother was kind enough to go around the edge using various different stitches (this would be what we were working on when the old machine decided to stop working properly so we had to drive to town and buy a new sewing machine!) to make them flat (and cuter! LOL) I then placed them into a new "wipe container" (the cute decorative kind that HUGGIES now sells and that I "stole" the disposable wipes out of for my little guy so I could have the container for this project!). My sister has this Make Your Own wipe solution that she is making for her baby (we have some that I need to use on the baby, I just keep forgetting it is here) and I figured she could soak the cloth wipes I made her in that and be good to go! I was super tempted to keep some of these to use on my little guy, but I wised up and gave all 20 of them to my sister! I ended up having some in almost every gift I gave her. In the bag above was also a travel wipes container (funny thing is that it is also a HUGGIES container) and inside of it there was, I believe, 2 of each design.  I was so happy to have been able to make something for her that I am 98.8% sure she will use! I have 2 extra small ones here that I plan to use on my guy once I relocate them! (they were my first 2 and they ended up being half the size of the ones she got and I plan on using them as face wipes at the table with meals!)

Barn yard and white terry cloth

Owl and green terry cloth

Semi finished owl cloth

Total of 10 Owl clothes/wipes

Total of 10 Barn yard clothes/wipes

My Mother sewing the edging of one of the wipes

Folded wipes in container
(with matching dots on the side)

For the fourth project I am posting here we have the Travel and Home bathroom totes I made for her. You use a hand towel or a wash cloth for the main part of it. I chose the green color because she is thinking of doing greens and browns in her little man's bedroom. Then you need the rick rack and ribbon (2 types if you want it the way I did, I have a decor ribbon and the tying ribbon) and thread to match the main part (towel or cloth). 

First things first, attach the ribbon and rick rack to the cloth so that it goes down just one end. then you want to pin the cloth in place so that you can sew pockets to hold all the goodies inside of it. I actually put all the stuff on top and pinned on either side and then sewed where I had pins. Then I sew in one last piece of ribbon (about 16" folded in half to make two 8" pieces, do not cut it, that will make this harder on you!) at the last closing pocket stitch. Now you can load it up, roll it up, tie it and you are good to go! I did the 2 different ones because I wanted my sister to have both. I also ended up putting snaps on the smaller one to ensure that all of its smaller goodies stayed inside of it.

All the supplies!

Ribbon side 1

Ribbon side 2

White Rick Rack

1 wash cloth and 1 hand towel

Rick Rack and ribbon attached and folded and pinned in place

Finished and rolled up and tied in place!

Finished and unrolled to see all the goodies inside!
(See some of the wipes made it in there too...)

Lastly, here are the gifts all wrapped and set out for the party along with the "Jar O Gifts" that was not only a huge gift, but it was a party game as well! My Mother and I had a ton of extra stuff we had made and put it all into this giant glass jar that we had and went everyone came into the shower they got to guess how many items they thought were in there. Everyone was shocked to find out that there was only 49 items in the and not the 100s they were guessing! LOL. It was a fun day and I enjoyed seeing my sister get all her gifts and I also enjoyed seeing some family. 

And here is that LOVELY site I got so many great ideas from and some I am still looking at making. Not only for my little nephew but also for my little guy too! Go here! And enjoy your own crafting!

~TTFN!

Food! And more...

"Egg Noodle" Mac & Cheese!

 Starting out today.... Some of my favorite meals! Yippee! The first is a Low-Carb "Egg noodle" Mac & cheese. Great, not so quick, meal that my entire family LOVES!  We have actually had these about 1-2 times each week for the passed month... It really is that big of a hit for us. Basically, it is eggs, cheese, Lil' Smokies and cream. Plus a few dashes of nutmeg and a few more dashes of chili powder! Yum! Makes it oh so delicious! Even my kids gobble this meal down. It used to be that if we said Mac & Cheese, it meant the stuff out of the blue box... Yeah, you know the kind I meal! My oldest was so bad about it that he would not eat any type of Mac & Cheese unless it was "Character shaped" and out of a blue box! Until "we" (my sister) got him to eat "Spokane Noodles" (or Elbow Macaroni, because that is all they make in Spokane, WA. Or so he was told! LOL) . From then on it was OK to eat "Spokane Noodles" but only when he picked them out at the store because we FINALLY got some delivered to our store! Essentially, I stopped buying the special kinda because it was all they would eat and I would like for my kids to develop taste buds at some point! Now, as the oldest gets, well, older, he has started to try new things and in turn, his brothers follow in his foot steps! He tried this meal first (loved it) and then the 6 year old tried it (loved it) followed by the 4 year old who still has the jury out! The last time we had this meal (last night) I got my 4 year old to try just a few small bites, to decide if tonight was the night he was going to start liking it. Nope! He ate a hot dog and a hot dog bun (separately) and that was dinner (Dessert was Grape Jell-o). What got me started on not really giving the kiddos a chance to "pick" the meal for the evening was when my 7 year old asked if he could have some of Grandma's "Chicken" (it was pork, but we told him it was chicken). This was amazing to me. This child has only wanted to eat boxed Mac & Cheese, cottage cheese, cheese, boxed Salisbury Steak and a few other random things. He tried it, and loved it! Since then, not a meal has gone by where he didn't eat exactly what we did. And he didn't complain.

Pork and Asparagus (Yum!)

My son keeps telling me that he wants to try more and more new things because I really can cook (to his surprise!) Most of the time he prefers my Mother and I's "diet" food to the food he is eating. For example, we were having breakfast for dinner and I had made a low carb Dutch Baby Pancake(oven baked pancake) for my mother and I to eat and the kiddos and my Hubby were having regular old fashioned pancakes. Well, he wanted part of the Dutch Baby and after trying both decided that he really didn't like the "normal" pancakes. We also no longer buy "sugared" maple syrup anymore. There really is no point in having 2 different kinds of syrup in the house when it doesn't hurt the boys to have just a little less sugar for breakfast! This kiddo just never stops amazing me and I am sure that the end of that is nowhere in sight. He is a very bright boy. He even has requested that he get $2 extra on Tuesdays at school so that he can get a second helping of tacos at lunch time. Since there are only a few weeks left of school, why not! This is their last year at a "Brick & Mortar" School. Might as well let them make the best of it, right?


In other news for me...

We bought a printer to go with our nifty Internet capabilities! Woo-hoo! This is actually helpful because now I can just print my sister's Baby Shower invitations from home, rather than drive into town and pay to print at Kinko's! We also ended up picking up a really neat printer too! It has wireless printing, or eprint, so that we do not have to be hardwired into it to print from it. Another cool part to that is that we can email information from our phones (such as photos) to the printer! Well, the rest of my family can, my phone is pretty lame and doesn't send the picture all the way through! (Bummer!)

I tried to get a photo of the printer to load so that I could show everyone, but it doesn't seem to want to show up! So, it is an HP Officejet 4622 series if you want to see what it looks like! (for those who don't know or don't live here! LOL)

I managed today to purchase my outfit for my Sister's Baby Shower. I am very pleased with it. Since the shower isn't until July, I feel accomplished in having one more thing done! Also, I will be able to nurse the baby easily an still look good while doing so! I tried on 2 of the same thing but the green, yellow and blue just looked best on me. I also picked up a new tank that looks great on me! I never would have thought to try on anything with horizontal stripes because normally they make the person wearing them look 20x their regular size, but both the outfit I got AND my new shirt have horizontal stripes and they look great on me.

I also picked up a couple more pieces of material today for a couple more projects. Along with yet another ball of yarn! I have been crocheting something for awhile now and had been debating on how to do the trim. I could have used something that I already had at home, but this just about jumped off the shelf and screamed, "Use me for that! Use me!" So, I bought it! The fabric I found is my new favorite! It has Owls all over it! I keep gravitating towards the Owl water-proof material used to make cloth diapers too. I have no idea what it is about Owls and baby print that has me so obsessed, but I love it! If I could get my hands on many different kinds of Owl printed fabrics, I'd be a Mama/Auntie in heaven! I would seriously dress my 6 month old is all Owl clothing if I thought I could actually afford to buy all the material from the craft store! This stuff is so cute, I can hardly stand it! Now, if I could only win the lotto, I could buy the fabrics and then maybe grow a craftier side and make a bunch of Owl baby gear! LOL! For now, I stick to what I got! I have a few small projects to complete before my Sister finds out the baby's gender in 2 weeks. And then it is all out "gender specific" projects! Some of the things I am making for her and her baby I will be making the "testers" for myself and my baby!

Little Man is 6 months old now!

Speaking of my Little Man! He has decided that this week should be the week to cut 2 more new teeth! His top 2 front teeth started to break through this week and with that comes drool and both him and I have head colds as well! I notice this time around, that when he was cutting his bottom 2 teeth, him and I both got sick then too. Same type of thing, feels and sounds like a head cold. Stuffed up nose and sore throat with a tiny cough to go with it. Hopefully, his teeth will come fast and him and I will both get better. This type of cold is the type that causes you to e extra tired and with 4 little boys, that is an issue!

In addition to everything else today and this week, my Hubby started mowing the lawn! Yippee! I say started, because our ride on mower was broken until yesterday when our neighbor fixed it and got it running again. He was unable to finish because the belt for the mower blades broke! Literally shredded and came off in chunks! Yuck! Not a pretty picture. So, my Mother stopped in at Baxter's Auto Parts in town while we were in that area. They said they would have the part in 1 hour. So, we went shopping. Came back in 1.5 hours and still no part. Left, and went to another store, this time across town. And when we came back, still no part. Found our way to another store and then back to Baxter's and 4 hours later, part was ready! When we got home I took the boys to play at a friends house so that they could swim and jump on the trampoline and I could visit with their Mommy. Also so Hubby could finish mowing the lawn. Well, the part we were in town so long waiting for... Too long... Can't be used! Gotta get a new one! So, Lawn... Not mowed all the way! (sigh) Hopefully tomorrow it can get finished. We will have to wait and see.

That is all for now. Hopefully I can make it back in here to fill everyone in on more "Me Details" sooner than I did from the last post. I will try to start posting a little something even if it is literally a little something! For now... Enjoy your week! 10.5 more days of school left for the little ones! Yikes!

~TTFN

Recent Funny Moments! (Long)

To start things off... We bought the baby a new (to us) high chair. I was browsing Craig's List and found this high chair for $10! Awesome deal! Specially since all we had for Little Man was a bouncy chair and a Bumbo. Now, the Bumbo works great and I love, love, love the tray with it. But you are only supposed to use it at ground level and on a flat surface. Well, that is a long way down to the floor to sit and feed a baby at! So, High Chair time it was! And I am super happy with it. However, the little booger does not like to sit in it for long enough to get to eat in it. He wont even sit in it for Dad and I to eat dinner! He is spoiled I think!

Beware of this post... I feel it is going to be "picture heavy" since my last one was "picture lacking"! LOL

So first off this week. I was driving into town and off the side of the road I noticed something rather crazy. I had to do a double take because this is something I have never seen in my entire life growing up in Central Oregon. I looked out the window to look at this thing that caught my eye and I was in shock! It was a Wild Turkey! Live, wild turkey. Just walking down the highway! It was the funniest thing I have seen, at random, on that highway in a long time! So, that was funny #1!

Tanner, just after getting his hair cut! Yippee!

Funny #2: I am sure that my 3rd son is going to be completely angry with me when he gets older for sharing this, but it is going to happen. I was sitting on my bed in the late hours of the night nursing the baby the other night when my 4 year old gets out of bed and asks to go potty. Of course, I say yes and he walks out of the bedroom. Well, he turned to the right (our bathroom is to the left of our room) and just as I was getting ready to say something, he comes walking back down the hall. So I kept my mouth shut! Bad move mama... Bad move! He stopped just before the bedroom door and started peeing on the wall! The sound of him peeing was met with me yelling at the top of my lungs "OH! NO NO NO! TANNER WHAT ARE YOU DOING???!!!" He pops his head around the corner and says "What?" So I repeated again... Calmer this time... "What are you doing? Go to the bathroom." His 4 year old fashioned come back... "I am!"... LMAO... The entire encounter had my Husband and Mother both in the hall trying to find out why I was yelling at the 4 year old when everyone else was trying to go to sleep. My Mother took Tanner to the bathroom to finish going potty while my Husband cleaned up the puddle that was forming in the hall and I calmed the baby back to sleep/nursing (I managed to startle him awake by yelling almost in his ear. Poor baby). My Mother brought Tanner back to bed and he was out within seconds of his head hitting the pillow again. That was, by far, one of the funniest moments I have had with any of  my kids! The next morning, he did not remember any of what had happened.

6 year old after his hair cut! (Little brother in the background)

On to my 6 year old...

He has been on a behavior card since February at school. He was acting out and the teacher was having a really hard time gaining control of him during the day. So, we agreed to do this card. It worked great for my oldest last year at school so I had high hopes it would do the same for the 6 year old. Well, he did good for awhile and then went back to a lot of the old "naughty" behavior. It is now getting closer to the end of the school year and field trips are starting up. He really wants to go! But, he had been bringing home some really bad reports with 3-4 negative marks per day! Terrible reports. So, I told him that I was not going to send him on any of the trips if he could not act correctly during the day before the trips. This coming Friday he gets to go to see baby chickens and all sorts of other things on a farm! And he is super excited for that because of his Aunts chickens. He is officially the chicken whiz due to his Aunt having 3 chickens. (I don't know where kids get some of this stuff sometimes) In any case, he has been informed that he has to act better at school in order to be allowed to go. He has had 3 days at school so far and.... drum roll please...... he has only brought home ONE negative mark for the entire 3 days and even that wasn't such a terrible thing! Monday and Tuesday he had terrific days! All "smiles" all day, both days! (the reports are designed so that he is either graded, per half hour, by a smiling, a straight mouthed or a frowning face, depending on his behavior) But today he brought home one single frown on his report. I was able to hear from his teacher that she had talked to him and that he says he is not going to let it happen again. So, as long as he brings home one more good report, he gets to go on Friday to the farm! And then at the beginning of June the class is going to the new swimming pool and they are walking there... Yuck! and Yikes! This is a Kindergarten class... walking over a mile, maybe 2, to a swimming pool and then back to school... not my boy! LOL. I spoke to his teacher about this as well and for every one's safety I am going to drive him to the pool and drop him off with his teacher. This way he also knows that I can come back and pick him up if he gets out of line as well. This may not be as easy as it sounds since I am dropping him off at the pool at 9 and then the baby has a doctor appointment at 9:50! But, his teacher has my phone number and she knows where I will be. All in all... He is turning things around for himself! I am so proud of him. Sadly, he will only be in that school for about 5 more weeks and then it wont really matter as much.

Oldest son after his hair cut!

My oldest, he finally let me cut his hair! (gasp!) He kept telling me that he wanted to grow his hair out so that he could put it into a ponytail like the guy on his video game does. So, I let him since it was cooler weather anyways so it didn't much matter to me. Weather warmed up though and we used our normal "ploy" to get him to cut his hair, "If you don't let Mom do it, Aunt Marcy will shave you bald when you see her next!" And he is in the hair cutting chair and ready for a cut! LOL I even told him he would feel much better having shorter hair since the sun was coming out more. He now tells me I was correct. (Gee, ya think?)  It was rather interesting to cut all 3 of the older boys' hair and my Husbands (no picture of his hair cut since he hates pictures of him... but scroll down and see the one I was able to sneak in... he he he...) all of their hair has a slightly different coloring to it. There is a dirty dishwater blonde, a light pale brown and a light brown for the kids and Hubby has about the shade of hair that would be the two brownish colors mixed together. (The baby has mama's dark brown hair, for now) We did the hair cuts outside and left the hair for the birds and they have so far made off with most of it!

We skipped our day trip, Nature Adventure, this last weekend because Daddy was home and off work. So, I opted for the kids to spend some time with their Dad. That seems to have helped them since they have all been missing him. This coming weekend/Monday (Holiday, no school) my Mother and I are planning on taking the kids out and about for the day. It should be fun... although, I do not have anything specific planned yet. I will have to update on that at another time.

I got my BzzKit on Monday and wore my Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heels Insoles for the first time ever on Tuesday! They KILLED the balls of my feet, but the arch support was great! I have a bunch of coupons if anyone is interested. I may try them again in the future but right now they are not for me. I think once I lose more weight it will be easier to get around in heels but for now... ouch! I also feel that if you are going to wear them you should have smaller feet than I do! I am a size 10 and the insoles hit my feet funny so that I was constantly walking on the part where insert meets shoe and it it was I think made my feet hurt more. It could have been the heels I picked to wear as well, but either way, not a comfy foot day for me. I may have a better review for them in the future, but as of right now, 3-4 stars out of 5!

I picked up the photos of the baby last week as well and I am hoping to be able to put together a few different things with the disk pictures for a few different family members. However, I have to finish all my Baby Shower gifts for my sister before that happens and I really did not help myself by finding a new site online that had a bunch of "fast to create" patterns on it. Now I have about 15 more things I really want to make for my sister and her baby. It is now to the point that I need to decide what to finish now and what to wait to finish to give to her after her shower and when the little one is born and there is also Christmas and other "events" after the baby is here where a gift from Auntie would be great!

In my hunt for free and/or cheap cloth diapers I found The Honest Company. They have a "Free Trial" on their diapers for $4.95 (the cost of shipping). Below you can see photos of what I got in my package. They allow you to choose boy, girl or mixed prints when selecting your package (I chose boy, duh) and then you could also choose to get the "essentials" package as well. This included Hand soap, body wash & shampoo and some other "soap like" products 5 in all. Although I have no issues with Jessica Alba, I feel she doesn't have the best product as far as "bang for the buck" goes. I will be posting pictures of the baby in these diapers this summer since I got them the size above what he is in now and the fact that they are printed makes me want to have them on him in "diaper only" weather!

For all who may be interested, The Mom, The Wife, The Low-Carber and The Learning Coach now has a Facebook page as well! Check it out and tap the "LIKE" button if you feel up to it, here! I set up the Facebook page in hopes of getting more people interested in my blog here. I like to see people caring about what I have to say. Plus, when 500 people have hit that like button I can get myself entered to win some really nice and some really useful cloth diapers! I really think I could do the cloth diaper thing for my last baby. We need to save money and what better way to do that than to not have to buy diapers? The contest I was going to enter before seeing the "500 likes minimum" would have given me a variety of 30 cloth diapers, cloth wipes, a wet bag and a few other things that would be great when cloth diapering! Sadly, no likes, no Facebook page, it kind of put a damper on things! Now, Facebook page and 5 likes, as of today at least! LOL.

The picture of Hubby I mentioned above!
Little Man was craving Daddy time and was not
into anyone else trying to get in on it! See the look?

Now I need to get off my computer and head on to crocheting some more so that I can maybe have one more thing for my sister completed in time! Knitting and sewing are also still on my To Do List as well. But they will have to wait for a time I feel more awake! The thing I am crocheting at the moment, I could do in my sleep! Not that I will try that. I also have a few other things I would like to type out on here but I am starting to feel my eyes slam shut and my fingers slow down! As always, Thank you for reading and taking the time out of your life to read about mine!


~TTFN

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mamas out there

So, it is Mother's Day and I got woken up by my 4 year old, 6 year old and 5 month old (the 7 year old was still in bed). My 6 year old gave me my gift in bed. He made me a hand-made card and a bookmark with his school picture on it as the head and then a paper cut out body with magnets to hold the bookmark to the pages of the book. It is awesome! I received a bracelet (hand-made) from my 7 year old once he woke up. My Mother gave me a bath set that is Margarita scented and made by SkinnyGirl. And My husband gave me the newest Sookie Stackhouse novel by Charlaine Harris titled Deadlocked. I am only a page into it due to feeling exhausted! But I absolutely LOVE her books! I own all 12 books, including Deadlocked, and the last 4 of them are in hard back.

There is a funny story behind how I first started reading The Sookie Stackhouse novels and how I  managed to start reading them in order! I ran across a book that had just the lips of a vampire on the front, and being fascinated with vampires, I decided to buy it and read it. This was Dead Until Dark. It was a pretty good book. With the exception of the fact that she killed off most of the characters in the book. (I wont say who just in case you haven't read the books yet. Or watched the television series, True Blood on HBO) Once I finished the book there was a little bit of the next book, Living Dead In Dallas, in the back of it. So, of course, I just had to have that book too. And that is what kept me reading the series of books. I had recently lost my job at that point and reading was relaxing. I ended up reading each of the following 6 books, in order, over the next week. Yes, that's correct. In just one week I purchased and completely read all of Books 3 through 8. Then it was time to wait for book 9, Dead and Gone.This was in May of 2009. I purchased that book, read it and then had another year to wait for Dead In The Family and another year to wait for Dead Reckoning. Now, here I sit with Deadlocked and I am almost sad to read it. Specially since it very well could be coming to a close. I read on Charlaine Harris' website that she is only contracted to do 13 books on Sookie. This does not include any extra stories such as the ones in Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Stories A Touch Of Dead. In any case, the stories are about a telepathic girl who dates vampires, werewolves, shape shifters and is, only slightly, a fairy! All those "creatures" mixed together, with the occasional appearance of a troll or elf, make for a great read! I applaud Charlaine for all her hard work on these books.

Picture A

The reason it has taken so long for me to get back on here and type up a post is because we had a rather busy week. I ended up going to town every day last week, Monday through Friday and Saturday too. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were all due to helping out my mother and making sure she could get to her job. Then Thursday it was to help my Mother to get home from her job and we ended up picking up the materials for my Husband to build us a free standing deck. Well, we purchased the materials for him to build it. Friday morning the lumber was delivered to our house around 11am. Home Depot officially has my vote for best customer care award! My 4 year old was there with us when we were purchasing the lumber and the woman who helped us was wonderful. (See Picture A) She ended up giving him a Home Depot apron, a hat, a small tape measure, a Home Depot pencil, an LED flashlight AND let him pick any kind of candy he wanted off the candy rack (he picked out not only the biggest thing, but the most expensive), he chose a bag of Flipz pretzels (Yum! Too bad I can't eat those too LOL) He left being a very happy boy! She also taught him to say "Never Go To Lowe's!" and told him to kick and scream if we ever took him there. So now, whenever we ask him, "What do you not do?" he says, "Never go to Lowe's". It is sort of cute, however we had spent most of our time that day pricing lumber at Home Depot and at Lowe's, so he had been to both. Also, every day during the week (except Friday) I picked my boys up from school to avoid my 6 year old getting int too much trouble on the bus. Well, one of those days it was very very hot outside and I was trying to keep myself, the 4 year old and the baby all cooled off. We did this by letting the baby experience grass for the first time! He was slightly amused... until he fell over, then, not so much! See Picture B below.

Picture B

Thursday night we measured and marked off the area we wanted the deck built on. (The baby got sat down on the grass and did not like it one bit, at least not that time. See Picture C) Friday, I met my Mother and Husband with the 4 year old and 5 month old in tow at Fred Meyer where we bought 4 sling chairs, a glass topped table and a Chat Set (2 swivel sling chairs and a small side table). Later Friday afternoon/evening we all spent our time "relocating" our lawn. My Husband had dug out the area where the deck was going and had all of our grass to the point where we could move it to another spot. (By hand that was not an easy thing to do) We completed that and on Saturday, My Mother and I took all 4 boys on another "Nature Adventure". This time they got to feed Peacocks! Awesome birds. I really wished one would have fluffed up its feathers for the boys to see, But they did not, sadly. Only one had really pretty feathers anyhow. We found those lovely birds at Petersen's Rock Garden and Museum. (If you click here you can get a little bit more information from roadside america's website on Petersen's Rock Garden) I hope my pictures I took there turn out. However, I notice from looking online... People tend to take the exact same photos I took. And at the same angles too! (See Picture D to see the house that has had a lot of pictures of it taken over the years that thee is now a picture of My boys standing in front of! LOL) While there I was able to get more "into" the picture taking since my Mother held the baby. (Picture E and F) Well, she offered to put on the "baby backpack" as we call it, and tote him round. That meant Mommy got to chase kiddos down and that was just fine! We all had a blast!

Picture C

After the stop at Petersen's Rock Garden we went over to Tumalo State Park and had our picnic lunch and the boys enjoyed feed some of their crackers to a very demanding goose! My Mother threw 1 single tiny cracker at the goose and it was over from there. This thing would not stop coming back. I finally got my boys to understand that they could not feed the bird anymore or it would just keep returning. By this point it was hissing at them any time they would even move so it was a good thing they stopped. The boys then ran around and played a game with each other. You know, shooting, chasing, typical boy stuff! (Picture G is the boys playing at this park) I nursed the baby and then I needed to find a restroom. So to the car we went and off to the grocery store we went. (We needed to pick up some food before heading home too) Because my boys were so good all day, my Mother and I bought them each a donut. You would have thought they were in heaven. The 2 oldest, no dummies here, ate their donuts really fast. The 4 year old however... He took the chocolate icing off with his finger, then licked the donut clean and then ate the "bread" part last. He also fell asleep about half way through his donut and was out like a light until we stopped to pick up the mail on our way home. Poor little guy was all tuckered out!

Picture D

Picture E

Picture F

Picture G

Once home we got the groceries put away and then the kids were all off in different directions. The 4 year old was playing outside while watching Daddy put together the tables and chairs and the 6 year old earned himself some computer time and the 7 year old was also on his computer while the baby and I set off to the bedroom to nap and eat! And that pretty much brings us to today!

Picture H

I enjoyed myself this last week, regardless of how tired I was and still am. I also got my first shipment of many still to arrive! I had ordered more Whey Protein Powder from About Time since we use it in almost all of our baking. (Picture H) They had a trial offer of smaller packets of different flavors and I ordered the Birthday Cake and Cinnamon Swirl flavors in that and then I ordered one of the bigger jars of vanilla flavored powder. I also ordered my 2 older boys' school "Spring" photos. They just now came home with their class photos, I am sure it will be a bit before we get the Spring Photos back. I was supposed to pick up the recently taken photos of the baby yesterday. However, with being so busy I forgot! I will be picking those up tomorrow for sure!

Picture I

Picture J

Tonight, We ate dinner on our new deck while sitting at our new table! And those are the chairs too! Ha ha... (Picture I and J) As far as eating outside goes, it is something my entire family enjoys around this time of year. The weather is warming up, we are having highs in the 70's and 80's during the day which means that around dinner time it is still decently warm out. The main reason for buying this furniture was so that we can get our entire family up to the table at the same time and eat outside rather than inside where it can typically be stuffy and uncomfortable for any or all of us. I think that the set is pretty as well and couldn't be happier! The framework in the background of Picture I is the frame (or legs) of the gazebo that we purchased last year to have out in our yard to have a shady place to sit in the summer. Once the deck is stained and all set up the way we would like for it to be we will move the gazebo up onto the deck, attach it and the furniture will go under it! The deck is pretty, the chairs and table are pretty... I am happy with it! And my Mother seems to be as well. And that is what counts! Now, I am so very tired. I feel it is time to lay down and put on a sappy movie... The Vow is on my "To Watch" list. Maybe that is the way to go! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mama's! I hope you enjoyed yours as much as I did mine! And a super special Happy Mother's Day to my sister and my mother... Sister: Next year your little one will be here and you will know the joys of being a Mother as I have found them and as our Mom has. I love you and I am so incredibly happy for you! Just over a month and a half away from the baby shower... yikes! I may need to step away from my book and go into super knit and super crochet mode! Mother: Thank you for all you do! I truly hope you had a great day relaxing as much as possible in a house full of boys! LOL! I love you more than anything! I will be back to update everyone on everything again! Thank you for reading and taking the time out of your life... To read about mine!

~TTFN!