Sunday, March 27, 2011

Belonging to, do I Dare Say it..... A Clan?

A while ago a friend of mine wrote a blog about her clan, her people, and at the time I thought, 'man, that would rock (having a clan)', and after this past week, I wonder if I've had a breakthrough and might belong to this clan... I guess another way of saying it, is, from what I've gone through, anytime I see a babywearing mama (or papa) I'm going to feel a bond, a connection with them. More so then I did 7 days ago.

Ryan left for work Monday morning, pretty much the whole time he was here he wore Kevlie (he's such a Kevlie hog while he's home!), and once he left, I didn't wear her as much as he did and at night, I wouldn't wear her at all, really. That's mostly cause I would want to be in bed and we would be laying down. But for the past week she would be SO fussy! Like keep me up till midnight screaming, fussy. I've tried feeding, changing, rubbing, patting and bathing her. Nothing helped. I was seriously getting to that place where I just wanted to put her down and leave the room. I almost did a couple of times, but then I would think of her crying and obviously needing SOMETHING. At that time, I would stop, say a little prayer and try once again to help her. Tonight, I despereately needed to do some dishes and she was getting fussy, so I tossed her in a Wrapsody and started washing. She quieted down and fell asleep, WITHOUT crying. I almost cried with relief.
I am so thankful for Kimber Tower, for introducing me to babywearing and Angela, Marie and Natalie for being rad and teaching me more about wearing my baby. And for the babywearing community that has developed in the area, cause if I didn't know these awesome ladies, my baby would still be crying, and probably me along with her.

But, she's sleeping! And I'm a tired, happy mama.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Daniel (aka 'Monster')

So, we have yet another story to add to the growing list of the things Daniel has destroyed...

I'm doing school with Emma and Daniel runs into the bathroom to go potty, I'm stoked he's doing so well with the whole thing! And as I'm in the middle of doing some subtraction with Emma, I hear an odd buzzing noise and Daniel mumbling something about 'Daddy' and being a 'big boy'... I go running in and find him with the middle of his head bald and Ryan's clippers in his hand. The way I figure, he's seen Ryan trimming his facial hair so often that he knows its something boys do and because the only hair on his noggin is on the top of his head, obviously that's what he would trim.

My first response is to groan. My second was to check the dog (you never know with Daniel). He was chill.


I then had to finish the job Daniel started and the whole time, again he said things about daddy and the phrase 'me big boy' kept popping up. The last time he did this, after I finished he freaked and wanted his hair back on. Poor thing was so sad I couldn't do it. :/ THAT was hard to explain. This time he was actually happy about it. Silly boy.

I hate that he cut his hair again, yes, again, he just got it back to a decent length and he goes and buzzes it... Le sigh.

But he's so darn cute, how can I stay upset for long?

The best part about this picture? RIGHT before the camera captured the image he tooted, and it was a good toot, this, is his "Me fart!!" face.

Love this boy child.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Rag Curlers

I've been finding out that I'm kinda spontaneous. I will write out a list of things that I want to accomplish in a day and not have any desire or motivation to get it done but I'll seriously deep clean the laundry room or fridge or I'll wash every piece of clothing in the house. It's odd, and I don't like it much, and I'm working on changing that, cause I'm a big believer that you can change almost anything about yourself you might not like.
Cue Saturday night, the kids have been bathed and are in jamas, ready for bed. I'm sitting on the couch with Ry, thinking about what I'm going to do with the girls' hair in the morning and wishing I could curl they're hair, with something that wouldn't hurt them and actually stay in all night. Then, for some reason I got this mental picture of a little girl in a white, long nightgown, holding a stuffed animal and in rag curlers, I was inspired! I Googled cloth curlers and came up with this site, here. My cousin, Melissa let me know that they're actually called rag curls, which makes much more sense.

I used a few squares of Ryan's old jeans that we were going to use as quilting squares, and cut them into, about, 1 by 5 inches long. After doing a few curls I figured out it was much easier to split the ends and tie those.

We made a video to explain the rolling process, it's a bit complicated in the written word.



This is after all the curlers are in and I think she looked so cute! And, think of the colors of fabric you could use! SO many fun colors!

The after! The curls stayed in for at least 24 hours and would still be going if she hadn't have showered, they slowly relaxed which I thought was super cute, I really liked them. I think it's the way to go, for us at least, where curlers are involved.

Well, there you have it, my spontaneous Saturday night, chuck full of adventure.

Spring Craft

I decided last Summer that I needed some seasonal decorations, I really didn't have any so I got to thinking, I knew I didn't want to spend over $20 on anything so I came up with one for fall, I skipped Winter (couldn't think of one and too busy) and I just made my Spring craft. I really like it. I got the idea from a friend of mine's blog (so cute), you can check it out here.

So I started with some jars, I had a few to chose from and decided to go with bigger ones. I soaked off the stickers. And then had to kinda stuff them into the background while we had a baby and moved. A few months later, I busted them out and painted them. I then found some flowers at Walmart for $2. Booyah!

I only had the vinyl lettering to get to finish the product but wasn't sure what words I wanted on them.


Then I got the idea of ribbon. I got some double sided tape, and taped the ribbon to the jars.

I love them. We had to get a little creative with the last one but it still turned out great!

So there's my seasonal craft, I plan on doing one a season for a couple of years, that way I have something cute for each room!

Monday, March 7, 2011

A Beautiful Day Gone Bad

It started out wonderfully, a healthy breakfast, kids completing chores, and even with me, excited about my rollerblades being delivered. It was the sort of day that I love, that makes me feel accomplished and fulfilled. Emma wasn't even complaining about school (that much) and we all had a blast learning about tints and shades in Art.

It was such a great day



And then it went wrong...


I had no clue that paint could potentially turn out looking like a crime scene.
This is after I cleaned up the floor (Daniel had foot prints EVERYWHERE), counter and toilet. They were all covered in black paint. Sigh.

What the kids learned in Art today, Shades and Tints, what I learned in Art today, follow Daniel to the bathroom.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Feeling Productive

For the past week I've been really working on catching up on the housework that was neglected while the kidos were sick and let me tell you, it actually hasn't been that bad...

I decided I wouldn't do it all in one day and that I would implemant things to do daily. And I am so close to being done!

Thanks to Pam (one of the wonderful ladies in my ward), I am six batches of laundry closer to being caught up! Six batches seems like a lot, and it is, but, unfortunelty, it's only a batch or two more that I would do a week. My mom also came over and washed some dishes for me, bless her heart.


When others do things to help me on my way or to accomplish something, I find myself striving to do that thing even more then I was before, I don't want them putting their time into me and it being wasted.

Something I have found that makes a huge difference in the type of day of have is one of these...


This is obviously one of my fancy ones, I'm not going to show you my mama bras.

I am SO much more productive if I wear a bra, how weird is that? Lol, I think it's kinda funny. But I will use what I can get. I'm glad I found this, and that I can use it to my advantage in bettering my (and my family's) life and in accomplishing my goal this year.

Premises Protected by Mossburg

So here is our dog,

we found him on Craigslist.com from an awesome couple that were moving and couldn't take him with them. They had the CUTEST little girl, but, that's beside the point.
He was originally named Jackson, and that's a great name, but I started having a hard time getting attached to him. After talking to my mom about it, I realized that I had been through some traumatic experiences that had inadvertently been associated with dogs. I'll give you a condensed story...
My dad died of cancer, which was so heartbreaking to go through, a few months later, my dog died, from heat stroke, it was horrible to watch. A few years later, our family dog, who was 13 (?) years old, developed cancer, of all things and had to be put down, that, was heartbreaking as well. It's hard to explain the loss of those you love but, I did love all of them and had a lot of pain from their passing.
So, I found myself actually feeling a little resentful towards him. Silly, I know. He's such a good dog. And after talking to my mom and realizing why, I decided I needed to find a way to break through that wall and one way I thought of, was to rename him so he felt more... mine.

This, is the sign we put on our door;


(it says, Premises Protected by Mossburg)

Ryan requested that I get it.

Shortly after we put it on, I told Ryan that I wanted a dog. We looked for a few weeks actually and while we were, Ryan and I talked about a name for him/her. I thought it would be awesome to name a dog Mossburg, That way the sign had two meanings. So, I renamed Jackson, Mossburg! We call him Moss for short.

We have another member of the family and we love him, he's an awesome dog and will be a great companion for years to come!