One of my latest projects

I got this idea form my friend's blog who got it from here.
I know, I copied right from the blog but I already had the fabric and the felt so it worked out. Pretty easy but I ended up doing the letter and the bird twice because I didn't like how they turned out the first time. So much better now. This is for my 3 month old nephew for Christmas so don't tell him....


I have a few other projects I've been working on but they are also for Christmas and I'll post after I give them away.

For Grandparents Eyes Only

Yes. I am a true Mommy Blogger now that I have actually put our son's piano recital up on a post. So, for the sake of everyone else, I have warned you that this post may be for grandparents only. But, if any of you are so inclined, feel free to give a listen to Lucas' incredible rendition of "We Three Kings" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful." You might be moved to tears...

Lucas' best friend started taking from the same teacher so they had fun sitting together. These two do everything together...soccer, basketball, piano. Great boys.



Lucas started piano about 9 months ago and has been plugging along. He likes to learn songs but practicing gets old and more than once during his practice time do we have to redirect him back to the keys. Boy, do I remember those days. My parents suffered through 4 years of piano from me before they let me quit. My mother said I would always regret it. And of course, she was right. Luckily Laurie, Lucas' teacher, is a wonderful beginner teacher, very patient and great with the kids. She is also a dear friend. We got to know each other when we worked together in our Stake YW's presidency, and then when I admitted the error of my younger days, I myself took piano lessons from her for a year or so until Jonah came to town. And I didn't complain once during my practicing this time around. It's amazing the maturity 20 years will bring you.

Random Jonah

Jonah has taken to sleeping with his bum in the air. None of us can imagine he could be comfortable at all but Jonah seems to prefer curled up on his face every night. And Lucas may disagree with me and call it for himself but I think I do the best impression. Of course I don't look nearly as cute as he does.

It's taken a while but this kid finally figured out the sippy cup. It helped that I changed brands. And with that he discovered apple juice. From the moment it worked for him Jonah guzzled that juice nonstop until it was gone literally chuckling the whole time. We're going to have to keep an eye on this drinking thing of his.

Jonah had stopped saying the word "doggie" right about the time the grandparents came into town. Of course. And for a few weeks, nothing. But a few days ago he started up again and I got it on camera. Not the best but everyone knows kids won't perform on cue. He says "Dada," "Mama," and "doggie" and we're working on "Lucas." If Lucas has anything to do with it, Jonah will be saying it by the end of the year.

Random video of JB crawling and a good look at those little jowls of his.

Decking the Halls

I'm not a big holiday decorator. Surprising I know:) But half the decorations I have for any holiday come from my mother who sent them to help decorate my dorm room in college. I may pick up an item here or there at the half-off after the season sale or like this year, actually make something. See wreath below. Or the three wooden snowmen our whole ward made at Enrichment years ago. The most decorations I have are for Christmas and even then it's not much to look at. Aaron is of the opinion, why put up Christmas lights on your house if your just going to have to climb back up a month later to take them down? But we do put up a tree, a few nativity sets, and a random Santa Claus here and there. This was our first artificial tree, which we bought at a half-off after sale last year, and even I have to admit it was nice just putting the three sections together and calling it good. No, there isn't that wonderful pine smell that fills the house for a few days, but it was nice not having leave the house. (Another sign of getting old.)

The tree may be small but it fits perfectly in our little living room. I do love putting up the ornaments because most of them have a story or memory behind them.

I have to find a new tree skirt that will fit the different kind of stand. Again, the after-the-holiday sales is where I will find the cheapest, I mean, perfect one.

Each year Lucas has picked out a new ornament for the tree. Whatever he wants. One year it was a Spiderman, another year a snowman, another a random metal key. This year we discovered a new store, Wights, well, new to us since it's been around for years. But a wonderful Christmas shop with hundreds of ornaments to choose from. I loved adding Jonah to the tradition and finding just the right ornament for his first Christmas. I don't know how much Lucas and Aaron liked it since I took "FOR-E-VER" (Sandlot reference for Lucas) trying to find just the right one. I think I was looking for something to sum up all of what Jonah's first wonderful year has meant to us, the miracle and joy, his spirit and life. Tall order for a Christmas tree ornament. So I finally just picked one. Simple and perfect.

Lucas picked a fuzzy penguin.

We may not go all Griswald in our decorating, but don't think we're scrooge. We have enough Christmas traditions - pinatas, talent shows, Secret Santas, gingerbread houses, nativities, the list goes on - that any child or adult would get excited for this wonderful season.



And we do. Merry Christmas!

Random comment

Early this morning while Lucas, Jonah and I were huddled in bed...

Lucas: The dog's breath smells like the Thanksgiving turkey.

Me: Hmm........great.

Getting my craftiness on...

My friend Ali came over last week and we made these burlap Christmas wreaths found here. (My first link. Man, I am getting fancy.) It was fast, inexpensive and super easy. The burlap made a mess but I think they turned out pretty cute.



I hung it up on the door and for the rest of the day every time I walked inside I grabbed the scissors and gave it a little trim. Looks so much better with the haircut. Maybe some more off the bottom...

Last week I painted the door, just on a whim. For years I've just been putting layers of polyurethane over the wood as it got worn down. Didn't look spectacular but it was cheaper than having it completely refinished and I loved the wood color with our blue house. Before Thanksgiving I realized it needed another treatment, but this time the finish dried clouded and white instead of clear. Maybe it was the cold or the rain, not sure. I sanded it down to try again but it only made it worse. So I whipped out the primer I was already using for the cabinet I am refinishing and went for it. I went through our shelves of left over paint and grabbed colors that might have worked. Out of the McDonald's yellow, navy blue or grey we had on hand, grey easily won out. We'll keep it this color for a while, see if we like it. (I love Cotton's little face peeking out the window.)


Keeping Jonah entertained so we could work. He LOVED the chocolate graham crackers!

More projects to come...

Do lots of pictures make up for not writing for 2 weeks?

I've been working on a lot of Christmas projects this last week, thus taking my attention away from posting. I'll post about the projects I've been slaving away at once I post lots of pictures of our wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Aaron's parents, Tom and Lois, came from Utah and his brother, Brant and family, came up from Vancouver. It was quite cozy for all us in our little home. I know, I need to just get over how small our house feels when we have people over and stop apologizing for it. I love having company so I'll just have to deal with a little "coziness," right? Thanks fam, for putting up with it. Anyway, it's is so fun to get together with family.


Cute picture of Lucas and his grandpa.




I've made pork roast for Thanksgiving before since turkey isn't my favorite, but this year I decided to go for it and ya, browned a little uneven but I thought it tasted great. If I do say so myself.

Olives anyone?

Yummy eating... (see the crown molding? We've finally gotten it up after 2 years. Kitchen is D.O.N.E.) Except for the water pressure in the faucet, one sunken outlet and a gap in the counter....okay, so we're almost done after 2 years.



What's Thanksgiving without a gigantic drumstick?

We had Jonah sleeping in our room for the week. Getting a little shut eye at 7 in the morning after a gloriously fun play time from 3-5am.





Cousins played together, read together and had almost no fighting. Loving the maturity thing.

A throwback to my childhood when we would make Oreo turkeys.

Cute, right? Well, they may not be appetizing but it was fun/messy making them at least.




We are definitely going to have to keep our eye on these two. Two peas in a messy pod.




Sean taking a break from his non-stop exploring in his sweet mama's lap.




Grandpa teaching Jonah the finer points of the IPhone.



Happily chewing and...yes, spitting it back out. I debated putting on some of the other more graphic food photos but I figured you can just use your imagination with the mess he creates with with his masticated food.

Williams visit = traditional man time birding. Aren't they all so cute with their "matching" binoculars?




As you can see stomachs were stuffed, birds were watched and many hours were spent relaxing and talking. Thanks for coming. It's WAY too long between our visits.
Love you guys!

To antique or not antique

That is my question. I found these two pieces at one of my favorite stores, Goodwill. I picked up the rocking horse right away but couldn't commit to the funny looking chair. I knew it was a perfect Jonah size but I kept putting it back. I must have walked down the aisle, picked it up and put it back about 3 times. But then as soon as SOMEONE ELSE started seriously looking at "my" funny looking chair, the rare competitive side of me came out and I just HAD to have it. So as soon as the innocent shopper set down the chair and slowly walked away, I swooped in and ran for the register.

I sanded and primed (I started the priming before I remember I wanted a picture) and then spray painted them a soft white. I made a padded seat from materials I had on hand for the rocking chair and called it good. Pretty cute for just a few bucks. But now I wonder if I should "antique" them, add a little personality. Basically that means sand down edges, stain them darker so they will stand out and rub on a brown glaze to take the newness off. Should I do it or just leave them as is?

Thoughts?

"Deceptively Delicious"

So what do you do with the ice cube tray full of pureed califlower Jonah Corona won't eat?

You substitute it for the one cup of coconut milk called for in your favorite Thai peanut sauce, that's what. And no one in the family was the wiser.

One sure way...

to fight the rainy chill is to cuddle up with a load of laundry straight out of the dryer. Mmmmm...

Sorry. Not the greatest picture.

One for me, one for you

I think Cotton has finally gotten used to the interloper who has completely disrupted his Utopian lifestyle. I think he's realized they have a symbiotic relationship from which he has the better side. No, he doesn't get walked as much as he used to and he doesn't get my lap nearly as much as he wants, but he does get all the crumbs and sticky fingers he can lick. Jonah loves to share his food with the little beggar and laughs every time Cotton tickles his fingers. Jonah won't eat hardly any baby food (applesauce, yogurt and sweet potatoes only) but loves real food. Yet only to chew. For some reason he has an aversion to swallowing. He's like Anton Ego on Ratatouille, " I don't LIKE food. I LOVE it. If I don't love it, I don't SWALLOW." So most of it gets chewed, spit back out and then dropped on the floor for Cotton. It drives me crazy because 1) he's not getting anything in his stomach so how do we ween him off bottles? and 2) he makes SUCH a mess. But Cotton's been putting on weight and doesn't seem to mind in the least.























One thing Jonah will eat and swallow is yes...dog food. I do NOT know what it is but this kid lives for that bowl of kibble. We keep it up as much as possible but the dog has to eat sometime and Jonah makes a bee line straight for the bowl and shovels it in by the handful. And then I have to be the one to go digging around to make sure it all gets out of his mouth. Can we say yuck? It will be nice when Jonah realizes that spaghetti really is better than Kibbles and Bits. Aaron calls this picture "One For Me, One For You."
(No dog food was eaten this particular time, in case you were worried. And not for Jonah's lack of trying.)

One thing Jonah gets out of this relationship is great laughs. Cotton just cracks him up! Anytime the dog has his "puppy freakout" running around and barking, Jonah squeals with laughter. Cotton provides endless entertainment. He loves to pull the dog's hair and stick his fingers in his mouth, and Cotton is surprisingly quite tolerant. I think he realizes where most of his snack comes from and literally doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds him.

One thing I noticed very early on is that Cotton is very aware of Jonah and treats him differently. The dog loves to play tug of war and fetch. Whenever he can, he brings his toy over for me to grab and we play a game of who can get it the quickest, sometimes my fingers being the thing grabbed by his teeth. But if ever Jonah would grab it first, he never once grabbed the toy from him. He will just let it go and allow Jonah to have it.

This last month Jonah has been saying a few words, like "mama" and "dada" very regularly and to the right people. Just this week he has started saying "gog" and "goggie" at times that could only be toward Cotton. Of course in this video I found the camera after 10 minutes of laughing and just got the tail end of their playing.





The other day I was trying to clean but Jonah would not let go of my legs and stop squealing. Makes it a little difficult to vacuum. So I buckled him in his high chair and let him play the piano. Thirty minutes later he was still playing...





Jonah turns one next month if anyone can believe it! This year has gone by way too fast but we are loving the open mouth kisses, his chuckles when you read him a book, squealing his head off when wrestling with Lucas and this one not so much, but his new found love of grinding his teeth. He is such a brilliant addition to our family. And it's taken some time, but I don't think even the dog would disagree.

Weather Forecast

Today 54ºF / 47ºF



Tues 49ºF / 39ºF



Wed 47ºF / 44ºF



Thurs 48ºF / 40ºF



Fri 45ºF / 35ºF



Aaah, there's nothing like the fall in the Northwest...

Family Time

I love our family. We all live somewhat, sort of, not really, close but we see each other quite a bit and I love it! We had such a fun time together this past weekend, even though we are growing and not used to the chaos that ensues with 7 grand kids. I know that doesn't seem like that many to most of you but for us who have been used to just 2 boys for so many years, the noise/chaos level has increased dramatically. It's crazy and fun and I love that I can say my family are my best friends.

Papa & Baby Pax

Cute picture of my cute husband...and of Bennett and Jonah, of course.

Sarah Jane with her sweet curls.

Katherine celebrated her 2nd birthday on Halloween so we got to party together.

She was going to have Flounder from Little Mermaid on her cake but this won out after a weekend full of "No touch!" and 2 year old bullying. :)

Happy JB.

Mr. B caught in the mud.

Papa and Luke at Jack's soccer game.

Grandparents with their 7 grandkids.

Not the greatest family picture. I looked drugged.

Fun times. I can't wait to get together with the Williams side come Thanksgiving!