Drooling Over Vacation Rentals

I've been looking for somewhere for Josh and I to spend a few nights for our anniversary in the Utah area. I came across this website that features vacation rentals by owners and ended up spending hours drooling over all the rental properties available nation (even world) wide.

The houses are gorgeous, some of the locations are to die for, and the prices are crazy resonable when you compare them to hotel rates. Especially when you factor in how many people are traveling and that you have a kitchen to eat in rather than eating out every meal.

There are so many places I would love to visit and this looks like an economical way to do it! The question now is how to get there, when, and where's the money coming from. But I'm totally there!

Friends like Family

Cami and Jon have been spending a lot of time over here the last few days. We are cramming in as much time as we can with them before they move far away. They have been our gaming buddies for the last three years so of course we have to play games.

Tonight we did an all out Settlers of Catan with both the Seafarers and Cities and Knights expantions together. It was pretty crazy and took us close to three hours to finish. It was such a great game! Cami pulled out a win but it was a pretty close the whole time.

The boys are also going to miss Cami and Jon. As soon as they walk in the door Sam and Elijah get very excited. Lately Sam has been running to get a book for Cami to read as soon as he sees her. Elijah loves playing tag with them and they amuse him with his silly little games. Cami and Jon are like family and we are sad to see them move on (but excited for them at the same time).

Anyway, we will miss you guys! Good luck in California and your crazy fun plans for the summer!

Pilates

I snapped a few shots of Elijah doing Pilates with me the other day. He likes to use the resistance bands and is very good and showing me how to do it. Notice the nicely pointed toe doing leg circles while watching the instructional video.
Sam's also getting in on the action but is distracted too fast by the camera for me to catch him.

Gratitude Journal

I haven't been very good at this lately-at all-and I'm afraid it's probably going to continue being like that.

But today as I sit here, in a moment of quiet (Curious George, our most favorite show, is on right now), I am grateful for:

• Curious George. He allows me the time to get a shower without being terribly worried what my boys are doing. Elijah (and Sam is coming up on it too) views the world much like George does and has learned many wonderful things through watching George.
• my two little pilates buddies, Sammy and Elijah, who amuse me, distract me, and climb on me but make it a lot more fun (albeit not as effective)
• Sunday afternoons. When I get to spend quiet time with Josh, talk to my dad on the phone, maybe squeeze in a nap, cook together as a family, and play games with friends

Hershey's Chocolate and Movie Tickets

Hershey's is doing a great promo right now. If you buy specially marked bags with Mega Movie Bonus points on them you can send in the points for free movie tickets. It takes 15 points to earn a movie ticket and most bags of chocolate are worth 5 points each. That means you only need three bags of chocolate to earn a free ticket.

To sweeten the deal, Walgreens has a rebate on Hershey's chocolate this month. Spend $15 and get $5 back in a rebate. This week their bags of chocolate (make sure you get the ones with the points) were 2/$4. If you bought 8 of them for $16 you would get $5 back and enough points for two movie tickets (plus extra points). SWEET!

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• Dan's birthday and that I was blessed to know him in this life
• My knowledge of the Plan of Salvation; That I know families can be together forever; that there is life after death and that someday I will see my brother Dan again.
• the sunshine peaking through my window and the happy songs of the birds greeting the morning
• that my laptop was closed when Sam decided to fingerpaint all over it with Elijah's watercolors
• friends who share their talents with me and my family

We interupt your show....

for a Tornado Warning!

I imagine when I was little and living in Illinois I experienced some tornado warnings, but none that I remember. This afternoon while the boys were watching Curious George the tv started beeping (that annoying high pitched beep that freaked my kids out) and there was a tornado warning issued for Northeastern Longmont among other places. I looked out my window and you could see the dark dark clouds east of us amidst the falling hail and the clouds were moving abnormally. It was rather creepy!

Anyway, nothing happened (at least now in our area) and it is now sunny and nice again. But I must say it had my heart jumping a minute or so.

Update: We made the MSNBC online news. Apparently two twisters hit, one was direcly west of us near I25. CRAZY!

Photo Shoot!

My amazing friend Angie wanted to take photos of my boys with her cool camera so yesterday we all headed to the park. She has posted some of the AWESOME photos on her blog. Check 'em out!


I can't wait to get my hands on all of them!

Thank you, Thank you, Thank You Angie!
You are so talented! I Love them!

Notice anything amiss?

Last week my husband had a weird swelling on his forehead (notice the red mark) that covered the right side of his forehead down to his eyebrows. It just came out of nowhere and kept getting bigger.

Well, yesterday and today the swelling has gone down in his forehead... literally down... inbetween his eys and into his cheeks. It's rather creepy. It has changed the shape of his eyes and he has puffy cheeks (not a Strong family trait). I'm getting a little worried about the boy but he is stubborn and will not go to see a doctor.

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• a scroll mouse that lets me breeze through a web page with ease
• visiting teachers who come visit me, talk with me, make me laugh, share a message with me, and bring the spirit with them.
• a washing machine that tackles the gobs of extra laundry created by a boy who is determined to wear underwear but not to use the potty.

Nature Bracelets

This is definitely on my list of things to do with the boys. It comes from the blog maya*made. You simple take a piece of heavy duty tape long enough to go around a child's wrist and still be able to slip off. You then make it into a ring with the sticky side out. While you are on your nature walk you can add flowers and leaves to your tape bracelet making a beautiful token of God's creations that you can wear.

I can see Elijah loving this and Sammy with his grass pulling interest is sure to be interested in this too.

***maya*made was featured on The Crafty Crow for her Art Organization and Display idea. This is an idea I am definitely filing away for the "someday" when I have a house. (Hmm maybe I could pull it off in my small space now. I do have the art to fill it. I'll have to talk to Josh and see if I can talk him into it.)

New Shoes

Sam got some new shoes yesterday. I have gotten sick of digging out socks to wear with his tennis shoes everytime we needed to go somewhere and Sam's poor feet have been very sweaty with the warmer weather so I decided it was time to find a pair of shoes he could wear without socks.

We were in Target last night and made our way over to the shoes to find something for Sam. They had a pretty good selection of nice sandals but Sam squaked every time I tried to put one on his foot... That is until I tried his new blue shoes. They were the magic ones that made him happy. He's excited too because they are "Blue" a B word which are his favorite kinds of words. Another added bonus is they are blue like Elijah's. Maybe that's why he insisted on these ones.

Gratitude Journal

I've missed the last few days and don't want that to become the trend. I've had a pretty good run going and would like to pick it up again.

This weekend I was grateful for:

• my garden and the satisfaction of digging around in the dirt and the potential for growing plants (as opposed to the sadness of killing plants which might be in the future)
• that my primary class was more under control this week than last week (last week I was about ready to throw in the towel)
• for our good friends the Felts. We enjoy having having them in our home and will miss them greatly

Not so good pictures of GOOD Lookin' Boys

We played outside a bit this evening with our new summer balls. Elijah mostly carried around the bat and swung and most anything. Sam went around pulling up grasses and sprinkling it on the ground. Elijah did manage to hit one ball with the bat (midair, not on the ground) and Sam enjoyed kicking soccer ball around when he wasn't pulling at the grass.

Sam -EEE

Sam seems to have discovered letters which isn't too much of a surprise because Elijah is interested in letters and Sam loves to follow. They have been watching a PBS show called Super Why where they talk about letters and Sam will go up to the TV and point and say "E, E, E".

Today when we were outside playing he went up to the dog on a leash sign and started pointing to the letters and saying "E, E, E" very excitedly (in addition to his "uff" for the dog of course).

Our Garden

Our poor seeds had greatly outgrown their sprouting tray but it was still snowing a cold outside until just recently. Finally, on Saturday we transplanted them into our newly filled containers that Josh made*. The plants have been in there for two and a half days now and the plants seem to be happy. I'm really excited about the containers because you just poor water down the tube into the reservoir in the bottom until the water comes out of the full hole on the side. Which means I can top it off whenever I think about it but don't have to worry about it if I miss a day. You also put a fertilizer strip down the middle and so you don't have to feed the plants the entire season. I'm very hopeful that this low maintenance system will help me not kill them off this year before we produce anything.

*Links to where I got the instructions on how to make these boxes are on my old post about our seeds linked above.

Reading Goodnight Gorilla

Here is the video of Sammy I tried to load the other day with him reading Goodnight Gorilla.

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• a husband who stayed home today to take care of the kids while I rested
• Elijah and Josh who did the grocery shopping and errands today
• Elijah knocking on the door and surprising me with flowers behind his back. He was so proud of himself.
• my laminater! It is the coolest thing to do it at home in minutes

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• Josh who watches sappy chick flicks with me and cries with me
• Zicam that makes my sore throat feel better
• Ice cream that makes me and my sore throat feel better

Where do you start?

My mother alerted me to a sugardoodle link to the handouts from this year's Women's Conference at BYU. There are a ton of wonderful handouts availible on many different topics.

One handout that really stood out to me (being a family historian) was one on starting your family history. They list a number of places where you can start and then go into more detail in each area. Their suggested starting spots include:

• Start with the "New Family Search" database
• Start by talking to family members
• Start by attending a class
• Start with a relative who lived in 1930
• Start by organizing your files
• Start by creating a family blog
• Start by creating a family website
• Start by attending or organizing a family reunion
• Start with yourself

I was excited to see this list because sometimes family history can seem so intimidating or we can be under the false impression that it has all been done by someone else. There is always something you can do. I promise if you get started you are in danger of getting the "bug". Family history is addicting but don't be afraid to dive in and have fun!

**I also like the handout on finding "U" in MUTHERHOOD

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• the opprotunity to sing Primary songs to my boys at bedtime. Specifically tonight My Heavenly Father Loves Me. I love that song; I love the spirit that touches me when I sing it and teaches me and my boys that everything can remind us of our Heavenly Father's love.
• a warm beautiful day that we were able to enjoy at the park with friends
• that Elijah only pooped in his pants once today :) (someday we will be through this, right?)

Sam's current favorite book

Goodnight Gorilla is currently Sam's favorite book. His favorite part is when the pages are completely black except for the animals saying "Goodnight" and he always laughs at the next page which is just of the open eyes of the zookeepers wife. He has been getting into books a lot more lately and it is fun to sit and read with him and see him get excited.

(I have a video of him reading the book but I couldn't get it to load for me. It kept getting stuck.)

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• the rain that wasn't snow! I think Spring has finally made it
• Missionaries who sacrafice two years of their life to serve the Lord and share the gospel
• the opprotunity to have the missionaries in my home and feed them, the spirit they brought into my home, the message they taught through their words and song (Joseph Smith's First Prayer), and the challenge they gave us to seek out those who might like to hear about the gospel
• the Holy Ghost that testifies of truth, specifically today of the truth of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ

Gratitude Journal

Last night Josh and I watched the first part of Cranford (which I greatly enjoyed though it ended on a sad note. I'm anxious to see what happens in part two) and I went to bed forgetting to write in my gratitude journal for the night.

So yesterday I was grateful for:

• my boys greeting me in the morning with big grins and Elijah asking me "did you have a good sleep?"
• two healthy, happy children who behaved very well at the doctors office
• a doctor that I like and who goes out of her way to make my children comfortable and happy despite being at the doctor
• a husband who is more than willing, already out the door, to go to the grocery store when I realize I don't have every ingredient I needed for dinner halfway through making it

Booty Bag

Here is my thrown together, fudged version of the Booty Bag from the blog My Longest Year. I got the pants from a garage sale on Saturday for pennies as well as the lining fabric. It is far from perfect and I'm not sure I will ever use it, but it was fun to make!

Sam's 18 month check-up

We went to the doctor for Sam this morning. He weighed in at 26 pounds and is 2 foot 9 inches tall. He's in the 50th for weight and just under 75th for height. Overall he was very good for the doctor and nurse and was deemed a healthy little boy. He is such a little flirt once he warms up a bit and such a big boy-he only cried a little bit when they gave him three shots. We are clear for another six months!

Mother's Day

My boys gave me homemade gifts yesterday for Mother's Day.

Sam made his in nursery. It's a darling flower made from his handprint. His nursery leaders are amazing!

Elijah drew a picture of me complete with brown curly hair, green dot eyes, large nose and a smile.

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• the sacrament hymns that fill me with the spirit and get my mind and heart in the right place before I partake of the sacrament
• my mother. Oh, what would I be without her? I can't express how much she means to me. She is the dearest of friends and my example of who I want to be. I love her so much.
• being a mother. Lately it has been a challenge, but it truly is a great blessing to have my two little boys in my life.
• blogging which prompts me to pick up my camera and shot pictures instead of my children when they do crazy messes like this-- (Elijah was in on the action, he was just too fast to get caught by the camera.)

Funny Story

I was reminded of a funny story today that happened on Thursday when we were hanging out with Laura and her kids after the zoo.

We were at Raber Park where Naomi has soccer practice. I figured Josh was working late (he didn't get home until midnight that night) and what was I going to do with the kids at home other than go nuts, so why not run them around a bit more so they would be sure to go to bed easily that night (which thankfully worked).

Anyway, we did the whole run around thing and then it came time to leave. Elijah has been struggling with listening and obeying lately, and decided that he wasn't ready to go. I pulled the whole "I'm leaving you, goodbye!" trick which got a response albeit a slow walking response. Getting a little impatient I then yelled over my shoulder to my competitive son- all the way across the park, echoing off the houses and school surrounding the park- "I'm going to beat you!!".

It wasn't until after I had yelled it that I realized that didn't sound good.

Opps!

In the end I didn't end up beating him after all-

He got to the car first.

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• Danica's hugs. They are kind, warm and sincere. You can't help but be lifted by them.
• that my children love music and are not afraid to break out and dance in public. Sam's little bum bob is adorable and Elijah goes full out-spinning and waving. It makes me smile!

Garage Sales

Today I came home with mostly odds and ends. There were a couple community garage sales today. I love that you can drive to a neighborhood, park your car and walk around to all the houses finding your treasures. I came away with a bag full of clothes, a bunch of books, lots of random fabric, and a few random duplo blocks.


Three of the books I bought are old and two of them are even red, my favorite color. They aren't actually books that I will ever sit down and read but they are on interesting topics-- surveying, which could be nice to have around with family history land records; Gregg Speed Practice is just a cool book on shorthand. I've read books where the characters know shorthand but I have never actually seen what shorhand looks like. It's pretty random, I'm curious how it works; and A Cumulative History, I just love old history books. It's the family historian in me. I love learning about the historeography of history and how people viewed the past, in the past.



I also love reading through cookbooks and I'm excited to read and try out the recipes in Short-Cut cooking. I'm all for easy cooking and take many shortcuts in my own cooking.









I also bought Mr. Popper's Penguins. I absolutly loved this book when I was in grade school! I am so excited to read it to Elijah someday. I think he will love it too. It is truly just the cutest book.








I found a box set of the Wallace and Gromet short films. These shows are hilarious and I think my boys will love them (Sam will especially like the dog in the movies. Sam is so into dogs right now. He call them "uuff")








With all the crafting blogs I've been reading lately my hands have been itching to try all the patterns and ideas I have been filing away in my favorites folder. Today I found a stash of fabric to feed the urge. Some of it is vintage funky. I have a whole bunch of the orange one (any ideas on what to make with it??) and also got some furry fabric to make animals out of. I'm excited!

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• a clean kitchen (and a kitchen to clean)
• a goodmorning kiss
• pbs
• the creativity of others that makes me want to create something of my own

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• the beauty and wonder of wildlife
• the curiosity and excitement of my children towards the world around them
• good friends that share their days with me, drive us around, keep us company, and even feed us dinner
• a husband that always comes home to me even if it is rather late like tonight

Trip to the Denver Zoo

My boys and I go to the Denver Zoo multiple times a year (we just renewed our zoo membership for our third year). We love it! It is so big and has many different things to see. There is really no way you can see it all in one day.

Today we went with my friend Laura and her three kids. We all piled in Laura's new van (I so want her van! oh what a beautiful thing!) and trekked on down to the zoo for the day. As it turns out there were fifty or so buses parked outside and fifty zillion kids running around the zoo. Apparently the entire month of May is booked for school field trips. It was a little mazo at first but as the day went on it wasn't that bad. The rain did help to chase away most of the crowds (except us of course). Laura was so smart and brought both of her double strollers to accommodate the five kids (ages 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4). yeah, we had our hands full but I was pleasantly surprised at how good all the kids were and we all had a really good time.

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It was fun to take Sammy. We haven't been since Halloween (highly recommend Boo at the Zoo, great fun!) and he is finally getting to where he notices and is interested in the animals. He especially like the golden lion tamrins that he was able to get close to and watch. He was also excited about all the peacocks and geese roaming the park. When he noticed the elephants he got excited and started making our spitting elephant sound.

Elijah said when I was putting him to bed that he liked the sea lions. Well, we didn't see the sea lions today, but I think he liked the polar bears and the monkeys. He enjoyed making the animal sounds and gestures with Naomi and Eleanore. They did the elephants, cheetahs, lions, and monkeys to name a few. He also liked playing the African drums.

We came home all tired and feet sore but very happy to have spent the day with wild animals and friends. Thanks Laura for going with us!

Gratitude Journal

Today I am grateful for:

• bookstores full of old friends and endless possibilities for new ones
• the smell of rain and the sound of it on my window
• a husband who does the budget
• that Josh is being paid to go to school

Tagged

A- Attached or single: sentimentally attached to many things, eternally attached to Josh and my boys
B- Best Friend: Josh
C-Cake or Pie: Chocolate cake, pecan pie
D- Day of Choice: Saturday-Josh is home and we get to play as a family
E- Essential Item (s): cell phone, washer and dryer, friends, family
F- Favorite Color: red
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: worms
H- Hometown: hmm, hard one. I would claim Orem, UT but my family doesn't live there anymore.
I- Indulgence(s): Chocolate, scrapbooking supplies
J- January or July: July-because of fireworks, sunny days, camping, hiking, BBQs. January is a depressing month
K-Kids: Elijah and Sammy
L- Like or Love: I like searching crafting blogs and seeing how creative people are. I would love to copy what the do.
M- Marriage Date: June 10, 2003-we are coming up on our FIFTH anniversary. It is hard to believe, the time has flown
N- Number of Siblings: 2 brothers, 3 sisters
O- Oranges or Apples: used to be oranges but after my pregnancy with Sammy I like apples more
P- Phobias or Fears: fear of failure
Q-Quote(s): "Remember who you are"
R- Reason To Smile: Sam's big kisses and Elijah's big hugs
S- Season: Spring and Fall
T- Tag Six: Rosalie, Cami, Cammie, Celeste, Christina, Maren
U- Unknown Fact About Me: Goodness, not sure
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I eat meat but I still consider myself an animal lover
W- Worst Habit: procrastination, lack of patience
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I've had both, but ultrasounds were the most recent (almost two years ago)
Y- Your Favorite Food: Thai food
Z- Zodiac: Sagittarius

Gratitude Journal

Tonight my ward had a Relief Society Enrichment night about gratitude. The night focused on a talk given by President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the first presidency, given in October of 2007 entitled O Remember, Remember. President Eyring focuses on writing down the things we are grateful for so that we might recognize and remember the hand of God in our everyday lives. Following is one quote that I really liked from the talk about President Eyrings experiences.

"I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized
in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done.

"More than gratitude began to grow in my heart. Testimony grew. I became ever more certain that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. I felt more gratitude for the softening and refining that come because of the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. And I grew more confident that the Holy Ghost can bring all things to our remembrance—even things we did not notice or pay attention to when they happened. "

Our leaders had asked a few sisters to keep their own gratitude journals over the past month and they were invited to share with us their experiences in doing so. Many of their entries were humorous in addition to the serious and spiritual. It exemplified how simple keeping this journal can be as well as the power it can have in your life. We were then given our own gratitude journals and challenged to write everyday, even just a few sentences, something that we were grateful for and try to be different everyday. I feel that there is much that I have to be grateful for. I truly am very blessed by my Heavenly Father and I am excited for the push to recognize and record the many blessings he has given me. I have decided to do some of my entries here.

Today I am grateful for:

• my Relief Society sisters and the program that brings us together in the gospel
• being able to go outside and feel the wind and sunshine
• my key deciding that it is going to turn and start the car after all
• the restoration of the priesthood and a husband that holds and honors his priesthood
• Elijah saying "she's not cute, she's beautiful" when Josh says I'm cute
• Verizon and Vonage that let me talk to Christina and my mother as long as I want to (or rather as long as my kids will let me)

code yellow

today I had the unhappy chance to find out what a code yellow is for at Target. It is the code they call out when someone has lost their child and results in them sending out all the employees to look for the child. Elijah was kind enough to test the efficiency of their system this afternoon. Thank goodness it works!

another Elizabeth Gaskell book to movie

This is for those of us that have enjoyed the movies and or books North and South and Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. It seems that BBC and PBS have joined to broadcast another movie based on her writing titled Cranford. The first of three episodes was last night BUT you can watch it online with limited availiblity (only the first episode is currently open for viewing and it looks like it will only be availible until the 23rd). Now the trick will be to convince Josh to watch it with me.

Sam Sam-the BIG little man

Sammy went to nursery today for the first time!

He was such a big boy that they shewed Josh out after 10 minutes because Sam was doing great. I went to go pick him up after church and when he saw me he had a big grin and yelled "Mama" (that is one of the moments when I love to hear him say Mama, there are times when he overuses my name especially when in a whiny voice. Shouldn't he be too young for that?). It is so hard to believe that both of my kids are now in primary! The just grow up too fast and before you know it they aren't babies anymore.

I think the biggest transition might be for Josh. I asked him how sunday school was and his response was "boring". He didn't have his usual distraction of amusing Sam. Oh well, maybe now he will have something to tell me when I ask what was sunday school/priesthood about.

Yay for Sammy! Hopefully every Sunday will go as well as today in nursery.

Free Font Downloads

I just came across this site via sugardoodle.net. They have a ton of adorable/fun fonts for free download! What makes it even better is you can download them all at the same time. They were even kind enough to give very followable instructions on how to download them so that your word processing program will pick them up. I just wish that blogger would let you use them too.

Enjoy!

Eating Out

Josh and I have found ways to eat out cheaply as a family without always going to Wendy's (which even then can add up). Lately we have been doing Thai Kitchen, a local hole in the wall Thai food place, and Rumbi Island Grill. Spending under $10 for all of us.

We've found that at Thai Kitchen we can get one order of their curry (we like their red curry) to go, bring it home and eat it with some of our own rice and it will feed the four of us. It is SO yummy and ready in about the time it takes to cook the rice.

Rumbi's (which we did tonight thus inspiring this post) is another favorite, especially when I can find buy one get one free coupons online (This one only works locally, check your own locations). Whenever I find a coupon I will print off 5 or 6 and stash them in the car. Sometimes Josh will just pick up food on his way home from work. We order whatever Josh and I want and share it with the kids. Josh likes to get the rice bowls and I love their Caribbean chicken salad. I always leave very satisfied. MMmmmm, yummy!

Yay for not cooking every once in awhile!

Jazzed up Burp Cloths

I found this idea off of A Feathered Nest. She does such an amazing job with her tutorials. They are so easy to follow. All you need is half a yard of flannel (makes two burp cloths) and cloth diapers. I made some for my little niece and new little nephew (the boy themed ones I made are pictured above) while I was in Utah (thank you mom and Chris for letting me crash on your sewing machines). I was excited about how they turned out and how cheap they were. I have left over fabric and cloth diapers to make more. I just need to find some babies to give them to.

Grocery List Cards

I have an idea of my own to post!

I read somewhere, probably family fun, about a mom that made picture grocery lists for her kids before they left so they could feel like they were helping with the shopping and be less bored/troublesome. I thought this was a great idea and last week I made my own spin-off.

I decided to make and laminate (I'm loving my thermal laminater!) individual cards with the name and picture of the items I buy regularly at the grocery store (ie. eggs, milk, juice, produce) I then punched holes in the cards and put them on a metal ring.

Before I go to the store I can go through the cards and pick out the ones we need and put them on the ring. When we get to the store I pull them out for Elijah to look at and help me remember what we need. We did it yesterday and it worked pretty well! I realized that I missed a few things I could put on there so I'll have to make some more cards. Not only did it get Elijah involved in the shopping but it actually did help me remember what I needed to buy.

If anyone happens to be interested in making your own--I have the file I made and would be happy to email it to you (I don't know how to put a file download on my blog, does blogger even let you do that? I would love to know how if they do.)

Craft Ideas

The past few days I've been reading other blogs more than I have been posting to my own. I've come across some good craft ideas for the kids and some projects for me too.


I came across this blog, the children's nest, where a mother of four posts projects that she does with her children. I love the post for the children's apron made out of kitchen towels. I can just imagine the possbilities. I'm going to go hunting at the dollar store for towls now to make a couple of these for my boys. She also has an idea from Martha Stewart about recycling old wool sweaters and making them into animals etc. Very cute! Also a cute idea for an applique on a onesie.


Another blog, glittergoods, had a tutorial on how to make "pink princess party flags". Granted I don't have a need for pink princess party flags (yet! someday I'm hoping for a girl), but you could use any kind of fabric you have to create your own fun reusable birthday flag decorations.


She also has a turtorial on how to make your own little books out of paper and cardstock, in minutes! I did this one and was surprised at how easy it really was. The possibilites for this are amazing. I know Elijah will love to fill the pages with his letters and pictures, maybe even write his own story someday.

Finally, there is the crafty crow. This woman has done a compilation of different projects she finds and has pictures and links to them (one of which will lead you to glittergoods). Talk about loads of ideas! Craft projects, outing ideas, games, art books, etc... for all ages! I particularly liked the idea for the atribute game. I'm going to start gathering stuff to put together my own. Plus it is a great place to branch out to other blogs and see what other creative people are up to. I have a feeling this will be a blog I go to often in search of ideas.

Anyway, I've got plenty to keep my busy and I'm still looking for a simple/cute pattern for my throw pillows I bought. If you come across one, send it my way!

I would love to hear what projects you are involved in or fun ones you find while surfing around.

(not so) Happy May Day

When you think of May Day, you might think of flowers and warm weather; cartoon figures running around the May pole (dragontales in my mind). It's supposed to be the beginning of summer and all things fun outside.

Well... not in Colorado.

It is full out snowing today. Not just flurries like last Saturday when I was garage sale-ing. This is serious, sticking on the ground, snow. Depressing! Even sadder when you think that all the trees that were in full beautiful blossom yesterday won't be the same when all this is done.

What a sad day!

This is my view out my apartment window.

That's the green belt where we play croquet (when there isn't snow on the ground!).