Whirl Wind Project: Completed

Well, I got bit by a whirl wind project this past week. We actually I guess it was two.

The first one was to crochet a shrug for my good friend Christina to wear with a formal gown to a banquet. I used a free pattern by Moda-Dea called Sassy Stripes. We liked the design but not the yarn so I went to the ever resourceful Hobby Lobby to search out a black yarn in the same weight as called for in the pattern. I ended up using the Baby Bee Yarn Light Licorice which is a super soft baby yarn in a charcoal gray color. I am very happy with the way it turned out and I'm on edge to see pictures of how it looked with Christina's gown. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came together. The weight was nice and it actually seemed a cute way to cover up a sleeveless formal gown.

Anyway, this post was originally to show off my newly made curtians, this weeks project #2. My boys have been getting up increasingly earlier with the sun, much to my dismay (I am not a morning person and poor Josh is still getting up at 4:30 to leave for work so I'm on my own with the boys in the morning). I was in Walmart and happened to notice that they had bolts of denium for $2 a yard that got my wheels turning. Eventually I made my way back and bought 3 yards of it with the scheme to make new curtains for the boys room our of it. Well, a few hours later (not consecutive hours mind you) and Wahla!!! We have new curtains that make the room practically dark even at midday! In all they cost me around $10 with the addition of large plastic buttons. Well worth if for the hope of more sleep, especially come summer when the sun actually rises around 4AM (I miss Utah's mountains for blocking the insainly early surises).

I also, at the suggestion of a friend, went to the dollar store to check out some wall stickers they have. I snatched up the cute robots you see in the picture above and did an easy border pattern around the boys room. I love the look and it was super cheap and do able in an apartment. Now my gears are turning (ha ha gears) on what robot decor I can add to the room. I'm thinking art work, pillows, softies... I've been surfing around looking for various ideas. Here's a few I found. I'll keep you posted on what actually comes together.

• Cute Robot Pillow/Softies from Revoluzzza
• Gears painted on the wall of a darling nursery
• Robot Applique

Sam Sam the Dancin' Man

This morning Sam and I had fun dancing to our little toy piano. It's a little aligator piano made by Little Tikes that has a demo mode that plays random songs. It was Sam's idea to dance. He would hit a key to start a song and dance for a bit then run and hit another key for a different song. We danced slow, fast, on our toes, marching, like butterflies and planes; we danced ourselves silly. And after mom was all tuckered out and dizzy Sam did a solo show, that's when I ran to grab the camera. Somewhere Sam got the idea of rolling around on the floor doing dance moves. He dubbed it the noodle soup dance. (Warning: these are mostly for the benifit of the Grandparents, though I personally think they are super cute!)

You probably notice Sam is wearing a pull-up. The kid loves to wear them but he is not potty trained, YET. He goes pee pee in the potty probably 2 times a day and as a reward gets to wear the "big boy pants".

Now that I think about it, Sam might have picked up his floor moves from watching gymnastics on tv last Saturday. Hmm... interesting.

Gr-8 to be ME

LIST OF EIGHTS

List of eight tag:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the five '8' items
3) Let each person you tag know by leaving them a comment

8 Favorite TV shows:
LOST
Numb3rs
Clean House
Rachel Ray
American Idol
Curious George
Blues Clues
Masterpiece Theater


8 (+) things I did yesterday:
DanceDanceRevolution
Got the boys ready to go to the park
Put the boys in time-out and didn't go to the park
Picnic lunch in the living room while watching Curious George
Took Elijah to school and ran errands with Sam
Picked up Elijah and dragged him to the car
Talked to Christina and my Mom
Made dinner and ate with the boys
Picked up Josh from the bus stop
CRASHED


8 favorite restaurants:
Ali Baba Grill
Rumbi Island Grill
Hunan
Thai Kitchen
Papa Murphys Pizza
Inta Juice
Chilis
Cafe Rio

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
Seeing Christina
Going to Utah next week and seeing my family
Going to the Draper Temple Open House
Josh getting published
JOSH GRADUATING!!!!
Figuring out where we will be in 6 months
Summer and playing outside with my boys (husband included)
Getting the top three things on my wish list


8 things on my wish list:
House
Mini Van (Toyota Sienna)
Baby (a girl would be nice)
Dog
Family trip to So Cal
Live closer to family
A craft room and a back yard
More time with Josh

8 People I tag:
1. Anna
2. Mom
3. Christina
4. Ashley
5. Cami
6. Cammie
7. Celeste
8. Jessica

Question from the HEART

At breakfast this morning Elijah stops eating and says "Mom I have something to ask you." He then says "Mom, do you know I love you?" in the sweetest voice. Then Sam chimed in with "Mom... 'ove" and reaches over for a big sticky hug.

MELT MY HEART!

I love you too, Elijah and Sam!

The Grandson of two Engineers

Friday the boys and I watched Curious George (our favorite show that unfortunately has been stuck in a rerun rut, except for Friday -thankfully) and George was trying to make a bridge for some chicks to get across some water using toothpicks, marshmallows and playing cards. The show took George through multiple tries with each attempt building on the previous and getting better until he finally had a bridge that would support the weight of the chicks. Elijah was GLUED.

I try and get a project or activity going for Elijah to do by himself while I put Sam down for his nap. Friday he wanted to build a bridge with marshmallows. I pulled them out and he took off running. By the time Sam was down (we do some mommy-Sammy cuddle time) Elijah was well into making his bridge. With just a little reminding from me he managed to get the shape of the bridge just like Georges complete with triangle sides to support it.

In all it took him probably 1 1/2-2 hours to make his bridge, 85% by himself. We even tested it to see if it would hold up between two Tupperware containers and IT WORKED. Elijah was so pleased with himself.

Josh came home and saw the bridge and was overly impressed. What can I say, I guess it's in his genes.

And if you're wondering... Yes they did eat the bridge for dessert that night.

Happy Love Day to YOU!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day on Saturday and put to use some of Chrisy's wonderfully creative ideas from her HOT blog Let Me Count The Ways. Saturday was actually a bumb day for us, Josh worked ALL day and got home late. Blahhh. He did redeem himself yesterday though with an amazing steak and shrimp dinner.

Elijah worked hard this week to make his Valentines for school. He decided to do the Butterfly Sucker Valentines from Skip to My Lou. We printed them out and I cut them out while Elijah got to work writing his name on the back --21 times. It took me a few days to coax him into doing all of them but he did make it. He then put stickers on the butterfly wings and glued eyes on the suckers. He was very excited about how they turned out and very proud when he passed them out to all his schoolmates.

Sam wanted in on the action while Elijah and I were working on gluing on the eyes so I cut out a heart for him to decorate. He had so much fun using the glue to put eyes and trinkets on his heart. He did it all by himself and was more than happy to let me take pictures of his finished valentine.

Thank you to Grammie and Grandma who sent packages. The boys loved their valentine surprises! We LOVE you very much!

another milestone *6000+ visits

My sister mentioned to me yesterday that she was my 6000th visiter (well she was my 5999th and then refreshed the page). It then occured to me that I haven't posted anything in awhile. It hasn't been for lack of things to say but I guess I've just had a lot of other stuff on my mind including -but not limited to- enrichment meetings, coupon clipping, learning to knit, exercising, cooking, digging myself out of my pit of a bedroom... you know, all the usual stuff.

I've got a few cute pictures of the boys on my camera I'll try and get posted later today. But for know I'm making a bee-line to the shower!

The BEST food with the BEST Boys!

For Josh's birthday we all went out to eat at our favorite Arabic restaurant Ali Baba Grill. The food there is heaven and we go there every chance we get. We both always order the King Combo which comes with a little of everything. I love the Kobideh kabab and the falafel. Mouth watering! I had my camera with me that night so I snapped some cute pictures of my dates.

We chose to sitt in the upper room with the couches and low tables. The ceiling is drapped with fabric and the walls are covered with intricate Middle Eastern art and decor. Elijah is lounging on the couch while waiting for our food. There is a fountain in the middle of the room that kept Sam occupied when he got bored with dinner. (Isn't the birthday boy just the handsomest! I love that man!)

Family Outing: Museum Free Day

Josh took the afternoon off on Monday and we headed down to the Nature and Science Museum for their free day. I was worried that the museum would be mazo but really it wasn't that bad and we all had a wonderful time. The museum is HUGE! We went with my mother in November and saw maybe 1/3 of it. I think we only got to see another 1/3 of the museum on Monday. We saw their gem collection, the north American wildlife exhibit, and the prehistoric exhibit. The boys loved the buttons that made the animal sounds in the wildlife exhibit. The dinosaur bones were pretty interesting too. They even had a skeleton of a pteranodon (Elijah's particular favorite).

Throughout the wildlife exhibit they had long benches down the middle of the room. The boys enjoyed "resting" on them. It was pretty amazing to be so close to the animals and really get an idea for how big the actually are. Walrus' are HUGE, moose are MASSIVE.

The deer exhibit had rubber ears you could play with the see how they funnel the sound. They also make you look ridiculous.

They also had phones where you could listen to information about the exhibit. Sam thought they were pretty cool.

If you look closely there is a pteranodon (not sure if that is technically correct but Elijah has labeled it such) hanging above their heads with massive fossils behind them.

The had a chart on the wall that compared the sizes of a T-Rex and a Bronciosaurus to a measure stick. Elijah didn't even make it to their ankle.

I would recomend the museum! There is so much to see and do and getting in FREE made it all the better. We had so much fun as a family. They are great people to be with.

Other Museum Free Days in 2009

Wednesday, March 18

Sunday, April 19

Sunday, May 31

Wednesday, June 10

Monday, July 13

Wednesday, August 12

Sunday, September 13

Sunday, October 4

Monday, November 2

Sunday, November 22

The Birthday Boy's Cake

Josh celebrated his birthday this past weekend. He has now breached the 30 mark. It's pretty crazy to think about. Anyway, he requested a German Chocolate Cake so I went to http://www.tastespotting.com/ and did a search. I found the most HEAVENLY cake recipe! I have never had a cake turn out so perfectly and it didn't call for any random ingredients I didn't already have. I had to take a picture of them still in the pans. I was amazed that they rose straight up without any little mound in the middle. AMAZING! I froze them over night and then let them sit for 20 minutes or so before I cut them in half horizontally to get four layers. The frosting recipe that came with the cake recipe was also really good. I took a liberty and toasted the rest of the coconut left over in the bag and used it to garnish the top of the cake. The result was an easy and quite stunning looking cake. (I am a bit proud of my self but I give most of the credit to the recipe)

Just writing about it I can still smell and taste it. MMmmmmm.

We had friends over to help us eat the cake. Josh had 4-5 kids helping him put his 30 candles on the cake. There definitly were enough to go around. Then it took us 5 minutes to light them all -Look OUT!







My attempt to get a picture of Josh blowing out the candles resulted in me getting a picture of the cloud of smoke. It was ALOT of candles.



Happy Birthday JOSHUA!




I am so grateful for Josh and that we get to spend our lives together. Every year gets better. I look forward to growing old with him.

Happy Birthday Anna

I am grateful from my sister Anna. It was so good to see her over Christmas. She always manages to make me laugh--especially when we play pillow red light green light and bum tag. She knows how to have good fun. I admire her and appreciate her friendship and good example. She has really grown up since I moved out of the house. It is amazing to see what a beautiful, talented woman she is. I am grateful that we have grown closer through the years and look forward to growing even closer as the age difference between us grows even more insignificant. I am grateful for the reminders I have of her that hang around my house. She has such an amazing artistic talent and has given me some of her work and has also picked out other beautiful pieces that grace my walls. They remind me of her love, talents, testimony and friendship.

Anna did this painting for Josh and I when we got married for my family history wedding display.

She did this little sketch of Sam shortly after he was born. My mother has a large watercolor of Elijah at her house that I'm quite jealous of.

This picture is a paper cut from China. Anna picked it up for me when she was out there last summer with my Dad. It's a really cool piece. The tree is cut out of tissue thin paper and is VERY detailed.

It took me awhile to figure out an economical way to frame it and accentuate the fact that it is a paper cut. I ended up putting it in one of those floating frames with double glass. Then I attatched a piece of cardstock on the back of the fram whick left about 3/8 of an inch between the cut and the cardstock.

This year for Christmas Anna gave us a gorgeous print of the Savior by Simon Dewey. That artist has a special place in my heart and his picture of the Savior is beautiful.

Happy Birthday last week, Anna! I love you!

Boys will be Boys... and Someday Dads too

It amazes me how boys and girls are so different, even at a very very young age. There is no question in my mind that they come that way. In my case, my boys are facinated by guns. I don't encourage this and we don't own any toy guns BUT anything and everything becomes a gun... blocks, sticks, balls, pillows, pretzels, you name it and it can and will be used as a gun. Elijah is the one that really gets creative but Sam is following suit. This morning I caught Sam shooting Josh with his SLEEVE, complete with sound effects. And he made sure that Josh put his "gun" away so that he could shoot him.

Another funny story from Elijah. I was cleaning up the dishes this morning and Elijah yelled at me to look at him and he was standing on a chair doing the Yoga Tree pose. I complemented him and said "You'll be a Yoga Master some day." He quickly replied "I don't want to be a Yoga Master, I want to be a daddy when I'm big like you, Mom." He got a big hug for that comment.