The Homemade Goodness

I made several Christmas presents this past year and I wanted to share them. But my life is crazy and so I'm finally getting around to it now that March is almost over.I like all of my babies to have two matching blankets. It makes washing them much easier. I use soft fleece and satin binding for multiple textures. Here is Charlotte with her new blanket this past week. I love the bright red, pink, and orange of the flowers and butterflies.
My kids and my nephew got some fun felt food. Jill has a good list of online tutorials. You can find it here. I also made strawberries but they're not in the picture.
Sadie and lots of sisters got flower hairclips.
My kids love building tents and forts so now they have a designated kit. I think this gets played with EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I first saw the idea on Bloom.
The original idea can be found here. I started making the ties to add to the sheets but I didn't finish in time, what with a new baby and all. So I wrapped it up incomplete and after a few days of playing, I realized that I didn't want to finish the ties. The kids didn't need them and it was much easier this way. And when I need extra sheets for company I just rob the fort kit!

Our kit consists of four twin flat sheets from Wal-Mart, clothespins, clamps, and Lego walkie talkies. I stuffed it all in a $5 fabric bag from Wal-Mart. The stripey sheets always make our forts look like circus tents. So fun.

Lots of Random Stuff

I finally got my new camera after losing the old one. Hence the pictures on my blog. And we got a new surplus laptop from work so the Rocket Scientist and I have been busy updating software and such so we can actually use the new camera. We went outside and took some pictures of the kids just for fun.

Early Saturday Morning Love'ns

While Grandma was here, Handsome Face wasn't feeling too well. He fell asleep one day on the couch and we noticed that some clothing wasn't quite right. He looks for the tag to put in the back when getting dressed and this pair just happened to have a tag in the back and the front.

Cute Girl got watermelon seeds in Primary last spring. Here she displays the fruit of her labors (or her parents').

We made fun Autumn trees a few weeks ago. The colored leaves on my fridge are the only ones in the neighborhood since it's still 86 degrees outside. The trees don't lose their leaves here until Christmas.

The Countdown to Christmas Begins

I started my Christmas gift planning today! It's kind of early but I've set a goal to be done by Halloween. And everything absolutely MUST be done by Thanksgiving or no one will be getting any presents.
I decided last year that I wanted to try and make more of our holiday gifts this Christmas. I love buying just the right thing for people but I hate just picking something off a list that doesn't really mean anything to me or the receiver. But neither do I want to make a bunch of stuff that would be completely useless to the recipient. It really needs to fit and be lovely. Last year the Rocket Scientist made a pulpit for Cute Girl. It was absolutely perfect! It fit right in with her play needs and personality and she loved it! Just tonight she used it as she gave us her FHE lesson.
So today I started crafting and I have three small items done. Yay! I'd love to post pictures and tell all about them but then I'd be spoiling the surprise for some people and I can't do that.

Have you started thinking about Christmas? Do you have any great homemade goodness up your sleeve?

Frustrated

I think one of the most frustrating things about being a mother is when you're having a horrible day and it is mostly (if not all) your fault. A close second to this is when you're having a hellish day and you're doing everything right. Because seriously, what on earth are you supposed to change to make the day better?!
We were greeted this morning with some sunshiny faces. My children were dressed and Cute Girl had done her chores and I actually made breakfast.Then Handsome Face played with some play dough while I cleaned up the kitchen.


Cute Girl helped with the dishes.
After playing kitchen in the pretend kitchen upstairs (so boring by the way), I left my children to their activities in order to start on my to-do list. Things quickly spiraled downhill. After two hours of tantrums and fights and time-outs we finally had lunch and everyone calmed down. Oh I hated those few hours.
And now we're here. Cute Girl practiced some sewing,
while I finished this banner. It was supposed to be a project that Cute Girl and I could make together for the Fourth but then my children took to their sickbeds for a week. She did help man the sewing machine and trimmed some edges.

A few weeks ago the whole family sat down and made playdough. We had a lot of fun. The recipe came from Jill at homemade by jill and was featured on Skip to My Lou.

Have you seen this?

Skip to my Lou Craft Camp

Our June just got a whole lot more fun.

Gingerbread House

Cute Girl just had to make a gingerbread house this year. But with Thanksgiving at our house, then Uncle John's wedding, then an early departure for Christmas, we just couldn't get it done. So we went the easy route and bought a kit at the store and put it together at Grandma Shoaf's house.

The Weekend Recap

We had a really great weekend. The Rocket Scientist had his wisdom teeth out on Thursday so we weren't trying to fit in lots of to-do things or yard work. This meant we had lots of time to just be together. It was nice to have a slow-paced weekend. That doesn't happen very often around here.

The Rocket Scientist with ice tied around his head.

For General Conference we kept some old traditions and tried some new ones. For the kids we recounted the story of King Benjamin and pitched our semi-annual conference tent. We had library books, paper, stickers, and crayons nearby. Cute Girl had a paper from Primary with every apostle's picture below a tie. She was supposed to watch for them and draw the tie they were wearing. She really had a good time with this. And we discovered that red ties were very popular on Saturday. Handsome Face napped during the afternoon sessions so Cute Girl got to play her "conference game." She chooses pictures of gospel topics and listens for them during the session. Every time she hears an appropriate word she gets a candy from the bowl. Last conference we used M&Ms but I ate half the bowl so this time we switched to Skittles. At one point she was counting on one hand while shoving candy in with the other. Then she started complaining about how she couldn't chew because her mouth was too full. By midway through Sunday afternoon she told me that she thought we shouldn't have any more sugar.

New to this year was our between-sessions craft time. The kids really liked this but I think their dad had the most fun. Saturday we made trick-or-treaters out of craft foam. I had a kit from last year's clearance sales. The Rocket Scientist added parrots to their pirates and Cute Girl loved that. On Sunday we painted some Halloween decorations. We got started late and so ended up painting during the whole session. We really enjoyed that session although I probably would have learned more if I was taking notes. But seeing as Sunday afternoon is the best time for falling asleep, it's probably good that we were painting!

As for food, we had soup twice because of the whole wisdom teeth thing. I had to put my roast and mashed potatos on hold. But we did make cinnamon rolls Sunday morning and had some friends over for breakfast. Then Sunday night we had more friends over to eat more of the cinnamon rolls because I really need to get them out of my house! Plus, the kids loved playing with their friends. It was nice for them to be able to run off some of their pent up energy. And it's nice to have friends that you can call at a moment's notice.

All in all, it was a great weekend. My favorite parts were Pres Uchtdorf and Elder Ballard's talks, flying kites in the park, going to a mom's night out (for the neighborhood - not conference related), buying a new couch, and snuggling with all my kiddos.

Messy, messy

As Cute Girl wants to make crafts every day, her requests for such should not take me off guard. But they always do. I never have any idea of what we should do and it's usually not the best time for it (i.e. I'm on the computer or cleaning the kitchen). But she always insists that we do one RIGHT NOW. This takes some quick scrounging through cupboards and self-evaluation as to how much mess my stress levels can take.
Last week I managed to pull out some sponges and make Easter stamps. Cute Girl loved decorating cards and envelopes...while Handsome Face just painted his hands.

P.S. We have our first cousin and I'm finally an aunt! Yay for baby Dallin!