More projects

I guess I'm nesting or whatever. Here are a few more things I've done recently.

I bought this material to make a blanket when I was pregnant with G but now this new boy has one! You can't tell in this pic but the fabric has little skull and crossbones all over it. I love it!


This is a dress I tried to make for Liddy, repurposed from an adult dress shirt. I followed a tutorial on this Make it and love it blog. This lady has fabulous simple ideas. I love it.


Last Sunday Liddy was begging me to make a project. After telling her no and wasting time watching a show on the internet, I felt guilty and decided to do a project with her and Ethan. They decorated their own notebooks. Ethan said this was the best notebook he ever had in his whole life. I should try a little harder...it doesn't take much to make them feel special.


I had a baby shower for a gal in my ward so I made some more burp cloths. I made a couple for her and a couple for our little guy.

Our relief society retreat was about purse-onal something or other and they asked us to make cakes that look like purses. Here's what I made. I was proud of the flowers but devastated when the handle fell and cracked when I pulled it out of the fridge that morning. (It used to stand up like a real purse handle but I had to make do. Oh well.) And don't get me started on the ghetto tin foil fiasco. I looked at three stores for that fancy foil stuff and nobody had it. So I ended up covering a cookie sheet with tin foil which of course ripped every chance it got. I was so embarrassed!

I'm pretty burned out and I have a cold so don't expect much else from me :)

Boast Post

A few projects I've been working on:

Fall pumpkin pillows



Hooded towel and burpcloths and baby boy loafers

We love Halloween!

Ethan and Liddy took a Halloween cooking class at the rec center. Here they are displaying their mini monster cakes and Grant is chowin' down on somebody's mummy toes. They really enjoyed this class.

We carved pumpkins on Halloween. None of the kids would touch the gooey innards so I got them each a glove. What wimps! Since I neglected to get a picture of the finished products I'll just tell you and let your imagination run wild: Liddy's was a traditional jack-o-lantern face, Grant's was a ghost, and Ethan's was-can you guess?-a spiderman face!

Here are the babies on Halloween night.

Grant the mini (chubby, stocky, cutest) power ranger. Ben put this hat on him instead of the one that actually goes with the costume. I could not stop laughing! It looks like one of the lame bad guys on power rangers!

I couldn't resist playing with this picture. She is such a beautiful child!

I bought this dress on clearance after last Halloween and then we made her a hat. She chose the fabric and the style. It had little glittery snowflakes all over it so she was a "snow princess" for Halloween. At the ward gathering she had a little wand and kept telling everyone about how she controlled the snow and the cold. She would say things like, "Don't worry! I can make the cold go away for Halloween! It won't snow. I won't make it snow!"

And here's our E-man! My mom sent him this kung fu panda cape and he decided the night before the school Halloween festivities that he wanted to wear it and be Kung Fu Panda. This is the best we could do on short notice. I think he looks adorable!

I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween! I wish we could have seen all of you. Come trick or treat us next year!

In other news

Here I am at about 14 weeks. I feel even worse than I look if you can believe that.

And here I am today at 21 weeks. No excuses, as I'm feeling better. But it is 11 o'clock at night and it's been a long day.

And here's the baby today! (Warning: this is a long clip that I thought my mom would enjoy seeing. Of course, I enjoy every minute but for those of you who don't have much time on your hands the first minute or so shows the gender!)

Let the fun begin!

A couple of months ago the kids started soccer. I wanted this to be at the end of my post as a side note but I am too tired and frustrated to monkey with this issue. So to heck with it. Here is a goofy picture of my goofy kids in their soccer uniforms:



They did okay for it being their first time. (PS They didn't get shorts for E until about half way through the season and he insisted on tucking his shirt in. There are worse things right?) They took turns being the kid on the field pulling their shirts over their heads and picking grass and whatnot. I gave up. My competitive nature wanted to jerk them off the field and give them the what-for but I chose restrain myself. I figured I would just embarrass our family further by showing everyone what kind of mother these poor kids deal with 24-7!

The fun I was talking about was Halloween. We love it around here. My mom instilled in me a love for Halloween and all the things that come with it. I get so excited every year for costumes and parties and trick-or-treating. Tonight there was a Primary Halloween Carnival at the church and the kids just chose whatever costumes out of the dress-ups they felt like wearing at that moment. They each have other costumes picked our for Halloween night but chose different ones for this occasion.

I fully give Jenn credit for this adorable little swashbuckler! She is looking for pirate costume ideas and I've been kind of obsessed with it. (Freaky pregnancy brain!) So tonight I whipped up this little number for G. I couldn't resist!

All three kiddos:

Ethan went back to his power ranger roots:

Liddy went classic with this witch costume Ben's Grandma Faye made years ago and we were lucky enough to inherit:

I know he's trying to be all hard and piratey but couldn't you just eat him up!

Gap

Ethan has lost his first tooth! It was so exciting at our house this afternoon when Ben discovered Ethan's tooth was so loose and announced, "Oh yeah! That tooth is coming out today!"

Ethan was super excited and paced around wiggling it. We would all take turns trying to loosen it up. I was too nervous to pull it out. Every now and then Ethan would say, "Can we take a break?" I think he was getting nervous too.

There were lots of ideas about how it should come out. Ethan asked Ben to get the pliers! I would not allow it! Eventually Ben got out the dental floss and Ethan said, "Mom I have a great idea! We can tie the dental floss to a dog and you can run real fast and the dog will follow you all hyper and woosh! My tooth will come out!" Ben stood in as said dog and I didn't run and he didn't follow me all hyper but woosh! The tooth came out!

Just before it came out Ethan said he was so excited to stick his tongue out through the hole and nobody could grab it! Huh?

Here's his new favorite thing:

Here's our cute boy:

I was on my way to get a picture of the tooth dangling on the string when Ethan announced that he couldn't find it. Ben had put it in a little tupperware for him and apparently he was shaking it with the lid off and it is forever lost in the carpet. We searched and searched. Ethan said," But Mom, I have to get a dollar!" Hopefully the tooth fairy will accept a hear-felt note in lieu of a tooth. Or maybe she can find the darned thing...

Family Photos

For the first time ever we had family photos taken! It was an interesting experience. I think when all was said and done it was worth it. Drumroll please...

Ways I have ruined my children #9,876,302

Liddy, Grant, and I are on our own because Ben and Ethan went to the father son campout. We headed off to the store because I had not (still haven't) made any dinner, Liddy suggested soup (out of a can of course) and toast, and we didn't even have any bread.

Of course Liddy starts chanting her mantra "Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio." because we're in the car starving and driving that direction. I told her no, as we are cutting down on eating out. It took everything I have in me to say no to that brilliant and delectable idea.

So we get out of the car and Grant (my 22 month old mind you) says, "Cafe Rio mom?" And I said, "No Grant. We're not going to Cafe Rio baby." And Grant says, "Awwww maaaan!"

We start 'em young around here. No, thank you Cafe Rio.

P.S. Way #9,876,303 just happened. Liddy just puked Little Debbie cosmic brownie and twizzlers all over the kitchen floor. She just calmly said,"Did you just see me throw up mom? I guess I ate too much." I'm a stellar parent.

Crazy kids, crazier mom

I have been given the opportunity to get an outsider's view of my children every morning. We have a good friend of ours staying in our basement (no it's not finished, yes it's ghetto, no he doesn't care) and he comes up dying laughing just about every morning at something my kids have said during the morning chaos. And mornings are the worst for me around here.

You know how in the moment things just are NOT funny and then later you can laugh about it? Yeah, that is happening all the time now! It is truly refreshing to step back for a minute and just enjoy your kids and not focus on all the things that you, as a parent, need to correct or punish! So here are a couple of little nuggets Pattywacky (the kids' name for our basement dweller) found amusing:

Me: Ethan, did you put your dinosaur in your backpack like I TOLD you too? (it was dinosaur day and I actually remembered and I wasn't giving up looking like a mom that's on top of it because of his lack of focus!)

Ethan: No

Me (steam blowing from my ears): You have got 10 Seconds to get your little butt upstairs and get it! 1!.. 2! ..3!...

Ethan (Pat now hears the patter of him struggling up the stairs and say to himself): There's no way I can do it that fast!

And from Liddy:

Grant starts crying at the top of his lungs. Clearly a "very hurt" cry.

I storm down the hall to his room because I know Liddy is in there, enough said.

Me: What happened to him!!! What did you do?!

Liddy: I'm too afraid to tell you!!

Can't think of a title

Time is flying by! Today marks one year since Ben graduated from anesthesia school and already school seems like a lifetime ago. Ethan is almost done with his first year of kindergarten and all Liddy can talk about is that in a few weeks she will be done with preschool and riding the bus to school with Ethan. And Grant, our little sweet pea! He is becoming a little boy instead of a baby! He even started riding the 3 wheeled scooter the other day! (something my older two have yet to master!)

Here are a few little glimpses of our family lately:

Ethan flying a kite on Easter



Grant so excited about the Easter egg hunt


The Guercio cousins waiting to go find some eggs

Ben enjoying the afternoon with us. He got called in just minutes after this photo :(

Our sweet babies all dressed up on Easter Sunday

We don't always encourage him to be this violent. He's been dressing up alot and talking about "gad (bad) guys" and right after his bath he wanted the power ranger hat on. Then he laid into Ben. It was so funny! Of course he quit when I pulled out the camera so we had to get him going again. I love that he kissed Ben's "owee's" after he inflicted them!

Oh, and a big HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! to Kevin and Alissa! We love y'all!

Grant thinks he is so big!

He is getting big. Look at this sweet boy! Grant decided about 1 1/2 weeks ago that he wanted to use the potty. I know, you're all saying "Now, how old is he?" That's what I'm saying. I was NOT ready for this. He's only 19 months! But I thought that I would let him try it a couple of times and he would get sick of it and it would be over. Not so.

After a few days I finally broke down and bought him some underwear. I have never seen anything as cute as his little buns in little unders! Complete with chubby legs. I had to get some pictures. Don't worry it was a warm day...and none of the neighbors complained. yet.

And this is how I found him watching TV. He was checking out the extra info on Lady and the Tramp ("puppies"), and luckily it is strategically covering his unmentionables because he is nude under there! And check out the shoes! Those are Liddy's old Uggs. He loves them.

Grant's tush is the cutest thing ever! And here is Ben giving the obligatory "WOOHOO!!" that we give Grant after each and every kiss he gives us! If we don't do it, Grant will and wait for you to return the enthusiam. He is so much fun!

I wanted to get some video of how adorable his chubby legs and tushie are in his unders. He calls his underwear his "Melmo's" (Elmo's) or his "LaLa's"(from Elmo's song) because I got a pack of Sesame Street underwear that mostly have Elmo. He happens to have Cookie Monster ones on here but whatever. He surprised me with a little "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." You can also see typical Ethan and Liddy fighting in the background, Liddy torturing Ethan as usual. (Also, this is the debut of our new couches. What do you think?)

So far he uses the potty three or four times in an about a 2 hour span after drinking a sippy cup. Then only about every hour or so. In the afternoons he usually has one or two accidents, depending on how distracted I am. He is about 50/50 on doing number 2 on the potty. I'm pretty low key about the whole thing and throw him in a diaper if we go anywhere and that's usually when he does the deuce. I think it's for real for now though. Don't hate me...I've paid my dues. My other two are still hit and miss in the potty area and they're 6 and 4! GO GRANT!!

Draper Temple Open House

On Friday of last week (March 6) our family went with Matt and Erin's family to the Draper Temple Open House. The kids were excited to go because they have never had the opportunity to go inside a temple. It was beautiful inside. The decor was a little different than I expected. There were murals, stained glass, lots of woodwork, and travertine floors in many areas instead of carpet. It was stunning. The kids asked so many questions but surprisingly knew a lot. Ethan new all about the baptistry and Liddy was so excited to see the rooms were marraiges are performed. We had to take a shuttle to the temple from a parking area and the kids thought this was icing on the cake.

As we were getting ready to go Ben's mom brought over some stuff we had stored at their house. One of the things she brought was my wedding dress. Liddy had never seen it before and dressed up in my veil. She also had me put on my dress. She kept insisting that she zip it up. Sad to say, there was no way that was gonna happen! I set aside my devastation and grabbed my camera...

Here are Emma and Liddy walking to the temple, being so reverent and sweet...a rare quiet moment caught on camera.

Noah and Ethan on the bus. This is so typical: Noah being silly and Ethan eating it up. You can just see the admiration in Ethan's eyes.

Here is some of the crowd waiting at the stake center for our turn to view the short video and then board the shuttle. You can see Ethan, Noah, Matt (back of his head) and Grantman.

Our little family. It had just started snowing and the temperature plummeted!

My little boys. Sweet brothers!