Who is this person?

So, I got some wild notion that I was into craftiness. As a FB friend told me, [paraphrasing], being my mom's daugher, there has to be some craftiness in there. However, I did not get the 'visualize' gene, which in my opinion, makes it difficult to make things. I can't imagine in my head what something will look like put together. Or I over-imagine and then am disappointed when I'm done. But, recently, a couple of food blogs I was checking out also had some crafty ideas and I really liked two of them. One was a scarf. I like scarves. They move the eye away from the body and toward the scarf. Probably just wishful thinking, but I'll continue to think it. The other was some adorable felt rosettes. The project on the blog was actually a rosette Valentine wreath. I'm planning to make the wreath in pastel colors for Easter but I thought the flowers would look cute on a pin with the scarf.

So, I set out Saturday to purchase supplies. I'm going to share this part because it was SUCH a cheap project! For the scarf I just needed a t-shirt and fabric glue. A local craft store had their plain t's on sale for $2.50. I bought an XL so I was sure to have enough material. I considered buying a yard of t-shirt type material, but it was $5.99/yard and I really wanted it to be cheaper to make this scarf than to go out and buy a scarf.

Then I bought pin backs to glue the flowers onto. [Sorry, I'm not a jewelry maker. I'm sure there's a word for these.] Here's where I messed up. I bought the biggest ones I found at the first craft store (on sale for about $1 for 10 of them) and thought they were fine so I didn't look at the jewelry stuff at the other two stores. Yes, I went to three stores, but that was part of the fun! Anyway, I need to go back and find more of a circular base on which to fit more flowers. My pin was way too tiny for my scarf. Anyway, I picked 3 colors of felt that I liked together. Two of the sheets were $0.25 each and the third was glittery so it was $0.50. I think I could get at least 8 flowers out of a sheet so they were about a nickel a flower to make (and I have plenty of felt left to make the flowers for the larger pin).

So, here's the finished product. The verdict is still out. Dave doesn't like it at all. But he's not really big into women's fashion (thankfully, I guess) so I'm not sure. I wore it to church and didn't hear anyone laughing out loud at me, but I didn't have anyone beg me to tell them where to get such a fabulous accessory either. HA! There is a second scarf that's more of a scarf/necklace that I also plan to make. Hold your breath waiting for those photos too!

Max at 9 months old...

Hard to believe it was already time to stick another sticker on the front of my baby's shirt and snap those photos. Harder still to believe that there are only 3 stickers left until we are celebrating his first birthday! The stickers sit on the top of his dresser so that I always know where they are. I felt like that nine month sticker was taunting me - he's been here as long as he was growing inside of me. But man, that double digit 10 month sticker that's on top of the package now - that one might drive me crazy!

This has been another fun month! Max now has one tiny tooth poking through his gums. He has officially started crawling, but he really prefers the faster (for him anyway) dragging of himself across the floor.

He eats nearly anything but seems to get really excited about his butternut squash-applesauce-brown rice combo. And it would appear that he's a big fan of the raspberry-pear combo.

Selfishly, one of my very favorite things about Max right now is that he loves his mommy! You must understand that with my boys, the mommy obsession very early gives way to following daddy around in circles. And that's okay - I want my little boys to want to be like their daddy and to adore him. But, it's nice to be able to walk into the room and see Max's face light up and have him sort of reach for me. I'm going to love it while it lasts!

Happy 9 months old sweet Max!

Three years old?

It's really hard for me to believe that my sweet little Lukey is 3 years old! We asked Luke what kind of cake and ice cream he wanted and he kept saying strawberry. He never waivered. Then I started asking what kind of decorations he wanted (or, in kid terms, 'what do you want on the plate when I hand you your cupcake?'). But he would only respond with, "stwawbewwies!"

I really want the boys' birthdays to be very special days for them. With three kiddos, there's a lot of sharing, as there should be, but I really want each one to feel special on his birthday. Dave was able to take the day off and Seth had school in the morning so just Luke and I ran some errands in the morning. We started at a bookstore, really for a book for me, but Luke managed to convince me that he might need a new book. Or two. Then we went to the party store so Luke could pick plates and napkins for his party. He chose Elmo. I really thought we'd walk out with Woody and Buzz, but he insisted on Elmo, and insisted on carrying it all to the checkout himself. I think he really just liked the matching party hats. From there we went to the store and bought another cupcake mix (the batch I made Thursday tasted burnt to me). He wanted to tell the lady at the checkout all about his 'stwawbewwy birthday.' Then we ran home, met up with Daddy and Max, made the cupcakes, fed Max, and were back out the door before noon to pick Seth up from school.

Next came the adventure for the day. Dave came up with the activity. After we picked up Seth, we were driving down the road and Seth was pointing out the bowling alley and saying that would be fun to do, maybe once Max is 'grewn up.' We confirmed with Luke that he thought it would be fun someday too and then we pulled into the parking lot. They've "bowled" on the Wii before but this was the first time for either of them to really bowl. It was truly one of the funniest things I've ever seen! Birthday boy at the bowling alley.

We started out this way - bumpers and bowling the ball himself. Dave was a bowler before we met so he was trying to share some technique with him. You can see Luke has crossed the line and is making his way down the lane.

Nevermind that the ball was going SO slow that the screen started flashing and suggesting that we resume bowling. While the ball was wandering down the lane toward the pins.

The ball return was extremely fascinating to both boys.

Very much a fashion statement, those shoes!
A bowling alley employee suddenly appeared with this strange looking thing (it looks a little like a child sized walker). He asked if we wanted to use it. I'm pretty sure I looked at him like he had two heads growing out of his neck, but it turned out to be the neatest thing. The boys put the bowling ball at the top and then it rolls down so it picks up some speed from the get-go and moves things along. I had to laugh at Dave, who kept adjusting it to try to get the best shot. He finally let go and just let them go at it for awhile.

Max was there too. Hanging out in my arms most of the time.

No trip to the bowling alley would be complete without some super greasy and yummy food. It was close to lunchtime so we just got a little something to get them through. After we left the bowling alley we got a much healthier lunch - McDonald's - and promptly deposited Luke into his bed for a little nap.

After that we had dinner. Or I guess I should say I made a (yucky) kid friendly dinner and neither of the boys touched anything on their plate. Normally this would've been an issue, but I've decided that there are three boys which means three birthdays a year and I will NOT fight with them about food on those days. [Don't tell them that.]

After dinner, Grammy and Grampy came over and brought this big ol' noisy dump truck. Clearly he is in love! All sorts of things have been dumped from the back of the the truck. We caught Luke trying to get into it himself today. Right then I made a mental note not to let Max out of my sight! Ha. Luke also got some Cars toys (because we don't have any of those around here), a new game, a fire truck shirt, a puzzle, some toy tools, a couple of books, and a moon. Luke LOVES the moon and a friend of mine (thanks Susan) told me about one that we could put in his room. It's very cool.

Blowing out the candle on his cupcake (and homemade strawberry ice cream).

The party hat and strawberry smoothie. [I love a good theme, although it did feel a little pink for a boy's party.]

The moon in his room. SO fun.

And finally, I guess I missed the memo of how life changes when you turn three. I got to sleep in Saturday morning so when I got up Dave, Seth and Luke were having breakfast. I came downstairs and sat down at the table and Luke looked at me and said, "Hi, Cara." Umm, no, being three does NOT mean you can call Mommy by her first name! Oh, that boy!

More daily pix...

Just a few more pictures from my picture a day album... Indoor s'mores. Mmmm, good!
My view from the front seat, looking back.

On the way out the door for our Valentine's Day (or Saturday night) date.

Happy Valentine's Day!

My Word for 2011

Commit: to carry into action deliberately; to obligate or pledge oneself. [paraphrased, taken from Miriam-Webster's online dictionary].

Let's ignore that two of the other definitions involve crimes and mental institutions and just run with it, shall we?

I love the idea of having one word that defines and shapes your year. Here is the best explanation that I've found for this concept. [Disclaimer: I've not read anything else on this website yet, just the one page to which I linked.]

So, to what do I want to commit? A lot. Some being more important than others. First, I want to commit to being here for my kids. I'm here physically, for sure. But I feel like we waste a lot of time when we're together. And maybe that's it - maybe I just need to realize that I am here and that, hopefully, that's what they will remember and that that's okay. But, I feel like I spend a lot of my day looking forward to naptime or to when Dave comes home. I think I got really off track when I was pregnant with Max and just never got things back to where I want them to be. I know there are ways to be more efficient with my time so I can get things done and still spend time with them doing fun mommy things. I just need to regroup and figure all that out.

Along those same lines I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking, "I'll do that in just a little while." But really, I just need to do it! Commit. If it needs to get done, do it now if it's at all feasible.

I am committed to doing my picture a day album for 2011. It's going really well so far. I want to try to take some pictures of the finished pages and share those. But I am committed to seeing it through. The Christmas album is only partly done and I don't want that to be the case with this one! It's easy and fun and I plan to keep it up. I'm committed.

I also want to commit to a very specific exercise goal. Me and two of my favorite people have been trying go to the gym 2 nights a week and walk/jog on the treadmill. The holidays, and then the weather, have deterred us to be sure, but those were temporary setbacks and we're back at it. I'm looking forward to the weather improving too so we can get outside. We started this in October (?) and it's been a rough winter (in terms of weather) but I'm ready to get out there and see if it's not a bit easier when there is a whole world of outdoors to explore! Plus, I'm hoping it happens much more often if I don't have to drive to the gym at 8 or 9pm. Scratch that, I'm committing to it happening more often when I can be outside.

Anyway, my exercise goal is to do this. I've wanted to do the 500 mini marathon for a long time but it always fills up or, for the last 5 years I've either been pregnant or pregnant too recently to really train. But not this year! I would love to lose some weight, but more importantly I would love to get healthy. I am worried about some hip pain. I think I have a bit of arthritis maybe(?) and my hip hurts pretty much all of the time. That or I've injured myself (you know, what with my gazelle-like form on the treadmill and all). Anyway, once I'm done breastfeeding Max I'll head to the doctor and see if there are some meds, etc. that would help with this. I just find that I'm in pain a lot of the time, and not the good "wow, that was some good exercise and I can feel it pain" but more the "it hurts to roll over on my hip even in my sleep and I'm not resting well" kind of pain. But it hurts whether I exercise or not so it seems silly not to go ahead and exercise.

And finally, I need to commit to a church and do something. Anything. I'll leave that one at that.

So, there you have it. My word - commit! My goal - not to end up being committed (re: the mental institution definition), but rather to 'deliberately carry' the above into action!

Loving me some Lukey...

This post falls into the category of "just because I want to remember." It might be boring to the rest of you, but I just don't want to forget...

One night recently I was reading some books to the boys. One of the books had a leopard in it. I read about the leopard. Luke got all 'pitiful Luke' and said, "What about the cheetah?" I explained it was a leopard and that we'd just read about him. He looked at me and said, "Let me see if it's a cheetah." Then he got up closer to the book and said, "Umm, let's see. Yes, it's a cheetah."

He loves sto state the obvious. I think this is pretty normal at almost three, but it makes me laugh. Usually. Most recently, "If he's cold then he is cold." Thank you for that insight!

One night recently he kept getting out of bed. This was a first for Luke and was my biggest fear about him sleeping in a big bed. The problem with Luke is that he's just so funny. He kept coming out of his room acting like he was sneaking and then he'd bust out laughing as soon as he saw us. He has a cold though and is all sniffly snotty icky - just "off." But the second time he got up he informed us, "I can't sleep because my nose smells like boogers."

I dropped him off at for an hour or so at childcare a few weeks ago. I went to pick him up and the person working in his room told me it's like everything he says is magical. I tried to explain to her that while that's nice for him, I'm pretty sure he gets away with way too much because of it. But I think I just came off sounding like a bad mom.

And, finally, he's really bad about calling us back into his bedroom at night. When I go in and ask what he needs his answer is, "Hugs and keeeses." Who can resist that?

**On a little side note, sweet Luke's little cold progressed into bronchitis. It has made for many a sleepless night, many fights over taking his medicine (not because it's so yucky, but because he thinks it's cute to run from me), and many many meltdowns over pretty much nothing. I couldn't help but capture this look as one of my daily pictures!

8 months old...

My sweet little baby is getting big (Well, not really. He's actually about to fall off the weight chart. But, he is getting older.). I know, I know, that's how it's supposed to work. He can sit up for a few seconds if I put him in that position. He is trying to get himself into that position. And he has recently discovered that he can pull himself across the floor much faster than he can roll. He can get up on all fours but he doesn't go anywhere just yet. He has started eating puffs, and is quite good at actually getting them to his mouth. He likes nearly all of the veggies he's tried, with the exception of green beans. He eats whatever fruit comes his way. He likes to watch his brothers play. He babbles like crazy - often mimicking the sounds of 'hi' when we say it to him. And his smile still lights up the room. So, without further adieu, a few shots from our 8 month photo shoot...