Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Finishing up some Fall Fun

We headed to an Orchard after our Atlanta trip.  We bought some good food, fed some goats and played on the playground.  We took the camera in hopes of some good pics of B... here's some of what we got.



Warm and candied


B ran over to the bulldozer yelling "Cat Machine! UP! UP!"



Last year I had to walk him up this ramp
holding both of his hands, and now...

If only you could hear him say llama... hilarious




Bond, James Bond.
Trying valiantly to get Ben to smile at the camera with me



Credit goes to Joe for this great pic

They gave him a little apple on the way home which he promptly ate... yay!


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Meeska, Mooska, Mickey...


MOUSE!

B needed a costume he would enjoy and want to put on so it had to be someone or something he likes right now.  That was clearly Mickey Mouse.  
Also his same aged cousin that we were going to be visiting could be Minnie! 
Grammy teaching about the value of chocolate :)


THE HOW-TO 

I made or tailored every piece of this costume and loved just about every minute of it:
- The leggings were from the Old Navy girls section, don't tell. (sewed the lace under on the bottoms of the legs to be sure it didn't show).

- The black shirt is a 3T from Target.  A size bigger to get the longer arms and torso but then I used this tutorial to make it tight.  I refer to it as his toddler underarmor :)  I used the same technique on my costume, but more on that later.

- Red shorts were made from scratch and lined with black satin to keep them from riding up on the leggings.  I used this tutorial (great website!) for the kid shorts and lining them. Then I hand sewed on white felt "buttons" on the front and a little velvet black trim as a tail.

- The ears are plastic mickey ears that I hot glued onto an old headband of mine.

- The gloves are homemade... traced B's hand, sewed around it, clipped the same allowances and turned it inside out.  Then added the black marks on the back.  I found some websites that were helpful, but I ended up winging it my own way in the end.  I found some thin white knit at Joann's and then doubled it on both the front and back of each glove.

- The yellow shoe covers I made with this tutorial.  Then I added the roll around the ankle just like the gloves.  

Just in case somebody needs an explanation (or I need to come back to these notes later :) ) The roll technique is one I'll be coming back to again I'm sure but I can't find the site I used to figure it out.  Basically you sew around the thumb and fingers but where the roll starts you leave it unsewn on the sides and long (as if it was going halfway up to his elbow.)  After you pull it inside out then you sew the sides of the long section so when you roll it up to the wrist your seam allowances are getting rolled up.  Then I hand sewed the roll so it would stay in place.




I didn't get too many pics of B to post because he's 2 and never stops moving... especially when he sees a camera!  Thanks to my dad for getting him to stay still for 2 seconds.








How can you not love this little tail!?  I think we have video of him trying to get it to wag by saying "wiggle wiggle" and shaking his hips side to side.


  
It was awesome to see so much family in our week long road trip both immediate and in-law.  We drove home feeling so blessed!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Recapping Octoberrrr

a little bit from the garden on my window sill
What a great month that seemed to fly by!

Some highlights:

- B attended his first high school sporting event at the age of 2, when we went to watch some of my former students play volleyball.  It was awesome for so many reasons.  I love my former students, and I got to see many of them. I got to watch volleyball (and I would by lying if I didn't say I teared up when varsity ran out to warm up music, dang I wish I could still play like that.)  And I got to witness B enjoying the whole event.  He kept saying "too loud" to the warm up music but liked clapping and watching so many people running around.

- Date with Joe at a nice restaurant celebrating a number of things all rolled into one night.  It was just a great night that gave us a chance to reconnect.

He travels so well... and I'm so glad!
- Road trip to Atlanta.  Both Joe and I have brothers in ATL so it makes it convenient to see both whenever we go down.  We were able to attend a baptism (of my Godson, what what!) AND surprise Joe's dad for his birthday by having his whole immediate family staying at his brothers for a few days.


Enjoying the rest stop view

Stretching at stop while travelling
 More soon, finally got my computer back up and running!






Friday, October 12, 2012

7 quick takes 10-12-12

Linking up with Jennifer and a buncha great bloggers for 7 takes at Conversion Diary
  1. Still loving Fall. 
  1. Experimented with making my own creamer hoping to be able to use less sugar in my coffee.  I think it would have been awesome if my almond extract didn’t taste and smell more like alcohol than almond.  In the end I added lots of sugar to cover up the alcohol taste and then my coffee was awesome!  Like a dessert to start the day.  I stumbled on the blog camppatton.com through Quick Takes a couple weeks ago and felt like I made a friend when she mentioned drinking creamer with some coffee in it.  (Also, she's a great storyteller, check out the blog!)
  1. I played with B as if I was a fellow 2 year old today, it felt weird but I think he learned a few things about sharing and waiting your turn.  I was a little perturbed at how easily I got into character J 
  1. B and I went to Mass this morning… We actually made it there, never mind that it was during the first reading being done so sweetly by a small child for a school Mass.  Sometimes the two year old you’re trying to get out of the house refuses to put on shoes until you are actually in the church parking lot. 
  1. I’ve wanted to support some of my former students and go see a volleyball game at the high school and finally had a chance to this week.  Joe and B came with me and it was SO much fun!  B was amazed at how many people there were and how loud the music was etc and was so good.  I won’t lie I teared up a little when varsity came in to some warm up music.  I forgot how much I love that sport and wish I could play still! 
  1. Caught B singing “call me maybe” over the baby monitor after his nap today.  Love it. 
  1. Enjoying the Big Bang Theory with the hubs, gotta go.  
Phew, I'm outta blog writing shape, it's been too long!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Little video

To my (rachel's) GREAT Aunt Joan:
 
Here's a little something you might enjoy...
 
 
 
We LOVE You SO MUCH!! 
 
You are in our thoughts and prayers right now!
 
 

Friday, August 31, 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday 8-31


7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 186)

  1. September is tomorrow… What?!  This is the first August I haven’t had a job or program starting (or having a baby).  I feel like I should be stressed out, but it’s so calm without being connected with school.  I’m going to enjoy it for the next couple years.

  1. I am loving my new bike!  I haven’t had a new bike since being a teenager.  Of course I don’t have a pic of my bike, but I do have a pic of my riding companions J  

  1. I can't believe how B sleeps, I'm completely and utterly spoiled, I know… a 3 hour afternoon nap is still pretty common.  Actually I think he's going through a growth spurt right now, he's been eating pretty well too.  More on that later.

  1. I got a sewing job today!  I’m looking forward to working on it.

  1. The laundry room is almost complete.  I’ll post finished pics in the next week or so.  Just have a couple coats of polyurethane on the counter to go and some curtains to finish sewing.

  1. B ate a whole piece of pizza tonight… and we pulled his high chair up to the table without the tray.  J and I just kept staring at him and wondering at how old he’s acting (sometimes) these days.

  1.  Happy Belated Birthday to my Sister!  Ben's been singing the happy birthday song randomly lately...


Have a great weekend!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Mini photoshoot

These were taken a couple months ago but I have to share.  Thanks to my sister and dad for getting a couple good pics :)
many of my pics of Ben look like this one... as he walks away from me :)


"They just told me I can't go back outside to play..."
Posing 



sweet.

I bet you are smiling at your computer just looking at this one :)  Am I right?

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Time flies during summer fun!

hOly mOly what happened to June!?  I'll tell you what happened to it... we enjoyed it!
Check out just a few of our fun moments:

Finger Paints... just like:
  http://easiepeasie.blogspot.com/2010/07/homemade-finger-paints.html
I knew I saved those jars for something. 




Loving it!

So far tons of zucchini from the garden!  I'll do a post later about growing them vertically,
it's so much easier to keep them off the ground!
 
Little enjoyments left over from Joe's Graduation Open House.  I felt so crafty with ribbon and a glue gun... go me!  Nice to have living decorations :)


Gotta love the back patio now!
B loves to color, something we do probably every day.

 Hiking, the three of us...
shortly after this pic was taken Ben fell asleep on J's back, too bad this carrier doesn't have a sleeping hood to hold his head, I'll have to work on that.
talk about a workout... 

 

Not too uncommon a sight



Please just look at this post nap hair :)










Back yard summer fun, why would I not put the pool at the end of the slide!








Food:
PayDay bars for the family get together on Father's Day.
J's Gpa loved Paydays so we thought it appropriate.

This is what you get when you hand a "mana" to a toddler and don't remind them how to peel it first :)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

May-ish Pictoral Recap

Ok, I'll see if I can do some good recap with some pics...  I dedicate this photo heavy post to my great aunt who reads this blog, we're praying for you! :)


B is always moving, even while
trying to do a puzzle we are rolling around.
Consignment sale!  New summer wardrobe for B for small money.
We have begun to climb anything we are able...
no chair, piano bench,
fireplace, couch, stool, step is safe!

We read... alot!


GRADUATION DAY!!!
I'm ridiculously proud of my husband for getting his Masters in Engineering.  I had a front row seat to all the hard work and long hours that it took.  I know that I couldn't have done it... I didn't understand a quarter of the words that were coming from his computer when he would watch lectures!  I'm also happy that this phase is finished and J can relax a little more and we will get to do more family things and see more family :)
What B did during graduation...
(he's watching Cat and the Hat on the iTouch,-
we'd gone through every other option of entertainment,
the video was silent and it didn't matter, ha ha)
I took an artsy pic to remember Joe's
graduation and all the work that
went into it... like lots of books.
Rockin the Shades...


Happy Birthday to Me!

One of my favorite pics... he says, "more tickle"
and then "all done" after a second or two.
He enjoyed my bday cake as much as me!

Summer is off to a great start, I definitely have an active toddler on my hands.  I'm glad that he sleeps well so it balances things out :)

More coming soon...