Birthday, dogs and another crafty thing...

I have a sister who has children with birthdays that fall very close to major holidays. My nephew Aidan's birthday some years falls on Thanksgiving and his sister Bailey's birthday is two days after Christmas. Note to self: If you have a child with a birthday on or very near a major holiday, remember that they still need a special day just for them and to celebrate their birthday first. The mom of these two, my sister, did try and gather the family together before Christmas, but some of the other family were sick and so it was cancelled. Bummer... We did eventually get together and I took my camera.

They have a little toy Pomeranian that Luke loves to squeeze. I'm so afraid he's going to pop the little things head off.

Here is the wreath I made this weekend. I used squares of red felt and hot glued them to a Styrofoam wreath I bought at Joann's. The felt is supposed to look like red roses, but it didn't turn out as well as the picture I saw. This one did take me a while since I had to cut the felt and then do the whole hot gluing thing (which I got a nasty burn and a huge blister from). I hung it on the front door for the picture because I liked the contract of the black, but it hangs on the wall in the front room near the garland I made last week. These are my first valentine's day decorations. They've been kinda fun and I may just make some more. We'll see what next weekend brings.

Had to throw in a picture of my handsome guy getting ready for church this morning. He was too busy eating the cookie I bribed him with to hold still or he might have smiled after I did his hair.

My new addiction

Just before Christmas I happened upon a craft blog called U Create which led me to another craft blog which led me to another and another and another etc...etc. Since then I'm been pathetically hooked to craft blog hopping. It's gotten so bad that I use my lunch hour at work to check on my favorite sights to see what these gals have come up with or happened upon. If only I was so clever! I added a few of my favorite sites over on the right if you want to check them out and be inspired like I have. Here's what I've made so far.

Chris got me a Cricut machine for Christmas. This is the first and only thing I've made with it so far. I haven't had much time but to go over how to run the machine. So, I picked up Valentine paper at Michael's on Saturday and was able to make this in the amount of time Luke napped. Good thing it was 2 hours long. Anyway, I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Another project I did was make a slipcover for my sewing machine. It is now protected from all the dust while it waits for me to use it. This one took me more than 2 hours, but the end product was well worth the time. I made one for my sister, Christina, as well. She got a sewing machine for Christmas and boy is she putting the miles on it. I'll post the awesome bag she made me next time.

I've got some other things I'm going to give a whirl next weekend when I get the time, but for now this is it. I'll keep you "posted", if you don't mind.

Christmas 2009

I should have had the camera out more because I didn't capture much this year.

Luke and Chris previewing the adds for Christmas gifts.

Ward Christmas breakfast - not loving Santa.

Luke always loves cars. He got some from Santa in his stocking.

Chris had some of his family up for Christmas.
Nieces Sydney and Brooke in their beautiful dresses.

Luke got a remote control car from his Grandpa Bill and he loves it.
(it pretty much goes in circles)

What a relief!

Can I just say how glad I am for the holidays to be over? Christmas is my favorite time of year, don't get me wrong, but I also find it very hectic. I barely got any sleep the whole month of December. I was staying up late working on projects and then getting up early to go to work. Weekends I tried to squeeze in as much play time I could with Luke. One Saturday my sister and I baked goodies all day and Luke sat and watched movies. I feel awful when I don't get to spend time with him or if I have to run errands all day and he's in and out of the car constantly which results in a very small nap and no good meals.
Anyways, my goal for next Christmas is to get as much done before the season hits so I can enjoy the holiday. For some reason I can never this never happens, but I've already got ideas of what to make/buy in mind so I'm one step closer!

Shopping fun....or not

Trying to make an outing to the grocery store more fun I decided to get the cart that had the car attached to it. Have any of you tried to push one of those things? It's impossible! I had the hardest time pushing it straight and turning corners. It was all great and exciting at the beginning when Luke found out he had his very own steering wheel, but then he got bored with it and kept trying to crawl out. Wanting him to get interested again I would stop and say, "Momma needs your help to make the cart go" (very Dora the Explorer-ish). I'm not sure getting the car cart is really worth 5 minutes of toddler entertainment. Especially the embarrassment caused while you knock over food displays and your child is happily saying hi to everyone while you pick up. Anyway, next time I'll wait until he's older or have someone stronger, like my husband, to push the darn thing.

In other news, Luke is quite the chatter box. His phrase this week is "I want it". I have no idea where he picked that one up, but it's about something he's not supposed to have like the fire poker.

Not all, but other words he says:

momma/mommy dada

milk
ball

juice
hot
one, two
go

truck
book

uh-oh
meow

moo
dog

roar
all done

oops
diaper

dance

water
hello

hi
bye

snack
num-num

nose
eye

sock
shoe

brush
bankt (blanket)

but (bellybutton)
oh no

no
gramma

bampa (grandpa)
nee-nee Auntie JaNeanne

tee tee - Auntie Christina
naa-na (banana)
apple
go away

Iron anyone?

This past Tuesday I spent the day (9am - 3:30pm to be exact) being infused with iron. I know the picture looks like a bag of blood, but if you could have seen it up close it's more like rust colored water.

I have had this blood thing since I was in high school. It's been ruled out to a condition called pancytopenia PLUS my body doesn't absorb iron from my diet so I become anemic. I have my blood checked every six months to make sure I'm still at the normal levels for me and to make sure nothing else has changed. Once a year my hematologist runs an iron count with everything else and this time found my feritin level was at a 6. Normal for women is between 18-160. Yikes! So the quickest way for me to get back to where I need to be is to have these infusions. I think my body holds on to the iron for a year and a half which I think is pretty good. It takes a few weeks for things to for my energy to go up so it's not immediate. The only bad thing after my treatment: a sore hand where the needle was.

Halloween 2009

Luke was a cowboy for Halloween this year. I borrowed the hat from a friend and found a plaid shirt at the Goodwill for $1.99. I bought it a bit big so a jacket could fit under it. He didn't have any boots, but he looked enough the part to not need them.

Chris and I went with my sister, husband and her youngest Zoey trick-or-treating. He had the greatest time. Because we didn't want to have him tucker out too soon we brought a stroller so we could push him from house to house. We let him walk up to the door with one of us. Zoey usually let him knock on the door and the she'd ring the doorbell. He'd always try and go inside, but I wouldn't blame him since it was raining off and on.


Coming back from the door he'd squeal with delight. He thought it was so much fun and made it through the whole neighborhood. Fortunately for Chris, he got a big bag of candy that he ate in 2 days. Unfortunately for Luke, he didn't get a single piece.