Monday, January 18, 2010

Sledding

Everyone was home and it was a warmer winter day - so what do you do?  Grab the skiis - I wish.  Maybe when they get older.  No - we grabbed the sled and headed over by the VA hospital.  The hill was nice and packed smooth, makes for hard landings. 


Charlotte went on the first run alone (on a smaller hill - no pic).  She is so funny, she loves it.  She would cover her eyes every time she would go.


Jayce is crazy on the hill and would sled for hours.



Grahm is a little nervous, it takes some coaxing before he will go down.  Holding tight to Jason's leg!!


Jason is crazy on the hill.


Me - well they made me go - and I forgot how much fun that can be.

We took a break to build a snowman.

Friday, January 15, 2010

A Girl and Her Doll


She loves her Sweetie Pie!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Crying to no Avail




I spent last week crying.  I suddently noticed that her curls are growing out! 
How could this be?  I cried.  Her curls are just so curly, they are not wavy.  I am talking ringlets here! Check out this post from June of 2009 - CURLY!!

I pleaded with the powers that be.   Knowing deep inside that trivial matters like curly hair are just that trivial.  However, I wanted her to keep her curls.  I know that many a toddler has lost their curls, but I wanted to know why.

I love the internet!

Well - nobody knows why some toddlers loose their curls.  Not helpful.  I did notice in my searches that lots of women complain of the same thing - curly to straight or vice versa.  For women this happens with hormonal changes.

Light bulb!

As near as I can tell her hair lost its curl about a year ago.  I stopped breastfeeding!  Her first hormonal change. 

I guess I can only hope that her hair follicle will change again soon or someday and the curls will be back.  Until then...I will enjoy what curl she has left, until it gets too goofy looking and I have to chop them off. 



I still get teary and tell her she better start growing curls!  She smiles and tells me okay.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Things That Should Be Cleaned More Than Once Every Few Years!!

I have been putting off cleaning my pizza stone because:
A- A few years ago my oven didn't have a self cleaning cycle.
B-If you leave your racks in duirng the cleaning cycle they change two a blueish color.

So today, I decided to clean my pizza stone because it is black (I am including my oven racks because I can't sit the stone on the bottom of my oven).  My oven was still clean from the last cleaning cycle.  So I popped it in, thinking of how warm and toasty my house was going to be...



Cough! .... Cough!.... Choke!....

Toxic fumes filled my house.  My eyes burned and watered, my nose started running.  It felt like what Jason described about the boot camp gas chambers.  Yuck!!  I opened every window in the house, hid the smoke alarms (remind me to find them again).  The house temperature dropped to 64 before it felt like there was clean air to breathe. 

I guess next time I wont wait as long to clean the stone.  By the way - it is no longer black!





Friday, January 8, 2010

Hot Chocolate!



As soon as school is out until after dark (only about an hour to an hour and an half) they play in the snow.  Especially when we have lots of fresh snow!  Then they come in glowing pink from the cold air, with their hair poking in every direction from their hats, dripping wet mittens, and want a big cup of hot cocoa!




I love Winter!!  Today after the snow has stopped - I want to go skiing or sledding or snowshoeing.  Something to enjoy this beauty!!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Coolest Play Make-Up Ever - Tutorial


Every little girl loves to pretend to put on make-up.  I remember my little sisters having the coolest little purse and make-up set.  It was Playskool, and the coolest part was the lipstick actually rolled up and down.  I was middle school aged and I thought it was cool. 
I spent the months leading up to Christmas trying to hunt down a similar make-up set.  However, nobody had one.  Either it was Dora, or fabric, or gianormous.  So I decided to make one.
I should have taken pictures of the process, but it was less than a week until Christmas and I was not thinking blog.
Lipstick!
1.  I took an old lipstick of mine and pulled out the remaining lipstick. 
2.  I cleaned it really good. 
3.  Then Jason cut a piece of a dowel .  One end slanted and one end flat. 
4.  He sanded one end so it would narrow a little at the bottom so we could insert it into the tube.  The tube I used had plastic ridges inside to help it hold on to the lipstick.  If we would have used a narrower dowel, it would have looked silly. 
5.  Jason sanded and shaped the slanted end to look like lipstick.  He just used sandpaper.
6.  I painted it a nice hot pink color.  I used acrylic craft paints.
7.  Used a high-gloss clear coat spray to make it shiny.
8.  Used Gorilla Glue to glue the dowel into the tube.  My lipstick tube was metal with a plastic tube inside.  This plastic tube had already popped loose of the glue, so I just glued my dowel into it and then glued it back into the metal tube.  If yours does not come apart easy, just make sure you don't use too much glue and glue it so it wont roll up and down!

Powder and/or Eyeshadow!
I can't take credit for this idea.  My sister was doing the same thing for her daughter and this is what she did.
1.  Use empty make-up containters and clean it.
2.  Find nail polish in the appropriate colors (great way to use up old polish).  For the powder I mixed white and a color.
3.  Pour into empty container and let dry.

Charlotte carries it around in her purse and regularly puts on her lipstick (on her, her doll, on daddy and on mommy)!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Number 7


Yup - another one.  That is number 7!
It was so loose we told him to pull it before we brushed teeth.  Of course he said no.  Then after he had been in bed for awhile it was bothering him, so he got up.  He couldn't pull it out and was unsure he wanted me to.  I promised I would stop if he told me to (it was soooo looose), one little pull and I handed him the tissue and tooth.
[The best part - the Tooth Fairy actually remembered to come last night!!!]

Friday, January 1, 2010

New Years Eve



With a few runny noses - New Years turned into a family event!

We made pizza, had a tea party, drank sparkling AppleGrape juice, enjoyed Oreos and nabisco Chips Ahoy, and played the WII!!

In fact after the kids are in bed the WII games get pretty intense. We paused briefly at midnight to exchange a quick kiss and then back to try and kick some Bowser Butt!


I tried to get Jason and the boys to do the Polar Plunge - but somehow they ended up not going.  Even I have done it - Jason says he will do it next year, I am not sure jumping into the Sea of Japan on New Years comes close to counting.








Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Christmas Dress!

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The pattern is a dress pattern from 1901 (French).  It mostly comes with a description of the dress and very little instructions.  That means it was slow going for me and lots of phone calls home to my Mom.  The ribbon is silk, the fabric is a fine baby cord, and there are 63 bead caps (buttons were way too expensive)
I love it, but the silk ribbon causes me too much stress.  I constantly worry about her snagging it and ruining the dress.  So do I let her wear the dress lots and ruin it OR wear it a few times and put it away? 


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Christmas Day!

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HO! HO! MEERRRY CHRISTMAS!
This is the kids waiting at the top of the stairs before we let them head down to see if Santa has visited.  Grahm is not in to talking for the camera!
We put a clock in the boys bedroom and told them they could not wake us up before 7am.  Then I jump in the shower and get my makeup on and fix my hair.  It sounds soooo mean, but it lets me relish in their anticipation a little longer.

First we look at our stockings and of course any presents that Santa didn't wrap. 
This Rody Horse of Charlottes got her attention quick, after a Starburst!
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Santa also brought her a doll.  It is Sweetie Pie an Effanbee doll (I got mine when I was two for Christmas - hers says it is 1969 - Santa hunted it down - he likes the old crier's best!!)  Jason and I (and my Mom) gave her my doll cradle.  Jason had to fix the rockers - it has rocked lots of kids, and we stripped it and repainted it.  My Grandpa Jones built it for my Mom for Christmas!  I hope she loves it as much as all the little girls in the past have! [Since I wanted to see her reaction and not through a view finder I don't have pictures -yet].  She sleeps with this doll, feeds it, rocks, and carts it around.  A girl and her doll!

I also made her a little purse, fake lipstick, and powder.  Another Fancy Nancy book!
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Jayce asked Santa for:  GI Joe - R.H.I.N.O. Vehicle, Comic Book, Ben 10 Toy, WII Game, Iron Man Figure, and Trouble.  Between Santa, Mom and Dad, and Grandparents he got everything he wished for and a few extras.
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Grahm asked Santa for:  Ben 10 Watch, Ben 10 Toys, GI Joe Duke figure, Hippity Hop, and Christmas Shoes.  Between everyone his hearts desires were met!!

When I was a kid my Mom painted Calvin and Hobbes T-shirts for all of us one or two years.  This summer I decided to introduce my family to Calvin and Hobbes and create T-shirts for them for Christmas!  (Jayce was introduced to Calvin and Hobbes as soon as school started this fall, he has been faithfully reading ever since).
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Jason and I got everything we wanted.  This was a great Christmas!  Christmas Day was simple and sweet.