Thankful

I am grateful for many things. Besides the standard answers of church, husbands, kids, family, and having enough for my needs, here are some things I am thankful for that make me, well me!

I am grateful for my ability to sew. I really enjoy sewing. I love to create somethings from a flat piece of fabric into something that has form and that one can actually wear. I am grateful that I can challenge myself and try new things to sew.

I am grateful for books. I love to read. I like that I am immersed in a different world when I read. Sometimes a break from reality and the mundane things I do every day. I have to limit myself on how much I read, because my kids do get ignored. However they do get food, water, and diaper changes (you know their basic needs taken care of).

I am grateful for dancing. I love to dance. It keeps me happy. I know when I am having a hard day that putting on music and dancing helps. It is sweet to dance with Deziree. Dez loves to dance and giggles while she does.

I am grateful for being able to scrapbook. I love that it documents my life and my families activities together. It is fun to see the kids look through what I have done and see what they used to look like. Sometimes they don't think that they used to be a baby. The boys have a hard time recognizing themselves when both have worn the same clothes but a year or two apart.

Sewing

I have been sewing a lot lately. I have actually been enjoying it. Usually I will do one or two projects and then move onto something else. I have basically left my sewing machine out since we moved. Well it also helps that I have no where to put it except to leave it out. My first project since moving was those curtains behind me in the picture. 

One day I was frustrated with my kids. David came home and literally sent me to my room. There I toyed around with ideas of what to make with this polka dot fabric.

 I made my pattern almost from scratch. I did use a shirt pattern for the top part, and the sleeves. I am pleased that it turned out so well.

I just finished this apron that my sister Tanya designed. I was really excited when she shared her pattern with me. I went to the fabric store about a month ago for this fabric. Now that Halloween is over, I had time to sew this up. It wasn't easy with a little helper who knows how to turn off and on my machine. She would just grin thinking that she was helping me. Thanks Tanya for sharing your pattern!

Here is the link to my sisters Etsy store.

Table

When we first decided to move we knew that we would have space for a bigger table. Can you imagine cramming 5 bodies around this table for several months? Not all our food for dinner could fit on here. Basically anything that the kids could reach out and touch and get burned on was put on the counter. There was just enough room for our plates and cups.

Well about a month before we move we bought this table. It smelled horrible. The house it came from smelled worse. That should have been a red flag going up. We brought it home and it stunk up our whole apartment. We sprayed it with vinegar. I wiped it down with a Borax solution. I even put baking soda on it for a night to see if that would take out the smell. I even used Murphy's Oil Soap on it too (which the soap smelled more than the table, but at least it wasn't the cigarette smell.

David said that he was making the table go through the 12 step program to quit.

He sanded it all down. Every nook and cranny he could get either by an orbital sander or by hand he did. He wanted to make sure what ever was on the surface absorbing the cigarette smell would be gone.

He then stained it and put many coats of polyurethane on it. We waited several weeks for it to dry and set up.

Finally he sanded and buffed the top. He finished the table the same day we decided to have Gavin's birthday party!

I am loving having a lot more elbow room when I eat. We can actually put our dinner on the table. I can also separate Ben and Gavin. I am glad that David spent the time to take the stink out of the table.

Halloween

 I haven't gotten a picture of David in his outfit (shirt yet) He had it covered up when we were doing these pictures. He was Green Lantern.

 Here is the rest of the Justice League crew. Gavin as Batman (he was acting really silly and didn't want to come over), Deziree as Wonder Woman (I had the funnest time making her outfit) and Ben as Flash (he informed me that was his favorite superhero). Oh yeah and me as Super Girl (now think of that super hot super girl song that Hannah Montana sings, because that was what David was singing when I got dressed)

 The kiddos together. I just love that face Dez is pulling. She thought Gavin was being the silliest.

Ben is posing like he is ready to take off. Practically every picture with him in it was him posing.

We went to the trick or trunk tonight at our church. All the kids went trick or treating to each car. There were some fun cars all dressed up for the occasion. We could have put a little more thought into ours, but at least we had something. Sorry I forgot to take a picture.

After the trick or treating we had a dance. it was fun. My arm is ready to fall off because Dez didn't want to participate. She also didn't want to get out of my arms. We requested a swing song and got to dance a few times. I handed Deziree off to some friends so that David and I could bust out our moves. Dez cried the whole time. I had so much fun dancing the lindy hop with David. It has been quite a long time since we have been able to do that.

Ben danced his heart out. In the car, on the way home he started to fall asleep. He said that he legs had fallen asleep and that he couldn't get dressed for bed and use the bathroom like we asked because his legs were asleep.

Gavin mainly stayed by our side.

Gavin's Birthday and Party

Gavin started his day out with cupcakes apple cinnamon muffins. I took them out of the oven and put candles in them. The hot muffins melted the candles. While Gavin was waiting for the muffins he ate some eggs. 

We went to a friends house on Gavin's birthday. While I helped to make applesauce, the boys played outside and downstairs. Both of the boys helped to turn the knob.

 Gavin didn't believe me that it was his birthday until he got to open presents. He had to wait until David came home from work. Gavin got to open his presents while waiting for the pizza to cook.

Gavin got a scooter with 3 wheels. He now can be like Ben and ride a scooter. He also got a Kid's K'nex set. The boys have had fun putting together different animals, and even different things like a drill.

Gavin was a little sad that he didn't get many presents. Well I knew that I wouldn't get away from doing a party for him. So of course money alloted to his birthday also went toward his party too.

Gavin insisted on having a Peppa Pig cake. If you don't know who Peppa Pig is look it up on youtube. He has fun watching little shorts with her in it. This is my rendition of her face.

Gavin blowing out the cake before we are done singing to him. I am lucky that I got a picture of it this time.

Here birthday boy is opening up presents. I just love how he is surrounded by the other kids and they are so interested in what he got.

For the party we ended up just playing with balloons. Kids have so much fun doing that. I also had a few craft ideas, but we ended up doing one. We made spiders out of black pom-poms and pipe cleaner. I had plans in making ghosts out of tootsie-roll pops and napkins.

Our New Home

Alright many of you have wanted to see pictures of our new place. It took us a while to put it together. I of course wanted pictures hung and curtains put up. It took me a while to find time to sew the curtains. Let's just say that Deziree wasn't too happy being ignored. I have a disclaimer out place doesn't look this perfect all the time. You also won't see the kids room because it is cluttered with stuffed animals.

Come join me on a tour of our place. I'm sure you can conclude that this is the living room. The TV is to the left of the curtains. (It however looks a bit messy so I won't show it to you. Plus our way of baby proofing aka duct tape doesn't look that pretty either)

Our Bedroom

The dining room. David is working on a bigger table for us. I'm hoping it will be done soon

The kitchen. Can I say that I am so happy to have quadrupled our counter space?

The bathroom. This is even bigger than our last place.

Okay do I really need to show you the utility room and the laundry room. I didn't think so. Nothing very marvelous there.

I have to say that I am thrilled to be in a house. This last month has been the best ever. Living in a house has reduced some of the stress I have been feeling when I was bottled up in an apartment.

Alright here are ten reasons moving into this house is great.

1. I don't have to tell my kids to be quiet or that they can't jump. The people below us worked nights and slept during the day. I didn't want them to complain about us.
2. I have counter space. I have dreaded cooking dinner for the last few years because practically all the preparation was done on the table. I would also have to put ingredients away as I used them so that I would have enough room.
3. I have a garbage disposal. No more scraping every little thing into the trash. Although I still catch myself doing quite often.
4. We have a yard. We have been outside practically every nice day. We are able to actually enjoy the weather. It was so hard getting outside living in an apartment. There were many times that I wouldn't go out for 3-4 days at a time.
5. We have a garage. I can now store the kids bikes in the garage. On a whim we can go for a bike ride. Before if they wanted to ride a bike it was literally a pain in the rear end getting everything out to go on a bike ride.
6. We have a Washer and Dryer. No more going to the laundry mat. Although David took the boys, we now have more time to do things together. We can be at home and just shift laundry instead of spending over 2 hours a week at the laundry mat.
7. We have a basement. Although it is not finished we can still use it. All the toys stay downstairs. I don't have them cluttering up the kids room or the living room. We can also ride bikes and scooters down there when winter hits
8. The kitchen is bigger. Before we just had basically a dead end hallway. I would go into the kitchen to fix food and all the kids would follow blocking my path to the fridge or dishwasher. I would just feel claustrophobic. At least now they might still bug me, but I can push them out of the way instead of pushing them into a corner.
9. We have an over the range microwave. No more microwave taking up counter space. There was actually a time at the apartment where our microwave broke (it went through fuses like crazy and we decided we were not going to use it anymore). I didn't want to spend the money for a new one. Come on how many people have one sitting in their garage? Well we went without until someone offered us one. Now it  is sitting in the basement.
10. Wow this one is a stretch. More elbow room. I love having a little lot more space to do stuff in. Playing with the kids. Today we built a tent. They played in it while we watched conference. I wasn't even tripping over it. Well I sat by David the whole time.

Lots has happened

A lot has happened these last few weeks.

Packing stuff up. Don't worry I took her out of the box before closing it.

David running a half marathon the day we moved. Boy was he tired that night.

The boys while we waited 20 minutes for David to finish the race. Ben and Gavin found bird feathers on the ground on our way to the finish line. It kept them busy tickling each other.

Dez found a hiding spot in our new place. She loves to hide in there or take what ever she can out of that cupboard.

Don't forget Ben had a birthday just a few days after we moved. He is now 6 years old.

Here he is riding his new scooter. That is what he wanted for his birthday.

He also had apple pie for his birthday. David made it all special for him that night. Mmm it tasted good.

Ben started kindergarten. I asked if he was ready to go and he told me that he was and to stop asking him that question. He is ready. I however had a hard time sending him off. He will get to ride a bus to school (they bus all the kindergartener's one way). I have a friend that is nice enough to pick him up. She is heading my way anyways. He loves his teacher. I asked Ben if he had made any friends at school the first day. He said no. When I dropped him off at school the next day, there were some little boys waiting for the line to start when I asked Ben if they were in his class. He said yes. I told him to introduce himself and ask there names. He did. I hope he will make some friends soon.

We bought this table a month before we move. It stunk like cigarette smoke. I wiped it down with what I could think of, but nothing worked. Once we moved in and were settled a bit, David sanded it down. He has stained it and is now in the process of putting lots of coats of polyurethane on it. It sure is looking good and taking a lot of time.

Ben talked me into throwing him a birthday party. I tried to entice him to take money instead of me throwing him a party. He asked if I had the money. I told him not with me, but I could get it. He said no. Yep that was how I was roped into throwing him a party 10 days after he turned 6. We had a good turnout of kids. about 20 kids were there. We launched water balloons.

David was the target. He would purposefully get hit by the balloons. The kids thought it was funny when it would hit his head and drip all over him.

Dez and other little kids would grab balloons and throw them on the ground instead of launching them. That was okay because near the end David was done.

We played pin the lightning on Flash. I drew a Flash super hero and the kids tried to get the logo on him in the right spot. Alas my camera person (me) didn't take any pictures of that.

We also had the kids race. (again what is with this camera person?) No pictures again. They ran quite a bit. Because we had lots of different age groups we decided to split it up so that everyone could feel like a winner.

Cake time. Ben wanted a flash cake. Lets just say that I am tired of doing red cakes. They never turn out red for me. That said I simplified it an extreme amount and put "lightning bolts" aka yellow squiggly lines on cupcakes for Flash's logo. Ben wasn't too disappointed in it I hope.

Birthday loot time. He got a good haul. Lots of Lego stuff to build. David and I built it most. Ben helped a little. Gavin and Dez's ideas of helping was to grab or scatter what little pieces we needed. Ben and his friends had lots of fun. (I'm glad because I planned the party the day before)

I had to add this picture. We had olives for dinner tonight. I was trying to get a picture of Dez, but she threw her olives on the ground. Gavin asked for me to take his picture. It so happened that he got the olives right where his eyes are. We laughed hard about that.

I am BIG

It is hard for me to believe that Deziree is getting bigger. It never ceases to amaze me how much she is learning each day. She definitely tells me that she is big by what she wants and what she is doing.

She has to dig in the sand just like the boys. We even bought a bucket for her, but one boy claimed the new one and she is alright with an old one.

She likes to do whatever craft the boys want to do. This day it was painting. She had fun with getting paint everywhere.

This day was play dough. She loved squshing and ripping it apart.

Whenever the computer is left unattended, Dez gets up and plays on it. I can't keep her away from the computer. She thinks it is lots of fun just to tease me.

Dez has watched the whole time we were potty training Gavin. She has seen him put the seat on, sit down, and wash his hands. She likes to go through the whole process. She doesn't even care if her diaper or clothes are left on.

What goes up...

...must come down! She shows me over and over again that she can do it all by herself. If I get too close to the slide to catch her, she stands up and moves away from the slide.

She also likes to go out to the pool. She even grabs the life vest and wants to wear it.

As she has grown this summer, it has made me sad to see that I don't have a baby anymore, but I am glad that she is growing and learning.

I decided that if she was big enough to climb out of her crib, that she is big enough to be in the boys room! Yeah for 3 whole weeks she has been sleeping in the same room as the boys. It has been tricky getting the kids down some nights, but it has been worth it having her out of my room.

Seven Years

That's right we are celebrating 7 years today. I am so blessed to have David in my life. He is a great example to me and to our kids. He definitely takes good care of all of us.

Here are 7 years of us together.

Wedding 2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010