Fun with the Small Ones

 The two littlest ones are always doing something cute.  I always keep my camera ready just in case and I've caught some fun moments and habits.  Other things that aren't so easy to catch are the cute things they say and do.  Here's some examples...

Alex:
When he blows me a kiss now he'll do it with one finger.  It's like a shush but then he'll kiss it and point to me.  I just love this!  Also whenever he leaves the room he will wave to me and do his one finger kiss.  I can't get enough of this little man!



Amelia:
She is always saying something cute.  My new favorite is grouch for crouch.  We were playing that I was a horse and she wanted a ride.  She came up to me and said, "Okay Mom, grouch down."  then later, "grouch up."  LOVE!

2/13 - With the dining room remodel in full swing there are little bits of drywall lying about.  Alex LOVES to pick these up and carry them around the house.  He'll drag them behind him or put them over his shoulder and walk around.  It cracks me up.

2/15 - I made some Viking hats for my friends and Amelia was looking so cute modeling them for me.  This one was supposed to be her size but it didn't quite come out.  I love how she's still smiling for the picture.

2/22 - Alex decided carrying the drywall was getting to be too much for his little arms and now he'll push bits of it around in the stroller.

2/22 - Amelia is getting better all the time with her play shoes.  She loves to walk around in them.  She also likes to pick out her own clothes and pajamas, it's fun to see what she comes up with.

Valentine's

 We had a fun Valentine's this year!  It all started early when we made the kids fancy boxes for their Valentines.  They needed something to collect stuff in at school and I was feeling crafty.  I poked around pinterest for a while and found these fun ideas.

Miya got a bird house.  The roof lifts up to put the stuff inside.  LOVE!  It's also fun for everyday play now.

Spencer got this fancy foil covered rocket.  We made it together.  We had a hard time finding something for the top cone and it's kind of wonky but I love it anyway.

Here's a closeup of Spencer's rocket.

Here's Miya bird house, complete with bird!

Each year Aaron and I take a picture of the two of us without the kids on Valentine's Day.  I set up the camera on a timer on the toy chest and gave it a go.  Too bad Aaron wasn't very into it.  His smile looked kind of dead so I made him go again and again until I was happy.  He got a kick out of it and lovingly puts up with my photographic torture.  Here's the first try.

Take 2: I tried a kissing one.  I love his little smirk in this one!

Take 5: He wasn't showing any teeth in the other ones and I told him it made him look awkward, well, not as awkward as this one.  Look at all those pearly whites!

Take 10: Look at that crazy face!  It's his attempt at looking excited to be taking his picture.  HA!

Take 11: To elicit a more genuine smile I decided to tickle him like I do the kids, it was so fun to watch him squirm!

Take 12: I think this one was in the middle of a cough or a sneeze or I may still have been trying to tickle a smile out of him.  LOVE!  I gave up at this point and figured I'd go back to the ones where he's close enough.

I always thought Valentine's was lame as a kid because my parents got stuff for each other and nothing for the kids.  I always thought, well if it's about love and you love me why didn't I get anything?  I wasn't too upset by it I just wondered.  Well, we decided to involve the kids in our valentines and gave them a little $10 and under present.  Spencer got a Lego helicopter.  Miya and Amelia got little dolls that rode on a dolphin and a turtle respectively.  Alex got a Timmy doll from Shaun the Sheep and Timmy Time fame.  It baas when you push it's tummy.  I love it!

Ceiling!

 2/7 - The dining room remodel has been slow going.  We he had time we didn't have money.  Then we got money and most of the supplies and he hasn't had the time.  It comes in little spurts and I'm sure it will get done eventually but for now I'm rejoicing in the fact that I have a ceiling!  Before it was just the bare studs.  Then we got some insulation up there and it sat like that for a while.  Finally we got some drywall and a lift and Aaron put it up in one day.

Here's Aaron operating the drywall lift.  Man this thing is awesome!  I was only $25 for the day too!  Drywall is so heavy and it would have been so hard for us to hold it up while he screwed it in place but this was a breeze!

 

He had two hands to put the screw in and it just sat there in between without any effort from anyone.

Sweet Amelia LOVES to help Dad work on the house.  I especially love the addition of her tutu.

2/7 - Here's the end result of his hard work.  It still needs mud, tape, texture, and paint but I'm not choosey.  I'm glad I have this much!

A Double Date

 Near their birthday the kids get to pick Mom or Dad to take them on a date and get their pictures taken at Target.  After we either go out for a meal or a treat.  Well, Amelia wanted to make it a double date so we took Alex and Aaron along with us.  It also happened to be the day of the kids' dentist appointments.  To me, this would not be a fun date activity but Amelia LOVED it!  After the dentist with freshly cleaned teeth we went to Target and Amelia got her pictures taken.  She spent her birthday money and then we went for a treat at Culver's.  It was a fun day and a great date!

To check out Amelia's pictures click here then at the prompts enter my email and the passwords is "vraiment".  If you don't know my email then I guess you don't know me well enough to look at pictures of my sweet little girl ;).

2/7 - Amelia was SO excited to go to the dentist and not at all nervous.  It was her first time but we talked to her about it a lot to prepare.  She chatted them up telling them all about her recent birthday and her love for Dora.  She also told them about her dentist Barbie and they were all quite impressed.

2/7 - It was Alex's first time to the dentist as well and he was leery of the whole thing.  He watched Amelia go first and I think that helped a lot but he whined and whimpered as they poked around in his mouth.  In the end he sat on Aaron's lap with his head in the dentist's lap while they checked him out.  He really liked the taste of the vitamin stuff they painted on his teeth and stopped crying long enough to "yum yum yum."  It made us all laugh.

2/7 - After Amelia's pictures we went to Culver's for a treat.  We got a mixer which is a lot like a DQ blizzard.  I got Strawberry Banana, Amelia got Butterfinger, and Alex got M&Ms.  Aaron opted out of the treat and got a four-piece chicken meal (that man is always hungry!).  Amelia was too busy getting a bite to bother looking at the camera but she has a nice smile on her face!

2/7 - Alex LOVED eating his treat.  He's never been too motivated to use a spoon at home he typically just uses his hands like a caveman.  He saw the need for this treat and wouldn't let Aaron help him because he noticed Dad always took some service fee bites when he helped.

2/7 - I love how Alex looks so tiny behind his ice cream!  He doesn't like booster seats at restaurants so it makes him short.  I also love Aaron all tucked into his feast as we eat our treats.

2/7 - While we were out we got a call from Menard's that our fridge handles were ready.  Since we got the display model our handles were pretty beat up but they included new ones for free.  While we waited in the car I snapped this pictures of Alex.

2/7 - Amelia was so excited to spend her birthday money while we were at Target.  She had a really hard time deciding between Pet Shop toys, a new baby, and a baby accessory set that included a baby carrier.  In the end, after much waffling on her part, she landed on the new baby.  It came with a binky about as big as it's head which totally reminded me of when my babies were born.  Thanks Grandma and Aunt Suzi for the birthday money!

Amelia's Third Birthday Interview Video

After several failed attempts to upload the Amelia video onto blogger I am just going to post a link to the video on facebook


2/5 - Amelia recounts her favorites of various things while looking so darn cute and showing off her fun personality.

Amelia's Third Birthday!

2/5 - Amelia was so excited for her birthday this year. She'd been asking for weeks if it was her birthday yet. She had to learn how to show three fingers so she could tell everyone that she's three now!

2/5 - Amelie requested donuts and other yummy things for breakfast. Aaron was happy to oblige because he loves those things and picked these up on his way home from work. She had to wear her Dora hat most of the day. We were shopping in Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and she saw them on the shelf and had to have them since Dora is her favorite ever. They've been sitting in the China cabinet waiting for her birthday to come and everyday she'd ask, "Is it my birthday yet?" When we said no she'd say, "It's getting closer!"

2/5 - Amelia was so excited to open presents!  Alex liked to help her along too.

2/5 - Nana heard of her love for Dora and she made some Dora blankets for Amelia to wrap her babies in. Nana and Papa mailed them along in the cutest envelope!  Amelia gasped when she saw them in quickly ran to get her favorite chicken baby to wrap her up. Chicken baby is a whole 'nother story. My sister Jennifer got it for her a few years ago for Christmas. It's a baby dressed in a chicken suit. At first Amelia would only raise her eyebrow at it and wouldn't touch it but somewhere along the way it became her favorite and now she drags it around with her all the time.

2/5 - Sadly our other stroller broke a few weeks ago so we used Amelia's birthday as an excuse to replace one of her favorite toys. This one is SO CUTE! It has little flowers on the wheels, cushy handles, and cute polk-a-dot fabric. I love her expression as she opened it.

2/5 - The stroller is also one of Alex's favorite toys. I love his two pointer fingers requesting a turn as Amelia smiles sweetly for her picture.

2/5 - Grandma and Grandpa sent an adorable lion toy and four dollars. Amelia was so excited about both and loved that the lion was more cute than scary.

2/5 - Amelia would painstakingly remove every scrap of wrapping paper before she'd even look at the toy. This one was funny because it was a huge box holding a fancy Princess tent and the picture on the front was huge and she didn't even notice what it was until she got off all the paper.

2/5 - Here Amelia finally looked at what was on the box and she was so excited to have a fancy castle tent of her very own.

2/5 - The tent was SO easy to put up. It's like one of those collapsible laundry hampers upside down. It just popped up with a little encouragement from Aaron. Here's Amelia with all of her presents. The tent came with some dress-up shoes, a shirt, and a crown. She also got a dentist Barbie with a little girl sitting in a dentist chair, a stuffed lion with $4, a new stroller, and two new blankets for her dollies.

2/5 - Aaron hooked up our pop-up tunnel to the tent and Amelia and the other kids thought this was the best idea ever! She was so excited to give it the first go.

2/5 - Amelia adored her new dress-up shoes but they were really hard to walk in. She was sure she was going down several times. When she walked she'd keep her arms out to the side for balance and it was so adorable!

2/5 - Amelia excitedly picked pink cake for her birthday, it was strawberry. When she heard it was time to make the cake she had to help. She's quite the chef princess.

2/5 - As a bonus she gets to help lick the spatula when she makes things with me.

2/5 - She had to try out the little toothbrush that came with her dentist Barbie.

2/5 - The girls all got to play Barbies together. I was the Mom, Amelia was the little girl going to the dentist, and Miya was the dentist. It was fun to pretend together.

2/5 - Spencer jumped in and was Amelia Dad with a Ken doll. This brought back so many memories of when I was a little girl and I convinced my family to come play barbies with me.

2/5 - For dinner Amelia wanted a pepperoni pizza picnic while watching Dora. We love having picnics inside!

2/5 - I love Amelia's freakout face as she watched Aaron light the candles. She said, "Don't fire me!" We assured her that she was safe and she relaxed enjoying the pretty candles and her number three cake.

2/5 - Amelia had a hard time blowing out the candles. It's funny because she's typically really great about it and blows out our big candles all the time. With a little help she got them all blown out.

2/5 - I love the way she eats cake. She just skims the frosting off the top and then eats the cake part frosting-free.

2/5 - Miya noticed Amelia was having a hard time in her new fancy shoes so she held her hand as Amelia tried walking around the room. It was so sweet with Miya saying encouraging things the whole time.

Recent Craftiness

 I have a crafty blog That's Sew Julie where I usually post all my craftiness so I don't take over our family blog with all my projects but I loved these so much I had to put a bit of them on here.  For the full posts about these check out the crafty blog links.

I got some free yarn and my recent retreat and I knew I wanted to make hats for my boys out of it.  I love them!  I had to buy the light colored yarn but the rest of it I already had on hand including the buttons.  Read the whole store and find the link to the pattern  HERE.

I finished the quilt for me.  Here's a sneak peak.  I'm in love and snuggled under it right now as I type.  It's so fun!  See the full post on the Cartwheel Quilt.