Happy Birthday, Kahlen!

Happy Third Birthday, darling girl!

We had a great time at the zoo today














and playing with some of your birthday presents (like Candy Land)





Here's the video for Kahlen's third year for those of you who missed it:



Now that you're three, you don't need your paci anymore. You can get dressed by yourself. You know four bible verses. You are kind and sharing to your family and your friends. We love you and can't wait to see what more amazing things you learn in the next year!

Hooded Towels Tutorial

I decided to make my kiddos coordinating hooded towels for Christmas, and thought someone else might like to know how too. Thanks to Kayt for showing me how to make these cute towels for my kiddos. This is the second one I’ve made for Kahlen, the first was before she was born so I thought it might be time for a new one.

• Materials:
• Full size bath towel
• Washcloth in matching (or not) color
• 3 yards 1”-1.5” wide ribbon

Step 1 – Take the washcloth and sew ribbon to front (side without tag) where there’s a valley in the fabric. If there isn’t one, sew about 1.5” from top edge.

Step 2 – Do the same on the towel, sewing one on each short side of the towel.

Step 3 – Find the middle of the towel and the middle of the washcloth. Pin the edges together with the NON-ribbon sides facing each other

.

Step 4 – Fold the washcloth out and pin ribbon over seam.

Step 5 – Sew ribbon in place. NOTE: This is the hardest seam to sew, my machine had a heckuva time with it!

Step 6 – Fold the whole thing inside out so the ribbon is together. Sew the top of the washcloth shut.

Tada! You now have a cute, custom, hooded towel! I plan on getting my kids’ names embroidered on them, but probably not before Christmas :)

~S

My new built-in shelves AKA My husband rocks!

A couple months ago, Tim told me he was going to build me a huge built-in shelf for all my craft stuff. I got excited, but as time went by, I let it slip from my mind. I didn't want to nag him about it or be disappointed if they didn't get built.

I had resigned myself to my stuff always being all over and looking more like this:
(This is just part of my junk, mind you)

Well, they're built and they're awesome! The unit takes up the entire west wall of the main room in the basement.

They hold all my stuff plus two bookcases worth of books plus all the office supplies and games.





Bookcase is on the far right. Each shelf is reinforced for extra strength. Next is adjustable shelves that hold games and office supplies.









Far left is all my crafting bins for scrapbooking, jewelry making, crosstitch and more. Middle is storage for my Cricut and 16 paper shelves for my scrapbooking paper and project boxes.







I also want to say thanks to Greg for helping, he's the one with all the tools










Hey, I even got my husband to use power tools :)



Thanks, hubby, you rock! Now to find the time to use all my well organized stuff...

Wow, they grow fast!

Where does the time go? Really, almost three months since I posted anything? And that wasn't even pictures of my kids!
Right, well, not even sure if anyone's reading this anyway (except for you, dad).
Ah well, here goes nothing :)

Nathanael is growing so fast! (sniff, sniff) He's already almost six months old. He is learning to sit up; he does much better wearing a cloth diaper than a disposable, but he's getting better. He's a social boy, would much rather be in the middle of things than sleeping. We call it FOMO, Fear of Missing Out. He barely slept on Thanksgiving because there were so many people around and he didn't want to miss anything.
Here's a short video of him on the first day I realized he could sit unassisted (okay, maybe not)



My darling daughter will be three (3??) next Monday. She's a joy and a wonder. We are still doing preschool and loving it. Here's her playing with some colored noodles we made.









Every month, we put different things in her bin like styrofoam peanuts along with things to play with them like a muffin tin, tongs from the dollar store, yogurt containers, plastic spoons, etc. Great for keeping her occupied for long stretches of time. Today she played with her noodles for over an hour. (Got the idea from Hubbard's Cupboard, which is where I'm getting most of her curriculum from now)

We're excited for Christmas this year because Kahlen is old enough to start understanding why we celebrate Christmas. We had a birthday party for Jesus with some friends last week, and the kids loved it! This picture is them singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus" So sweet!










Hopefully, more posts to come soon. I've got some great ideas in my head, let's just see if they make it out of there :) If not, Merry Christmas all!!

~S

Yummy food

Yep, I love to cook. There's just no denying it. It's not so much that I love food as I just love to cook the food.
Here was my tasty dinner that I made a few weeks ago:
Chicken with Rosemary Butter Sauce
Noodles
Creamed Spinach
Glass of Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc (it was on sale for $6.99 a bottle!)

Mmm, yummy.

From the baking side, I made these decadent chocolate cupcakes that are sort of like Hostess Cupcakes, only much better! I don't usually like chocolate, but these were delish!

My first Mod Podge project (and Tim's awesome shelves)

So, for those of you who have been to my house, you know that there's a funky counter area in the bathroom on the main level. I try to keep my cookbooks there, but it just looks messy and there's not really enough room for them all. (The picture shows about 1/4 of my cookbooks)









My wonderful hubby got the idea to build me shelves there as a better use of the space. Of course, the project turned out to be much more complicated (and therefore expensive and time-consuming) to complete. BUT in the end, the shelves are super sturdy and look very professional.












I wanted to have a hand in the project too, of course. So, my contribution was to make the shelves pretty. I've been reading a lot about and seeing some of my friends use Mod Podge to decoupage, so I thought I'd give it a go.




I think they turned out pretty good! :)


















So, there we have it, pretty and functional shelves for my bathroom. Thanks Hubby!
Now, about my full-wall built-in downstairs...

It was bound to happen...

Yep, I knew it would happen someday...Kahlen started nursing her baby doll, Mandie. It's pretty cute. She pulls her shirt up all the way and tucks it under her chin.









Then her dolly has to nurse on both sides before she gets burped with a burp cloth and some good pats on the back.








Of course then she needs a diaper change and gets to lay on the floor to play for awhile before she goes to bed.

Good night, Mandie!