Julie & Julia giveaway!!!

Go check out Mama Wants a New Pair of Shoes RIGHT NOW!!! She is doing a drawing for Julie & Julia!

...and be on the lookout here for a giveaway in the next week!

Want pictures?

Plotting where to go play...
this smile will never get old

and look at that cute little butt with NO DIAPER!!!!!! She's so old!

Can you even believe how old Riley is getting? We are fully potty trained while she is awake!! Nap time is close, but not quite there yet. Night time training will be a long while. I asked the dr about it when we were in last week for ANOTHER ear infection and she was just impressed that at 2 years 3 months, Riley is -for all intents and purposes - potty trained. Being dry while she sleeps will come in time. I'm just amazed each day at how much she is growing and changing! She is fully of hilarious things to say!

About 4.5 months... first time getting "food"! He wasn't real sure at first...

All smiles!

and goofy faces!

::sigh:: Asher is growing too fast, too. He is rolling belly to back and back to belly. He is eating all kinds of new foods. He talks a mile a minute. His favorite thing though... when Riley gets all up in his grill and talks to him. He just smiles and giggles the whole time. I LOVE IT!!!

To my dearest 2 yr old

Dear, dear Riley: When you go to bed, we are well aware that you play. For future reference these toys do NOT help you be discreet about it: Chatter Phone, your talking Foofa (and the giggling that follows), the Laugh'n'Learn Puppy that sings all kinds of crap, and your potty book (that you obsessively push the flush ...button on). At least play with something QUIET when you're supposed to be sleeping. A little effort goes a long way, my dear.

Thanks,
Your (highly amused, yet somewhat aggravated) mother

the rumor is true.

no no, not the rumor that I'm "with child" again. Oh dear Lord, that would seriously make me want to go and jump off of a bridge. LOVE my 2 babies, but that is plenty for this moment in time.

The rumor that is true is that I have a new obsession. Sewing. Seriously, I'm OBSESSED. I've slowly started acquiring more and more (and more... and more... and more...) fabric over the last year - year and a half. I'd make small projects here and there, but nothing huge. I mastered rag quilts and they are a nice "long term" project. But I like doing things w/ immediate results. Last weekend I completed an advent calendar for Mollie and I have to say, I'm pretty impressed. She ordered the pattern from an etsy shop and had me make it. I'll be doing one for myself and my sister this week... I had a TON of left over fabric. I'll be sure to post a picture when I make another. The only one I snapped of Mollie's was w/ my cell phone so the quality totally blows! This week I made a little toddler backpack for a friend. I used this pattern from blueprints and it was SO easy that I decided to do one for Riley! I completed hers this afternoon...

Right now I'm working on a hooded reindeer towel and washcloth. I got the original idea from the Gooseberry Patch Christmas book and found a similar pattern online. Now I'm combining the 2, improvising, and creating my own!

Oh! And I have MY ETSY shop open again!! I only have 2 things in it right now, but keep watching. I plan on updating a few times a week for right now...

Here are the backpacks:

Friend's:

Riley's:

A new project

Alright. I have a goal. I have seen some table cover playhouses that are out of this world cute. That's a BRILLIANT idea for our house. We are limited on space for toys since toys go in the kids rooms and I am not a fan of toys "homes" being in the family room. (I just can't wait for the day that we have a playroom!!).

Here is the goal... Since we're on a budget, I'm going to do this for $10 or less. That's r? ight - I'm going to build my kids a playhouse for less than $10. But I'll need everyone's help, ok? Any old flat/top sheets anyone has lying around, I need them! This may make for a very unique/colorful playhouse, but it'll be fun!

Here are some of the idea blogs...
This and that
Homemade by Jill
Sew Much Ado

Open letter to my kids

Dear Plice kids:

Sleep is your friend. The more you get, the happier we are. Ri- this means sleeping past 6 a.m. AND taking a good nap. Asher- this means really trying for at least 7 straight hrs. When you sleep well, your parents are a lot happier. This means you get more treats.

Just an FYI,

Your.tired.mom.who.cannot.afford.to.sleep.through.her.alarm.again.and.go.to.work.looking like.a.hot.mess.again.

This is the letter I wrote to my kids on Facebook last night. Surprisingly, they listened. Asher slept 7 straight hours and Riley woke up at 6:25. While Asher eating at 5:30 COMPLETELY threw off our morning, it was nice to get that much sleep consecutively. Also, 6:25 is still far earlier than I would like for Riley, but it is certainly better than the 4:20 stunt Riley pulled Saturday.

Speaking of which... Saturday. 4:20 a.m. Riley comes BUSTING in to our room saying, "hi!!" So I get up and go put her back in bed. She kept saying, "a baby. A baby. A baby." So I go searching for her baby. Nowhere to be found, of course. So I find another baby she likes. That only half way satisfied her. I'm pretty sure she didn't really sleep much between then and 6:45 when she refused to get back in bed. At least she took a good nap and then we had her party that afternoon. My baby is 2. Holy cow.

The birthday girl eating her cupcake

Asher's first LU football game (yes, I made that carseat cover. I'll finish the canopy as soon as I have 5 minutes to breath)

Who could ever be mad at that cute smile? (please excuse the blurriness, I was snapping the picture as fast as possible)

I shave

So Riley has not a lot of words that are understood by an average human being. She talks and talks... just not in English. She actually is scheduled for a speech evaluation next Friday. Of course, she has started saying a bunch of new words in the past few days. I'm sure she'll rattle off all kinds of words next Friday and make me look even more looney than I already do.

So anyways... I was giving her a bath a few nights ago. I turned to grab something and when I looked back, she was standing and grabbing my razor. Mind you, she hardly ever stands in the tub (she's scared) and the razor is, in fact, on a shelf that she typically cannot reach. So as she does that, she throws her other arm up in the air and acts like she is about to put the razor to it and proclaims, "I SHAVE!". She did this as I was reaching to grab the sharp object from her. I said, "Um, no. You don't even talk, so no, you do NOT shave." She looked at me like I was nuts for taking it from her. I'm so mean to not let my 2 yr old play with razors.

Or maybe she was trying to tell me that I need to shave... whatever.