For Grandma Cutesy Cutesy

Dear Cutesy Cutesy,

We just wanted to tell you we LOVE you!

Have a beautiful day!

And from Beau...

Bekah is Tricky

"Momma, do you know that I'm tricky?

"Oh, you are? How are you tricky?"

"Well, sometimes I want a fork and sometimes i want a spoon! Aren't I tricky?!"

Yep. That's my girl. Silly is more like it. And dramatic. Whew. Let me tell you, there is drama at our house all the time.
"I can't do it! I'm TIRED!"
"I BROKE my LEG! AAHHHH!" (I don't even know what really happened, but it definately was not a broken leg.)
"I. Just. Can't. Wait. Any. Longer."
"If I see a treat I WANT a TREAT!
"Jacob keeps TALKING to me!"
"No! Don't do my hair! NOO! The knots! So many KNOTS! AAAHHH! It HURTS! No, no, no, don't SPRAY me! It's cold! No, it got in my EYE! I can't SEE! I can't see, I can't see, I can't see! NOOOOO!"
There are more, I'm sure, but it's making me tired just thinking of it.
Life just would not be the same without my Bekah. :)

Welcome Cockroaches!

Our home is not our own, it is shared with a rather rapidly growing cockroach family. (More specifically our kitchen.)

Already we have lost a radio to our cockroach friends. I guess they thought of the radio as a second home and all the while we couldn't understand how it was getting such fuzzy reception.

Another favorite vacation spot of our roachy friends is the dishwasher. I guess they like the tropical climate, and who wouldn't? After feeding on crumbs in the cabinets and stains on the floor any poor old roach just needs a few minutes in the refreshing dishwasher steam. They must have felt that our presence was a godsend, manna from the fluorescent sky.

Then the most recent cleaning of all cabinets and dishes, the spraying with roach killer around all baseboards and behind the dishwasher and fridge, and the placement of little poisonous roach killers in inconspicuous places must have dampened their spirits a little bit. The roaches are probably shivering in their little exoskeletons (is that right?) at the cold, unwelcoming hand we have extended to them.

And now let me share with you the silver lining.

Rus hates cockroaches just slightly more than I do. And somehow he finds them more than I do and thus is more responsible for their fate than I am. He has determined that our kitchen must be spotless every night with the dishwasher running before we go to bed. Every night. And so he cleans it. Every night.

I might just blow those little cockroaches a kiss before I smoosh them next time.

What a guy, my kitchen spraying, roach killing, spotless making guy.

Beau at Four Months!

(yes, I did cut holes in the bottom of his footie pjs so that he could still wear his brace with them.)

Yep, my Beau is four months old. Time's fun when you're havin' flies! (...as my dad always says). I am in love with my little monster. He smiles at me everytime I smile at him, he is chubby and cuddly, he thinks I'm funny, and he hasn't peed on me once. Beau has reached a couple of big milestones with this four month mark...

1. He is getting two bottom teeth which makes him super drooly and a cannibal (I swear he wants to bite off my fingers.)

2. He has a closet-roll-over move. I have found him on his tummy four times in the last week, and each time even my frazzled mommy brain remembers that he started out on his back. I don't know how he does it with his big 'ol brace, but one way or another he ends up on his tummy crying into the carpet. Actually I think the brace helps him roll over. I just can't prove it. Because I never see him do it. Because he's Houdini. Or Beaudini. Or whatever.

3. His doctor has declared his feet "beautiful" and says that he only has two more weeks of wearing his brace full time. In two weeks he'll only have to wear it during naps and nighttime. HOORAY! I was stunned when she told me that, I had no idea we were this close. I guess Santa's going to bring Beau shoes for Christmas! Real shoes!

Other little known facts about Beau are:

He loves his bumbo (his little blue seat that helps him sit up)

He loves Jacob. He will smile so big whenever his brother pays him any attention. And Jacob does pay him attention. He loves Beau and is always so sweet and gentle with him. Except when he's being a lion and roaring and that brings us to the next fact...

Beau scares easily. He does not like loud noises. When Jacob roars, Beau cries. I spend a good part of my energy trying to convince Jacob to take it down an octave and not be so scary!

I guess that's about it. I love my little man and I feel blessed to have him in my home. Now, a gift for you...here's his super happy sweet cheeks smile...Enjoy!

Crafts Made to Love and Buy

Here are my leftover crafts! Browse, ooh and aah, and let me know if anything strikes your fancy! Don't feel pressured to buy anything, please. I just did this to give you the chance to buy something that you might not have fallen in love with if you didn't know it existed.

Magnet Board: $10.00
This magnet board has been a long time in the making. I try every year to come up with a kid friendly nativity for my kids. I drew the people on my computer and printed it out on magnet paper, and then cut each person out individually. Bekah loves to rearrange them all and make up stories. The set includes three wise men, Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a sheep and a shepherd. It is 6"tall by 13"wide. It has a dowel in the back to help it stand upright. I have two red boards, four boards with yellow paint around the edges, and eleven with green paint. They all have different paper (on this one it's a green paisley) and they all have yellow stars. Book Rack: $10.00
These little book racks are intended to be hung on the wall by your kid's bed so that he can put his books in them at bedtime. It is 9"tall, 12.5"wide, and 2.5"deep. It comes finished with a clear stain and I can paint a name on it if you want.

Purses: $8.00

I loved making these purses. I couldn't care less if I sold one or not. (Well, of course I'd love to sell one, but the point is I had a blast making them!)

Small signs(4"x12.5"): $10.00

Large signs (5"x30" not pictured): $15.00
Here is one of the small signs. Below is a list of the other quotes for both large and small signs. They are made out of pine, rounded over at the edges, painted, sanded, and have vinyl lettering. If you want to know what color a specific sign is, let me know.

Large

I only have a kitchen because it came with the house
He loves me, he loves me not…it doesn’t matter I’m all he’s got!
I love you more today that yesterday…Yesterday you really got on my nerves!
What happens at Grandma’s stays at Grandma’s
When the going gets tough we go to Nana’s
Grant me the patience to deal with my blessings
Some of my greatest blessings call me Grandma
Lawyers are people too…Allegedly

Small

All you need is Faith and Trust and a Little Pixie Dust
Thou Shalt Not Whine
…And she forgot all about the dishes in the kitchen sink
I smile because you’re my sister. I laugh because there’s nothing you can do about it!
Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy.
If you have no regrets, you need to get out more.
What’s so great about peace and quiet anyway?
Just take it one, gigantic, earth-shattering crisis at a time.
Climb every other mountain
Welcome to my loose interpretation of clean.

There you have it! Let me know if you want details or a different picture on anything!

Crafting is Messy

I've been meaning to show you the wild things that went on at my house over by birthday. Rus scheduled a backpacking trip that weekend with the scouts (thanks hon!), so I decided to trash the house and work on my craft show projects out in the garage with some of my friends. Tara, Taffy, and I are "Garage Moms" and we all enjoy woodworking, crafts, and new ideas. Even though our craft show was a bust (no chiles or kokopellis to sell, dangit!) we still had a good time and now we're inundated with Christmas gift ideas. So I thought I'd show you the mess I made, our craft show setup, and then I'll post all of my goodies so you can see them, love them, and want them for yourself!

Sewing central. Not too bad...

This is where the majority of the blast took place. By the way that cake was german chocolate and it was delicious! (Thanks Dad and Bekah!)

Mean mother that I am, I made everyone suffer in the squalor all the way through Sunday afternoon. "Peanut butter and honey sandwich? Oh yeah, it's right there on top of the glue gun. Next to the measuring tape and paint."

Here's our cute booth...


Good thing this only happens once a year! My house couldn't take much more!

The Cup is Half Full

5 Wonderful Things About This Past Weekend:

1. I had my craft show on Saturday. I finished everything I needed to get done, all 24 magnet boards, 8 shelves, numerous ornaments, drawings, purses, and signs...I sold 2 magnet boards, 1 shelf, and a handful of ornaments. Anyone need Christmas gifts?
2. Beau continues to nurse really well and is chubbier than ever...Apparently I have enough in me to feed two Beau's because I had a plugged duct this weekend (and I don't mean indoor plumbing) which turned into mastitis. Fun!
3. I bought a new fancy rub-across-your-forehead thermometer this weekend....The first temperature it read was my own, a whopping 105.7 degrees. Yep, it was a cold shower and lettuce leaves for me. (You really don't want to know.) They say a temperature that high can damage your hearing. (What?)
4. Did I mention that Beau has the most beautiful smile ever?...It'll be even cuter after he's done teething. In fact I may see it more often when he's not grumpy and hurting because of the two new additions to his bottom gum line.
5. Rus is amazing. He devoted his weekend to me so I could do my craft show, and then went the extra mile when I didn't feel good on Sunday, and then stayed home today so that I could take a nap and rest up. He was patient, kind, and apparently in a nesting mood because now all my bathrooms, kitchen, playroom, and Bekah and Jacob's rooms are all clean. I married a good man.

A Spooooky Halloween!

It was all about the food at our house on Halloween. Green french toast, purple yogurt...and then bat and pumpkin sandwiches for lunch...and then mummy hot dogs, monster pudding with ghost fingers, and skeleton bones for dinner. Doesn't that sound nice and festive? Of course then my kids had to rid the mummys of their wraps, because that didn't sound good, and then the monster (pistachio) pudding didn't look so good so one little witch wouldn't even try it...At least it sounds good on paper! The rest of the day had me in and out of the house getting ready for my craft show that I had today, so needless to say it was a semi-stressful/busy day. But my "nice wootch" was super cute and my lion had a fierce roar and my puppy dog stole the show. They all made out like bandits at the ward trunk or treat and now I'm forced to eat unnecessary amounts of candy so that my kids won't eat it all themselves. I found an awesome huge witch hat that was a lot of fun so I could be a wootch with Bekah (that's how she says it). Here are some pics...

Rus hasn't quite figured out the zoom function on our camera...

My Beau Puppy. His costume was so soft, it made him even more cuddly than normal.

This was a few days before...Bekah had Beau try out her witch hat. And can I tell you, I love my bumbo seat! I think it's worth every penny because Beau loves it!

My witch with her super messy and thus still wrapped broom and her scary witch face, all dressed up for Halloween. My mom made her amazing cape. And I made her dress! Yes, sir! It's from a mens dress shirt. I found out how to do it on this amazing tutorial. Check it out! It was super fast, maybe 30 minutes if there aren't any interruptions.

Sorry for the bad pic. Really you would have been so impressed with our hodgepodge "pumpkin" patch! We had a huge zucchini (on the right), a pumpkin, and a "scrumpkin" (squash-pumpkin cross that we grew in our backyard accidentally). We had each of them eating parts of each other and dubbed it our "Vegetarian or Cannibalistic Pumpkin Patch". Super spooky!

Okay, I gotta run! More catching up to do later, I guess!