February 28

Happy Birthday to my Baby Boy Ben! Ok, so he's not so much a baby anymore. He is now 3 years old. Wow time flies.
Some things he does that crack me up :

• saying "Just a sec" while he holds up his finger.



• Sneaking outside and peeing of the back deck. (Don't know were he learned that one. But I got a pic of it this morning..but I'm not allowed to post. Text me if you want to see a cute little bum :D)



• Singing Awolnations "Not Your Fault"



• Pulling his belly skin out like stretchy skin boy



• He still calls his big brother Garrett "Gee Gee"



• When he wants something and I say, "no," he holds his hands under his chin and says,"Please, Please, Please Mommy!" with pouty lips and sparkling eyes.

He sure does keep us entertained and full of giggles. I'm so thankful for him. He really is a special miracle in my life. He is a constant reminder of how much Heavenly Father loves me and answers my prayers!

This Week of Februray

I'm sure I've blogged about this week every year that I've been blogging. The week of Presidents break for our school district. A whole 5 days off for the holiday. In my opinion... A WASTE OF TIME!!! We just had Winter Break and soon we will be having Spring break. But Whatever. Normally I go insane and the kids drive me to the nut house, but this year wasn't too bad. I slept in EVERY morning. Even to 11 one morning. It was nice. The fighting wasn't too bad. I think it had to do with Riggles being home and not working 3 out of 5 of those days.

I decided to be a 'good mom' and come up with something to do. I think last year we went bowling. But with two adults and 4 children that can get expensive. So we went on a hike up to Tiger Mountain.
There are some great 'kid trails' and one in particular about a mile long with a little story a long the way about a Raccoon and the Swamp Monster. We spent about two hours hiking along the different trails. Good exercise, fresh air and the only time the ipod came out was to take pictures.

Very Pinteresting

I've hopped on the bandwagon and started "pinning" on Pinterest.com. Fun stuff! Even Riggles has been somewhat impressed at the ideas that I have gotten. I've even tried a few of the 'pins' myself. ie Shower rod under kitchen sink to hang cleaners, tried new recipes, (one good, one not so good). And I've bought supplies and ingredients to try some more new things. Here is the project I did last week for the girls room.

I turned ugly brown closet doors into ....

Leverage. I mean.......great play time!

(I was going to make my own chalkboard paint, the big idea from Pinterest, but buying it was sooo much easier :D)

I will chalkboard the inside of the cupboard to keep my shopping list too....I just havn't got to it yet.

Today

• Today I loved how my almost three year old says milk, "mulk."


• Today I loved how I finally beat the Angry Birds Birthday level.


• Today I was grateful to realize my 6 year old daughter is not the only kid that doddle's and takes her sweet a** time to do EVERYTHING.


• Today I loved how the Holy Ghost helped me teach my 8 year old.


• Today I had a moment of amazingness when I looked at my 10 year old son and thought, "Holy Cow! I am his Mom!" (Good feeling and yet, a little intimidating.)


• Today I am glad I took some time to write about moments that made me feel grateful for my life on this earth and Heavenly Fathers wonderful plan for me.

Saturday Night Sewing

Lately I've been doing some 'firsts' for me. First loaf of bread, first canning. Last night was my first time sewing with a pattern. I have been looking around stores for skirts for my girls to wear to church. (For some reason the cute dresses in their closest are just too cute I guess.) But if you haven't noticed, stores do not sell skirts that I would want my girls to wear. TOO SHORT. And even with leggings underneath they are still SHORT SKIRTS.

While I was in Utah, I went to JoAnnes with sister #3. She helped me find patterns and pick out fabric. Three weeks later I've finally decided to brave the project.

*side note* A week ago I was looking for something in the medicine cupboard above the fridge. I opened the cupboard and something goes flying off and fell into the garbage. I tried to poke around for it, but I didn't know what fell so I couldn't find it.**

I started gathering the sewing machine, sewing box, fabric and stuff I needed to sew these skirts with. I was going to start with the black one and I went to go grab the black thread and realized that was what flew off the fridge into the garbage can the week before. So black skirt out. (Which ended up being good because I think I'm going to find a different pattern for that fabric.)

I sent the kids upstairs, turned on some tunes and got to work. I enjoyed just about all of it except the hem. What you think would be easy was a big pain in the butt!

Here are a few highlights of my 4 hour sewing night.

The cat, he sprawled out on e v e r y thing. Including the ironing board.

My work station :D

Finished product!

P.S. Don't look close because you will see crooked, messy, double stitches. But hey, from far away they are CUTE!

4 Out of 6 Ain't Bad

I got a Pressure Canner for Christmas......a year ago. Today I finally opened it up and canned my first batch of somethins. Great first experience canning if you ask me. I probably should have started with Water Bath canning but, too late for that now.
I started with 10lbs of Carrots, 6 quart Mason jars and now I have four SEALED quarts of carrots and a big mess. The other 2 jars, well, um, I don't really know what happened. My guess is loss of pressure too fast. But I am not flustered. I'm very happy that the other 4 jars all 'popped' and are sealed. I guess we'll see how they taste later. That could be a whole other story.

Oh Christmas Tree

After 7 years of rotating between two fake Christmas trees at our house, Riggles finally put on his big boy pants and led our family to a tree farm to cut down our very 1st in Washington, real, fresh, sappy, tree! Riggles has been wanting a real tree for the past few Christmas's now, but until now it was just words. I'm glad he moved into action this year. It just might be a new tradition.....depending on the year.
Picking out our tree


Everyone taking a turn to saw it down


Catching it as it falls

Carrying it down to the car


(Oops, No pics of decoration it)
And the cat has a new favorite place to nap.