It's amazing what accessories can do.

4



tiny

elastics.

In my eyes, she looks like a completely different little girl. I can't believe in just a few monhts she will be 2!

Happy 90th birthday Grandma!!!

Here's the news story. We love you, and I am so glad that we were able to be there for your birthday party!

z's first panties

z's first panties
Originally uploaded by mom2rays

We are entering into more formal stages of potty learning. Z has been telling us for a long time when she needs to go on and off because we practice elimination communication and she is very aware of her body's function.
I decided it was time to get a little more serious about it and got her some panties. She LOVES to wear them, but has to stay dry to keep them on! Any accidents and it's back to the dipes.

You want an update?

homeschool
Originally uploaded by mom2rays

Things have been busy for us here lately. With school kicking off, and the new routines and activities associated with it. Zuri is loving school too. We do preschool activites and she is learning matching colors, her ABC's, and how to put various manipulatives into order.
We are now also a part of a homeschool co-op for Charmie's curriculum, but Mardie and Zuri benefit from having children their age as well.
No updates on the lake property, it sits, unvisited, no time.
No updates on our home other than redoing the living room to accomodate the homeschool. I like how the kids each have their own desk/area to work.
Other than that, I am crafting as usual, but nothing major to speak of.

Sisters (edited)

Sisters (edited)
Originally uploaded by zzwhitejd

pic taken on Sunday at Janet's 40th party and also Janet and Colin's going away party. . . I miss them already. They just arrived in Seattle today.

Crepes! mmmmm, mmmm, good

My sister recently took me for a treat to a new eats place at our local mall. They make crepes. Saturday night I took Rocky, and it was yummy goodness all over again.
So today I decided to follow my sister's footsteps and try to recreate the crepes at home.
Here's my finished product.

I made apple and cinnamon filling. Thanks mommy for peeling and cutting up the apples for me earlier!

Here's the crepes cooking!

Here's the batter and hot pan

Overall this wasn't too much more labor intensive over pancakes, but they tasted more like a treat. I want a gridle now and I need to get a long skinny spatula!

Riding Lessons

Rocky and the kids, of course the boys need no lessons. . . all of the guys are giving baby girl lessons, but she was doing pretty good holding her own!

What happens when I do devotions and leave the 6 and 4 year old to watch the baby. . .

I have no other words.

Knitting bag?

I am a gal who loves bags and shoes, but with being a stay at home mommy I don't have need or a budget for a ton of them. I did get excited though about Hip Mountain Mama's giveaway for an Off Hand Designs Fiona Tote in Foliage print.
I have been a big fan of their bags ever since I spyed a Tonya bag in a knitting magazine. I cannot afford one, ever, so I just look and admire and think they are pretty. . . all the while dreaming that one day, maybe just maybe something crazy will happen like I win one. . .
Suzy has a really cool site with items for both parenting and knitting. Just up my alley!

Baby girl gets her own room

It's almost completely finished. We have taken my craft room this week from full of yarn, fabric, fiber, patterns, tools, machines, etc. to this:

After dragging everything out we painted the walls a pretty purple. Rocky found cool Ikea storage shelves on craigslist so we went and picked them up. And lookee, EVERYTHING fits!

Not all of my stash/supplies left the closet, but much of it did and now Z's clothes, shoes and blankets fit nicely in here.

And today we finished the bed. I've never refinished furniture before. This was my bed from when I was a toddler until I was close to 8 I think. It had a dark stain finish and a cat decopage on the footboard. Very vintage, very retro, very icky after being in storage for 20+years.
It's a youth bed. Bigger than a crib/toddler smaller than a twin. We had painted it white and used it for the boys nursery from when M was born. I didn't want white for Zuri and the boys had been rough on the finish so it was going to need some touching up anyway so I stripped it down to the bare wood. Hours of stripping, sanding, peeling, picking, etc. later and a coat of satin poly finish and voila. The beautiful Cherry bed comes to life!

Now we just need to get her bedding, hang a few wall decorations and the window treatment and her room will be complete!

The day has come. . .

for Zuri to get her own bedroom. . . we knew this day would come and it crept up on us. We've been avoiding doing anything about it, but today we started making it happen.
Several major areas in our home were disrupted in the attempts and at the end of the day only part of her room is cleared. I won't show you her room yet since it's not done, but here's where 1/2 the stuff went that was in there. My new sewing area is 1/2 of the bonus room. It will be an adjustment to be sewing upstairs and have much of my supplies still downstairs. We have discussed some remedies but until we can get Zuri into her room, and settled, this is how it will be. This is not the permanent solution. Our plans are to still construct a 2nd bonus room for my crafting room. For now I am pleased with how it has worked out with the space we had. It beats the alternative of having to pack it all away!
The plus side is that I can attempt to sew while the kids are playing sometimes too!