My little Artist

Craig loves to draw lately! He can find crayons, pens or markers even when they don't exist! Every time I turn around he's drawing on something. Thankfully it's mostly paper (but not always).

This is what he drew today. (all except the circle for the head.)
As he drew each thing he would tell me about it, the eyes, the nose the mouth (Eggo happy!) the hands and don't forget the 'lumpy hair!'

When he was all done he exclaimed "Eggo! Mommy mommy, Eggo draw-Ha Eggo" (I wish you could hear him say 'draw a' as in 'draw a cow' it always comes out in one breath and sounds like "draw-Ha!" so funny. Totally adorable.)

I think he did pretty darn good! Way to go little man.

P.S. for all those who don't know, he refers to himself as 'Eggo.'

It's working!

For 3 weeks now I have been going to the gym several times a week! This is something that I've always wanted to do but never had the guts to do. I am taking lots of group exercises classes and I've always been to chicken to do it by myself.

But somehow I found the courage to just make myself do it and forget about all the people staring at me. Because really who notices what everyone else is doing when they are having to follow an instructor. That takes a lot of concentration!

The first class I went to to start off my exercises routine gently was Power X. I could hardly move the rest of the week! I found out later that Power X means P90X! It was NOT a gently 'lets get started' class! I must admit I haven't found the motivation to go back to that one. I mean I'm not in shape, AT ALL and I was doing push-ups with my feet on a chair and my hands on dumbbells! I was holding myself in a push up/plank position and walking across the floor moving only my hands and ankles! I was JUMPING clear from a full squat as high as I could with a half turn and then returning to the squat, over and over and over and over! In short I almost died!

Who knows I might be able to do it again but as an intro... it was a bit much. Anyways I've been having tons of fun trying new things and feeling like I am actually doing something about being fit instead of just feeling depressed and WISHING that I was doing something. It's gives me a great sense of accomplishment to be DOING something.

I'm usually one of those people who says:

"Ready.... Aim.... Aim.... Aim.... Aim...."

or worse yet

"Ready... Shoot! (Aim.)"

I've even been able to go with people I know sometimes and that makes it so much better! So if you're ever wanting to go to the gym I'd love some company! I don't have an established routine yet because I've been trying a bunch of different classes but I try to do something just about every day. So don't be shy, I'd love the company.

Fun With Pictures

A while ago I took pictures of this family. (O.K. so it was more than just a while ago, more like a few months ago.) Anyways, I finally stopped being a slacker and did something with them. It was lots of fun.

I'm not sure why but it seems like I can never get around to editing the pictures I take for a VERY long time. It's not that I don't like doing it, it's just that, well I guess I just get distracted! Such is life. Sorry if you end up waiting on me! :) Just keep giving me friendly reminders and eventually it will get done.

Me time

We've decided lately that I need to spend a little (OK a LOT) more time being a mommy and doing mommy things, around the house things, pursuing some of my interests and mostly spending time with Craig instead of sending him out to by raised by my parents and 9 year old sisters. They have been sweet to help with him and it has been a great blessing to get our little business up and going and help the group effort of providing for our families.

But now it's time to step back and spend more time as a mom, not a provider. So as a result of that Craig helped me with some projects today:

I've been wanting to do this for a long time and just never had the time. Today we made time.

This is my travel size wipes case and I covered it with material. I was surprised how well it turned out (even if I didn't have anything but scraps to work with). You can't use the little pop open window, but half the time I had to open the whole thing anyway. I ran out of glue half way through so we had to make a trip to the store.

The fabric and stuff up there were just scraps that I had laying around I was just trying it out but I wasn't just thrilled with how cute it was. But it was the best I could do with my limited supplies.

Well my dear sweet husband came with me to get the glue and then while I carried around a sleeping Craig he picked out the necessary supplies to make this next one:

{ Which I absolutely LOVE }

Front

Back

I know it's not very boyish. And no we're not having a girl. We just decided that I'm out numbered by the boys over here and I needed something that I would have fun carrying around and that made me feel happy. (K.C. decided this for me. Isn't he awesome? And I have to say he did a fabulous job of picking the stuff out.)

Now I have one that is more for boys and one that is just for me.
It was fun to make.

My next project is going to be a bag/carrying devise to hold this and some diapers. I've made some before that were like 'diapees and wipees' but I made them too skinny and everything doesn't quite fit. So we'll see where my my next innovation takes me.

Big Boy Bed

Last night was Craig's first night in a big boy bed. We went from this: (OK so I was going to put a picture of Craig's crib here, but, well. I don't have one. I thought for sure in the almost 2 years that we've had it I would have taken a picture of it! Not a one! (and yes that means I went through just about everyone of them!)

So here's the best we've got. You can see some of the rail in the back and the skirt! I could take a picture of the empty frame but there's not even a mattress in it right now.

I thought it was kinda cute that the only pictures I could find with the crib in it were ones with him praying! He's such a cute little kid!

Craig's new big boy bed!!!
Fort by day (on the top) bed by night (bottom)

LIES! All of it!

I WISH that was his new bed! And I think that eventually we will work towards making one like it. But the truth is this: His crib was just not safe for him to sleep in anymore. The side would fall down quite easily and then it was only about, oh lets see, waist high!

He climbs all over everything now and I was just sure that he would fall out of his crib. Also it was a $20 yard sale crib to begin with, we were blessed to have it but it's missing some of the springs on the bottom that hold the mattress and all of the joints are starting to get more rickety.

We thought about getting a new one but really that would be ridiculous because he wouldn't use it for that much longer anyways and then we'd have to get a bed still.

The other dilemma: Due to our current financial situation we simply can not afford a bed. Even if we were to make it.

So the solution:

Craig gets to sleep on the floor.There are some pros to this I suppose.

As he's learning about sleeping on just a bed he won't get hurt if he falls off. Which we learned is very valuable because half way through the night we heard a loud 'thump' when we went to see what had happened he was way up in the corner behind the chair. The only thing we can figure is he kicked the chair and it hit the wall.

So tonight we're trying a new arrangement:

We'll see how this one works.

I would dearly love to have a real bed for him. It makes me sad to have him on the floor. I'm trying to think about the pros and stay positive but it's one of those things that I want to be able to give him the best and sometimes I can't.

But hey at least he has a mattress right? And he's certainly not going to fall 4 feet and land on his head. So I guess I can call myself a good mother for that part and not think about the rest.

My new brother!

Last night Ammon came over to borrow some of K.C.'s clothes for a dance he was headed to. He had everything figured out except what to do with his hair. You see Ammon has a unique dilemma. He has a cowlick right in the front of his forehead. 'Not too bad' you might say, 'lots of people have those.' But then you take into consideration the other 4 cowlicks on his head, coupled with the fact that his hair sticks STRAIGHT out from his head no matter what, and you have a little bit more to try to deal with.

Through the course of his life we've played with tons of different options: Letting it grow out so long that it had no choice but to lay down (this means like longer than 5 inches before your start to see results, especially in the cowlick areas.) Cutting the sides straight up and the top flat like a military hair cut (which works for the first week or so, but then it grows out more...) bull cuts, buzzes (which make his head look very round and when the hair grows out it's already formed into that nice round shape and continues to go straight out creating a bigger round shape.)...

Basically we've tried a lot. He manages to always look nice but he's constantly having a 'what do I do with this Hair?' dilemma.

So we took inspiration from K.C. (who believe it or not has a sever cowlick issue himself that we have found only one way to deal with.) - The blow drier. It takes only a few seconds to train those unruly hairs into a more manageable shape and "viola" no more hair dilemma!

So I set to work with some scissors.

This was the old brother... after 'killing his hair' as he calls it with a baseball cap and trying the 'so long it has to lay down approach.' (his hair is even in the front but the cowlick on the side makes the front part raise up higher than the other side and makes it look uneven).

And this is my new brother! With a hair cut, a little gel, and a little blow drying. It was fun to see how excited he was to see that he really did have a few more options than he thought.

Wanda Knows - Original

Episode 22: Wanda Knows Original

The Background: This is good folks, this is really good! It all started when Wanda was hanging out with some of her friends. One of the friends arrived later than the rest and she was dressed very differently with bright colors and all sorts of different articles of clothing that combined to make quite the outfit.

Friend 1 (to the new girl): "Wow that's very original... I like it."

Wanda: confused and rather loudly "oh, I think it looks kinda different"

Everyone turned to look at her, completely confused. It was then and there that she decided that she needed to figure out what the rest of the world thought 'original' meant. So she went home and asked dad.

Later... we came over and she sat me down and said "Celeste what do you think 'original' means?"

Celeste: "Well it depends on what you're referring to, but in general it means something different or new."

Wanda: "Well I know that that's what it means now, but all of my life I thought it meant something else."

Celeste: "Oh really? What?"

Wanda: "I thought it meant 'normal, or just like everybody else.' Like my black skirt it's pretty average and lots of people have one like it so I would have said 'This skirt is very original.' Your skirt is very different looking so I would say 'it's very unique.'

K.C.: "So if someone told you to do something original you'd come back with something run of the mill and totally confuse everyone."

Wanda: "Pretty much"

There ya go. Now that you all know what original really means, I hope you strive to be a little different and unique and not so original!

The rest of the story - Wanda was talking to me later again. "I still can't believe that that's what original means! It seems totally wrong to me. That's like saying sad means happy. I just can't believe it! It contradicts everything I've ever thought."