Pictures from this past week

Oakhaven Design SAL - completed!!

LizzieKate's Drama Queen for Katie and Marie. I was stitching the one for Marie when Katie asked if I'd make one for her. Now to finish them both!

Peace, Love and a Cure (LizzieKate)

I also was able to finally start my Monopoly SAL. I cheated a bit; didn't bother pulling all the thread needed, only what I needed for the first page. I didn't want to have to wait until I made a trip to Michael's to be able to start.

What a busy week I had! I stitched most of this, dealt with a sick little one, and still did all the cleaning and running around, not to mention the mounds of laundry that are a normal fixture in this house. I didn't get to do any walking but Katie and I did work on her ABC's and some numbers so I call the week a success! I'm also wanting to start a chart by Little House Needleworks called The Bookshelf. I went a little overboard (for me, at least) and purchased some LizzieKate and LHN charts this month. I haven't purchased new charts/booklets in over 20 years so the little bit I spent made me feel so guitly. (But not guilty enough to stop myself as you can see LOL) I'm now saving up a little bit more so I can do another purchase but this time from Tonia at OakHaven Designs. She's has some great charts and I've been drooling over them for a while. I can't wait to get those and add them to my start list. Hmmm, perhaps it's time to also look back at my starts that have been sitting forever and pick them back up too.

This past weekend was pretty nice at least on Sunday. We were able to get outside with them yesterday afternoon for some much needed running around and play time. Ryan and Logan enjoyed climbing the ladder and sliding on the slide, while the girls ran around playing with the frisbees and the baseball (plastic thank goodness!). DH and I played frisbee while we chased them all around and at one point I was holding Ryan and throwing the frisbee back and forth. I really need to do this a lot more as my arms are aching today. LOL Now to do this enough where I can actually lose weight. No go with the weight loss but I will make myself walk this week and play outside more so that I can get some exercise. I just want to lose inches so my clothes fit or so I can get new ones when they are too big for me. LOL

Don't forget April is Autism Awareness month. If you don't know much about it, just give me a shout and I'll be happy to give you some information about this issue. Logan is six, almost seven and was diagnosed right before he turned three. He's a great kid and finally communicating enough to where we can understand him. What a great milestone! Now, if we can just get him potty trained! LOL

November finished!

I loved doing this one. I stopped and started a lot but it was easy to do so. One more to go and I'm done with the entire SAL. I can't believe it! Woo Hoo! I'm going to finish a SAL right along with most of them Yeah!!

I finished the November piece late yesterday afternoon and still found time to start a small project that I'd been admiring and finally ordered. Sharon did the Drama Queen pattern from Lizzie*Kate for her daughter and I loved it! I knew I had to have it and do it for my girls. I've changed some of the colors a bit because Marie loves purple so I went with more of a purple color scheme for hers. I will have to add something for Katie as she's technically still "in training" and hers will be in pinks and lots of it. I guess I could make one for me but it would have to say something like "I put the Queen in Drama Queen!" LOL

Today didn't start off on a good note but I think we're settled down now and it will turn around by the end of the day. Marie woke up not feeling well and thankfully my Mommy radar was on overload. I kept her home with the stipulation that if she started feeling better by the time we took Ryan to school that I would drop her off then. She's home for the day with some kind of stomach bug. Thankfully I believe she's feeling better because she just asked for some soup and said her stomach is growling so loud she can't hear anything else! That is a good sign; thank goodness!

Logan has been sleeping in his big boy bed for two weeks straight now! Woo Hoo!!! If I had known that all it would take is for us to get rid of that stupid sofa, I'd have trashed it myself and threw it out the door months/years ago! Now, if I can just get him to go back to sleeping all the way through the night. The past three nights he's woken up in the middle of the night screaming and punching. The only way to settle him is to snuggle and tickle when he starts the screaming. He eventually falls asleep but boy, that sure does take the sleep out of a good night's sleep. LOL

Katie and Ryan are both doing great this week. Katie had a little stomach bug or something last week but is all better. Ryan's over his nasty stuff too now, so once Marie gets back to normal all will be great in our house. (Keeping fingers and toes crossed that no one else gets sick for a little while!) Spring break is just around the corner so I hope that they are all better and don't get anything else so we can have some fun out in the sun. I will be breaking out the water slides again and I think we'll be able to keep them out after that. I do believe once we're over this teeny tiny cooling spell that supposed to hit this week (low 70's during the day; some cooling spell right?!?!) that it will jump right into the hot summer temps. We'll be looking forward to summer vacation and weekly excursions to the beach.

Happy Spring everyone, I know, I know, it doesn't offically start until Friday but.....

September and October finally done!

I liked doing this one; had to stop and start too many times to count as the kids weren't allowing me to have any stitching time.

September was fun until I had to do the french knots. I do hate them things!

I didn't think I would ever get these two months finished. I'm so glad that I finally did though. I received November this morning and hope to start sometime today. I did the outlines last week for these two and the remaining two months so all I have to do now is stitch the actual design. Yeah!

Katie and I just got back from a nice walk around the neighborhood. She has soooo much energy. I just wish I could have 1/100th of it! She was a little pink by the time we got back and even though she wanted to keep going I thought it best to take a break for some juice (actually more water than juice but she likes it!) In about ten more minutes we are heading out back to play and sit in the sun. It's going to be a nice week with temps in the high 70's to low 80's the entire time. Don't see much rain in the forecast until this weekend so Katie and I are really going to enjoy our days!

Last Friday I got it into my head to add an insert to the child gate that we have out back to keep the kids from running off. My DH made it look so easy when he put the stupid things up last April so I thought, piece a cake, I can do this no problem. Well, let me tell you! I found out just how out of shape I really am by the time I was 1/4 of the way done with it. LOL We had two extra inserts (two panels each) and I wanted to make more room for the kids so they can run more. Katie was great and never even tried to get out and see what I was doing. She'd check on me and bring me my water but the rest of the time she'd play quietly by herself in the shade. We now have about and extra six feet of space added to our little backyard haven and the kids loved playing in it this weekend. My hands and wrists only ached for about a day but my legs ached for a lot longer. LOL Hence the walk this morning; have to start using those muscles a lot more so when I do some outside projects they don't make me pay for days for it!

Enjoy this lovely Spring day everyone!

Conversations with children

While reading some other blogs, I happened upon At the Honeysuckle Tree's post today. It got me thinking of all the cute conversations (and not so cute) that the kids have with each other and with me each day. I try to remember the cuter ones and fill DH in at the end of the day but more often than not I don't think about it again until he's gone again. I don't think I will tell him about the first one. ;)

Each day, I have to get all four up and ready to go. I have three that go to school and one that stays home with me. The older two ride the bus but the three year old is too little (Yeah, I know it's all me!) and I take him and pick him up every day.

Katie "Mommy, what did that moron do?" after I commented on another driver and their "wonderful" driving skills. Oooh that could have been SOOOOO much worse. Whew; got lucky there.

Ryan "NO! we're going THAT way!" this conversation/argument happens every SINGLE day on the way to school. Katie will say "NO! we're going THIS way!" The thing that always cracks me up about this conversation is that they are both pointing the EXACT SAME WAY. I know other drivers are wondering why I'm laughing so hard. Ohhh if they only knew.

Standing outside waiting for the bus to come for the older two the other day:
Me "Marie, did you brush your hair today?"
Marie "YES MOM!" hmmmm
Me "Are you sure you did, your hair is sticking up like you put your finger in a light socket?!"
Marie as she is combing her fingers through her hair "Yes, I did, see?!" uhhhhh
Me "You have to use a brush, NOT your fingers!" OY! I then have a brain fart; she sees me do this each and EVERY morning. I have to brush Logan's hair (with my fingers) again after we get outside to wait because he deliberately messes it up as soon as I take a brush to it. Me"uh, well, uh, just use the brush tomorrow okay honey?"

Ryan "DON'T you DARE touch that!" Huh, what the?!?!?! Okaaaay. Well, it would seem he's watched Frosty the Snowman one too many times. Katie proceeded to go right along with him and they acted out the scene where Santa and the magician have it out about the magical hat. Not just once either; they acted out this scene at least five times until Marie joined in and really got them going. I was laughing so hard by the time they got bored with it that I had to go sit down before I passed out from lack of oxygen.

Okay, this one is from way way back when Marie was about two years old. I've always been the Mom that kissed the boo boos to make them feel better. It didn't matter if it was an unwashed (yuck!) foot or finger I did it. If it was bleeding, I would clean it, bandage it and kiss it several times. Well, after this I had to draw the line. She fell and scraped her bottom and came running for me. My little angel says "MOMMEEEEEEE! I hurt my butt, will you kiss it for me?" Me "Uhhhhh, no honey I can't do that. It's fine, you don't need a kiss." Okay, I think she just grew horns, "MOMMY! KISS! MY! BUTT!" Did she do this at home where no one would hear?!?! Nooooooo, she did this (on the playground) at daycare when all the other parents were picking their kids up. It's true, no one can embarrass you the way your kids can.

A little bit of this and that...

Not much stitching got done this past week. Early in the week when I finally got my stitching mojo back, I cut my index finger while making dinner. I was trying to get that stupid plastic thingy off the potato bag and it must have had a nice sharp edge. Nice deep slice; good thing I wasn't handling the food at that point. That very same night (or should I say early morning) around 3:00 a.m. Logan woke me up needing a diaper change. OMG! I do hate middle of the night stinky diaper blow outs! LOL I was trying to open the wipes and somehow sliced my middle finger (of the same hand) on the stupid container. Oh what fun that diaper change was let me tell you!

The next day when I was awake (after a gallon of coffee as neither of us could fall back to sleep before 5:00 and I had to get up at 6:30) and ready to stitch. Hmmm, a little too sore to do it without a bandaide. You know, you really can't stitch with bandaides on your fingers because they keep snagging on the thread. Not only could I not stitch but typing was just as painful; what a crappy way to start the week! I did get to read a good book though so I guess all was not completely lost. The new novel by Stephenie Meyer called The Host was extremely good. Of course, I loved her other Twilight series so I thought why not give it a try?!?! Totally different from that series but just as entertaining.

DH was sick on top of all that fun so it's not like I would have been able to get much stitching done anyway. Poor baby never gets sick but when he does WOW! He's starting to feel almost human this week but with the weather not making up it's mind he may just end up getting it again or dealing with some really fun allergies. Stay away from the kids PLEASE!! LOL So far (knock on wood!) the kids are all doing fine, a few allergies acting up but nothing major.

Ryan is loving school and actually walking to class now. His best little buddy was out most of last week with strep throat. I have NO IDEA how he managed not to get it. Another poor little guy had the stomach flu and ended up in the hospital from dehydration. We've been there done that so I'm SO THANKFUL that stayed away from him this time. He was so happy to see Tristen this morning. He ran right over to him and sat down and started chatting at him. He'd realize that Katie and I were still there and run back for a minute for a quick hug then right back to his buddy. Too cute!

Logan lost another tooth last night. Little bugger wouldn't let me near his mouth. He'd run giggling away from me until I captured him to check out his mouth. Poor tooth fairy! Not getting the tooth again this time unless she'd like to dig for it when he decides to "release it". UGH! Second one that I was unable to snag. To be totally fair, I didn't realize he was dealing with a loose tooth because he's been fine. No major screaming fits other than the normal stuff so I had absolutely no idea it was loose. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the stupid thing was even missing. I only noticed it when he grinned at me before taking off running away from me. Hmm, that hole in his smile wasn't there a little while ago. LOL