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Month: December 2008

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas at our house and we’re not done yet. We had a nice quiet Christmas morning with the kids, then went to my mom’s house in the evening and exchanged gifts with the rest of my family. Tonight we’re heading over to my brother’s house for a meal and gift exchange with my dad his wife.

Presents and everything else aside though, what I enjoyed most about Christmas this year was just being with my family. I feel like this was the best Christmas I’ve ever had. I feel so blessed and it has been really nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy everything that I have.

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A Little Superhero Fun

When I first saw the Superhero Cape tutorial over at Puking Pastilles, I knew I had to make one. Actually, I had to make two – one for my own son and one for my nephew. If one of them gets something, the other one inevitably has to have the same thing. With my nephew’s 4th birthday coming up, I thought it would be the perfect gift. He’s very much into superheros right now and the Superman/Batman combination was just perfect for him.

As it turns out, it was a really good thing I decided to make two of them because the first one (which I kept for my son) did not turn out nearly as well as the second (which I gave to my nephew).

Superhero Cape

He was quite excited when he first saw it and wanted to try it on right away. The size turned out just perfect. I wanted it long enough that he could play with it for a few years without outgrowing it, but didn’t want it to be touching the ground.

Superhero Cape

I think my nephew has been having fun with his superhero cape, though Zach has barely touched his. He’s a little more into race cars right now but I guess at least it will be there when he’s ready for it.

The best part of it though is that I really enjoyed giving a handmade gift. It just feels better to give something that I’ve put my heart into.

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Fun in the Snow

Every year when the middle of December hits we get super busy at my job.  All of a sudden we’re in a rush to get the end of year bookkeeping done and packing things up to start the new year.  So, of course, this is when my children choose to get sick.  I was feeling pretty cruddy all weekend due to a head cold and sinus pressure.  Then Evie came down with a stomach bug Sunday night and Zach woke up with a stuffy head Monday morning.  Even though I hated to do it, I called in sick Monday.  With all three of us down there was just no point in trying.

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Tuesday morning we woke up to snow, which had Zach all excited.  Evie was still sick and the roads were pretty horrible so we ended up staying home again.  Zach begged all day to go play in the snow but I couldn’t send him out on his own and I didn’t want to take Evie out so he had to wait.  He was just dying to make a snowman (he’s been watching Frosty a lot!) so when Daddy finally got home I bundled him up and sent him outside.

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I couldn’t stand not taking a few pictures, so I got my biggest coat and zipped Evie up inside it with me and went out with my camera.  It was then that Hubby asked me how to make a snowman.  Growing up in South Louisiana, he doesn’t exactly have a lot of experience with that.  I tried to explain, but didn’t want to dig my own hands into the snow so we eventually gave up and found an alternative snow activity – sledding!

Sliding down the hill with Daddy

The only problem was that we don’t own a snow sled.  Hubby suggested we use the lid from the garbage can in the garage and it actually worked out great.  Zach (and Daddy) had a great time sliding down the hill in our yard.  Evie was a little jealous, but there was no way I was letting her out into the cold.  She kept twisting her head around so she could see them while I was trying to take pictures and videos of the boys.

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Hairbowpalooza

Chances are if you have a little girl you’ve seen all the adorable boutique bows available.  They’re all over Etsy.  In fact, my own cousin runs TippyToesBowtique, where she sells bows, tutus, headbands, beanies, and other cute accessories.

I’ve been waiting since Evie was born (ok, so maybe I’ve been waiting longer than that!) to have a little girl with hair that I can play with.  Seriously, I was the kid that only wanted dolls with long hair so I could style it.  I think all of my dolls and barbies had hair cuts by the time I was done with them too.

I’ve been waiting quite patiently for Evie’s hair to grow out so that I could put some adorable little bows in it and the day has finally come.  There’s not a lot of hair, but enough I can put a clip in it!

Even though we have several bows from my cousin’s shop, I decided I wanted to make a few of my own.  They look pretty simple to make and I wanted some that matched her Christmas outfits.  I picked up some cheap ribbon and alligator clips, got out the hot glue gun, and went to town.  It took me a while to figure out exactly how to put everything together, but I think my first efforts came out ok.

1st attempt at making hair bows

A couple nights later I gave it another try and came up with these:

2nd Attempt at making hair bows

So far my hair clips have gotten rave reviews.  I love being able to say that I made them myself when someone asks where I got them.

I think they turned out all right, but I do want to make some changes the next time around. For starters, I’m thinking using fabric glue instead of hot glue for some parts might reduce a little of the bulk. If anyone has any expert tips, feel free to share!

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Friday Is The New Monday

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All day yesterday I could have sworn it was Friday.  But it wasn’t.  It was Thursday and deep down I knew that.  I just wanted it to be Friday.

Today it is finally Friday and it feels like Monday.  I totally got gipped.  Fridays are supposed to be happy days.  Mondays are sucky days.  They should not be reversed for any reason.

Sigh.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat.  It’s all my fault too.  I’ve been seeing so many people complaining about being sick on Twitter this week.  I was happy because I have avoided it so far.  So much for avoidance.  Maybe I’ll just blame it on Hubby since he seems to have it too.

Then, on top of having a sore throat and head full of snot, I slipped on the ice and fell while I was carrying Evie this morning.  Fortunately I reacted instinctively and kept her from hitting the ground but it sure did scare her.  Her head was about an inch from the concrete driveway.  My knee was not so fortunate.  I’m sure it will look real pretty tomorrow when the bruising sets in.

Oh, and did I mention that I started Weight Watchers again (how many times is this now?) this week?  I thought maybe the new Momentum plan would motivate me because I really need to drop the rest of this baby weight.  Then I had peanut M&M’s for breakfast today (stess related eating much?).  Pretty sure that isn’t going to fit well into my daily points allowance.

If it seems like I’m babbling a bit here, well, I am.  I’m trying to get myself back into regular posting both here and on my craft site.  I’ve been in a bit of a blogging slump lately and I’m trying to fight it by just making myself write.  I’ve got a couple of post I’m mulling over in my mind that I’ll hopefully have a chance to write soon, but in the meantime, you can go check out what I made with a couple of hours of free time and a hot glue gun.

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Finding a Small Slice of Sanity

Santa Visit

I did two things this weekend that I haven’t done in a very long time.

  1. I slept in until 12:30 p.m.
  2. I spent three entire hours completely by myself (not counting the hours sleeping)

I actually didn’t do either of those things on purpose but I sure as heck enjoyed them!

I crawled out of bed around 8:00 Saturday morning because Evie wasn’t going to let me sleep anymore.  Just as I got to the bedroom door, Hubby was walking in and said, “Oh, I was just coming to get her so you could sleep for a while.”  After the choir of angels stopped singing, I handed Evie off and went back to bed.  About an hour later (or so it seemed) Hubby came back with her because she needed to nurse.  He also mentioned that it was 12:30 and I might want to get up.

I’m not sure when the last time I slept that long was.  I obviously needed it, but my first thought was that I had way too much to get done and there was no way I could do it all.  We had plans to meet some friends for dinner at 4:30.  By the time I finished nursing Evie and crawled out of my stupor, it was 1:00.  By the time I fed the kids some lunch, showered, threw in a load of laundry, and bathed the kids (because I was too lazy to do it the night before) it was time for us to leave.  I didn’t accomplish a single thing that I had wanted to get done that morning.

We spent a really nice evening with friends and ended up getting home later than planned.  Between the combination of staying up late the night before and the many beers he had throughout the evening, Hubby was ready to crash early.  He took Zach to bed with him where they snuggled and watched TV for a while until they both fell sound asleep.  Evie and I snuggled on the couch for a while until she passed out.  I put her in bed, woke Hubby enough to tell him where I was going and headed to the grocery store at 10:30 p.m.

I never realized just how relaxing it is to grocery shop at 10:30 at night.  The store was nearly empty.  If it weren’t for the very talkative (and very slow) cashier, it would have been a near perfect shopping experience.  I got home around 11:30, put groceries away, cleaned up the kitchen, living room, and playroom, finished watching a movie I had started earlier, and read two chapters of my book before I heard the familiar cries of a hungry baby.

When I looked at the clock it was 2:00 a.m.  I was still wide awake but figured I should try to get some sleep so I got Evie and snuggled up with her in Zach’s bed (since he was in mine).

Even though I spent the majority of that time grocery shopping and cleaning up the house, it was probably the most relaxing three hours I’ve had in months.  I don’t think I realized just how much I need that time to myself every once in a while.  I think it is more than just having time to myself though.  I need time to myself at home where I can do exactly what I want to do and not have anyone expecting anything from me.  Even with the little amount of sleep I got that night, I felt entirely refreshed the next day.

Sunday morning we got up and took the kids to visit Santa at the mall.  I was a little worried about how Evie would react, but as it turns out Zach was the one I should have worried about.  He was totally excited and ready to see Santa until he got up there.  As soon as they started trying to take pictures he put on his grump face and refused to smile.  He wasn’t mad or upset at all, he was just refusing to smile.  The one time he accidentally cracked a smile, he covered his mouth up with his arm.  Evie, on the other hand, was a perfect little angel.  After checking out Santa’s beard for a minute she was all smiles.

After the Santa visit, Zach and his bigger cousins got to go play at Monkey Bizness while my sister, mom, and I shopped for a bit with the little kids.  All in all, it was a good but exhausting day.  There was however an extra bonus to all the craziness – Evie slept from 11:30 to 5:30 this morning which is the longest stretch she’s slept in quite a while.

The major downside is that I still haven’t managed to start making my nephew’s birthday present which was my one big goal for the weekend.  It looks like I’ll have some late nights this week working on it so I can have it ready for his birthday party next Saturday!

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