Super Cross-Stitch Man

Posted on

My mom came for a visit last week and taught my seven year old how to cross-stitch.  She had him stitch his name onto a piece of fabric and then we made a pillow out of it.  He thought it was the best thing.  He even took it to school the next day to show it off to his teacher.  The next day he wanted to make a gift for his teacher.  We went down to the craft store and bought a simple cross-stitch pattern that he could make.  He finished it in a few days.  He is really enjoying the new projects he comes up with.  Right now he is making a gift for a friend in the shape of a super hero emblem.

Yesterday while I was making dinner I heard the boys playing their usual super hero make believe game.  There was something new this time.  Instead of Preston being Super preston he was Super Cross-stitch man.  Later he told me Super Cross-stitch man’s special power.  Apparently Super Cross-Stitch man has an invisible needle that when he cross-stitches in the air with it what ever he cross-stitches comes to life.  Then to get rid of it all you have to do is put the needle back into it.  I thought this was very creative, but I am  concerned for his safety if this gets around school.

preston-and-cross-stitch1

cross-stitch


Demolition day

Posted on

Well the highly anticipated day is here.

The house has been for a couple of weeks slowly coming down.

First Sophia pulled some of the fence down.

Then some of the light strings came off.

Pieces of the Chimney have been slowly coming off.

Now that Christmas is over I told the kids to have at it and just destroy the house.

…..

……

……..

……….

…………

……….

………

…….

….

pc280044

I let them have at it.  They have been begging me since the day we put it together.  First they ate the candy off it then they tore the chimney and fence down.  Next we took it outside (for easy clean up) and they stommped it to death.  It was great!  They even said it was the best part about making the ginger bread house (and they liked making it in the first place).  Next was nap time and Levi was in such a great mood about getting to destroy the house that he didn’t put up a fight at all about taking a nap.  I think this is definately going to be a tradition for years to come.


Ginger Bread

Posted on

Last year my sister-in- law sent us a ginger bread house kit.  The kids loved putting it together.  So this year they have been bugging me to do it again.  So I decided to make it from scratch this year.  Not sure I’ll do that again but maybe I’ll buy another kit.  I did it so the kids could have fun putting it together.  It turns out we all had fun putting it together and it was a great family activity.  Yes even Corey got involved.  Of course Sophia just wanted to eat it.  When we were done the boys had fun squirting frosting in there mouth.  It doesn’t look that fantastic but it was fun.pc120001pc120004pc120006pc120007pc120008


The dreaded phone call from school

Posted on

Its 9:30 am and I’m sitting quietly watching TV with my two youngest.  Seems to be a great morning and then the phone rings.  I look to see who might be calling and I see it’s the school.  Quickly in my mind I think okay what is wrong.  You see Preston isn’t the kind of kid to get into trouble or fights.  He might be the type to get bullied.  Many times it’s the school nurse calling to tell me he isn’t feeling well.  This is what I expect when I answer.  Instead I get human resources calling.  What!?  Apparently Preston has been telling his teacher we have no money to buy food. Again, what!?

To explain,  Last month we went over budget with trips and going out and the recent painting project.  Corey and I have been trying to stretch the budget this month to get our money to go a little farther.  So we have been putting off going to the grocery store for a week (yes a whole week).  We have run out of milk, eggs, cheese, bread. You know the basics.  It’s been kind of fun to try and think of new things to cook and see what we can do with what we have.  But in the mean time Preston isn’t getting his usuall bowl of cereal in the morning or his usual dinners like homemade pizza.  He has sandwhiches at school made with homemade bread (the poor guy).  I guess at some point he might have overheard Corey and I talking about how we can’t go shopping for food because we don’t have the money.  Meaning no money in the budget not in the bank.  This must be another reason you save these types of conversation out of children’s ear shot.

So the resource person calls and tells me that they have means available if we need help with food.  I told her thanks but we aren’t starving and are doing fine.  It’s just a misunderstanding.  Now I need to figure a way to explain this to Preston so we don’t get a repeat call.


Warm Lake

Posted on

This past week I took the kids and we went to Warm Lake Idaho.  This is my childhood camping place my family always went to.  When I was 7 my family went in and bought a cabin with my aunt and uncle.  Then when my parents moved they sold their interest to my uncle.  Now it’s just my uncle who owns it.  We haven’t been back in 11 years.  This visit was bittersweet.  I loved being back there and relaxing but it was sad to see what had happened to the forest all around the lake.  Two years ago there was a huge fire wiping out most of the forest around the surrounding mountains.  One of the days we traveled up to the summit and hiked into summit lake.  This is one of the hardest hit areas.  Also there is a picture of warm lake from the top of the summit.  You can see how the mountains are burned but the area around the lake was saved.  Also while there we went to billy rice beach on Warm Lake shore.  The kids loved swimming there so much that in the picture they aren’t happy because I’m packing them up to leave.  The other pictures are of the campground.  We stayed in the tent while my mom and dad stayed in their trailor and my brother and his family stayed in the site across from us.  For the most part it was an enjoyable week.  Maybe someday I can find a place like this that is closer to home for my family.p1010003

p1010004

p1010008p1010013p1010015

p1010005

p1010016p1010024p1010022billy-rice

p1010020

Sophia Turned 1

Posted on

A couple of weeks ago Sophia had her first birthday.  It came so quickly and she is growing so fast.  We didn’t do much but had fun anyways.  First we opened presents.  Sophia was more interested in the bags and hangers than the actual gifts but that’s expected from a one year old.  Then we ate cake.  It was nice to do a girly cake for once.  Corey didn’t think she was getting messy enough so he put some frosting on her face.  I don’t think she liked it much so I quickly wiped it off.  Hope you enjoy the pics.sophiapresents12sophiapresents21buterflycake1sophiacake12sophiacake21sophiacake31sophiacake41sophiacake51


Mischievous Sophia

Posted on

If you ever wonder why you visit a friends home and she is still in her pj’s at noon this is a perfect example of why.  I was getting ready for the day when my 3 year old runs into the bathroom and informs me that my almost one year old is making a mess.  I came out of the bathroom and into the kitchen to find her sitting in the middle of a whole box of sandwhich bags.  She sees me and procedes to hold up the empty box to show me what she has done.  I had to take some pictures to prove that it’s really difficult for any mother with young children to even take a short shower.  What my 3 year old didn’t tell me when he came running into the bathroom was that he was also making a messdownstairs.  He had taken the spray bottle (the one we use for their hair) and completely soaked the TV screen.  How do I keep my eyes on these two?  The second set of pictures is of Sophia finding a not quite so empty box of cereal that her dad left by the garbage to be taken out.  She managed to take the bag out of the box and dump it on the floor and in her lap all within a few minutes of me turning my back (I was making a salad for dinner).  Needless to say I called her dad up to clean the mess up.  He won’t be leaving a box near the garbage anymore. sophiamess01sophiamess02sophiamess03sophiamess04


Car ride to Grants Pass

Posted on

The car ride to and from Grants pass was long.  We got a DVD player for the car for Christmas.  This trip was the test to see if it was worth it.  It was great.  It kept the kids occupied and us sane.  Well worth it.  Also we would stop and make sandwhiches to eat for lunch.  Unfortunately it was most of the time to cold to eat outside so we stayed in the car.  I usually ended up with Sophia on my lap playing with the stearing wheel.  She loved it but what kid doesn’t? levicar1prestoncar1sophiecar1sophiemomcar1


The coast

Posted on

Okay I’m not the best at taking pictures and uploading for everyone to see.  We went to Grants Pass for spring break and on one of the days we decided to go to the coast.  It was wet and cold but we still enjoyed it.  So here are some pictures from then.  We have a lot more of our whole trip but that is on film and still needs to be developed and then scanned.  This this will have to do for now.levicoastcoastfamilycoastmesophiecoreysophiecoast


Snow?

Posted on

Okay yesterday we woke up to the ground coverd in snow.  Not surprising for this area but a little depressing.  Spring just isn’t coming soon enough.  Still no blossoms on the trees and tulips are just now coming out of the ground.  Well my 3 year old loves the snow. This past Christmas he asked Santa for snow.  It snowed a ton.  So everytime it snows he thinks that he was some how responsible.  Very cute.  Well yesterday he was pretty excited to see the snow on the ground.  By the end of the day it had all melted.  We were sitting at the dinner table just enjoying our meal and he suddenly turns around looks out the window and puts both fist in the air and says “OHHHH my snow is ruined!!”  He then turns around and puts his head on the table like it is the end of the world.  Corey and I just looked at each other and started to laugh.  I wish I had had the camera ready but no luck.  So sometimes snow isn’t all bad.  We just need to look at it through a three year olds eyes.