S'mores

For our class activity on Tuesday, I had my Laurels over to roast marshmallows and make s'mores. (We had a wonderful time and need to do it again!) The kiddos were out for the beginning and thought that was pretty cool. "Auntie Rachel" (one of the super leaders) thought Bryson needed a marshmallow. He loved it at first... then he wasn't quite sure what to think!After Hannah went in and went to bed, she pulled her blinds up and banged on her window over and over again to get our attention. (Nic was in the shower!) She loves "my girls" and longed to be out there with us.

Helping

Bryson was splashing in the pizza sauce and Hannah was eating it!

What good helpers!
(Looks delicious, doesn't it?! Ahhhh!)

Recipe Binders

I'm ready to report on my recipe binders! They've been a lot of work, but I'm really excited about how they have turned out. I've used them as is a couple of times and I think they will be really functional... that's the true test!I used a free download for the spine and front from PrudentBaby.com I made my own tabs. Then used some of the recipe dividers from ControllingMyChaos.com and also created some of my own.My old system was 4x6 cards, so I have picture holders for those cards and sheet protectors for all my other recipes. I'm hoping this will be a simple way to keep things organized because I can put recipes in straight from a magazine or after printing them off the computer.Whew! I'm getting organized one step at a time!
(I'm always looking for tips!)

Prepared NOT Scared and my Love File

Remember a little while ago when I said I wanted to make

some "organize my life" binders?!

I have been working on my Love File!
(aka Family Emergency Binder, aka Vital Records)

And I have been so, so excited to share this with you...
(thanks to my wonderful friend, Molly, who told me about an awesome blog!)

As a ward we have talked about a "Love File" in the past, a place to collect and store all your important documents, account information, etc. I wrote some things down but never put the binder together. It just seemed so overwhelming and I didn't know where to start or how to organize it.

Well...

There is a fabulous blog called Prepared NOT Scared that has a Vital Records binder all set up! You can download the pdf files and print! The lady who put this together is amazing! It is very user friendly and organized.

There is a table of contents, sections dividers, and tabs.Then there is a post once a week about a specific section. She includes pdf files for the section that can be filled out and talks about what needs to be gathered.How wonderful is that?!
Okay, so there is still a lot to be done!
I need to get filling out all these blank pages that are in my binder and get gathering our important documents...
But...
WOW!
This is wonderful!

Phone Number Song

Hannah knows Nic's cell phone number really well (or "cellephone" as Hannah says). So I thought it was about time she learned the home number. I searched for a song to help her learn it and finally found this one. We needed one with the area code too. Anyway, I thought I'd share. I woke up to Hannah singing it this morning. She's got it down!

(There are parts for the teacher/parent and then the child. We usually sing it all together.)

To the tune of Farmer in the Dell
Teacher/Parent:

How do you phone home?
How do you phone home?
When you want to call your house,
how do you phone home?

Child:

000-000-0000
(insert your home number here)
That's how I phone home!

Mother's Day 2010

I had a wonderful mothers day.
No meetings before church, no meetings after church!
Got a super fun present from Nic (picture later).
Breakfast by Nic and Hannah.
A cute homemade card from Hannah (which I just might have helped make.)The priesthood took over all our teaching responsibilities, so I got to attend Relief Society.
I took a quick nap after church, a first in a long, long time!
Got a picture, flower, and card with questions Hannah answered, from the Primary activity. (What a treasure!)Went to the cemetery to send Nic's mom our love and give her flowers.Ate dinner with my parents and grandparents.
Gave my mom her homemade mother's day gift.Hannah gave her cute cards.Went to Nic's parents to wish Nic's step-mom a happy mother's day and give her our homemade gift. (These aprons were a really fun project! Notice the rick rack.)Then we came home and crashed.
And put our kiddos in bed, grateful to be a mom and to have such wonderful moms in our lives!

chairs

This is a regular thing at our house... and yes, the chairs are now usually up!

We'll let the pictures tell the story:

Mary Had a Little Jam

My parents gave the kids a super cute book for Christmas, Mary Had a Little Jam and other Silly Rhymes by Bruce Lansky, illustrated by Stephen Carpenter. It is a silly book with cute pictures full of nursery rhymes that are changed up. So cute... but the best part about it was that came with a "book on tape" (well, CD), personally made by Grandpa Art (my dad)!Hannah has loved listening to it over and over and over again. She giggles and laughs at all of Grandpa's funny voices and his laughs! We love it!

One Project Down, Organize Life Binders To Go

First, I have a "Ta Da!" to show you!
Our linen closet in our master bathroom, before:That top shelf is full of all our extras: lotions I don't use very often and storage of our extra shampoos, soap, contact solution, etc. So I organized them (some things like all the dental care stuff is in a smaller container), stowed all that stuff away in these cute bins and put it up a little higher, since we don't need it everyday. I'm excited with the result!Although I'm still working on various other things (like under the sinks and my makeup drawers! Eeek! ) I have to ask advice for another project... well, this one is actually multiple big projects. I would like to make some "organize my life binders!"

Here are the binders I want to put together:

1. Recipes. I have lots of recipes I have printed off the internet or that have been emailed to me. I need to get them organized
   
2. Love File. Something our ward has talked about in the past. It will have important family information such as important phone numbers, family emergency plan, property info, life insurance, will...
3. Scripture Stories. I had a friend ask me for some ideas of how to share one scripture story at a time to her toddler and then be able to share that story over and over. She really got me thinking. I'd like to make a binder with flannel board stories, FHE lessons, games, etc that have to do with specific scripture stories.
4. Idea Book. Just a place I can stick pictures I see in a magazine or that I print off a blog for decorating... or whatever.
5. Projects and Patterns. All those free patterns and projects I find online. A place for my pattern from making quilts and hair bows to aprons.
6. House of Order Binder. Homemaking skills such as menu planning, cleaning schedule, organization tips, food storage info, gardening... (This may need to be more than one!)

I'd love to hear any of your tips or resources about putting these together!

Hannah's New Red Hot Bike

Hannah is helping with this post. Here is what she wants to say,

Hannah: I ride my bike today.
Me: What do you want to tell people about your bike.
H: I have a new bike. I want to show Daddy my new bike.
M: What does your bike look like?
H: It looks like a squeezy horn, and its red, and I don't know.
M: What else about your bike?
H: That's all, I think?
M: Tell us something about riding it.
H: I feld off. I went to the mail with my mom on that red bike. Um, and, I had fun riding.
(And I don't want to write that anymore.)
Hannah had a primary activity today and while she was gone Bry and I went to a couple garage sales. I found a cute (but old) red little bike for $5. It has training wheels on it already. I thought it was perfect! She'll probably only use this little bike for one summer, so I didn't want it to be pink... Bryson will need to use it too. (She can get a girly one for when she'll ride it longer.)One of the funnest things about the bike is this fun horn!The tires still need to be pumped up but we went on a stroll around the block. Hannah needed a few pushes to keep going and fell a few times, but she did great. Here she goes:

Skirts

I was going to do a skirt post... um, let's see...4 months ago or so. I made 6 of them for my sister, Jenny's reception... but seeing as I haven't even posted pictures from her wedding yet, still not sure I should be posting this! (Sorry Jenny! I'll play catchup soon from that crazy, crazy CRAZY busy... and fun time.)

I volunteered to make matching skirts for all the nieces for my sisters wedding. Her colors were sage-ish and eggplant. (My mom found the cute ties for the boys... maybe I can attempt ties for the next one :) I had actually never made kid's skirts before but was really excited to try. It took a long time! With the first one, there was definitely a learning curve. Then I figured out a few things to help move the process along, but it still took many, many hours. However, I loved the result.I think the girls felt so special in there twirly, wedding skirts!

So the reason for the post now... I recently made a fun spring/summer skirt for Hannah using the same pattern. I have used a tutorial on a friends blog as my foundation for all these skirts. (She did a great job thinking of the details. Thanks Breanne!) I did make changes along the way. (I didn't use fat quarters for the wedding skirts and needed to make several adjustments for all the different sizes.) There's also a few great gathering methods I've recently learned. (One here at Gracie Lou's site. LOVE that place!)

So here's my cute Hannah in her special skirt!
I am loving sewing and have all sorts of projects I'm either in the midst of or are on my list. I just wish I could afford all the darling fabric I wanted from Gracie Lous!

PS. Notice Hannah's cute curly hair? Did you ever do rag curlers when you were a kid? Or up at girls camp, like me?! My sister, Ashely, recently reminded me of that, by using socks! Here's her sock hair post. I put socks in Hannah's hair Saturday night after her bath. She thought it was so funny; however she was a little worried that she would be going to church with socks in her hair! She also wasn't quite sure about sleeping on them for a second, but again thought it was pretty special! We'll definitely be doing it again soon.