2012

2012 is here & isnt stopping. time is moving on. as i type it's already January 3rd, 2012. 3 days into the New Year. That's insane! my first born son will be 5 on the 9th. it's killing me that he is growing up so fast, but man he is growing up into a sweet little guy. and so full of energy. he opened his window today without telling anyone because he wanted fresh air. he also had a batman metal sign up in his window (we have half circle windowns over the regular windows in their front bedrooms). i sat the batman sign up there to block the morning sun that comes in first thing & wakes him up. he is an early bird. well he climbed up in his bunkbed today & threw the sign in the floor because he wanted to be able to look out of his window when he laid in his bed. this is the kind of thing he does.....he puts spiderman in the dishwasher. not sure when or why, but spiderman was sitting there waiting when we unloaded it.

elizabeth received a sewing machine of her very own for christmas. it's a nice little janome with good reviews. i thought elizabeth would enjoy sewing. she tried to learn to crochet but really couldnt get past the chain stitch. she did finish her latch hook that she got for christmas last year. it took her all of 7 months but she finished it. now she can put it on a pillow herself. i dont have too!! yay me!
anyway, she got right to work - christmas day - sewing a quilt. granted the quilt was already cut out and the directions were very clear...but this girl put this rag quilt together - having never sewn before - in a week. i'm impressed. maybe you will be too after looking at her pictures. i will say it again, i'm so proud of her. i love to sew & now i have a daughter that enjoys one of my passions. God is good to give us this type of common bond to build our friendship. i'm very excited to help her with her next project!

i found a picture of a multi-sensory board for toddlers that i wanted made for levi & esther. the original builder was in finland i believe. anyway i printed off a picture and asked clay how hard it would be to make. i guess not to hard because clay made it for christmas for levi & esther (and abigail & asher like it too). anyway, i'm so proud of this board. it's probably one of my favorite little kid toys ever. and levi loves it. he loves flipping the switches & the latches. he loves pulling on the chains. esther loves using the attached key & opening the lock. their little fingers are learning how to work things. they love to open the little doors. one has a mirror & the other has a picture behind the door. we hung it on the wall by a window. its at perfect little kid height & they can look out the window & play all at the same time on cold days.
they can move the bolt from one side of the board to the other along the routed path. they can move washers up & down & count the chain links. they can learn to use the clips & clip pictures to the board. there are wing nuts on there they can screw & unscrew. so much to do...so much fun. it does keep them busy. again i love it. i did a good job coming up with the idea & clay did a good job on building it. oh & i did an outstanding job on the number & letter stickers!! ha!

ok so this morning when i was nursing levi in my bed he whipped himself about to see what clay was doing...as clay was getting ready to take a shower & getting fresh clothes out of the closet. when levi did that he poked me in the eye & scrapped the white of my eye. i couldnt open my eye. it hurt & was watering. so i put on my prescription sunglasses so i could at least see this morning. well i came out & sat on the sofa while the kids got up & started to function. and ... well i dozed off. i actually woke up as this picture was being taken. you know i dont take myself so seriously if i can put this picture on here. i told clay i looked like ray charles passed out on drugs. hope you get a laugh. and on a good note, when i woke up i could take the sunglasses off because my eye was better. and just to defend myself, i was awake by 8:45 after having been up until 2:12AM & having to get up at 5AM to feed Levi & then put him back to bed to have him back up at 7AM...when he scratched my eye. we came out into the living room by 7:30 & by 8:00 i had fallen alseep. oh well. tomorrow we start back to school - today was still a holiday.

and now for cuteness.

 

Have a Blessed New Year!