What transpires when my crazy, OCD twin comes to town:

Ughh--I'm done--1:42am--I'm so happy, can't you tell?

5/31/10

Yes, that would be her--I mean me. There's the sane me and then the me who has crafting delusions of grandeur. Last year (after a similar, six month long OCD episode) after doing my sister Maria's wedding (see post here), I had the great idea to make her a wedding scrapbook! Since, you know, I needed another huge project to do. So I got a bunch of pictures enlarged and printed off and was going to do it, but then we got our house in Cedar City and I had to spend the next few months packing, moving, unpacking, getting ready for a baby, giving birth au naturel (French for "ouch") and then the holidays, jewelry, sewing, and house projects took over.

Anyway, so Maria's birthday was last Monday and I thought I could maybe get it done and give it to her then. There was no backing out because I'd already bought all the paper and stuff, and so began "The Project that Ate Luke's Room and Also My Brains and a Good Chunk of My Sanity."

See? Luke's in there sleeping amongst the carnage. For some reason, I like to work sitting on the floor. The aroma from the diaper pail was getting pretty ripe, though. And by the time I was kid-free to get some work done, Luke was in there trying to sleep. And he did not appreciate the light being on, nor my scrapbooking music. Not the best choice, location-wise.

My kids got to be desperate for my attention:

"Maybe if I cut a few more teeth..."
"Maybe if I get sick and need antibiotics..."
"Maybe if I stop taking naps and sleeping through the night..."
"Maybe if I play with the scissors..."
"Maybe if I get poop on my clothes or pee on the floor or front porch"
"Maybe if I go roll around in the dirt pile..."
"Maybe if I fall off the bed..."
"Maybe if I interrupt her every five minutes..."
"Maybe every two minutes would be better. Or thirty seconds."

"Maybe if I fall asleep waiting for her in a very suffocating manner..."

(Don't worry--he was fine)

In the end, I got the finishing touches done about ten minutes before I had to leave to Hurricane yesterday (almost a week after Maria's birthday) for her and my dad's birthday dinner. It took a total of three weeks and was 90 pages long--40 pages in an 8x8 book and 60 in a 12x12 book. "Oy vey!" is right. (*edit: my friend Rachelle just pointed out that 40+60= 100. Duh....well, I actually only did scrapbook 90 of the pages--the last 10 were left blank for Maria to put stuff in.)

Just have to throw this in of my nephew Nathan, who inherited his hamminess from his dad (my brother) Tyler:

Uh, that would be him in the back there. I handed the books over and was so glad.

I honestly enjoyed doing this for her (the creative parts--not so much the tiredness and the ornery kids and the mounting laundry) and am happy that I can FINALLY not have that nagging "unfinished project" feeling floating around in the back of my brain. Here's a few of the pages from the 8x8 book of Maria's bridal portraits (which me, my sister and my dad took) that I got photos of before my camera battery unceremoniously died:

Isn't she beautiful?? Now somebody please tell me not to take on any more projects for a while.

Oh, wait. I already have mending, painting, picture hanging, decorating and landscaping lined up to do???... It's a good thing I just restocked my chocolate stash.

Mecca

5/27/10

The start of summer break! So to speak.

"Summer?? No clothes required!"

5/25/10

Madelyn graduated from preschool today. Of course we were running so late that everyone was waiting just for us to arrive.....That's not MY fault, is it?

OK, it is. But anyway, we only live a block and a half away so we got there quick the kids did the cutest little program they've been rehearsing for. By the last number, "The Goodbye Song," which they sang at the end of every day, I was all choked up. I have been dreading the end of preschool because Mrs. Willden was such an amazing teacher. Thank goodness we still see her at church and around the neighborhood.

Kasia, Mya, Madelyn, Peyton, Hadley, Mrs. Willden, Stockton and Kamryn singing "The Goodbye Song"

This lady is a gem and her small preschool was the perfect fit. Madelyn has learned so much and I am so proud of her. I hope Luke gets to go there when he turns four.

This is the card Madelyn drew in and the bracelet I made for Mrs. Willden. I kinda wanted to keep it (because I obviously don't have enough jewelry...) but as Madelyn was by far the most emotional/high strung child in the class, I figured her teacher earned a little extra thanks. Oh, and see my new business cards? They're cute.

Annnd, Mister Luke turned eight months old today!

Weight: 19 lbs.
Length: 28 1/2 inches

New Skills: scooting on tummy, pulling up to a stand, shaking head (and body) "no", saying "dad-dad, dad-dad" over and over

Loves to: grab faces and hair and try to eat them, eat paper (what is it with kids and eating paper??!?), slap high chair tray, refuse to bend legs to sit in said high chair, eat strained bananas, pears and almost everything else except peas, cat nap (unless I'm holding him the whole time), chew on mom's phone, suck on wet washcloths, push the shiny blue computer button that turns the power off in the middle of mom trying to blog.

Sumo baby continues to get bigger. (Madelyn refers to his thighs as "those huge, squishy things.") He is in size 4 diapers now, eats an entire stage 2 (4 oz.) jar of fruits or veggies at one sitting and is growing out of his wardrobe. He really needs some 9-12 month clothes. See, Mark? (Needing to justify my planned Target and Old Navy trips this weekend.) He also has six teeth already. I'm not enjoying the accidental biting. Nor the crankiness. Only 14 more to go!

One day last week he figured out how to pull himself up in his playpen and crib, so we had to hurry and lower the mattresses. Of course he topples over after standing for a while. He pulled up on a chair at church and fell and hit his head on a door, and he also rolled off our bed last week. You can't take your eyes off this kid for a second!

Yesterday, Luke was scooting all across the dining room saying "dad-dad, dad-dad, dad-dad." Mark is absurdly pleased. He started out on his play mat, rolled over, and then went chasing that green balloon.

He made it pretty far. One of these days, he's going to just start crawling. He's really close to figuring it out. Mark coaches him at night.
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Which means I'm going to have to babyproof everything. Uuuuugggghhhh.

(The kids' TV faces...) We just signed up for XBox Live and can now stream Netflix "watch instantly" shows directly to our TV. It is the best thing ever! I love technology.

After several weeks of panicking and wondering what to do with Madelyn all summer (because she is a relentless whiner about how boring home life is), I finally found out where/when/how to sign her up for dance and swim lessons for a couple months. Disaster has somewhat been averted.

On with summer break!

PS. Remember how I said that warmish weather had arrived a week ago? Well, yesterday there was a half inch of snow on Mark's car in the morning. I'm filing a complaint. "Snow" and "summer break" should not belong in the same blog post.

Let's just say it's going to be an eventful week.

5-23-10

Gotta cover all my bases here:

Maria and Shay Nielson meeting Luke (3 weeks old)

Happy birthday to my sister Maria! (on Monday) Doesn't she look like she'd be the perfect little mother? Well, good thing because she's pregnant!!!!!!!!!! 12 weeks along and due December 5th. I am so stinking excited.

Happy birthday to my brother-in-law Paul! (on Tuesday) He's a classic Yoder boy: a (video/computer) gamer, fantasy geek, rock climber, surfer...goofing off is a high priority.

And happy anniversary to my mom and dad (on Thursday) and happy birthday to my dad! (on Saturday) Hopefully they can take a break from moving to have some fun.

Luke is also turning 8 months on Tuesday and Madelyn's graduating from preschool. I'd like to say we're going to party hearty all week long, but everybody has to WORK. Psh. Good wishes to you all anyway!

I can almost feel my arteries clogging...

Mmmmm.....butter

5/21/10

Not to go into raptures over pasta sauce or anything, but YUM and WOW--I am never* going back to jarred alfredo sauce again. I am perfectly content with Prego as far as tomato sauces go, but this is different. I was about to make dinner and realized I only had a half jar of alfredo, so I hopped onto trusty allrecipes.com and found this highly rated recipe. I have one for The Pasta Factory's version but can't find it. I've been meaning to try it for years--I think this one is more or less the same. I mean, how can you go wrong with these ingredients? Sigh! ♥

*OK, never say never

Quick and Easy Alfredo Sauce
by Dawn Carter at allrecipes.com

1/2 cup (one stick) butter
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
2 tsp. garlic powder
2 cups milk
6 oz. grated Parmesan cheese**
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with a wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan cheese and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly--thin with milk if cooked too long. Makes about 3 1/2 to 4 cups of sauce. Toss with hot pasta to serve.


Aaaahhhh...now I'm going to raid the fridge to see if we have any leftovers.

Spring at last?!

5/19/10

What is today, May 19th? So it's been nearly two months since "spring" started. Cedar City just got the memo. Madelyn has wasted no time starting the official swimsuit season. It was barely 70* F on Monday, but apparently that was good enough for her, so we let her fill up her empty sand box with bath water.

Here she is bossing Mark around. As usual.

Then yesterday was rainy and in the 50's (sigh) but today Madelyn had a water day at preschool AND the city waterworks crew was testing out all the fire hydrants in the neighborhood. I was about to go pick her up from school when they came and unleashed a gazillion gallons of water into the street:

Of course kids materialized out of nowhere to play in the ditches:

We had a nice sloshy walk home.

Luke was a little disappointed to be stuck in his stroller.

Madelyn has also taken a great interest in "roly polys" and collects them in bowls, where they usually perish. (And she just walked in to show me a little millipede she found...Mmm!) Oh, well...there's plenty more bugs available to be terrorized by curious 5-year old little girls.

And as for me, I think I might finally feel safe in putting all my winter clothes away. Don't tell the weatherman.

Mullings

Her shirt, the tablecloth and the chair were never the same again...

5/18/10

It occurred to me the other day why my children (and dear husband) creating grass/blood/mud/fluorescent Popsicle drips/orange juice/hot cocoa/pizza/carrot puree/poop stains turn me from Benevolent Patient Mother into Unreasonably Grouchy Mother. Because what once was a perfectly clean surface is now going to require a minimum of 3 1/2 hours of laundry cycle time (I have an ancient washer and dryer, OK???), possible overnight soaking, scrubbing at the sink, pre-treating, washing of the actual person, and of course several minutes of wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Not that I don't love cleaning up after people all the time. It's why I became a Mother in the first place.

Off to go do some laundry...

Now what?

5/16/10

My eBay venture actually netted four sales and I made* $63.64! So now I get to either:

go buy paint for my house,

buy groceries and diapers,

or put it towards a new windshield because suddenly mine has the cracks of doom snaking across it.

Decisions.........

*A relative term. Fees and shipping costs still need to be paid. Grrr.

Side Note:

5/15/10

If I end up dying from chocolate, it may be because of these.

Cush for your tush

5/12/10

Here's my latest project:

(Madelyn age 3, Jan 2008)

See those pillows?? We've had the same boring ones forever. They were gross and beat up, so thanks to my friend Brooke at All Things Thrifty (to the rescue once again), I decided to make some new covers for them. With some scraps from my fabric stash and a couple remnants from Wal-Mart, I was in business.

The whitish pillow on the left now looks like this:

Admittedly it's a little feminine looking for our living room, so I may switch the ribbon out to match my bedroom.

The tan pillow with circles looks like this:

(My technique is obviously lacking, but hey, it was my first try)

And the black pillow looks like this:

OK, so I bought this cover from Target. It's plain and I should probably embellish it somehow, but Madelyn likes it.

Anyway, I cut apart the discarded black silk cover (it was falling apart--otherwise I would have left it on its original pillow) and sewed it onto a placemat my mom gave me to make this:

The back looks like this:

The tutorial for the envelope casing is HERE. By the way, Wal-Mart sells these 12x16 inch bare pillow forms in their craft section, and they're the perfect size to cover with a placemat. Think of all the possibilities!

And this old pillow

became this:

If I can face dragging the sewing machine out again, I'll make it a little smaller to fit the pillow more snugly.

Of course what I really would have loved to do is go buy all new throw pillows, but since I can't afford to pay $15-30 a piece, these will do for now.


Oh, and if you decide to try the puckered one, which I did by twisting off 1/2 inch nubs on the underside and then sewing across them (yours will probably turn out better--I had the fabric doubled over because it was too thin), do yourself a favor and square off the raw edges FIRST before you start going crazy with the puckering. Then maybe it won't take you till 1:00 am to finish. Just saying.

And I know you've all been dying to see our wall:

Voilà. There it is.

It's big. It stands 6 1/2 feet tall and I don't know how many feet long. When I look at it, I try not to notice all the $$ signs etched into the mortar.

You can see the top of Madelyn's head there at the bottom. I kept finding her outside watching the wall being built. She would hang out on an overturned bucket or on top of our big, black garbage bin "So I can see what's going on." Eventually we'll build another gate so the whole backyard will be closed in. It's going to put a serious cramp in her style, but will at least keep the coyotes out.

No, we don't really have coyotes. But if we could keep the neighbor's dog from pooping on our front lawn, that would be really be something.