Rainy Day Fun

Have you ever seen these things- they're called Emergency Blankets. In case you get stranded somewhere you pull out this tiny little pouch and unfold this large "blanket" that pretty much looks like a giant piece of tin foil, and it keeps you warm . Mike found this one this morning while looking for something else so he gave it to Rowan to play with. I don't think I have ever seen one thing keep him so entertained. he ran around with it, rolled around with it, threw it in the air, even Eli thought it was fun! It does sound somewhat annoying, but I'll put up with that for the hours of uninterrupted peace I got (well some of it was still interrupted, but still). So, if you don't have one go get your kids an Emergency blanket, you can find them in the camping section at Walmart.

Since the boys were entertained, I had time to make these supercute pants for Eli. I bought this fabric months ago (it has elephants on it in case you can't tell) from the remnants bin and had no idea what to do with it, so when I came across a baby pants tutorial I thought it would be perfect! They are flannel, so they'll be great for jammies, Rowan's already requested some of his own- luckily he wants shorts, cause I don't have enough for pants for him.

Reality Check

After spending close to 1/3 of his life in college, Mike graduates in about 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS, do you know what that means? After 2 weeks, we are an unemployed family of four. I'm sort of starting to freak out just a tad, something I usually don't do. I know everything will be ok somehow, but we will not have any income coming in in TWO WEEKS!!! We knew this day was coming, but I feel like it really just snuck up on me- I know that's my own fault, but still. So we are both applying wherever we can, but honestly I don't want to go back to work right now- I don't want to leave Eli, I don't want to wake up early, get dressed, pack a lunch and leave my boys for the whole day. It's just not what I want to do right now. But I am realistic, so I am also applying for jobs, mostly part-time.

So for now we just wait and see what happens, but in the mean time, if anyone hears of an awesome job that pays decent and would let me bring my kids- let me know- OK. Thanks!

Sewing, Sewing, and more Sewing

Want to see some more of my latest projects? Check out my craft blog.

10 Months

Wow, didn't I just do his 9 month? This month Eli got another cold, he spent a week on breathing treatments (after talking to the doctor) and wasn't getting better so we had to go in. He was put on a steroid (for the breathing treatment) and got better in a few days. his doctor thinks he will probably have some of the allergy/asthma type issues I had as a child, so that pretty much sucks! As for now, we will probably start breathing treatments EVERY time he gets a cold to avoid any other issues.

In other news, he's been great. He LOVES to feed himself, and I have loosened up a lot with letting him try new foods (although no junk or french fries..). Some meals he'll let us feed him, but other times he throws a fit if he's being fed, so meal time is getting quite messy (and I'm hating the idiots who put carpet in my dining room!!).

Still just has the 2 teeth

He can stand alone- quite a bit actually, and has taken 1 step!

First Harvest

MMmmm Asparagus, one of my favorites! And who knew it actually tastes pretty good raw too!

Attention Locals: Updated

Updating to add the website, in case anyone's interested. Check it out here.
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Do you live in the Champaign-Urbana area? Are you looking for something to do this coming Friday night? How about checking out the School of Art + Design Master of Fine Arts Exhibition.

Sounds exciting doesn't it? Why do I care? In case you didn't know, my husband is in his 3rd and final year in the MFA program, so he will have work on display at the exhibit. So if you're wondering just what he really does (I know I am...) come check it out, you know you're curious.

The opening is Friday April 24th from 5-7pm, the show is up until May 3rd, but there may be food out during the opening (don't hold me to that, it may be a lie) so you should just come to that. Besides if you come to the opening then we'll actually see that you came and you'll get extra points for that! :)

So yeah, Friday night at the Krannert ART Museum from 5-7pm. There are two different Krannert's make sure you come to the right one. So come check out some art, I know at least some of it is pretty cool, I can't vouch for the other people's stuff though.

Orange for Stellan

One of my favorite blogs is My Charming Kids, today the youngest of MckMama's kids 5month old Stellan is having heart surgery. There is a VERY big following on her blog and many, many readers are wearing orange for Stellan today. I decided to have the boys in orange and send in their pic, someone is posting them to her blog during the surgery. Rowan and Eli's pic did make it on the page, but there are A LOT of pics so if you want to see them you'll have to look down pretty far. If you aren't already familiar with her blog check it out, and keep baby Stellan in your thoughts/prayers.

Apple Dumplin- A Review

Last night we went to Apple Dumplin(g?) for dinner. My mom and I had been talking about it and she called and invited us so we decided to check it out. I remembered going there as a child, but it's been 20some years so I really didn't remember it at all.

Mike asked the waitress what kind of fish the White Fish was. She said "I dunno, it's good." He mentioned some kinds of fish and she just kept saying she didn't know, a lot of people get it it, it reminded her of catfish...... I remember her even shrugging her shoulders and saying she had "no idea." Now my only experience working at a restaraunt was at Arby's in high school, but I thought it was common knowledge that if you (as the employee) can't answer the question of a customer YOU GO FIND OUT WHAT THE ANSWER IS!!!! I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but saying "I have no idea" like an idiot, doesn't seem like good business practice.

So we order our food, it was alright, except my mashed potatoes (which I had planned on sharing with Eli) had TONS of pepper on them, I couldn't even eat them, forget giving them to a baby. Eli got to discover his new love for crackers, though!

Then we are finished eating and I look at the check I notice that we got charged for Rowan's chocolate milk, that was suppose to come with his kids meal. I ask the waitress about it and she says "oh the kids meal just comes with pop." What? Now I know a lot of kids do drink pop, not mine, but when I think of a kids drink it's usually juice or milk. The kids menu said- Grilled Cheese, fries, drink- not soft drink, not pop ONLY- it said DRINK. SO why would I assume that chocolate milk is not included. I should also mention that we all ordered water (including for Rowan), and when I ordered his food I said "he would take chocolate milk, I didn't realize his meal came with a drink." So anyway, she did take it off the bill but I really don't see us going there ever again. I give it 2 thumbs down. I think we'll stick to Culver's where the chocolate milk ALWAYS comes with the kids meal!

They Never Forget

Rowan remembers everything- well at least the stuff that he doesn't need to remember at all. For a while, a few months ago, he would all the sudden remember something- like how he was going to play with his trains while I cooked dinner- YESTERDAY. So he would remember a few days later that he didn't do this and would have a huge meltdown, and since I don't have a time machine I could not stop his fit. I think I've gotten pretty good at avoiding this and he hasn't had too many of these meltdowns in a while.

Last night, right after supper, he said he wanted a muffin for his bedtime snack. We both forgot, he brushed his teeth, read books and went to bed. It crossed my mind right before he went to bed that he didn't eat his muffin- but by that time I was ready for him to go to bed so didn't say anything. I had a brief thought that he would probably remember as soon as he was in bed, but he didn't.

1:52am he wakes up crying/whining cause his blankets fell off him. I go help him, and go back to bed.
2:16am he's crying/whining cause he's thirsty, I tell him to come get a drink of my water- back to bed
2:30am- he starts crying/whining a lot. I can't understand him, but think he is upset about his train track- I'm confused cause he didn't even play with it that day, did I step on it when I went in there? He's crying louder, I am trying to quietly yell from my bed that will fix it in the morning...... Eli is next to me and has now shifted his head on my arm, I know if I move him, he'll hear Rowan and wake up- and I don't even want to mess with that. rowan's still crying and then I realize what the probelm is- HE DIDN"T EAT A MUFFIN FOR HIS BEDTIME SNACK!!! Are you kidding me, it's 2:30 in the morning and he's crying cause he forgot to eat a muffin 5 hours earlier! Of course this continues for a while and he finally goes to sleep. He woke up cranky and whiny and one of the first things he mentioned was how he had wanted a muffin for a bedtime snack! AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Easter

As if I needed to make it so obvious that the 2nd child DOES get treated different. The above picture- yeah, that's Rowan. Eli was lucky we remembered to take a picture of him sitting in the grass holding an egg... oh the memories he'll have!! He did seem pretty happy with his egg though, he also got to try watermelon and shortcake (don't worry it was homemade- remember preservatives=BAD!) ;)

Rowan got to have 2 different egg hunts today, he didn't really seem too concerned with getting a lot of eggs. But did still have a good time.

Those big eggs are hollow (so sad..)

getting 9 kids in a picture(6 were 5yrs and under) wasn't too hard




Above pics at Mike's family, then we headed for desert at my Aunt's and some more egg finding

Yeah we found eggs!!

Issues

My computer is having issues. I don't know if it's the computer or the internet, but something is not right. Pages never load, or just load EXTREMELY slow. We get the "Internet Explorer cannot display web page...." almost every other time we try to open a page. It is driving me absolutely insane, and hoepfully won't end with me throwing the computer out the window it sits in front of- this has crossed my mind way too many times. A 10second email check turns into a 20 minute constant refreshing and restarting of the page.
AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So if anyone has any ideas as to why this could be happening and what I can do to fix it, please help!! Of course you might not even see this since the chances are good that the internet will stop working again and this won't post.

True Love- Baby Style

This is Baby.

Eli LOVES Baby!

He gets this goofy-happy look on his face everytime he sees Baby.

He crawls quickly towards Baby everytime he sees her.

Baby makes him happy!





He smothers her with lots of kisses (and chews).

(please ignore the piles of laundry, Eli was helping me fold..)

Sometimes he just loves to hold Baby.




He likes to hold Baby when he crawls.

This is the bus Baby came in.

Sometimes he opens the door and tries to put Baby in it and then gets her right back out again.

This is The Guy, aka "The Driver," Eli likes to play with The Guy too.

Sometimes it's tough to choose between The Guy and Baby.



But he always goes back to Baby again.

More Aprons and Etsy

Wow 2 posts in one day- can you believe it?! The Secret Stitch Club is once again having a giveaway for a super cute apron. Now they have an etsy shop. They are selling some of there gorgeous aprons and nursing covers. Very cute stuff, so go check it out.


Oh and while we are on the topic of etsy, my mom has a new etsy shop too. She makes some really cute candles, so check out her shop too!!


Isn't etsy amazing? I've never really checked it out before, and now I am finding so much stuff I'm pretty sure I can't live without!!

Wordless Wednesday: 1st Wagon Ride