Some of my projects

So I love to sew. I'm not very good and until lately have constantly battled my sewing machine. A friend was cleaning out her grandparent house and came upon her grandmothers old machine. She, her mom and sisters are great sewers and all have very nice machines, so she passed it onto me! It's like a whole new world of sewing for me. I can bind a quilt without the thread constantly breaking and with more than a straight stitch!! I'm finally using some of the bins of fabric that have been gathering wrinkles for the past couple of years. So, here are a few baby blankets that I've finished over the last week or so. (Here's a small disclaimer: I am no expert, and still can't sew in a straight line to save me life!! But I enjoy it and it's a great stress reliever for me!)







There are 4 sister in my ward expecting right now. Only 2 of us know what we're having, the other two are leaving it for a surprise. I'm trying to get done what I want for our little guy, plus something for each of these sisters.

This is one thing off my to-do list from yesterday!

Another year older and wiser too...

So this past week I celebrated a birthday. With each birthday comes some excitement, but I think this year Bud and Emma definitely we excited. N8 bought noise blowers and balloons and the night before while I was at Enrichment baked a cake. I received some really fun things. My parents sent me a great new blender. Very practical, but since my old blender's handle had broken off and the lid had been lost, it was time for a new one! We've already had smoothies and dacaries made in it! Amy got me a great back massager, which also is a great back scratcher! One sister got me a fun tinkerbell tote and another a hershey kiss fondue pot! N8 is determined that he can't shop for me, but he has broken that by getting me a great new watch.

This week will hopefully be a little less hectic. No enrichment, no birthday. Only school, playgroup and carpool. Hopefully on Tuesday I'll get the paper lanterns I ordered and I'll post pics of those.

Some goals for the week:

• Find bedding for Bud
  
• Install paper lanterns
• Deep clean my kitchen!
• Bind new baby blanket
  
  

Ta-da!!

So here are pics from Emma's new room. There are still some final touches that need to be made. We want to put some flowers into the pink border around the top. Also, 3 paper lanterns (pink, lime, and white??) in one corner. I'm very happy with how it turned out. We've lived in our house for 3 1/2 years, finally we're getting somewhere!!

I did finish painting the stars in Buds room, but it still has farther to go then Emma's room. I also got a new set of bumper pads for the crib to match the room. Yay for ebay!! We won't have the crib until the baby is born and my parents come. My sister is passing on their old crib.

An about face...

The the getting nothing done thing has gone a little haywire!! This weekend we got lots done. We tore the carpet off our patio. Whomever thought that putting carpet right next to sprinklers obviously wasn't thinking. But after we pulled it up we found troweled on carpet glue. N8 has spent countless hours scraping and has many more to go. Once the glue is gone, we're going to paint it with nifty garage paint with fun sprinkles.

We also purchased paint for the kids rooms. Home Depot had $5 off a gallon and it was something we were planning on doing anyways. So, Tuesday I thought I would get the edging all done in Bud's room that will become Emma's room. Instead I painted the entire room!! I finished doing the touch-ups tonight! We're not quite done though, I painted it yellow and we're going to to a pink stripe around the top. Hopefully this weekend we get Emma's room that will become Bud and baby's room painted!! It will be a gray blue with sponged-stamped random stars around the top!

This weekend (well actually Labor day) we purchased a new kitchen table and chairs. We didn't go with the one pictured in the previous post. We decided to go with something we could see before buying. We got the table, 4 chairs and the bench!

I'm excited to actually get some decorating done. I am slightly addicted to HGTV, but my home doesn't show it!!

What's going on....

With life that is??? I feel like I'm totally busy, but getting absolutely nothing done! School has been in now for a week and a half. You would think with one less child for a few hours a day, I would be more productive. Now something I did get done, that took entirely too long was my family slideshow of our reunion. And they are all mailed off my family members. Now, here are something that really need to get done. I figure if i write it down maybe it will get done.

• Laundry (I actually am not behind in this, but I'm beginning to run out of clothes that fit me decent. So I have to wash certain items more fequently!),
  
• Mopping (my kitchen floor can hide a lot, so when it looks dirty, watch out!), and
  
• My poor bathrooms (my least favorite thing to do, if I ever had one thing that could be done with the snap of my fingers, it would be my bathroom.

But here are the things that might happen instead!!

• Searching the internet for the perfect carseat, stroller, basenett and crib bedding
  
• Searching the internet for the perfect kitchen table (the leg is falling off and two chair have died from ours!)
• Sewing my latest blanket

Focus Rachel focus!!!
Here's a sneak peek at some of our prospective options for the above mentioned items!

First day of schoo! First day of school!

Well kind of... So, technically today was Bud's first day of Kindergarten. On the first day here they do a parent orientation. The kids only went for an hour, the class was split in two and parents attended as well. This is a good thing, it allowed us to meet the teach and get a basic idea of how she runs her classroom. I convinced N8 that he should come with us, which I'm glad he was there. I think we're going to be very happy with Buds teacher. There are 2 other boys from church that are also in his class, so he'll know them. But, I think tomorrow it will really hit that school has begun. We do have our first homework packet and book order. I'm a total sucker for book orders!! I love children's books and you can't get better deals on kids books than in a school book order.

So, during at least the beginning of this school year we have a few things going on. We signed Bud up for soccer! We're excited about this and hope that he really enjoys it. Music makers starts in September. Emma loves music makers and I'm glad that everyone was wanting to start it back up this school year. I'm also going to do a playgroup with 3 other moms once a week. It will be a drop off play group. The kids are all about 2 1/2, Emma's going to love it! For me I hope to be able to do a little more sewing (baby blankets, burp clothes, etc!). I also want to do some fun Christmas crafts for friends and family, but will have to do them pretty early this year. And it's time to start figuring out what I'll make for Halloween costumes this year!!

Here's to a new school year!!

What TV does to children...

So unfortunately I have had less energy than I would like. The result is that my kiddos watch too much TV!! They have an interesting group of shows that they enjoy. Much more educational than the shows I used to watch when I was little. Their most favorite show to watch is "The Magic School Bus".
What a great show this is. Bud has become interested in prisms and is constantly asking if he can have a glass to shine the sun through. Yesterday he was talking about his bones and joints and how they make his body move!! Much more learning than on the Smurfs!!

Another new addition to our TV viewing that we've found is "Pinky Dinky Doo". The first time the kids watched this I wasn't really paying attention until I heard the end. Every episode concludes with a review of the 'great big fancy word' and the story line. Teaching comprehension and vocabulary right there!!

Their other fav is the new PBS Curious George.
Recently we have made a bazillion hats, eel houses, bird homes, boats, all relating to different Curious George episodes.

I'm glad that since I am a mother lacking in energy and motivation, at least I have a way for them to learn new things!!