Peach's First Haircut!

We actually did this on January 20th, but I used my phone to take quick pics and I don't sync my phone to my computer very often.  Her hair was long enough to get 2 adorably wild pig-tails, but they never lasted more than a few seconds due to her protestation, so I decided the mullet needed to go...

Before

After!

As you can see, she still looks nearly bald in front (I didn't touch anything from this view).

PS. She loves brushing her teeth!

Another Pillow

I actually made this pillow cover over a month ago, but I made it at night when the lighting was bad and kept for getting to take a picture in the daylight.

I love making these pillow cases because they are SO EASY.  Next time I'll try to remember and make a tutorial of it.  Seriously- 30 minutes tops!

 The blue is it.  I saw it at American Quilting and thought it would go great in my living room (which I'm just realizing I didn't get an over all shot...) and couldn't pass up the 20% off price tag :)  However, since it is a quilting fabric, I had to do something slightly trickier, because the width was only 42" wide and I usually make covers with home fabrics (usually 54" width).  So, what did I do?  I made it wider by adding a little sumpin' sumpin' to each end that is only visible upon further inspection.

It actually makes me really happy to have the contrast.  I'm the kind of person who falls in love with a piece of clothing because of the color of the lining... which really makes no sense because nobody really sees that...

I guess for me, it's what's on the inside that counts :D

Last Week

It's been so nice not having a million things on my plate!  I've had so much fun just playing and reading stories with my children!  

The Frog has been wearing underpants all week long, which I'm really, really excited about.  Turns out, when you put underpants on little sister (just to try) all of a sudden it looks like a good idea to big brother...  

He's also discovered the "funny face"-

 Little Peach amazes me with her vocabulary increase, and will often try to repeat the last thing anybody said, just to see if she can say it.  She loves to pick out books and then come sit on my lap to read them (usually with her feet stuck between my legs). This is  picture of her pushing her "bankie" in the stroller- a favorite activity of hers. She is very particular that the blanket can't have any edges poking out beyond the seat of the stroller, it's so funny.

 The Frog loves to pretend he's a dog, and Peach loves to copy her brother, so I often get little barking children at my feet, who try to get my attention by scratching my legs.  This particular day, The Frog found a pacifier and decided he was a baby dog.  Peach found a bottle nipple and decided the same.

 My neighbor had an idea for an awesome book that they really created to market toward taiwanese school children who are learning English, but he gave one to us and my kids LOVE it.  It's an ABC book and you're supposed to glue in pictures of your own kids with the alphabet item mentioned.  Brilliant!  What kid doesn't LOVE looking at pictures of themselves!

It is THE Most requested book in my house- and I haven't even glued the pictures in yet...  I keep meaning to print out pictures to put in- most of them I will use ones we already have.  For example, A is for Apple- we have an apple tree, so plenty of kid-with-apple pics to choose from.  B is for Book- I might even use this picture for that one!  H is for "Happy Birthday"- who doesn't have at least ONE birthday shot of their children...  There are a couple pages where I might just put in my own picture- like I have a cute one of The Frog eating ice cream that I'm going to use for I.  If anyone wants to buy a copy, I think they're $12, and I can figure out how to get one to you.  The pictures are adorable and each page has a few things drawn that also starts with that letter of the alphabet.

Monster Pancakes!

One of Jay's favorite breakfasts is blueberry pancakes, so once the price of blueberries starts to fall (around now) we eat them regularly.  The Frog doesn't like having the squishy little blueberries in his pancakes (though he likes blueberries separate) and so for some reason I thought I would try making a blueberry sauce (1 c blueberries + 1 t sugar on the stove.  Mash blueberries witha spoon and cook until thickened) to mix into the pancake batter I usually make.

Boy was I surprised by the result!

 That batter turned BLUE.  Much bluer than I expected.

 These are whole-wheat pancakes so I didn't think it would have as great an effect.

 Peach says "cheese" whenever I take out the camera :)

 It worked!  The Frog liked the "Monster Pancakes"!

I think they creeped Jay out though, so I probably won't make them regularly...

FHE New Year Commitment

I started another blog last September, hoping if I had to "report" my reading somehow, I would be better at reading my scriptures every day.  

WELL, it didn't really work. Turns out that having to read AND say something insightful about it

every day.

overwelmed.

BUT I have been better about having better planned Family Home Evening (FHE) on Monday nights, since the New Year started and it has been a great success- that is to say, it's been fun and a great way to talk about small gospel things that I think would help our family be more harmonious and stay close.

Today, The Frog asked me if we could have Family Home Evening tonight! :)  

For any of you who would like to start the habit, you can get some ideas from what we've done this year so far.  Keep in mind, my "lessons" are for 1 and 3 year olds.  And note that we sing "Once There Was A Snowman" for our opening song every week.  Even Peach knows how to "fall down" at the end.  (and in fact does it as soon as we start the melting part.  It's adorable!)

 Last FHE was about The Creation and we "created" some sugar cookies for a treat.  These aren't pictures from FHE but Peach earned a cookie and The Frog didn't, but he convinced her to share with him and it was just too cute not to take pictures.

If you have any FHE suggestions or activities you've done that worked great, I'd love to hear them here or on my other blog.  Thanks!

Someone needs a haircut...

Looking Back- Brief LA weekend trip

I've been so over-loaded, I never reported on our brief road-trip to CA for my niece's baptism on Saturday, January 7.

We knew we would be spending most of our time in the car, so we decided to rent a mini-van for the trip- excellent decision.  Iris got the back bench to herself and slept most of the drive.  We left Friday, about an hour after Iris got home from school and drove straight to the In-N-Out in St. George for dinner.  (where we also stopped to buy a towel at BBandB since The Frog thought he should dump an entire water bottle on his own lap...)  The kids slept until we got to Vegas and we all just crashed that night.

The next day, we dressed for the baptism, and got on the road towards LA.  We pretty much drove straight until lunch-time, where we stopped at a Chick-Fil-A in Irvine, CA which was a total SCORE because they had a much needed kids play area!  After thoroughly playing there, we headed over to the Orange County Great Park, where we were hoping to get to ride in this:

 A giant helium balloon! (does this make anyone else immediately think of "Up!"?)

 Sadly, we didn't realize you were supposed to show up early in the morning and reserve a time slot and they were full for the rest of the day, so we instead enjoyed the free merry-go-round (more than once).

Peach had fun just walking around, looking at whatever. (and there were cups and water available, which she kept wanting to fill and dump out)

 There was also this fake rock structure that a bunch of kids were climbing, including The Frog.

 I think this next one is so funny because it looks like he's posing all manly, but it was really mid-motion:

 They had really funny bike-racks :)

Funny, once we got to the baptism, not ONE picture was taken with the cousins.  LAME.  But the food and company were fantastic and it was fun to see the cousins, if only for a few hours.  Then we headed back to Vegas to stay in our same hotel room from the night before- this time driving down the strip so Iris and the kids could see it in all it's night-time glory. (while I was praying for them not to notice the scandalous bilboards and advertisements...)

Sunday we just woke up with the kids and headed home, though not without letting our kids jump on the hotel beds, of course...

We saw a D on the mountain (I forget where now... near LA area somewhere) and The Frog mentioned our hike up to the Y last August.  (I can't believe he remembers that!!)  He then said we should hike up to a J somewhere.  (Since his name starts with J)  I laughingly said, "good idea" while thinking, "oh sillly child, there is no J", but then on our way home, and not too far either, we noticed a J on a mountain!  I tried to hurry and get a shot of it before we passed... can you see it?

It was fun, if brief, but hopefully next time we'll get more time with the cousins.  We're so proud of "Beebs" for deciding to get baptized and wanted to make sure to let her know it :)