Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Day: Bonus!

With it being leap year and all, I'm going with this being the bonus day.  
Today the boys present a project on Australia for their homeschooling group.  
Cody did well with the speech part and Ty was good at point out the pictures to go along with it.  

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Day 59

Self Reliance....
The boys usually make their lunches each day, or Cody makes both of them.  Tyler is working at being able to do more of this on his own. Peanut butter sandwich, minus the jelly.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Day 58

Monkey swings...
Swing and release to work his way up the incline of the bars.  

BUSY gym today, so fun to watch the older girls flip, tumble and vault.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Day 57

Oscars...

The Momtourage started a new tradition this year by getting together to watch the Oscars.  It was a lot of fun, oohing and booing the dresses, talking about the people and films and eating some yummy food.  Awesome night.  

(Oh and I won the 2nd Best Ballot award, as in I only picked 1 winner for the whole night)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Day 56

Sewing...

Finished one of many projects today.  Check it out here.

Custom Burp Clothes...

This is the second set of burp clothes that I've done, pretty easy and super cute gift to give.  

Today's finished project...

A very important step to begin with, find your favorite Pandora station.


I like the 6 ply Gerber cloth diapers, they are soft and absorbent.
Flannel fabrics are nice because they are soft, a 1/4 yard will yield you 2-4 depending on how it's cut.  Wash and Dry all your fabric and the diapers as they will shrink a bit.  

First step is to trim the threads and iron all your fabric after washing.  

Then cut strips to fit the center section of your diapers.  
For this project I cut my strips to be 5" x 18 1/2"  
Measure your washed diapers to verify, allow for at least 1/4" roll under. 
 Once your strip is cut, press under the edges.  
Start with one of the long sides, measuring the fold to be 1/4" and iron it down. 

  Next, do the opposite long side the same way. 
 Then fold over and iron one of the short ends.  

Before you roll the other end, you need to place it and onto the diaper and size it for That diaper.  

A quick note about the diapers....
I like to sew my embellishment fabric onto this side of the diaper. 
You can see the left seam has a ridge to it.
 
I like this flat seamed side to be the back. 

So, once you've placed your fabric on to the diaper and size where the other end should be, lightly fold it over and iron the last side. 
 Add some pins to hold it in place.  The ends are important because you may need to maneuver the diaper a bit to get a clean looking edge.  2 or 3 pins are fine for the longer edges.  Do not put any pins right onto the corners as you will have to fish to get them out while sewing.
Starting on a short end, sew a straight stitch forward and back about 1/4" to lock the thread, then use a zig-zag.  Turn at your corners and continue stitching the rectangle until you meet back where you started. 
Go slow and keep the fabric/diaper taut.  I had a bit of bunching on a couple of the diapers, but even with a bit of a fold/pleat they turn out nicely.

I'm not sure if this does any good, but I like to tie a knot in the beginning and ending threads to secure them a bit more.  (Front two together, back two together)
 Done! 

I spent about 3 1/2 hours from ironing to finished sewing on these six today.  Part of that time was spent dealing with breaking a needle, a couple of thread jam issues, and trying to get through some of our laundry for the week. 

The three cute fabrics I used today...

Go forth and be crafty!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Photos

Hopefully by the end of the year (yes, I'm giving myself that much time) I'll have an awesome photo wall in my living room.  Even using cheaper IKEA frames, it all adds up. 

There are also some other photo projects to be finished up around the house.  Today's beautiful weather inspired me to get off my booty and finish one. 

I found these frames at Ikea that will be perfect for sitting in the opening between kitchen and dining room.  They are double sided so both sides can enjoy some photos!  

For the family room side, we went and took these pictures today.
I'm planning on using the color ones, each in it's own frame.  

For the kitchen side, I'm printing off some of my favorite beach photos of kids.
The kitchen has a few photos that are a beachy theme, so these will be a nice addition.






The other project is a re-do of our front bathroom. The theme will be beachy (obviously something we love)  and I want to put some framed pictures of places we've been. 





I'm excited, they are all ordered from Snapfish and will hopefully be here by the end of the week!

Day 55

Successful park date...

We finally had a successful park date today!  Yay for sunshine and friends, never mind the bit of sun burn.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Day 54

Jumping in the breeze...
It was really breezy today, but the sun was shining, so trampoline time was a must.  
Maybe someday they will start flipping and landing on their feet.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Day 53

Enjoying the Spring-Winter...
We tried again today to meet up with friends, but between the sickies and travel, it didn't happen.  But the boy enjoyed the sunshine!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Day 52

Waiting on a jet plane....
Keith went to Vegas for the VW Guild awards for service, the boys and I went to pick him up today from the airport.  We had fun sitting in the free lot, watching the planes come in. 

Monday, February 20, 2012

Day 51

President's Day dance party...
We didn't have to do school today, so we took a break and had a dance party.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Day 50

Working...
To top off our busy weekend, the boys were asked if they wanted to make a little money.   Their job was to go feed the sheep of some family friends that are out of town.  

We also took Keith to the airport to head off to Vegas for an award ceremony for a VW award that he is receiving.  It was cool to see the new airport and some airplanes up close.  
Then we hit up the LEGO store in Arden Mall, hoping we could pick up a new axle piece that was broken this week, but they didn't have it.  It was cool to see a whole store of LEGO's though.  

Phew! 

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Day 49

Something's missing...
Cody's wobbly 2nd tooth finally fell out today.  He's not all that thrilled with this whole loosing of the teeth process, but the payout isn't so bad. 

Friday, February 17, 2012

Day 48

Movie night...
Skittles and Kung Fu Panda 2 made for a good end to a busy day.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Day 47

They are trying...
to pull my out of my shi-tay mood.  

Stupid dentist appointment tomorrow has me grumpy. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Day 46

Valentine's Party...
We met with our homeschooling friends for some Valentine's fun today. 
The kids decorated bags, played bingo, passed out their Valentine's and decorated cookies.  
Sugar highs were the order of the day.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Valentine's crafty

There really wasn't a lot of crafty going on this Valentine's.  
Sad considering how many things I've pinned on Pinterest over the last month.  

Anyway, we did a couple of things.  
For the Idaho grandparents:

Our homeschooling group is having a party tomorrow, so the boys will decorate bags and exchange cards with their friends.
Tyler's
 Cody's
 
That's where the crafty stopped, as we simply bought bags and stapled these to the outside. 

Next year....

Day 45

Valentine's
The boys' morning table of Valentine's gifts and treats. 

Monday, February 13, 2012

Day 44

(Forgot my camera, so phone photo today, blah)


Moving up to the big gym...
The call came late last week that a spot opened up in the Boys level 1 class for Ty.  He has been in their Kinder classes because this class is supposed to be for 6 years and up, but his teacher recommended that he was ready to move.  We are so happy to have him out on the big floor learning the boys events, the whole reason we moved to this gym.  They worked on rings, high bar, floor, pommel hours and parallel bars (or arms, abs, and more arms). 

We were going to move him next Monday as it was bring your buddy week for Valentine's and his buddy that he wanted to bring is a girl and couldn't practice with the boys class.  Unfortunately, they emailed this morning and are flu style sick.  So Cody was able to do join in today instead.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Day 43

Shopping..
Target, bike stores, REI and a trip to IKEA to do a bit of window shopping today.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Day 42

Organized Chaos 
We worked on the toy room closet today, moving the newly Gorilla Glued shelving unit in and the older too small system out.  So far so good.  I give it two days before it's trashed. 

Friday, February 10, 2012

Day 41

Piano Lessons...
We started learning about the piano today.  Simple lesson, learning how our fingers are numbered.  
Oh boy, another adventure!