Super Saturday

Today was Super Saturday in my ward (for those of you who don't know what that it, a bunch of ladies get together once a year and make crafts while the husbands watch all the kids). I just wanted to show off what I made...

The first craft I made was a wooden plaque with vinyl lettering. I'm not super thrilled with the font of the words, but I like it enough to hang in the playroom. If you look closely, the c and h are together and look like a d. That's the way it came, I didn't do that.

This wasn't the best picture of my second project, but I love how Luke's little hands and Erin's knees are in the picture. They are "I Spy" bags. If the kids like them, I think I'll make 1 or 2 more. There's a laminated tag that lists the contents of each bag and the goal is to find them all. It's a lot harder than you think!

This was by far my favorite project. It's a magnetic board. Here's how to make it...take some sheet metal, modge podge, your choice of paper and ribbons, put them all together....viola!

It's a cute and useful magnetic board. The 4 flowers are magnets. I really want to make more, I just need to find out where to get the sheet metal.

The Boys' New Bed

I wanted to share with everyone the boys' new bed. Luke will join Howie and Jack in about 1 year when he's out of his crib. We also ordered drawers for under the bed and a tall dresser, but those are on back order until October. I'm just happy they finally have a bed and are up off the floor. Their room seems to stay cleaner that way.

I love how the bottom full size portion can be converted back to a twin size. It provides a lot of different sleeping options as our needs change over the years.

We decided on a space/rocket ship theme for their room, but we are still gathering cool items to make it awesome. I would like to hang the solar system from their ceiling, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Maybe Howard will paint when he gets home? Howie doesn't care, so we'll just wait and see.

We decided to get a full on the bottom because they love sleeping together most of the time and I thought that they would want the extra space. Boy was I wrong...Jack and Howie sleep on the twin together. I guess they like it crowded.

The Dinosaur

At Howard's request I recorded this video of Jack on the phone with Howard recently. Every time Jack gets on the phone with Howard, dinosaurs seem to come out of no where and send Jackson fleeing into his hiding spot. It's so funny. I prompted it this time, but normally I stay out of the conversation.

Playing Outside

It has been so nice lately that I decided to take Luke outside, just for his sake. We weren't out there to watch anyone else, just for him to explore a little. It was a bit breezy, so we kept it kind of short.

He hardly ever looked at me or the camera. There was always something flying around in the sky to catch his attention.

I had to be careful that he didn't eat the sand in the sandbox. I think he spent 3 minutes in it...just long enough to get some cute pictures. He'll be ready to play for real next summer.

If you look closely, you can see his lone tooth sticking out. So far I've been lucky...no biting yet. Knock on wood!

Bargain Shopping

One thing I dearly missed while in Okinawa was the Goodwill. We had a thrift store on base, but it was horribly overpriced. While out today I found several bargains, but Jack found this...new in the box. I wanted to say no since his birthday is coming up soon, but I just couldn't resist. He LOVES it!

It's so fun listening to him have the trains talk to each other. He is by far my most imaginative kid. I love listening to him talk.

He did it!

Luke started crawling today. Our house is fairly child proof, but it's so hard when Jack takes his tiny toys all over the house (single tiny legos, tiny magnets, and his play screws and bolts). I'm always trying to pick them up and tell Jack to keep his stuff upstairs away from Luke, but he just can't seem to follow directions. In our home, Polly Pocket, Barbie, legos, magnetix, and any other tiny toy live upstairs. They're not suppose to come down stairs. We have bigger more appropriate toys for downstairs in the playroom, but I guess Jack hasn't read that memo yet.

Sweet Dreams

Here's Luke's new mini crib. I love it so much and so does he! It fits perfectly in the corner of my bedroom, so he's still close. I've never had any of my other children sleep in my room this long. There are obvious pros and cons to it, but right now it works for me.

I had to special order his crib bedding online. It's heavenly soft, it feels like he's on a cloud. The sheet and bumper are made out of chenille and his new blanket is dreamy (it's like a faux fur). It's a cream color so it will match where ever we put it pretty much.

He was tossing and turning while I was taking pictures. He eventually woke up, but he's fast asleep again.

Even though it's a mini crib, there's still plenty of room. It's the same size as a portable crib, but this crib does not fold in any way and the railings are stationary. I'm SHORT (5ft even) and it's easy for me to reach in and pick him up. If anyone is tight on space and wants something sturdy and nice for their baby, but can't sacrifice the space (all my friends in Okinawa especially) then a mini crib is the way to go.

Our Saturday Morning

Saturday morning we got to work and finished our chores before noon.

The kids were a big help and were eager to help.

Howie - vacuumed, dusted, and cleaned the trash out of the van

Erin - vacuumed and dusted inside the house

Jack - stayed out of our way (VERY helpful!)

Luke - napped, watched us outside for a bit and then finally enjoyed some Baby Einstein

Mommy - tilled the front flower beds, mowed the back yard, lightly went over what the kids missed, cleaned up the back patio.

We all cleaned the outside of the van and pulled weeds together!

The older kids also took turns spending time with Luke when he got fussy.

I really love my carport...it's not hot and stuffy like a garage and it keeps my van cool even on the hottest days.

Nicely cleaned out flower beds, now I just need to get some flowers.

Any suggestions for autumn/shade flowers???

One of my favorite things about our house is that we have a tree in the front, side, and back yard! That's a LOT of shade. We get about 3/4 full shade all day long...it's great!

Luke hardly watches TV and so I was really surprised that he liked it so much this morning when I put it on. We got a digital converter box for our TV and an antenna, but it's not very good quality (probably from all those trees blocking our signal) and we don't have cable, so we mostly just watch movies when we feel like watching something. I miss AFN television so much! There's just too much junk on regular TV.

Oh So Close

Here's another video of my cutie pie...he's so darling.

Almost Crawling

Here's a video of Luke that Howard has been requesting. Enjoy!

In Love

I was going through our photos tonight and editing/deleting/labeling them and I came across this one. Howard and I were fortunate enough to have been able to go on a 6 day vacation up to Tokyo and Kyoto WITHOUT any children about a year and a half ago. We had a wonderful time and I relive it in my mind often. My dear friend Amy watched all 3 kids (when there was only 3) out of the goodness of her heart. What a sweety...I sure miss her. Anyway, the point of this post was to tell Howard how much I love and miss him. I tell him everyday on the phone, but now he knows, again.

Us in front of the Imperial Palace outer gardens

A Peak at My House

I've had some requests to show my home, but it's STILL a work in progress, so here's a peak.

Here is our dining room...I love having a separate dining room, this is my first. I also love that the back door is red, that's why I decided to reuse my old curtains (for the 3rd time), but this time I cut and re-sewed them, I also added pleats. We are currently lacking artwork or pretty things on the wall, but they will come in time when I find what I am looking for. Howard always has good input when it comes to decorating, so I'm also partly waiting on him to return. I also don't want to over do it or rush into a purchase that I might regret later. It's really hard for me to make up my mind, so I'm being patient until my mind is made up. I hope that makes sense.

This corner of my living room is done (it's a very small living room), but the others aren't quite right. I'm looking for a nice artwork to go over the couch to replace our mirror we've had for years, but I just haven't found what I'm looking for just yet. Through the pocket door shown is my dining room. The color of this room is called Nutria and is a pale green.

What a Big Boy

Luke is now 6 months old. I don't know how much he weighs, because I haven't taken him to his well baby check up yet...I will soon. He is moving around so much now, he rolls every which way and scootches backwards on is tummy. He's NEVER is the same place I leave him anymore.

He can sit for a little while with a Boppy's help, but her prefers his tummy.

Getting ready to eat yummy food

He's eating 2-3 meals a day now, and is really showing a preference for which foods he likes. Sometimes he even turns his nose up to breastfeeding and instead wants baby food. I don't like it when he does that, but it's something I'm going to have to accept whether I like it or not.

He's a side sleeper and LOVES to cuddle up to me at night. I put him to bed in his bassinet (his crib hasn't arrived in the mail yet) and he sleeps there about half the night, but he eventually ends up in my bed to eat and he ends up staying there. I LOVE it, but Howard doesn't so much, so I just have to break the habit before October. Mmmm...we'll see. Maybe Howard will want to snuggle up to him in bed when he returns and I won't have to change a thing. I can hope anyway.

First Day of School

We are fortunate to have school start so early here in Oklahoma...I have a few jealous friends, but please do not forget that my children got out of school a whole month early because of our PCS. So really, they had the normal amount of time off from school. Summer break starts before Memorial Day weekend here.

Anyway....here are a few photos the morning before school.

They picked out their own outfits.

Erin is in 1st grade and Mrs. Shepherd is her teacher. The first day didn't go very well, but I spoke with Erin's teacher this morning and I hope everything was resolved.

Howie is in 2nd grade and his teacher is Mrs. Richardson. She's been teaching long enough to have been my 2nd grade teacher.

Howie & Erin walked with their friends, Ava & David. We knew them in Washington and they played together as babies.

3 more days...

I just joined the YMCA and I've been going to their water aerobics class during the week and we've also been getting ready for school to start...haircuts, new shoes, school supplies, etc. Thursday is the big day and I think I'm more excited than the kids. That's all we've been doing, just wanted to give everyone a quick update. I've also been getting the boys room put together (in my mind at least), I've purchased everything online and now I'm just playing the waiting game for it all to arrive. We needed a dresser, bunk beds, a crib, and linens. Can't wait for it to get here. They've been sleeping on their mattress on the floor all summer and Luke is STILL in the bassinett (when he's not in bed with me).

Day at the Museum

Today we all went to the Natural History Museum in Norman, OK. (Just 30 minutes south of OKC.) It was FREE day so what a great opportunity for us to get out and explore. I went with Heather and her kids (Heather is my good friend that I knew at Fairchild AFB when we first started having babies.). Heather left after lunch with her 3 boys and I kept her daughter Ava, since she gets along so well with Howie and Erin. Luke napped in the afternoon, so that made it easy. It was much easier than going to the zoo, since it had A/C and padded benches everywhere. It was a fairly small museum, but the exhibits were well done. I really enjoyed myself. Since I have a sucky camera, these pictures don't do the exhibits justice.

Daniel, Jack, and Deacon (l-r) playing with the dinosaurs in the discovery room. I was an interactive room with a lot of hands on activities for the kids. Also, a great place to nurse Luke.

Howie and Ava

Lucas even got down and played (with my help).

The Zoo

Wednesdays are 75 cent days at the zoo this summer, and since today was cooler than normal (less than 90F is cooler than normal in July), we decided to get out of the house. It rained really hard this morning, but as soon as the sun peaked through we got in the van and left. The zoo is only a 20 minute drive away, which I'm very thankful for. We ended up only spending about 3 1/2 hours there, but we were all ready to leave by that point. It was very warm and humid (think Okinawa), we were a little crabby, and I think I could have seen more wild life at Cabelas. Most of the animals were hiding or some of the exhibits were under construction. For example, the zoo's 2 elephants are female and they're on loan to the Tulsa Zoo for about 2 years to shack up with Tulsa's male elephant to make babies. The children's zoo is under construction and won't be open until next year. We'll try to go to the zoo again next year when the children's zoo is open, Howard is with me, and it's not summer.

Proof that I took all the kids out for the day.

Proof that I exist and occasionally show up in pictures.

The following 3 pictures are to be viewed in sequence. Remember it was humid...the metal sculpture was a little slippery.

Jack slipped, bumped his face, and....

viola...a bloody nose. He didn't know he had a bloody nose when I took his picture. It wasn't gushing, so that's why I took a snapshot. We cleaned it up with a diaper wipe and were fine. He did start crying AFTER I showed him the pictures of his bloody nose.

The Shark Exhibit

At the Zoo today, the kids were really excited to visit the aquatic life section. Considering that we just came from Okinawa, and they have the WORLD'S second largest aquarium...this was just a little (I say that sarcastically) disappointing. To show an example I have posted a few pictures to prove my point.

Above, Oklahoma's shark exhibit. Fascinating! (not really)

Okinawa...I think this picture speaks for itself.

The shark model behind Howie and Erin could be divided up and you could see the insides...COOL!

There were a bunch more sharks swimming around behind Jack and to the right.

These pictures were taken 13 months ago...I was about 5 weeks pregnant with Lucas.

Jack & Nadia

Jack and Nadia have a love/hate relationship. They are 3 weeks apart in age and are 2...enough said.

They were smart enough to share rides at Chuck E Cheese...their tokens went farther that way.

Thankfully Lisa had two potty seats, they were used frequently.

One of the few times that they didn't fight was when they took baths together. If one was in the bath, the other one would strip down and get in. They were best friends in the bath.

This hand holding was forced upon them...they quickly went their separate ways once I was done with my requests.