2011 Blog Headers

HO HO HO! Applique T-Shirts

This year, I learned how to make applique t shirts.  They are easy.  So easy that I decided to make one for every child that I know (well almost) for Christmas.  Grace, Andrew and Mikey all received coordinating Christmas shirts this year. 

You start out by ironing double sided heat'n bond onto fabric (be sure to buy the sew-able stuff).  On the back of the heat'n bond you can draw your pattern.  I printed out pictures that I found online and traced those onto the heat'n bond.  Then cut out your pattern and place it on the shirt.  Remember to trace them backwards so that they look correct when you place them on the shirt.

Next, iron on the appliques. 

Tip  - be sure to measure the shirt and center your design. 

Next step is to sew around the edge of your applique.  This can be a bit tedious with a small or detailed pattern. 

Finally, if you want, you can add buttons or ribbons to finish.   

The initial shirts are definitely the easiest and quickest to make.   

Ones with more detail like this flower one take a looooong time.

Here is my favorite shirt that I made this year. Isn't it cute? I will have to make one for Andrew for this summer. 

HO HO HO! 2011 Christmas Card

HO HO HO! Christmas Chaos

I feel like this time of year amounts to one big "To Do" list for me.  A list I want to get done ASAP!  The shopping, making presents, wrapping presents, baking, parties and extra "stuff" that is crammed into this time of year kinda stresses me out.  Plus, this year, not feeling 100% (or even close to it) is taking its toll as well.  On the other hand, I love to be busy!  And I absolutely love selecting gifts for people.  To a certain extent, I do it to myself.  I tell my husband he is in charge of a certain task, then I just do it myself.  I can't help it.  There is something wrong with me. 

Good news is that the house is decorated, tree is up, shopping done, presents are wrapped, and the lights are on outside.  If you happen to drive by my house, I do apologize for the light display this year.  It is truly pathetic.  We have 5 of those round light ball thingies that you hang from a tree.  That is it.  And that was only done to appease Miss Gracie.  As we would be out driving this time of year I would hear from the backseat, "Mommy, look at all those pretty Christmas lights.  I sure wish we could have some lights on our house.  Because we don't have ANY."  EVERY CAR RIDE.

Our visitor, Buddy, is back this year.  And I love Buddy.  So do the kids.  The kids love finding his new hiding spot.  They think he is just sooo silly.  However, he is not really working as a deterrent to poor behavior.  And he is getting into some mischief himself this year, which isn't really setting a good example for the kids.  Such as pulling a bunch of tissues out of the kleenex box so there is room for him to sit there.  Or stealing Baby Jesus from the navity.  Naughty elf!  Sometimes Buddy even forgets to pick a new hiding spot.  First thing in the morning this is what happens at our house. 

Grace "I have to run downstairs and see where Buddy is!"
Mom "Uh, hold on Gracie, lets get dressed first.  Dad, do you think Buddy has a new hiding spot or was it too cold to fly back to the north pole last night??????"

To add to the fun this year, Gracie is in school.  Which means we have school stuff to do too.  Teacher gifts.  Helping with school parties.  Bringing "stuff" for the school party.  Shopping for the advent tree (which I love doing).  And these fun things that come home with Gracie...

1. Put a cotton ball on Santa's beard every day of December until Christmas.  When Christmas comes, he will have a full beard.  Oh what fun!  Now Mom gets to go shopping for cotton balls.  And clean up cotton ball messes.  And promise a distraught Gracie that "tomorrow" we will totally remember to glue the cotton balls onto Santa.  We haven't been so good at that.  As you can see.  Here we are on the 17th of December, and we only have 4 on his beard. 

2.  I have this little bag of fun floating around my kitchen for 4 weeks.  Look!  Its reindeer food!  Just sprinkle on your lawn on Christmas Eve and the smell of the oats and sparkly glitter will guide the reindeer to your house.  Fabulous!

3. Don't forget 18 Christmas themed paper napkins for the K4 party.  (NOT paper plates, which is what I bought.)

To top it off, the house is filled with pine needles.  And I had just gotten all of them cleaned up from Christmas 2010!

Bah Humbug. I know.

HO HO HO! Gracie's Christmas Concert

Last night Gracie had her first Christmas concert in church. She was so excited and it was really cute. Her class performed first and we had to leave right after her performance as everyone was a little tired. Unfortunately, I could not get any decent pictures due to the lighting and our seats in church....but I swear she is up there!

HO HO HO! Cookie Decorating

One day after school, the kids and I decorated some sugar cookies. 

I was really surprised that Andrew got into it - by dumping handfuls of sprinkles on each cookie.  Of course, he refused to actually eat any of the cookies!

art class

Andrew and I have been taking an art class on Tuesdays.  He seems to like it, however sometimes he decides he is done about half way through the class.  "I all done art class."  He gets out of his seat and heads to get his coat.  There is no changing his mind. 

The art class is a bit, uh, advanced in the instruction.  It is for 2-4 year olds.  The first class we learned about Cezanne and then the children created their own still life pieces.  Seriously.  The pictures below are from the class on cubism.  Seriously.

The rec center description said, "no prior art experience required" in the description.  Seriously.  Obviously, here in Wauwatosa we take our pre-preschool art instruction, uh, seriously. 

"That is NOT mud" (not for the faint of heart)

...read the text I received from Kevin earlier tonight.  This marks the second night in a row one of us has had to clean poop off the kitchen floor after dinner.  The joys of parenthood.

HO HO HO! Gingerbread houses

A few weeks ago we made our annual trip to the MAC gingerbread house decorating event.  This year Andrew and Mikey joined us.  Mikey was the only child who was really interested in decorating. 

Below is the house JuJu and Andrew made. 

Here is Grace next to the house she and I decorated.

After lunch we attempted to get some cute pictures of the kids....none turned out!

Ultrasound Pictures

Here is a photo from my first ultrasound with this baby.  The baby is the little solid white dot on the far right edge of the larger white outlined circles.  It is amazing that the baby goes from that, to this in 3 months!

So for baby #3 we have decided NOT to find out the sex.  Well I decided I didn't want to know, and Kevin went along with it.  I have mixed feelings.  I want it to be a surprise, but I do feel that I would be more excited and bond better with the baby if I knew.  Also, we have to do some bedroom shuffling and knowing would be easier....nonetheless, we are not finding out.

Well,  except for the fact that there is an envelope sitting on our kitchen counter with the news inside.  The other day Gracie asked what was in the envelope.  When I explained it, she said "Well, I want to know!" and started to open it up.  Little stinker.  She would NEVER be able to keep it from me. 

Grace wants it to be a girl.  Really bad. This is the conversation we had a few days before the ultrasound...
"Gracie, Mom is going to the doctor and I will be able to show you pictures of the baby!  He will also be able to tell us if it is a boy or girl.  Do you think we should find out?"
"No mom, I want it to be a surprise, just like you.  But I better see a picture of a vagina!"

Andrew is not so excited.  We have conversations that go a like this....

"Andrew, are you going to play with the baby?"
No.
"Andrew, are you going to help Mommy feed the baby?"
No.
"Andrew, are you going to share with the baby?"
No.
"Andrew, are you going to be nice to the baby?"
No.
Maybe he is just saying "No" to everything?
"Andrew, are you going to act naughty to the baby?"
Yes.
At least he is honest!

Catching Up

Trip to the Farm 

 Grace and Andrew are lucky that their Great-Aunt Betty has her own little farm and lets the kids come and visit.  She has an ox, geese, chickens, sheep, llamas, dogs....and I am sure other animals I am forgetting. 

 Here is Andrew and Howard the ox having a little face off.  I think Howard is saying, "I am bigger than you, so watch it."  And I think Andrew was saying, "Whoa there Howard, settle down.  My understanding is that you will soon be Christmas dinner."

Halloween
Halloween was the never ending holiday this year.  It was a Monday this year, but the festivities began on Friday with a costume parade at school.  Here is Grace walking in with her class. 

Here she is worried because she doesn't see us.   

And now she sees us (and throws out a pageant-worthy wave). The best part of the parade was that K4 went first, so that meant that we all got to leave right after Grace's class was done!

Here the kids are about to head out trick or treating on Halloween night.  It was cold and we only made it around 1 block but the kids had a ball and got a ton of candy.  Our neighborhood really gets into the holiday with decorations and costumes!

Pookie on the Potty

A few weeks ago Andrew said, "I go pookie on the potty."  He headed up to his potty chair, told me to take his pants and diaper off, sat down, and did his business.  I was sooo proud of him!  Since then we have had a handful of successful potty visits, but he still likes his diaper. 

Tooth Removal 
Poor Gracie had to have a tooth pulled.  Luckily the dentist said it came out very easily.  We have learned the hard way that cavities in baby teeth are to be treated as a priority, NOT to be ignored for a few months (whoops).  We have also learned that it takes FOREVER to get appointments at pediatric dentists (and really they should be seeing one of the specialist from the start and not seeing general dentists that can't really treat any pediatric dental issues).  Then even when  you do get in to see them, it takes FOREVER to get another appointment to actually get work done.  So by the time we got in, the tooth was going bad on us.  Sweet girl was not in any pain at all (I believe she would have let me know!) but this whole experience has been traumatic (for me and Grace) and guilt inducing (for me).  Oh well.  Lesson learned.  Bright side is that the tooth fairy paid an early visit to Grace and she got a cool new barbie out of the situation!