Macrame I? No, you may not.

An innocent stroll through the city library revealed a gem of a handicraft book. Vintage 1973 in all its glory, may I introduce the winners:

Girls, don't be surprised when Claire and I show up to church in matching dresses.

There are no words for this, at least none I want to publish here.

What was with the beads, beans, hemp and everything brown and gold?

Speaking of gold...

And more gold.
This macrame scarf is my favorite; and what's with that hair?

In the book, this garment was described as a "hooded evening cape".
What do you say when someone shows up to your dinner party wearing this? You say
"I must say dahling, you look ravishing in your hooded evening cape".

I've threatened Ryan with this one. "Please kill that spider or so help me, I will make you that applique gardening apron!"

And for my next knitting project...
yes, the entire ensemble was knitted, plaid and all.

There were many, many more winning ideas of gifts and things to make, but I want to have something to surprise you with this Christmas!

An Experiment

Looking at our family pictures, I noticed that I am not in any of them except the occasional picture Ryan takes of kids and I just happen to be in the background. This is fine with me, except that I would like documentation for the kids' sake that I did in fact exist in their childhood and I was sometimes fun to have around. So I discovered the self-timer on my camera, pulled out our tripod that Ryan rescued from a garbage pile years ago, and snapped a few of the kids and I. I set the camera up so that it would take multiple pictures, seconds apart. What I ended up with were a few OK pictures and a lot of silly ones; it was a windy day. So here are a very few of the many my camera took. *Oh, and I know the pictures are crooked, I told you it was a literal piece of garbage tripod.

The girls

I love the look on Rose's face- priceless.

Check out that look on William's face - he made that face that whole round of pictures.

I'm still dealing with a sick kid. This is the third day of fever with William. Poor boy; I know he must be miserable. Don't panic and wonder why I haven't taken my child to the doctor - it's a low grade fever of around 100-101 and this is going around our area. No symptoms but a fever. He should be OK tomorrow. I'm just praying that the baby doesn't get it. So, back to my dark house, loads of laundry, dishes that I can't seem to keep up on and skimming through library books. Maybe ONE day we will be able to go outside and enjoy this beautiful weather.

William is sick again - another fever. There are some nasty viruses circulating through our area and we can't seem to get a break. So my day has been spent sitting on the couch with a sick kid and sleepy baby, reading the day away in my dimly lit living room.

I had this really awesome idea for a blog post, but seeing as how it would require me to use my scanner, I have decided to go another way until we are healthier. So to appease the blogging demons, I'm just going to put up some cute pictures, write and short note, and call it good.

Pictures from the Daddy/Daughter dance

Notice to All Readers: Seriousness Ahead

I have changed the name of my blog. As I was writing in my journal this morning, I was thinking about a conversation I had with Ryan yesterday. We were talking about the HORRIBLE situation over in Zimbabwe (amid other countries) and how blessed we really are to be living in America. Then I was thinking that even in America, Ryan and I have an unusual situation: we both come from loving, strong families, we are both highly educated, have three beautiful, healthy children, we're healthy, have a nice home with all the comforts we need and more, we have the gospel, good schools for our kids, wonderful friends, good food and health care, and a happy home life.

No, we don't have a lot of money, nice cars, a big home, fancy clothes, travel money, a big TV, nice hair cuts, or gourmet food; but I've known many people with all of those things and more often than not, it not only doesn't make them happy, they tend to be some of the most unhappy people I know. So my question is: why do I get to live such a charmed life? I may not know the answer to that question in this life, but I intend to take full advantage of the life that's been given to me and try to deserve it.

I warned you this would be a serious post. I promise the next one to be full of foolishness and some pretty awesome pictures.

The Latest Inventory

I was doing a little cleaning in William's room and I had a look in his closet. The latest acquisitions in his warehouse are the can opener, my embroidery hoop, and once again, Ryan's tape measure from the garage.

Busy Bees

Thanks to Girl Scouts, I have lately spent a lot of time at Hobby Lobby. I was there three times last week. My last trip there was on Saturday and with Ryan home, I decided to leave the older two kids and just take Rose with me. On my way out the door, William came running to me in tears - he wanted to go too. I told him I was going back to Hobby Lobby (he had been with me the previous two times) but he still wanted to go. While I was trying to find a very specific item, wandering helplessly through the isles, William mumbles to himself from the cart, "I hate this place." I tried to warn him...

Claire's first attempt at cross-stitching.
I helped a lot with knots and problems, but she did the work.

A sick Sunday project with Claire - getting ready for spring.

So Claire was still upset about leprechauns taking her scissors at school, so we had a leprechaun come visit us the night before St. Patrick's day. He left footprints, which he wiped off with a towel, a little note apologizing for the petty theft, and he dyed our milk green. Claire was thrilled about the whole thing. She collected all of the evidence, put it in the bag and took it to school to show her class. I'm sure her teacher thinks either we're crazy or mean for tricking our child. Oh well, she loved it.

Rose loves her daddy - she has always loved to talk to him (since she could coo). I'm just the food source and the comfort object; Ryan is her conversation buddy.

Rose kisses.

Thanks to the government (tax return), we are putting in a new patio. But first, we have to get rid of our old one. When it's all done, I'll post some before and after pictures. Ryan rented a jackhammer and went to town on that old, cracked slab. He did a great job and only got the blade stuck a couple of times. Now we just have to figure out what to do with the old concrete.

Personally, that thing looks terrifying - it's times like these when husbands are invaluable: killing bugs, using scary tools, lifting heavy things, brushing the kids' teeth (I HATE that job), eating icky leftovers, etc.

Newness and Illness

These past few weeks have been full of discoveries. It has also been full of fevers, puking and soar throats. I have spent the past three days cooped up with a sick child (today included). We get through it. However, having this time home, we have been busy playing and learning. I have a ton more pictures to share, but I will have to do it later. William has discovered jigsaw puzzles. He's outgrown wood puzzles, but these ones with the picture underneath or perfect for him. He does them for hours (I did the same when I was a kid).

Claire has discovered cross-stitching. She is very good, thanks to her fabulous fine motor skills. I'll post a picture of her masterpiece when she's done. Here she is, sewing away, sporting a new hair accessory I made while staying home with sick kids yesterday.

We have a new condiment around the house we like to call "William Butter". It's the standard peanut butter with an extra organic ingredient from William - saliva. He now has his very own jar; with his name on it and everything.

My quiet Rose has discovered her voice. She cooed before; well now she squeals and yells. Very cute, but very loud.

William has been adding to his warehouse. I couldn't find my watch the other day and I found these items in his room. Apparently he has an affinity for fine jewelry (note the gold and amethyst earrings) and not-so-fine electronics.

Rose has a new jumper, handed down from a friend. We call it "The Poop Machine". Every time we put her in it, she poops, usually resulting in a blowout - as you can see below.

It's also good for naps.

We also discovered Rose's enjoyment of swinging. She just hung out, sucking on her thumb, swinging in the breeze.

We had one nice day a week ago, and it happened to be the one day over the weekend where no one was puking. We spent the whole day enjoying the weather.

A little yard work with the babe. Check out those baby thighs!

My "girl" scout. William found my old Girl Scout uniform and had to wear it. I think he liked all of the shiny pins and patches.

I am so ready for spring. No more having to wear sweaters and wool socks around the house. And hopefully, no more colds, flu or fevers!

The little green men are coming for you...

Claire came home from school yesterday, very worked up over leprechauns. I think she had convinced herself that they really exist and that they're out to get her. This is something like how she explained it to me.

Mom, every March, things keep happening to me like at school; I can't find my scissors anywhere! I looked in my desk and I asked everyone to look in theirs and I can't find them anywhere. I think leprechauns took them, I really do. And then at home, I keep losing my CD. Someone keeps taking it out of my CD player and hiding it! (*in this case, the leprechaun would be named William). I really think it's leprechauns doing this to me, because every March this stuff happens to me!

Seriously, she was so cute as she was getting worked up over this; I had to work really hard not to laugh. So while I was gone at Enrichment last night, the saga continued at home. Ryan told Claire that the reason the leprechauns weren't taking William's things from his room was because he had diapers in his room and leprechauns really hate diapers. So when I went to check on Claire, there was a diaper on the threshold of her room to ward off leprechauns and a diaper next to her pillow in case the one in the hallway didn't work. Thanks Ryan....
The other week, we had a friend, Saydee, come over and play with us. She is so sweet and her and William had a great time together. They played with Playdoh for a long time.

Apparently, William is hilarious, according to Saydee. He had her laughing the whole time.

One more random tidbit: after our scripture study, we were trying to remember how the tune went to the First Article of Faith and kept saying "We believe in..." over and over trying to get the tune right. Then William breaks out in song from across the room where he is playing, "We believe in the yellow submarine, the yellow submarine, the yellow submarine". That boy has Beatles on the brain!