Tummy Time

Week 30

Courtesy of Greg. I do feel enormous but it is nice to have these for a future memory. And I love that the kids want to cozy up to me and to the baby.

In Full Bloom

The lilacs are blooming all around.  It is like a burst of purple everywhere.  I love lilacs.  Lilacs always make me think of living in Provo in the Spring.  The burst of purple and the smell that seems to be everywhere in town.  Having so many lilacs here just makes Spring so happy.  I've also been introduced to the different shades of lilacs.  They have white, dark purple, light purple and even a pink here.  I thought light purple was all their was.

We bought a lilac tree/bush last year but we were unaware that they take a while to bloom once you've planted them.  So we've really been enjoying all the lilac trees in the neighborhood around us.

I decided to walk to pick up Chloe yesterday and on the way home the kids wanted to pick some lilacs.  Now I don't condone picking lilacs off of houses where the tree is close to the house or where obviously the people enjoy their plant but as we walk down the alley, there are some bushes that are outside of fences, sometimes next to the garbages.  I figure nobody will miss them there and besides we'll enjoy them more in our house.

So here are our spoils:

And our dining room and almost entire downstairs smell so beautiful!

Sunny Afternoon

I had a "date" with Greg in the backyard this afternoon.  We don't really ever get a babysitter and go out.  I find it to be so much work to figure out an activity and coordinate with Greg's busy schedule and by the time you figure all that out and go somewhere fun then pay the babysitter, I always feel like it was just too much money that we didn't really even have to spend.  We really need to do better at this because our kids do well with a babysitter and we love our babysitter.  But I digress.  So we were in the backyard having a "date".  This consisted of us, alone, outside, while Gavin was napping and the girls were playing in the living room.  We ate drumstick ice creams and just talked.  I sat in the sun and Greg sat in the shade as we always do.  Then after a while, my legs went to sleep and my butt was super uncomfortable.  And I remembered that we had gotten a hammock last summer (at the reuse fair) and never had a chance to use it.  So Greg tied it to the (unsteady) fence and I clumsily tried to get inside and lay down comfortably and relax.  Let's just say that hammocks are NOT made for pregnant ladies.  And frankly our wobbly fence isn't really made for pregnant ladies either.  Sadly.  To be in a hammock comfortably, you need to lay on your back, and I really needed to lay on my side.  So we ended our date early and let the girls go outside and play in the hammock.  They loved it.  Chloe, our super reader, especially loved reading her book outside.

They swung and laughed and giggled and battled over leg and foot room.  It was all what you'd expect.  I think we need to get a wider hammock that two adults can fit onto because this is quite a narrow hammock and doesn't extend very much at all.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Gavin was sleeping.  Having all the family outside really made us miss him and if we let him sleep too long on Sundays he doesn't go to bed at night (since he starts his nap after 2) so I headed up there to rouse him.  And this is what I found:

I stood staring at him for a while then went and grabbed the camera.  He's so cute with his long eyelashes and his little wife beater on.  After he woke up, he went outside with the girls but  the hammock was too wobbly for him.  He was afraid.  He did enjoy pushing the girls on it though.

It was a great sunny afternoon and definitely recharged our batteries--just what a Sunday afternoon should be like.

So Much Sewing!

I've been sewing up a storm lately.  It is relaxing (mostly) and makes me feel good about accomplishing something.  There have been lots of lessons learned and lots of success and lots of lows and wo's also.  Just today in fact I was ready to just rip a t-shirt to threads and throw it in the garbage.  I've learned that sometimes you need to put stuff to the side until your anger subsides.

It all started in the new year with friends' birthday presents.  This is the style of bag my brain makes.  Some of them are cuter than others and some of them are more well made than others but I really do feel like I'm finding my groove here.  These birds are from some really fun fabric from Ikea.  The others I just made up with my mad drawing skills.  ;-)

Then I decided to make some "Happy Birthday" signs.  I originally planned on just making one sign but I had too many girly fabrics for a gender neutral one so I just made two.

I was shopping and found some long sleeved shirts for cheaper than I could buy a short sleeved shirt for.  So I thought to myself, "How hard could it be to make these short sleeved?"  Turns out it was a little hard.  I couldn't find a stitch to do the hem nice and professional looking so I made the ruffle to cover it.  I also had to use my old machine because the sleeves were too small to fit on my new machine.  That was pretty annoying.  And seam ripping jersey knit is pretty disastrous too, BUT the girls loved the result.  Maybe with more practice I could do better.  In the end though with the time and effort spent, I certainly didn't save any money but nobody will have shirts like this.

Fort Ed

It was a holiday weekend here in Canadia. We expected lots of people to be gone and have the city to ourselves. Boy were we ever wrong. Yes, lots of people left but tons of people came to town also. We decided to hit up the opening weekend of Ford Edmonton. We've gone before but Gavin was really too little to remember or really to enjoy it. He's been making train noises all week and playing with his trains and we just knew it would blow his mind to go and ride on a real train so we went.

He was so happy. He loved it! We almost couldn't get him out of the gift shop where they strategically line up all the trains on a low shelf where little hands can reach them. We walked around, had a picnic, the kids played with some sticks in the water, Tati picked up a few snails and grossed everybody out, she also dabbed some dandelions on her face and Gavin's for "make-up".  We ended the day by buying everybody a lollipop treat and heading home where Gavin collapsed exhausted in the car.  AND the big thrill of the day was that Gavin wore undies the whole time and didn't have any accidents!!!

A good day to be Dad

Most people believe kids + power tools = disaster/trip to ER. But today I saw an opportunity to have one of those experiences that I can reference the next time I am asked to give a talk in General Conference. So here is the story:

A few months ago I happened upon a discarded Ikea cabinet by our apartment dumpster. It was in such disrepair I immediately realized it would not be worth it to try and restore it. I did, however, recognize that many of the wooden panels were still in "decent" shape and decided to salvage them for some undetermined future project.

Now fast forward until last month when my daughters both fell in love with some doll beds they found at a rummage sale. Although neither of them was anything alike in style, they were both equally terrible. One was a wicker rocking bed that was just waiting to get sat on or smashed into a million tiny splintery pieces while the other was slapped together with 2x6's, random bits of wood and poorly used nails. Once we got them home we realized that neither were worth keeping and I promised to make them each their own dolls beds.

Fast forward until two weeks ago when I found a circular saw (which I had been pining over) on sale. Once I got it home I eagerly cut up the salvaged wood according to a rough plan I made for two doll beds.

So that brings us to yesterday when I finally decided to piece together the parts of the beds. I invited both Chloe and Tati to help me out. We used a pocket hole jig to put it together. I realize this may not be the best application of this sort of tool, but I was excited to use it. As we worked together I made sure to turn just about everything into a lesson. I explained what the jig was, how to properly use a drill, how/why to use a clamp, what can happen if you don't drill a pilot hole and all sorts of other tricks that I'm sure they both absorbed and will remember for the rest of their lives (or at least until bed time).

It was really fun. Chloe was really into it and did almost her whole bed. Tati lasted about three holes and then wanted to watch tv. Her loss of interest was all too familiar to me (sorry Dad, I should've stuck around and helped you more with your projects).

Here they are:

I know, I know. They are quite flawed (like the footboard on the one on the left is on backwards - you aren't supposed to see those pocket holes). But they don't care. They love them, so I am not going to worry about it . . . for now. Eventually I think we will paint them, but they are content with the way they look right now. I have a feeling this isn't what people are referring to when they say the like the "distressed" look.

But wait, this isn't all. With the beds completed we had lunch then Julie encouraged me to take the girls swimming. Yeah, swimming. If you know me, you know how big of a sacrifice this is for me. But I knew Julie was right when she said "They'd love it." And they did. I had fun with them too (despite the whole getting wet part of it).

Overall, I think they had a great time with their dad. I have been really aware of how few memorable moments I am creating with my kids, and hopefully yesterday will be one they can hold on to for a while - especially since I haven't seen any more wood at the dumpster lately.

Swinging from a tree

We found a gem of a park a while ago.  It has a big field surrounded by trees.  Originally we thought it would be the perfect kite park but we were wrong.  The trees protect the field too much so it is too hard to keep a kite up.  But it has proven to be a wonderful picnic park and this year Tati can finally climb the tree without any help--although she might still need some.  She had a blast climbing this tree.  At one point as we were all just laying on the picnic blanket, we suddenly heard her yelp and say, "Help!"  So Greg had to quickly go and help her b/c she had lost her footing and had grabbed onto a breaking branch.  Thankfully she was holding on pretty strong so he lifted her down.  Then Greg broke off the rotten and dead branch so no other little kids would have the same thing happen to them.

I was a bit nervous and that was even before she almost plummeted to her demise but I had recently read this article circulating the internet about how Americans need to parent more like Europeans and give their kids freedom and responsibility with scary things like climbing or wittling and not trying to protect and hover so much.  I definitely think I can let go a bit in that regard.

It is super fun to see her growing up and excelling at things so physical.