Valentine's Day

I am super-dooper excited about Valentine's Day this year. Reason is, is that Noah is all into it too. So, he and I have been planning since early January the Valentine's Day valentines to give to his classmates. We got the candy melts, a cute little mold, sucker sticks, picked the ribbon; oh we were gonna have a "sweet" crafting day! You can only imagine our HUGE sadness when, well let me lay it out.....

- I got Noah's preschool calendar for Feb.

- It stated it was Dental Awareness month; it's usually in March

- The week of Valentine's Day it stated "Please do not bring candy for Valentine's"

WHAT?! Oh we are so sad. So instead, I am going to make the little suckers with the boys - and then let them have one everyday until Valentines!! And of course give some away, cause I think we have enough stuff to make like FIFTY! Yay! Fun times.

So, now I am scrambling to find something cute for Valentine's. Simple store bought ones just are not gonna do! So HERE is what I found. If you have a buh-zillion broken little nubs of crayons like I do - this is gonna be great for you. OH and if you have a child in need of valentines.

Spread the love.....happy crafting!

Handy Items

Things cross my mind during the day and I say I am gonna blog them and then I don't. However, today I turn a new leaf, so to speak.

-- I never knew much about 20 mule team Borax until I forgot to check a leg pocket on a pair of Noah's cargo pants - from the Gap, handed down, but looked brand new, were gonna last through Caleb -- I pulled them from the washer and found a very deep nasty green stain from a non crayola brand crayon. It was deeply set in. No hope. Until Borax. It got most of it out - this is one tough crayon. Anyway, I decided to use this more in my laundry - especially the more grimy things like dog bedding, the kids blankies, which get trashed beyond belief, and items of that type. I am impressed. It is cheap and may just become a staple in the laundry room. Apparently it has lots of cleaning qualities that can be used around the house, from what I have read on the side of the box. I just haven't went there yet.

-- If you have a kid who is all about reading - like Noah - you must visit www.starfall.com. This website is GREAT for beginning readers. It is rewarding and they can learn more about "the silent e" "sh" and "ch" sounds. Noah LOVES it and I do too. He loves when he can sit and read an entire story.

-- If you love Harry and David's pepper and onion relish as much as I do - but you don't want to pay the price or, in my case, pay the horrendous shipping, go HERE for a recipe on how to make your own. I have prepared this linked recipe, reducing the sugar (of course) by 1.5 cups. Let me just say I don't think you can get any closer to the original from the store! Also, I love the website that posted the recipe. I go there everyday (almost) and find so much inspiration.

Ok this entry has taken longer than it should've. I think two little blessings are to blame for that. Because of my intermittent breaks I have forgotten some things I wanted to blog. Hey, 3 things ain't that bad! Probably a good thing I have forgotten some or you might be here reading, and reading, and reading, and.........

Repurposed old sweater

My dad came to visit this week and he brought with him a sweater. He decided it was no longer going to be in his wardrobe so he gave it to me. Well, we are not really sweater people so I decided instead of giving it away we could make a little something useful out of it. So, I was able to make 2 neck gators (these are essential when we are sledding, skiing, snow sporting outside), and I think I can make 2 smaller ones for the kids out of the sleeves. I had Noah model one of the adult sized ones. I am sending them home with my dad since it was his sweater after all and he said he could use them while hunting. However, the sleeves will make great gators for the kids!

Lily the Black Bear

Oh my gosh! This is so cool! Go check out this website!

http://www.bear.org/website/visit-us/lily-den-cam.html

It is showing Lily, a 3yr old black bear in her den. She is due to give birth tomorrow, hopefully. For you outdoor lovers, you'll love this. My kids think it is so cool to see a bear in her sleepy den!

The Birthday present

I have been wanting to make a quiet book for the boys for quite some time. I had been gathering supplies slowly for about 8 months and then thought; no better time than a birthday to get it done. So this is what I gave CJ this morning.......and the reason the iron is in the pic of his bday breakfast. I was up VERY late finishing this!

I couldn't get it to rotate, so please rotate your head. :)

The very last page is the last of the ABC's. Inside the teepee is a little boy, a campfire, and all the goodies for a camping trip. I can't wait to take this to church!

Happy Birthday CJ!

Can you believe he is 3 today?!! Our usual birthday breakfast: chocolate chip pancakes. That is the way he does "3"! Happy Birthday CJ!

Sweet Home Alabama

I think I would have give up one of my children's college funds to be at that game in Pasadena.

ROLL TIDE ROLL!

Nat'l Champs 2009!!!

BOYS!

N had a hangnail. So he did what any 5 yr old would do, he pulled it out. Well, this one left a little owie on his finger. Over the past week it has gotten an infection and topical ointments were not working. We saw the doc this morning.

While there, we also spoke to the doc about his stuffed up nose and him having random gushing nosebleeds.

Also, the knot on his head that he got in June from flipping off his bike has not gone away. This knot was bumped over and over again.

The diagnosis:

His stuffed up nose is from possibly allergies. We are trying some things to see if this is allergies. Basically the kid is going on zyrtec until he clears up and then we take him off to see if he gets stuffy again. The allergy thing is no surprise I am married to a man who has finally found allergy relief by living in Alaska where everything is frozen 8 months of the year!

His finger is bad. He has to go on amoxicillin. I could not figure out how his finger got infected so quickly and so badly. We had been treating this finger with alcohol, bacitracin and band-aids.

Then it all became clear.

The owie is on Noah's primary booger picking finger. Yes, that's right. So, finger goes in bacteria laden nose - and voila! Infected finger.

I was a little surprised. Noah is really good about getting a tissue. However, when you are stuffed up and have tons of boogies from your cold/allergies you (being a 5yr old) are not going to get up in the middle of the night and get a tissue. It is much easier to lie in bed, pick it, and I (as mommy who does the cleaning, changing the sheets, etc.) do not want to know what happens to those precious pieces of picked gold. Kevin then mentions how he has seen said incidents happening on our nightly check ins. So 10 days of antibiotics for my precious little nose picker.

AND

The knot is now a permanent fixture. Yes, my son has bumped the knot enough times that the skull bone has become reactive to the bumping and has permanently formed a knot.

Basically I have a booger picking knot head. That is my precious 5yr old.

Such is the life of a God lovin', hockey playin', Alaksa livin', lego obessed boy! AND i LOVE him.

Happy New Year

C and N showing off their New Year style!

Caleb's Bday surprise

I was meandering around on my crafty sites and linked to a link to a link and found a great little idea - homemade bean bags. Yes, I know this is nothing new. However, what a great "Thanks for coming to my birthday party" gift! The usual "Thank You" bags are full of stuff that usually gets tossed anyway. So today, I made little bean bags for C to give to his friends. I am toying with the idea of how to make a foldup hopscotch board to go with. Don't know if that will happen. Anyway, here they are.