Shower Gift: Twin Diaper Babies

So, I have been invited to a baby shower tomorrow night.  I generally don't attend baby showers, I never asked to have one and I find the whole thing uncomfortable and out of my price range. 

 

But this one is different.  This one is for my friend's son and daughter in law, and they don't know it but they remind me SO much of Bill and I at their age.  Not exactly like them, but young, and definitely in love, and now feeling a bit over their heads!  They are having TWINS.  Yep, a boy and a girl, James and Aria.  So I decided I would definitely show my support, even if I have to be there late. 

 

Which meant I needed a gift.  Or two, after all, we are talking twins!  While whining talking about it to my friend, she mentioned seeing a video tutorial for a diaper baby.

 

Please.

 

How silly.  I have never been a fan of diaper cakes, and couldn't envision what she was talking about.  Clearly, she would be no help, so I asked Mother Google.

 

Who ALSO wasn't helpful.

 

So I searched for the video, as Nicki had sung its praises, and after following the video's easy instructions almost to the letter, (I used one less diaper for each baby chest) I had this!!

They are so sweet!  You really just want to reach out and pat their little sleeping bottoms!

The link for the video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeJZ6wwV8OY

A Few Words...

I am back.  What have we been doing?  Well, I have been potty training my 2 year old, I am hoping he will be potty trained before he turns 3 in 2 weeks!  Right now he uses the potty very well, as long as he is wearing only a shirt.  If he puts anything on his nether regions, he feels comfortable peeing on said fabric little bits every ten minutes.  I am hoping we will reach a point where he can wear clothes and STILL pee on the potty, but it remains to be seen!!

Swimming lessons were survived this summer, we had great, and I mean GREAT instructors, the one in particular that actually got Zachary IN the water is my new hero at the moment.  After a year of forcing him to come and watching him sit on the shore, then the year of him not even going, it was so great to have a year where he learned how to swim!!  There is more to learn, of course, neither he nor Michael passed their level, but that was not really a surprise, at these levels it takes more than a few weeks of summer to master the skills.

We took a family vacation, thanks to my mom, to Niagra Falls this past May.  We were gone for a week, and it was lovely.  We stayed by Lake Ontario, and I had no idea how beautiful the Great Lakes are!

Those are just some high lights!  I hope to talk about soccer, and babysitting, and teenage drivers, and robotics, and much, much more as the next few days come!

ps.  I am uber-excited impressed that blogger has added a strikethrough button near the italics, bold, and underline buttons!  YAY!!!!

Scrabble Gift!

So, I was way super excited to show you this a couple of days before Christmas, but I couldn't, because it was a gift for my oldest. Then Christmas and life happened, and it got put on the back burner, but today I am in "finish things I started mode", so here it is, in all my sad little camera's glory!

And he loved it! At least, his reaction was totally everything I hoped for, it was better than the Nerf gun! (Which was pretty sweet, too!) So either he has perfected faking it, or he loved it... and since he LOVES Scrabble, is notorious for correcting spelling like his mom, every word perfectly describes him, and a week earlier announced that he wanted to make something with these veryboards (old pallets, cut and sanded just to smooth out), I'm going with he loved it!

I used wood tiles from A.C. Moore, I couldn't bring myself to use actual Scrabble tiles, we only have one board, and it's complete. I did consider buying a basic version, but they were over $8, I spent less then that, even though I bought 2 bags of tiles. I did go through and make sure I had the right number of each letter for the game before I glued them down, as I am a bit anal obnoxious that way! And I expect, someday, when he's bored enough, he will add up the potential points scored. Because he is my boy!

Interesting side note, when I asked my husband a few weeks ago for old pallets, he hemmed and hawed about not having very many, etc. Only days later, he mentioned something he could do with pallets, and said, "Oh yeah, and we have a ton of those." Yeah, he regretted that!

So, here you are, one of my homemade gifts this year. I DON'T sew!

And Mom, if you read this, I am still working on your sign... it should be ready for Spring!

Cleaning/Organizing Time!!

So, I've decided after spending so much time on Pinterest looking and gathering ideas, and then checking out the sources of pictures and finding all of these blogs with organizing challenges, I've decided to jump on the bandwagon.  But you have to come, too.  Am I issuing a challenge?  No, I'm just noting that I hate cleaning and the only way to inspire me to clean up my own act is if I get to take pictures, and write about it, in the dreamy hope that someone out in blogland will send me some comment love, therefore bolstering and encouraging me to do a little more!  Yeah, you know who you are!

So I give the most credit to AskAnnaMoseley.com, she cleans and organizes in a way that speaks to me, like I can get it, and has ideas I've not heard before.  Like cleaning your glass window in your oven door with baking soda.  I got up to do it, and it wasn't until I opened my oven, baking soda paste in hand, when I realized I DON'T HAVE AN OVEN WINDOW!!!!

Oven door Before

But I wasn't about to let that baking soda paste go to waste, so I spread it on the oven door.  Liberally.  20 minutes later I could see my paste was an interesting shade of brown.  There was more grime than Anna's must have had, I should have used vinegar as I scrubbed it off, but I hadn't read all the way to the end of the comments, where other people mentioned needing more time, vinegar, or a second coat.  I gave up early, having finished my decided interim project of cleaning my spice rack.

Oven door after the baking soda treatment, trust me, it's better!

 

These little spots look a bit orange in the picture, but they look like holes in real life.

 Then obviously I felt the need to address inside the oven. Problem is, when I went to remove that crusty black stuff, you know, the dried flaky stuff, it revealed these:

I'm thinking I'll get one of those big aluminum drip pans that you put in the bottom of the oven.  Our stove was a hand-me-down from a relative when we bought the house 12 years ago.  Now, on a more pleasant note, while the 15 minutes or so passed did I twiddle my thumbs?  Oh no, I cleaned up my spice rack!  I still love it, Bill built it for me more than 12 years ago, maybe even 15.  It's to my specifications, and has always been just right, the height of the shelves and the overall size, I don't use as many spices as some people.  So, I began by removing the peculiar green thing, I don't know what it is, maybe an octopus or spider?  It was stretchy, filthy, and clearly hadn't been missed, so I tossed it.  And then I followed Anna's advice:

1. Clear it off. 

2: Clean it. 

3. Group things as you put

 them back (at which point

you also chuck what you no

longer need, aka expired

or never used items)

 

In a stoke of genius, though, I realized I shouldn't toss the spice containers, but instead wash them and hang onto them for a bit while I sort and organize other things.  This worked out well, because a little while later as I cleaned out my junk drawer I put them to good use.  I put the  buttons I removed off of the old white dress shirts I just threw out into one of the tiny containers.  I have 5 boys and a husband, and attending church in white shirts every week means lots of button issues, I am hanging on to these!

Voila!  Cute, orderly, and clean.  Half empty, yes, but I will buy new spices as needed and there will be plenty of room to put them.  I also cleaned my eat chicken cow, glad the dust came off her little bow on her tail, or I was considering letting her go.  The candles that hung on the other side were cruddy, and I didn't really like them, so I let them go.