Bookmark

I love my friends craft site she has TONS of ideas that she's found from other blogs of different projects that she wants to work on. I check it every now and then because I inevitably get tons of ideas of projects I want to work on. This is one of them. I fell in love with these bookmarks and one night after I had the girls in bed and Jacob was at mutual I went to work making them. I followed the directions from this site but made a slight change. She just hot glued hers together which if I had done that mine would look a bit nicer. I sewed mine to make it a bit more sturdy. I'm glad I did too because when my bookmark isn't in use Savannah decides to make it into a headband.

One More

Oh how I love this girl, lately I've been reading more while Savannah is having independent play time. One of her new activities is to copy me and to start reading with me. I love it! Her favorite book to "read" is The Book of Mormon. We have a family version that has pictures and she insists that we read that every morning during breakfast. I love that is has regained her love of books, for awhile there she pretty much lost all interest in reading. That phase is over now and I'm happy it is because I missed reading books with her and having her ask for "one more pease."

St Patick's Day

So I've never really gotten into St Patrick's Day before, I of course wore green to make sure I never got pinched at school but that was about it. I have no recollection of my mom doing anything special for the day and really why would she? Now that Savannah is older I've really been wanting to make more family traditions that Jacob and I can do with the girls, you know since Savannah will actually have some idea of what's going on. So this year I of course made sure we were all wearing green but I also decided to make green food. I know its kinda gross and my green food coloring was neon green so most of our green food was more yellow green then actually green. Over all it was so fun though and Savannah thought it was so cool that our food was "geeeeen" we're still working on our pronunciation. For dinner we had green four leaf clover rolls, green quinoa, and fantastic turkey chili! The ones in green have a link to the recipe as a side note. The rolls were by far my favorite and they were pretty easy. Oh and I also made a green cake cause hello you have to have dessert and of course a green one.

Jacob got home a bit later then usual because he had to work late and he really wanted to watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People (its an old Disney movie from 1959.) Since it was getting close to bedtime we decided to have our own little drive in and put a blanket down in the living room and ate on that while we watched the movie. Savannah really like it which kind of surprised me because non-cartoon movies don't always keep her attention. It was a great St Patrick's Day overall and I hope you all had a fun one too.

Its time for...

So I'm a pretty organized person, I have quite a bit to do actually with getting things done around the house, interacting with the girls, things for my church calling, and just making me time. I've noticed also that Savannah is a bit like me where she does better if things are structured. Before Miss Olivia arrived I had a schedule that Savannah and I would follow but as my pregnancy continued and I got bigger and bigger I let the schedule slide because basically I was too tired to follow it. Now that things have been settled for awhile I thought it was about time to get our schedule back up. This time though I though I'd make one that Savannah could help with and that was easy access for her so she could see it. I wrote down our schedule on the computer and used different fonts for each thing we had planned. I printed it out and taped it to another scrap book paper. That way I could easily remove an item as our lives changed and new things came up or needed to be taken off. I then put it into 2 page protectors and sewed them together. Then along the outside edges to hid the three ring holes I sewed on some fabric. Some things on our schedule are always at the same time like naps for Olivia and lunch but depending on when we wake up breakfast changes times along with when free play is and when we pick items out of our activity jar. Also dinner changes a bit depending on what time Jacob will be home. The nice thing about having our schedule in the page protectors is that we can use a dry erase marker and write down the times of our activities and then easily wipe them off for the next day. Overall it was an easy project and we all love having it.

Pi(e) Day

So I always get upset with myself when I see people blog about how they celebrated Pi(e) Day cause I ALWAYS forget, but not this year! Luckily I happened across someones facebook status and I was reminded that 3/14 was pi(e) day so I quickly made a pie. Now I love making desserts but pies intimidate me because I'm never good at making pie crust, usually I buy one to be totally honest. Since we only have 1 car buying one was out of the question so I had to make a crust from scratch. We were also invited to my sister-in-laws for dinner and she is a pie crust goddess, I mean they really are that good so I was a bit intimidated when I called her and told her I was making a pie for dessert. Plus my other sister-in-law was going to be there with her family, needless to say I was glad we left before we had dessert so I couldn't see there reactions to my pie. I did get feedback though that my pie was fantastic and that the crust was there favorite part *envision me with a huge smile on my face. The pie crust was from my favorite cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks and here is a link to the recipe if you want it. The crust really is that good and if I can make it they you can make it too, it also wasn't a one time fluke cause like I said I've now made two. I hope you all had a fun Pi(e) Day and if you forgot put it on your calender now so you'll remember for next year.

Happy Girl

So today Savannah said the best words to me, "mom I loooove my surprise!" Today she once again picked going swimming in the tub as one of her activities from our activity jar. I decided to spice things up a bit with a project I'd been wanting to do. So today I quickly made her some bath paint I ended up using some clear hand soap I already had and next time I do want to get the dish soap to see if there is a difference. I noticed that the hand soap seems thicker and wasn't as easy to just mix by shacking the baby food jar. It turned out great though and Savannah played in the bath for over 30 minutes and that's because I made her get out. I had to promise her she could take another bath when Jacob got home so she could show him her new surprise.

Another fantastic thing about these paint are they clean up great! I swear my tub is cleaner now then before Savannah even took her bath.

New Favorite

I've been addicted to decorating sites lately. I keep looking for ideas for projects I can do for the house or girls and of course sites that offer great deals on different products. In my searching I just happened across a super fun site called zulily. They have all kinds of deals and most start at 50% off. Today I ended up getting this
I'm so excited to get them and hang them up in Savannah's room. They're a set of eight cards so my plan is to hang them up along a string or ribbon with clothes pins. It'll be a nice reminder of rules and chores Savannah already has and they're just so dang cute!

Messy Eater

Jacob fed Olivia last night…and yes that is food under her right eye and above her left.

I did it.

So I have been working on something for the last 6 months or 7 really. When I first had Olivia I stopped into my old office after one of her appointments to say hi to all the girls. One of my good friends there Lisa asked if I had time to read a book. She wanted me to read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, now I'm not a great reader by any means but I do really enjoy it once I find a book I like. I tend to get quite absorbed in it actually to the point where I have a hard time getting anything else done. So I told Lisa sure I can read it while I'm nursing I can multitask after all and away I went with the book. Yeah...so 7 months later I finally finished! This is the first book I've read since having Olivia. Oh and yeah, so I hardly read any of it for the first 6 and a half months. I actually read about 3/4 of it in a week and a half. I told you I get obsessed once I really get started. Now I want to get my hands on the second one, I had to put it on reserve at the library so now I'm anxiously waiting for them to tell me I can come get it. As a side note this is not a happy go lucky book it can be quite intense and a bit graphic at times but I just couldn't wait to see where the story would take me next. I really did enjoy it so thank you Lisa for letting me borrow it and now I'll work on getting it back to you it don't worry it won't be another 7 months.

Surprise!

So yesterday was beautiful! You were given a brief glimmer of hope that spring was in fact on the way. So needless to say I was quite surprised this morning when I woke up and found this.



Savannah on the other couldn't wait to get dressed so she could go out and play for a bit.

Let the Countdown Begin...

Do you have those people in your life who aren't technically part of your family but you wish they were? People you tell your kids are Aunt or Uncle so and so? Well Jacob and I do. We have a few good friends that we call Aunt and Uncle even though they aren't technically related to us. One of them is Uncle Fun aka Clayton. Clayton is one of Jacob's best friends growing up and we just love him to pieces! Clayton has lived with us twice for short periods of time and always comes to family functions. Clayton left in August to go to Iraq and we have been lost without him. Luckily we have his fantastic wife to hang out with so that makes it a bit more bearable. Well in just a few short weeks Clayton will be coming home for his 2 week leave so to commemorate such a special event Savannah and I had to make a paper chain.

I realized how much I love paper chains over Christmas. I made a countdown to Christmas and our upcoming trip to Maryland. Savannah loved getting to rip off a piece of the chain each morning. It isn't positive exactly when Clayton will be in the United States, it just depends of when he can get a flight out of Kuwait. We do know he'll be leaving Iraq on the 20th and his 2 week leave starts once he's touched American soil. Needless to say we are so freakin excited especially Jacob, I think he's been just lost without Clayton...

So like I said before let the countdown begin!