Saturday, February 15, 2014

Goals & Projects

I realized that I haven't been really blogging about anything lately.  I mean, I do the Mobile Moments every month, but I haven't really put much effort or thought into blogging about anything else.

At the beginning of the year, I made some goals to get some things finished.  Let me go back...we had a great summer, a busy summer, a productive summer.  Then we moved back and I found out we are expecting and the morning sickness hit.  I hit a wall, figuratively speaking, and was down with no drive of production until the end of the year.  It's a pretty crummy feeling seeing all that should be done, and wanting to do it but just not feeling like it.  It makes you feel lazy, unloved, and creates depression.  Even after the morning sickness was gone it took me a while to feel like myself again and want to be productive.  I think what really helped was setting those goals at the beginning of the year, and most of all, setting a time limit.  There is something about having a "finish by" date next to my projects. It motivates me and helps me think of one thing at a time.

This is what has been occupying my mind since January 1.
This is what my to do list looked like in order, and its status now.

Car seat blanket for my newest little niece:  Finished.


Car seat cover for my newest little nephew:  Finished.



Burp clothes for that same nephew:  Finished.

I set a Goal to finish the Camp Magical Moments video by the end of January.  Finished.  It has been a work in progress since September!  There is nothing I can really show for it on here, but it is a huge undertaking for me every year.

Car seat for my unborn little girl:  Finished.



An afghan for my little girl:  Finished.



Changing pad cover for her nursery:  Finished
This picture was taken while I was still working on it.
You'll see it finished later when I take pictures of the nursery,
when I have a nursery.


Crib blanket for little girl:  Still in the works


Since Andrew is moving up to a twin bed after we move (so his little sis can have the crib) I thought it appropriate to make him another quilt.  I'm also crocheting him an Afghan since he is outgrowing all his blankets.  I'll give them to him for his birthday and I'll post pictures of them in his new room after we move.
Big boy bed quilt for Andrew:  Still in the works
I used this fun little program to help with the
configuring the solids.  It helped a little with not
having to crawl around on the floor... which is
growingly becoming harder and harder.

Final layout.  Still need to sew them all together.

Afghan for Andrew:   Still in the works
I'm loving the colors. Navy, Red, and Grey.
I think my nesting kicks in a little quicker than most people's.  I get so big in the last trimester that it becomes hard to do anything.  This helps motivate a little.  I've accomplished most of the things I've set my goals to do.
When I finish all these sewing projects I can back up our photos from last year and finish our Family Photo Album for 2013, hopefully by May.
I've been telling everyone, I feel like I have more to do then time permits. There just aren't enough hours in the day.  Sometimes I feel like I've bit off more then I can chew.
It is increasingly hard to play with Andrew these days too and it shows.  He is always begging me to play with him. He looks at me with those sweet little eyes and says, "Mom, do you want to play with me?  It's fun..."  Poor kids has mega energy, and I can't crawl around with him.  The cold temperatures have NOT helped either.  We read a lot, go to other kids houses/library etc. to play, and watch way too much TV.  Thank goodness for Daddy.  I can't wait till it warms up and he can just go outside and run!
Until then, we work on my to do list and hope to finish in reasonable time before our CRAZY SPRING begins (and then onto our equally bonkers Summer).  I'm sure I'll post the rest of my finished products somewhere for all to see, when they are completed.  I'm so close!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

January 2014 Mobile Moments

Well, I guess I'll continue with the Mobile Moments again this year, since it seems to be all I have time for some months. Enjoy.
 
On our way back home from Christmas vacation.
Andrew still loves this CD player.

Andrew took a picture of Mommy while we were driving.


Long story short, the roads were less than ideal.  Briant drove.
We saw lots of sliding and accidents.  It was not the funnest drive,
and did nothing for my nerves, but we made it home okay, 2 hours
later than expected.

This is what our car looked like when we got home.
We found several analogies with our trip and the gospel.  We saw the
Lord's hand with us in our trip and arrived home feeling his love for
us with a greater testimony of prayer.

We were also very excited to see all the Christmas cards we got
in the mail while we were gone.

Testing out Briant's Chromecast with a glowing fire from YouTube.
Next best thing to the real thing right?

We have started the potty training journey.  It's going pretty well.

This is about a week after I opened my Mom's
apricot jam.  I love it so much. It's all gone now.
Mom, can I have some more?

Hershey has a spread like Nutella.  It's so good,
and I really can't tell the difference!

We went to the bargain book store one day when it
was arctic around here.  Andrew loved looking
at all the books, but loved running away and hiding
from us even more.

We took a trip to the Children's Museum another day.  The roads
weren't great then either.  It took us 2 hours to get
there (it usually only takes 1).  Andrew had a great time as always!


The yucky roads outside.  The roads were much better on the way home, btw.





He had the best time on this little water feature.

This was in the wind cyclone.


This place even captures Briant's creating interests
for a while.  He had to fix it.

You have to pay a dollar to ride the carousal.
Andrew is usually a little skiddish his first ride, and
always begs for another, but we usually don't give in.


We had to switch to a different horse half way
through the ride.  He didn't like the ones that go
up and down.

He found a quiet corner all to himself.
Can you guess what he is doing by the look on his face?

He always has to take a little drive in this cool car.

Riding the train.

He loves the train section.

Happy Birthday Briant!!!  He asks for the same
cake every year.  Chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles.
This year, I tried my hand at chocolate covered
pretzels because I know how much he loves them.

A friend asked for a picture.  I haven't been as
good about pictures this time.  I feel like the bump
isn't actually the baby, it's whats left over from Andrew.
So I feel like I look bigger than I really am.

The beginnings of little girls crib blanket.
Got to take a picture of it so I don't forget how
they are arranged.

I got the batteries replaced in this book, and he LOVES it!
Thanks again Madison and Logan.

We took another trip to the water park.
We all have a great time there!  Too bad I'm
not suppose to ride the water slides...

Andrew loves the whirlpool! 




Thanks goodness for his paddle jumper floaties.
He has turned into quite the fish.


He loved the lilypad things too.


Waiting for the big water drop.

BOOM!!!

Briant loves it!


A little water slide for Andrew.  I rode on this one with him a couple times.

I love this picture!

CR's car seat blanket configuration.

Doing a dance after a successful potty day.

Another car seat cover project I worked on for my
new nephew.

We introduced paint.  Watercolors. He did great,
and now he wants paint all the time.

A rare, sunny day.

Oh cool, an awesome track that mommy built for me...

...lets destroy it!

This face.

Watching his new favorite!  He is learning the letters sounds pretty
quickly too!

WONDERLAB!!!  AWESOME!!



Look close, they had Dory and Nemo!


He had a blast with this wind thingy.


Briant got some chocolate covered pretzels from
my Aunt.  She knows him all too well!  They were
gone in less then a week!

The finished product!

I started a new project for CR.  It's super easy.

You can see the colors better in this picture.
Plum Purple, Aqua (it actually says tourquise), and
White with sparkles. 

A day after the library.

And then we got hit with the stomach bug.
Poor Andrew.  This was the next morning after
he was feeling better.  He kept begging for food,
so we started off with some simple toast...
then I watched him like a hawk!

Sanitizing cars...

Got to take these down.... :-(

This is a fun little project I made for Andrew.  

He loves drawing on the dry erase board,
but I think he like erasing with the eraser even more!