Baby Girl's Area

This little baby girl came at the right time.  I have time and material to make her a cute little area just for herself.  Once she is out of our room she will be in the boy's bedroom.  She will have a quarter of the room, the boys will have a half, and my craft things will have a quarter.  It is a fairly good sized room.

I am not into the color pink.  I never have been.  I will say that I do like a soft pink or a dark pink, and not as the main color.  My mom bought me this super cute blanket hanging on the side of the bed and so I based things kind of around that.  So here is the little girl's area of the room.

I made a slip cover with white ribbon ties for the boys' blue bumpers.  I added a bow on the bear.  The bed sheet is from the boys.  I had two light cream sheets that I used as back up sheets.  I made the crib skirt from a dark pink fabric.  I hardly did anything to the fabric besides cut it and sew the bottom edge with a detail white thread.  I used thumb tacks to attach it to the base of the crib.

On her dresser (entertainment center that we got at a garage sale over 4 years ago) I made these cute little fabric covered boards.  I figure that they will be a decoration that the kids can't reach or break and won't get in the way.  I added boys to the rabbit and dog.  All of the stuffed animals are mostly for cuteness affect and probably won't stick around for long.  The dresser has glass in the doors and so I added dark pink fabric and lace to the inside to make it more cute.

Charlie wanted to help me set things up on top of the dresser while I was trying to take photos.  He has his undies on backwards, hence the massive wedgie.

I looked up on Houzz.com (my favorite interior decorating website) how to take good photos of homes.  I read everything that I could get my hands on.  I spent time trying to stage the photos with the stuffed animals and all of their matching bows.  The sheepskin from Israel.  And the rocking horse.  I spent quite a few days trying to get some pro looking photos, but there were two tragic flaws.  My camera's f-stop wouldn't go up to f16, only f7.  Since we are far north of the equator in the winter the sun is constantly shining through the window so there is too much direct light coming through the drapes (drapes are floor length, curtains are not floor length).

I did finally break down and take some photos with artificial indoor light in the evening so that I could catch the drapes.  You can see that there is no actual curtain rod.  I push pinned the drapes directly to the wall.  I actually didn't even do any finishing touches on the curtains.  I left all of the edges bare.  I don't plan on having the fabric be drapes forever and figured that it looked good enough just like it was.  The lace part was actually from the kitchen back doors in the house when we bought it.

Because The Boys are Just That Cute

Henry fell asleep at the table, but thought it was funny to get woken up.  He was so tired though.

http://youtu.be/C9D8gXWxcA0

Henry doesn't always want to take his nap and ends up like this.  His left arm must be killing him.

Henry gave himself a black eye when he slipped on a bag and fell into a really hard plastic toy last Sunday.  This picture doesn't do the eye justice; it looked much worse.  It has been interesting to see the bruise change everyday.  It still amazes me how fast a child's body heals itself. 

Henry loves this book because there is a ball in it.  He will find the book, open it to the correct page and point out all of the balls.

http://youtu.be/pp7JeAH41Z0

Henry is Learning so Much and the PA Farm Show

Henry walks wonderfully and is loving it.  Henry has started saying words all of a sudden and has picked up a few very fast.  Here is the order in which he learned his words: ball, Jesus, moo (cow sound), maa (goat sound), and cow.

We haven't gotten all of the words on video yet, but here are a few that he said on Saturday at the PA Farm Show and at home.  Also at the end of the clip is Charlie hitting a ball with a racket.  He is pretty good except for the little accident at the end.

 http://youtu.be/6WtN2_hQgHo

Henry has learned more than enough about the toilet paper.  I fell asleep on his bed during the day and was awoken by Charlie coming into the room saying, "Potty!"  And he didn't have any underwear on.  He had peed on the floor right next to the potty and then tried to clean it up with toilet paper.  I presume that Henry caught onto to the idea and started yanking it off, too.  The bathroom was filled with toilet paper.  Henry loves to go into the bathroom, pull off toilet paper, rip it into little bits, and then eat the little bits.  I really should have taken a picture of the bathroom, too bad.

We went to the PA Farm Show this weekend.  This is what we saw on the way to Harrisburg.  Do you know what it is.  Charles was with the Elders and one of them hadn't been that far yet and assumed it was a field.  It is really the Susquehanna River covered in ice chunks.

They shuttled people to the building from the offsite parking using school buses.  Charlie loved the bus ride.

The boys loved seeing all of the animals and making their sounds.

Charlie and Henry had fun milking a "cow."

All of the tractors were a big hit with them as well.

Charles saw a turbo on display that had been cut away and thought it was just great since it is the same as the ones he reverse engineers. 

Christmas in Grantsville & New Years in Orem

For Christmas we flew to Utah to be with family.  We flew from Harrisburg, had a layover in Denver and then flew into Salt Lake City.  The boys did great on both flights to Utah.  Charlie was thrilled to be on an airplane and played happily.  Henry was so tired that he slept the entire time.

We started off our two week vacation in Grantsville for a week with my family.  We all got sick, a couple did escape, and had 13 people sharing one bathroom to throw up in.  My mom and Larry got to keep their bathroom all to themselves.  But I would do it all again.  Being with my family and creating memories is way more important to me than being 100% healthy.  I will take my relations and my knowledge with me when I die and not my sickness.

My mom had lots of fun toys for the kids in the basement.  When Charlie saw this photo he promptly let me know that he wanted to play in Grandma's basement.

 On Christmas Eve we did our traditional reenactment of the Christmas Nativity.

Henry was King Herod.

 Charlie was a shepherd ...

... and a sheep.  Charles was also a shepherd. 

I was one of the wise men.  I brought a bottle of oil to the baby Jesus. 

Henry didn't really get Christmas morning, but he had fun once all of the toys got opened.

Henry, Charlie, and Gideon loved the little cars. 

Charlie loves his little train.  He is pointing to the cow's utters and letting me know that is where milk comes from. 

Everyone got nerf guns from Grandma.  Charlie loved having a toy "gunk" as he calls them.

We made gingerbread houses.  Colleen made the homes stick well together by dipping the pieces in melted sugar.

Charlie didn't really get the idea at first, but soon caught on.  I dripped frosting in his hair on accident, hence the turkey tail on his head.  I swear I took a picture, but I don't know where it is.

The kids had fun with the glow stick things.  Charlie used his like the bad guy from Iron Man #2.

We took a family photo of us all together!

We went on a walk in the freezing cold.

Grandma played memory with the boys right side up.  I don't think Henry ate too many.

We then spent the second half of our trip in Orem with Charles' family.

We went bowling on New Years Eve day.

Charlie remembered it and enjoyed it once again.

Henry kept wandering around and I spent a lot of time keeping him from other people's lanes.

Henry has the best "oh" face!

He so wanted to lift the ball!  It seemed so easy when other people did it.

Charlie got pretty tired at one point so he decided to rest on the table.

Charlie enjoyed Angela playing the piano.  He didn't enjoy not being able to add to it though.

He asked her to go sit on the couch so that it could be his turn.

He did let Henry share in his turn and wanted to teach him.

Yea, a picture of Charles and me!  That never happens.

Charlie copying Grandpa.  Charlie loves to copy Charles and grew very fond of Grandpa so he started mimicking him too.

Charles took Charlie to Thanksgiving point with Grandma.  They met up with Ben and their little boy Jarom.

We had a family dinner with Charles' siblings and everyone at Wallabys.

Charles and I went on a double date with Sam and Ashley to Kneaders and the Provo Beach Resort.

We got together with our American Fork friends.

We had a dinner with Charles' high school friends.

We had a pre New Years Eve party at the Blickfeldt's.

We visited Rose and Ben Hall and kiddos.

I saw the Hobbit #2 with Angela.

I had Angela give me a tour of Italy and France with her amazing photos.

We saw David and Laura's home in Orem and all the work they have done on it.

I went on a date with Charles while the grandparents babysat.  We at at La Jolla Groves and then we got Salted Carmel frozen yogurt at Farr's Ice Cream--TO DIE FOR!!!

We flew home on Sunday and of course got delayed flying out of Salt Lake and then again in Denver.    We were happy to be home, but sad at the same time.  We love spending time with our family, but it is hard not having a routine for the boys.  It was weird to be away from home for so long.  I didn't even feel like I knew what we were supposed to be doing.