Almost done!

We have been working on finishing our backyard. We had our cement patio-slab extended yesterday and we were so excited to walk on it today - you'd have thought we had a new toy or something. We are one weekend away from having the backyard completely done! I am also working on getting the little things in my house put together and finished so it doesn't look like we moved in last week anymore. I put some finishing touches on our loft and have picture frames on the walls waiting for the pictures (which I'm picking up Tuesday at Costco), added some new towels and a rug to the bathroom, and am finishing up some other wall projects that have been sitting around for a long time. I'll post pictures when they are all done. I'm really excited about having a completed house!

Towels and blankets

I have been making cute hooded towels and baby blankets for the craft fair I am doing in November, but wanted to offer them to everyone as well.

The hooded towels are made of good quality adult-sized towels and are perfect for children from infancy through childhood. All my boys received one of these hooded towels when they were born and I have used them for every bath sincw and still use them. In fact, I need to keep some at the grandparents' house so we can use them when we visit! The towels are great for babies because the hood covers their head and is big enough to lay on the counter or where ever and you can wrap the baby up warmly. Plus, they are thick, so they don't soak through like the little ones you can get from the stores. The towels are big enough to wrap a bigger child, also - and my kids love to use them as capes or to be Ja-Was (from Star Wars). They make great baby shower gifts, birthday gifts, or are nice to have to use after baths, showers, or even after the pool. They are available in four colors, green, blue, yellow, or pink. However, they can be done in a towel of any color that has a matching wash cloth.

I am offering them for $15 each plus shipping. If you are interested, post a comment or you can email me.

P.S. Please excuse Zach's expression in the picture - he wasn't too thrilled about being my model!!

I also have two kind of baby blankets. They are all sized 34 inches square and are done in all sorts of cute designs. The first kind are made of the softest flannel and are perfect for babies or small chilren. The second kind are the same design, but are made of star soft-and-fluffy fabric with a satin border and back. They are my favorite! These ones are available in pink, blue, or white. The flannel ones are available for $18 plus shipping, and the S&F/satin ones are available for $22 plus shipping. The flannel ones are done in many different fabics, so let me know if you would like to see any others.

P.S. Sorry to make my blog an advertising campaign; I just love these and wanted to offer them to everyone!

New Mexico State Fair

Yesterday we went to the State Fair with some friends and had a blast! We saw the animals, did a farm activity, rode the Merry-Go-Round, ate a HUGE bag of cotten candy, and the boys got their faces painted. New Mexico has one of the best state fairs and they had a ton of other things going on - shows, carnival rides, food galore, art galleries, and much, much more. It was great!

It's Off!!

Zach got his cast off this morning! YIPEE!! He's very hesitant to walk on his leg and still asks to be carried, but he's getting used to it. The doctor says he'll limp for a few weeks and it will take him a while for him to get used to not having the cast on, but it's off!! Hopefully we won't have any broken bones for a long time!!

Zach's Cast

For those of you who have asked, Zach did indeed break his leg and has been in a cast for the past four weeks. He did it jumping off the bunkbed ladder. He broke the bone in his right shin and his cast runs from his thigh to his toes. It's a nice crimson red with a glow-in-the-dark stripe on it. We call it his candy-cane leg. But the kicker is that he hasn't been able to walk, so we've had to carry him around everywhere. He's quite a heavy kid - but my biceps look great!

He will get the cast off Thursday and I'm so excited for him to be able to take himself to

the bathroom...

What if...

I sold our treadmill last night. It was taking up precious space in our computer/craft room and we haven't used it in quite a while. I would get up the motivation every so often to exercise and would use it for about a week. Then I would get so bored that I couldn't take it anymore and stop. I've tried watching TV, movies, listening to music, nothing stops the boredom. So the treadmill would get folded up and put in the corner again - to wait for the next week out of the year for me to try and exercise.

The only problem with getting rid of things like that is the 'what ifs' start up. What if I decide that I want to exercise again? What if Rhett does? The same thing happened as I was cleaning out the pantry a couple weeks ago and came across our toaster oven (do they even make those anymore?) and the breadmaker. Again, they were just taking up space and I thought about getting rid of them. But then the what ifs came in; what if I want to make bread without all the work? What if I need the toaster oven to cook or toast something? And it's only those what ifs that make me keep things around. I just need to sever the ties - I haven't used the things in years...what makes me think I'm going to use them again? Ever?

I am glad to finally be rid of the treadmill - it was giving me a guilt trip...

For your enjoyment...

Here's a few pictures of the boys...

Too many projects, So little sleep

There are so many projects I have going right now - and the only time I have to do them is when the boys are in bed. Which leaves me the night hours to accomplish everything I want (and have) to do. I am doing a craft fair in November that I am making baby blankets, quilts, and some other fingerplay and flannel board books for. And I keep getting great ideas for other things to do from everyone that I talk to as well and I just want to do them all. I'm in two different card swaps, trying to sell my chocolate fountain, and have projects around the house that I'm trying to get done. And that's not even mentioning my scrapbooking that I'm 1 year behind on for all three boys. I would stay up all night if I could, but then I'm a zombie mom with a BAD additude and that's not fair to my kids. Sleep is over-rated, right??

I guess it would help if I didn't spend so much time on the computer...

Cold season

Sorry for not keeping up with my blogging. It's all new to me and this thinking up things to write everyday is hard! Anyways, the cold season has hit our family early this year and we are all recovering with coughs and runny noses. Hopefully this will be the only batch we see for a long time - I know, wishful thinking....

Porter is in his fourth week of Kindergarten and is loving every minute of it. His teacher has a nickname for everyone and calls him "Harry Porter." Porter beams everytime. However, Monday morning he woke up complaining that he was sick. He didn't have a fever or anything, so I tried to convince him that if just ate a bit and got moving, he would be o.k. He kept saying, "But I thought if I was sick I didn't have to go to school?!?" I ran into the mother delimma - I didn't want to be a bad mom and send him to school if he was really feeling sick (and I didn't want to be the mom of the kid that threw up in school), but I didn't want to call him a liar and send him to school even though he felt bad. So I tried to make him understnad that if he was to stay home, there would be no video games and he would need to stay in bed and rest so he could feel better. Finally, after much wailing and weeping, I let him stay home and promptly had him go back to bed - where he fell asleep for 2 1/2 hours. He woke up, quite refreshed and said, "I feel much better now." Well, there was no way I was going to let him stay home perfectly healthy, so I took him into school late. When I picked him up later, I asked him how it was to go late. He commented, "Good - I just needed some time off."

He then got the lecture on the importance of going to school...blah, blah, blah...

All About Me

I got tagged, so here we go!

Jobs I've Had
1. Prompt Machine Products - assembly work and Office Manager
2. 24-Hour Fitness - personal trainer
3. Echo Communications - Office Manager
4. Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishing - sales rep

Movies I Could Watch Over and Over
1. Life is Beautiful
2. Gladiator
3. Robin Hood (NOT Men in Tights)
4. Cars

Places I've Lived Since I've Been Married
1. Logan, Utah
2. Millcreek, West Valley, and Sandy, Utah
3. Albuquerque, New Mexico
4.

Places I've Been On Vacation
1. Yellowstone & Jackson Hole
2. Orlando, Florida
3. Flaming Gorge
4. Puerto Rico

Favorite Foods or Dishes
1. Olive Garden- anything
2. Anything chocolate (as long as it doesn't have nuts)
3. Apple Pie
4.

Websites I Visit
1. Everyone's Blogs
2. Peterson Family Forum
3. Craigs List
4. Sugardoodle.net (a great place for church ideas!)

Places I'd Like To Be
1. Utah - still feels like home
2. At the beach
3. California - always a party at mom's house!
4. anywhere I can scrapbook

All right, there ya go. All those who haven't done this yet, you've been tagged!

Back to the Simple Life??

Isn't it amazing that no matter how long you look forward to a vacation - the anticipation, the planning - and no matter what you have done, what you saw, or where you went, when it's over it was just another day?? And how quickly and easy it is to get back in to the routine of things and back into normal life?

The boys picked me up from the airport yesterday after spending the weekend in Logan by myself with my family. We went straight to the Aquarium. Now, the Albuquerque Aquarium is not large - it is, in fact, quite small. But there are cool things to see there and the boys enjoy seeing the sharks and go in hope of seeing the sea turtle. We can usually spend a good hour viewing everything. However, yesterday being Labor Day, I think half of Albuqerque was at the aquarium and so we spent less than 30 minutes there. So we went to the zoo. Albuquerque's zoo is huge and even though we've been there at least a dozen times, I still find something new. We took a different route this time and discovered the tortoises! And the coolest thing is they were up and walking around - probably the most action we ever see at the zoo on a hot day!

Unfortunately, we didn't stay at the zoo for long either because Andrew was beyond tired and we had left his binkie in the car. Rhett and I had gotten a hotdog and Porter and Zach had ice cream. Andrew ended up taking my hotdog and would get upset when I would take it from him to keep it from falling on the grass and to have a bite. Andrew then got a hold of Zach's ice cream and started to eat it, but got even more upset when Zach took it back. Rhett got Andrew his own ice cream cone, but by this time he was so tired and beside himself that he would freak out everytime we would touch it to prevent it from landing on the floor and to have a taste. He finally calmed down enough to eat the ice cream and let me help him hold it. The ice cream got down to cone level and he was feeding it to me - however, he didn't want me to touch it again and to keep me from touching it he would hold the cone up by the side of his head...turning the cone upside down. About the third time he lifted up the cone to get it out of my reach, the ice cream slid out of the cone and onto the ground. This made him upset again and then mean-ol-mom threw away the cone...needless to say, we packed up and left the zoo. I think Andrew was alseep before we left the zoo parking lot.

Anyways, today was just back to normal life - school, kids, cleaning, cooking. And as hectic as it seems, I guess you could call it the simple life. I've done the routine so many times that it doesn't require thought and everything just happens as it had the day before. Every now and then there's a glitch, or variation, or vacation; something that spices things up and gives me something to talk about. I look forward to those occurances - they are what make the routine exciting and then I'm more willing to do the simple things. But I wouldn't have it any other way...

Steph's Weekend Off

Life without kids....fabulous!! I've spent the weekend in Logan for Kate's baby blessing and I haven't felt this free in a long time. I do miss Andrew sniffing my sleeve, Zach screeching yells, and Porter's wild stories about his friend Dan that is coming to our house for his birthday, but I am so grateful to have the weekend off. Thanks to my gracious husband for being willing to take the boys all weekend. After Zach broke his leg I considered taking Andrew with me to make things easier on Rhett, but Rhett replied, "Why? If you can do it, I can, too."

Anyways, I'm new to this blog thing, so you'll just have to forgive my rambling. Please come and visit often and reply as often as you like - We'll keep you posted on all our happenings and events and strange quirks. Happy reading!!