Secret

Remember when I posted about a secret Valentine's Day project for Jim? Well, it is not that sweater vest. I will never make that sweater vest. I think it would take me 5 years to make it, and like my sister said, global warming would probably have set in by the time I finished it, rendering the sweater vest useless.

A little known fact about me is that I cannot keep a secret, especially in regards to gift giving. I just can't. Every year my sister and I tell each other exactly what we got the other for Christmas and birthdays. We kind of like it that way.

Anyway, I ended up telling Jim about my secret project. Hand knitted socks. Socks are very hard because you have to use super tiny needles. He has been asking me for awhile to make him socks, but they always seemed too hard. But I decided to give it a try in the ultimate declaration of love: socks. This was going to be my master piece of knitting, only the color of the yarn wasn't working out. Which is why I had to tell him about the socks. I didn't want to make him socks if he didn't like the color. I could tell he didn't like the color after I showed it to him, but honestly I wasn't crazy about it either.

I can keep knitting in the slightly girly organgeish/brownish color that I mistakenly thought was Saffron (Jim's favorite color, although apparently saffron is bright orange, which I didn't really know.) I can add in some brown stripes (suggested by a friend). Or I can turn them into spiral leg warmers for myself and start over with a safe grey or black yarn for Jim's socks.

Being a child of the 80s, I secretly want to have a reason to wear leg warmers on a regular basis.

New Years Resolution

My new years resolution for 2010 is to make February a fun month. February starts tomorrow and I am still not entirely sure how I am going to do this. I turn 30 on March 1, I have 29 days left to be 29. Now this could be very depressing, or it could not (so I'm told). I WILL make this month spectacular (any suggestions??)

I thought I would reminisce this month from major events in my 20s.

In my 20s I lived in a

-dorm room

- first apartment

- first apartment with Jim

- town house

- married student housing

- rental single family house

- our first home that we own with a lawn to mow

From dorm room to property it was a good decade for moving up the ranks in housing options.

On an entirely different note....

This weekend we were sick. Lilly and I had a sick day and stayed home. Since we were sick I decided that the best medicine for sickness is homemade chicken noodle soup. It is the best medicine IF 1) someone else makes it for you 2)it's not your first time making it 3) it's not your first time attempting your own pasta 4)you don't have a huge mess to clean up after. Jim came home from church to the rescue and cleaned up after my cooking catastrophe while I napped. Maybe sleep is the best medicine.

New Trend

Hopefully you will continue to indulge me with my new trend of adorable (I don't think I am biased) baby pictures and knitting updates. My mom and my sister really love them (and so do I).


Here is the hat I finally made for my sister. After a great amount of research and other hats made and unmade for her I finished this slouchy star cable beret (modeled by Lilly). I got the pattern off of ravelry.com, made with 100% Merino wool (very soft - not itchy).

Picture

I was attempting to take some pictures of Jackson in his Beatles onesie, when a sad little 4 year old kept sticking her head in every shot. (You can see her elbow in each of the pictures above) Every single time I take pictures of Jack - Lilly sticks her head in. Each time I have to tell her that I want to take just a few of Jackson and then she can join in, and each time she is sad by it. So here are a bunch of shots with Lilly jumping in to the picture at the last minute.

Knitting Update

Lilly's birthday was a lot of fun. We went to Chocolate world and had a wonderful time, I really love Chocolate world. Thank you Hershey!

4 is already a much better age than 3. No kidding. She woke up at 5 am today and had no tantrums all day, amazing. I am loving 4. As my mom said "She has turned an emotional corner." Every day she tells me how much she loves Jackson and that he is her child and her favorite. When I say "Lilly, I love you." She says "And I love Jackson."

I knitted a baby cocoon for my friend who likes photography, so hopefully she can get some cute(r) baby pictures. It is meant for a new born and not for an almost 13lb baby, as you can see Julia is a much better fit. (I couldn't resist stuffing Jackson into what I now call a baby stuff sack)

I am currently working on a bunch of hats because I can't escape my obsessive need to make hats. I am also working on a secret Valentine's day project for Jim which may or may not be this sweater vest that I found on whipup.net.

She's 4!

This week

Lilly is having a birthday tomorrow, I can't believe an entire year has gone by. I am still not over her 3rd birthday so I said no parties this year. However, I had so much guilt over it that I ended up planning another 4 day extravaganza. (This might read like "If you give a mouse a cookie")

I baked mini cupcakes for Lilly's preschool and had batter left over so I made regular cupcakes, but no sprinkles left. I needed something to fill those white cupcakes with.

That led me to the discussion of what kind of cake to have for Lilly. She has been telling me for a month or two that she wanted a monster cake. I didn't think she was really committed to the monster idea, so I looked up pictures of princess cakes, etc. We looked up a ton of cakes online and she still wanted a monster cake. I did a google image search and found a cake from "Where the Wild Things Are". She said that was the cake she wanted, so I agreed. I found an easy recipe for fondant, and made my first cake with fondant. Hooray for easy fondant! I of course had to make matching cupcakes (also copied from online).

Mission Completion!

My blog book arrived in it's completed published state. Major check mark off my to do list.

How is your weekend looking? I keep adding more and more things to my schedule so that I don't have to do laundry or housework. I am up to my eye balls in laundry, I really don't understand where all the clothes and towels come from. Do you ever have those days where there are no clean clothes or towels left so you have to use a wash cloth as a towel? Not me, just thought maybe you had those days.

As of this morning I have managed to plan a pizza party tonight a day trip tomorrow and possibly dinner guests on Sunday. All that stuff is way more fun than my chores. Sigh, I hate the word chores. I am going to come up with a new word to replace chores to make me happy. Any suggestions?

I came up with a new resolution: Have a Happy February! I really dislike February, and this year I am going to do something fantastic every day to make it less dreary.

Well have a happy weekend and here are some more adorable pictures of my babies that I snapped earlier in the week:

How do you spend your mornings?

Wednesday

Jackson had his check up today, he is rolling right along, already 11 weeks. He is healthy and happy. He got his shots today. He screamed and looked right at me with a look that said "why are you letting this happen to me??" That's my least favorite look.

Lilly has started saying "Jackson, you smell like a roast!" I didn't know where this was coming from, but I realized that she says it every time he spits up. It kind of makes me not want to eat roast anymore. I thought that she might be trying to say "gross" but she said "gross" quite clearly yesterday and then commented on the roast smell from Jack.

Lilly makes me laugh every day. Yesterday I was on the phone with my neighbor when I looked into the living room to see Lilly throwing handfuls of nuts into the air. I did that whole snapping, evil look because I am the phone thing, and she just looked at me and started dancing. After I got off the phone I told her she needed to pick up the nuts right away. She told me she couldn't because she was pretending they were flowers to dance on.

Did anyone see Oprah on Monday? I happened to catch it and it was about this family being stripped down of their electronics to get more connected as a family. I instantly decided I needed to try the 7 day - 0 electronics challenge. I'm not sure when I will actually follow through....but I want to do it soon. I told Lilly about it and she said "But Mommy, I love TV!" That's when I knew it needed to be done.

I have been thinking long and hard about resolutions and I am not quite sure if I will do any this year. Mostly I need to recover from 2009 - new house, move, new baby, etc. I have a really long to-do list, maybe that will count. I have an even longer to-do list for Jim. Aren't I helpful?

Super Saturday

After a week of no sunshine and snow I was not about to spend a sunny, yet bitterly cold, Saturday in the house. We went to Lilly's dance performance at a nursing home, visited the yarn shop to start a new project, and then went to Sam's club. I was gone from 10am to 8pm, it was great! Some days I need to be out and the family came with me (even to the yarn shop).

I love the yarn shop and they are so great to us. Lilly plays in the back with the toys, the grandma's hold Jack, and Jim sits in the rockers and talks while I pick out projects. Don't I have a great husband?

Lilly was a little nervous for her first Dance performance, but she did great!

Yesterday I put Jack into the same onesie that Lilly wore when she was a baby. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Hat for Jack

I finished the hat for Jackson. My fourth completed knitting project (all four hats). I guess I should try something other than a hat. Although this is my first project with stripes and two different colors of yarn. I made it size 3-6 months and it is pretty big on him. His head should fit it by summer, just in time to keep him toasty warm. (He was sleeping very nicely until I woke him up to try the hat on him and then take pictures of the hat on him.)

Blog Book

I finally published my blog into a book. I have been working on this for a year or so, and by working I mean thinking about how one day I want to publish my blog into a book. It actually did take several hours of editing, but I finished it and ordered it earlier in the week! I have all of 2008 and 2009 blog entries and pictures in a book, I am really excited about it. It makes me want to do better about updating my blog so I have more memories.

So Here is my 2010 first week of the year in review:

Sunday: We blessed Jackson at our church and it was beautiful. We had a great showing of friends and family with minimal picture taking on my part. I didn't even get any pictures of Jack in his outfit or the special blanket that has been used in my family for three generations. Don't worry though - fake blessing day photo shoot coming soon.

Monday: Started thinking about all the resolutions I wanted to make, but due to fear of commitment and change did not write them down.

Tuesday: Went shopping at Boscovs and got cute Christmas plates on clearance for .49 a piece (originally 5.99 a piece). Naturally, I bought 20. Then I hit the after Christmas sale at Target and got some deals with their 90% off sale. I love sales.

Wednesday: Went to a play group in the morning.

Thursday: After a super long day I escaped to the yarn shop to start a new hat for Jackson. I am really excited about it!

Friday: It snowed all day and we didn't leave the house much. I Put away my .49 plates in my Christmas box. Then Lilly and I walked to subway to get dinner in the snow. It was our very own snow adventure. Fun after a day being locked inside!

While this might be dull for some, I know I will appreciate it when I make another blog book in 2-3 years!

2009 in review

(click on the collage to see it bigger)

At the end of each year I make a sort of year book for my family with all the major events in our lives. This year I want to do a year in review of the little moments that didn't make it on this blog or in my year book. You all know about the major events like a new house and baby, but here are the smaller events that you never saw.

January - Lilly, Jim, and I spent a late afternoon/evening sledding down the insane hill next to our house. Lilly ate the snow and I took rides on the sled by myself.

February - Lilly dressed herself and usually involved lots of accessories and dress up clothes. I found out I was pregnant at the end of the month.

March - Jim and Lilly invented a rock game with a bag of rocks that my Aunt Sheryl from Idaho gave her. They played for hours, I don't remember anything about the game other than being really impressed that they invented it.

April - In the thick of morning sickness Lilly was mostly left to entertain herself, which she did very well. She really played with all of her toys and dolls. One day I was throwing up in the bathroom and she came in, looked at me on the floor and said "Mom, I want some cheese balls." Then went back to lining up her dolls in a row.

May - When we visited with Johnny in April we realized that Lilly and Johnny were almost the same size (despite the two year age difference). Lilly confiscated these PJs from Johnny (size 18 months) and wore them every night until she couldn't squeeze into them anymore (we saved them for Jackson). Johnny in turn wore Lilly's bathing suit every day until Jessamyn hid it from him (although that was later in the summer).

June - This picture was supposed to be our "look we bought a house" photo, but everyone was exhausted and grumpy and this was what we got.

July - When we went to the beach Lilly and Jim played for hours in the sand while I hid under the umbrella reading.

August - In this picture Lilly had just finished dressing herself for our big outing to the neighboring town for shopping. Nothing matches and it's priceless.

September - Jim's apple pie did get top billing on my blog, but I never mentioned that it took me a solid 3 days to clean up from the totally homemade apple pie. We have yet to take on that adventure again since the massive clean up. I need to buy one of those plastic pie making sheets that you can just wash off.

October - I spent most of my time in the hospital with Jackson alone, just the two of us. He slept 4 hours at a time and I fretted like any new mother did only to regret it later when he woke up every 2 hours!

November - After almost 4 years in her convertible crib Lilly got a twin mattress. This was a picture of her sitting on her new bed for the first time ever, she was thrilled and I was a little sad that she really was a baby no more.

December - I was able to get a few pictures of Lilly and Jack wearing hats that I made. These hats took hours of work and they only wore them for 2 minutes, they both hated them. At least they look happy in them for the picture.