Pages

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Craftiness!

So I got a little crafty last week and made a new diaper bag for the Moose. And the best part? It cost me less than $7 and all I needed was an iron! Pretty stinking cute, if I do say so!

Supplies:
Boat Tote $3.98 (after 50% coupon) Jo-Ann Fabric
Iron-on Letters $0.50 ($0.10 each on clearance) Michael's
Iron-on Fabric Boat applique $0.99 (on sale) Jo-Ann Fabric

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1. I really wish it would stop raining/drizzling/being cold. I must have said the words "NOT IN THE HOUSE..." at least 74 times in the last 72 hours. This was usually preceded by a ball flying through the living room or being dunked on a Nerf hoop (which was NOT designed for real basketballs). Momma needs the boys need to spend some time playing outside.

2. Bryce had his big debut in "The Lion King" on Friday. It was wildly entertaining. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. The kids did a great job and looked very cute on stage.
(Photos courtesy of Aunt Bobbi-although she claims they weren't her best work, they are 10,000 times better than how mine turned out.)




3. Jarron had zero interest in preforming in the play but was eager to film the whole thing. So we reluctantly handed over the camcorder. At one point I saw him panning over the lighted sign near the front of the stage a la Steven Spielberg. He also appeared to have 2 or 3 friends following him around, acting as his "sound crew". About 2/3rds of the way through, he came running over, yelling, "Dad, Dad, I ran out of footage, what should I do?" Oh boy. He also asked me later if the camcorder recorded sound. When I asked why, he looked at the ground and said, "No reason, well, I might have said a few things about the acting in the play as I was filming." Oh boy. I'm going to take some Dramamine before I attempt to watch that one.

4. The medium sized kid finally got his yellow belt this past Thursday. Later that night, he said, "Now I can fight people. Are you scared of me, Mommy? Now that I can beat you up?" Hee. Yup, sure am.

5. The Moose has been talking up a storm lately. Adding new words on a daily basis. This weekend was the best though. Chuck was holding the remote to the TV (which Moosey LOVES to play with) and when he wouldn't let him have it, Moose said quite clearly, "Awww Man!" Love it. He definitely knows what it means because he spent most of the weekend using it in context. "Awwww Man!" I will try to capture that on tape because, really, it's priceless.

6. So Bryce's class is doing this project for Mother's Day involving a favorite recipe, which we had to write down and send in. Our conversation went a little something like this:
Me: "What's your favorite thing that I make?"
Bryce: "Definitely your brownies!"
Me: "Hmmmnnnn, I make those from a box mix, we can't put that. What else?"
Bryce: "Pizza"
Me: "Also from a box, usually one that's been frozen, what else?"
Bryce: "I don't know....spaghetti"
Me: "Well, ummm, that is also from, ummmm, a box" (by now I'm feeling awesome)
Bryce: (who is now thoroughly frustrated) "Is there anything that you make that doesn't come from a box????"
Me: (really thinking): Ummmm....hamburgers?
Bryce: "Fine, hamburgers are my favorite, I'm gonna go play basketball now."

Yeah, you can go ahead and send that "Mother of the Year" award right on over. Sigh.

7. I am seriously considering moving all of my scrapbooking gear out of the office to the basement-despite the fact that there is no carpet and that the bathroom down there is basically in pieces. The scrapbook room is nearly finished-it's painted and has awesome lighting, it just needs carpet. But I think I might just throw a cheapo rug on the floor and call it good. I just can't seem to get much scrapping done upstairs near the boys' rooms. Anyone out there craft in their basement? Thoughts?

8. Have I mentioned how happy I am that we are not playing soccer or baseball this spring? Because really, I had forgotten how nice it is to wake up on Saturdays and not have to rush around looking for a missing uniform or try to come up with a snack at the last minute.

9. I really need to go get my eyes examined-I'm down to my last pair of contacts. You'd think given my employer that I would be on top of that, but not so much.

10.A couple of weeks ago when Chuck was mowing the lawn, he found not one, but two rabbit's nests in our yard. Tonight I came home to find this in our gas grill....

Yup, a big old bird's nest. It's not as if we haven't used the grill in years; I fired it up a just a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, I feel like we are living on the set of an Animal Planet show. Who knows what wild creature will decide our backyard is the perfect place to raise a family next? :)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1. I'm multi-tasking tonight, watching Idol and blogging all at once-I have to say so far, Idol is a bit boring. Chuck just informed me that his inspirational song choice would have been "Eye of the Tiger". I don't think he was kidding.


2. This weekend we had the Awana Grand Prix at church. We know going in that we won't be taking home any design or speed awards and we tell the boys in advance that it's all about having fun. At one point, Jackson came to me and said, "I'm tired of having fun, I want to win." Hee. Maybe next year kiddo. They definitely had fun though. And honestly, their cars looked pretty good and were pretty fast.
A gaggle of Lakes boys, ready to race.


3. Of course when you are competing with Don Lakes for a design award, you have very little hope of winning. Seriously, I think Don and his boys have won for the last 10 years or something crazy. The only shock was this year he won for speed and not design in one division.
(You should double click on this picture and take a closer look at that car-amazing!)

I swear that Andrew was happy-that is his picture taking smile. Love that kid.

4. We had to replace one of the headlights on the Honda today. I grabbed the manual and did 75% of the work before Chuck got there; I'm ridiculously proud of that. I'm not a helpless girl, I can change lightbulbs! :)

5. The twins got a ton of UFC action figures for their birthday. I crack up every time I see them having the Chuck Lidell figure fight the Rashad Evans figure. My kids are so cool.

6. For the past month I've been telling people that Moose is 19 months old, when in fact, he won't be 19 months old until Thursday. I'm a super awesome mom sometimes. Sigh.
This is Moosey and his friend Sami, who is a few days older than him. He looks so big here!

7. Our neighborhood is having a yard sale May 1st. We'll be participating-email me and I'll give you the details.

8. This picture cracks me up...
As does this one...

9. Jackson definitely promoted to yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do, he just hasn't received the belt yet. But he is already starting his yellw belt training-he was learning a punch/kick/kick combo tonight, I was very impressed.

10. Last week I made 3 batches of brownies, one for us and one for each of twins' classes to celebrate their birthday. Unfortunately, I made the birthday brownies in disposible pans and they cooked very, very uneven. The edges were hard--like, could be used as weapons, rock hard and the middle was practically raw. Awesome. So Friday morning, I had to call a bunch of different bakeries to find one that could make 5 dozen cupcakes in a matter of 3 hours. All's well that ends well-I tracked down some cupcakes and the boys were so happy to see me bring them in on their lunch break. Sometimes being a mom is the hardest job ever, but seeing their faces light up like that? Makes it totally worth it.
Have a great week!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Momma Needs a New Camera Strap...

Do you?
I know I do-and the very talented Rebecca Cooper, scrapbooker and photographer, is giving one away...
Check it out here:
simple as that

I'll be back tomorrow with Ten on Tuesday...I'm back in the blogging swing o'things! :) 

Friday, April 16, 2010

Nine Years!

I can't believe I am the mom of two nine year olds. As I said last year, it seems like just yesterday that we brought them home from the hospital, completely clueless. And here we are nine years later, with two of the kindest, sweetest, most amazing nine year olds that I know.
I love that they still let me hug them and give them kisses goodnight, I love that they still want me to come visit them at school, and that they want to be around Chuck and I as much as possible. I know those days are numbered and I am cherishing them while I can. But I can't help but look back at the last nine years and see how far we've come, how much they've grown, and be anything but proud. Happy birthday Bryce and Jarron, thank you for making each year better than the last.
Here's a little peek into those years...

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Ten on Thursday

1. Mixing it up a little bit, trying to keep you all on your toes. Betcha didn't expect a "Ten on Thursday" post did you? (Or one at all, the way I've been blogging?!?)

2. The medium sized kid had his first belt competition this past weekend. I was very nervous for him-even more so when I saw the hundreds of white outfitted Tae Kwon Do-ers ready to compete.

But he did great-he even broke the board with his fighting stance kick. So proud of the medium sized guy!

3. I am at war with my sewing machine. I know many of you are saying to yourselves, "What sewing machine? Christina has a sewing machine??? Whaaaaat?!?" A few years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to sew, so Chuck very thoughtfully got me a sewing machine.
And it sat on a sewing table for a couple of years, then my Mom borrowed it and it was actually put to use. And then recently, it's sat in my basement waiting for me to get the urge to try it out. Fast forward to this weekend, when after a series of very unfortunate events, I was forced to sew a costume for Bryce's upcoming play. Ha. How hard could it be, I thought. I went Joann's bought an easy peasy "under two hours" pattern and started cutting material and pinning it according to the instructions. By this point, I was feeling VERY confident-so confident that I thought, two hours-I'll do this in an hour, easy. And then I pulled out the sewing machine. Did you know you have to thread that thing? And that there's something called a bobbin and that is very very important to the process? Yeah, I didn't either. I had to download the manual for the sewing machine from the internet (EIGHTY PAGES, people! I was freaking out), and then I attempted to thread the thing. 45 minutes later I finally made my first attempt at sewing a seam. Oh boy. Let's just say it's a good thing it's an animal print costume and that he'll be on stage-because those seams aren't pretty.  After at least 4 different rethreadings, 2 untangles of the bobbin thingy, 1 needle that just randomly fell out, and at least 2 1/2 hours of frustration, the costume was finally done. Well, it would work for dress rehearsal, and my mom can fix all of my mistakes.
But now? It is on. I will conquer that sewing machine, I will learn to sew. You wait and see.
Yup, I made him model it so I could take a picture, he was super happy.

4. This is my nephew Keaton-I have 3 words for you-Nick. Nolte. Mugshot. Go on, google it. I'll wait.


5. My brother has a blog- Stuff My Sons Say- and he is way funnier than me (although his humor is a bit more raw than mine). I'm trying not to be jealous but I kind of am. Of course, I am way more awesome than he is at about a million other things, so it all averages out. :)

6. Have you ever tried to take a picture of four boys in Easter outfits ranging in age from 18 months to 8 years and they wanted no part of it? This is what it looks like....
(The Moose was really very unhappy about the whole thing-I have no pictures of him in his Easter outfit-awesome.)

7. However, Moosey is very happy when chocolate chip cookies appear. Very, very happy.

8. Jarron is fully recovered from his various accidents and injuries and is ready for summer and all the adventures that come with it. I am not ready-I am still recovering from all of his various injuries and accidents. I would like for him to become a couch potato but clearly, that is not going to happen.

9. Bryce is making his theatrical debut in the Fairfield East Elementary School's production of Lion King nest Friday night at 6:30. He will be portraying, Banzai, the lead hyena. If you can, please come out and support him-admission is FREE! :)

10. Check back tomorrow-the twins turn NINE years old!! I'll be posting a little birthday tribute. :)