Kid happenings.

 I've been trying to come up with a "fun things to do" box for Dozer. Toys are getting old, and he is destroying my house trying to come up with things to do. No joke. Holes in couches, tearing on carpet, dumping soap and shampoo down the drain, emptying toothpaste, dumping pantry ingredients on the floor, breaking toys, cutting things, tearing books. I'm getting a headache thinking about it. . . This has been one simple addition to the box. Bubbles!

Another addition to the box of fun.  Chalk. But I have to be there with him or he wont stay. Which usually isn't a problem unless you have a grumpy 10 mo old.

 This says the spiders crash the race.  haha! Don't know where that came from at all.

 He copied what I drew!  So cute! And good!

 Great entertainment. Turn on the hose a trickle. hours of fun.

 Poor skippy jon jones got a bath.

 This one was funny. I was down stairs working in the basement (almost finished!!!!) Dozer came down and said water please!  I say ok and head up the stairs. AND THERE WAS THE HOSE. What he meant was I-want-to-play-in-the-water-from-the-hose! LUCKILY it was not on. He wouldn't have had a reason to bring it in the house if it was, but i'm still grateful :).

Princess LOVES watching and imitating. Dozer was playing with letters. I know BIG suprise! But it really was a blast from the past because he has not played with them in a really really long time. He moved on to books instead. but he was playing this one time, and she sat herself down behind him to watch! She didn't stay long. I didn't get a chance to take another non-blurry pic.

These are just random things that have been going on around our house. Dozer making messes again. GASP!! I know, nothing new!  Except this one was organized! He liked seeing all the colors.

 This picture is incredible because she stayed asleep like that. She is pretty picky about her sleeping habits.

Things to entertain Princess.  Not much.  She is at the stage where it is hard to entertain!! But this is one shew in. It is to the point that I have to do the dishes when she is asleep. She will throw them all on the ground, lick dirty silverware, and generally be all over everything in the dishwasher. These ones were clean :)

 Dozer can fall asleep most places these days.

Dozer LOVES doing this with Princess :)

Princess did this cute face for a while :) She pursed her lips out real far like saying oooo.

 She is a climber!! She gets up on top of things and gets stuck. But this was only the beginning! She gets up on chairs, beds, almost anything elevated she wants on. She can kind of get on the couch, but she can get off too, so it's not bad. But she can't get off of anything else, so I have to keep a close eye out. 

 my lens was dirty with small finger prints, so this pic is terrible, but it was so cute!  He was wearing my smock for work.

 Cheerios in the hair.

 A good one!  He doesn't like to look at the camera for some reason right now.

And my most recent project! I am super pleased with this one :) I have wanted a better way to store and use my recipes. Until now I would get one out of my book, put the book away, put the card on a recipe holder, and never put it away. So I would end up with 100 cards smashed onto my recipe holder. I would only put them away when I coudn't fit any more onto it! I was thinking a rolodex would be great. It would have been a little easier, but they are $$! Plus they are made for holding business cards. WAY too small to write recipes on. :( I plan on writing to the company to suggest my idea :). Anyway, I looked online for other ways to file recipes, and I found some inspiration! The one I saw was much cuter. But I don't think it could hold many recipes the way it was designed. It was a stand shaped like a T.  The rings the recipes are on slipped over each end of the T. But, with the rod in the center of the stand, the recipe book couldn't swing. So if you were looking at recipe 1 of 200, the weight of the book would all be in front of the rod and seemed like it would topple over.  Maybe the bottom was big enough to prevent it. I don't know. :)  

But here is my design. I used an old picture frame. The frame was on a stand so the whole frame could swing like those old chalk boards.  I took the frame out of the stand. Then I used an old necklace from my sister. I took the chain part and put it through a heavy plastic straw. Then fastened each end of the chain to the top of the stand. I have two small pairs of pliers for jewelry and that made this SO easy.  It had perfect little grooves the chain could fit in. See? The picture isn't very clear, but you can see the chain in the groove. Then I wrapped the straw in ribbon. 

I added the rest of the necklace as bling. And added some ribbon extras. I'm no expert on design, so this was the best I could do :). And I'm no photo expert either. Ignore the dirty desk in the back ground :)

Then I added divider cards and copied all my recipes onto 3x5 cards!  It took a long time to do, but I did it all myself with my own ideas!! It's a big deal for me. These are only a few of the tabs I made.

Tada!!! Finished project! The tabs don't look easy to read, but the blue stands out better than it does in the pictures. What do you think?

Laundry Room Make over

 More projects!!! I designed this counter top to go over my washer and dryer :) It is just a cheap shelf in the back and then a laminate counter top you can buy at lowes in front of it. amazing!! it has literally changed the way I can do my laundry!

The counter top wasn't deep enough to cover the entire top of the washer and dryer, so that is why I added the shelf. It is amazing! 

 This is also in my laundry room. I needed a new coat closet/mud room. I don't have a good one at all still, but this will make do. I put a shelf WAY up high. oops.  Almost too high! I can barely reach the baskets! But that at least mean Dozer can't get into them! They have my scissors, permanents, paint, tape, and craft supplies I don't want him in. (insert evil laugh here.) Then I added some hooks for adults and some for kids. It does make my crampy laundry room a little crampier, but it's ok :)

It really wont be so bad when I can move my garbage and recycle bin out. They are in there right now because Princess throws things away ALL the time!  I have had to dig to the bottom of the yucky trash many times now to find lost toys :(.  

Chicken what?

And the health issues go on in our house :( I swear that I have been in the doctors office 1-3 times a month all year. :( Ear infections, croup, almost pneumonia. and if you have more than one kid, the second one gets what the first one had the next week, and you are back again!!! The nurse there knows us by name. Well, this time it was CHICKEN POX.  I have no idea where they came from. Not one single person that I know has had them recently. And by recently I mean in the last 10 years!! Princess got them first. It started on the back of her neck. It looked like she had on a necklace, and it got yanked which left a red mark. Then it got bigger. and bigger. and crustier. and BIGGER. then it started getting little spots around the first area and started spreading to the fold of skin above it that was touching it. It wasn't getting better at all with neosporin.  Plus there were a few other spots on her tummy that looked suspicious. So I took her in. again. And the doctor said text book chicken pox!! They don't get the vaccine until they turn 1, so she just missed the mark :(. It got so bad on her neck. It was one HUGE open weepy, crusty sore.  Seriously as big as a baseball. She didn't seem to mind too much though. she acted pretty normal and slept normal. She is pretty cranky anyway, but at least it wasn't worse. But Dozer had had the vaccine so I thought he would be safe.  NO. He wasn't. The pic of her is before the worst. She had them as bad as he did.

His is also before the worst. He didn't get more, they just got bigger. And crustier. They look awful. And when I touch him I can feel them through his shirt they are so big. :(

This poor area here on his back is the hardest because it is right under his pants. I have had to put a large gauze pad with tape on him to cover it. :( He has handled it pretty good, but not as good as princess did. He wakes up in the night crying saying they itch.  He doesn't like to get changed or dressed.  but he doesn't like to look at them either. I think they kinda scare him. :(  poor guy. so much for that vaccine! And what do you know, I got them, too!! I have never had them, so I got the vaccine a while back. I only got 3 though. 

BUSY Summer.

July and August have been really busy for us!  I went home during the summer to help my daddy farm :)  I can't explain the beautiful feeling I get when I'm home on the farm :). These are from the swather. So they are bad because 1-the window was dirty and 2-because my cell camera sucks.

Dozer asleep on the ride up there :) And Dozer looking at the pigs at the fair!  This one was extra curious about the people walking around and Dozer loved letting it touch his hand!  He would NOT hold still! He had such a fun time during the short time we spent at the fair. We didn't go on any rides, but he didn't seem interested. I figured this year was the last year I can get away with not going on rides! We had a snow cone, drink, food, saw all the animals, and he loved that children's play area! Fun! 

My little sister is in the theater program in rock springs, and my mom and I went to go see one of her performances!! It was SO funny! I am SO glad I went to see it! Not that I wouldn't have wanted to see it, it's just hard to travel with little kids. And I didn't know what to do with them or how they would sleep or how they would act. But my sister's sweet sweet room mate watched them for me during the performance so I could watch. And they slept better than I thought they would that night! Huge plus!

The story is about a young shoe salesman who is about to inherit $4 mil. But in order to get it he has to take his uncle's body (whom he has never met) to Monte Carlo. The dead guys wife (my sister) is trying to find them to steal the money back! This guy in the picture is the dead uncle. He didn't crack a smile the WHOLE TIME. Even when they left him onstage during intermission!! All the people were going and taking pictures of themselves with him. Everyone was cracking up. We added princess and got a lot of good laughs :) SO FUN!!!

 We stayed in their dorm that night. This is the next morning. Princess climbed up on my sis and got stuck between the cushions. AND SAT THERE! If you know her at all, SHE DOESN"T SIT. So it was a big deal.

Then I had my high school reunion.  10 YEARS?! Really?? It was a hard thing to wrap my head around!  It was simple, but I was so glad I went! I got to see a ton of people I hadn't seen in a long time! It was even better because a bunch of us (grads and spouses) all went to college together. So the spouses were having the reunion too! Fun fun times! It was a little sad because some of the people I haven't seen in a long time are dear friends. And I probably wont see them for a long time again :(. That made it hard to say goodbye. 

The next weekend we had our annual family party at my grandma's house :) this year themed cowboys and indians.  I made these costumes!! I was pretty impressed with myself.

We did family pics, played games all night, played at the park, FOOD, FOOD, FOOD, and star gazed. :)  I love my family so much. It really is such a cherished event that makes so many memories. 

THEN we went to Bear Lake the very next weekend!!! It was the most PERFECT day I have ever been to Bear Lake!  It was high 80s, slight to no breeze, NO clouds, calm water. PERFECT!  We were in the water ALL DAY LONG. Dozer was having the time of his summer!  He usually darts and runs away ALL the time, but he stayed close! He didn't wander out into the water too bad either! He was wearing a life jacket, but still. He's not that great of a swimmer. We went out on the boat, I took Dozer on the tube, we dove off the side, swam around. It was beautiful. It will be hard to top that day. 

my hubby has most of the pics on his phone because the batteries in my camera died :(.  Here is Princess with her cousin K. CUTIES!!