toesies

4

Wednesday, April 29


aren't these two of the most precious sets of toes you have ever seen?
by the way, pickup those bumbos and place these friends in some sand and, ta da, you have our plan to entertain these two while at the beach. disastrous?? we hope not! but, if you can offer any advice on traveling to the beach with a 4 month old and a 5 month old, please, please, please share!!

ride little pony

1

Tuesday, April 28

i've had several questions about the stick horses we made for miller's birthday party, so i thought why not do a tutorial! when i decided to make these, i searched the internet for help and then combined all the ideas i found to create this stick horse. i wanted it to be safe for the age group (mostly 2-4 year olds) and look like a horse (apparently not a prerequisite for everyone). so, to make one of these cute little guys, you will need the following:

a stick (i used a 3/4" dowel, but if you had a mop or broom handle, you could cut it down)
a tennis ball
a boat load of stuffing
a sock
seam binding, ribbon, ricrac, or the like
hot glue gun
buttons
felt
needle & thread & scissors

let's begin!
cut an X in the tennis ball and place it on the end of the stick.
this is to prevent someone from loosing an eye when the stick horses turn into swords, or when unsuspecting babies get caught in the line of fire.
fill your sock with lots o' stuffing until you reach the heel.
place stuffing around the tennis ball and shove (because you cannot do this gingerly) inside the sock. then, continue stuffing until you like the way it looks.
it should look something like this.
i cut the band of the sock off and used double sided tape to secure the sock for the next step. 
then, i hot glued seam binding (or whatever you want) around and around to secure the sock to the stick.
viola!
before the party, i sketched the mane for bullseye from the dvd case and then created a pattern. i folded a piece of felt in half and cut around the pattern to make this crazy tribal looking thing. then, i drew and cut some triangular shaped ears. (sorry there is no picture of the ears.)
at the party, each child picked a mane, 2 ears and some eyes (buttons) and i (and some crafty friends) whip stitched them to the sock. i began stitching the mane at the center of the heel and followed it down the tube. the ears were stitched about an inch away from the mane on either side. i pinched the triangle together and sewed it at the center of the heel. (warning: the phrase blood, sweat and tears may be applied here. pinching the ears together makes it a little difficult to sew through.) and, the eyes are tied on with embroidery thread.
addy is helping model her horse to show the placement of the pieces. once they were finished, we all agreed that they needed bridles. so, we grabbed the ribbon bin and started gluing.
to create the bridle, we glued two circles around the nose. then, we glued one long piece of ribbon or ricrac on the second piece of ribbon from one side to the other (see above photo.) and, finally . . .
ride 'em, cowboy (and cowgirls)!

he said

3

Saturday, April 25


"i need a magazine."

tagged times 8

0

Friday, April 24

i was tagged by jennifer. so, here goes:

8 things i am looking forward to:
1. going to the beach!
2. having clean clothes

isn't she pretty?? i think she needs a name . . .
3. teaching in the fall
4. watching my girls become best friends

not a great picture, but i love the way carter is looking at spencer
5. having josh home during the week (when he is a big wig wedding photographer)
7. buying another house (hopefully, in a better school district and with all our non-negotiables)
8. hanging out with my kids as adults when they are their own person 


8 things i did yesterday:
(written on thursday)
1. finally put the flowers josh bought for me in water
2. finally started to tackle the laundry heap on the counter

just keeping it real!
3. watch 2 episodes of gilmore girls on abc family (ahh, we are back to season 5, girls!)
4. cut three sets of finger nails (none of which were mine)
5. only drank one diet coke (it's an earth day miracle!)
6. ate lunch outside with my kids and my mom
8. changed a ridiculous amount of diapers (ugh!)

too bad he couldn't do them all!


8 things i wish i could do:
1. heal miller's skin
2. live in nyc 
3. play the guitar
4. have legs like this

seriously
5. wouldn't mind being able to sing like her either
6. bring back gilmore girls (or at least have it end correctly!)

Align Center
oops! that's not a picture of lorelei & rory
oh, ooh! that's not either. well, at least you have some eye candy now.
7. twitch my nose like sam to do, well, just about anything
8. know my grandmother who passed away when i was two


8 shows i enjoy:
1. gilmore girls (oh, i miss you so!)
2. one tree hill (drama!)
3. gossip girl (i know, i am not in high school, but it is my soap opera)
4. how i met your mother 
5. friends (most quotable tv show ev-a!)
6. the office
7. lost 
8. american idol 

8 bloggy friends i tag:

waiting on the world

5

Thursday, April 23

i usually don't discuss political issues on here, but some of the things i have heard this week astound me. let me preface this by saying, josh banned me from the local news several years ago. we have never watched it regularly, but when we did catch an episode, he said i could talk about a thirty minute episode for three months. he was right. the information shocks me to the core. if you live in memphis, you know that the local news begins with the last 3 or 4 homicides from the day and then moves onto something like tennessee's ridiculous solution to correcting the problem of unpaid child support. (do you really think that people who are already breaking the law by not paying child support care if you revoke their driver's license? i don't think so!) 

then, last week, josh left me stranded on the couch nursing while bill o'reilly was on. it just so happened to be wednesday, so dennis miller was on for his weekly comedic relief of the nation's crazy antics. the biggest topic was why we (the u.s.) cannot use the term "terrorist" even to describe the worst political criminals, but we throw the term "pirate" around like peter pan and the lost boys. 

yesterday, it happened again. but this week, a few more stupid mishaps have occurred. first, the drama over miss usa. since when did your personal opinion determine whether or not you win a beauty pageant. and, what attributes qualify perez hilton as a judge in any pageant, other than maybe the drag queen of the year. this has caused a bigger uproar than watching toddlers in tiaras get spray tanned!

next, they discussed a new British study that says obesity is bad for the environment. they interviewed a girl (in her early 20s) who works to prevent childhood obesity who said that obese people who eat more than their body needs are causing others to subsidize them. they discussed how the government in all their love for the earth may choose to tax obese people or credit the physically elite. are you kidding me? how did we get here?

hundreds of years ago, the pilgrims came to america to escape religious persecution and now we are taxing the obese and requiring that you believe in same-sex marriage. really? REALLY? 

i told josh watching these channels may cause me to loose my mind. well, at least what is left after birthing 3 children in 4 years. if i watched this stuff every day, i would be huddled in the fetal position  waiting for the world to implode. am i the only momma out there who chooses not the be politically aware? 

my name's woody

6

Monday, April 20

over the past few months each time we have asked miller about his birthday party, he would say he wanted a woody party, so a woody party he got.

the invitation complete with stitching and bandana fabric

the birthday boy as woody
i made his shirt from a white button down, sunflower yellow rit dye and a red paint pen.
my mom made the vest and my dad spray painted a plastic badge silver.

his sister as jessie
once again, my mom used heat n bond to create jesse's shirt and chaps. and, i added the details with a red paint pen.

party activities included:

a table of army men,

a table of potato heads,

and a gold dig.


we were going to have pizza for lunch, but when the birthday boy fell the day before his party and bit through his tongue, pizza was a no go. so, we decided on hotdogs. (did i mention he woke up at 1 am wheezing with a barking cough and was diagnosed with croup minutes before people began to arrive for his party?) but, that didn't stop him from enjoying the yummy chocolate cake he requested!




and, the other activity was creating a stick horse from a sock and a dowel. i put the stick and the sock together and cut out the mane and ears in advance. then, when each child arrived, they chose the mane, ears and eyes they wanted and we whip stitched it together. we then decided no horse is complete without a bridle, so we added those as well.


so, once they were all finished, we had to see how fast they could race, right?



ride em, cowboy!

i think he had fun, whattaya think?

spotted

2

Sunday, April 19

carter flitting through the house wearing butterfly wings and miller following after with his new binoculars.

then, carter appearing in the mirror with a straw in her mouth saying, "this is my long tongue i use to eat from flowers."


3

6

Friday, April 17

he is 3 today. at 12:59 pm, to be exact. 


he was my most difficult labor. he was our largest baby (weight & length). he was our most difficult baby (to this point, spencer may change her mind). 


he has a great sense of humor. he has the most giving heart. he has a very mathematical mind.


he loves me like no one else loves me. it is so true what they say about boys and their mommas. 


he loves cookie monster, woody from toy story, hot blue (name he made up for royal blue, equilavent to his sister's favorite color, hot pink.), cheese, blueberries, milk, pockets and his sisters.

he loves these pants (would wear them everyday) and giraffes and rain boots. 
he loves reading books, putting together puzzles and building with blocks.

he runs everywhere. 



i love to hear him pronounce words like william & binoculars. i love the way he misuses pronouns and starts many sentences with " i no want . . "


he is precious to us. he stole our hearts that day three years ago and we couldn't imagine the world without him. happy birthday, buddy! we love you!


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