Heart Felt

It's true. I heart felt. (Thanks again Autumn for the lifetime supply.)

It seems to be regaining popularity in the craft world. I don't know if it's because it's made from recylced plastic making it eco-friendly, or because retro style is in, or because it's so easy to work with, or just because it's so freakin' awesome. What ever the reason, I'm diggin' it.

I've hated our stockings for years. I finally did something about it. Feast your eyes upon these babies:
I planned to make them all uniform but the kids were throwing fits. So I quit being a Scrooge and let everyone choose their own (and Gray wanted a monster). I think they look good together anyway. Is it wrong to love them so much? 'Cause I do. I love them so much.

Also from my supply of felt, I give you this:
A snowman kit. I even came up with the idea to turn the top hat into a carry-all drawstring bag. genius, huh?

And in non-felt related news...

We froze our tails off at Wildlights at the Zoo on Friday night. At least half the animals froze their tails off, too...and they actually have tails to freeze off. It was 7 degrees outside. I only took pictures at the indoor exhibits. It was much too cold to stop and take pictures.


As per Christmas Sunday tradition, we got new church clothes. My dress was thrifted. I brought it home white (and dingy) and dyed it red to try and copy this dress which I'm in love with (I even wore leopard print shoes). It wasn't every thing I hoped it would be, but I'm pleased with myself anyway.
I can't tell you what's happening in that picture of me. But I'm telling you honestly, it was the best of the four pictures Spencer took. This is why I don't model professionally...or even amateur-ly.


We built a gingerbread village. Can we still call it gingerbread even though it was made from graham crackers? The kids and I decided we want to move in. Parker even wants to be an architect so he can design houses like that. (Gray has decided upon applesauce maker as a career goal. Parker has promised to eat his applesauce on all his lunch breaks.) Gray took a fist to his house when we told him it was bed time. His house didn't make it to the village.

Spencer and I stayed up long after the kids were in bed trying to out do each other with the best house. There was an obvious winner. See for yourself. That best one? That was mine.

We've had snow for weeks and more is in the forecast. It looks to be a white Christmas on the home front.

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.

A Lazy Parents Guide to Potty Training

Step 1. Resist the urge to potty train when your child is showing signs of readiness at an early age.

Step 2. Make excuses for resistance. IE: We're planing a trip and I don't want to potty train until after the trip, We just had another baby so I'll wait until things settle down, or Arbor Day is coming up and I don't want to be tied down to potty training during all the festivities.

Step 3. Wait.

Step 4. Wait some more.

Step 5. Keep waiting. (The longer you can put it off, the easier it will be.)

Step 6. Bribe your child. Bribery is the secret to every lazy parents success. Skittles for number one. Break out the big guns for number two (blow-pops, ring pops, air heads, trips to McDonalds...whatever appeals to your child.)

Step 7. Eat half the bribery candy yourself. You deserve it. You've been working hard on this potty training business.

Step 8. Take diapers away cold turkey. If you've done this correctly, your child is now old enough to just know how to use the bathroom without any training. They can hold it for at least two to three hours.

***This method is guaranteed. After all, no child will still be in diapers at high school graduation.

Yes, this means Gray is FINALLY potty trained. And yes, he is my third child to potty train at a late age. I used to think my kids were just late bloomers. But by the third late bloomer in a row, I started to think it might be me.

Missing in Action

Action being the key word.

HO-LEE SMOKES! I've been busy. Isn't that how things just seem to go this time of year?

I sing in a community choir. You can make fun of me if you want, but I love it. I've been part of it (on and off) for the past 6 and a half years. The choir has been around for 50-some years. The women range from age 20 up to 70 something. There is one woman who has been in the choir for 50 years, though the majority are young moms. I love the association with all these women. We carpool to all our performances and driving there and back is some of the most fun I have during my week. But Christmas time does keep us really busy with performances. Really, really busy.

Our ward Relief Society put on a Christmas program last night; the theme being Christmas through the years. It was a really nice event. I wrote and acted in the scene from the 1940's and was heavily involved in the costuming for the whole event. In the past week I sewed two Little House on the Prairie costumes and five Dickens Caroler costumes. Actually, when I counted it all up, there were about 20 women in the program and I made 13 of the costumes. Luckily, lots of my costume stash worked well with a few minor adjustments. It's amazing how quickly Princess Leia can turn into Mary.

The rest of the busy-ness is typical hustle and bustle of the season (and of everyday life); events to be at, goodies to bake, shopping to do, a million projects I'm in the middle of all at once. Plus Primary keeps me pretty busy this time of year.

I scratched everything off my list today. For the first time in my life (when I'm not sick or post partum) I got out of the shower and back into my sweats. I'm not really a sweats kinda girl. To me, they'll always be for sleeping or working out. But not today.

I've spent the day catching up on laundry, getting to the bottom of my pile of dirty dishes, and single-handedly clearing out the national disaster left behind from hurricane costume design. Turns out I had a few kids in there. I was wondering where they were when the hurricane hit. I was happy to find them alive.

So much for scratching everything off my list.