Cute Things Tyler Says (Part One)

Maybe I should title this post Cute Things Tyler Does...since most of his cute things right now are non-verbal.  He gives great hugs!  But this was a noise he made this morning, so the title stays. 

Tyler was lying in his bed this morning having his bottle, very nicely letting me get a couple of more minutes of sleep...when all of a sudden he started blowing bubbles into his milk.  What is it about bubbles and milk that make kids feel the need to do it?  Both of the girls blow bubbles through their straws into their milk cups.  I'm amazed that Tyler figured that out already at 8 1/2 months!

Saturday Snapshot ~ Sleeping Cutie

Because I have so much time on my hands....

I've decided to make a rug for the girl's room.  Latch hook.  Out of old t-shirts that I have to find, buy, and then cut up into tiny pieces.  It's going to take forever.  Good thing I like a challenge!  I was telling friends about it today, and they wanted a picture when I was done.  Since that might be awhile, I was told to take a picture now.  I came home and counted my rows.  I've done 5 in two days.  It takes about 2 hours for me to do two rows. 

I'm really excited to see the finished project.  It's looking really good so far!  I don't have a set pattern for colors, I just put all of my pieces in a bag, then without looking I pull one out.  I find I'm less anal that way about it being perfect.  The colors I picked were white, pink, and teal.  (The colors of the girl's room)  So...if any of my wonderful readers ~ especially the ones that know me ~ have t-shirts that they wouldn't mind getting cut up, let me know, I'll take them off your hands!  Oh, one more thing...guess where I found this idea?  ;)

The rug will be this big when it's finished.  What a long way I have left to go!

Close-up of the colors

A public service announcement to hitchhikers

If you are my mother or my mother-in-law and you are reading this: please do not be afraid that I am going to go out and pick up the first hitchhiker I see.  I'm not.   I do however think I know what they could do to get picked up more often.

Have you ever driven down the highway and seen a hitchhiker standing on the side of the road, thumb out?  I have.  Multiple times.  And I've always said to myself, or Clark if he happens to be with me ~  Poor Clark, he's heard this a lot ~ "I would pick up a hitchhiker if they were walking to where they wanted to go."

It's that simple. 

If you're walking, you're not standing there doing nothing.  If you don't get picked up, at least you're that much closer to your destination then you were at the beginning of the day.  It shows that you can take initiative.  That you're willing to do a little work to get somewhere. 

They should do a study on this.  Don't ask me who "they" are.  I don't know.  I do know that IF I were going to start picking up hitchhikers, I would pick up the ones walking.  Let that be a lesson to you.

*Author's note: No disrespect is intended towards hitchhikers, or people that don't have cars, or people that have to hitchhike for any other reason. This opinion is my own and if you're offended, please no hate mail.*

Cute things Annika says (Part 6)

Clark got the girls ready for bed last night.  It's nice when he does that.  There are only so many times in a week that I can read Curious George before I feel like throwing something.  Anyway, after he read to them and got them tucked in, they decided that they needed to see me.  Abigail's exact words were, "I can't sleep.  I had a bad dream."  (This was 2 minutes after Clark turned the light out.)

The girls tumbled into bed with me, then Annika said "Let's pray for Abigail that she doesn't have bad dreams.  Then I'll turn her pillow onto the side that has good dreams." 

I never knew that there were sides to pillows.  Maybe they should put that on the packaging.

Pillowcase dresses!

So I went through Annika's closet this past week, taking out the winter clothes and putting in her summer ones.  There's just one problem.  She's tall.  Not just tall, REALLY tall.  So, she has no dresses that fit her.  Well, they fit her around the waist, they're just too short on her.  I am the Momma who has an opinion that little girls should be dressed as little girls.  So, there you have it.  I knew I had to do something about this lack in her wardrobe, and something fast (it is REALLY warm out today, no more long sleeved dresses for church for her!)  Well, Pinterest has done it again.  I found a WONDERFUL tutorial on how to make a dress from a pillowcase.  So easy.  After my first one, I didn't even have to look at the instructions for the second one. 

I got these pillowcases from Value Village for $1.99...for both pillowcases.  I know right?  What a great deal!  The bias tape and ribbon I already owned, so one of these dresses cost $1.00!  Last time I checked, you couldn't buy a dress in the store for that price.  The girls got so many compliments on their dresses today at church and in the mall this afternoon.  I was also asked if they were twins, but that might be a rant for another day!

I think I might make another couple of these for the summer.  Like I said before, they are SUPER easy to do.  It took me about an hour to do one, but that was with a lot of stops and starts.  Annika has requested a dress with red ribbon, since that's her favourite colour, so that's next on the list!

Pay It Forward 2012 ~ Gift for Flo

I finally have something to show for my Pay it Forward gifts!  So far this year, I have received one gift and given one.  I have one more that is finished that will be meeting its recipient on Friday (if I remember to bring it with me) and two that are in the middle of being made.  These are exciting times at the Noel home! 

It's amazing how great minds think alike.  I wasn't sure what exactly to make Flo.  She's a pretty special lady, so she needed a pretty special gift.  Last month at our ladies craft night, she had mentioned that she wouldn't mind getting a fall wreath from me.  (I just happened to be making my Easter egg wreath which is why I think the wreath thing came to her mind)  Around that time, I was also thinking that I should make her a wreath for her door! 

I headed over to pinterest and found some really great wreaths made out of yarn.  Let me tell you, it sure does a number on your shoulder!  It took me about 2 hours to wrap my wreath, probably because I wanted it to be perfect, and having your arm up in the air winding yarn for that long made me very stiff.  Yay for chiropractors! 

I really liked how it turned out when it was all done...I almost didn't want to give it away!  Here's the finished project.  Flo loved it!

Saturday snapshot: Tyler's first haircut

 Tyler got his first haircut on Thursday.  Clark didn't think he really needed one, but his crazy Momma decided he did.  If you notice on the picture that graces the top of this blog, Tyler had A LOT of hair in the top middle of his head.  This made the sides look like he was bald, which he isn't.  So, we buzzed the long stuff away and we were left with hair that matched all the way around his head. 

I think it looks so much better.  Clark misses Tyler's old hairstyle. 

I told Clark that everybody that had seen Tyler after he got it done had said that he was really cute.  Clark told me they were lying. 

What do you think? 

*I apologize for the blurry pictures...I'm not sure if it was because my subject kept moving, or the camera.

If I was a betting girl...I wouldn't bet on me

It's a cutthroat world I live in.  I live in a world where I am the captain of a sports team and people are counting on me to win.  They bet money on me.  However, my team sucks.  We play two sports during one game.  Game one is played outside in the mud.  Tackle football.  Then, we head inside to play a game of baseball...on the wii.  I think one of the reasons my team is no good is because instead of playing with baseball bats, we use onesies.  They're pretty floppy.  My power hitter isn't living up to his potential. 

According to Andy Rooney, this is because he doesn't make the other guys quake in their boots before a game by mentioning all of the stocks and bonds he has in oil and gas.  I think that's what he said.  I couldn't really listen because I was trying to hit a ball using a floppy onesie.  Also, he was in the corridor of an arena talking while I was in a living room playing baseball on the wii...and he wasn't on a television anywhere...I don't think he was on a radio either.  How do I know this then?  All I really know is, we're a pretty bad team.  Maybe next season we can stage a comeback.  I wouldn't bet on it though.

Cute Things Annika Says (Part Five)

Annika loves to sing.  Almost daily she will ask me to take a video of her singing a song.  Some she makes up, some she sings from her cd's that we listen to in the car.  This is currently her (and Abigail's) favorite song.  Abby will come up to me and say, "Mom, sing 'Yes, sir!'".  I showed this video to Grandma last weekend when we were visiting, and she told me I should post it so she can show it to her sister.  So Grandma, this one's for you!

Picnic blanket

 We had our first campfire of the season tonight!  Our church hosted it.  It was so much fun...I wasn't going to go since Clark had to work tonight and there are just some things I don't choose to do alone with three kids.  Campfires are usually one of those things.  However...my rubber arm got twisted, so I went.  I did however SLAVE away this afternoon making myself a waterproof picnic blanket.  Once it's warm out consistently, our Tuesday morning Mom's group will be meeting at a park, so I knew that I wanted to make something big-ish for Tyler to hang out on...but also something for me so my butt wouldn't get wet from the dew.  I know, who worries about that right?  I'm sure I saw this idea on pinterest...but when I went to look for it again, I couldn't find it.  Obviously I didn't pin it, I just looked at it.  So.  I apologize if you happen to be reading this blog and it was you that had the idea originally.  If that's the case, let me know and I will totally give you the credit.  I FOUND THE LINK!  Phew.  It's always better to give credit where it's due isn't it?  Anyway, I went to Wal-Mart and found:




A waterproof tablecloth (striped) and a red twin size flat sheet.  The tablecloth was $4.97, the sheet was $8.00.  If you're thriftier than me, you could probably go to a second hand place and pick up a sheet for way cheaper...by the time I made it to Wal-Mart I think it was my 3rd stop out of about 5 or 6 that day...with 3 kids.  I didn't want to add to the stress.  However, I think this was totally worth $13.00.  I think I would probably have spent at least $20.00 for one pre-made!  The sheet was bigger than the tablecloth, so I matched up two sides (top and bottom) and sewed those first ~ right sides together. 

You can see there that there is extra fabric on two sides.  This step I should have checked to make sure everything was also sewed correctly, because once you cut fabric, it's done.  There's no going back.  I did NOT sew it correctly, I did NOT cut the fabric correctly, and so my one side has a bit of a bubble.  Oh well.  I don't care.  It still looks cute.

It looks like our grass has fluff on it!

Once everything is sewed (oh, leave a little opening to turn it right side out) this is what it looked like!

I'm kinda sad that the fun fabric is the one on the bottom...but oh well!  It turned out pretty good.  While I was outside doing my cutting, two little girls asked to have their pictures taken as well....

And then a little brother woke up from his nap, so we had to snap his pictures as well!

Do you notice 2 teeth peeking through?

On a totally kinda not related note....I climbed a hill tonight.  I haven't done that since I was probably 10.  Over 20 years.  I made my friend Ashley climb it with me.  We're both a bit wimpy.  I think it made us closer though.  That, or she'll start running away from me whenever she sees me coming.  She's also pretty good at Bocce Ball.  That might be a post for another day.  I'll see, maybe it will make a Saturday Snapshot!

Saturday Snapshot

Don't these look like Tribbles?  They're so cute.  The good part is these ones aren't born pregnant!  The girls gave me pussy willows the other day, and Annika decided that she needed some friends. 

So she popped them off the branch and put them in a cup and has been carrying them around with her ever since!

Sunday's Coming!

I love Christmas.  It's probably my favorite holiday of the year.  The lights, the decorations, the fact that we're celebrating a birthday...I mean, that's something we celebrate multiple times during the year with other members of our family, celebrating Jesus' birthday should come naturally to us as well. 

But Easter?  The holiday itself is easy for us to celebrate as well, the chocolate and the easter egg hunts, the decorating of the eggs. 

But the WHY? 
Who wants to celebrate death? 

I'm so thankful that not only do we celebrate a death, but we get to celebrate LIFE as well.  A different blog I follow had posted this video a couple of days ago, and it was very encouraging.  So, grab a coffee, sit back and for three minutes think about what's coming...Sunday.....

Cute Things Annika Says (Part Four)

It's amazing what kids remember from days, weeks, months, or even years ago.  Today was such a memory.  Our bedtime story was reading about Jesus going into Jerusalem on a donkey.  I was explaining to the girls why we called this Sunday, Palm Sunday, and we were talking about the people waving their palm branches. 

Annika listened to the story, then said "Mommy, that's what we did at church.  I remember waving palm branches!" 

She would be correct too.  She DID do that....last year.  I'm amazed.