Baby Boots

Isn't she just darling?
Mainly I just wanted to showcase the little boots that I finished for her today.
As I wrestled her to the ground and forced them onto her feet I began to wonder if she was perhaps less than jazzed about the boots.
I know, I know, impossible!

Then, as I tried for ten minutes to get a decent picture of her modeling the boots, clicking my way through about thirty pictures I began to wonder if she was perhaps less than jazzed about modeling the boots.
Kids these days.
Well, even if I didn't get any great pictures of the boots, I did get some good baby rolls in there, so it wasn't a complete waste. And even if she doesn't really like the boots, I do. Maybe I will make myself a pair. Don't they just seem like the coziest thing for a rainy day at home?

"Camping"

LaRue and Matilda got this little Market thing for Christmas 2008. They ABUSED the heck out of it for two weeks before I finally put it away, and just last weekend they both suddenly decided they just had to have it out again.
-In case you happen to have one of these AND didn't hold onto your assembly instructions you can find them right here. I only mention it because it took me a ridiculously long time to find them.-
They've been camping in it every night since, we'll see how long it lasts, or how long they can make it before we end up taking it away again.

Run!

Today was actually pretty nice outside, not always raining and even some moments of sun. Usually I don't care about that sort of thing, the rainier and gloomier the better in my book. BUT the girls have been COOPED up for months now, so even though I could happily go about three and a half years without going outside, we decided to take the girls to the college track and let them get some fresh air.I love this picture of LaRue. She's just the smallest thing, but she was running her heart out, and she's pretty fast too. If you are thinking to yourself that maybe she would have taken it easy on Tillie and just let her win one, well, you're wrong.


Be that as it may we managed to convince Tillie that she did win one and here is her victory shot. LaRue was very quick to point out that Tillie didn't actually win.

We know LaRue, we know.

The Gang's All Here!

I finished up these little guys the other day. They'll be part of a shower gift for a sister-in-law next month - don't worry, I'm also giving her practical things that I didn't crochet (although, there are also a couple of hats). Doesn't every first time mother need a batch of five yarn animals that are basically useless? I thought so too. Anyway, in case you were wondering, yes. I'm still crazy for the crochet.

School Days

LaRue is reading with her third grade buddy (they've been buddies since September and LaRue still hasn't bothered to learn her name, silly girl).

I get to go to school with LaRue on Thursdays to help out in her classroom. I'm so glad that the teacher wants volunteers and that LaRue likes for me to come. I'm so lucky that Jordans schedule works out for me to go. I love seeing LaRue interact with all her little friends, the kids are so cute and so funny. Since it's only half day kindergarten it's the perfect amount of time, I leave still thinking I'm lucky and that the kids are cute and fun, even mine. What's not so lucky is that today I helped clean up after a painting project and no matter how many times I wash my hands they just might smell like this forever, oh well.

Red Knee Socks - And That's All

It's just been one of those days.
Please don't judge me too harshly.
Something about the socks and her blonde hair make me think of Augustus Gloop. Please don't tell her I said so.

Potent Quotables

I am not a morning person. Not. At. All. However, if I don't get all my more major daily goals taken care of in the morning then it's just not going to happen. Specifically, exercising. I have been trying to be more consistent about running this year, which kind of makes it embarrassing that my run this morning was only my third time out so far this month. Yep. Oh, I've got my excuses, sick babies, sick self, but I think what it comes right down to is it's so much easier not to go out into the windy, gray morning and run until you feel like dying (a point I usually reach somewhere around mile one), than it is to actually do it. BUT last night, after a day in which I definitely did not run and probably didn't do well with other resolutions either, I was desperate to get my sluggy morning self to feel the same resolve to have a better go at the day.
Clearly, I needed a mantra.
Wanna know what I picked?
I'll tell you in a minute, first I want to ask you, what motivates you? What 'mantras' do you tell yourself to get yourself fired up? Or out of bed? Or out the door? I'm looking for anything here people. My laziness is so ingrained that I need to trick myself by having a new one maybe as much as every day. It can be serious, it can be silly, if it works for you please share it with me.

So my mantra for today was
"I can grab bulls balls!"

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, and I don't necessarily go around talking like that, but last night there was just something about Josie Grossie that spoke to me. It may have something to do with the uncanny resemblance.

And I'm not kidding you when I tell you that it really helped.
Anyway, that was mine, what's yours?
And if by some crazy twist of fate you don't know who Josie Grossie is, you might want to watch this. I would.

18/365: Madelaide

I'm not actually one hundred percent sure what's going on in this picture. I was taking it because after giving Adelaide a little lick of my ice cream she made the funniest 'What is this in my mouth? It is cold and a little bit gross' face. In spite of that she kept coming back for more licks and at first it seemed like she was mad because I wasn't doing it fast enough, but when I finally did give her more it seemed more like an I-was-torturing-her-by-making-her-lick-the-spoon type of situation. Either way, I think she's got a terribly cute sad face.

Not Project 365

I'm sure you've all seen those project 365 blogs, and I know a couple of you even have one of your own. Well, I think those are such a great idea, but as for myself I'm not ready to commit to having a whole other blog, and I'm not ready to commit to posting a picture every single day. Some days I have something to say around here, but there are a lot of days that I don't. So I've decided that on some of those lot of days, I might try to post just a picture here, to try and better document our year and maybe to help me remember certain little things better. So if you notice more picture posts that are short on words, that's what's going on in my head and on my blog.
Let's go ahead and start with a picture from yesterday shall we? I suppose that would be 17/365

I made this hat, AND the cutie pie that's modeling it.

Sad Story

I'll just come out and say it, I'm basically an emotional wreck approximately ninety-six percent of the time. I try not to be, or at very least, I try to pretend not to be. It's even worse when I'm sickish which, at the moment, I happen to be. So yesterday when LaRue was watching Toy Story 2, I happened to sit down next to her right as the song about Jessies earlier life came on. LaRue cuddled up to me and, oh my heck, I just couldn't keep from crying. Of course I was trying to pretend I wasn't, and was doing my darnedest to hide my face from Jordan, but then he jokingly asked if I was afraid that LaRue was going to grow up, start wearing nail polish, stop playing with me and then donate me on the side of the road - and that was it. I wailed -WAILED!- "Yeeeheeheesss!" and sobbed for about five minutes. Sobbing in the midst of a massive cold/sinus infection is not my favorite, and heaven help me, now I can't get the song (and all of the emotional turmoil it evokes) out of my head.



Might I also tell you that when I found this on youtube the first comment underneath the video was this:
this song makes me think about my two daughters sherry and kitty i feel like they grew up so fast i did not have enough time with them.and every time i hear this song i feel like that doll left behind and i wish i could go back to the time that they loved me.

Rip my heart out, would ya?!
I know motherhood has it's great rewards and blah blah blah, but sometimes it just feels like it shouldn't hurt so much, you know?
Probably I should spend more time trying to make more meaningful moments with the girls and less time worrying about them growing up and leaving me, right?
Oh alright then, fine.

Here Be Monsters

Since I was blessed to have so many nieces and nephews nearby this Christmas, I wanted to make them all a tiny little something, if I had any money I would have bought them a little something, I'm not cheap - just poor. Somehow I decided on these Little Monsters, pattern found here. Now, I know this is not normally what eleven year old boys will be hoping for on Christmas morning, but I kind of hoped if everyone got them, it might seem like fun for all. Aren't they so cute all lined up together?
So I went ahead and made this little army, the whole time just thinking what cute Little Monsters they were. Then I finished McKennas, bottom row, first monster on the left. This one struck me as well, looking a little... devilish, maybe? But in my naivety and perhaps hoping to avoid making one more, I decided I was probably the only one who would think that.
Cut to Christmas afternoon when McKenna is fondly referring to hers as a little devil. D'oh! That's right parents, I'm the one who's going to give your kids little devils on Christmas morning. Typical Lisa.
Furthermore, the next day the kids were playing a sort of hide and seek game with said little beasties and LaRue, it turns out, is better at hiding monsters than remembering where she hid them, and Little Devil was just nowhere to be found! These kids must have searched for hours and said many a prayer asking for help (their idea!) but he was nowhere to be found. D'oh! That's right parents, I'm the one who's going to give your kids little devils on Christmas morning, AND end up destroying their testimonies about the power of prayer. Typical Lisa.
Even with all of the parents searching in every nook and cranny - we even broke out a flashlight for goodness sake! - he was just nowhere to be found.
I might mention that we heard a lot of this
"Little Devil, where are you?!"
"I need my Little Devil!"
"We can't find McKennas devil!"
Might this be one of the reasons the prayer did not work? I can't say, all I know is when they left for Washington the next day, the whereabouts were still unknown. I have to admit I thought he was completely lost forever and was just planning on making her another one. So I was pleasantly surprised a few days later when I was informed that he showed up, hidden under a pair of pants that were folded up on an ironing board. I can't believe we missed that! Anyway, Little Monster and McKenna have since been happily reunited, and I'm going to try and be a better influence.

What A Miraculous Age We Are Living In

Do you know what this is?
A life saver, that's what.
I'd heard good things about this before, but I never had to use one until yesterday.
I adore it!
In the morning we gave Adelaide her much needed medicine
- double ear infections, remember? -
medicine was flying everywhere,
there was a lot of screaming, and spitting,
and Adelaide was even worse.
In the afternoon, Jordan went to Babies R Us, and picked up the miracle maker.
In the evening we gave Adelaide her second dose.
And it was a dream.
Highly recommended for babies who are sick, and sick and tired of taking their medicine.

Officially Addicted. Officially Nerdy.

Who am I kidding? I've been officially nerdy for quite some time now. At any rate, last year I had decided to overcome my fear of sewing and just dive on in, and I feel like I did so with some success, yay! So I decided that this year I was going to learn how to follow crochet patterns, exciting right? And in case you were wondering, it's my 76th birthday that I'll be celebrating this May.
I've been "crocheting" for, geez, about eight years now, but almost all of that has been squares (blankets), or rectangles (scarves, hats that you cinch up at the top), and the one notable exception that was the lamb costume, which I muddled through to make up myself. I mean, have you ever tried to read a crochet pattern? In case you haven't here's an excerpt:
Rnd 4 thru Rnd 25: 2sctog, sc the next 2 stitches one each, 2scinc, sc the last 3 stitches once each (8).
Say what?
Well, thanks to this book here and just kind of going in swinging, I now know exactly what all of that means, yippee.
Etsy has so many cute patterns, and I started with hats. First making all of theseThough I should tell you that I have yet to figure the flowers out. I'm still working on that. By the way, these aren't my pictures, they come straight from the shop, clicking on them should take you to the pattern should you be interested.
Hats were a lot of fun, but what really has me addicted now is amigurumi, or as I call them, just cute little stuffies. Again, Etsy has so much to choose from, but I'm loving Amy Gaines shop at the moment, and the other night I finished making this.
I'm kind of giddy over it. I'm so lucky to have plenty of nieces and nephews to gift these to throughout the year and kind of justify my making them at all. Which is not to say that they'll be wanting them, but that's just too bad isn't it? Pinky here will soon be headed to my niece Brooklynn as a fourth birthday present. Normally I don't post pictures of presents before birthdays, but then I usually don't end up posting them at all, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't really read my blog anyway. I threw in the next picture to give you an idea of how big it is, and also to give you a peek at the tail (which I love!) and also because LaRue is just so stinkin' cute.
Anyway, only a week or so into the new year it feels good to have one resolution well under way (and let's face it, it's probably the only one I'll make any real progress with). Sorry to go on about this for soooo long, but it's my new obsession. Also, if any of you are reading this and thinking it looks like fun - and how could you not be - I would add that just like every other thing I do, if I can manage to figure it out anyone can. Seriously. Consider yourself encouraged.

Happy New Tired!

Oh wait, Happy New Year? I guess? One reason it's been so quiet around here (and by here I mean this blog, not my house, because my house has most certainly not been quiet) is that Adelaide is sick forever and not sleeping so well at night. As you might guess, Adelaide not sleeping so well at night equates to Lisa not sleeping so well at night. Hey, did you know that to some babies putting them into their own crib at four thirty in the morning is just as insulting as it would be if you were to be wearing gloves, take them off and use them to slap said baby across the face? Not that I've ever slapped a baby across the face with a pair of gloves or anything, but I'm telling you the reaction cannot be that different from when I try putting Laidey Bug back to bed in the middle of the night. I mean I feel sorry for her of course, double ear infections... again... I get it, no fun. But, I've got problems too, ya know? Mainly lack of sleep at this point. Can't you tell?So cute, right? My brother-in-law Bob took this picture over the holiday and I just love it. How can one so cute be so frustrating?

Now Matilda is sick with a lovely fever, and hacking hacking hacking all night long. Just in case you were wondering, having your three your old lying next to you coughing up a lung all night long is not as soothing as say, one of those machines that play nature noises to help you sleep might be. Not as soothing at all. Coughing aside she's still going about as happy as could be, insisting that she is not sick.
So 2010 is off to a slow start, it's hard to even care about resolutions when you're dead tired, you know? Though I did want to talk just a little bit about 2009 before finally saying goodbye. It was not my favorite year, not by a long shot, but I did accomplish a few of my goals and that feels good. First and most wonderful/amazing of all, Adelaide was born. LOVE! The absolute best thing about 2009 hands down. In the less amazing category; I overcame some of my fear of sewing, which led to taking on and accomplishing several projects. More than the twelve I'd originally hoped for. I worked up to being able to run five miles at a time, a big deal for me. And I also did some serious reading, okay, it was mostly silly reading but I finished the Old Testament, I finished the Book of Mormon twice, I read Les Miserables, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for goodness sake, and if I am not mistaken, there's not a single vampire to be found in any of those books, so, progress?
Due in large part to my total tiredness, this post has become one heck of a long ramble and not interesting in the least, so I'll wait til next time to talk about my hopes for the new year, and tell you what it is I've been working on the last week that I am so addicted to that its' all I really want to do all day. Stay tuned. Or not.