I copied this idea from a picture I saw of two little boys while I was looking up ideas for a John Deere birthday party. 

Since my boys share a birthday month, starting this year they will be sharing a birthday party. The plan is for them to wear these somewhat matching shirts. I don't think I thought I would be the matching mom type, but I think it can be so cute. 

1. Cut out the number desired out of a piece of paper.

2. Using an old shirt - ours is a very sentimental Hulk shirt turned rags from Dad - fold the shirt so you have three layers of material.

3. Pin the number to the shirt and sew. Be careful not to sew the front and back of the shirt together, not like I ever did that. I used yellow thread to incorporate the other John Deere color. I also originally was going to stamp on the shirt "One" and "Three" but then decided against it. It would be cute to do on the back or the other side of the shirt.

There they are! The finished product! And they are finished in plenty of time before their party! How often does that happen!

They're pretty excited about them too...

Who really needs directions on how to make a paper chain, right? Well apparently I probably could have benefited, and you will find out why by following the pictures...

So I am a little behind, seeing as half of December is gone already, but I made it anyway. 
When my little guy hears Christmas songs with the word Christmas, he'll say, "it's not Christmas yet, it's winter" and then the other day a few friends were over for a play date and he exclaimed, "it's Christmas!" 
So I thought I would try to help him understand by making a countdown chain. 

I haven't made one of these in I can't remember when, but I can figure it out, right? Number my pieces, tape them together...

You can't see the bottom, but the top number, the 14 is the final chain-link. Hmm.. that doesn't seem right...

OKAY - there we go, we end with Christmas at the top! and the biggest number on the bottom. 14 more days until Christmas! I'll have Raef rip or cut off a link each day.

Next year I am thinking of doing a Joshua Tree which I recently read about (which isn't a chain I know, but it's a countdown), or maybe making a fabric chain - or a chain with activities for each day? Do you do any countdowns with your kids? Or yourself? 

Leg warmers may seem like a more girlie clothing item, but after seeing this handsome guy aren't you convinced that they are so cute!
I made my little babe these leg warmers with a matching tie onesie out of a pair of women's knee-high socks. 

I started by cutting the socks at the angle and then I measured the sock by setting it next to my son's leg. 
Then I cut 2 1/2 inch cuffs, folded them together with right sides out and pinned them to the end of the sock.
I sewed all the way around, which is a bit tricky since the opening is so small.

And there you have it! Now repeat for the other one!

The tie was a little tricky since the sock material is so stretchy. I cut down the back of the ankle sock I had left over and opened up the remainder. I tried ironing it but all that did was make it roll up! I got my tie template from this blog - http://www.crapivemade.com/2009/03/appliqued-tie-onesie.html

Lay the template over the sock material and cut out leaving some allowance to be folded underneath so as not to allow fraying.
Then cut out the exact shape of the tie from some Steam-A-Seam.

One the edges are folded over, position the tie knot under the neck in the center, using your iron, press the top half of the knot onto the onesie. It may curl up a bit because of the stretchy material, so I used some pins to hold it down until I was able to sew around it. 
Now tuck your tie up under the knot a little and iron.
Pin your tie in place and sew around the tie. You can make one fluid sewing path (which you can check out from that blog from above)

Finished!

Maybe I can blame it on the Polish in me, but WHO takes a shelf, sands it, paints it white, and then sands it AGAIN so it's back to being just wood??! WHO!?
Well, this gal does. I'm a bit indecisive. On like. Everything.

I was at my parent's house recently and noticed this oldie sitting in their back room being all forgotten about. And I thought, hey, I need another project to do, I'm always bored (please sense my sarcasm here). Anyway, I thought this shelf would be a good addition to my oldest's room. I could sand it, paint it and distress it (something I seriously enjoy doing, really) and then I could have bins go on the shelf and help organize his room and have his toys accessible. Win-Win. Raef get's a shelf, I get to spend some time doing something fun. Well...
Here is what I got this shelf down to.

And looking back now, I see how amazing it looked. But then I went and gave it a coat of white paint. WHITE. For some reason I always go with white. I wish I could go back and just slap a nice coat of stain on it and be on my way. But here is what I am currently in the middle of doing...

Yep. Sanding! Sanding it allll off. And since this wood has grooves in it, it's not as easy as the FIRST time. But I do have a vision, and this is not over... and it WILL look amazing! ;)

To Be Continued...

This isn’t a post about the great cookies I made today - because they aren’t great.

This isn’t a post about how I was able to clean my skillet to look good as new – because it hardly looks any different.

This post is about reality. 
Reality is, I’ve been wanting to clean my grungy flat skillet for a while now, and in between mommy-ing, I finally tried a so-called-solution.

Boil some water in the skillet with some vinegar. The oil should come to the top (like magic, right?!) Well it may have gotten the tiniest bit of something off… After that, clean with soap and water. Done. 

Move on to making a paste from baking soda and water, and then spread that on the skillet and scrub.

I scrubbed and DID notice the water and soap turning a slight brown, so I know it got something off, however, the skillet does not look shiny and new…Fail.

I then looked up that doing certain thing to non-stick pans does not do a pan good… like adding oils, or butter, or running it under water when it has not completely cooled. Oiy! So I fear that my skillet has carbonized and warped to a non-fixable state. But hey, it still gets the job done; it still makes my pancakes and grilled cheeses!

Moving along to today’s adventure of chocolate chip cookies.

I have long -since -longed to make the most delicious tasting AND delicious looking chocolate chip cookies, and in recent days, have gotten some really good batches! My sister actually found the recipe that I use now, and with a few of my own changes I have had some good ones. You know, they are chewy, look fluffy and bumpy… YUM! 

So with today needing a pick me up, I thought I would just whip some up. (Whip some up, right…Easier said than done with two little babes running amuck!) Between getting this, getting that, helping him and catching him, and after listening to the whole Nsync Christmas album, and still not finishing these cookies... I finally finished them! 

And they looked like this…    

So then I had this to pick me up :) 

Not fluffy…looking a bit burned…not going to be all soft and chewy once they cool.
But you know what? That’s OKAY! The boys of the house love them, and out of the oven they ARE delish!

Life isn’t perfect for anyone, and as much as I would have liked to have some posts that make it seem like I have it all put together, all the time, and that I always make the best cookies, and clean things great every time…Reality is, I don’t!
Maybe someday I’ll make that great batch, and when I do, I will share it with you!

WASH – my washing machine?! Sounds interesting don’t you think? I saw this on Pinterest and finally decided to try it. I had realized that my sister’s clean laundry smelled so nice and fresh. I tried buying her same detergent and same dryer sheets, but that didn’t do it. What was I missing? Well I probably should have done this ages ago, but better late than never! I gave my washing machine a cleaning.

Quite a simple process and SUCH good results! Here’s how YOU can do it!

All you need is:

1 Qt Chlorine Bleach & 1 Qt Distilled White Vinegar

1.Fill up your washing machine with HOT water for a large load and add the   bleach.

2.Let your machine start for one minute, then open the lid and let it sit for one hour.

3.After an hour, let your machine run through it’s normal cycle.

4.Right after it is done, fill your washer with HOT water again on it’s large load cycle. Add the vinegar.

5.Just as before, let your machine start working for one minute, then let the water sit for one hour.

6.Before running your machine through it’s cycle again, take a rag and wipe down your machine inside and out using the vinegar water.

(Make sure to clean up inside all the spots you can reach, I was surprised to find clumps of lint, dirt, etc… up in the ring.

7.After the cycle is through, you are done and ready to throw in a load!

Here's an after from the first picture, I had to show you that it is no longer disgusting!

I was excited to try my first load and so I threw in our towels. Even after just opening the lid of the washer after its cycle I could tell a difference! I smelled and smelled…NOTHING! Now that’s great right? But at first I was wondering, where is that fresh scent smell?! Then I remembered that my detergent is non-scented..duh! But even NO smell is better than a musty smell!

I will definitely have to do this again - the post I read said to do it twice a year!

Now my next project is to make my own dryer balls and add essential oils to add a nice scent to my clothes. I am trying to use natural cleaners, are there any you have found that you like?

Growing up, my Thanksgiving had a very large assortment of dishes, and having these items year after year just became tradition and Thanksgiving wouldn't quite feel the same if certain dishes were missing, do you know what I mean? 

Well over the years, while I can still remember my plate back from home as a kid, a few other items have made their way into the Thanksgiving day plate. 

Boston Market Sweet Potato Casserole & Lime-Pear Jello

I had this potato casserole a few years ago and just had to make it for the following Thanksgiving - and it was a hit. Even for my husband, and he is not a vegetable man. This casserole is border line candy!

Mix-in brown sugar, heavy cream, butter, cinnamon and salt.
*After mixing, I covered and put it in our fridge until the next day.

Onto the Lime-Pear Jello! My husband's mom used to make this dish, and since being married, I have become the lime-pear jello bringer. This is practically a dessert and very simple!

What items can't YOU leave out on Thanksgiving day?

Found this image on google search and liked it! (alicexz.deviantart.com)

Yep, saw it opening weekend. Not that I needed to, it just worked out that way. I was a bit hesitant to see it actually, with Argo & Lincoln in theaters I thought perhaps we should spend our "one-movie-a-year" on one of those. My husband and I are not Twihards by any means, but we read the books and have seen the past three films, so we thought we'd finish it off right. 

I remember on a whim, we went to opening night of Eclipse and said we would never do that again. We were surrounded by a full theater of teenagers who enjoyed commenting out loud about Jacob and Edward's appearance. Oh dear!
 
So! Since I didn't really care for Part One (perhaps a bit too much Edward & Bella - if you know what I mean) I didn't really know what to expect from Part Two. But I loved it! I enjoyed Bella the best in this film compared to all the others. (No more sulking around the forest crying about Edward) 

I also was caught off guard by the ending of the film (which I won't go into detail about). But it was a good one, it kept me on my toes and I actually felt like I was able to share in some of the emotions. And of course at the very end, when the Christina Perri song kicks in, the softy in ME kicks in and I start to lose it. But don't worry I held it together.

This is how we worked out going to a movie BTW - since we don't live by a lot of family and haven't started getting a sitter OTHER than family, my sister and I swapped kids back to back. After church our family went to her house and watched her two girls while they went to a movie, then when they got back Tim and I went while they were on kid duty. 
Mini-matinee dates! It's so nice to get a little time just one on one with the hubs. Driving back from the theater for those few minutes in the car was so quiet! So weird remembering how it used to be when it was just the TWO of us!
Oh! and I topped it off by getting my first Starbucks Peppermint Mocha of the season! mmmMMM!

Are any of you "post-teenagers" into this series? Or perhaps a different series that you KNOW is a big teenie bopper film?

My husband and I got married in 2006, 2-weeks after I graduated Bethel University in MN. We had met there and all four years I knew I wanted to marry him.

We moved to central Wisconsin so my home -town and two years later I was pregnant with our first.  I was 24 years old and all this was new to me. None of my friends has been through this, and neither did my sister(whom I’m extremely close to). My husband and I were very excited and I started going to my doctor visits. Week 13 came and Tim (my husband) and I got to see our little gymnast spinning around and turning on the little monitor. It was amazing! We could see the little hands and legs, and we got this precious picture. 

When week 17 came around I didn’t know that I was going to hear the heart beat, but the nurse said we would record it on a tape so I could take it home. This was good because we hadn’t heard the heartbeat before, and I alone on this visit. While the nurse was looking for the heartbeat she couldn’t seem to find it. (I tend to worry, I always have, and being alone was not helpful.) I stayed calm as the nurse went to get the doctor. The doctor I had was a very kind man, he came in and searched for the heartbeat as well.  He used a monitor so he could see the baby as well and he did not see a heartbeat or movement. He did not have a very promising look on his face and was very saddened to tell me the news. I was horrified. Here I was all alone, my first pregnancy, what do I do?!

He sent me to get an ultrasound on the big machines. I took my cell phone outside and called my husband at work and told him to come to the hospital, he was about 4 minutes from me at the time, so I was already in the ultrasound room by the time he got there, but he was a great support. I also called my dad so he could pray for a miracle. In the ultrasound room I couldn’t bare to look at the screen, but I know Tim did which I’m sure was hard. We kept praying for a miracle, praying for the baby to move and for a heartbeat to be found, maybe there was some mistake.

But we were told that our baby’s heartbeat could not be found and that it didn’t grow past 13 ½ weeks.

It was VERY tough news to hear. I had a life in me for almost the half-way mark, had felt many pregnancy symptoms, and then after this one regular visit (and not having symptoms of a miscarriage) it was as if someone took this baby from me. I didn’t understand, I thought of what I could have done different, or wondered if I had done something to cause it.

…He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him...Romans 8:28

Time really does help heal, and while I don’t understand why these sad things need to occur in life, my faith helped me get through some tough times. I know that since going through what I did, I have been able to offer empathy to those going through similar experiences. And I know that it is encouraging to have someone you can talk to who has gone through something similar to your own, when I went through it I didn’t have someone I was close to that I was able to talk to who really understood.

With all that being said, today in 2012, I am truly blessed to have two little boys. I had Raef in 2009 and Christian in 2011. And I believe our precious first is in heaven. I believe God created this special child and I keep this picture on my desk to remember him.

I do not take being pregnant for granted and I think each little babe is such a gift from above. Cherish your little babes today!

♥ Evie