Grouchy

I feeling grumpy today.
Completely miserable.
This would not be a good day to get in my way.
My patience is basically non existent.
I would like to just go hide under the covers so that I don't say or do something that I might regret.
Unfortunately, there are these little people that I must care for...they may or may not be a part of the reason for my mood....I can't put it all on them. They are currently playing happily, and I still feel grouchy.

I had a great idea. I would go and create something new. But then I remembered that I promised my hubby I'd get some jerseys crested. So instead of sewing something fun and therapeutic, I'll be sewing boring, un-inspirational jerseys....this is not likely to sweeten my mood at all.

Sew Much Fun

Back in December I won this book called Sewing School from a give away over at Sew, Mama, Sew!. What a fun book for teaching kids the basics of sewing. It is written at a second grade comprehension level. All of these projects are super cool and easy. Most of them are hand stitching projects. All pattern pieces are included with instructions complete with colour pictures. In short, I think this book is FAB.U.LOUS.

Today I decided that I would help the girls make their very own softies.

The first step was to get a piece of plain white cotton fabric. Then the girls drew an animal or creature on the fabric with wax crayon. After they were finished colouring. I placed a plain white sheet of paper over the design and ironed it to remove all the way. Then I helped them cut out the rough shape of their creature and then it was sewing time.

This project was so easy that even Miss Kymberly could do most of it on her own with supervision. At first she started out really  carefully doing a whip stitch around the edges. After awhile she would say "can you do it for me". So I'd help her out and then she would want to do it by herself again.





Tansley did a very good job and keeping her stitches small, most of the time. Right near the end she was wanting to be done so her stitches got a little large. After she had it stuffed we found a few places where she needed to add  a few more stitches to keep the stuffing in.

Kathryn did a great job, but she has had quite a bit more experience than the other two. Even so, she still had so much fun with this project.









There is something special about watching a child create their very own something. When it is all said and done, they are so proud of themselves and what they have created.  Here are the girls final projects.

Kymberly loves her new teddy bear. She has named it Kymberly.

Tansley made a parrot, and a simply awesome parrot at that.

Kathryn created a fire breathing dragon...how clever.

OH. MY. WORD.

I can't even begin to imagine what these people are feeling. It is honestly like watching one of those movies where earth has been hit by a comet and people are trying to out run the water. But this is no movie. These are really people. I found myself cheering on the cars that are trying to out run the water. Devistating that they didn't all make it. Today I'll be praying non stop for the people of Japan.



There is sound, but you need to turn it way up.

Snow much fun

Yesterday we had a nice warm(2C) morning with no wind. I decided to attempt to clear off the snow on our driveway that I had been avoiding during the much colder and windier days of the past few weeks. It was well packed, but it broke up pretty easily into these nice big chunks. This gave Tansley an idea. She started to build a snow fort by stacking them. Once I had the driveway clear she had plenty of chunks to make her fort and Kymberly and I aided her in her efforts.

The kids threw a few chunks at me. I took a few pictures. And then we went inside for some Snowman soup. The fun was had in the making of the fort, not so much in the playing with it once it was completed. Kymberly has since asked why we only have one side to our fort. A good question. What kind of protection does one wall give anyway?

A day later and our fortress is reduced to this.

It won't take too long for it to all melt away IF the weatherman's predictions are correct.

Kymberly Lenae

When Kymberly was born, she looked like a boxer that had been punched in the face and one eye had swollen shut. My poor baby girl, must have been pretty squished before entering this world at 10lbs 13oz. And she came so quickly her poor face was all bruised adding to the boxer look.

My little big boxer

When she was a baby I called her Munchkin.
Kymberly is my cautious child. She’s not a fan of new things. However once she tries them, she is usually OK. But usually she is content to just watch. At the age of about 10 months she developed a fear of heights. When I would put her up on the change table to change her diaper she would go stiff as a board, grip the sides and scream, making if absolutely impossible to change her diaper. As a result, I started just changing her on the floor.
Kymberly has a set of lungs that allow her to be heard from miles away. This kid is LOUD! Whether she is squealing with delight or out of anger you are sure to hear her.

The funniest part about this photo is that she is naked under there.

Kymberly has the craziest imagination. Give her any two random objects and she can make them come to life. She’ll play with them for hours. At the dinner table her fork and spoon talk to each other. Out side a rock and a stick become best friends and go on some pretty crazy adventures. And if there isn’t anything to play with, her fingers come to life. One time when she was about 2, I forgot to bring something to keep her busy while we watched General Conference at the church. To keep herself entertained she played hide and seek with her fingers. One hand would count, while the other one would hide. This kept her busy for a good part of conference.
From a very early age, she loved to do things to get a reaction out of people. This kid has a natural gift of humor. Even before she could talk she could make you laugh and she always knew exactly what she was doing. 
Kymberly is a homebody. No matter where we are, or what is going on, she will always end up by my side. She will go off and play with other kids for awhile, but before long she becomes my shadow again. She doesn’t necessarily need my attention, she just likes to stick close, even when we are just at home. If I am down stairs sewing for instance, you can find her sitting behind me with two random objects keeping herself busy.
Kymberly(not Kym, just KYM-BER-LY, and she'll be sure to correct you if you forget) changes her name frequently. She has gone by Princess Potty, Super Girl,Ski Girl, Rockstar, Kung Fu Girl, and Tinkerbell. She went through a stage where you couldn't just call her Kymberly, you had to use her middle name too. However Monkey, Cutie pa-tootie, silly gallute and other such names are not acceptable. I can usually still get away with Munchkin.
Kymberly is a copy cat. She wants to do and tries to do everything her big sisters do, as long as it doesn’t involve heights. I really believe that she sees herself as an equal to her sisters, like she is the same age. She often talks down to kids her own age, like they are babies.
Kymberly needs to be reasoned with. By this I mean that if you give her all of the facts she is likely to do whatever it is that needs to be done. For instance, when she was almost two we were leaving the church, it was cold out side and I wanted her to put her jacket on. She told me flat out "NO". I knelt down beside her and told her that I needed her to put her jacket on because it was cold outside and if she didn't put it on she would get cold. She simply said "OK" and let me put her jacket on her. She is also easily distracted. If she is throwing a tantrum over something, like a toy she wants that someone else has you simply have to take her mind off that particular toy by presenting an equally attractive or entertaining item to play with. This worked about 99% of the time when she was really little. That stat might be down a bit (85%) now that she is older.

This kid cracks me up. It is hard to find a picture of her just simply smiling at the camera. She always has to be doing something silly. I love her to bits and can’t wait to see what the coming years bring.

What's in my bag?...everything!

OK, My SIL tagged me in her post. And this looked like fun. But be warned...you might be here awhile as I show you pictures of everything that was in my bag...except the little pieces of garbage. If nothing else it gave me a chance to clean out my bag.

OK, so here is the bag I am carrying...I mean lugging around right now.

It is big! But I was tired of carrying around a purse, a diaper bag, and a church bag. So I went on the search for a great big bag with lots of compartments to keep my three bags separate and organized...but altogether at the same time. Right now I love this bag. I can carry everything, and find it all too. There is so much room that I can add extra things, but I have to be careful because if I keep adding and forget to take things out it can get REALLY heavy.


Lets start with the front pocket.

 OK, I have a note book that my mom gave me for my birthday. I use for writing down random information that I am bound to forget, like a phone number or address. There is a pen, some bandaids that shouldn't be there, they should be in a different spot, a tissue cozie with tissues, a script to a readers theater I'll be doing for the RS party in March, and my wallet. I LOVE my wallet. It holds everything and remains nice and slim. and it's totally sparkly. I can just pull this out of my bag to take into a store. Did I mention that I LOVE it?



Next is my Purse section

 I have Kathryn's wallet that I made her, a compact dollar store mirror, Two things of tictacs, cough drops from when I had a wicked cold, 4 packages of gum in varying flavours, two containers of fruity icebreakers, a few random mints(you'd think I had a fear of having bad breath, but really most of it is to keep my kids happy when on the road...not that I don't like to have fresh breath), my perscription sunglasses that I bought from Zennioptical.com (for $25), an unopened nail file, and one of my snack bags that I am using as my mini emergency kit. right now it just has bandaids and polysporn.

In my purse section I have a little pocket that has some hand sanitizer in three varieties, dental floss, Rolaids, Tylenol and two paint chip cards so that if I ever one day see some fabric to make a valence for my living room, I'll be able to check to see if it will match the walls.

The middle section is my general need-to-get-to-it-quick section.

 A Random assortment of baby toys to keep the boy happy where ever we might be.

Three crayons and a pen for kids to draw with at church. Three empty snack bags, a baby spoon(that should be in the diaper bag section). A mini photo book of girls, this is great for keeping younger children happy when grocery shopping. A measuring tape, for measuring things OR for keeping young children entertained while grocery shopping. A kid can pull out the tape and push the button to make it retract over and over and over again...or until it whips them in the face and makes them cry. A Book of Mormon adventures magnetic play set to keep kids happy at church(unless they are fighting over it). An Oilers tuque and mittens for keeping the boy warm, and unfortunately they will stay in the bag for awhile yet...winter doesn't seem to want to go away. OH and I almost missed it, up at the top just above the snackbag by the crayons is Kymberly's bling-bling ring.

The back section is my diaper bag section.

We are in Lethbridge a fair amount, and I hate it when I forget to bring formula or baby food, so I just keep it in my bag. The little container with the green lid has baby snacks, the bigger one has baby cereal. The container with the blue lid is formula. Just below those is a onsie and sleepers. Of course I have a couple of diapers, change pad, wipes and vaseline. There is also a soother cover, but no soother to be found. Up at the top is my Take-it high chair. I created this after seeing one like it on the internet. Here you can see one that I made in action.

On the very back of my bag is another little pocket.

One lone fruit snack, an extra soother and some baby lotion.

And that is what is in my bag. I have to say, I look forward to being able to carry around a smaller bag again. But for now, this one works great, even if it does weigh a tonne.

What's in your bag? Do you wanna share?

point of view

I hear Kymberly(age 3) carefully shut the door to her's and James' bedroom. James was supposed to be napping in there, hence the reason the door was closed. She comes to me and says, "Mom, I've got some good news and some bad news. What do you want first?"
"Tell me the bad news." I say. 
"OK, I'll give you the good news." she says with a sigh. After a slight pause she says, "The good news is....I woke up James. The bad news is I found my pony."
I laughed right out loud and said "I think you have that backwards. The bad news is you woke up James, and the good news is you found your pony."
"No mom, the good news is that I woke up James." she replies most adamantly.

Well, I guess that all depends on your point of view.