Dressing up for Halloween

Ivory was a cute little pumpkin for Halloween. She loved her costume, except for the fact that she had to wear a hat!


Emily was Cinderella this year. We're just entering the princess stage, and as a friend pointed out, Cinderella is a good role model. When people treat her harshly, she is gentle and kind in return. She has a servant's heart.


I found the idea for this costume here. My mother-in-law made the dress for our niece when she was a flower girl at our wedding. I made the accessories; the choker, headband, fingerless gloves, and the pretty, but pointless, poofs on the side of the dress. Emily thought the poofs should have been pockets - probably for storing extra candy!

Gotcha!

We've entered the messy-faced-for-months stage with Ivory. It's always fun to catch them with spaghetti sauce all over their sweet little faces. But with a baby and a big sister, it get's more interesting.



"Who me? I'm just eating my pasta."



"She got me!"

It's true. While James was taking memorable pictures of Ivory, Emily came in for a closer look. Whenever Emily is in reach, Ivory tries to get her. This time she left a mark. Emily wasn't too happy about being messy at first (although she frequently has a messy face after her fine dining experiences), but once we started laughing she joined in.

Worms, Part II

Last year, James and Emily planted a tree for my birthday. Emily's favorite part as an almost 2 year old was discovering worms.

I thought that her fascination with these rather disgusting creatures would be forgotten as a result of fall and winter and the lack of earthworms during those long months. I was wrong.

After fishing with Grandpa, her interest was piqued again. Mom and Dad kept the worms in their refrigerator FOREVER after that fishing trip. How do I know? Because every time we went to visit Emily had to see the worms and carry them around the backyard. Mom and Dad finally released them into their strawberry patch.

In the meantime, James started a new backyard project (he's so great!), and the earthworms appeared again. Emily now carries her "baby worms" around in a bucket. They go down the slide with her. They sit on her lap. When she's going potty, her worms are going potty too (thankfully outside in their little bucket). The other day I was talking to James outside and Emily asked me to hold something. I didn't look at what I was holding....argghhh! I am not into worms! We've been talking about sharing a lot lately, but I hope she doesn't share these items with Ivory.

Sweet memories!

The other day, Emily and Ivory played "kitchen" while I was getting dinner ready. I overheard Emily mentioning baby food to Ivory, and the next thing I knew, she had the baby food grinder out of the cupboard and some delightful baby food whipped up for Ivory. Ivory really enjoyed her pretend food!

A sneak peek...

at my most recent project! More pictures coming soon without my lovely, but wiggly, models.

Happy 4th of July!

We're enjoying a beautiful 4th of July and we hope you are too!

The play kitchen project

Would you believe that something as hideous as this could gradually become the sweetest little play kitchen? For Emily's 3rd birthday, James and I made our girl a place to practice her culinary skills. It was technically my project, but it never would have reached completion without many hours of work from my husband. Last fall I saw this play kitchen, and just knew that I wanted Emily to have a cute, wooden play kitchen too.



We dismantled this sad little nightstand we picked up at a thrift/consignment store. Originally, the plan was to salvage one of the drawer fronts to use as the oven door, but we found out that the detail work was plastic. So, Emily's grandpa made a new oven door for the project. One thing I loved about the nightstand was that its legs looked like an old-fashioned stove!



Her sink and a few other odds and ends came from thrift shops, and the material for the potholders and storage area, as well as the upside down letter "J" for the faucet, came from Craft Warehouse. I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

Has it really been 6 months?

Alright, alright. I've been very bad about posting to my blog. I could make a resolution that I will post once a week, or once a month, but I won't. I will try to post a little more frequently, though. This picture is from our family's Fiesta Bowl Party. Ivory was wearing a BSU sweater her grandma made her. She was so tiny! I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.



Ivory is really starting to get around. She spends a lot of time stuck in various parts of the house, usually under the hutch or table and chairs. If there is a way to get stuck, she'll find it cheerfully. Saturday was a big day for her, because she went from crawling backwards, to crawling forwards!





Emily had fun fishing with Grandpa in Cascade a week and a half ago. They only caught two fish, one of them big enough to keep. Emily tried to feed a marshmallow to the bigger fish. It was a little bittersweet; I loved that she was taking care of her fish, but I didn't have the heart to tell her it was dying.



We visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory during our vacation to Oregon. It was a hit with our family!



We took a train ride at the Oregon Zoo.



And a Father's Day picture: He's a good daddy!

One, two...

Ivory is really growing! I wasn't sure I should put her pretty pink dress on for church yesterday because I feared it might interfere with her adorable chin! I guess we haven't been taking enough pictures lately. Every time I moved the camera to smile at her she would startle.



Emily looked like a little woodland fairy to me yesterday. It's hard to tame her hair for long these days! I did manage to get it a little tidier for church....

Blessed!

I've been a bit (or a lot) quiet on the blogging front lately because our little Ivory Grace arrived on October 1st. I had been hoping this little one would nurse well, but it didn't happen. How can something that is so "natural" be so difficult? Well, at 10 weeks everything came together. She is nursing beautifully and it feels like such a wonderful Christmas blessing from God. I get to use the nursing cover my friend Katie made for me! Yay!

Football food...

Now that football season is here, it's time for football food! One of the blogs I like to read, Life as Mom, is having a recipe swap involving appetizers and snacks. One of my fellow teachers shared this recipe with me, and it's been a hit. I've lightened it up, but I'll admit, it I can't say it's exactly a healthy recipe. One interesting thing I found out while shopping for ingredients is that regular bacon bits are just as "healthy" as turkey bacon bits. In fact, I think they even had less sodium than turkey bacon bits.

Party Dip
16 oz light sour cream
3 oz bacon bits
2 C shredded Cheddar cheese
1 (8 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese
1/2 C chopped green onions
Tortilla chips, such as Tostitos

Cream all the ingredients together. Place in a small backing dish and bake at 400 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Bedtime prayers

From approximately 2 minutes ago....

Dear Jesus,
Thank you for Wonji. Thank you for baby sister. Thank you for mama. Thank you for Emily. Thank you for daddy.
Amen
Night, night, God.

Coming soon...

Our little girl is due in less than 5 weeks! We're so excited to meet her. Here is a photo of Emily and I about 4 weeks ago. Isn't my girl sweet?



Emily has been practicing taking care of babies for a long time. This is her doll, Kita. Yes, Emily named her and we have absolutely no idea how she came up with such an unusual name, Emily will not be naming her baby sister...



P.S. We're expecting Emily's baby sister to have about the same amount of hair as Kita does.

I could really use one of these...

if things go better this time! :)

Kookles Nursing Cover GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

The muffin mistake

Do you see these lovely, crumb-topped blueberry muffins? The recipe for them is here. I've made them several times and they are a hit with everyone in the family.

But, alas, they don't taste as good this time. Why, you ask? No sugar (not on purpose - although this has happened before with pumpkin bread). I try to cook healthy foods for my family, but this was going too far. The good news is that they still tasted great with berry cream cheese on them!

Lavender fields forever

A few weekends ago, Emily, Grandma, and I went to a local lavender farm to pick some sweet smelling flowers. It was so fun and so pretty. Grandma let Emily hold a lavender bouquet, and for some reason she thought it was funny to carry it on her back.


Emily loved seeing the "buzzy bees" all over the lavender. She would love to hug the bees and pet the bees. We were able to keep her from doing so this time!

It was such a nice time together! We'll have to watch for this event again next year.

Being Photogenic

Let's just say that it isn't easy to photograph a toddler. So...when they feel like getting their picture taken, you have to make the most of it.