What She Wore

Here is the latest installment of "What She Wore" with our fashionista J.

First Day of School

The last week in August brought the beginning of a new school year.  J is now in the 4 year old class at preschool and was so excited.  She goes 3 days a week this year and goes in the afternoons (thus the messy hair already). 

When we got to school she didn't want us to come in with her at first, but we finally talked her into letting us and she dictated what she wanted me to take pictures of.  Here she is hanging up her school bag. 

Giving her Daddy a hug.

Our big (almost) 4 year old.

Amy's Projects

I may have slowed down on my organization projects for the year, but I haven't completely forgotten them and I've added other "crafty" projects to the mix.  Our stark white fireplace has been driving me crazy because it didn't fit into the decor of our home (don't mind the Christmas bears, we've had them us since mid-July to keep the boys out of the fireplace). 

After:

 

Here are a few close ups:

I loved the way it turned out.  I also sanded down our console table so it's finish is not so shiny (sorry no pictures).  I also did an organization project.  I've really gotten into couponing so my "stockpile" of household goods had gotten out of control.  It was stashed everywhere and was not organized at all.  I unloaded everything into the living room so it was all in one place and then I organized and labeled it all. 

Along with this the bathroom cupboards got organized. 

So did the laundry room cupboards,

and my portion of the garage. 

hopefully it stays this nice.

J's Birthday Party

For J's 4th birthday we let her have a party with just her friends.  Since my birthday is only a couple days before hers we usually have a joint party.  J decided that this year she wanted to have a princess party so I made these wand invitations for all of her friends from church, they told each princess to come "dressed for the occasion". 

I was going to make cupcakes with cute toppers for the guest but ran out of time so we ended up buying cupcakes and a mini cake for J.

I did however, have time to put together these goodies bags with with home made gift tags.  I thought they turned out really cute and was quite proud of myself. 

Here are all of the princesses in their royal attire. 

As the guests arrived they got to go to the back patio and color a princess themed picture.  Once everyone was there they learned how to be a true princess by learning balance (walking with a bean bag on their head), how to dance (to princess music of course), and they all got to pose for a princess picture (which I will get to the parents one of these days).   
                                              

Then it was time for cake.  J enjoyed having everyone sing to her and getting to blow out her candles. 

After the princesses got done with their treats they went outside and played until they got too hot and then they came in to watch a movie (the smurfs - go figure) until their royal carriages came to take them home.  J had so much fun that she's already planning next years party. 

Erik's Projects

While I was busy with my projects Erik was busy with his own.  His first task was to clean out the dryer vent.  The lint catch was full of gunk (the outlet on the side of the house had gotten blocked by something) and his shop vac hose was too large to fit so he duck taped a piece of garden hose to it and was able to fix the problem.

His next task was to build me a coffee table.  We have a great system worked out.  I tell him what furniture I would like/need for the house and he gets to buy the necessary tools to build it.  This time he had a couple of good helpers.  (C in green W in blue)

Here is the finished product (don't mind the mess in the background or the random arm on the bottom shelf).

Here's another picture (with the mess but without the arm).

9 Months

(C is in the grey shorts and screaming, W is in the camo shorts)

My babies are 9 months and are so FUN right now. They crawl EVERYWHERE. It has been so much fun to watch them learn and grow and to see how different they are. The boys started forward motion at about 7 1/2 months. W started first with an army crawl and C quickly followed with a regular crawl. It took W a couple of weeks to figure out how to do a regular crawl but he got it and quickly moved on to pulling himself up to standing. C on the other hand has been content just crawling around and just this past week has started to pull himself up to standing. They now have 2 teeth each (which came in at the same time!). The LOVE cheerios and anything else the can feed themselves. They're both fairly good sleepers, they nap for about an hour in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon and sleep for about 12 hours at night - but they're very light sleepers and will wake up if things get loud. I just wish they wouldn't get up so early (they're usually up around 6:30am and no keeping them up later at night does not help them to sleep in).

C's Stats
Weight: 20lbs (33%)
Length: 29" (65%)

C is still the little guy which amazes me because all he does is eat. We call him our puppy because after meals he can be found under the table eating any crumbs that have fallen to the floor and if anyone walks into the kitchen he is usually right on their heals begging for food.

W's Stats Weight: 21 lbs (50%)
Length: 29.72" (84%)
(the lenght is wrong because W is not taller than C)


W has turned into quite the Mama's boy and wont let me get too far from his sight. He loves to bounce and they both love to play with anything that makes lots of noise. Infact, dumping my metal mixing bowls onto the tiled floor has become a favorite activity, along with banging toys agains the metal folding chairs at church.

Mess Makers

The boys have gotten really good at making messes. Their favorite thing to do is get into the cupboard where I keep my mixing bowls and Tupperware and empty it out. They enjoy dropping the metal bowls onto the tile floor and hearing them ring.

C also enjoys climbing into the cupboard and trying to climb onto the shelf inside.

(W caught in the act)

(C trying to look innocent)

(C in green; W in blue)

We even tried teaching them how to bang pots with spoons, but they just ended up trying to eat the spoons.

(C trying to eat the spoons)

 

(W trying to push a bowl through the baby gate)

After several weeks of this I got tired of hearing the ringing of bowls and took the stack of mixing bowls out of the cupboard and left it on the counter. Another favorite of W's is to empty all of my shoes out of the shoe cubby in my closet.

Other favorite activities include pulling books out of the console table in the living room (we finally took the knobs off the doors to stop this) and pulling DVDs off the shelves (these are now in Tupperware containers on the bottom shelf of the TV stand).