Catch up!

I can't believe it is just about Friday! This week has been pretty trying over here. Don and I have been sick, as well as the boys, so patience has been running low and the boys have been picking up on that. Today I finally realized that the reason they were acting out is because I haven't been a very happy Mommy lately and they were acting like Mommy. OUCH. So back to smiles and encouragement and I know I learned a lesson this time around. Poor little guys.

The boys have been keeping busy by playing outside just about everyday this week. The weather has been fabulous and we are enjoying it as much as possible.
Here is a video taken Monday after nap time. Just in case I was wondering, the boys are showing me that even though they have only had two totnastic classes so far, they are learning to keep their balance.


This next video is of Wyatt saying his alphabet to Don. It is hard to catch the first few letters, but the rest comes out pretty well. Hopefully I can get a better one soon.

Play Blogger

Have you seen this yet? Very addicting....

http://play.blogger.com/


**The info here was taken off the Blogger Dashboard**

Blogger Play will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs. You can click the image to be taken directly to the blog post it was uploaded to, or click “show info” to see an overlay with the post title, a snippet of the body, and some profile information about the blogger who uploaded it.

Oompa Loompa Costume recap

I have noticed the blog is getting people who are looking for Oompa Loompa Costumes, so I wrote out how they were made.. maybe this will help someone.


My nephew LOVED the Oompas, so it just fell in to place that we would make our 1 year olds Oompas for Halloween. After much searching and finding out only the new style oompa costumes were available for purchase, I realized I would have to make our boys costumes myself.

We used:
1 Brown turtleneck
half yard white/brown striped fabric
2 big buttons
pair of tights
Brown marker
brown yarn
Velcro
white fabric (how much depending on how large you are)
Green hair paint

Optional family pack -
2 white tee shirts
Iron on printing paper




*Shirts- We couldn't find the brown turtlenecks, so we dyed ours brown with a box of Rit. Once they were finished, I cut and seamed the brown striped fabric matching the length of the cuffs and neck of the turtleneck. **Make sure to allow room for stretch! Cut the fabric a bit longer than you think you need so you are able to stretch the turtleneck over your head and same for the cuffs.
I had 3 rectangular pieces of brown striped fabric seamed on all four sides. Then fold fabric over the neck and cuffs of the turtleneck, pin in place (it won't lay flat, it will need to be slightly bunched to allow the room for the stretching). I did a quick hand stitch to hold the fabric permanently in place.

*Pants- The pants were made free handed. I just grabbed newspaper and cut out the shape that seemed right and made the pants go outwards at the thighs and back down at the calves. (Mine were a bit big, so when I transferred the pattern to the fabric, I used a 3rd and forth button to close the gap on each leg).
After the pants were in place, I cut out two long strips for the suspenders (measure how long you will need them so they crisscross in front and back and add a couple inches) Sew right sides together (but leave one short end unsewn) and turn right side out.
Sew each suspender in place in the front with the button on top, then the suspender, and the front of the pant. For the back, we sewed velcro in the inside of the pant and outside of the suspender for easy on and off. *To recap, the front of the pants show the suspenders under the buttons, the back tucks the suspenders inside.


*Tights- A pair of tights needed brown stripes so we took a brown fabric marker (or you could use a brown sharpie) and made our own stripes. To make the stripes fuller, stretch the tights over a piece of cardboard tube (like a paper towel or wrapping paper tube) as you make the lines. I also used a piece of paper as a straight edge.

*Pom-poms- Make little pom poms for your shoes! Cut two pieces of yarn about 6 inches long. Then take your brown yarn and wrap it about 40 times between two outstretched fingers. Use one of your 6 inch pieces to tie all your yarn together in the center. Take your fingers out and cut the ends of the yarn (where your fingers were) so it is all individual pieces tied together. Fluff and use the ends of your six inch piece to tie to your shoelaces.

Don't forget the green hair!

We decided to complete the Oompa look with Mom and Dad wearing Charlie and the Chocolate factory tee shirts.
I found "Golden Ticket" and "Wonka Bar" graphics online and cleaned them up a bit on photoshop. Next we printed them out on iron on-transfer paper. Warmed up the iron (read the directions of your transfer paper for techniques) and ironed them on for instant costumes.

Yay! You are now an Oompa Loompa!

Farm Fun

A couple days a week Don works in a more rural area of Las Vegas. A few of his customers have a horse or two and one family even invited Don to bring the family out to their house so the boys could see the animals.

The weather today was beautiful -a nice break from the 100 degree weather we have been having lately- so we decided it would be the day to accept the invitation. The boys really enjoyed themselves! They had horses, chickens, ducks, and a goat to name a few animals we saw.

First Judy (the nice lady who invited us) showed the boys one of her chickens, then we moved over to the ducks. While we were walking over to the goat (named Freedom), the ducks all flew out and landed over in her pool for a swim. After the goat was put away, Judy led us to the back where she had 4 horses and 2 ponies!

Even though the horses were HUGE (but beautiful) the boys were so excited to see a real live horse ( or "nay" as they called them). Jax was even so brave as to feed one named Jackie, who we were told was a 3 time world champion. It was an awesome morning, full of so many new things for the boys to see - they even got to sit in a little tractor! What a fun experience for all of us!

Wyatt's first bedtime stall

Yesterday I went to put the boys up for their nap and was kissing them all good night. Wyatt stands up in his crib, looks at me while scrunching his little face up and says "ewww- ka-ka" (Writing that down makes me think we should teach them the word poop). I looked at him and asked, "you went ka-ka?" and he made a face like he smelled yucky. So I turned him around to check his diaper and found nothing, he didn't even stink! So I looked at him, with his face all scrunched and realized he was playing me! "You don't stink and you didn't go ka-ka" to which he responded with laughing at me. Stinker!

"Laser Beam"

If you have a few minutes, this video is of the boys looking to catch a laser from a little pen. It gets slow in the middle, but at the end they try to eat the beam off the carpet, and it makes me laugh every time.

Totnastics

Today was the first day of Totnastics for the boys. It is supposed to be a mommy and me class, but obviously it is more like a 1/3 of me for each child. The boys did well, no freak outs or anything, and they seemed to enjoy themselves the more the class went on. Tasking is definitely a new concept to them and is something I will have to work on this week. They've never done anything organized, so as far as doing what they were supposed to be doing... they could use some practice.

The teacher, Vanessa helped me out and "adopted" a kid as she could tell I needed a hand and the kids needed some direction. She said they did really well on the one-one with her. I was thankful to hear that, but it made me really sad to think how they are missing out on all the praise I would be able to give them if it was just me and one, instead of me kinda watching while I made sure the others were doing okay.

While I was dwelling over this in the car, feeling all sad for the kids (and myself) that they didn't get the one on one they surely deserve, Wyatt and Luke started grabbing each others arm and annoying each other. I reached back and held Wyatt's hand still so he couldn't bother Luke anymore and Wyatt started whining because he wanted his hand free. After I let go, Wyatt was still whining at the injustice of it all, so Luke reached over and put his little hand on Wyatt's leg, just patting it lightly with his little fingers. All the while telling him, "k, Wy-wy, k".

So even though it hurts me that I can not give my children 100% of my attention most of the time, I know that they do get extra loves from each other, and that makes it a bit easier to swallow. Right now that tiny bit helps me feel a little better and hopefully by the time they get up from their nap, I will have forgotten how much it bothered me this morning.

Jax's new do

Family in Town

Right now my parents have a full house. My Gram Bette is in town, along with Aunt Cathie and one of her daughters, Marina. Michael, Matthew and Cathryn are also up for the weekend. It is AWESOME! Don, the kids and I have been over to my Mom's as much as possible to spend time with everyone, and we are all having a blast. All the kids are playing together and the boys have totally taken to Gram and Cathie, no shyness at all. As far as Marina goes, she is so beautiful and well mannered... the boys love her and and ask for "Nina" out of the clear blue. They continue to surprise me with how fast they accept their cousins/ family and just love on them.

The past few days have been full of lots of family fun, but I really have no photos to show for it. We tried to get a couple pictures today, but the kids weren't having it (Jaxon knows what he is doing -stinker!) and I will try again tomorrow. But, I did get a couple videos of the boys and Marina playing in the house on Thursday. I love the sounds of the giggles and breathless anticipation of waiting to be caught.

Bubble Fun

A bowl of bubbles turned out to be a perfect way to get the kids to be settled and happy for 15 minutes. Not to mention they were squeeky clean afterwards!

Boys Club

Seems like everything is the same everyday, but with tiny changes that I don't think to write down until I am reminded by looking though pictures. Looking through this weeks pictures I saw that the boys REALLY love their Daddy. The top picture was taken one day after naps when Don got home and they all wanted to be near him. All three of them gravitated towards him, claiming any spot they could fit in and they just sat here watching the Disney channel. When I grabbed the camera to take their picture, Jax helped make it even more of a Kodak moment by leaning in the give Wyatt a hug. Awwww.


Speaking of how much the boys love their Dad... the boys love to read. One of their favorite books is a truck book that has all sorts of different trucks and the jobs of the trucks. At least three or four times a day, the boys grab their truck book and point to "Da-da" and "Bert" (Don's work partner, Albert).

Last, we will touch base on new habits. As you can see in the picture, there has been a new fun game started called "check the diaper". It is not as if Don and I go around looking to see if diapers are dirty. We can smell a dirty diaper, there is no need to look inside. Surprisingly they get a bit irritated or embarrassed when their diaper has been invaded, so hopefully this game will not be around for long. Ahhh boys, boys, boys... I really wonder if girls do these things too.