Some Mommy Thoughts

This is an oldish picture from almost a year ago now. First of all, I had fun decorating the room! Zebra print rug, turquoise leather chair, lots of light: heaven. But I love most of all sitting in the chair with my little ones. They are so delicious! Their warm soft hair, squishy cheeks and tender little hands. I just want to munch on them I love them so much! This is what being a mommy is all about. What would I do without these beauties? I think I'd be bored out of my mind! They've taught me so much, I wouldn't be "Me" without them.

Montessori Graduation

Sarah and Ben went to a month of Montessori preschool after we moved
to American Fork. Miss Rebecca runs the cutest preschool in her home
super close to ours. She really loves the children and they love her.
All the kids wore men's short sleeve white shirts backwards with paper
graduation hats. They sang a few songs and we had a potluck after. So
darling and fun. Ben will continue there in the fall and Sarah will be
off to kindergarten.

Can I get this PLEASE?!!!

What mother hasn't seen THIS look before?

"Oh mom this is sooooo awesome! Can I get it please please please!
I'll be really good! Can I get it for my birthday or Christmas? Which
one comes first? Pleeeeease!"

My special way of warding off overly zealous little hoarders is to
take a picture of the thing they want, then they are appeased and I
have an idea for a future gift. Sarah wants a super messy volcano set
instead of a (clean) fluffy pink stuffed animal? Darn. Messes were
sure more fun when I was a kid and had a mother to clean it up.

Way Cute Memo Board

Home Office Storage Solutions

I'm going to make a huge one of these memo boards for the office. Time to search for fun, pretty fabric! (update 8/11: Still haven't made it, but perhaps it's more likely to get done having posted the link here so I don't forget where to find it!)

Are you smiling yet?

Who knows what spurred this picture on... a rainy day? especially fragrant plate glass? babysitter boredom? but it makes me laugh every single time I see it.

Ah, to be a kid again, where face-making is an act of daily life! I plan on getting this thing printed as big as I can get it and putting it up in my kitchen to keep me smiling no matter what.

I think it's quite clear how my blog got its name: these are the funny little people I live with!! They crack me up!

The latest news: a house

Whoah, it's been a long time since I've caught this puppy up to speed...where does the time go??... Oh yeah, I know, how about changing diapers, sweeping the kitchen three times a day, wishing the laundry would somehow fold itself, dodging dirty dishes, and hopping in the car every five minutes to chauffeur a monkey here, there and everywhere. Blogging? Hah! Who has time to pee let alone write about it?

But one big thing has changed. We are officially building a new house in American Fork in a super cute gated circle. The views are amazing: Mt Timpanogos soaring out the front, the Timpanogos temple back-lit by the sinking sun out the back.

Hopefully the interior designer (me) likes what she's picked for color and finishes. How do I describe my style? Eclectic-beachy-modern with a bit of glamour? It should be a warm mix of textured grays and silvers, pale turquoise, and weathered wood finishes. I lie awake most nights planning where I will put this mirror or that chair or what type of bed I currently covet (right now my absolute favorite wished-for bed is a low king platform with a spare lined canopy in dark chocolate. Modern and clean, yet with a nod to tradition.) I'm having a blast planning everything.

Instead of reading fiction like I usually love to do, I have been poring over every magazine I've saved, tearing out rooms and ideas I love and getting design ideas for the new place. Who knows, if it all comes together like I hope, maybe there's a future in design for me. At the very least, by filling it with stuff I love, we'll have a home that makes me smile (and hopefully my family too!)

I'll try to post pictures that I have so far. It should be sheet-rocked this week and the finish date is the end of March! We'll move as soon as it's done.

Here's a link to the listing for our house. Ours will be a little different than the one shown, but the same design. So exciting! We'll miss our current friends and neighborhood, but the change should be a great thing for our family.

Pumpkin picking at Pack Farms

We had such a blast picking pumpkins as a family for Family Night. We
each picked a pumpkin to match our size so we ended up with a nice
little family of pumpkins on our porch.

Vashley Cardue and Alerie Mordon, adopted neighbors

A free picture collage by Smilebox

You guys are dang awesome! Thanks for all the good times.

Sarah's birthday e-vite

This invitation card personalized with Smilebox

Preschool Talent Show

Sarah is having a fabulous time in Preschool. She showed how she decorated a backpack for her "talent". She has become especially good friends with the darling son of the teacher, Miss Brittany (which explains why she wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween. He's the guy with the Storm Trooper on his shirt  :)

Halloween 2010

Encarnacion and Nacho at a Halloween party in our neighborhood. We got an award for best couple and Jon did a pretty good impersonation of Nacho; had 'em howling.

I had fun making this costume. Lizzy's Princess Leia hat hair turned out perfectly!

So why the heck did we not get better pictures of our costumes? Allie was a jellyfish (her choice, sombrero with stuffing and shiny fabric), Sarah was Darth Vader (her choice!), and Ben was Yoda, also fun to make. The other three people are our friends, who also were on the Star Wars bandwagon. This was before I doctored up my nun costume to look more like Encarnacion. Why is dressing up so much FUN!? What should we do next year?

•••The Brinton Look•••

Apparently our kids seem to have a common "look" to them...

A few weeks ago our dear neighbors were babysitting Lizzy and they brought her with them to an art show. Jon's aunt also happened to be there. Upon seeing this random baby the aunt asked if she was a "Brinton baby" and our neighbor laughed and said "yes!" So I've compiled baby pictures of each kid at around the same age. Yeah, they do look quite alike. So much so, that sometimes we can't tell who we are looking at in a given picture. But here they are, three of each in order of age. 

Allie:

 Sarah:

 

                           

Ben: 

       

  

Lizzy:
 
      
     

        



 

Yeah, they all must be related

Ballerinas

Our girls have started ballet! It's so fun to have them dress up in their dance clothes and dainty slippers. I'll add more pictures when I take them during their classes (hovering around the mommy-window while they try not to look at you while dancing).

Matching cousins

My brother Cory, wifey Krysta, and their 4 cute kids came over today for a quick visit. (I should have taken more pictures, so let's get together again soon!)  Sarah and I notice that sweety Maliya has the same shoes as Sarah, only way tinier. So Sarah put on her shoes, and here they are together. Great mommy minds think alike, eh?

She looks clean, right?

When I got home this evening from Allie's choir practice, Lizzy had been hanging out with Daddy and chewing on a biter biscuit, a big graham cracker/cookie thing for babies to chew on. She was all sticky with soggy biscuit, so I took a wet paper towel and cleaned the mush off her face.

 "Yep, all clean"... and then I shift her to my other arm....

...and look what I find tucked behind her ear!

(Here's the rest)

pink and happy

Isn't summer great? It's the only time of year babies get to wear outfits like this one. (the sandals are big sis') It's already gotten too cold for the likes of a sundress now... Hm...unless I add a sweater and leggings...

Finishing old projects

This is "finishing old projects week so I can move on to new projects with a clean conscience"

This is a little baby quilt I started when I was expecting Sarah, yes almost five years ago! It is made of little quilted squares sewn together, with the raw edges all on one side, clipped and frayed and kind of ruffly.

back of tummy time floor blanket

Front of tummy time floor blanket. I just added a layer of muslin between each yard of coordinating fabric, sewed it all together an inch from the edge, with raw edges out and clipped to make ruffly tabs around the perimeter.

And here is the blanket in action! Yes, Ben is climbing ON Lizzy. She didn't seem to mind, poor kid.

deer in the headlights...too innocent to know she's being wrestled by her big brother

Craftiness

I recently dusted off and oiled up the old sewing machine, broke out the knitting stash, and visited the craft store, multiple times. I've rediscovered crafts as a way to have a life outside of mommying (unless, of course, I do crafts with the kids). I'll post finished projects and maybe a few tutorials. (but no scrapbooking...)

Retrospective

Since I have soo much history I'd like to post from months and years past I am making a "retrospective" label, so even on a slow news day I can at least find tons of content to catch up on.

Not much sleep

Why is it that when I stay up late (after 1am) that Ben decides to get
up an hour early, at 6am? He wants "brepast." But the strangest thing
happened after we eat some pb&j for brepast (his request.) I go to
nurse the baby and he goes back in his room and shuts the door and is
quiet. He put himself back to bed! (for how long I'm not sure anymore) Then I was tempted to go back to bed, so I did. Which means Allie was too "distracted" to get catch the bus. oops!

retrospective 1

Doll Stroller: A few months ago we put our newest addition in a doll stroller. Not a bad fit! This was Lizzy's first time outdoors for longer than a few seconds. She seemed to love it. Babies are sometimes the best toys.

Bathtime!

We had a new sink put in last fall and we thought "Why do you need a divided sink anyway?" so we got a huge, deep, one pot sink. So this is bath central. And who doesn't love a chubby baby lovin' her bath?

And here Lizzy lounges, enjoying the moment. I love how her juicy thighs cover her parts. Which leads me to ask the age old question: Why is it so cute for a baby to be fat and not so much an adult? We may never know.

Bleachin' Shirts

I get crafty at night. So instead of going to bed, I pulled out the bleach! I have a pile of old t-shirts that I haven't worn since before this last baby and dug out a few I was willing to sacrifice if this project was a flop. I put some bleach in a little spray bottle (an old blue glass one that used to have good smelling water so it made the bleach smell kinda good). You can also have fun with a bleach pen (but make sure it's not old or the bleach will have lost its gumption).

This shirt was done by placing a fake daisy on the shirt, then spraying the bleach over and around it.

Up close. Looks like daisy shadows on the Milky Way.

Here is the back of the same shirt. I originally had some bleach bleed through. (If you don't want this to happen, put cardboard or something in between the layers!)...But then it gave me an opportunity to camouflage. So I sprayed and splashed the back. It's a party from all angles.

This shirt turned out cool. I placed a huge necklace just below the neckline and sprayed it with bleach.  A little bleach dripped down and made splotches, but I like it crazy like that! Now I have a built in necklace.

Here's the detail of another shirt. I cut out a flower and dot shapes from thin cardboard and laid them on the shirt and sprayed bleach over them.

 

And this purple shirt had great contrast, turning all shades of pink.


I was getting bored of all my plain jane shirts. Now they have a little spice to em!

(I did not picture the bleachy-green practice shirt which turned out ug-ly, but hey, you gotta start somewhere!)

Button/Ribbon Bookmarks and Flowers

Don't you always need a great bookmark to make reading more fun? I found this cute idea from Family Fun Magazine. These bookmarks are fast, easy, cute and incredibly useful (if you read a lot).

First gather materials: trusty $3 glue gun and glue sticks.

Buttons (mixed bag from Michael's) and ribbon, wide and skinny both work. And scissors.

Cut the ribbon 12 to 15 inches (I've found I like it when the ribbon has a few inches on either side of the ends of the book. A little long is better than too short.) Cut a triangular shape out on both ends of the ribbon so you get nice angled points; it really helps with unraveling and with cuteness. Pick buttons you like for both ends of your ribbon. Add some glue to your button, ( I like to glue around the outer edge of the button so the glue doesn't goop up through the holes too much) stick it on. Add buttons to both ends. Ta-Da! 

I played with stacking buttons or making little collages with tiny buttons (they look like jewels). These make great little gifts. Cheep, easy, cute, fast: what could be better? And seeing one sticking out of a book makes me want to read the book some more!

(While making these I came to identify with the phrase 

"Cute as a button." 

Those things are stinkin' cute, and I think I'm going to look for more crafts using buttons just so I can dig through the button jar some more.)

So here are all the bookmarks I made one night. I plan on keeping a few and giving a bunch away to friends. But notice the orange flowers?

That brings me to my next little button/ribbon craft:

Ribbon flowers with button centers

Take a little bit of quilters thread and needle. Double the thread and tie a knot.

 Run a gathering stitch all along one edge of a long piece (25 inches or so) of wide ribbon, about a quarter inch from the edge. I used the same cheap orange ribbon I used for the bookmarks.

I didn't take a picture of the process, but pull the thread almost all the way tight. I liked it a little loose though so the flower laid flat. Tie a strong knot. Quilting thread won't break. Shape the ribbon flower till it lays how you like it. Glue on a button. Glue the ends of the ribbon together if you want, so they stay hidden in the folds. I glued hair clips to the back so the girls can wear them in their hair.

These look a little like a ribbon you would win at the fair, without the tails, so it seems a look more suited to a kid. I'll have to try lace and see what it looks like though. Or maybe thinner ribbon would make a cute smaller flower.

***I got the idea to do this gathering technique from a little kit I bought at the local quilt store, Quilter's Haven. You can make a cute flower out of gathered jelly roll fabric (that's a piece of fabric 2 and 1/2 inches wide, 45 inches long, cut with pinking shears, often they come ready cut in coordinating colors, rolled up at the fabric store). You take a half jelly roll strip (22 1/2 inches or so) then fold it in half lengthwise, so it's long and skinny. Sew a running stitch along the folded edge, pull tight, tie a knot and glue on a button to cover the gathered center.

Here's the one I made with fabric: cute, yes? I like this one better than the orange ribbon ones.... If I bought a jelly roll of coordinating fabrics and made a bunch of these it would be fun to cover a pillow with them. Hm...I feel another craft coming on.