The Little Man

Lest you think we've forgotten about our silly little Petey, here are a couple of recent fun things I caught the boy doing. 

It seems the little man loves oranges.

Especially when I cut them into triangles so he can give me big cheesers like this:

And a couple of days ago, I went to wake him up from his nap and this was the 'relaxed' pose I found him in:

He just looks like some care-free, young bachelor to me.

And yes, I really, really didn't want to wake him up.

I'm so crafty, I make PEOPLE!

Well my friends, the title of this post really says it all. Travis, Petey and I are getting really excited to welcome the newest little Millet into our home come May 6 next year. Unlike with Petey, we've had to be patient for a very long time while walking a pretty uphill road - so we are now feeling extra blessed at the moment after watching the ultrasound (and seeing our healthy baby moving all around).

As for the baby -- well, even though Travis was convinced it was going to be a girl we found out it is going to be a BOY! Let's just say I am thrilled seeing as we already have everything we need and know what to do with boys. Maybe that's lazy, but I couldn't be more happy.

Lastly, I thought I'd share a conversation we had with Peter today. All throughout this pregnancy he's been telling me he thinks it's a baby sister, but this last week he changed his mind.

Me: "Peter, do you think there's a baby brother or a baby sister in mommy's tummy?"

Peter: "Baby broder."

Me: "Really? What should we name your baby brother?"

Peter: "Uh... Petey."

Me: "But your name is already Peter. What will we call the baby?"

Peter: "He will be little Petey and I will be big Petey."

Me: "Okay, that's not confusing at all."

Peter: "Then Mama will have a baby Petey and Daddy will have a baby Petey."

Travis: "Well, that makes sense to me."

Can't argue with that kind of logic.

Advent Calendars

For some odd and unfathomable reason I decided to make my family Christmas presents this year. To be totally honest, I've done this many times in the past, and have always really enjoyed it, but this year I think I took on the most ambitious project of all: The advent calendar.

And I needed to make FOUR.

By December 1st.

Crazy.

I'm not sure why I decided to pick something so random or so time-consuming, but I did. I really had no clue how even to start, so I searched around a bit until I found this blog with some pretty good tutorials. But since no one really had any kind of post on how to make exactly what I wanted and in the interest of sharing with others what I learned along the way - I thought I'd post a mini-tutorial here.

First I started off with this beauty (via Land of Nod) as my insipration and kind of went from there:

First order of business was to cut the pockets. Instead of using all sorts of random colors I decided to just use traditional Christmas reds and greens (except for the calendar for my sister - because she decorates in blue and silver but I'll explain more later) and so I cut out 25 little 3"x3" squares of felt for each one. I ended up using 5 different colors - 3 greens and 2 reds - and just used those 8.5"x11" sheets of felt from JoAnns.

Next I had to come up with 25 Christmas themed pictures (harder than you think) for each pocket and then cut those out. Followed by their corresponding numbers 1-25. (It was a lot of cutting). Probably the hardest part was decided what should go where and in what color. It's pretty stressful trying to make sure you don't have 6 green squares in a row!

 

Then came the sewing.

And sewing. 

And still more sewing. 

Travis will attest to this. I spent literally every nap time and every evening (that I didn't simply crash) sewing up these bad boys since early October. I think Trav felt thoroughly ignored and neglected. Poor baby. Although I was able to finally watch the entire season of Firefly and the movie Serenity - both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

For the hand-stitching parts, I bought some fun twisty embroidery thread from JoAnns which came with lots of wonderful colors. Since I don't know how to embroider, I used this basic stitch guide and sort of made up the rest as I went.

After all the sewing was done, I ironed on a square of fusible webbing to the back of each piece (just a little smaller than each pocket) so that the threads wouldn't catch each time you pulled the candy or papers out of the pockets. Sneaky me.

The next big step was sewing each individual pocket to the green felt backing. Travis was floored that I would actually choose to do this all by hand, but I figured since I already done so much by hand, using the machine would be a little like cheating. I might as well make the pockets look extra pretty too.

After sewing on each square individually with some fun green thread, I sewed (used the machine here kids) the large piece of green felt to a matching piece of red felt so all those stitches were hidden (I know it's the back, but I was worried about it). Lastly, I sewed together a layered brown felt roof and added that on top.

Whew.   

The fruits of my labors. My hands are cramping just thinking about all the time I spent on these bad boys. But really, it wouldn't have been so bad if I had just been making ONE. Since I ended up doing four (one for my folks, each sibling, and one, of course, for us) I may have developed carpal tunnel in the process.

One of the four calendars I actually did in a silver/blue color scheme because my sister decorates for Christmas in all blues and silvers.Trav confessed that he liked this one better than ours, but oh well. He got a red and green one.

If your curious, here's how that one turned out. Even though I don't have a final picture - just image this all with the pockets sewn on with white thread and a grey roof (like the others).

some detail.

So there you have it. The reason I have not blogged, read much, and kept my house cleaning to a minimum over the past two months. I'm pretty excited over how they all turned out - I think the real reason I love making Christmas gifts is because you have all this time while you are actually putting the thing together to think about the person you are making them for. It's a nice way to keep your family in mind during the holidays - especially for me when mine all live so far away.

As a side note, because of all my preparations, I got into the Christmas spirit very, very early this year and have been singing Christmas songs to Petey since early November (which I usually NEVER do before Thanksgiving). I'm thinking it's not necessarily a bad thing ;)

Now I just need to come up with 25 activities for each pocket....

O Christmas Tree

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Christmas is on it's way finally! Monday night we went out to track down the perfect Christmas tree (Trav is a bit particular when it comes to his firs) and spent a nice evening decorating it together. We cranked up the Christmas tunes, poured ourselves a couple of glasses of egg nog and got to work. Peter especially got really excited to set up the tree. All week he's been saying stuff like "Can we have a Christmas Eve?" or "Maybe Santa will say ho ho ho." Cracks us up. This year he also finally figured out how to help us put ornaments on the tree.

Except he didn't so much get the 'tree' part. 

His favorite part to decorate was the strand of lights coming from the wall. 

I think it looks good that way too pal.

And final product. Yep - the stockings were also Petey's addition. I guess he didn't much like them on the mantel.

Let the countdown begin!

"It's a Spaceship!"

Oh the fun things that happen when Daddy comes home.

My favorite?

Peter's 'space helmet.'

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone got their fill of candy and pumpkins this past weekend - we sure did! Amazingly, we all dressed up this year - even Travis. He went as Bert the chimney sweep from Mary Poppins, Peter was a cowboy and I was Frauline Maria from The Sound of Music - complete with guitar and suitcase. So we sorta had our own Julie Andrews theme night -- Trav and I just got our movies mixed up. But we did have a blast getting our costumes together, although next year I think I just might have to pick one from this hilarious list.

Peter was the cutest cowboy ever. We even had little spurs to put on his boots (which are not actual cowboy boots - we didn't have those. he simply wore rain boots. close enough). He calls his hat a 'howdy hat' and his little pistol a 'shoot gun.' Love it.

Of course his favorite part of the evening was playing with his friend Dublin the dragon. When we first got to the party, Peter kept running around saying "where's the dragon mommy?" And I had no clue what he was talking about until I realized Dublin was the dragon. They chased each other around all night.

 

Getting the goods truck-or-treating

 

Happy Halloween!

I am Child of God

Petey has been wandering around singing this song at the top of his lungs for a couple of weeks now and I finally was able to catch him on camera. Only he got a little distracted near the end, so I apologize if all his wanderings make you dizzy. We've been singing it before bedtime every night but had no idea he knew all three verses until he joined in one night. Melted our hearts.

Murray Family Farms

Today we drove up near Bakersfield to spend the day at Murray Family Farms. They are currently holding their Octoberfest and had lots of fun things for the kiddos to enjoy. We've been talking this excursion up to Pete for several days so he was sufficiently excited to ride on tractors and pet some animals.

First up was a hay ride... pulled by a tractor. I think Petey about peed his pants he was so excited.

The tractor dropped us off at the pumpkin patch where we each got to select one. Trav and Petey (of course) may have taken the longest to select theirs. I tried to snap a picture of it but mainly Pete took so long picking out his cause he kept wandering around with bits of irrigation piping. Trust our little man to go for the tools/equpiment whenever possible.

Pete hanging out by some of this years larger models.

Then we stopped off at the petting zoo which Peter refused to leave. He thought the goats and this pig were hilarious and he loved wandering in and out of the animals little barn. We practically had to drag him away from it in the end.

And here we have my newest frivolous purchase. I've been looking for a fun pair of rainboots and finally settled on these crocs. Which I love. Just start calling me Debbie Reynolds. Except I still need the yellow slicker.

And the good looking family.

As a completely random side note, can you believe how big Petey is getting lately? As Trav and I were looking through all these photos, we just couldn't believe some of the faces he had pulled and just how big he looks. Not to mention that we are constantly amused (and amazed) by all the crazy things that come out of his mouth.

My baby is a baby no longer.

Excuse me while I go have a good cry...

A Wedding & a new arrival

This past weekend we made the long trek back to Idaho for Travis' brother, Jon's, wedding. He married the wonderful Shelia - who the entire family loves - at a pretty golf course on Sunday afternoon. Jon also gained a little boy named Stewart, Shelia's 2 year old, too. We are so happy for the new family.

 A view of the gorgeous golf course they were married at.

The new family: Jon, Shelia and Stewart

 Basically the ONLY picture I got of Travis in his full tux. He was Jon's best man.

 The little man wandering around before the wedding.

Peter chugging sparkling cider before the wedding toasts. Trav's toast was really quite funny actually. No surprise there :)

Do you think this means our kid will be a lush?

So I was a total space-head and forgot to get any family pictures of the three of us in our finery before the wedding and only remembered (of course) once Peter was beyond done for the day. He didn't get a nap that day and had already eaten multiple cupcakes and drank many cups of punch (and not much else) so he was a little punch-drunk himself. 

Let's just say this picture is the best we got of the bunch.

Pete and I hanging out on the bridge after the ceremony. 

On the way home we decide to go through Utah so we could see my family for a bit too. We ended up going to breakfast with my whole family - which was wonderful. Unfortunately, since we've been home Pete's come down with a bad case of diarrhea (like every 30 min for the past 2 days) and now has the worst diaper rash ever. Poor kid, he keeps wandering around, crying and saying "mine body hurts!" 

Anybody know any good remedies for that?

************

On the way home, we stopped off in St. George and welcomed a long-awaited member to our family.

After searching around for the past two years for a used or second-hand, or heck, even a discounted Bosch mixer, we finally broke down and bought a brand-new model. It cost a pretty penny but Trav has always been pretty insistent that we go with the Bosch versus a Kitchenaid - he says they have a bigger motor and last years longer than any Kitchenaid. I say whatever - I just want something to mix dough so I don't have to. I had never used one of these bad boys previously but Trav's family has nothing but good things to say about them. Which I guess is pretty accurate since we've received several phone calls congratulating us on our new purchase since getting home ;). In fact, Trav's sister Michelle told us she still uses the one his mom was given on her wedding day(!). My MIL Deb tells me she this guy can handle a 6-loaf batch of bread easy and I cannot wait to try that out!

We opted to go with the food processor attachment and so far I've grated cheese, made soup and spaghetti sauce just in the past couple days. I haven't even had a chance to use the mixer itself but I'm really looking forward to making bread, pizza dough, pasta, flat bread - ANYTHING really.

We are in love.

The Wild Man

Let me tell you that Peter has entered the crazy, wild boy stage lately and it's all I can do to keep up with the little man. Every time I turn around the kid is into something new and half the time I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Usually it's laughing, but not always.

First up -- Petey decided he needed a haircut the other day. Except he couldn't wait for me to do the honors, of course not. I got out of the shower a few days ago to discover that Peter had gotten out Trav's clippers, climbed on top of the sink and then proceeded to buzz a strip of hair right down the middle. *sigh* He now has a complete buzz cut.

This one actually happened a couple of weeks ago while my friend was keeping Pete so I could go get my license renewed (2 1/2 hours with an appointment - you have to love CA government processes). Peter fell and got a huge black eye at her house. It stayed for about a week and I had to explain to everyone that no, I don't beat my child.

For the next few days, anytime someone would ask him what happened he'd calmly say: "I fell and hurt mine eye at Dublin's house." That's my honest kid.

And here's a great one of the silly boy climbing on top of his car. Petey does this about once every day and I about had a heart-attack seeing him try to climb it on the cement. So I started trying to get him to push it onto the grass first. I figure a fall onto the grass would be a lot more manageable than a fall on cement would be. It's a compromise of sorts. Every time he does it now, he says: "we go on grass, so don't fall and smash mine head like a pancake." See, he's learning.

And of course, there is potty-training. We've been at it for a couple of weeks now and most of the time Petey is just so busy he always forgets to tell me he's got to go. So it's more of a training for me to remember to have him go regularly. Hopefully he'll figure it out on his own soon. Although I do love watching him run around in his little underwears.

I keep trying to figure it out where Petey comes up with all this crazy stuff, but then I come home to find his father doing something like this:

That's right. Trav bought a pair of police-grade handcuffs for added home security (don't ask) and has been  teaching himself to open them with just a bobby pin a la Jason Bourne. As of last night, he can get them off in about 2 minutes if his hands are in front. He says now he just needs to figure out how to do it while his hands are behind his back. I just want to know what crime Trav's planning that he's anticipating needing to know this skill in advance.

These are my boys.

If Mommy talks about potty training one more time, I'm joining the Circus

Petey's latest trick: Sword Swallower Extraordinaire.

(Peter --- Professional)

Skirty Flirty

So yesterday, I finally got brave and used this tutorial to make this skirt -- which includes pockets! As basically a beginner sewer, I tend to way over-think every single step, but this one only took me about 2 hours.

I think the final product turned out real cute as I ended up wearing it to church today (at least it was real cute until Petey decided to throw up on it right before sacrament meeting, but that's another post). And now maybe I'll be brave enough to try something a little more difficult in the future.

And no, I'm not showing you the first skirt I made with this pattern. Are you thinking of a mumu crossed with a circus tent? Yeah, well that first attempt looks like those two got together and tried (unsuccessfully) to have kids.

The AV Fair

This weekend we went to the Antelope Valley Fair and had a great time. Petey loved riding the ferris wheel, eating funnel cake, and checking out all the livestock. Trav and I loved watching the mutton busting (and are already counting down the days until Petey is 3 so he can compete) and the wild turkey races. We all got a kick out of the barn where all the bunnies and chickens were kept. Trav is convinced that we should enter our chickens next year. Our rooster is very purty. They also had several areas for families - one where Pete could pump water and rubber ducks in this gutter system.

Trav always enjoys these things as much as the kids

Dad showing Petey how to 'milk' a cow and occasionally shooting Mommy with the spray.

Petey liked the petting zoo, but not the petting part so much. He really didn't want to touch this baby goat, but we forced him to anyways. It'll put hair on his chest.

Words

I found this amazing video online today and just had to share. Basically it's a take on the many varied definitions of a single word and how easily they can merge into other words. Can you spot how and when each word merges into the next?

Canada, eh!

A couple of weeks ago, we took a family vacation to Toronto. Trav was presenting a paper at some aeronautics conference there so it wasn't all fun and games for him - but me and Pete explored the city to it's fullest. We were lucky enough to meet up with some of our friends from last summer in Ohio who's hubby's were also there for the conference, so we palled around during the day while the boys did scholarly stuff. Frankly, I love Toronto. I could move there - except for the whole winter/snow thing. But seriously I love how clean and friendly it was, I'd love to take another trip there sometime.

Petey did pretty good on the flight there and back. On the trip home, me and Trav ended up on separate flights and as me and Pete were boarding the plane, he had to stop and make sure every single passenger on our flight knew that "mine daddy's on a spaceship." (emphasis on the space) Too funny.

Our first day we went to the Toronto Zoo with Rachelle, her kids Isaac and Ian, her MIL, and Rekha and her little man Nikil. We had a good time, but boy was it HOT so we sorta pushed the kids through the outdoor exhibits and then finally made it to the splash pad for a cool-down. We didn't know about it prior however, so Pete and Isaac both just ran around in their shorts but still enjoyed it plenty.

Isaac & Pete in a turtle egg. Check out how red-faced these two got. 

Believe it or not, Petey was so scared of this seahorse. The look of distrust on his face here totally cracks me up. Even with me cajoling him, this is still as close as he would get to it.

Cooling off at the splash park and stealing Isaac's snacks

The next day we went here - Casa Loma. Loved the gardens.

Petey loved exploring all the various paths in the gardens.

 And would you look at that? I acutally got the turkey to hold still and LOOK at the camera for once.

Ain't he cute?

We did a TON of walking throughout the city, Petey even got a blister from his new tennies! But every night we had to walk by these little statues of dogs/wolves/bunnies? so Petey could take a ride. And Travis too.

At the scenic hotel right after Trav finished presenting his paper. I think he's glad to be done.

Our last day, we took the ferry out to the Toronto Islands for a quick peak around. Mainly I just wanted a boat ride. And no, I didn't plan on color-coordinating our outfits, it just happened. Serendipitously.

On the boat ride back, we sat next to this British family on 'holiday' and if that little boy had had brown hair (and a family who didn't like him), I swear he'd have been Harry Potter. At one point he walked up to us after hearing me call Petey (imagine great English accent): "Is his name Peter? Can he talk yet? We're here only holiday, it's my baby sister's birthday today." (remember think really cute, really thick English accent - or just call me and I'll do it for you.) And then he proceeded to talk our ear off for the next 20 minutes. It was probably the highlight of our trip. And now Trav keeps asking me if the next baby we have can come out with a British accent.

Hanging out along the Harbourfront

Us at an outdoor concert at one of the many city parks. Isnt' this venue gorgeous? It was right on the waterfront and so fun. We seriously loved Toronto so much and now I'm already trying to figure out how to get us back there!