Happy, Loveable, and she's four!

I have done it, I have managed to blog about every person in my house hold by the end of the month and plus some.  Yay!  

Next up, CW. Our lovable 4 year old with lots to give and receive.     

 

Claire out riding her trike and bike, Jan. 9th, roughly 50 degrees and feels like spring. 

CW with her butterfly and flower pieces. Each piece has 8 or so places to connect and one can build random shapes and such. CW loves to match all the same colored butterflies to one flower. 

CW with EW and the oatmeal sensory bin. CW played for a good hour scooping and dumping and using the farm animals we have.  It was so refreshing to know I provided something that creates imaginary play and it's exciting for her. 

The trip home New Years weekend, this barbie car CW got from Christmas from her G. Gma. Kay. Decided she enjoyed it such, she couldn't put it down to rest.

We went to the cities for a small road trip and Claire was able to visit the new nephew, baby O and she was able to meet and to play with my cousins children, O and E.  She had a wonderful time playing with all their fun toys and 'camping' out in the living room. :)

The latest fun for CW has been her dad's new iphone.  He was recording her singing songs and it was so fun for her. Then he started video recording and she was quite confused because she couldn't hear herself sing. She wanted to sing along, we have a few funny video's of her starting and stopping.  She presented us with wheels on the bus and twinkle, twinkle, deep and wide and head, shoulders, knees and toes.

Such a fun girl we have and we love watching her grow.

Until Next Time,
Lexie ><> 

Our 18 mo. old!

Our Eleanore is now 18 months. Where does the time go?  She is busy climbing, eating very independently, starting to put cloths on all by herself and she loves shoes! When you can't find the girl, look in among the shoes, you'll find her. She likes her tea set, pushing cars or sending then down a card board tub (a heavy duty cardboard tub from a roll of upholstery.).  She very much enjoys outside even if it's to cold. I found out this week that she does not like falling over. She gets stuck and can't get up on her own. I think it's a feeling of being stuck that she does not like. She gets a kick out of the chickens, dog and our cat.  She is very high on the motor skills but speech is minimal.  Her words: ouch, whoa, wow, mama, daddy, please (in the form of 'wee,wee,wee' and using the sign language sign), more, all done have signs too. Tickle is in there vaguely and so is eew or icky. We think she says aqua for water even though I don't use it to often and either does she. But my thought was, If aqua was easier to say, then I'd start her out on that.  

She is sleeping at night quite well and is out of her crib.  We spent a week battling her climbing out multiple times a night and gave in.  She stays in bed pretty well too, but i do believe that nap time is a bit shorter since she slightly wakes up and then gets up vs. in a crib she'd wake up and then realize she was stuck and fall back to sleep.  Since moving her from her crib, her longest nap has been 2.25 hr compared to a good 3. But   I am thankful that she is napping and we can have a little down time.  

 

The sensory oatmeal bin we created!  Eleanore loved playing with it and needed to try with her feet too.

 

Jan. 9th, we were out riding bikes. Roughly 50 degrees with a little wind. 

Obviously done with taking a bath... enough said. (New Years weekend)

Eleanore styling her babies hair. 

EW in her picnic basket, she enjoys getting in and out of containers. 

EW must of  thought something was funny.  Here she is with baby O, Jim's nephew and the momma auntie C. 

Until Next Time

- Lexie >&lt;>  

A mid winter trip.

We just got back from a mini winter trip to the Twin Cities and it was delightful. 2.5 days packed with lots of visiting and we still managed to catch up on sleep. :) It truly was delightful! 

We were able to visit Jim's brother and SIL and see the new baby.  He is a very sweet baby boy. The girls enjoyed visiting him too.  We got to see their house too. Very nice. 

Saturday evening, we had a wonderful dinner with Lexie's aunt and uncle, g'ma and her friend. We were able to  celebrated two birthdays. :) One turned 29 and the other 60.  You can guess who's 60 right?  

Sunday we managed to get to church, shop, esp. for material (Oh, Happy Day) and the evening we shared a meal with a cousin of Lexie and her family.  We got to see their bea.u.ti.ful house.  It's larger then I ever want but it is just so spacious, a great view including a pond, room for the kids to grow, and so many fun little perks.  It sure makes me want a bigger house, completely finished and everything I really would like (extra rooms, my own sewing space, exercise room, walk out, LOTS of light (meaning many windows), and the girls very own play nook), but then I come back to realty and see how our house is wonderful, it works great for us, and we have such a small amount to pay off, it would be ridiculous for use to move. 

Monday, we slept in as much as we could and made our way to S.R. Harris, a fabric outlet. I was really looking for leather for my booties but I did walk out of there with some amazing flannel and cotton.  After our excursion at the fabric store and our girls behaved just amazingly, we headed out of the cities. We stopped at Lexie's aunts and uncle to get some fabulous home made soap and go to our destination: home by 6pm.  

I'd throw in some pictures but non to be had.  Here's to a good week of getting back to a schedule and some serious sewing done!   

Until Next Time

- Lexie ><> 

 

Fun with the Marble tower.

Jim got a marble tower for Christmas, one we can build over and over and always be different.

The girls mainly place marbles and watch them roll down but they have an input to where to place the 'whirl circle' (lg blue and yellow circles) or the 'spinners' (one is orange, green ad pink) and all the other parts.

 It's a simple, whole family activity that we are enjoying.

The towers can get tall too, EW is little taller then 30". :) 

Until Next Time,
Lexie ><> 

It's my birthday !!

Or should I say my birthday week, so I decided to write a bit about me, which won't be difficult. I always have something I can spit out, regardless if it's interesting or not.  Here we go!

The 15th, my birthday was wonderful.  We attended church in the am and I was a greeter, then we came home for pizza.  Home made and delicious!  I got EW down for a nap and was out the door!  Well, not quite. I did take a cat nap in between EW napping and leaving to go shopping. :) A girl needs to be rested up for a little shopping, right? Anyway, on my way to town, my girlfriend Kat called me and asked if I could stop over later that night to look at a window and decided what we could do about curtains. I said sure. (remember this for later)
While I was out, I was able to hit up a thrift store, a few shoe stores, find my girls white long sleeve shirts for pictures, the fabric store for goodies, found myself a new pair of winter boots (Waa-Hoo!) and after all that, I went to church for the semi-annual women's event.  The evening was wonderful; fellowship, God stories from fellow women at church and worship to our Heavenly Father!  Completely wonderful! Then I made my way to Kat's, you know, to check out that window for curtain ideas. Oh, no! That was just a scheme between her and my husband and a few other friends for a SURPRISE party.  And yes, I was surprised, completely.  I even walked into the house and saw a 'birthday cake' with a spread on the counter and decorations and still didn't tie it all in. Note: It was Kat's birthday two days before mine and I assumed it was just her decorations. :)  I went upstairs to check out the room and what do you know, a large awesome group of people were there!  Oh what fun it was!  My girls had fun yelling surprise and blowing party ca-zoo's along with everyone else!


Today is Monday and it has been one of the best Monday's I have had a in a long time, it feels great!

What else have I been up to, you guessed it. Sewing, hanging out with my girls and those domestic duties that I signed up for.

Booties for little ones. 

                                                         

                                    Boots for Me. 

 The awesome cutting mat with a small rotary cutter from Jim for Christmas! 

Small clutch.

       

Western Dress-up for niece G. 

             One of two poncho's for my girls. 

 Burlap wreath for the Christmas season. I cut 4" squares, folded and pinned to a styrofoam circle. 

The girls and I are busy with Christmas toys, playing outside with 50 degree weather until recently, creating sensory boxes, laundry, cooking, cookie baking and much more.  

 Until next time,

       Lexie ><> 

   

Welcome 2012 !

It's been a while... and I go back and forth deciding 'should keep up this blog or not?' I do think it's neat, the fact I can print off all the blog post from each year.  I do know some people actually read my type and maybe this is the year to be a bit more proactive on writing what we all are doing and make is s.i.m.p.l.e. 

Short, fun post of our life in a little town in N.Dakota. 

Here's to a fresh new month, four writings a month and a 'spot light' on each family member!  

Here we go,  

                   Lexie ><> 

A guitar in the making !

Jim has been humming and haaing about making a guitar. Well, he finally took the plunge and got started. Here are some beginning pictures to see how it's taking shape. 

rim set assembly (Rosewood)

sound hole purfling 

Spruce top

cloth pins are holding the kerfing

wood parts for top and bridge bracing (they make the top stronger)

 So far, this project is working out nicely, a little work here and a little work there. 

We'll keep you posted so you can see how it's 'coming a long'. 

Until next time,

Lexie ><> (and Jim too.)