Happy 4th Birthday Anthony

Of all my children, Anthony is the most quirky. He definitely dances to his own drummer, that's for sure! I think it's the aspects of his personality that make him extra special also make him the most aggravating sometimes! He seems to be very creative. I've blogged before about pattern making. He's also very creative in his play. He'll take ordinary things and say that he's making things like a Birthday or a circus. He'll also bust up laughing about the weirdest things! I've applied to get him into head start. I think this might be good for him. Here is a picture of him being his little quirky self!

I would like to draw your attention to his hair cut. I've always thought this kind of hair cut looks really cute on little boys. For some reason this haircut won't work on Christian, but I gave Anthony this haircut and I think it looks very cute on him! I call it the "mushroom" hair cut.

For Anthony's Birthday we went to Shari's. On the weekends kids eat free; which is an awesome deal for us with all of our kids! On the actual day of his birthday we just had cake and presents by ourselves. Anthony got to pick out his own cake. I thought he would want a dinosaur cake, or something else that seemed more exciting for a boy his age, but this is the one he wanted. He definitely knows his own mind. Which is good, except for when what he wants is contrary to what I want.

Wow! My oldest is 7!

It is hard for me to believe I have a 7 year old! Christian is in first grade. He seems pretty smart for his age, but maybe I'm his mother and a little prejudice! I am amazed at the big words he can read. There are 6 students in his class that have harder spelling words than the other kids; and he is one of them. When we practice his math skills, he comes up with the answers pretty fast. I'm pretty proud of him!

As the oldest of 5 I feel like we expect more out of him. In some ways I feel bad about this, in other ways I feel like it is good for him. He's pretty good about helping around the house when he's not at school. Yesterday he gave the baby his bottle and I think that was one chore he didn't mind doing! I'm just amazed at how grown up he already is. I feel like he's a pretty good boy & I hope that we can do our part in bringing him up to be an excellent young man.

Christian's Birthday was actually last month, but it has just taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer.

Christian was actually pretty sick on his Birthday; so we celebrated it late. We took him to Chevy's for his Birthday. Here is a picture of him eating his ice-cream:

They gave him a cool hat that he got to keep and sang him Happy Birthday. It was a nice family outing together. We all enjoyed it. As the oldest of 5, I think Christian isn't the center of attention very often. I think it was nice for him to have this time in the spotlight. Our camera went dead so I didn't get a picture of him with his hat at the restaurant, but I just took some later:

Christian also had a party with Levi M. All the brethren here came over for cake and ice-cream. The boys opened their presents and then we all went skating. It was fun to spend the time with the brethren. I really enjoyed skating! Last time we all went I didn't get to skate because I was pregnant. My feet and back were sore, but I had a good time, and I think everyone else did too. Christian tried roller blades and did pretty good I thought.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

Finally put more pictures on my computer!

I finally got around to putting my pictures onto my computer today; so now I have some things to blog about! I have pictures of Christian and Anthony's Birthdays, but they will have their own special post. Now for this first picture...

Most of our tax return went into paying off some bills, but we did take a little bit to buy a few things we've been wanting. We took a trip to Wal-Mart! In the big city we live in there is not a Wal-Mart very close; so we don't hardly ever go there, but we went with some tax return money and bought some things for ourselves. This bed set came with the comforter, bed ruffle, shams, complete sheet set, and the 4 decorative pillows for only $64 on clearance! For a King sized set I felt like I had scored an awesome deal! We also had to buy 2 more pillows so we could make use of the pillow shams. Here is the new look in my bedroom. I'm very pleased with it:

Here are a couple of pictures I just had to take. It's just one of those Awwwwe moments!

I handed the baby over to Matt so I could do something and they both fell asleep.

Don't they look comfortable!

Selling Quilts

Awhile back I answered an ad on Craigslist. They were looking for people in my area who made unique, homemade baby items that they could sell on their website. To be honest I wondered if they were for real because you do have to be a little cautious, but I decided to answer the ad and see what became of it. I sent them pictures of these quilts that I make. (To give credit where credit is due, I want to thank Sis. Cindy for showing me how to make them.) They are incredible soft and easy to make. One side is soft flannel, and the other side is a soft fur material. The more boy type quilts have a triangle edging like this:

And the girl one's have a ruffle edging like this:

After a few contacts back and forth they decided to try selling my quilts on consignment, and I decided that the amount of money I would get from them would be worth it. To tell the truth it's not a whole lot, but I enjoy making the quilts and it's nice to make a little bit of extra money. By the way they do have the above star blanket for sale, but minus the pillow because that was not part of the deal.

From what I can gather a couple of moms got together and decided to start this website that exclusively sells unique, homemade baby items. I even got to meet one of the moms, and they seem like very nice people.

Anyway, I've been checking the site periodically since I signed the selling contract and they received my quilts; and finally today they had my quilts posted! They can be found under the toys and accessories section. I'm also in their featured designers section! This is kind of exciting for me! We'll see how these one's sell. If my quilts do good, then obviously they will want me to make more.

The website is: http://miminkoapparel.com/index.html I will try to figure out how to make a link to them on the sidebar of my blog.

Anyway, wish me luck on my new endeavor!

It's bound to happen...

This morning Matt and I didn't wake up until 9:30! Matt wasn't feeling real good; so he planned to stay home from church with a couple of the kids. I thought I had time to hurry up and go. I told Christian and ruby to hurry up and get ready, and we would just go through a drive through for breakfast. The baby was needing to eat; so I thought I would take care of that really quick. I sat down at my computer chair (which doubles as a rocking chair) I looked at my computer and it said it was 10:33! Yep! We forgot to set our clocks back. I guess it's bound to happen to someone, but why did it have to happen on the one Sunday morning when we slept in too late?

The ironic thing is that the baby woke up at 7 to eat, and I thought I had some time to sleep a little bit longer. If I'd have gotten up then it was actually 8! So if anybody is wondering why we didn't make it to church today...

Donate to Church by Shopping at Albertson's

Every year the assembly in Jackson, Wyoming have a ski weekend for the young people on St. Patrick's day weekend. If you link your Albertson's card to their organization a percentage of what you spend gets donated to them & they use the money for their ski weekend. We shop at Albertson's all the time and I just linked my card today. Even if somehow your card is already linked to them, for some reason you have to relink.

Anyway, I thought I would make a post about this so that anyone that had an Albertson's card could link it to them, and help them out.

You can go online to albertsonscp.com to link your card number to their organization number. I tried to do it online and couldn't figure it out so you can also call this number: 877-932-7948. Their organization number is: 49000113535.

If enough people do this they can get up to 4% of what we all spend at Albertson's!

Time to Think

Matt & I are total Craigslist fanatics. Especially since Matt has been laid off he's always on there looking at the job listings. Every once in awhile we find ads for research studies. Him and I both have participated in these in the past. They usually are looking for a particular type of people to come and give their opinions on whatever it is they want an opinion on. It's an interesting way to make a little bit of extra money.

Anyway, today I went to participate in one for mothers of little babies. What I ended up doing was sitting in a room with six other mothers and looking at potential ads for Similac and giving my opinion on how appealing they were. I got paid $125 for the 2 hours I was there. Today was time well spent in more ways than one...

Matt & I decided that it would just be easier for me to take the max (public transit) to my appointment. We live within walking distance of one of the stops and the place where I was going was a straight shot. I knew I would be riding the max for about an hour there and an hour back; so I decided to take my Bible with me to read. As I was sitting on the max reading my Bible, I realized that I actually had time to just sit and think. My life is so busy that I don't really seem to have time to just commune with the Lord. Even though there were other people there I felt like I had some time for just me and my God. It was so wonderful and peaceful! I had time to actually think about what I was reading, and just have a little talk with the Lord. Thank him for my blessings and pray for guidance to stay on the right path in life. I really felt renewed.

As I watched the different people, it really made me grateful that out of all the many different people in the world God has chosen me. I do not want to waste the opportunity he has given me. There was one part of the city that I could tell homeless people "lived". There was one sidewalk just lined with sleeping bags, backpacks, etc. It made me wonder just what happened to these people to get them where they are today. Even though Matt & I may have some hard times, God has always provided us with the things that we need. It made me especially grateful for the things that we have when I saw evidence of those who truly go without.

Today was a profitable day, and it really helped me put perspective on my small trials, and gave me that little bit of encouragement I needed to keep on keeping on.

by the way.... the research study place was located in the mall and I actually managed to go there without spending any money! Hooray for me!