A Conversation with Drake

Drake came and got into bed with us in the wee hours of the morning a couple of nights ago.  After he had been there about an hour, he started this conversation with his dad.

Drake:  Dad?
Jeremy:  Yes?
Drake:  Will you sing a song for me?
Jeremy:  Yes. (surprisingly)
Drake:  Okay.  Will you sing Wonder Pets?

A Conversation with Dallin

Thomas had been out of school, sick, for a couple of days, so, I sent Dallin to pick up his work.  When he got home, this is the conversation we had.

Tonia:  Dallin, did you get Thomas's work?
Dallin: Yes.
Tonia:  Did you go during class time?
Dallin:  Yes.
Tonia:  Did you know any of the kids in his class?
Dallin:  Yeah, I knew a bunch of them.
Tonia:  Wow!  A bunch!  How did you know so many?
Dallin:  Have you met Thomas?  He has TONS of friends!

These are a Few of My Favorite Things

I have been thinking about doing a post like this for awhile.  Just a simple post about some of the little things in my house that bring me happiness.  So, with Thanksgiving just a day away, I think it is a great time to share a few of my favorite things...

The train table and Thomas and Friends die cast trains.  My little boys play on this every day.  It seriously keeps them occupied for hours and those little metal trains are good and heavy and practically indestructible.  Love them!!

Our little sound machine.  We have used this in our room, but right now it is in the baby's room and helps him sleep through the all the noise that four big brothers can make.  We especially love the rain setting. 

This is a nice heavy oil bottle that I etched with the words dish soap.  I always like to keep dish soap handy next to my sink, and this is so much prettier than an ugly old plastic bottle.  It works great too!!

Jeremy built this large hook shelf for my birthday last year.  I love, love, love it!!  It is the perfect addition to our entry and so fun to decorate!!

This is a stained glass antique window from England.  When we were building our addition, we needed a window just this size to go above the built-ins we put in the room.  I was sooooo lucky to find this one for such a good price.  I love how it looks at all times of day and night, but especially in the morning with the bright sunlight coming through it.  It brings a smile to my face every time I see it.

And finally, my most favorite things in my house are this guy,

and these five little stinkers!  Love them tons!!!!!  I am a blessed gal and so grateful for the good things in my life - - big and small.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

Three!

 Our little Drakers had his third birthday.  We celebrated with cake,

candles and wishes,

 

 

and dry ice root beer!  (Super Fun!)

 

He got some fun presents (mostly train related.)  Drake is in his train phase (all my boys have gone through it).  We got him this 10 foot long alphabet train puzzle.  It is helping him learn the order of the ABC's.  He already knows them all by sight, and has since just after his 2nd birthday - - smart kid!!  So, we figured it was time for a new alphabet challenge.  He is enjoying it so far, and tells me how much he loves it every day.

 

We capped off the evening by carving our Halloween pumpkins! 

Drake is a smart, sweet, happy, and fun boy.  We are so grateful for this little guy in our house!!

Happy Birthday Drakers!!

Halloween is Coming!

We have been busy with Halloween fun around here.  Decorating, costume planning, and a few fun other things that I will share here.

We made these cute little mummy juice boxes for Jack's spotlight day at preschool.    They were a hit.  I can't take credit for the idea.  I found it on Pinterest, but they were fun and easy to make.  You just need to make sure that you remove the straw carefully so it can be hot glued back onto the box after you are done with the taping.  You also need to make sure that you leave the straw opening free.  We totally used up all of Jeremy's white electrical tape on these little things, but it was worth it!  They are so cute!!

Another look at our mummies.  I asked Drake if he thought they were cute.  He said "No.  They are mad!"  Well, that is okay.  They are Halloween mummies after all.

The pillows on our front room couch needed replacing, so I purchased fabric to make fresh pillow covers. While I was looking, I found this fun fabric that had the colors of my living room, plus some fall-ish colors, so I decided to make a couple of seasonal pillowcases just for fun.

Here they are on the couch with my cute babies playing away in front.  My kids really do wear pants most of the time, I swear.

I had a bunch of leftover orange scraps from a quilt I made about a year ago.  I decided to use them to make another quilt.  I have been wanting to try making one of those wonky strip quilts, and I thought that would be perfect for a Halloween quilt.   The wonky-ness just makes it seem more Halloweenish to me. 

Jack is my quilting buddy.  Here he is helping me lay out all of the wonky strips.

He wanted his picture taken the  next day with the rows all laid together for final approval.  Sorry about the irritating backlighting on this picture.

Drake needed a picture taken too. Look at that dirty face!!  I swear the dirt just resurfaces as soon as I clean him up.

 Here is the finished quilt. I did minimal straight line quilting on this and the lines aren't really very straight.  I swear it only took me about 30 minutes to quilt the whole thing, because I just decided crooked quilting was just fine on a wonky quilt.  I am happy with how it turned out.  It was a fun quilt to make, but quite a bit more challenging than I thought it would be

  Dallin was my holder here.  He had to stand on a stepstool and hold his arms all the way out and above his head for me to get this shot, so he wasn't happy.  Thanks for your help Dallin!!!

Jack, of course, had to test the quilt out. He said it is "warm and comfy."  Between his review and the fact that now all the boys fight over it when they are sitting around the house, means it was worth the effort.

Sickness, Soccer, and Summer's End

I haven't posted in a long time.  I was sick with a bad cold for a couple of weeks, and we have been busy with soccer and all of the end of summer craziness.  Here is a little bit of what we have been up to in pictures...

A Piano . . . at last

For years I have been wanting a piano, but a new or newer piano has never been in the budget.  I finally started looking on Craigslist, but everything that came up in my price range in my area had descriptions such as: "traveled across the plains in a covered wagon" or "the piano has been sitting in my barn for the last 20 years and may have been through a flood or two." or "I'm not sure this piano can even be tuned."  Finally, one day, a few months ago, I got on Craigslist and found a piano well under my spending limit that actually looked like it might be worth a look.  I called the owner and Jeremy and I went over that evening and looked at it.  I played it a little and was impressed that it actually sounded pretty good.  So, by the next afternoon, it was sitting in my living room.  Now, this piano was only $180.00, so it had a few cosmetic issues, but I was kind of glad about that.  My boys are still kind of hard on furniture, so I thought it would be nice to have a piano that I wouldn't freak out over if my two year old ran into it with his big dump truck.  On the other hand, the piano was still going to be the focal point of my living room, so I wanted it to look nice and to go with the other furnishings in there.  I started researching how to refinish a piano, and decided that a $180 piano was probably worth the risk.  I got out the steel wool and stain and got to work (with Jeremy's help).

This is what we started with.

It really doesn't look bad in this picture, but it was a little beat up and it didn't match the decor in the rest of the room.  After a little elbow grease, this is how our $180 number looks now.

I think it is a big improvement.  Jeremy thinks it needs one more coat of stain, and after looking at these photos, I think he may be right.  For some reason, in real life those color variations don't show up as much.

I still love it though and I am glad I took the risk and refinished it.  Now, I just need to save up the money to have it tuned, so I can actually enjoy playing it. : )