Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Poor Karmen! She spends her days surrounded by football, baseball and basketball...

none of which she cares for. She plays with trains and blocks and longs for someone to take interest in her barbies. Her mother is far from "girly"

This was a special night for Karmen. She has been in ballet since the fall. I know she is

not headed to Juliard

any time soon but ballet is "her" thing.

These pics are from her recital and here is the performance. Manuel isn't quite as talented with the video camera

so sorry for the turbulance.

Why my house and kids are never clean...

Sunday, May 30, 2010

I spent this last week making a cake for my friend's baby shower. I had so much fun doing it. I took the colors/theme from her bedding

and came up with this...

*Toot Toot*

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Yes, that is the sound of me tooting my own horn!

As is the point of this post. Here are some of my latest crafting ventures.

These are cupcakes that my friend and I made for another friend's baby shower using marshmallow fondant

I finally remembered to take a picture of the baby blocks that I've been making. This is the sixth set I've made and first that I've remembered to take pictures of.

This is a baby book that I made for a dear friend who lost her husband in September and gave birth to a baby girl in February. I didn't show the inside but I printed pictures onto fabric of Dad for Baby E to carry around with her. So the whole book was cloth and very baby friendly (even the buttons that were sewn on extra, extra carefully!)

And finally a chalk bag for my neighbor's little boy. He loves dinosaurs and they go rock climbing frequently so I wanted to incorporate the two. I got the pattern from here!

I have so much fun making these things that I am kind of sad when they are finished.

Not much time to spare though, I have a baby shower this weekend to prepare for!

Momma Mia!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Mother's Day is a tricky one when your spouse is gone. Fortunately Manuel picked up the ball on this one. He let me sleep in and made me waffles

And a locket he won at one of those games at the mall. He then tried it on his wrist and wondered how anyone would actually wear this and we decided to hang it from the rear view mirror on the van and then I'll save the earrings for a fancy occasion.
After church and naps we went to Point Defiance for a picnic dinner from Tatonka Takeout and enjoyed our warm, sunny day.

P.S. I made them wear their Easter outfits today since I was so horribly ill on Easter. I got some great pictures of them all together coordinating that will be shared at a later date.

A Hole in One

Friday, April 9, 2010

Or one in a hole. A couple of weeks ago we went to a lake here on post and enjoyed some sun (which was followed by two weeks of rain). We just so happened to have a real shovel in the trunk of the van and so Manuel dug a big hole. While all the other kids on the beach came and gawked at the hole, we made comments about how we were all about to get some awesome Chinese food. Seriously, no, it wasn't that deep. But Boyce thought it was pretty awesome. In fact, he camped out in that hole for the rest of our time there. I have decided that whenever I need to occupy Boyce for a good 45 minutes that I will pull out the shovel and dig a hole...I hope people don't mind!

Life Lessons from a two year old.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

This week is the kids' spring break. Most people picture spending spring break somewhere warm like Mexico or California. We are having quite the opposite experience. We have had hail almost every day and temperatures dipping down into the thirties. (This just also happened to be while standing outside at one of many of Manuel's rained out baseball games)

I was determined to not let Mother Nature get in the way of our not so fun-filled week and decided we would go on a hike regardless of the few sprinkles that were falling from the sky. Long story short, the sprinkles became torrential downpours, which became hail...which combined with steep hills and a stroller filled with 50lbs of now cold, wet kids...well, you can only imagine. Once back in the car with heat blasting and little red hands tucked underneath coats to heat them up, Gage piped out enthusiastically. "That fun, Mom!" and this is why I love Gage. While all we "saw" was a hike turned disaster, Gage saw...

And to him, that was the best day ever! If only we could always see the little things that bring us joy regardless of our situation and declare life to be so fun!

Play Ball

Friday, March 26, 2010

Manuel has started playing baseball. As much as I complain about the numerous practices and huge chunk of time and effort it is for our family, I secretly love it. They had their first game tonight. Since the game started at 7:45 my neighbor graciously watched the kids and I got to actually watch Manuel play! Manuel started pitching then moved to second base. He played awesome. He also had two hits, one down third base and one to right field. His dad would have been so proud. Here are some pics. I need to do some research on how to take good night photos...anyone have good advice? I think it's going to be a good season.

Warming Up

The first pitch of the game!

Up to bat!