Calvin's Curls???

One of my favorite things about Calvin is his wonderful curls. He has amazing hair that we have been cutting since 6 months. Here is a sweet picture of those curls back in December.

Ben took my curly hair kiddo in for what I thought would be a trim.... I couldn't believe how short it was (can you say military cut?). Although I liked it, I really missed his wonderful curls. What was I suppose to run my fingers through? Below is a couple of pictures of the results. Yes, we pimped him out... He'll cringe one day.

Conference Craft

Well, I must admit there is nothing better than a Sunday at home in my pj's while listening to conference on television. It is especially nice with a toddler. Church has been VERY difficult the past few months. However, this conference marks change. You may ask, "How?". Next Sunday will be one filled with NURSERY! Technically, a day before Calvin is 18 months old but, we will be gracing the nursery. It will be a great for Calvin and a nice Easter gift for me too!

I like to have some project to do while listening to messages of conference. It's not like I don't have several unfinished projects to work on but I needed something new! This year it was a dress for Amanda. I fell in love with a Sandi Henderson pattern and it drove me into my "craft zone". Ok, with lots of help from my ever talented mother too. If I could just have the confidence in sewing like she does. Amanda wanted to help too. I think she just may have a knack for sewing (maybe it skipped one generation).

The dress is "claire" style. You can check out Sandi's other patterns and design inspiration on her website: http://www.sandihendersondesign.com/. I believe we have LOTS in common and we have never met (I love blogs!). She enjoys thrifting, has great design taste and I believe she may be LDS too. She designs wonderful fabrics but I could not get any at my local fabric store so I picked a tropical print called Nouveau by Sentimental Studios for Moda. I suppose with our late spring, I am already for summer.

What have we done, Calvin can walk now...

Thought I would share a quick video of Calvin at one year. Calvin wanted to walk from about birth...no really about 8 months. He had it mastered by 10 months. This was a big change from Amanda. She was a late walker, like about 14 months.

Little did we know, we should have delayed encouraging him to walk so early. Now he is faster than us all and is busy taking the house apart. I wish we were kidding about that but really, he can disassemble the house. He has managed to remove bead board, baseboards, and weatherstrips from the outside doors. I suppose we should be teaching him how to construct instead of destruct. I could use a new addition.

Amanda's thoughts on creation...

So, my sweet little Amanda has great Primary teachers at church. She comes home from church and shares her thoughts about the lessons she learns. Today while out on a car ride she was talking about creation. It went something like this....

Amanda- Heavenly Father was really great at making the earth. He did such a good job making it.

Denise- Yes, Heavenly Father did do a great job, it must have been hard to create the whole earth.

Amanda- Yes, it probably was hard. Well, except for the sky.

Denise- Why is the sky was so easy to create?

Amanda- Mom, that's the easy part. It's just blue all over and sometimes a cloud or two. Clouds are easy and so is blue.

Denise- (Silence, because what could I really say)

Isn't four just WONDEFUL! Amanda is full of questions and the wonders of the world. I love to see the world through her eyes. I am so blessed to have a sweet girl that reminds me to slow down and have fun with the simple stuff.

Toy's R' Us Adventure...

Just before Christmas this past year we had a bunch of snow and I must admit that I did not have much to give Calvin for Christmas. I really wanted to get him a basketball hoop. The one I saw at toy's r' us was $49.99. I had seen several on craigslist but of course, a week before Christmas, there were none used to be found. I got a coupon in the mail from toy's r' us for $10 off any purchase of $100 or more. Now if you have children and have EVER been to Toy's r' Us the week before Christmas you will know what I am talking about. Something like "I'd rather be rather having a root canal" (I can say that because I have never had one).


I headed off to Southcenter Toy's R' Us with every intention on buying a basketball hoop and some other "goodies" (to get me to the $100 level) and head home.


After about one hour in the isles with every other last minute shopper trying to find the perfect gift I was very discouraged. They didn't have the basketball hoop I was looking for and the other one was just not what I was looking for. I just couldn't come up with a great "Santa" gift for Calvin. Now, it really wouldn't even be a problem except for Amanda. She was really into the whole Santa thing this year. If Santa would have forgot Calvin, who knows what it would have done to her fragile spirit...


I decided to head over to the Goodwill in hopes to find some used big car or anything big without the big price tag. I must admit I am a scavenger at heart. I love a good thrift. There is nothing better than finding something you could never afford at a fraction of the price. To my luck--- I found the PERFECT gift. They had a very sturdy bead activity table. It was in excellent, like new condition and it was only $9.99. I had saved Christmas. Even better yet, it was on sale for 30% off.


On Christmas Eve, I got out the table and my anti-bacterial wipes and began the clean up. It was a HUGE hit Christmas morning. I'll post a picture so you can check out my find.









So the best part of it all was, I decided to see what these tables retailed for online. Here is what I came up with.

educo - Educo Finger Fun Bead Maze Table
FREE SHIPPING!! Little fingers can have hours of fun with the Finger Fun Bead Maze Table. Children can share the fun of zooming wooden beads through a challenging maze... (See Full Description)
OUR PRICE: $174.00Original Price: $219.90 You Save: $45.90 (21%)SKU #EDU1017Usually ships in 3 to 5 days

Man--I couldn't believe what a great find I uncovered! Needless to say, I did not need my coupon for Toy's R' Us. A Merry Christmas to Calvin.

Let there be snow...

Okay, I haven't written for a while and thought I should "catch up" on some happenings in my life. Now when I say "catch up" I say it very generally. Kudos to all those that find the time to blog daily. All I can say is, "It's not my season to daily blog".


This past winter we had so much snow. More than we EVER would have imagined. Living in Washington, we have pretty mild weather all year long. It's always fun to see the snow because one knows that it will melt by the afternoon or tomorrow at the latest. It was crazy to see all the snow we got this year. I will post a few pictures to enjoy.

I have to chuckle because last year after the winter season I was at Target and they had quite a sale of snow items on clearance. Like my husband says, "my favorite phrase is 75% off the already reduced price". We had a little snow shovel at home but Target had these great big nice heavy duty shovels for something like $6.24. I purchased one along with some de-icer and salt for the walkways. Ben just rolled his eyes and commented on how we would not need them. We never get enough snow to warrant this purchase. He even suggested that I return them.

Well, this year they ALL came in handy, especially the heavy duty snow shovel. I think I have great foresight and my "deals" should not be criticized in the future. :-)

Maybe the snow is a good thing.

Well, I got so much done on the Internet today. Thanks to my good friend Amy, she gave a small tutoring session on the world of blogging. I was so un-thrilled with my blog website and how BORING it looked that I wasn't keeping up to date. Now, I can move photos (wow, am I technical or what?)


I did not get any housework done today, (Sorry, Ben) but I did design our Christmas card, updated my facebook profile, and purchased a dress for Amanda on eBay. Below is what I came up with.