Shortcake

Who says you can't have berry shortcake for breakfast?

Leah didn't seem to object.

Excuse the poor picture, but capturing kiddos is tricky.

Grace's 7th birthday!

Grace's birthday was on Thursday, but we did the birthday fun this weekend.  She wanted to go to Build-a-Bear Workshop and make a bear.  The nearest one is in Colorado, so we braved the cold and crowds and headed south.  Grandma and Grandpa Yearout and Jeremy's sister, Cheryl, and her family celebrated with us.

Anna wasn't interested in finding her cat that she made and having it pose in the picture too.  The TV was too darn interesting!  The pink one is Grace's and she named it Snowflake.  The other one is Leah's and we named it Sweety Pie.  Anna's is a cat and she named her kitty Stuffy.

After we made some bears and had lunch, we headed back to our house and had cake, ice cream and opened presents.

I think she enjoyed her birthday fun!  Happy Birthday, kiddo!

Spirit and Markers

I’ve been busy working on a Christmas wall hanging just because.  I thought the theme was cute.  I finished it a few days ago and promptly hung it on the wall in the dining room to bring some holiday spirit.

I like the cute little presents in their festive paper.

On a different note, Leah was being quiet and this is what I found last night.  She’s happily drawing on the dryer.  At least it was dry erase marker.  And dang, if she didn’t throw a royal fit when I took the marker away.  And this is why I confiscate all markers in my house and keep them in a drawer to be taken out only when the kiddos are fully supervised.

Christmas Party

On Saturday, we went to the kids Christmas party put on my Jeremy’s employer.  It was at the bowling alley and it was pretty crowded.  Grace and Anna bowled 2 games before Santa came and food was served.  There was pizza and chicken nuggets and cookies...you know...total kid food. Here's some pics of them standing in line waiting for the big guy in the red suit.

 Anna's got quite the crazy excitedness in her eye!

Then they got to see Santa.  Anna was totally not the shy one we expected.  Leah gave Santa some serious stink eye!  She was gonna have nothing to do with this stranger in the fake beard and hair!

 They each got a small stocking with candy and brand spanking new $10 bills.

Update, I am still around

I know, just smack me, I haven't been keeping up to date around here lately.  Nothing very exciting it going on a Chez Yearout.

We’ve been bowling, which the girls seemed to enjoy...although my feet did not enjoy the shoes, or my wrist enjoy the weight of the ball.

Grace is still working on gymnastics, we finally got her in some private lessons to help her on cartwheels, handstands, the basic stuff.  How do you beef up a little girls arm muscles?

Anna has become the girl who learns that the best time to have to go to the bathroom is when I ask to fold the laundry or set the table or something she doesn’t want to do.  In fact, I gave Grace $2 to fold and put away Anna’s laundry last night....I would have given the $2 to Anna had she done it.  We’ll see how that goes this weekend when Grace gets to buy something and Anna does not.

Leah is learning where her body parts are, the only ones that she knows for sure are her nose and bellybutton.  The kid loves to draw on anything and everything.  I caught her with a pencil and my kitchen floor once.

I’ve been working on Christmas crafts, so I can’t share on here.  I am knitting a garter stitch shawl that’s starting to drag, I’m nearly to the part where the pattern changes and it speeds up a bit...so I’m pushing myself to get past the boredom.  I also have a baby sweater I best get started on soon (hey, Tiff!).  I’m wondering if pastel blue would be too boyish if it goes with pastel yellow and green for a gender neutral sweater?  Comments are welcome.

Halloween

We did the usual Halloween festivities this week.  (A week prior we painted some pumpkins for a contest through my employees association at work, more on that later.)  The big girls carved pumpkins, or rather, they gutted, I carved.  I’ve never been keen on pumpkin carving, but it’s not so bad when you get somebody else to take all the yuck out.  A kitty and Frankenstein.  I was gonna do one for Leah, but my bed called before I could get to it.

Last night, we went to a neighborhood in town, took a turn around a block, then went home.  We hit maybe 10 houses and got just enough loot to be satisfied.  This year we had a Rapunzel

a cupcake

and a ladybug.

The ladybug really wasn't grumpy, but it's darn hard to get a good picture when everybody just wants CANDY!

Color Affection

A couple of weeks ago I walked into a yarn shop (I know, such a shocker, eh? J) and I saw this shawl that I knew I had to make.  I’d seen the pattern on ravelry and the Yarn Harlot had knitted one, they were pretty but not something I needed to make.  I don’t know why the one, several actually, in the yarn shop made me HAVE to make it, but they did.  So I downloaded the pattern and have been obsessing about what colors to choose.  It’s a 3 color shawl, oh, I forgot to mention it’s the Color Affection shawl.  Also called the Color Addiction/Affliction because they are addicting.  I was an obsessed woman, I perused internet pictures, I looked at a bunch on ravelry and I thought I’d settled on 3 colors.  I went back to that yarn shop on Saturday to check out yarn.  Mind you, I had 3 rugrats with me, so I must be quick otherwise things usually run amok.  I settled on these colors...what do you think?  Of course, I started it right away.  (on a side note, I wish I could knit and drive at the same time)

Some Random

I was playing around with a new app on my phone, it's called pudding camera, if you're interested.  What better subjects than my kiddos, thought you might enjoy seeing them.

And in other news, Leah is walk, walk, walking everywhere.  It's easier to keep up with your big sisters that way!

Right Now I Am...

...glad that my shawl is done.  I had to rip back several times because I managed to drop stitches in my lace rows.

….sad that my shawl is done.  I’ve already been looking for a pattern for another one.  But I can’t start it until the Christmas gift I’m knitting is done.

…hoping the bridge fairies will come finish up the analysis of this bridge.  It’s just plain ugly, hydraulically, and I’m ready to be done.  It’s not even mine, I’m finishing it up for the guy who didn’t do it right in the first place.

...hoping to get my car all cleaned up inside and out this weekend.  I don’t end up in the backseat often, but I took a peek the other day and my kids have trashed it back there!

...wondering what to do for craft night tonight with the big girls.  Something they can do mostly themselves.

...wishing my hair would grow faster.  It’s in this horrible stage and I have to use a headband otherwise it’s in my face as it’s too short to tuck behind my ears, but too long to leave unleashed.

Ice Fishing Season?

Summer's unofficially over now that Labor Day has passed and you bet Jeremy's been thinking about ice fishing.  So much so in fact, he got out his ice armor that he got last year.  It's supposed to keep you afloat if you fall in and keep you warm as well.  He's been wanting to go jump in a lake with it on, just to see if it works.

He let me take a picture.  I think it's funny how I managed to get a pic with him holding his collar like that; looking coy, it was totally by accident.

With the cool weather the last few days, Jeremy's getting even more excited.  I burst his bubble by reminding him that ice fishing season won't be until at least December.

**several days after I posted this, he actually did go up to a lake nearby and checked to see if it floats.  Walked right in and flopped down.  The verdict: it does indeed float.

Cloth Diaper Update

Leah's been in cloth diapers exclusively now for a couple weeks.  All is going very well.  They aren't that hard to get all the solids off; we got a sprayer that attaches to the toilet supply line, so I can spray off a majority of the yuck.  I wash them about every day, depending on how many she goes through at daycare.  I definitely have my favorites and some are more puffy than others, giving her a big ol' diaper butt.  I've rigged up a clothes line in her room and hang them on it to dry.

This cow print is for Grandma Y, who is a cow collecting fanatic.

I caught her trying to remove all the movies from the shelf, this is one of her past times along with playing in the dog water and dumping the dog food on the floor!

I also caught her in the "time-out" chair; climbed in there all by herself.  (Nevermind the dog toy she's sucking on. J )

Gymnastics

The girls started gymnastics today. It’s once a week. Grace was required to have a leotard; Anna was not. But I can foresee the crying and heartache that would cause, so they both got a leotard. I didn’t have much to choose from; they match.

Things were a little rough at first because they were both shy, but they quickly warmed up.  All afternoon they've been practicing the things they learned...now the trampoline comes in handy!

Halloween Shirts

Last weekend the girls and I did some drawing on sandpaper, then transferred it to a shirt. A tutorial is here.  This is not my idea, my sister-in-law did this with the girls when they were at Grandma and Grandpa’s a few weeks ago.  We did pumpkins for Halloween.  It’s super easy and relatively mess free (I’m always up for low-mess craftiness).  I’m trying to do more crafty things with the girls...so any low-mess ideas are welcome.  I see possibilities for all the holidays.

J

Guess which one belongs to which girl?

Artichokes

Bountiful Baskets has turned us on to artichokes.  Last night Cooky made us stuffed artichokes that...were...awesome!  It took some work to get the centers out, but a melon baller worked very well. J They were stuffed with mushrooms, bread crumbs, cheese and spices.

As you can see they were made in the Dutch Oven, which makes for some super easy cleanup.  

This picture is not from last night while Cooky was cooking, but I had to share anyways.  Check out those duds; he always makes me laugh.  I was trying to shoot covertly, but I could have at least moved the barrel of cheese balls, oh well!

Birthday Party

We went to Douglas over the weekend.  We celebrated 5 birthdays!  There was quite the crew there. Leah did the traditional baby-in-the-cake thing.  I had to help her figure it out at first.  I don’t know if anything more than frosting was eaten though.

It looks like she's scratching her head, asking,"What do I do with this?"

There were also swimming pools for all the little ones to swim in.  Grace, Anna and their cousin swam in the big pool while Leah checked out the baby pool.

This post seems a bit full of Leah!  J

Leah's 1!

It’s hard to believe that Leah is now 1 year old; that year flew by so quickly.  I just wanted to add a few of my favorite pics of Leah’s first year.  Happy Birthday, Sweet Baby!

First Day of School

Today was Grace’s first day of school as a 1st grader.  She got the teacher she wanted, Mrs. Allen.  She seemed excited to go back to school....I’m sure the new markers, colored pencils, shoes, and lunchbox made a difference too. J  They only have a half day today and Friday; then next week starts the real learning!

Big Horns

We took our camper, my father-in-law and our fishing poles and headed to the Big Horn Mountains for an extended weekend.  Due to the high fire danger, we couldn’t have a campfire.  S’mores over a propane grill just aren’t the same, although we all didn’t smell like a campfire either.  The evening entertainment is to go down 14A and look for moose, elk and deer.  One night we saw a bunch of moose, about 9 total, if I remember right.  Two days later all we saw was one.  I have a theory that the moose put on a show on the weekend and remain hidden during the week.

We also saw a bear by my grandma’s cabin.  I don’t know if you can say it was in the "wild" though; he was happily munching on trash from Bear Lodge.

We celebrated Leah’s birthday on Saturday.  Her first year just seemed to fly by and I think about the differences from a year ago. 

Peach Butter

I made some peach butter and canned 11 pints over the weekend.  Here is the end product, heck, I could eat it straight out of the jar.  My brother-in-law requested some and I aim to please.

With the big girls at Grandma and Grandpa’s, it’s been darn quiet around here.  I’ve managed to clean up their closet (you couldn’t see the floor) and clean out the dressers of clothes that no longer fit.  I was planning to donate some toys, but there really weren’t any toys that needed to end up missing. J  We’re gonna pick them up on our way to the Big Horn mountains for an extended weekend, which we’re VERY much looking forward to.

See ya next week with a vacation post!

Cloth Diapers

My friend, Heidi, is gonna make a crunchy convert out of me yet!  We’ve made homemade laundry soap, lotion, deoderant, shampoo and toothpaste.  Her hubbie is a stay-at-home-most-of-the-time-dad, so they thought they’d give cloth diapers a try.  Cloth diapers are not like your mom’s cloth diapers anymore....they’ve come a long way.  (I feel like adding the word “baby” at the end of that sentence.)  Besides being less wasteful than disposables, they’re virtually diaper rash proof and cheaper in the long run.  There are a zillion websites out there that tell you the benefits and costs and yada, yada....go read one or more, I’ll wait.  Anyway, they are doing cloth diapers and love, Love, LOVE them.  I asked daycare if they’d be willing to do that as well.  She said it made more work for me, but they didn’t mind....SOooo we are gonna go with cloth diapers.  I got some fun colors and a few fun prints.  They finished arriving today.  So off to the wash machine I go....I’ll let you know how it goes.

Fair Results

 These crappy pictures pretty much speak for themselves.  The blahblah I made for the Christmas gift also got a first place and a Superior ribbon.  When I told Jeremy he asked if they were the only ones in that category....had we not been on the phone, I would have given him a dirty look. J

 

I also found this picture I had taken a couple of days ago when we were at the park and I had to share.  She loved the swing.