What I've Been Up To

I know, I know, the baby is darling. But, in this case, let me draw your attention to his shirt, which I "made" by buying a $2 onesie at Wal-Mart, and then ironing on this tie-shape, made from an awesome sheet that I bought at a yard sale. Then I zig-zagged around it (which I now need to do again, as it's not holding as well as I need it to)

This hooded towel/poncho- which I saw a similar one on a blog, and decided it was a great idea. I like the hoods that I make better, so I did modify it from what I saw online. I made it for a relief society service-swap, (which was way cool- like a white elephant gift exchange), and it was stolen 3 times, until it could be stolen no more. Made me happy, and now I want to make more!
Brady modeling (he wouldn't wear the hood) Please excuse the messy floor behind him...

This is what I did with a plain green cami, and a plain, shapeless, white, long-sleeved shirt. I bought a matching green shirt from DI, and cut it into strips, which I ruffled. I pinned them kinda haphazardly onto the shirt, and then started sewing. Once it was done, I tried it on, and it looked...wierd. Darn. Rather than hanging it up never to be worn, I started looking online for a re-fashioned cardigan. I found one! So, I took my old white shirt and cut it right up the middle front. I put it on wrong-side-out and pinned up the sides so it would look a little fitted. Then I sewed some white ruffled strips onto the sides of the opening. Lastly, I cut off the sleeves and did a big wide hem. I like it! Varies the wardrobe a little!

I have also had some fails, but who needs to post about those? I am into refashioning right now, as I always want to be creating new things, but as a student family, money is not abundant! Thank goodness for the internet and tutorials- I am not creative enough all on my own!

Skunk-tacular

So, last night, I was washing our dishes, with the cool Rexburg breeze blowing through our open windows. Suddenly, the upstairs-neighbors' dogs started flipping out, barking like crazy. (they were outside in the garage) That was when the lovely Rexburg breeze turned skunktastic, blowing straight in our windows, into my face. I quickly shut the windows, but the damage was done. That dang skunk sprayed the dog, right outside my window. And then our house smelled like skunk- all night. And the neighbors? Richard went poking around looking for the skunk, and found the neighbors busily washing their dog in tomato juice. Gross.

Does anyone else

want to party like it's 1999?

('cause Brady does)

I hope this lifted your spirits. It does that for me every single time I look at it.

Every. Single. Time.

Um, what?

So, occasionally Brady wakes up in the middle of the night crying. I truly feel that when this happens, he is Richard's responsibility. I mean, I already get up with Benson at least once a night, right?! Well, last night, after I had just settled Benson after feeding him, Brady woke up. So, as usual, I nudged Richard. Here is the breakdown of our conversation:
Amber: Honey, can you please go see about Brady?
Richard: Yeah. (he then rolls over and does nothing)
A: Uh, hun?
R: I am. (he begins feeling around the bed with his hand)
A: Richard, Brady is in his bed.
R: OK. We use...high cholesterol, right?
A: Yeah. We sure do.

What?!?!?! Needless to say, poor little Brady had to just work it out on his own. After all, he is Richard's responsibility in the middle of the night. Poor kid.

P.S. Richard allowed me to post this as long as I included the fact that he is currently taking a nutrition class, which likely contributed to his dreams of high cholesterol. Not that he dreams of someday having high cholesterol. You get the idea.

Just some pics...

I just felt the need to get a picture of me with this handsome boy!

Proof- he does smile. Actually, he now smiles very frequently and easily. First smile: April 7, 2011

We thought we'd have a nice picnic in the park between General Conference sessions. I won't say it wasn't nice exactly, because at least someone had fun. But it was VERY windy. Does that surprise anyone who's ever set foot in Rexburg?

Little Benson just weathering the storm in his little cocoon.

Don't be jealous of his Lazy Boy. Or of my awesome creative-mom skills. He loved that box for about 2 weeks, until he had kicked out both sides and he didn't have a place to prop his head or feet anymore.

Looking very dapper in his church clothes. He wore this shirt exactly once- even then it was a mid-riff shirt. It got put in a box for Benson to wear sometime in the future.

Babysitting

Yesterday, while cooking dinner, I had Benson lying on our little jungle play mat, while Brady was watching a movie. Benson would fuss occasionally, so I would go in and give him a binky or just play with him for a few minutes, and then get back to dinner. One of these times, he was actually crying, not fussing. Remembering that a few weeks ago this happened, and Brady was dragging Benson across the room, presumably to me, I decided to check out the situation. What I saw nearly made my heart stop... Brady had his quilt laid over little Benson, and Brady was sitting on him- like square on the stomach, just watching the movie. I guess I won't be asking him to babysit anymore... I wish I had a picture, but given the situation, I didn't want to take time to get the camera.

Easter, finally

This was our own little Easter Egg Hunt, on Easter. Brady knew exactly what to do... he was even willing to stick his hands in our shoes!

Run, Brady, run! (we love it when he runs, and ask him to run whenever possible, just because it's so cute to watch!)

We had to remind him about the basket- after each egg he found, he wanted to open it and see what was inside!

And, he liked what he found, every time!

These next pictures are from our hunt in Arizona a week before Easter. We went down in between semesters to get Uncle Austin (just returned from a mission in Spain) It was about 90 degrees, and we all ended up with sunburns! I couldn't wait to get my boys into shorts, especially these Easter-y overalls!

This was our first hunt, and we needed to help Brady out a little with knowing what to do. Not to mention, he was feeling a little under the weather, so he wasn't super excited about the whole thing to begin with. He got there...