Wreath Obsession

So, this year I want to make a wreath for every month. So far I have 4 of 12. February, March, June, and December. I finished the March wreath a couple days ago and it is AWESOME! Here is my inspiration:


Thank you to Ramblings From the Sunshine State for the inspiration.

Here is mine:



Here are the pictures and how I did it.

I started by wrapping my round foam wreath form with dark green yarn.

Then I combined my three colors and made a ball for easier wrapping.

It is kind of a pain to wrap all three at the same time, but it is totally worth it. It looks awesome!

Then I took felt and cut out my rainbow flags (2 sides). I attached them with tacky glue to a piece of yarn and tied the ends to the wreath. I took the same felts and cut circles and then spirals to make the rosettes. Once I cut the spirals (I forgot to take pics of that part), I rolled them with dots of glue to keep them together and pinned them to the wreath. The pot of gold is double sided and the coins are just circles of yellow felt. Easy-peasy. 

I am kind of obsessed with yarn-wrapped wreaths! They are so cool looking and way easier than I thought they would be. 

And now, for something completely different!

This is my ridiculously mobile child. He can pull himself up on things, not always successfully, but he is way too good at it for my taste.

Little Changes

I am trying to make a few little changes to help my emotional, mental, and spiritual health. I am doing pretty well on my physical health. Eating healthier foods, working out for 30 mins every weekday. That was a good change. I feel better, I have a little more energy, I am stronger, and getting more toned, which, after a baby, I certainly won't say no to.

I am trying very hard to pray morning and night. I am good about night prayers, but morning prayers are harder with a baby. I have to make an effort to remember to pray when I wake up to a fussing baby. Slowly but surely I'm getting there with that.

I am also trying to read my scripture every day. I have never been able to be consistent and I can feel it when I am not. I feel more energy when I read my scriptures. It seems like it wouldn't make that much of a difference, but it really does for me. I've taken the promises of prophets and put them to the test. Those promises are true.

There are still a few things I want to be better about, blogging for one. Writing in my journal is something else that I really need to improve. I haven't written in longer than I would care to admit. There was a time when I wrote at least every other day. I also want to start reading like I used to, but I am just so tired by the time I can actually sit down and do it that I just end up watching mindless tv shows. I've started going to bed a little earlier and reading for a little while to calm my mind and help me fall asleep faster. Baby steps are my focus right now and I feel like I am making a lot of progress. All these little things make a huge difference to me.

These Are the Days

I have a difficult child. I know that everyone's kids are difficult in their own way, but I feel my difficulties every day, almost all day. Yes, that includes nighttime. You see, Benjamin does not like to sleep. He will take 3 naps, but none of them are more than 30 minutes. He will follow these naps with about 30 minutes of smiles and fun times and then it is back to being tired, fussy, and in constant need of attention. When I put him down for a nap, he screams. When I put him in his crib at night, he screams. The only times he doesn't do it is when someone is over or his daddy is home. He wakes up at least twice in the early morning and cries for food. I have let him cry for an hour and a half before and he will not go back to sleep unless I get up and feed him.

Anyone who knows me knows that I need more sleep than most people. I don't function well without it. That being said, I haven't had a full night of sleep since November of 2010. I am running on empty. My body craves nothing but sugar and I have to force myself to make healthier choices. I love my sweet little boy, but he takes everything I have. I felt strong impressions that we needed to have a baby when we did, but sometimes I wonder why this is that time. What am I supposed to learn from this experience? I don't quite know yet. i hope I figure it out soon so I can move on to a new learning experience that requires less lost sleep.

Some of My Craftings

Here are some of the crafty things I have made over the last year.

 I made this for my cousin's little girl, Sadie Kay

Egg carton ghosts

This whole thing cost me $6 (excluding paint and scrapbook paper)

Melted crayon art

Same frames as the 'Boo' different background

Wrapping paper and wood letters

This one is for my good friend's baby Cassandra

I won't be making another one of these for a while. They are hard and take forever.

Valentine's Day wreath

Spring or Summer wreath

The Happy Things

There have been a lot of happy things in my life lately. My dad was able to be here for Benjamin's blessing. He is deployed at the moment, so we waited until he could come. It was important for me to have him there. He and my mom were here for Thanksgiving and we shared our delicious food with Erik and Mariel. My dad loves Benjamin. He can't get enough of him, but then... neither can my mom. They are now Oma and Opa to avoid confusion in the future.

Benjamin is wonderful. He is learning and growing so fast that I can hardly keep up. He can grab things that are in front of him without help. He is learning to put everything in his mouth. He loves tummy time and will stick his little bum way up in the air as if he wants to launch forward. I won't lie, I don't want him to be mobile yet. Too much work for me =P. He still won't sleep through the night, but I made the decision to start putting him on formula. I agonized over it for quite a while before finally deciding that it is the best thing for me and it is better for him. He doesn't get hungry as quickly which means he sleeps longer. I can get 4 hours out of him instead of 3. He isn't a huge fan of formula and I am still nursing him every other feeding for now, but he is doing just fine and I am doing better too. I never enjoyed nursing. I never felt that bonding that so many women do. I felt like it was just a means to an end. I get more bonding from bottle feeding. I know I could pump and all that, but Benjamin also doesn't handle my milk when I have been drinking cow's milk. He spits-up a lot when I have milk and then he nurses. I am not a huge milk drinker by any stretch of the imagination, but I do enjoy it on cereal and whatnot.

On the eating front, Benjamin loves his rice cereal! He would probably eat that all day if I would let him. He took to it no problem and I can't wait for him to try other foods in a couple of months. He is doing pretty well with bath time again, but he wants to sit up on his own and it makes him hard to bathe. Oh babies, they are just so unpredictable. I sure do love my little boy.

Casey is now working a second job so that we can pay all our bills and have food to eat. He works at Subway in the mornings and the Hut at night. It is hard to have him gone so much, but we are managing the best we can. He is a trooper and I am grateful that he is willing to work so hard to provide for us. This coming week we are taking a trip for our anniversary. Yes, it was on the 24th, but that was not an ideal travel time. His wonderful mom is going to be watching Ben for the time we will be gone and I am looking forward to some uninterrupted sleep.

Margret and Benjamin... not fighting

We were The Who for Haloween

Matching argyle

Our Doctor Who pumpkins

Froggie bum!

He is pretty dang cute!

He loves the bugs

Remember That One Time?

Yeah, remember that time when I was going to be more consistent in posting. Babies just take so much time.

Benjamin is 3 and a half months old. He rolls over from tummy to back and back to tummy. He will be crawling before I know it. He can grab the bug toys that hang from his swing and pulls them to get them to make noise. I am amazed by how impressive he is. He laughs, smiles, and makes super cute noises. He is mostly in 3 months stuff, but he can wear some 3-6 and even some 6 month clothes. He is just so sturdy.

He has a little cold right now and it makes me sad. His little nose is all stuffy and he has a wet, but not hacking, cough. I just want to make it all better, but there is so little I can do.

Picture time!

10 Years

It is hard for me to believe that it has been 10 years. I remember everything so clearly. We had just moved into our townhouse in Burke. I was working on my schoolwork that morning when my brother turned on the TV. That was an unusual occurrence. My mom made a rule that we could not have the TV on if our sibling was on the computer working on schoolwork. I wasn't really paying attention until he called to my mom to come down to the basement. "A plane hit the World Trade Center." He said calmly.

My mom sat down to see what the reporters were saying and as she did we watched the second plane hit the towers. We couldn't believe it. She said it was a terrorist attack. I immediately freaked out and started crying. She calmed me down and soon after we got a phone call from my aunt who was in a panic. "Is Mike ok?" she asked frantically. We didn't know why until seconds later when the report came that the Pentagon was hit as well. My mom let her know that my dad was not in the Pentagon since he was in Arizona at the time. As soon as she was off the phone with my aunt, my mom called my Grandma Stacey to let her know that her son was ok. My grandma was never an emotional woman. My dad told me once that he had only seen her cry once. She cried when she found out her youngest son was ok.

We sat and watched the news all day. We watched the towers fall and brave men and women try and save lives. I can't even begin to imagine how the people in New York felt. It was all so surreal and scary and I was hundreds of miles away from them. I was not hundreds of miles away from the Pentagon. I went outside and saw a faint plume of smoke. I don't know if it was from the Pentagon or not, but I knew that my perception of safety here would never be the same.

I am so grateful to the men and women who risk their lives every day to protect this country. I wish that it did not have to come at so high a cost. I wish that there was a way to ease the pain of those who lost loved ones on that awful day. I wish that people would be quicker to remember instead of being so quick to forget. September 11, 2001 changed our country forever. Let us always remember what happened on that day, but not dwell on it. Let us learn from it and come together as a nation. On that day, a woman in France said, "Today we are all American." Politics, party lines, differing opinions. Let us set them aside and feel the way that french woman felt. Today we are all American. Don't ever forget that.