Monday, October 31, 2011

Ghost Bean Bag Toss

I made this for the ward Halloween party. It was demolished by the end of the night. :) Oh well.
the pencil work and cutting - scissors and exacto knife

spray painted white
 
Bought dowels, broke them with my bare hands!, then hot glued them to the back. I thought it kinda looked like darth vader, and if it hadn't been demolished, I would have sprayed that back side black and called it darth.


Above: One strip of hot glue under the dowel wasn't enough, so I had to do it down each side. Used lots of hot glue.

After a few tosses, the dowels started coming off, so I had to tape them on again.

Halloween!!

A few pictures from the church Halloween Carnival & Trunk or Treat:
face painting station

craft station
The craft station was this idea:
from Martha Stewart

from Simply Creative Insanity
But instead of cheese cloth, we used white plastic grocery bags that the kids cut up and then put the balloons on balloon stick thingys, so they were kind of like balloon wands.
Yep, their mom MADE all their costumes. Not pictured above was their brother... was he Luke?? I can't remember. She told me she'd put them up on Pinterest soon, so you should see better pictures of it all there.

I don't let Jason have sweets very often (he's crazy and rambunxious enough without sugar), with the exception of fruit or a few bites of an occassional dessert. But at the Halloween party, he had:
some doughnut
some cupcake
a laffy taffy
a milky way bar
& one other candy thing
He cried almost all night that night.
Never. ever. again.

He went trick or treating tonight, but was not allowed to eat any candy. Sadly, though, he is still sobbing terribly in his crib right now. Why? Because for some inexplicable reason he decided not to take a nap today. Translation - CRANKY! Oh, and I forgot to put his blanky in the drier, so he has a substitute one, which is NOT okay with him. Oh and he can hear kids knocking at the door and saying "Trick or Treat!!" so he understands that there's fun stuff going on without him. Poor guy.

Here are some cute pictures of him from the Halloween party.
with his favorite neighbor friend

green scales with fire coming out his nose

The tail was a GREAT way to keep him running away from me.

He is saying "OFF! OFF!" to me, so I'll open the wrapper.

note the laffy taffy in his mouth

wearing someone else's helmet
Ah, the sobbing has stopped. As have the trick or treaters. It's only 7:45! Back home we weren't done till 9:30 at least! But I'll take it, especially since it means Jason will sleep :).
Happy Halloween!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Just made these for dinner tonight. So easy.
http://chichoskitchen.blogspot.com/2011/03/parmesan-roasted-potatoes.html
And delish. I also made a Chunky Broccoli Tomato Sauce because I had some broccoli stems. So I diced 'em and threw 'em in a pot with a can of diced tomatoes, a little tomato sauce, a little water, and some italian seasoning. Once the broccoli was tender, I coursely blended it and served it over the roasted potatoes. Yum.
photo courtesy Chico's Kitchen

Friday, October 28, 2011

Sugar Scrub Presents

Found this sugar scrub recipe at Our Best Bites and have made it for myself and a few others. It's awesome. And it makes a great bridal shower/wedding present. At first when you mix all the dry ingredients together, it smells really strong. But when you get the oil in there (I use vegetable b/c it's flavorless), the smell mellows and  ... it actually tastes good too :o. So here are some pictures of how mine have come together.

The jar things are from Target. And I created the little labels (the "directions" are adapted from OBB).


Sunday, October 23, 2011

Young Women 2011 Theme Printable

My first printable!! I'm so excited!!

My Cat Loves...

graham crackers
and apple stuedel/turnovers

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Mom & Dad's Visit

For some reason, I absolutely LOVE seeing my parents and Jason interact. They live in Ohio, so he doesn't get to see them much. But when they come, Jason instantly glues himself to my dad, pulling him everywhere by one finger. Here are some pictures from their recent visit.
Oma & Opa


Poor Sunday clothes!

Oma making him laugh :)



They play with him so well!

Jason's Vocab Explosion

These words and combinations of these words, like, "Out kitty!" and "dirty bum" to name a few.

Various animal words (as well as other animal sounds): woof woof, bah bah, nay nay, moo moo, duh duh...duh duh (a shark), hop hop

tie, bee, two, eight, now, hi, wow, toe, eye, bum, wee wee, knee, oma, opa, baby (calls himself baby), momma, dadda, hat, hot (sometimes hat & hot sound the same, but he knows the difference), on, off, out, no, yeah, dino, up, down, oh boy, oh my!, Noah

Nephi - (nee-pie)
more - (mo!)
bike - (bipe)
ball - (ba-w)
pillow - (pi-wo)
kitty - (diddy)
toy - (doy)
hand - (han) or more like "on" w/ an "h"
back - (ba)
neck - (ne)
nose - (no)
elbow - (e-bo)
bib - (bih)
potato, tomato - sound the same, but he knows the difference
pepper - (pep-o)
milk - (ma)
apple - (app-o)
peas - (pea)
banana - (nana) or (manana) and sometimes (ba-nana)
cheese - (tsz)
dirty - (do-dee)
table - (tay-bo)
bottle - (bah-bo)
bowl - (bow), pronounced like a hair bow
plate - (pay)
mosquito - (o-dee-doe)
turtle - (toe-doe)
owl - (ow-o)
more - (mo)
please - (pee)
hello - (he-wo??) He only says "hello" if he holding something up to his ear, and then says it like a question
both - (bo-d)
oopsie - (oop-y) Possibly my favorite
three - (dee)
five - (fie)
nine - (ny)
ow (or ow-wa as I say) - (ow-wa)
yellow - (ye-wo)
blue - (boo)
purple - (pu-po) This is his word for grapes
all done - (ah done)
bottle - (baa-bo)
diaper - (dy-po)
poop - (poo poo)
tooting/toots - (doot)
potty - (poddy)
sneeze - (neee)
zebra - (za-za)
rhino - (i-no) So cute 'cause it sounds like he's saying "I know"
hipo - (ippo)
umbrella - (a-la-la)
vroom vroom - (va va)
vacuum - (deee!!) Who knows why
pretty - (piddy)
towel - (tow-wo)
turning - (do-nee)
water - (wa-wa)
sneeze - (neee)
ring - (een)
snow - (sss no)
book - says it like book, without the "k"
broom - (booom!! booom!!)
Ava, Emma, Abby (sorry, the boys' names are harder for him, but we'll work on it ;)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

We're Potty Training!

Jason's choice, not mine. I figured we'd wait till he was older, since I've heard boys aren't usually ready till they're 3. And he's not even 2 yet. But I attribute it to a few things:

1. I read an article in "Parenting" magazine about a lady who did what she called "Potty Training Boot Camp" where the kids ran around naked in the back yard all day. Long story short, one of the things I got from the article was that every time she'd take them to their little potty chair or to the actual potty or every time they went elsewhere, she'd say "Poop goes in the potty" or "Pee goes in the potty." (I tried the actual Boot Camp part of it once. It ended when Jason stabbed himself in down there with a stick and bled.) Anyway, I started saying that every time I could tell he was pooping.

2. When changing his diaper, I'd show him the poop. So he learned what poop was and also learned what/where the potty was.

3. I brought up his potty chair a month or so ago and put it in the bathroom. At first I just let him sit on it. But I never ever let him play with it. It's brightly colored plastic, so it looks like one of his toys, but I don't want him to ever play with it when there really IS something in there. *yuck*

4. I always keep the bathroom door closed because I don't want him playing with the toilet paper or the plunger or the toilet bowl scrubber. So when he does get to go in the bathroom, it's a real treat (at least for him). And I sometimes (not often though) let him watch when I go to the bathroom. (All moms do that, right?)

Then recently with all those things (but especially I think because of #1 &2), he started really  wanting to go to the potty room. So we now go through all the steps: turn on the light, pull down the pants, pull down the diaper, sit on his potty chair, I ask if he can poop, he tries, then we put everything back on, he flushes the real toilet (probably his favorite part), and we wash our hands (his other favorite part). One of these days, I expect something will actually come out when he tries. And I'm pretty impressed that he's doing this without me forcing him to. :)

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Halloween Carnival & Trunk or Treat

I have a new calling - I'm in the Primary Presidency. (For those unfamiliar with Mormon lingo, that means I'm in charge of certain aspects of our local church children's organization [18 mo-12 yrs]. Me and three other women.) I have mixed feelings about this new calling. Foremost, I really miss teaching the 7 & 8 year old sunday school class. I love those kids!! Man I miss teaching them. Teaching in any form is my possibly one of my favorite things. Luckily, I'll still get to teach every once in a while with my new calling, just on a slightly bigger scale. Also, I feel totally inadequate and overwhelmed. But I suppose those are normal feelings for almost any new calling.

Anyway, we have the Primary Program coming up (where the children sing and speak and sing and speak for the hour of our local church's main meeting) as well as the Halloween Carnival & Trunk or Treat. [Big things, lots to do.] For the Halloween activity, I've put together some cute signs and flyers that I want to share :).

Flyers/Invites:
Obviously I still need to fill in the address part.
Highlighted so I don't forget.
For the pictures behind the words: pictures from google image searches. Then in Picasa, I used the "Glow" Effect, which made them gray. Then in Word, I inserted a picture. Right clicked on the picture, and under Text Wrapping, chose "Behind Text", then moved it to where I wanted it and made it the right size.

Lanyards (we'll hang these around the kids necks and then when they go to the various activity stations, we'll punch a whole next to that one, so we know where they've been already and what they should go to next):
Don't know why those are blacked out...

Signs for the room doors:
To be made in the shape of a ghost.
Opted for a non-spooky font so they won't
think it's a scary halloween movie.
Face Painting Ideas (for the kids to pick from):
The blacked out one was a witch's hat.
I got all of these by doing google searches for things like "halloween skeleton outline". And some were solid black (like that witch on the broom) so instead of using tons of black ink to print them out, I used Picasa and then clicked on the "Edit in Picnik" option. From there, under "Effects" I chose "Invert" and then "Pencil Sketch".

Monday, October 3, 2011

Toddler Jason

I've been working on photo collages of Jason, so get ready for massive amounts of pictures/collages of my oh-so-stinkin'-cute little man. :D
about 15-18 months

18 months-ish

19-20 months

p.s. He's even cuter when you click the image to enlarge ;)

More Jason

about 7-12 months

about 12-15 months
Growing up, from a high chair perspective. Starting
with 4 months, ending with 20 months.