Miscellaneous May...

Helping out at the cabin.

Grandpa P. and Daddy hanging the ceiling.

Going to help out. If I could just figure out this ladder...

And Grandma joins the fun!

Now he's getting the hang of it!

My handsome husband!

These are the cabinets my father-in-law made for my parents for the cabin. Aren't they beautiful??

He did this a lot that weekend. Scooted down the boards and back to the end to do it again!

This far half is the ceiling Luke and my dad hung that Saturday. Lots of work!

With his beloved hat...he just recently discovered how much fun it can be to wear...

and take off to put on again...

His first real piece of art (with just a little help from mommy.) - it is hanging on our fridge now.

Peter and Lucy LOVE our balcony. They spend MUCH time out there.

He also spends much time in Lucy's kennel!

Sorry Grandpa! :) Doesn't he just look like he knows what he's doing?

One day they'll ride off into the sunset together... :)

Someday I will miss these handprints on my dusty TV screen...

The only thing that makes hanging out on Lucy better is having his blanket.

We love self-portraits!

One rough week...

A head-long dive into a piano bench, tumble off a tricycle and tumble off a cart at the greenhouse...what a week!

I took away his water cup...

And then gave it back.

He loves trying to help me vacuum!

That spot on the carpet was REALLY clean that day!

33 weeks! (5-12-10)

Still playing in her kennel.

First day this year at the beach at the cabin!

Yuck! Sand does not taste good!

Figuring out how to use the shovel...

to build a sand castle with Auntie Kerri!

And getting oh, so dirty...

But we're washable, mom!

I think they played in the sand for well over an hour. Such fun!

Mother's Day 2010

For Mother's Day this year, Luke and Peter gave me a great surprise. A blueberry bush! (Who doesn't love blueberries??) Wondering where we planted it as we live in an apartment? Well, you see, there is a lovely little park - wildlife preserve, really - where we take Lucy for walks quite often. We love it there. And there's normally no one else around. So, we got some peat moss, a little shovel, a 5-gallon bucket and my new plant, piled into the car and drove over to the park. And the results are below! I can't wait to go back in a few years to eat the berries!

Here's my prince charming planting my blueberry bush!

And my little prince - who turned out to actually be sick this day. :(

There's my blueberry bush!!!

This is a random plant. We saw it on our walk back to the car but aren't sure what it is...any ideas?

First Trip to the Minnesota Zoo

Camels

Peter loved watching the tiny piglets.

This is how he gives a hug. Or says I like you. Or something like that. :) It's a definite sign of affection, anyway!

Those goats were fun!

Three turtles on a log...

Getting ready to go...think he was calling daddy to get him to convince me to leave. :)

Yucking it up with someone!

Easter 2010

Found the hidden surprise!

(guess this one and the first one were out of order..oops)...getting to the surprise! Note that he totally ignored the basket LOADED with goodies and headed straight for the ball! That's my boy!!

Loving the ball!

Sam and Heidi definitely did not overlook their baskets and were, in fact, thrilled (despite the look on H's face!).

March/April Misc. Fun!

I found him quietly playing one day...filling this bottle with markers!

Up north with Ron!

Bouncy seats are for toddlers, too, right?

He LOVES this slide! (I was trying on that outfit to see if it still fit...it does. Barely!)

Pals going for a drive...

Suddenly, he loves this hat from grandma and grandpa!

First day at the actual table!

Trying to put the hat back on...

Goofing around with mom.

Around 6 or so months along...

First time coloring

Loving his hat and blanket!

And it's off...

Baby #2 Quilt Progress & Completion!

Most of the blocks done!

Disappearing 9 patch cut and sewed...

Doing more ironing...I never knew there was so much ironing required!!

All sewn together

Hmmm...realized I needed 4 more blocks...rats...

But those new blocks were somehow shorter than the rest!

See! A lot shorter!!!

Over it. And now it's quilted! (by me!)

Found a spot where the squares came apart. This was my fix.

Front and back, quilted.

I didn't like the polyester batting I used....so I had to unquilt the ENTIRE thing and start over! Here's the nice, new cotton batting I used instead. 

It was a little too short, so I butted the sides of it together and sewed it up. Worked perfectly!

Ended up having to buy new backing, too. I ripped holes in the old one when taking it apart. Here it is quilted, again!

Front and back, quilted time #2.

Now I'm pinning the binding on...

All pinned, ready to be sewn!

Done!

Completed, front.

Completed, back.

Peter's quilt back. Laying on top of the one I made; they are almost exactly the same size. Good!

Peter's quilt front. Isn't it cute? Great-grandma Ruth sure was a good quilter!

I'm now taking orders. :)

In His Hands

I always read my friends' blogs and think they are such good writers...and then I look at my blog and think mine is so boring! I was/am an English teacher, for heaven's sake! Maybe I just always write when I have run out of creativity for the day? I'm sure that's it...

I aspire to keep this thing updated far more frequently than I actually do...but somehow life always gets in the way and updating my blog for the memory of my family just gets pushed to the side. Hmmm...somehow when I put it that way, it makes me realize how important it is! I'll have to work on that.

Baby Update:

• I am 32...almost 33 weeks along and beginning to get tired more easily.
• I cannot sleep on my back anymore, even though I sure try (not sure why, pregnant ladies aren't supposed to do that!). The hips get pretty sore by morning most days and I feel an awful lot like a rotisserie chicken! :)
• Luke and I have still not decided on a name for this little boy. A teeny-tiny part of me thinks that maybe the ultrasound lady was wrong...maybe this is a girl and that's why we can't come up with a name? Ha! Well, if it does turn out to be a girl, we have a good name! Otherwise....we're working on it. 7+ more weeks to go...I'm sure we'll get it nailed down by then!
• His quilt was almost done until I decided that I did not like the batting I used to quilt it. So then, like the perfectionist that I can be sometimes, I had to undo the whole thing (argh!) and get new batting. Thanks to my friend Rachel who works at The Noble Quilter, I'm going to try a nice cotton batting. I will let you know how it works out! I think it should be much nicer and more blanket-like (less fat, stiff comforter-like), which is definitely what I'm looking for. I have to buy new backing material now, though. I poked a few holes through the old one when taking the stitches out...rats...
• He likes to stick his little rear-end out as far as he can. It's so funny and weird all at the same time.
• All is well so far...not too much longer and he'll be here!

Peter's Corner:

• Once again...oh, dear...will I remember everything I wanted to write?
• Peter got to go to the MN Zoo a couple weeks ago for the first time. When we got there, my excitement over this place called "zoo" had obviously bubbled over to him. He was pretty excited, even though he didn't know what it was all about! He was in love with running around everywhere and looking at some of the animals. Unfortunately, his personality changed drastically from the happy guy I normally see...and if he didn't get what he wanted, he turned into someone else's child (as mine would surely never throw tantrums at the zoo, right?)! It was exhausting!
• He definitely knows where his nose is.
• He also knows where his ears are and is working on eyes.
• He LOVES getting his ears cleaned out after a bath. Will sob if we forget.
• Folds his hands to pray whenever Luke or I sit down at the table with him. This sometimes can happen multiple times during a meal if I have to get up to get something. I love that he is so willing and eager to pray!
• When we sit down to eat a meal (or snack), Lucy has to lay down...otherwise she has a terrible habit of begging. We sometimes need to remind her with a "down!". Peter has recently picked up on this and now whenever he sees her he commands her to "dow!!"
• Our poor doggie also has had itchy skin troubles this past winter and itches incessantly sometimes. We often catch her leg with one of our feet and tell her "no". One night when she was itching and scratching, Peter walked over to her, stuck out his foot and shouted out a very firm "no!". Luke and I were just about on the floor laughing.
• Is working on his second eye tooth. Once it's in, he'll just have the bottom two to get and then his 2-year molars. Full mouth of teeth!
• Knows where the playroom is at church...and thinks that whenever we go there it must surely be time to play!
• Still loves to have books read to him. Would listen for hours if he found someone to read that long.
• Had a rough week last week. By Saturday afternoon, he had fallen and smacked/scraped his face three times in four places.
• Got to spend much of the day a couple Sundays ago with Daddy and Grandma/Grandpa Willing while Mommy went to Rochester for a wedding shower and to visit Eunice and her family. It sounds like they had a great time!
• I stopped working for my parents a bit earlier than originally planned and am at home all the time now! This, I think, is a bit of an adjustment for him (I'm sure for grandma, too!) to be just at home with me all the time. We're slowly working out a routine that will, I'm sure, be completely dumped when the baby comes! Not working for the spring/summer is definitely a blessing that I am just loving, but it also poses some unique opportunities for frugal living. I am also trying very hard to realize and be thankful for these opportunities!
• A few weekends ago, we went to my parents' cabin for the weekend and Luke helped my dad and mom put up part of the ceiling. If you don't know, they've been remodeling a cabin they bought last summer. It has been such a huge project that will be so nice and fun when it's done. We will certainly be blessed by the opportunities to spend time with family at the lake year round! That weekend, Peter and I kept everyone fed. That was our job...that and staying out of the way! :)
• While his vocabulary is actually slowly expanding, Peter still does not connect "mama" with me nor "dada" with Luke. I think the day he figures that out and starts calling us by our "names", I will drop everything and blog about it! :) Perhaps I'll even compose a poem...or maybe I'll spare you!
• Loves playing outside doing just about anything. Going for a walk, playing on the slide, playing fetch with Lucy, riding his little plastic yellow car, and dashing away from me as quickly as he can, laughing all the way, of course!
• Is starting to figure out what crayons and paper are for.
• I have decided to start incorporating part of my daily quiet time into Peter's day. So, at breakfast each morning, I have been reading 1 Psalm and 1 Proverb to him. Sometimes they get a little long and he gets restless, so I read a little faster :) and ultimately I cling to the promise the Lord makes to us that His Word "...is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) Part of being parents is working on training the attitudes of the heart...what better way to do that than to share God's Word?
• Makes Luke and I grateful EVERY DAY for the blessing of being a parent. There truly is nothing quite like it!

Pictures to come!