David Firsts

1.  Mimicked me while I was on the phone today. He held up the toy he was playing with to his ear.
2. Was mistaken for a girl at the library. Poor guy. How much more masculine can I get than red shirt, blue denim overalls and train shoes?
3. Started cruising around the furniture! Will be walking in no time, I think!

Another Lucy kennel boy!

And there they both are. Like two peas in a pod!

A Few Random Thoughts

1: Peter

• Is starting to dress himself. Put his "monkey shoes" (Bobux shoes) on all on his own the other day.
• Did not cry at all at BSF yesterday!
• Knows the words to the chorus in "Trust and Obey". As he was playing the other day, he recited it. Also "Holy, Holy, Holy". Cute, cute, cute.
• I am beginning to really see evidence recently of our hard work/sweat/tears/prayers. He is becoming a very good/sweet/helpful little boy.
• There was something else, but I forgot what it was.

2: David

• Now stands up in his crib.
• Tries to swallow everything he can get his hands on.
• Still has a cold. It has been going on pretty much all winter, it seems. Maybe it'll go away when his tooth comes through?

3: Luke

• Took me on the most phenomenal surprise date of all time last Saturday! It happened like this:

• Got up in the morning. Ate breakfast. Got the boys dressed. Packed the diaper bag, etc., for them. I knew we were taking them somewhere for several hours.
• I put David down for a nap while Luke ran out for a little bit. He came back with a cup of hot chocolate for me from Caribou Coffee. Oooohhhhh....yummy!
• I took a shower and got out to find a note on top of my cup. HE WROTE A POEM! My sweet, precious, non-poem writing husband wrote a poem for ME. Wow. 
• Also bought me a half dozen BEAUTIFUL red roses! I love roses! I never get roses! I've never been the recipient of RED roses in my whole life! THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL!!!
• We left, going on a wild goose chase to Luke's parents' house. I was so proud of myself for figuring that part out on my own. :)
• Dropped the boys off and headed to our first destination: lunch. The restaurant was closed! Well, just not open for the day yet. Rats.
• Plan B. Bowling first. No lanes open for an hour! Double rats!
• Plan C. Lunch at Pizza Ranch (romantic, huh? haha!! yummy, though!) and then some wandering through a couple antique shops in downtown Litchfield. I forgot how much I used to love antique shops! That was so fun...I need to remember to do that more often.
• THEN, we went bowling. And played pinball. We acted like a couple of goofey teenagers. It was so fun, too!
• And then for the grand finale, we went back to Peter's golf course/club fancy restaurant for dinner. I had salmon. I've been craving salmon for so long. YUM.
• I love you, Luke. Thank you.

4: Me

• I decided in January, since my hair was getting pretty long, that I would donate it sometime this year.
• Last night, I took the plunge and got 10 inches cut off! I now have chin-length hair, but I think it's super cute and now someone who has no hair can have some of mine! Now I just have to decide who to donate it to...

And that's all!

DLW - 8 months!

David is 8 months old.

Wow.

I was looking back on some old pictures of Peter the other day and noticed a few differences between the two:

• Peter has a much more square head than David does.
• David has way more hair than Peter did at this age!
• Peter had three teeth while David only has the bottom two still.
• They both have the most adorable smiles, though!

Currently:

• David continues to love any and all people. It is a true blessing to be able to drop him off at his BSF class or at the Co-op nursery and know he'll be happy and content. 
• David has recently, probably within the past week, discovered his voice. He loves to jabber away incessantly! He even likes to sing/talk to himself sometimes while he's falling asleep. That's cute.
• David is now for sure a full-fledged crawler. A few weeks ago he perfected the "on all fours" crawl. 
• He loves to escape into the bathroom and get into all sorts of mischief. The other day I found him with an entire bag of cotton balls all over the floor. And a huge grin on his face, of course!
• He is into the putting everything into his mouth phase. He loves to try eating our plants.
• He just figured out how to shake his head as though he's saying "no". His favorite time to do it is during meals. It is a sure form of entertainment for his older brother. :)
• David, upon watching and learning from  his older brother's example, has decided he, too, hates getting his hair washed. Funny thing is that Peter finally now is okay with it. Sigh...
• David LOVES eating. So far he has had:
• bananas (no go)
• sweet potatoes
• peas
• carrots
• green beans
• avocado (no go)
• apple sauce (no go)
• baby oatmeal, rice cereal 
• yogurt (broke out in a rash...we'll wait awhile on that one)
• David prefers Peter's toddler toys over his baby toys. He even knows how to play with Matchbox cars on the floor!
• The other day, after wiping his nose countless times during a cold, he grabbed a burp rag and swiped at mine - not once, because that could have been just coincidence, but SEVERAL times. What a smartie pants!
• This winter has had three colds (one or two of which seemed to last for several weeks) and now has pinkeye. Yuck! Where do we pick these things up?
• He loves Lucy.

Peter:

• Constantly cracks me up!
• Knows so many words now...he's really starting to put many two and three word sentences together. He repeats at least half of the words that come out of my mouth. I walk around feeling like I have a shadow all day long!
• Two random funny things from him today: 
• At lunch as I was eating cottage cheese, "Mommy, cotton cheese, please?" Me: "Huh?" Him: "Cotton cheese! Cotton cheese!"
• I walked into my bedroom and saw that my side of the bed was all messed up, despite the fact that I did indeed make the bed this morning. I grabbed the blanket to straighten it out and discovered Mr. Potato Head tucked in. Taking a nap.
• He loves to "say  hi" to his little brother when David wakes up from a nap.
• Greets me with a sweet "gooood morrrning!" each time I get him up regardless of the time of day.
• Is becoming interested in this whole potty training thing. Basically because then he can get some Thomas underwear, but, I'll take what I can get! I'm hoping/planning to undertake the task this summer.
• Says several things on a daily basis that I want to remember. Too bad I never remember to write them down so I can remember them!
• This winter has had 2-3 colds, a couple weird 24 hour bugs, and a few throwing up bugs. I would like to be done with sicknesses now, please.
• Continues to love Lucy and David.
• Loves to watch airplane videos with Daddy.
• Favorite songs:
• Holy, Holy, Holy
• Trust and Obey
• Jingle Bell Rock
• The B-I-B-L-E
• Thinks any video with Veggie Tales characters on it is a B-I-B-L-E CD.
• Is suddenly scared of several Thomas and Friends episodes. I put our two videos away. We will revisit them in several months. 
• Loves Winnie the Pooh videos, though! Especially Tigger ones. He reminds me almost daily that we returned the Tigger Movie to the library. :)
• Still loves books. Favorite two serieses (sp?) are the Mr. Small books and Little Critter books. Excellent choices!
• Loves Mrs. Kim at Co-op. LOVES her. Doesn't cry when he goes anymore, as long as she's there right away. Such a blessing for me!
• Is getting better, slowly, about going to his BSF class. He still cries, but last time Mrs. Jones said he stopped within 5 seconds of me leaving. Yay!
• Talks about going to Josh's house often after visiting Elle, Josh, Sophia and baby Evelyn one day.
• Talks about his friends, as well, although he doesn't always act like he loves them when he's with them! But will talk about them constantly afterward: Jackson, Sam, Heidi, Uriah, Annie, Handel, Rozel, Adde, "baby" Jude, Levi, Micah, Samuel, etc...
• Loves reading his Bible. Really loves it. It makes me smile to see his heart so tender for the Lord at such an early age. He will lug it around everywhere, take it to bed, etc. One morning at 5am when I went in to feed David, I looked over at Peter's bed and saw him laying on his back with his Bible propped up on his stomach, paging through pretending to read it. :)
• We have read through the entire book of Psalms and Ruth. Esther is next.

And me? I am ready for spring. Really ready. :)

David and his beloved Lucy.

Drooly, teething baby.

Almost sitting on his own!

First bites. Not too bad!

Loves walking around!

I guess he was getting ready to go somewhere. I'm not sure where. He just likes to be prepared!

My climber. He will climb on anything he can. Really. See more below!

Peter "reading" Daddy's Bible.

We have to get creative when it's so cold outside! This was and still occasionally is a boat.

Snuggling with his "baby"

Two loves: Play doh and his little yellow airplane.

He really will wear just about anything as a hat.

Post first  haircut. 

COLD STONE!

We like to read missionary biographies/autobiographies together as a family. Here he's "reading" one to me!

Sweet brothers. I do pray often that they are fast and always friends.

That sink still works well for containing a wiggly little baby!

Too cold to go out into the snow, so we brought some inside to play!

The airplane was practicing landing in the snow.

My climber.

Every child needs to have a cupboard to play in. :)

Yet another of his beloved hats. He even wore it to co-op the other day before I realized he had it on.

Into everything!

He climbs under, over, around, on top of, and into anything he can! Nothing stops him, it seems!

Nothing! :)

Oh, Peter. I love you. You make me smile.

Crafty, Crafty

Since my lovely parents gave me a fabulous sewing machine for my birthday a couple years ago, I have been slowly figuring out how to use it. Good, right? What a waste if I didn't! 

Anyway, slowly I have been trying my hand at different types of projects and have found that I love it!! And so now, I spend much more spare time than I ought browsing blogs on sewing (particularly quilting, modern quilting, there is a difference!) and drooling over fabric. Then I go to my little stash of fabric and try one of the beautiful ideas I've found...it doesn't always turn out just how I'd imagined it would, but someday. Someday it will. I just know it. 

Here is a sampling of the things I have attempted so far:

Simple. Lovely. Baby blanket.

Matching crib sheets for the boys. Now that I know how easy they are, I think I see a few more in the future!

A better view of one of the sheets.

Hooded towel - pattern courtesy of my Aunt Katie.

A boy hooded towel.

A girl towel.

My very first quilt, made for David.

Rear of David's quilt.

Another fleecy soft baby blanket. I love these! 

Thank  you, Aunt Carla for the idea for these blankets!

The second quilt I've made. Made for my cousin's new baby girl, Juniper.

Back of Juniper's quilt.

An apron!

I loved it so much, that at midnight, in my pajamas, I had to try it on!

Third quilt made for Maddie. This isn't even actually how it ended up. The tan colored squares frayed big-time when I washed the quilt, so I had to carefully remove them and sew on new squares. I can't even remember what fabrics I replaced them with! Too bad I never took a picture of the final quilt. Rats.

Back of Maddie's quilt.

Fourth quilt, made for my new cousin, Evelyn. I made a similar one for a friend's baby at the same time. I haven't taken a picture of that one yet, though. These were very poky quilts to make!

And this is the back of Evelyn's quilt.

Most of my sewing projects are for babies. I didn't set out to do that at the beginning, but came upon it by default, I guess. I mean, when there's a new baby to pamper, the budget is tight and you know how to make things, why not? And after my debut with David's quilt, I realized...well, what did I realize? I love to sew.

My mother did not fail me, as she probably wondered at times. 

Thank you, Mom.