New Research Project

I have decided to start a new research project. For every time I go someplace with my children, & my kids get in the way of a stranger, I will keep track of the response of each stranger. Their response will fall into one of three categories:

1. They smile &/or laugh. Say that's OK. Comment on how adorable my children are & start a 3.5 minute conversation about their own children.

2. Might smile or give "the look." Possibly say excuse me or "that's alright."

3. Grunt or completely ignore the irritation. They give me a serious "look" even when it was their own fault & they should have said excuse me instead of myself or my kids.

Maybe I can get paid for this type of research...............

Dear Mommy......

Dear Mommy,

You were so much fun today! When you weren't looking, I figured out that I can now reach on top of the table!! There is so much up there to play with. You smiled at me & said, "go ahead & play with my wallet. I'm sure you can't open the snap." Well, I laughed & worked hard till I got it open. You didn't even catch me until I had pieces of your wallet all over the house. It sure was fun.

I'm also glad that you decided to clean out the filing cabinet. You had everything in nice neat, organized piles. Just ready for me to attack & have fun with. I spread them all around the room until it was pretty! Then what did you do? Put them back into your piles only to get distracted & leave the room so I could make it pretty again!

I love you so much Mommy! Thank you for the fun we had today.

Love,

Charlotte

Nate has his GOLDEN birthday!

January 3rd was Nate's 3rd birthday.

We had lots of fun celebrating.

The PJ Hasleton family was in town,

so we had some great Heavy Heavy Hangs.

Charly going for Nate's loot.

Nate enjoyed receiving some Peanut M&M's, gummi worms, fake Lucky Charms,

fruit snacks, a coloring book, granola & some yummy Scooby snacks.

LOOK!! A good picture of Mommy Pili. We never have enough pics of us mommys.

Nate showing he's 3 on his special day.

A week or so after his family bday celebration,

we threw Nate his first official party with his own friends.

He decided on a "Where the Wild Things Are" theme.

We love this book, the movie was ok.

I saw this cake online & tried it out. I am so NOT good at decorating cakes.

Even making a simple cake with plain frosting looks as if a 3 yr old frosted it.

But it turned out ok right?

Here are some other fun ideas I saw for this theme.

I made (can't you tell?) this "pin the crown on the bday boy" game.

We traced Nate, then let him color it.

Jared turned our hallway into a forest with crepe paper & green garland.

Did you know Wishing Well is done? I went on it's last day :(

So sad, I love that place. But I did enjoy getting a ton of garland for 49 cents.

That way I didn't feel guilty cutting it up then tossing it out.

The rest of the house was turned into a jungle thanks to Laurie & Daneece.

Lots of ivy, greenery & flowers. I didn't take pics of it all,

but Jared said I went a little overboard with it.

We first read the book a couple times.

Us having fun with the games, everyone made their own crown.

Next year we will start with how Jared was raised.

You get the option of having a birthday party or get $25 cash to Toys'r'us.

I can't do 3 or 4 of these every year.

After the party & presents, I asked Nate what his favorite thing was.

He said it was the balloons.

The birthday boy with his scepter Jared made for him.

He truly is my wild thing.

Little Dresses for Africa

OK, I need to get this project back on track & finished.

Does anyone want to help??

I need some bindings ironed or the straps sewn on.

That's it. You can take them home to work on, or come over for a bit.

It's super easy.

My goal is to have them shipped out by the end of this month.

I will be having another time to work on them.

It will be my house, Friday Jan 22 6:30 -9pm.

THANK YOU!!

My family cracks me up!

We were watching a "kissing" scene during a Disney movie

& both boys started saying, "eewwwwwww."

I told them that one day they would meet the right girl they would want to kiss.

Then Jared says, "or whatever girl is right next you."

THE ULTIMATE PUNISHMENT: The boys absolutely lu-ove playing

kill the bad guys. So they're running around, killing their toys,

when Nathan says his dinosaur is so super dead.

Grant says, "he's so dead he's never gonna get resurrected."

We went to a party with Valentine's Day decorations.

Lots of hearts & such. On the car ride home, Nate says his heart is broken.

We can never fix it. Jared says it takes a long time to heal a broken heart,

& a new girlfriend. (I love this guy)

Grant says,"all you need are lots of hugs and kisses."

So sweet.

This just in: It's been an eventful day!

Grant was having a hard time getting his sweatshirt off.

When asking Jared for help, he says,

" I have a Norwegian head. That means my head is HUGE!"

Nate took his Band-Aid off & said the blood was all gone.

Grant says, "That means you're resurrected!."

I yell at Nathan that he better not be eating any more fruit snacks.

He said he was "just checking" that there were still more left.

Later, I saw that the package was empty.

Charlotte peed on the ground before I put a diaper on her.

After her bath of course.

Jared had his first interview with his new "field."

He has a new field!!

Today I was able to finish my first quilt using free motion quilting.

A few boo boos, but I'm very proud of myself!

Christmas with the Hasleton clan

We had lots of fun with a laid back Christmas this year.

Grant decorated the tree by himself,

the M&M guys were yet again a huge hit,

the Christmas Eve pageant went great (I somehow ended up as a hippie shepherd),

Dad of course fell asleep on the couch,

Laurie busted up at opening her gifts that she helped pick out only hours before,

then she cried at Joey's gift, I picked my first carrots from the garden,

Jared got his bumper plates he's been dreaming about,

the boys got waaaay too much stuff from the grandparents,

Kevin & Tessa spoiled each other,

Charlotte could not stand her Christmas dress my Mom bought for her,

I finally got to show my Mom the quilt I made for her,

my Dad got $35 worth of Legos for $4 (thank you DI),

then came the new year & now we're still trying to clean up.

I posted some of my dream Christmas crafts for next year at my craft blog iliketocopy.

Hope everyone had some great holidays!!