angry bird pumpkin

My sister-in-law and I did this guy up today, we are quite fond of angry birds, as are many others. We are pretty happy with how he turned out. :)

more quiet book pages

Here are a few more pages for the kids quiet books. The first one is from Aurora's book and the other two are from Gideon's. Their books are almost done. I think there is only 1 page left in each that needs finishing touches!! wahoo!

 This page has 6 finger puppets, 3 for each page, they go in the blue pockets

The cars on this page move and the gas nozzle is movable as well.

pray like a child

I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately. Aurora is learning to pray (by herself) for more than just her meals now. Every night we ask her what she is thankful for from that day and what she wants to pray for, her first answer is always "Jesus on the cross" (I am fairly certain she has no idea what that really means, we've explained it to her of course but she is not 3 yet so I think she just knows that it's something we always say thank you to God "for sending Jesus to die on the cross for our sins") then she'll go on to list a bunch of very simple things from the day, her friends, specifically whatever ones she saw that day or week, mommy, daddy and baby Gideon, whatever treat she may have gotten that day, most days she'll list off all her aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents.
For about 4 days she thanked Jesus for a happy meal she had gotten on the weekend.

Talking with her and prayer with her makes me think about my prayer life, Do I remember to thank God for the simple things? for the little treats and blessings he gave me last week (not the big ones, the tiny ones) do I remember to thank him for all of my friends, or for each family member by name? As adults I think we take many of those things for granted? Maybe we should try to be a bit more like children sometimes.

Today

Yesterday I went down to Hamilton area to take pictures of a sweet little newborn. I did his mom's maternity session a month or two ago and he made his appearance two weeks ago today.
Thankfully the sun decided to show it's face yesterday, it's been so rainy and dark here lately!!
(click on the Lily Pond button on the side if you want to see the little guy)

I got a chance to meet some very cool girls last night as well, I hope I'll be able to get to know them a bit more.

Today I am working on edits and planning out another quiet book. I haven't quite finished the other two yet, getting very close and then I will post pictures again, I am pretty happy with them so far. But after mocking me a bit for taking all day to finish one page, my husband says, hey, you should make one with all Bible stories! Ha! make fun of me then ask me to do another one?! Ok, sure. So I'm working on what stories will go in and all that. I am actually drawing up a template this time, i didn't do any patterns with the other two but with this one I am, so i will post that as well as pictures when I am finished.

Mmmmm Cake!

My mom is quite a talented lady I have to say, the woman can sew like nothing else, she paints, she sketches, she cooks and bakes and crafts all kinds of things. I also have to add that she would freak out if she heard me saying that because she is a little too humble. :)

A couple at her church asked her to make their wedding cake, they are getting married tomorrow and really wanted a tree stump wedding cake. I have to say I thought that was a pretty strange request but the cake looks pretty awesome. 

(the pictures really don't do it justice, it was dark and this is my old pocket sized camera)

A

 A holding her baby brother, she really loves him.
And below is he first portrait, she drew daddy. I knew i had to take a picture of it before she erased it.

what we've been up to...

A has been enjoying her new wall chalkboard, she's learning how to draw snakes and people (at least she is trying, the ones there are ones i did, she keeps making me do them for her)

 These guys are for something we are making or A's 3rd birthday party, the project isn't done yet but i like them so far.

 These are not done yet either (obviously) but here they are so far, nursery art. I have to add outlines, and embellishments still.

 Here are quiet books I've been working on for the kids. Like everything else in this post, they are not done yet, this is what I have so far...
Covers

 A gardening page in A's book...

 A driving page in G's (not finished have to decide what else to add to this page)

 A dress up page in A's ha ha. I think the girl is pretty crazy looking but oh well. A likes her. It's hard to tell in the picture but the mirror is from an old CD so it actually reflects.

That's just a bit of what we've been up to lately besides feeding G every few hours and changing his diapers and washing them. I'm using cloth diapers this time. I planned to do that with A but chickened out in the end. This time I discovered Snappies though and they are making my life wonderful!!! Diaper pins are what freaked me out most last time (I have mostly prefolds and  I was worried about poking her)

Science lesson

Preschool science lessons are so fun. Basically ours consist of finding something cool, looking at it with a magnifying glass and talking about it, the kids really don't even realize they are learning. Our last one was really impromptu. My oldest nephew (A.M.) found a dead Monarch butterfly that was still perfectly together so we "studied it" which led to looking for other bugs,  catching a huge bumblebee to "study" then release and a few other moths and beetles.

Well, they both really enjoyed it, so when my mom found a dead praying mantas she was quick to get a container and save him (despite being grossed out) for next time the kids were over. Well they were very excited about that!! Praying Mantas have to be some of the strangest looking bugs after all.

Dead Praying Mantus

And in case that was too disturbing for you, here is a flower. LOL

Happy Pills

My poor 2 year old nephew just broke his leg, he's got a massive cast on and he's not allowed to put any pressure on it for 6 weeks!!! I can't imagine how you keep a 2 year old (who JUST turned 2 a few days ago)  from putting pressure on his leg for that long!!!

I have seen something similar to this on Pinterest and thought it was very cute so  pinned it ages ago knowing one day it would come in handy. Well,  think that a broken leg deserves some "happy pills" I filled this one with Smarties and gumballs, although I should have gotten a lot more smarties because 1 box is NOT enough to fill it the way I wanted it filled. Oh well. I know for next time.

I would have made a more legit label too but was being rushed out the door by an impatient hubby. :)

Art Journals

I just quickly made a couple journals for the kids last night since they were starting their art classes today. Nothing too fancy, just some scrapbook paper and a cutout of their initials (they both happen to have A names) and some modge podge. They liked them and wanted to color on every page already. 

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Leaf Crafts

Today we did some art and nature study with the kids. I am doing some of A's classes together with her cousin. My mom watches my sister's two boys a few days a week while my sister works. Her older son is a year older than my daughter and they get really well (most days :) )

My nephew is VERY smart and can read already (he just turned 4) very well so obviously they can't do all their classes together but art and science we can.

 Gathering some pretty leaves

 Dipping the leaves in the melted wax

 Here is our collection (before dipping them)...

 after dipping them in the melted wax we hung them on a little "clothes line" to dry. They looked pretty cool hanging there

 My mom decided to try out some flowers too...

 Then we did some rubbings in the kids new art journals

 And A practiced drawing circles

Fall Decorations

I love Fall, it's my favorite season. I feel like I've missed so much of it this year because of healing and having a newborn. I guess it has also been pretty rainy so far too though. But today was beautiful and sunny so we were enjoying being outside. 

 My mom has her deck decorated so cute I just had to share it.