I LOVE October!

I love October! I love the colors, I love as the hot weather turns cool, and I especially love Pumpkin Patches. We usually hit up 2 or 3 if only to take cute pictures of my little munchkins. This one was in Santa Clara. Grandma treated the grandkids to a fun time on the inflatable slides. 

Abbey and Jaiden search for a pumpkin. 

Colton visits the pumpkin patch for the first time. 

Visiting with cousins

Traveled down to Santa Clara last week to see family. The boys had a chance to play with their cousins in Grandma and Grandpas backyard. Whenever we have all of them together we always attempt at trying to get a group picture. The only "great" smile we end up getting in Justins since he is the oldest. It is a hilarious  sight to see because it involves 5 adults standing behind 3 cameras making the craziest sounds trying to get them all to laugh. I love the Look on Coltons face, he has no idea what a crazy family he has joined. It was a great visit. The kids enjoyed playing hide and seek with their older cousin Justin and playing Toy Story on Wii with Auntie Beth. 

                                                          My little peanut at 3 years old. 

Colton is now 8 Months and is starting to crawl. 

We have a new "furry" addition!

So I have been begging for a new kitten since we returned from Pendleton last year, and Todd finally gave in. The one cat we have does not like the kids at all and I wanted a cat that would grow up with them and allow them to pet her. So when Ryan's new childcare said that they knew someone who had kittens they were giving away I signed up. She is the cutest little calico I have ever seen. She will come up to us and will rub against our legs and face wanting to be petted. She is too small to get away from Ryans grasp right now and has been placed inside a plastic halloween bucket several times in the last two days. Ryan gives her cars to play with and has even picked her up (by the stomach, feet dangling) to show her a picture he drew. Either she will totally despise him when she is bigger for torturing her or they will be good friends. We will have to see. She does not have a name right now. I am having a hard time coming up with one. So she is just being called Kitten. Any ideas? I was toying with something to do with the season or Halloween. Autumn is the only thing I have come up with.

Caprisun Purse

Ok, so I saw a lady at Walmart with one of these and had to try my hands at making one. I am so pleased with the way it came out! So who wants one for Christmas??  It was really easy too! Sewed it with a denim needle on my sewing machine. It took me about an hour to make. I will put the link for the directions at the bottom if you would like to try yourself. Happy Crafting!

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/capri_sun_bag

Colton at 6 Months

So here is my adorable nephew at 6 months. I know I am missing a few months, but thought I would put up the most recent one. Isn't he so cute? 

First Day's of School!

August brought firsts for both the boys this year. First Ryan started Kindergarten on Aug 5th. We tried to prep him during the summer that he would be attending a big kid school. He wasn't so sure about this and at one point he told us, "I just want to go to school with the little kids." I took him shopping two days before school started for his school supplies. A new backpack, a pencil box, crayons, eraser, glue stick and pencils and Grandma Toni bought him a first day of school outfit. He was very excited about his new supplies. The first day of school I took him to school and he did just fine. He found his name tag at his seat with a very enthusiastic, "I found it!" 

We are now three weeks into school. It has taken Ryan a little while to settle into his new routine. Carpet time, where the children listen to stories and work on letters and numbers is Ryan's best time. He sits and participates well. Working at his desk and especially writing and spelling his name were met with more resistance. The teacher was able to get him to trace his name at the top of his papers written in highlighter. Now I am happy to say that after 3 weeks he is writing his name on his own. We are now hoping that the district will hurry up and get a permanent aide in the classroom with him. He has had 4 different ones in 3 weeks. It does not seem to have affected him much to have different aides but we know that it is when things are consistent that Ryan does the best. He has started Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy. We are very excited to see what new things he will learn this year!

On August 10th Jaiden started Preschool at Center Co-op preschool. All summer when we would past the preschool we would tell him it was his new school and it didn't take long for him to announce "There is my new school!" Every time we would pass by. With the school being a co-op I work in the classroom one day a week. My work day is Monday so I got to work on Jaiden's first day. Still being a young preschooler, he wont be 3 until Sept 6th, Some activities were met with resistance. During the flag he refused to stand up declaring, "I can't!" But now after two weeks  he tells me, "I put my hand on my heart and sang flag of America!" His favorite activity is swinging during outside time. 

Chipboard house, My Moms Birthday Present

I bought this kit at the greatest little craft store in Pendleton Oregon called "The Heart of the Home." I was a little intimidated when I took  it out of the package. I couldn't decide just how to cover it. Should I paint it or cover it with paper? In the end I ended up covering it with paper and adding some old fashioned stickers friend had given me, popping some of them up with pop dots. I printed small 2x3 pictures of my children and fit them in the windows and door opening. I am really pleased with how it turned out and my Mom loved it! 

Colton turns 4 months

Colton was so tired when I got around to taking his picture that this was the best that I got. But he is still cute!

Colton's 3 month Picture.

So here is Colton's 3 month picture with the dump truck. My sister took the one of him at 2 months and I am yet to see it. And hopefully I will have the 4th month one this weekend. As we will be seeing them for fourth of July. He is getting so big and is very ticklish. If only he would sleep and let his Mom get more rest. 

Ahoy Pirates!

Fathers Day Weekend Todd, the boys and I went to Vallejo CA to the Northern California Pirate festival. It was on the waterfront with Cannon fights, music, and Pirates galore. The boys didn't like the loud sounds of the cannons firing but enjoyed seeing the pirates, jumping in the pirate jump house and seeing Captain Jack Spare-ribs. A magician and ventriloquist. 

Jaiden loved his new Pirate pop gun and went around shooting pirates. It was fun that everyone played along and would pull out their pretend guns and "Shoot" back!

Blog abuse

It is so hard to continue with a blog when you are not sure if anyone actually reads it. So if you do read what is going on with my family then please drop me a comment once in a while and I will continue to post updates. 

San Francisco Zoo!

I know I haven't posted in a while so I thought I would post a little about what we have been up to lately. For Mothers day we went to the San Francisco zoo. They were having free admission. We went with Todd's parents. Had a picnic lunch and then enjoyed the animals. Ryan really enjoyed the zoo map. He would point to the animals on the map and tell us where he wanted to go. When we spotted a animal he had to find it on the map. The giraffes were really cute and the penguins were cute to watch.  I haven't had time to craft. Hopefully soon I will have something to show you. 

Visiting friends

The boys and  I had a wonderful time visiting friends in Pendleton last week. Yes I guess I am a little nuts to drive 11.5 hours in the car, in one day, with a 4 and a 2 year old, But it was well worth it to see all our friends. Who would've thought that in just the one year that we were there we would have made so many life long friends. Below are some of the highlights from the trip. 

Ryan's favorite park in Pendleton is Pioneer Park AKA (by our family) the Castle park because of the tall wooden structures that resemble a castle. Ryan enjoyed looking out the window and down on me from above. 

On one morning after it had rained we decided the kids would have fun jumping in the mud, and we were right. What's a little clean up when they get so much enjoyment from it. 

I think it goes with out saying that this picture was a must and Ryan will kill me for it when he is older. Senior yearbook here we come!

We were so thankful to be able to spend so much time with the Simpson's while we were there. Here is the rowdy bunch after being pumped full of pizza, chocolate milk, brownies and popcorn. 

Our friend Madison loves playing dress-up and when the boys saw her putting on her Tinker-bell costume they wanted to play too. A picture was a must!

Colton John Wyatt

My Nephew Colton at 3 weeks old. Check back each month to see how Colton has grown in Comparison to the Dump Truck.

Bind-it-all post it note holder

These cute post it note holders were made using my Bind-it-all. The instructions came from youtube. If you go to my site www.youtube.com/user/bekiew (look for link at the bottom of this blog) and look under favorites you can find the instructions. I decorated the covers with paper from Creative Memories Earthy power palette and attached ribbon to the binding. They were so easy and turned out so cute. 

Baby Shower Favors!

Aren't these cute??!!! Another youtube find. I love that site for finding new craft ideas. This was one posted by a member called irvinehouse. It is titled 2-4-6-8 valentine box. For some reason I am unable to copy and paste the URL. My sister is doing a Mickey Mouse theme in the baby's room so I chose to cut a baby head with Mickey ears using my Cricut. ( I love that thing!) The poem below was again something I found on youtube. Needless to say, everyone loved them and couldn't believed that I made the little bags. I filled them with Hershey Kiss Cherry Cordials. 

Cowboy hats

I was working on these hats for my sisters baby shower. I got the plans and ideas for it off a you tube video. I had plan to fill them with candy and wrap them with cellophane. And even though they came out cute, they weren't the right look I was looking for for the shower. So I chose something else that I will post in different post. Don't know what I am going to do with these... :) 

A baby gift for my Nephew

This was my first attempt at decorating wooden letters. These will be hanging in my Nephew's Room. His name is going to be Colton John Alford. The little disney characters were cut with my new Cricut machine that I got for Christmas. I painted the edges of the letters with a darker blue paint then the paper I had chose for the front of the letters. Once I attached the paper to the letters I used a emory board to distress the edges of the letters and the fronts. I used hot glue to attach the ribbon, and tied bows to be hung on the wall. I am extremely happy with the way they came out and my sister loved them too! Let me know what you think. 

Christmas Memories

We did Christmas a little different this year. We decided we didn't want to travel for Christmas Day. We invited anyone who wanted to, to come to our house. Todd's Parents and Sister came. We had a gourmet meal made by Todd, went to church followed by Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. The boys and I put out cookies and Milk for Santa and played with the train around the tree for a little while before going to bed. It was so nice to wake up to presents under our tree. The boys let us sleep in until 8:00 am. (I think that may be the last time that happens) Jaiden came into our bed at 6:30 but went back to sleep with a little bit of milk. Ryan came into our room at 8 am and Announced, "lets go see Presents!"  They were very excited about what Santa had brought them. Although Ryan said, "where is my truck?" This is what Ryan had asked Santa for and it had been wrapped. We will have to write a note to Santa for next year to leave the presents unwrapped under the tree. Jaiden got his gift from santa too, a new ball. He played catch all morning with the whole family. Christmas day we just played and ate. It was very relaxing. 

The boys looked so handsome in their Christmas outfit given to them by Great Grandma Dorothy. They didn't really want to pose for pictures. But they still look very handsome. They Absolutely love wearing their, "ties". 

Ryan was very excited to be able to hold his own candle at the Christmas eve service. The chair in front of us almost caught on fire a couple times but survived. 

Putting out carrots and cookies for Santa and the reindeer.

They had a fun time putting these out and Ryan was speechless in the morning to see everything half eaten. 

Jaiden was quite excited to see the Speed Racer cars and he wore that helmet all day, especially when he played catch with his new ball. 

"Roarrrr!" Said Jaiden's new dinosaur.