Max is getting bigger every day. This morning he asked for "crackers" (graham crackers) by name for snack. I didn't even know he could say cracker. And this afternoon requested "hot dog" (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) adamantly and cheered "yay!!" when I put it on. Yesterday he learned how to use his child's rocking chair to climb over the side arm of the couch and how to move the baby gate off our stairs. Too smart, too darn smart.

He has such a sense of humor and thinks he's hilarious (just like his Papa, I think). Here he is being goofy for me yesterday morning.






This afternoon we finally got a chance to pick beans. Our neighbor is a wonderful gardener and invited us to all the beans and cucumbers we could pick. We finally made it over this afternoon on our walk over to the post office (I love living in town). They look delicious! I'm trying to find a good bean salad recipe. I'll let you know what I find.


In craftiness, I've finished the "thank you scarf," it was just a straight double crochet, nothing fancy but the yarn was fun enough to give it something extra. I've also made an ear warmer as part of a gift, and I've cast on my first knitted hat as a belated birthday present. I'm planning on starting my holiday crafting (and we have a lot of autumn and winter birthdays in our family that I need to work on). Oh and the bazillion babies that are popping up everywhere. Whew my needles and hooks are gonna be busy.

A little of this and a lot of that

Last night was the first night of VBS and we made it! I'm still alive to show up tomorrow night. Not everything was perfect but the kids really enjoyed themselves (or seemed to) and so it was all worth it and I hope that people are forgiving remembering it was my first year setting all this up and about 6 weeks ago it wasn't going to happen at all.

We had a crazy weekend visit from Grammy and Aunt Shelly and I didn't have the camera out once. I got so busy with final prep for VBS I'm not sure where the time went.

Today Max and I had a little photo shoot.





I've had a bit of insomnia again, but at least I've been productive with the time I do have- enjoy some crafty goodness.... All gifts that are for certain special people in my life.

To be mailed far away (but had Max model it first)

A request for a birthday present...

A thank you gift

Here's my favorite picture from TWO years ago... pictured are some of my closest (spiritually, and emotionally) and furthest (geographically) friends. Amber, Me, and Darby. We were an original group of friends at DTS. So we've known each other now just short of 5 years. Crazy to think it's been that long, right girls? Now Amber and her family live in Kansas, we're right here in central Illinois, and Darby and her family are in Washington state.


I also loved that barely pictured is Darby's little girl Kate, still in utero. Now Kate is a wonderful "almost" two year old and we all have little boys too!

Here's my favorite picture from today.


Adam knew I was less enthusiastic about this birthday than I normally am (gosh, how will I be when I'm really old, like 30?! ha!) and he went out of his way to make it wonderful.

He got me a reusable mug from the local coffee shop that they fill for $1 (no Starbucks around here) and took half the day off work. He brought me lunch, entertained Max while I took a nap, walked up to the candy shop on the square with me to get Boston Baked Beans and Sour Patch Kids (which Max loved) and then we played in the sprinkler with Max. He does not enjoy it very much but really loves the hose all by itself.

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We also went to dinner at our favorite Mexican joint. It's the closest we get around here to Mexican. We often eat there once a week and are beginning to know the people who work there. We forgot until we got there that on Thursday nights there is a Mariachi band that roams the restaurant. Max loved them so much. He danced the whole meal through and the woman who played the violin stopped to chat at our table some. He was quite enthralled with the music.

Adam ended the day by surprising me with a Dairy Queen Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard Ice Cream Cake. It's a little slice of heaven, let me tell you.

So today I did almost everything I set out to do. Coffee, check. Knitting, check. New crochet project, check and finished all in one night. I substituted the crafting upstairs for my nap, but we did play a little up there this morning, so check. And I didn't make it around to the books, but that's alright- there's always anther day, that's the good thing about books, they never spoil.

I completely enjoyed my day. Thank you to all who sent warm wishes to my phone, email, twitter, and facebook. Even those that hollered at us while we were on the square today from the moving vehicles. Thanks, I feel loved! :)

Today

Today I'm doing all the things I enjoy and one of those is blogging.

This year my birthday is a little low key. Last year we were still "new" here and I had a surprise visit from family. Normally I have a "birthday week" and there's the famous Harry Potter birthday party from a few years ago. This year it just wasn't in me. I guess that's how it is when you get older, you just tame down a little. I'm hoping to craft in my newly organized craft room, admire and catalogue some of the books in my newly arranged and color coded library, knit a little and start a new project, play with my happy, rough and tumble toddler, and drink coffee all day long.

Here are some pictures from last weekend. We did some yard work.

We'll be camping for the next week or so...

Sorry for the lack of posts. But we're camping! Well, not really (I'm definitely not the camping type). But none the less, this week I'm making rocks, painting murals, moving really large canoes, collecting fake tress, and generally running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

Being VBS director is not easy with a one year old. But I've lots of great help and hopefully lots of community kids will learn and have fun with us next week!

Adventures in Binky Weaning

I've wanted to wean Max off the binky for a while, but a couple of things kept stopping me. We were traveling, I love sleep, etc. I think I was more aprehensive about it than I should have been. But really it is a pain to make sure we have them with us, and that he doesn't throw them around since he will only use the ones that don't have a loop to attach them.

And so the other night I was reading an article in Parents Magazine where it essientially said to just do it cold turkey and that most of the time it's much easier than the parent thought it would be. It also gave me an out that said until the age of 4 it's not that bad for the formation of their mouth. But none the less I decided cold turkey was the way to go.

I was going to start tonight, but last night went ahead and put him in bed prepared to go 10 minutes like I did when we sleep trained him almost a year ago. He whined when I put him down, but I made sure he had a blankie and his favorite ducky. And after about 30 seconds, I heard nothing. Not a peep. Really? You didn't need the binky after all?

He briefly woke up around 11 for less than a minute and soothed himself right back to sleep. That's all I heard of him until 7:30 this morning. He doesn't seem like any deprived child does he?


I think nap time today might be a little more difficult, but he surprised me last night so maybe not.

He also has switched himself to on nap a day. It's a three hour nap typically, but I miss my morning time I used to get with his second nap.


We bought the paint last night to start painting our guest room/library. We bought the bookcases two weeks ago and Adam put them together while Max and I were out of town. So now they are crowding my craft room until I get them all put where they are supposed to. Hopefully we'll get the room painted tomorrow and everything put away on Saturday. I've been tossing book organization back and forth and can't decide whether to do it by color aggain or by the dewey decimal system. Anyway back to the paint, it's called Golden Slumber appropriate for a guest bedroom and if we ever need to play the Beatles up there.

We're moving along. There are more things hung up and things being moved to the "right" spot. Still a lot more I want to do but it's actually feeling like home. I know where things are, I love the colors, I can flop on the couch. When we are done with the guest room we are working on Max's big boy room which will remain my craft room until we are ready to move him to his big boy bed.

crafts in use

I always like to see things I made be used. Today Max wore the shirt I made him for Easter today and the above picture showed up on my friend Stephanie's blog. Ms. Rylee is adorable, I just wish I could cuddle her in person!

We've been home since Sunday and things have been pretty busy. We're good, we're tired, and we're happy. I guess that just the normal around here.

Here's some pictures from last week. Although not enough of them. I'll try to get them all up on facebook soon.

Max being fed a scotcheroo by cousin Ali.


Thinks he can play with the big kids at a play space in Polaris.

Things didn't go as planned, we didn't do everything we'd intended to do. But I guess that means we'll just have to come back sometime.

There have been a number of new babies and pregnancy announcements lately. People are just trying to keep my knitting needles and crochet hooks busy I guess. It was fun to see family with budding bellies and smiling faces. And I'm excited to be an auntie over and over and over.

We got to meet my little niece Emilee while home, she's 8 weeks old and Max loved her. He didn't even get too jealous when I was holding her.

Nick and Kara announced they are preggers! So Kara got a taste of what two years from now will look like.

The lawnmower races were fun and the fireworks were good. I even rode a lawnmower around.




Lastly, this picture makes me laugh. There's no denying that Max is a "Strong baby" look at those faces. :) Besides Adam's nose, he's all Strong. Furrowed brow- check, square jaw- check, you can't see them here, but he's got the dimples too. :)

We've been having too much fun...

We made it safely and uneventfully to Ohio on Sunday night. We've been enjoying Grammy nad Gramps so far and have had wonderful meals with friends and family. Today I had Tommy's Pizza and Donatos. Yum! Albeit I had a sub at Donatos, not pizza.

Max got to play with cousin Ali yesterday and today got to meet a new friend Atticus as well as play at Auntie's and Uncle Corey's house while Mommy and Auntie talked about babies.

Tomorrow he gets to see his uncles and also go watch Gramps play some softball.

Thursday we might go to the zoo and have pictures taken.

And Friday we're meet Auntie Jess for breakfast and heading to Mt Gilead/Cardington for all the family festivities with stops at Mamaws, GiGi and Gramps, and then to Uncle Nick and Aunt Kara's house. Whew.

Then it's the Fox family party for Tyler's baptism (the whole reason we came home) starting at 11am and ending with fireworks that night.

Sunday is the actual baptism and then we are probably driving home that night. I don't know if we'll make it. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Here's some pictures from the other day around Gramps and Grammy's house.

(Gramps' dog, Dude)

Crafty Goodness

(cucumber melon fizz- delish!)

It seems I either have nothing to say or I think of 15 blogs for one day. So here's my during nap time today, full of crafty goodness.

Max's Scarf


Couch Pillow Covers
In less than one nap time, I completed these covers for our couch pillows. They are the same "pocket" idea that I used for Max's bed pillow (by the way he loves it) and used the leftover fabric from the curtains and a coordinating fabric from the same summer line I picked up from JoAnn's a while ago for this very purpose (uh, I didn't buy enough of it so that's why I used the curtain remnants, but it turns out I love having the stripes turned the other way against the curtain stripes going vertical).



The fronts are all the floral and two of the backs are floral with two backs being the stripe.

Cables
I finally found the pattern I was waiting for. I bought yarn a while ago for a scarf and hat for Grammie and I've been waiting for the perfect pattern for the scarf. I found it last week and am excited that I'm actually able to accomplish what I want. Today I started the scarf.

Here's the first twist in the cable (the one in the center is a horseshoe cable) and there are two sets of two cables on either side. The best thing about it? I actually understand what I'm doing!

Here's a picture of Max dancing to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Standing inside a bucket. He was also trying to sit in the bucket but he no longer fits. So I gave him a laundry basket. He was much happier with that.

I finished Max's scarf. I'll try to get a picture of him playing with it. He likes it, but likes the ones he can't have better. :)

This morning he was playing in his room and I look up and he's in the dining room on his car. He put himself on it. I don't know how. But he rode it around (backwards, because he can't go forwards) for fifteen minutes.

Did you notice his shirt....

He's preparing for the Fox Lawnmower Races this weekend. He hasn't decided who he's cheering for yet, but my guess is he's gonna have to go for Uncle Nick. He may be only 1/4 Fox, but I think he's got the attitude for it.

Tonight we're going to a cookout to watch some fireworks. And tomorrow is the one year anniversary of us moving here. I can't believe it has already been a year.

I've spent the past few days drowning in paperwork to transfer my teaching license from Texas to Illinois. My license is still valid in Tx for another year and so I figured I'd better get it moved over before it expires. Hopefully it will go smoother than I the past few days. I've been making phone calls, filling out forms, sending faxes, and now I wait for things to show up in the mail and get mailed to Illinois State Board of Education. And pray it all makes it here and there and everywhere it's supposed to be. They definitely don't make it easy to move licenses from state to state. I remember my Ohio Long Term Substitute license from Ohio didn't count worth anything in Tx, so hopefully something will transfer from there to here.

Since we've gotten home from Nebraska, almost two weeks ago, Max has slept from 7pm until 9-10am. And so have I. Last night I told Adam that I needed to start getting up earlier and low and behold Max was up this morning before Adam or I! He must have known. :)

Max has been so much fun lately. But I guess I always say that. He just learns so much each day. Yesterday he learned to stack blocks instead of just knocking them over.

We've also been teaching him about Mickey Mouse in anticipation for our vacation this winter. We've been watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the morning and at the end they sing a song.

Max has learned to say "hot dog" and dances around when he hears the song. If it's playing, if Adam or I sing it, etc. He also found a stuffed Mickey at the parsonage in his toys there, and brought it to me saying "hot dog" over and over while dancing.

I finished a baby blanket last night while watching The Dark Knight with Adam. He'd already seen it, but I think it came out the week or so after Max was born and so I never got around to it. It was better than I thought it would be. I'm referring to the movie and the blankie.


(Max this morning loving on the blankie, while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse)
I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my dear friend Darby's little boy, Liam, in the next few days. She however is as patient as can be, knowing the Lord's timing is sometimes not our own.

We are off to Ohio this weekend for a week of family fun time! Adam has to stay here and work. I'm sure he's sad he'll miss my family making wonderful fools of themselves during the riding lawn mower races, but I wouldn't miss it for the world!

A couple pictures of Max for you.