LIttle Drawer Bed

A few weeks ago, I came home from music practice to hear reports of the Spud falling out of his crib. As with the other children, we knew it was then time to move him to his "big boy" bed.

The Spud has been a little resistant to the "big boy" bed idea. The freedom is too much for him, and he roams the bedroom until he finally crashes out somewhere - the floor, sister's bed, brother's bed, etc.

Last night I found him here:

Hmmm, why didn't I think of that? We could save a lot of space by just using one of the drawers under the Drama Queen's bed as his bed. Doesn't it look oh so comfy?

The kid is going to be a natural when it comes to yoga. . .

Birthday Cake Round-Up - WALL-E

Jessica at Life as Mom is hosting her wonderful Birthday Cake Round-Up again, and I am excited to participate. As a challenge, she made a Dave Ramsey themed cake, which I absolutely love. We are currently in the midst of attending Financial Peace University ourselves and are learning the value of using those cash envelopes!:)

I recently did a WALL-E cake for the Drama Queen's birthday:

Her favorite movie character was created from a 9x13 cake, cut into pieces using the diagram below. I frosted the yellow body first and then added the other parts. The treads were iced in dark gray and were textured with a fork. The arms and head were iced in light gray and the white screen with the birthday message was added last.

And here is my sandcastle cake, made especially for the Spud's first birthday.

The sandcastle cake is made of one 9"round cake and one square cake. The round cake was iced in blue and decorated with gummy fish. The square cake was decorated with light cocoa frosting and topped with ice cream cones, also covered in the light cocoa frosting. I sprinkled the whole cake with vanilla wafer crumbs and added molded chocolate shells. The Spud got his very own special cake - pieces of cake and applesauce layered in a beach pail and topped with the vanilla wafer crumbs and shells. He dug it right out of the pail with his shovel! :)

Go on, check out the fun cakes at Life as Mom, and post some of your own. (Psst - she's doing a giveaway this time!)

Wordless Wednesday - my little cupcake

taste-testing the frosting -yep, it's good!

proudly displaying her handiwork while wearing her new birthday apron from Grammy and Pop...

Week Three Weigh-In

Week Three of the big plan to get healthier, lose weight, yell at the trainer, and overall feel good has been completed. I did exercise five of those seven days, although I must admit my nutrition and general diet plan was not great. (read: a couple of Hot Pockets, a moment of ice cream weakness, a pizza party, and the last of the Christmas candy lurking around the house).

However, there was some weight loss - I am now down to 167 pounds (1.6 pounds less than last week). Even more importantly, I noticed an increase in energy. I felt that I accomplished a lot more overall during the week and perhaps did not snap at the kids quite as often. (The trainer, however, was fair game!) Yesterday, I even managed to fit in baking a couple of loaves of bread from scratch. This, I tell you, is quite the feat for Miss Not-So-Domestic!

Of course, then I discovered how wonderful a grilled ham/cheese sandwich on homemade bread was. So yeah. Still have to work on monitoring my food intake.

Besides being my own food police, my other goal is getting to bed at a decent hour so that I get proper sleep. This is ridiculous considering that I am blogging this at 1:00 am! I just need the self-discipline to tell myself, "Go to bed already!"

Hmmmm. . . after stating that, would continuing this blog post be considered a lack of self-discipline? I'm off to ponder that in my warm comfy bed. . . until I have the lovely privilege of waking up early and attempting to make my body do many painful and probably-not-meant-for-humans things.

GTKY #1

The questions..

1. Waffles, pancakes or french toast?

2. Dream home..What would it look like?

3. Favorite sport to watch during the Winter Olympics?

4. The first word that comes to mind when describing yourself?

5. Dresses, pants (jeans, leggings, etc.) or skirts?

6. What is your favorite time of day?

7. Beach or Mountains..which do you prefer?

8.Will you watch the Super Bowl?

Keely over at MannLand5 has been quite energetic in motivating all us bloggers to get to know each other a little more. To do so, she has been posting a list of questions each Sunday for all us Sunday afternoon bloggers to answer and link up.

So, in honor of something to do during the commercials of the Vikings/Saints game, here goes:

1. Waffles, pancakes, or french toast? I adore french toast, especially french toast stuffed with cream cheese and drizzled in berry syrup. Pancakes are a close second - I enjoy pumpkin, chocolate chip, blueberry,you name it!

2. Dream home - what would it look like? A large red two-story home with a wrap-around porch, huge yard with lots of trees. Not too picky:)

3. Favorite sport to watch during the Winter Olympics? To be honest, I probably won't watch any of the Winter Olympics. After all, I have to keep up on all my reality TV shows! haha

But if I did, I would watch figure skating.

4. The first word that comes to mind when describing yourself? crazy -it applies to my personality, my hair, my house, my family...

5. Dresses, pants (jeans, leggings, etc), or skirts? I am in skirts all the time. sometimes dresses, but they aren't as forgiving as my skirts. :)

6. What is your favorite time of day? 8:30 pm - the kiddies are bathed and tucked in bed, the dishes are done and the dining room cleaned - time to relax or paint or do computer stuff

7. Beach or Mountains, which do you prefer? We have both here in Oregon. They are both gorgeous, but I must admit I am a big beach fan! :)

8. Will you watch the Super Bowl? Yes, it is a big family tradition. We always get together with family and friends and theme our party around the food chosen for that year. This year it is steak and a baked potato bar! yum.

so now it's your turn. Answer these questions for yourself and link up at Mannland5.

Some Sharks Can Smile

Every night, I wake up this little girl around 11:00 pm or so and take her to the bathroom. If I don't, I'll be washing sheets the next day!

Last night, she staggered into the bathroom, still half-asleep. "Hurry up and go, sweetie, and you can go back to bed, " I encouraged.

She sat there for a minute, and then suddenly said, "Some sharks can smile."

"What, honey?" I asked.

"Some sharks can smile."

"Oh, were you dreaming about sharks, sweetheart?"

"No. They live in the undersea ocean. I just know, that's all."

I grinned and helped her back into her bed. "Good night and sweet dreams, honey," I whispered. She didn't even hear me. She was already asleep.

Pillow Talk

As mentioned on Monday, we are diligently searching for the perfect house. As I peruse the internet and chat it up with local realtors, I am excited to get into a new space and "start over". I have had jillions of decorating ideas bouncing around in my head for a while now, but between shop business and such, it just hasn't happened.

However, when we do move, I am quite sure that I will be making some of these pillows. Aren't they just adorable and chic?

Ashley at Make It and Love It has a great tutorial for making these great tie pillows. I already have some pretty fabric on hand: so I hope to share my results in the near future.

:) Happy Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday - my little hams

now that's a classic for the ages! (saving this photo for future girlfriends to view)

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom...

Week Two Weigh-In -sometimes we fall

I just completed week two of my plan to exercise more, eat better, and ultimately lose weight.

I would rather not go into all the gory details of last week, so here are a few words to give you an overall idea of how the week went: stomach flu, sick family, large box of Ding-Dongs, birthday cake, too much pizza, other family issues, soda, no exercise, ...

Yeah, so it wasn't my best week ever. When I stepped on the scale to weigh myself yesterday, I was pretty surprised to find that I had only gained .6 pounds over the week, making my current weight 168.6 pounds. So certain that it was going to be a lot more weight gain, I was relieved to not totally undo the results of my first week.

So, life is messy. And I am human. Life goes on. Here's to some actual weight loss this week!

By the way, whoever invented push-ups, side planks, and the Superman move ought to be punished. Owww. I am so hurting right now...

I Will Do It

John 14:12-14

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it."

Clearly God wants us to pray specifically. I have been thinking lately that it might be showing a lack of faith when I pray "whatever your will is, Lord" or when I say "bless us today." It's so general - of course God is going to do those things. But Christ himself, knowing that He had to die to save the world, still prayed that God would remove that cup from him.

So here's my very specific prayer request. :) We need to move soon, and would like to rent a three-bedroom house with a fenced-in yard in Oregon City for $1000 a month or less. We want to be much closer to our church, especially as the Drama Queen will be starting school next year. The Drama Queen also needs her own bedroom - sharing with her two brothers really isn't an option any more. The yard is needed for sanity purposes.

God has already answered our prayer in getting someone to rent our condo in which we currently reside. Now we ask Him in faith to provide this next step for us. Please pray with us that the right opportunity will come quickly.

And, I have to admit, I am very excited to get out of this "crackerbox" we call home...

My New Favorite Place

Recently, I was able to purchase a great little art desk at Michaels for only $50. It featured a large desk top that could be tilted at several different angles to be used as an easel. It also had a small set of drawers on one side, a stool, and a wire rack on the other side for holding projects.

I brought it home, excited to finally have something that would really help me with my Framed Frog projects. With my incessant pleading, the Nerd stopped what he was doing to put together my new desk. He wasn't as thrilled as I was. "You need some lighting for this desk, " he pointed out. "Also, where are you going to put your glue gun? And what about paint brushes and paints when the desk top is tilted?"

And thus, the Nerd took it upon himself to pimp out my new art desk, and here are the results:

You will see that he got me two bright desk lamps at Ikea and installed them on the back of my desk. He also put the nifty paint pots/supplies drawers on the wire rack for my paints.

Underneath the desk, he attached a power strip that would be useful for plugging in my glue gun and of course the new lamps.

On the opposite side of the desk, he screwed on a towel bar (also from Ikea, love that place!) and hung some plastic bins for paint brushes, pens, scissors, ribbon, whatever I'm using at the moment. My glue gun also perches nicely on this bar when the desktop is tilted.

Yep, this is my new favorite place in the house. Let the creating begin!

And speaking of creating, I just posted a new tutorial over at The Scrappy Frog. Head on over to learn how to make a felt pop tart cozy for your Iphone or Ipod. :)

Murphy's Law

When. . .

. . .you work out and haven't taken a shower yet,

. . .the kids are still in their pajamas,

. . .there are only a few diapers left in the house in the Beast's size,

Then. . .

. . . the Beast will commence to have the most horrific diarrhea you have ever seen. More than once.

Yep, that's Murphy's Law for you!

(painting courtesy of Sherri Pekks of Life in General)

Wordless Wednesday - Happy 4th, Drama Queen

So today is your fourth birthday, my little Drama Queen. How is it that four seems so much older than three?

I love that smile - fell in love with it back when you were just a little baby.

You insisted on a Wall-E cake, because that's your favorite movie in the whole world.

Woot! Wall-E sheets for your bed! Mommy can't even begin to tell you how hard stuff like this is to find when a movie isn't in theaters anymore...

And the gift you really really wanted - the Crayola Magic Light Brush set, obviously as cool as it appeared in the commercials!

Aww, let the brothers play a little on your new Wall-E sheets...

I love you, my sweet sweet firstborn! Happy Birthday!

Week One Weigh-In - Off to a Great Start!

My muscles are sore. My body craves ice cream. And yet I am pretty happy with how the first week of my new fitness commitments went.

I exercised five days out of the seven, using "Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy" for the Wii. I must say that these workouts kicked my tail! In case you're not familiar with the program, it basically works with a small camera that tracks your movements while Jenny McCarthy's voice corrects you and "encourages" you. (haha) Each day the program monitors your progress and sets up the next day's workout for you based on that progress. It's tough, and not always fun, but I am enjoying the way I feel after each workout.

As for diet and nutrition, I didn't really make any major changes yet. I tried to focus more on getting back into a regular exercise routine, and I hope to work a little harder on controlling my food intake this coming week. I did avoid the extra ice cream and attempted to keep my portion sizes correct.

And (drum roll please) my starting weight for this week is: 168.0 pounds. That means I lost a total of 3.8 pounds this week! Woohoo! It feels like a great way to start, anyway.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments last week, by the way. Knowing that I was going to be reporting my week's exercise and results to my blog was very motivating!

Not Me! Monday - I'm back...

Well, it has been a very long time since I last gave myself some Not Me! Monday therapy. Too long, probably. Have no idea what I'm talking about? Head on over to MckMama's and find out all the fun details of Not Me! Monday enlightenment.

This past week I began working out every day using "Your Shape" for the Wii. I of course did not attempt these workouts in front of the children - that would have been just a little humiliating. If I had, the Beast would certainly not have been so rude as to laugh hysterically every time his mother, um, fell while trying to do triceps pushups. And I certainly did not grow to despise Jenny McCarthy's voice and snap "Absolutely not!" every time she cheerily asked, "Isn't this fun?" Nope, not me!

I also did not stay up late one night just to watch a bunch of pointless Lifetime movies because I needed to see how they turned out. If I had, I would not have gone to bed in the middle of watching one movie and then spent a large portion of the next day wondering how the movie turned out. Not me! Everyone knows the plot of a Lifetime movie: (to quote the Nerd here) "I'm going to write the screenplay and send it to Lifetime. It'll feature some washed-up actress famous in the 90's whose husband has left or died (I'll be vague here to let the man-hating viewers draw their own conclusions) and abandoned her and her two kids. Then she meets a multi-millionaire lumberjacking florist and, not that she needs a man, she agrees to marry him. The man leaves his successful career to stay home with her two kids so she can pursue her dreams of being a cage fighting abortion activist/chief of police (and who is also a breast cancer survivor).

It practically writes itself!"

When the Beast woke up in the middle of the night throwing up, I did not immediately and gladly let the Nerd deal with the barf. Of course, I am totally fine with handling such matters and would never get sick from just watching my kids be sick. Nope, not me. I would never say "Please don't come and cuddle with Momma if you're going to throw up on me" to my poor sick baby. (ouch, that sounds harsh, doesn't it?!)

So totally not me! How was your week? Hopefully not as full of barf and embarrassing workouts!

The Truth Hurts

"Mama, I have been watching you work out every day and you are STILL not any skinnier."

yeah.

Thanks for pointing that out, sweetie.

Spud-proof? Impossible!

In case you should ever invite our family over for dinner or even some coffee/sippy cup time, I think you ought to be prepared. The following is a checklist for Spud-proofing your home:

1. First, please do not have any objects you hold dear within reach of the Spud. They should be placed at least 2 to 3 feet higher than you think, as he apparently has amazing stretching skills, practically akin to Elastigirl. He will grab any unsuspecting object and hurl it with great force to the ground. If it does not break the first time, rest assured - he will pick it up and throw it again, harder.

2. Lock all storage and kitchen drawers. If you fail to do this, he will open the drawer and rapidly empty it of its contents. Next he will climb into the drawer and repeatedly try to shut it while still inside. Don't worry - I usually bring an extra box of bandaids for this very reason.

3. Remove anything that can be climbed, as the Spud will try to climb everything. To date, he has successfully climbed chairs, bar stools, lamps, couches, coffee tables, end tables, bookcases, ironing boards, baby gates, and toilets. Am I suggesting you remove all of your furniture? Well, perhaps that is a bit much, but moving it all to a locked room would be greatly appreciated.

4. The Spud has a certain affinity for the following objects: scissors, knives, mugs of hot coffee, small ingestible items, forks, and anything electronic. Please triple-check that all of these items are safely out of reach before we come.

And, if you withdraw your dinner invitation, I completely understand. Obviously it is quite impossible to Spud-proof a home.

Which makes every day an absolute adventure. . .

Wordless Wednesday - mama's little snow angels

***a big surprise for us here in the valley in Oregon - we rarely see snow!***

more wordless fun at 5 Minutes for Mom...

Bye Bye Baby Weight

Well, I suppose it's that time of year in which many people make their New Year's resolutions. I had originally thought that I would skip the whole resolution thing this year - too hard to keep and all. But then a very wise pastor mentioned a quote that I have heard from him several times: "If you aim at nothing, you will surely hit it every time."



And so I wrote down a list of goals for myself this year - specific goals for The Framed Frog and for myself as a wife and mother. I won't bore you with the whole list here.



However, I did make one goal that I know thousands of others make every year - to get healthier and lose weight. I am going to need all the help I can get - so I am mentioning it here to help keep myself accountable. :)



I have always been one of those people that didn't worry much about what I ate in the past. I was always very active; a cheeseburger here or a bowl of ice cream there never really affected my weight. It was bound to catch up with me eventually. Apparently having three babies in three years, eating junk food, and generally being lazy is the perfect equation for gaining weight. Who knew?! haha



I started putting on a few pounds earlier in 2009. I chalked those up to stress and the long hours of sitting and painting. Gradually the pounds added on throughout the year, but I didn't really notice in all my busyness. In December, though, when a former Sunday School student asked me if I was pregnant again, I definitely took notice. I weighed myself at home and was shocked to discover that I had gained ten pounds in the past six weeks!



It's time to stop avoiding it. It's time to face this beast head-on and stop the weight gain.

Here's my plan:

1) Get rid of the temptations. Currently there is a container of to-die-for Udderly Chocolate ice cream in the freezer and piles of Christmas candy on the table. No more!

2) Work out regularly again. With three little ones, there is little hope of getting to the gym, but I got the "Your Shape" for the Wii which is already kicking me hard.

3) Stop eating all the convenience foods that got me in this position in the first place.

4) Drink more water.

5) Once a week, post my current weight and progress (or lack thereof) on my blog.

So (deep breath here) here is my starting weight: 171.8 pounds.

Eek. My goal is to lose 25 pounds by June. I need your encouragement folks! Because that Reese's peanut butter cup is looking mighty good right about now...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We have gloriously rung in 2010 with friends, food, and much fun! We invited two dear friends over and (after a hasty cleaning spree) broke out the mini tacos, taquitos, empanadas, and pizza.

The little monsters were beyond thrilled to stay up past their bedtime and indulge in Pringles, pepperoni pizza, and root beer. We all watched a movie over dinner and then played some GiraffeaLaff Limbo with the kiddies. The guys followed up with a wild pillow fight and sent them giggling off to bed.

After tucking the sugared-up little ones in bed, we opened our new Super Mario Bros game for the Wii and had a blast playing through the levels together. Well, mostly we depended on the Nerd's mad gaming skills to get us through each obstacle while the rest of us did our very best to jump on each other's heads and cause mass confusion.

At 12:00 midnight, we shouted Happy New Year! rather giddily(well, all except the one who had already fallen asleep on the floor and was snoring heavily). I finally called it a night around 3:00 am.

And, I am pleased to say, the kiddies were kind and let us sleep in a little. New Year's Day was full of more movie-watching, game-playing, general laziness, and a fun trip to IKEA to spend some Christmas money. Dinner involved Swedish meatballs and mac'n'cheese and free meals for the kids!

A Happy New Year indeed!