Mommy and Little I

Just a few Isaiah-isms

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:50:00 +0000

Isaiah is definitely starting to show his inner workings lately. He remembers so much stuff that people say or do, which really surprises me when he brings it up, because I barely remember it myself. Also, he comes up with some stuff that I know I've never said and it's also hilarious to hear him say them. So here are some things he's said lately that I remember/thought to write down:

"Isaiah: Shhh, Mommy. You'll wake the trees up."

He asked a few weeks ago why the trees didn't have leaves on them. I said they hibernate/sleep through winter, so they don't have leaves until Spring. So now that we're learning about Spring, we talked about how the trees will wake up and get leaves when they're ready.

"B*, you're a riding turtle"

Said to my little sister, as he put a pillow "saddle" on her while she was laying on the floor.

"Papa you need a little kid come with you. A special little kid. That little kid is me."

Said to my dad as he was packing to leave for a funeral in North Carolina.

"N*, what are you doing? I'm trying to be a cow, but I can't!"

Said while pretending to talk to my brother in law on a play phone. N* works on a dairy farm.

"NO!! We're never going to get there! It's too far!"

Said (in a distraught voice) to my mom while she was driving him to church for Awana.

"I'm going to call my Mama 'cause you are NOT listening."

I guess you can infer why he was saying this. He was not getting his way. Haha.

"Let's sing the 'Jesus Uh-Ah' song."

Aka, Jesus Messiah. Isaiah's favorite song for us to sing/Papa to play. He has since learned to say the full name. Just another part of growing up. Sigh.

"You're my hero, red tractor."

Isaiah was playing with his tractors and I overheard "them" talking. John Deere tractor to Case IH tractor. Haha.

*I don't put anyone's name on here unless they tell me I can. Just the first letter. Deal with it.

My day in a nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 04:39:00 +0000

Isaiah was wonderful all morning.

Then we went to Robeks to meet K for him to be all lawyerly and sign a paper for me.
When we got halfway there, I realized I had forgotten said paper. So we went back home, got the paper, and then came back to Robeks, late.

Then there was an irate woman in front of us causing a fuss about some giftcards, she took 20 minutes, which got us free smoothies, but made K even later to meet his wife. (Oops, sorry!!)

Then I got the paperwork notarized, went to the courthouse and found out (after being sent in all different directions) that I needed Isaiah's birth certificate.

So off we went to my parents' house, got the birth certificate, and back to the courthouse we went. I said goodbye to $117 of my money (and another $35 soon to follow), and hello to a court date in May to change Isaiah's last name to mine. Then went back to mom and dad's house, dad took Isaiah and I went to class, then church, where Isaiah was a nut so we had to leave early.

And now, I'm supposed to be studying for an exam that I need to take in 8 hours. At least it's over stuff I learned in two other classes I took last year.

So, now I will leave you with this wonderful robot I made from "chocolate" (honey and cocoa powder, but don't tell Isaiah that) on Isaiah's PB&J sandwich.

Mamatography Week 8

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:00:00 +0000

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje. We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

45: Isaiah's Valentines all done. The idea came from Jill at Baby Rabies. She even gave a free printable to go with it.

46: Being a construction guy has become Isaiah's favorite thing. So much so we have to keep a construction hat and measuring tape in the car for after school. Before he can be buckled up, he has to measure the car seat.

47: Eating spaghetti is something Isaiah almost never does. At least with red sauce. This was taken after he ate all his chicken.

48: Dinner at my mom's house. She tried a new chicken recipe, kind of like shake and bake, with Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and some spices.

49: Isaiah's handiwork. Self portrait of his night clothes.

50: My construction guy passed out cross legged in his seat.

51: Someone took a bite out of all the cookies that were on the cooling rack. This doesn't show that he ate 5 other cookies (I only had one before he got to them).

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Diary of a First Child
Earth Mamas World
Baking Momma of Two
Emma's Little World
Quacks and Waddles
Three Counties Mum
Seaside Chelle
gentlemum
The Cutie and The Beauty
Charming Gardener
Pineapples & Artichokes
Jessica's Casserole
Dad of The Monkeys

My Storyteller

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:55:00 +0000

Lately, Isaiah has begun inventing lots and lots of stories. He takes everything in our ordinary life and weaves it into an exciting tale.

Take Sunday afternoon: He was eating chips (Snyder's of Berlin Bar-B-Q chips are his favorite right now) and he decided that wasn't exciting enough. Thus began the tale of the bunny rabbit's quest for delicious potato chips.

But the real story, and the one I'm going to type out for you, is his bedtime story. The other night, after reading a short book to him, Isaiah decided that wasn't enough. He wanted to tell me a bedtime story, too. I'm going to write it exactly how it was said, or at least approximately. So here it is:

Once upon a time...
There was a monster named Bob. He had one eye. And he was blue and furry with long arms!
(Me: What kind of monster was Bob?)
He was a Tickle Monster!!
But he was a nice tickle monster.
He liked to tickle people and make them laugh. It made him feel much better when they laugh.
(Me: What happened next?)
He left his house to find someone to tickle. He saw a boy in a blue shirt.
He said, "Hmm... I'm going to tickle that boy."
(Me: Did he tickle him?)
No! He went to the little boy, but the little boy said, "Oh No! Please don't tickle me, I don't like it."
(Me: Oh, so what did he do?)
He saw another little boy in a red shirt. He asked the boy if he could tickle him. and he said, "Okay"
So he tickled him, and the little boy laughed. And Bob felt better.
(Me: So then what happened?)
He went home, because he was all better.
And he went to bed. Because he was tired.

The End.

Mamatography Week 7

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:00:00 +0000

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje. We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

38: A sleeping Isaiah. It's always surprising when I wake up and he's in my bed in the morning, after putting him to bed in his own.

39: Just your average Friday, but I forgot to take a picture.

40: No pictures again. Although we did have an interesting night. He kept sitting up in bed and saying, "Ni Hao." Presumably because he watched Kai Lan.

41: Isaiah picked out a beanbag chair for his reading corner and decided to try it out at Mama and Papa's house.

42: The coconut oil is Working!

43: Making 22 felt crayon holder Valentines for Isaiah's class. He came home with tons of candy.

44: Went to lunch with a friend at a Chinese buffet.

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Mamatography Week 6

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 05:02:00 +0000

32 Haircut for Isaiah. First time he went back alone. He did really well!

33 Saturday, I made jello shots (and kept out some normal jello for Isaiah), got my nails done with my friend Kayla, and then we went out.

34 Sunday, B (aka Liz) and I planned a way to make some extra money: Sew/make things to sell to people. Liz will do horse centered stuff (girth cover, tail bags, horse hair bracelets, etc...) I'll be doing other stuff (hats, headbands/ear warmers, scarves, neck warmers, etc...) Mine will change with the seasons, Liz's probably won't, but who knows. If you want to order anything, here's the order form: https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=QzElop7x2UfZkSlGatGyyQ

35 Little I in the hat I made him. He didn't want a picture taken. :-P

36 The coconut oil finally came!!! Now to put this sucker to good use.

37 Selfie + New haircut. Same as before, just shorter.

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Mamatography Week 5

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 11:29:00 +0000

25: Fun with Mr. Potato Head

26: Got the corner kind of cleaned up.

27: My poor, sick little boy

28: Oops. No picture from today.

29: Added a different table, moved the book/movieshelf out of his corner

30: Yummy beef vegetable stew my mom made.

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

It's My Birthday!

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:32:00 +0000

And how have I celebrated my birthday so far? By having nightmares. Lots of them. About possession and other scary things.

The good news is I forced myself awake during one at 4:45am and now I have time for myself before school at 7:45.

I have great plans for my day of birth. School, and grocery shopping, and cleaning. And snuggles and possibly a nap or craft. That sounds like my kind of birthday. :-)

Maybe I'll finish the book that has been calling my name before I have to wake Isaiah up for school at 7.

Scratch that. The Isaiah is up.
Oh, great. He's sick.

Maybe I'll start the crying now. It is my birthday, after all.

What a great start to my birthday. /sarcasm.

Mamatography Week 4

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000

18: Oh No! The blimp popped! (My mom, a.k.a. Mama, works at Goodyear and gave Little I this blow-up blimp. I figure I'll just find the hole and super glue it.

19: The face shot of the week. Still no improvement. (Yes, there will be one of these each week on whatever day I don't remember to take a picture of anything else.)

20: This corner needs some work. I want to make it into a reading area/chill out corner for Isaiah. Any ideas?

21: Apparently playing games on his Leap Pad really wears him out.

22: The yummy strawberry-banana smoothie I made for lunch. Isaiah got to have some with his peanut butter sandwich. On a side note: will that kid ever get tired of PB&J?

23: Isaiah apparently has Psoriasis too (he has little red, scaly spots all over his face). I can't wait for my coconut oil to get here!

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Mamatography Week 3

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000

11: Measuring how much Little I has grown. He's now 43 3/4 inches tall!

12: Passed out at a red light on the way to Mama and Papa's house.

13: Technically this started on the 12th, but it was close to midnight, so it counts as Sunday, right? I thought I heard someone breaking in next door, so I went to check it out. My weapon of choice? A Pampered Chef meat tenderizer. Also, later that night/morning, Isaiah woke me up screaming and crying saying a man was trying to break in through the window. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep and missed church

14: Monday, I started back to school. It was a good day, but my psoriasis doesn't look like it will be going anywhere anytime soon. (I ordered some coconut oil from Nutiva, but it won't come in till next week.)

15: Mommy take a cheeze! My super hero in his pull-up.

16: This is definitely what we needed Wednesday before school. A nice long nap.

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Mamatography Days 3-9

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Thursday, we went to Mama and Papa's house for dinner (Stuffed pork chops. Mmm...)

Little I had fun playing with B's barn and turning it into a fire station. He also tried to build a "sand castle" with his cars, but when it fell down, he started crashing them into each other again.

Friday, we headed over to their house again because my sister and her husband (N&N) came up for dinner. Ashley decided to show her perfected art of begging for pizza. She sat there for a VERY long time.

Saturday, Papa brought over Isaiah's new basketball hoop that they got him for Christmas. After I finally got the net hooked up, Isaiah had a blast shooting hoops in the hallway.

Sunday, we dressed up in our Sunday Best for church, then came home, ate, and took a very long and needed nap.

Monday, we bought new electric toothbrushes. Little I now Loves to brush his teeth, so much so that I had to put his toothbrush up in the cabinet, lest he wear out the battery.

Tuesday, we went to Mama and Papa's house so Isaiah could get his Papa fix while Mama was at a band booster meeting. He loves watching Batman with Papa in the big chair--and bugging B and her friend for horsey rides.

Wednesday, we did a craft and cleaned up the house before going to church for Awana.

Mamatography 2013 Days 1 & 2

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:00:00 +0000

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje. We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Another year, another Mamatography project. This year, I'm going to try to post every Wednesday. I'm also going to post about a week or so behind, as suggested by Luschka, for safety and to help me have time for editing any photos if I choose to.

New Year's Day: After about a zillion requests to turn his food into a robot (a chocolate robot at that) I finally just drew one on with honey mixed with cocoa powder. He loved it. I think I need more practice. :-P

Day 2: A selfie, to (hopefully) remind me of my goals for the year--Getting healthy, becoming a better parent, etc... Also, you can see from my forehead below that the stress of the holidays is finally working its way to the surface: my psoriasis is running rampant across my upper body.

Feel free to give me any tips for getting it to clear up again. I'll try anything for it to be gone by the time school gets back in full force again. Well, almost anything.

***
Without further ado, here are the Mamatography 2013 participants!

Mamatography 2012: Final 2 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:43:00 +0000

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

Here we are: The last day of 2012. I could be cliché and say it's not the end, but a new beginning, but I, for one, am glad to see the end of 2012. Yes, there were plenty of good times, but there were also quite a few times that make me cringe (or cry) to think back on (I.e: Mamaw, Isaiah's stitches, Isaiah being bitten by kids at his old daycare, etc...)

Anyway, on to the last pictures of the year:

Isaiah playing in his new pj's from Mama and Papa. He's a scary dragon...

Rawr.

Fell asleep in the big comfy chair, couldn't even make it past 10.

     So, on to 2013. My resolutions are to become a better parent to Isaiah, improve my photography, and get healthier. Oh, and to complete another year of Mamatography, of course.

     Notice that, aside from the Mamatography, there aren't any concrete goals or limits on them. That's because any time I set limits or specific goals (like, "I want to lose 50lbs this year") they all backfire on me.

     I'm curious to know, though, what are everyone else's New Year's resolutions?

Mamatography: Days 358-364

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 06:50:00 +0000

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

Here we are: it's the last full week of Mamatography! It has been a long year filled with challenges I could never have imagined, but I'm so glad that I documented it as we went along. I just ordered a photo book from Shutterfly of some of the pictures (98 to be exact) from this year. Now I'll have something physical to remember it all by!*

Sunday, we had church then our Christmas exchange at my grandma's house. I forgot to take pictures there, but here's a blurry one Isaiah wanted to take while we were getting ready for church.

Monday, we had our Christmas with Mama and Papa, and B, N, and my brother-in-law. Isaiah had a blast opening all of his new presents. It was a pretty emotional day for me because it was the first Christmas Eve without Mamaw, and it was always tradition to get pizza from Pizza Oven and open presents with her that night. We kept the pizza tradition, and mom and dad gave all of us one last gift card from Mamaw, so we all know B and I were teary eyed.

Tuesday, we opened presents at home then went to my grandma's house for Christmas Dinner. I was hard pressed to pull Little I away from all his new toys and books long enough to get dressed and leave the house.

Wednesday was a lazy day playing with toys and chilling at home while a blizzard raged around us. Isaiah loved watching out the window between games on his LeapPad.

Thursday, my prize package from Mamavation ** (& of course, Bob Harper). I got The Skinny Rules as well as all of Bob's workout DVDs so I've been reading this book and doing a few workouts since they came.

Later Thursday, we cleaned off the car (after a little snowball fight) and headed to my parents to get out of the house before coming home again for dinner.

He had fun just getting snow all over his gloves and shaking them all around to get it off again.

Friday, I had some more of the amazing homemade applesauce that was my gift from my grandma. Then we went to my mom and dad's house for dinner and some quality time.

This morning, Little I watched UmiZoomi on his Leap Pad while I read some more.

Tonight, we played with new toys (like the "tar" from Aunt B), played games on the Wii, and played our new game Uno Moo.

My little rocker!

And then, after Isaiah was fast asleep, I watched a guy get arrested for drunkenly walking down the middle of my road yelling profanities at the police.

Yes, I'm that nosy neighbor that will take pictures of these kinds of things. Lol

* By the way, if you want to order a photo book, they're on sale up to 40% off, as well as you can get an extra 20% by using the code "EXTRA20", free shipping on orders over $30 with "SHIP30", and plenty other discounts and coupon codes that can be found at RetailMeNot. I'm not being paid to tell you this, I just think it's cool.

**Mamavation and Omron Fitness is hosting a 30 Day fitness challenge for 25 bloggers starting in January that you can find here. It's a really awesome opportunity if you think you'd like to apply to take the challenge

New Year, New Look

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 06:29:00 +0000

Hi! I changed a few things up on here because I was tired of the old background and layout.

If there's something wonky going on, please let me know. Also, if there's something you'd like to see on here, you can let me know through commenting, on twitter, or via email.

Kid's Sock Snowman: Pinterest Sunday.. er Thursday.

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 01:32:00 +0000

You can find me on Pinterest and Twitter.

Sorry I'm late on this one. I thought I had it scheduled to go out on Sunday. Alas, I was wrong. Oh well.

This week's inspiration for a craft is from Just a Little Creativity. We did it the same day as we did the hand print snowmen ornaments, and Isaiah had fun stuffing the sock full of polyfil.

I did a few things different than the original poster: I didn't use a hot glue gun, googley eyes, or pom poms. Instead, we used paint. You'll see how I attached the top ribbon below.

1.) Fill a small sock with stuffing.

2.) Put rubber bands on the sock. We did two balls of stuffing (so two rubber bands).

3.) Add a scarf (ribbon of your choice) and either use your choice of craft supplies to make the face and buttons.
I used fabric puffy paint because I had it on hand I like how the nose stuck out some.

4.) If you don't want to use a hook to hang it on the tree, add a ribbon around/on top of the top rubber band. Then cut a hole in the sock and stick the rest of the ribbon through and tie it into a loop to hang on the tree.

Tada! You're done!

Disclaimer: This is only semi-kid-friendly. Isaiah stuffed the sock, helped with the picking out of the ribbon, and started the black painting, but then I had to touch it up with white afterward.

Mamatography: Days 351-357

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:56:00 +0000

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

Sunday, while I was upstairs getting ready for church, Isaiah decided he was still hungry. For raw eggs. On the bright side, it all stayed on the table, and he put the shells back in the carton. And, his cracking skills got better as he went on.

Sigh.

Monday, work on the floors on 26 side continued. They're almost done now. Then it just needs carpet upstairs and a few finishing touches and it will be DONE.

Tuesday, we played around. Isaiah wanted to pose and take pictures.

Wednesday, Isaiah made his own bed/chair out of a laundry basket (that usually holds all his stuffed animals, dumped in the background) to watch a movie.

Thursday, I began making N and B their presents (camera strap covers). Pick your fabric!

Friday, we had a movie night. We watched Veggie Tales and Mickey Mouse, snuggled up on a blanket on the floor, and had plenty of snacks.

Saturday, Mom, N, B and I got pedicures together as part of N's present to us.

Wordless Wednesday: The Aftermath

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 18:36:00 +0000

Sorry for the break in regular posts! With Christmas and the craziness of everything, I got a bit sidetracked. Things will be to normal shortly.

Santa Isn't Real!

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:27:00 +0000

A long time ago, I decided that I wouldn't teach Isaiah about Santa. I didn't like the idea of lying to him about something so stupid when he would eventually find out anyway. I made sure his daycare teachers knew I wasn't doing it, and didn't want them to either. We don't do pictures with Santa at the mall, we read the story of Christmas, and the only thing "Santa" we have in our house is the hat, which he loves to wear around but didn't associate with anything other than winter... until now.

Someone told my son the lie that is Santa. At first, (the end of last month) I was able to talk to him about it, and let him know that Santa isn't real. That some people like to make pretend that he's real and he brings presents, but he's imaginary, just like the characters on TV and in his books (and monsters, he made sure to remind me of that). I explained a few more things, like only birds fly--not reindeer and sleighs--and we read the story of the first Christmas with the book I got last year. (This is the book we have: The First Christmas) After that, I didn't hear anything more about Santa from him.

Then, today, he said some things that made me realize that someone is obviously still lying to him about Santa. Here is our conversation:

Isaiah- "I love Santa and he loves me."
Me- "You mean you love Jesus and He loves you?"
Isaiah- "No, I love Santa."
Me- "But Santa isn't real, remember? Just like Spongebob and monsters."
Isaiah- "No! He is real, and that's the truth." (now that sounds rehearsed, because I never say things like that, and he repeated that exact phrase several times when I sat down with him to re-explain Santa)

I just don't know where he is getting this stuff, because the only places he has been without me are church, daycare one day last week, and my parents house the other night while I took B to pick out fabric.

I'm frustrated that someone I know would go against my wishes on something as silly as this. Mostly because I know that if they'll do it with something so small, they'll probably do the it with bigger issues. So... whoever decided to convince my kid that Santa is real and all that junk, you SUCK. When I find out who you are, you will be off my list of friends and won't be allowed around my son.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with this kind of stuff?

Mamatography: Days 344-350

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 06:10:00 +0000

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

Sunday, a group of men from our church signed The Resolution from the movie Courageous. They did a study based on the themes from the movie leading up to the signing during Sunday's service.

Monday was the first day of Christmas vacation. Dad and Pastor Brown continued putting down flooring, but stopped because roofers were coming the next day to start on the new roof.

Tuesday, the roofers began working on putting on a new roof.. at 7:15am. Since it was the first week of Christmas vacation, we were looking forward to sleeping in.. Isaiah wasn't happy to get up and get dressed.

Wednesday, before I finished rearranging the living room, Isaiah spent some time playing with some old glow bracelets.

Thursday, the work on the roof continued. They tore off the old shingles, and Isaiah really enjoyed watching them throw them off the top roof from the playroom window.

Friday, we headed over to my parents' house, and Papa let Isaiah watch the Backyardigans in their bedroom. Isaiah was very happy.

Saturday we went shopping with Mama, tried to get Isaiah to take a nap (total FAIL), and finally got some presents wrapped, thanks to the wonderful invention of glue dots. They're so much easier to use than tape. Still have a few more to wrap and have to buy some stocking stuffers.

My 5 Christmas Break Projects

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 06:24:00 +0000

I took my last final exam today, so now I am truly on Christmas Break!

I have a list a mile long of things I want to do over Christmas break, but the thing I did first was rearrange my living room. I started with this:

And (after 7 different arrangements and a few hours at it) I ended up with this:

There's still a lot of odds and ends that need to find a home (sitting in the dining room doorway)

There is tons more room right in the middle of the space, which is much better. Also, Isaiah's toys now have the TV stand in the corner (now termed "his corner") with a big end table as his table and his Thomas the Train chair, and the TV got moved on the coffee table. I started on Tuesday night just before midnight after I got the urge to just move everything while Isaiah wasn't around to be in the way. I decided to carry my loveseat upstairs to the playroom/office by my self...I realized half-way that I should have waited for help. I gave up--unsatisfied--around 3am and went to bed, only to have my dad/the roofers wake me up at 7:14. I finally got everything to where I like it during nap time.

I have a feeling some of it will be moved around again once the Christmas tree is down.

This is where the loveseat ended up:

Yes, those walls really are that pink. I want to paint, but I don't know what color yet. Any suggestions are welcome.

Something I recently decided needs to be on my "to do" list is sewing, specifically:

1.) A cute camera strap for my little sister (and possibly for me). I found this awesome tutorial tonight from Becca at Home is Where My Story Begins, and while I might not follow it to a T, I will use it as a general guideline.

2.) A small playhouse for Isaiah. Something like one of these.

Hallway tent via ikat bag

Felt Playhouse, via This Big Oak Tree

The hallway tent is much easier, so that one might be the one, however the card table playhouse looks like something Isaiah would enjoy, too. Maybe I'll do that one for his birthday? Ikat bag also has an awesome pvc pipe(?) tent/playhouse that looks awesome. If you're interested, here are Phase 2 and Phase 3 of the felt playhouse from This Big Oak Tree.

3.) Some of these Fabric Scrap Keychains via Craftiness is Not Optional:

4.) These grilled cheese rolls from Dainty Chef:

5.) Make my own pajama pants. I'm a big fan of making my own (and Isaiah's) clothes, because then I know I can take it apart or take it in if it doesn't fit right. This might happen after Christmas, though, so I can use any Christmas money I get for fabric. I like the tutorial I found at My Cotton Creations

Oh, and by the way, you can find most of these over on my Pinterest boards.

Wordless Wednesday: Little Helper

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 12:04:00 +0000

What Am I Doing?

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:59:00 +0000

This is finals week at the U of A. I have an exam on Thursday. I also have to finish putting together my portfolio for English.

But what am I doing? Not studying, not writing for class, not doing anything really productive. Just sitting here getting lost on Pinterest, wrapping presents, and watching old episodes of Alias on Amazon Prime.

I also have written 17 posts on here; ones that I don't know if I'll ever publish.

Isaiah and I did not have a very good day today. Tomorrow I'm supposed to have a WIC appointment for him... I don't remember what time. We're also having a new roof put on starting tomorrow morning, and the dumpsters arrived today so I effectively have no driveway again.

So how in the world am I going to write 7 pages of content and study for a final comprehensive exam? I have no idea.

I'm hoping Isaiah takes an exceptionally long nap as well as behaves like an angel tomorrow and Wednesday.

Other than that? I'm screwed.

Mamatography: Days 337-343

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:07:00 +0000

Mamatography: A 365 Day Photography Project. At least one picture per day of what you did that day.

Sunday, we finally got working lights on the Christmas tree and then my angel topper stopped working. But at least it's up. It also has ornaments and candy canes on it by now. Now I just have to wrap the presents and put them under the tree... and keep Isaiah from trying to open them.

By the way, this tree is OLD. It used to be my mom's before I moved here and she got a new one. The tree skirt and angel topper also came from her.

Monday, Dad and Pastor Brown did some more cleaning and patching up walls. In the closet, Dad had to scrape layer after layer of wallpaper off.

Tuesday, Isaiah wanted to wear his mustache as we visited Papa, picked up B, and went to the store.

And then B tried it on for size.

Wednesday, after noticing the paint peeled nicely off of the plastic, I made designs for Isaiah to peel off and put together on the glass of an empty picture frame.

Thursday, the closet is done.

Friday, Papa and Pastor started putting the wood laminate flooring. They decided it would last longer than carpet in the high traffic areas and it cost about the same.

Saturday, Isaiah and I went to my parents house and I baked with Mama and N. We made 54 dozen cookies in 4 1/2 hours: Chocolate chip, peanut blossoms (pictured below--peanut butter cookie dough, rolled in sugar, and a Hershey's kiss shoved in the middle), and peanut butter cups (chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the chocolate chips, baked in mini-muffin pans, with mini Reece's cups shoved in the middle).

Snowman Ornaments: Pinterest Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Rachelle Martin) — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 13:18:00 +0000

It's another crafty-Pinteresty day. Today's craft is a hand print snowman ornament from Full of Great Ideas.

First: gather your ornament(s), paint, and paint brush. You can use any color ornament, but I chose clear, thinking that I can also possibly put white glitter or something in them. I also protected my table with a plastic film (the stuff we used for painting the attic a while back.)

Second: Get your child(ren) ready. The goggles were his idea.

Third: Either paint your child's hand, or do what I did and spread some paint on the plastic and have them smush their hand in it.

Fourth: Have them grab the ornaments one by one. I placed one in Isaiah's hand and had him grab it. It helped to take out the hangars and stand the ornaments up on the flat ends to dry. I also got a wet paper towel to wipe off any mistakes before they dried.

A picture of the painted hand... I made him hold it up so we could go wash it.

After they dried, we added decorations.

Isaiah wasn't satisfied with just eyes, noses, and buttons, so we added hats, arms, and scarves.

Next week we'll have another snowman ornament craft.. but with a twist.

Follow me on Pinterest here.
I'm also on Twitter. Find me.