I Made That & Around the House

Yay!  I found pictures of Bryson's hot pads and apron/chef hat that I made for his birthday on the other camera!

 Did I mention that he LOVES to cook?  I can't remember what I was about to make, but he was all over me trying to help.  Good thing he keeps those (fully functional) hot pads on his hands!

 Here's some other projects around the house that I've done in the last month or so.  First off I made this wreath for Valentine's Day.  I'm trying to be more decorative with holidays this year, so here's the start.

 This is scrapbook paper (a Stampin' Up colletion to be exact called "Raspberry Tart" I believe.)  I cut the paper in 3 inch wide strips, then I only used half of the strips (the other half I glued together into a large placemat/table runner that is on my china hutch)  The pink and green really compliment my yellow house and red door, I think so anyway.  Here are some close up shots of the paper.

 It was really easy and super cute!

Next, I got some brand new non-stick pots and pans for Christmas (much needed.)  I didn't want to stack them in my cupboards, and space is really limited in the kitchen, so we bought this hanging rack and Doug installed it.  I think it's really neat.  It is covering up some of my pictures on the wall, though, so I'll need to move those (eventually.  It's on the list.)

 Next up was our bedroom, well sort of.  See our room is not high on the priority list when it comes to the house, and there is still lots of other things we need to get around to.  I was kind of jealous of Susan's bedroom makeover that they did over the holidays, because I would've loved to do that, we just don't have the money/time for it now.  We did get rid of our big bulky hand-me-down nightstands (sorry no before shots, I never remember till half way through a project) and for our anniversary (the 6th is the wood anniversary) we bought this bookcase headboard.  Its functional and does make me feel a little more grown up to finally have a headboard.  A couple of artsy shots from our Canada trip printed 11x14 complete the look for now.  Just ignore my ugly flannel Christmas sheets.  They're not stylish, but they are oh so comfy!

 The biggest project over the holidays was to reorganize my disaster area of a craft room.  I had piled so much stuff in there, that I could barely open the door and I was pushing the desk (on wheels) in and out of the room when I wanted to sew something.  More storage space was in order so one day I had the brilliant idea of adding shelves over the ledge that goes around the outside walls instead of purchasing more bookcase shaped furniture.  So off to Home Depot I went and Doug, my hero, put up these shelves for me.  Then came a trip to Target to purchase some bins.  My amazing friend, Miriam, came over and helped me organize my yarn/motivated me to get the stuff organized.  And here's the final (for now) product!

There's still room to grow if I need to and it's nice to be able to see/know where everything is.  Let me give you a little tour.

First off my TARDIS.  If you don't know what a TARDIS is, well then we can't be friends anymore.  Ha ha, just kidding, but seriously go watch some Doctor Who.  The TARDIS is the police box that the Doctor uses to travel all time and space.  It's bigger on the inside.  So is my sewing cabinet (not really, but there's space in it to grow.)

 I bought a groupon a month ago for vinyl wall decorations, so I thought I'd use it to add a little fun to the craft room.  Hence the birds now residing on my magnetic knife holder that I use for scissors (I love that thing.)

 Some more birds and flowers.  And can I just say how nice it is to have bins for everything and then some?  No wondering where anything is, well sort of, maybe I should label the bins at some point.

 My favorite idea I had, hooks on the wall under the ledge for all my knitting looms.  They are just those command hooks that are stuck to the wall, so I could easily pull them off and move them if I want.  It is nice to be reminded that I need to finish all those projects (well the pink yarn on the green loom is Sariah's first project, she's making herself a hat.)  I love the little red bird that lives in the red loom, too.

 One more little red bird on the box on the sewing table.

Well that's mostly all that's been going on here.  A clean craft room means I can start crafting again.  I've already got a couple of sewing projects lined up.  Yay!

Bryson's Birthday "Party"

And by party I mean we had Bryson's friend, Colin, and Colin's Parents over for cake, ice cream and presents.  Here's Bryson's cake.

 I've been seeing a lot of cakes decorated with M&Ms on pinterest, so I thought I'd give it a try.  It is suppose to be a train, but I guess any moving vehicle will do.  It was tasty!  That what matters, right?

 Bryson had a lot of fun opening his presents.  He was excited to get some additions for his train table, and some new sheets for his bed, plus some good looking church clothes and some books.

 Some other favorites are the hot pads I sewed for him (but didn't get a picture of) because he is always stealing the hot pads out of the kitchen and taking them somewhere else to "cook" with.  So I made him some for his very own out of scrap fabric I had lying around.  I also made him an apron and a chef hat, which he wasn't such a fan of because he didn't know what they were.

He also really loves this big Mario and little Luigi dolls.  He sleeps with them every night.  I like that he calls both of them "Igi!" since Luigi was always my favorite of the two.  

 I found this play camera on clearance after Christmas.  It is very obnoxious with the music and lights, but it keeps him from stealing the real cameras, so I don't complain.  He loves to run around with it asking everyone to say "cheese!"

The week after his birthday we took him to the doctors.  He's a very normal, very healthy little boy.  He was weighing in the 75% and only in the 40% for height, so I think he's about to have a growth spurt since his numbers seem to do that (his 18 month stats had his weight under 50% and his height over.)  He's already wearing size 7 shoe (his friend Colin is in size 5.)  His torso is still longer than his legs so that the 3Ts are starting to fit on top but he's just barely wearing 2T pants.

He's really breaking into those terrible twos.  Bedtimes are always a meltdown, everything is "mine" even when we're walking through Walmart, but he's still a great sharer when we're playing with friends.  He's constantly singing, even with the songs on the radio, and he loves his family.  We love him, too.

Double Trouble

I was thinking that maybe now that Bryson is 2, he doesn't look as much like 2 year old Doug. Until I put the pictures side by side. Nope, he's still a mini Doug.  Take a look:

Goodness. Besides hair length, is there much difference?

Happy Birthday Bryson!

Bryson's favorite shirt

Do you remember this hat from last year?

Handsome

I love this hat.

The coloring from Portrait Innovations was much nicer than this looks, I altered this myself to give grandparents an idea of what this looks like.  Still, doesn't he look like he needs a newspaper route?

I love, love this shot.  He warmed up to the camera  by the end, and he's just so  adorable!

The terrible twos are upon us!  Well they've been upon us for about 2 weeks now.  Still, we're so happy to have Bryson.  As my mom would say, "He's a hoot!"   Seriously, though, this kid knows how to get into trouble.  I came in from shoveling snow this morning, and he had pushed a kitchen chair to the sink and had one leg in the kitchen sink and the other over the kitchen counter.  He's constantly getting into things, hates being left alone, and has decided that naps are no fun.  Oi.  

On the other hand, he's super adorable.  He charms the ladies where ever we go.  He's a great helper in the kitchen, he loves to help with the dishes and he wants to be a part of meal prep, no matter what we're cooking.  He's constantly stealing my hot pads and pretending to cook with them.  He even helped make his birthday cake last night, which was exciting for him.  

Bryson loves to sing.  When it is just me and him in the car, he's constantly singing little songs to himself.  He tries to sing along with the radio if we're listening to music.  His favorite song is probably, "Once there was a Snowman."  He's really into snowmen.  He likes to try and play the piano, but he must put a piano book up there to play from.  He really likes to dance, too.  Last Sunday he was trying to dance along with the music in sacrament meeting.  I had to put a stop to that, it's not really the right place.  

Bryson is very opinionated about his clothing.  If you pull something out of his dresser that he doesn't want to wear, he'll wave his arms in the air and yell "no! no! no-no!"  until you pick something else out.  He's not a fan of overalls or button down shirts (unless you put the button down shirt over another shirt, then that's cool.)  He loves his green shirt with the tie on it and his winter boots.  

Bryson is not a fan of television, unless Sariah is watching.  He would rather be involved with what Mommy or Daddy is doing.  He wasn't a fan of books, but now he's just starting to sit still and listen, his favorites being "Tickle the Duck," "Baby Colors" and "The Cheerio Play Book."

He's saying most words, although some sounds seem to be tricky for him.  He can say Mommy, but milk comes out as "nox" and chip has the unfortunate swapping of the "c" to "s" and "p" to "t".  (I'm not going to type that out.)  Speaking of food.  His favorites are probably still hot dogs (pronounced "HAWDAW!!!!") and the variation, corn dog.  He's not a picky eater (yet, knock on wood.)  And eats pretty much anything.  

He loves his big sister.  He thinks he can do anything she can do.  He is really so much fun, and we're thankful he's in our family!

(Grandparents, let me know which pictures you'd like!)