Janurary Phone Favorites

 Yes, I am a wee bit behind. My bad. Here are some of my favorites from January. (Yes these are almost all of Duke. Please know I do not love him more than E, he just sits still and smiles. E is so busy and very rarely sits still long enough for me to take pictures on my very slow phone.)

Duke passed out at the Doctor's. There was a lot of sickness in our home this month!

 

A sweet little note from my G-ma on the top of her home made jam. I love this!

 Our beautiful blue eyed boy.

 Duke Manfred found his foot and if he's barefoot he's sucking on them!

 Duke also got a wicked rash all over his face and body. We're not sure what caused it but I have a feeling it was the formula. :( Poor boy!

 Such a happy boy. Seriously BEST. BABY. EVER!

 Worst blow out ever! How does this even happen. Yes we stripped him down in the shower.

 January in Vegas. Seriously, this is the promise land!

 The upside to being sick... lots of snuggles.

 The smile you get after someone pees all over you. This was actually hilarious because I was SOAKED. Duke thought it was so funny. He was busting up laughing and there was nothing to do but laugh with him. 

 This is E's new table. She actually eats like this every day for every meal. I feel as though we're feeding our dog, but if it makes her happy, I'm happy.

This is one of those Mommy moments that makes you tear up while you take pictures. While I was putting laundry away I came back into my room to find little E sitting on the bed reading stories to Duke. she would lift up the book so he could see the pictures and point to things on the page. It made my heart happy. These two love each other so much! This is what it's all about!

My Picture Perfect

 So often I read blogs that are full of these "super mom's." They cook, craft, have immaculate houses, there children are always put together, they are members of the PTA, and they still have time to blog amongst other things. I find myself becoming discouraged because I think why can't I do that?! I have decided that that is not realistic. While possible, if I attempted to be these women my head would explode. I have determined that I am a dang good wife and mother and at the end of the day that is all that matters. So for all of you mothers who fall into the same category as me, here is a post for the average super mom!

We have messy faces, and run around with buckets on our heads. 

 We put crayons up our nose, because that is clearly where they belong. 

 I very rarely get dressed. Usually you will find me in the same pair of P.J's that I climbed into after our church meetings on Sunday. While yes I do shower, my hair is not done, my make up is non existent and I can be found with stickers in my hair and on my forehead because it makes my daughter smile. 

 We take naps with our feet dangling out of the crib.

 We watch ALOT of Elmo. It's mixed in throughout the day a show here a show there.

 We take pictures. Lots of pictures. Duke is such a poser. Any time he sees the camera he gets the biggest smile....

 ... and what's a mother to do but take more pictures.

We bond, we laugh, we make messes and we play. 

 We snuggle, cuddle and love.

 We wait for Daddy to get home.

 We relax and enjoy time spent together.

 And when it's all done, we cherish the highlights of the day. My life may not be "picture perfect" but it is perfect to me. I have decided to stop comparing my life to those of other and just ENJOY the here and now. My craft room is a mess, there is laundry to be put away and the dishwasher needs to be emptied. I have 1000 projects to work on but these babies are growing too fast and what I really need is to give them more kisses and play more games. This is what picture perfect is to me.

Our Little Flour

 While making dinner one evening E was being especially "helpful." She was climbing in the fridge, pulling on my pants and really just wanted 100% of my very limited attention. She then pulled out the flour, raced over to the cupboard where we keep the measuring spoons and started trying to open it. Once we opened it she grabbed a cup and I figured it was a wonderful way to distract her. I handed her a big bowl and she went to town. 

 I then found myself putting dinner on hold entirely to take pictures because she was just so gosh darn cute. At first she was very careful not to spill. I love her look of concentration.

 Once she spilled some she looked at me with worried eyes and I told her it was alright. She's pretty OCD and doens't like messes either. Once I gave her the all clear the fun began. 

 There was flour everywhere and it was too cute! 

 Once we started tasting...

... she decided she was ready for her bath. It was so cute and so fun! I know we'll be doing this again soon!

Ethie-ella

 While changing Duke's bottom one morning Ethnie ran up and grabbed a wipe. She loves bum wipes. She raced over to her little table and started wiping it down. She then ran over to the coffee table and gave it a quick wipe. By the time I had grabbed my camera she had made her way to the kitchen floor and was wiping as she crawled along. She is too cute and makes me smile.

Too Cute

The other day I got a package from my mother in Canada. I love getting packages from home. They are always filled with goodies for the kids, sweet notes and filled with lots of love from Oma and Opa. This particular package had the kids Christmas outfits in it (since Duke is busting out of everything the is 9-12 months.) My favorite item in the box however was the DARLING sweater. I mean toggles, and elbow patches!! Be still my beating heart. I cannot wait to take pictures of Jakob and Duke in their matching sweaters but until then here is a picture of the CUTEST boy in the entire world!

Dino Baby

 One of my most recent projects has been Duke's Dinosaur towel. Ethnie was given a hooded towel as a baby and she loves it... and it still fits. Duke was also given one, but it was made for babies and while technically Duke is still a "baby" he is not the size of a baby. He's huge! That towel couldn't even make it all the way around him so I decided to make him one. 

 Duke squawks like a dinosaur all of the time, it's really quite precious, so I was pretty excited to make him a "spike" towel. (Spike is the stegosaurus on Land Before Time.) I found a tutorial on Pinterest and in an hour I was done. (Click here for tutorial)  

There are a few differences between my towel and the tutorial. I made mine big enough to fit an adult. As you can see the hood comes down to his belly button. I wanted this thing to go the distance.

 I also made 20 spikes. It wasn't intentional to make them so small but I really am pleased with the final outcome. I had thought about slitting the middle of the towel and putting them down the back too but I didn't have enough dark green.

 Oh I can't get enough of how cute this boy is! I love how fast this project was and I am so pleased with the final outcome. Next one I'm going to make is an Elmo one for E. I sure do love our little dinosaur.

Puzzled

 Ethnie got this Alphabet puzzle for Christmas. I bought it figuring that it would be a bit advanced for her but she'd grow into it. Last week she picked it up and off she went. I was AMAZED at how well she did. She got frustrated at times when she couldn't figure it out but for the most part she did the entire thing by herself. She can now put it together in less than a minute. It's adorable.

 Since then we have been all about the ABC's. She loves to sing the song and she claps along with you. Her favorite letters are I, O and Y but she can recognize more than half of the alphabet. 

 It's fun to see her learn. She ran up to the T.V. yesterday and pointed to a Y and shouted "MA! Y! Y! Y!" She will also point out letters as you read books. She enjoys searching for the letter in words. She doesn't recognize little letters yet but we got some flash cards so we'll see how that goes.

 Duke just wants to be like his big Sister. He won't put the puzzle together yet (obviously) but he likes to chew on the pieces.

 As you could imagine this really upsets E so he's only allowed to play with it while she naps.

 These two are growing up WAY too fast! Where is the FREEZE button?! Can't they stay small forever?