Busy

When I was younger I remember my parents saying things like how they wanted life to just slow down for a little while, and how they just didn't have enough time.  I have to admit since I have been married and had kids I hadn't felt that way.  I remember when it was just me and James I would have to find things to do, and Doug would constantly tell me I needed a hobby.  I would read tons of books, and often had to read books over again just for something to do.  Well, sadly/happily those days are over.  Now it is difficult to find time for all the things I need to do, let alone all the things I want to do.  And now I have hobbies, that I have no time for.  So I often find myself dreaming of simpler times and wondering when things are going to slow down.  Blogging must be pretty low on my priority list since I really haven't been keeping up with our lives, and that is sad to me because I feel like there is so much I miss out on, and then when I finally get around to it I have either forgotten or don't want to have a huge-long post.  It is also sad because I love going back and reading old posts and remembering cute things my kids have done in the past.  So anyway, here are a few of the things we have been up to in the past month.

This month our Relief Society activity was about FHE.  I have to admit we have never been very good at this.  I get discouraged every time we try because we spend most of the time yelling at the kids to sit down and be quite.  But I decided we really need to be better at it.  This project has been on my to-do list for months so I decided to get it done and really try to have more consistent, thought-out FHEs.  And the past two weeks we have actually done this have gone very well.  The first week I read "You Are Special" to the boys and then we made felt puppets.  They loved it.  Last week Doug told the story of Ammon then we played a game where we had to try to scatter the sheep (throw all the stuffed animals out of the fence) while "Ammon" tried to stop us.  Again the boys loved it.

 Lately the boys have been really into water balloons.  Mikey is constantly wanting to "go to the dollar store and get water balloons".  If we have balloons in the house I have to hide them or they are always asking me to fill them up.  James always immediately takes them out back and pops them.  Mikey will play with his for hours until James eventually gets it and pops it.  I have had some "jumbo" balloons hidden for just the perfect day.  And that day was a few weeks ago.  It was so warm.  So I gave the balloon to Doug and sent the boys out back.  They had a blast.

James, Mikey and the "jumbo" balloon

Another thing James has been obsessed with is Scout.  This is actually Mikey's toy, but James found a Scout cartoon on Netflix and has been so excited about it ever since.  When he first discovered the cartoon (Phonics Farm) he wanted to watch it all the time.  One night we told him he could watch it in the morning after he woke up.  So he went to bed and was so excited to wake up.  After a little while he came out of his room and turned all the lights in the house off and told Doug and I to go to bed.  I asked James why and he simply responded "Scout" then went to bed.  Doug later explained to me what he was doing.  When you are a kid the best way to make morning to come faster is to go to sleep.  Then it practically takes no time at all.  So since then Scout does everything with us.  He goes in the car, he takes walks, James pushes him him in the stroller, he sits in Billy's high chair to eat.  Here are a few things James has done with him.

James giving Scout a bath in the sink

James having a snack with Scout

Billy has been doing a ton lately too, but I will post about him soon because he is turning 8-months-old next week!  But this is a picture I took this morning.  Silly boy.

How I found Billy sleeping this morning.

Finally a project Doug and I have been working on for months!  When we got home from Christmas there were toys everywhere!  I have always had a pretty unremarkable storage system for our toys, just diaper boxes on the floor and small plastic containers on a bookshelf.  Needless to say our "playroom" has always been sort of a mess.  After Christmas I was looking for a better system and came across this from Ikea and basically fell in love with it.  I showed it to Doug who responded, "I could make that for cheaper."  And I said, "OK, do it!"  So using our gift money from Christmas he did.  I had him add a long slot on the end for things like race car tracks and stick horses.  He was excited because he would get to use several of his new tools he got for his birthday and Christmas.  Including: the dado head on his table saw, his paint guns, his nail gun, and his new air hose.  

Cutting the dados in one of the sides

About a month ago we finally made it to Ikea to buy the bins and look at the actual shelf, we decided ours is better of course.  And of course we NEVER want to go back to the Denver Ikea again!  It was a zoo.  Finally last week the shelf was complete and we put it in place in the "playroom".  I used my Silhouette to make labels for all the bins.  And it is everything I hoped it would be, except I had planed for all the train tracks to fit in the blue bin, but they didn't so we had to shuffle things around a bit to make it work.  But I am loving it.

The completed toy shelf

Our "playroom" completed

Welcome to the playroom. No clutter on the floor!

All the toys put where they go

The bins just slide out and back in.
It makes it super easy to clean up, and
ask the boys to only get out one at a time.

Now Doug's next project is to make a chest for the dress-up clothes and we can get rid of the falling apart cardboard box they are currently in!  

Yesterday I had a bunch of ladies from the ward over for our cookbook club (Doug thinks I am a nerd for that) and they all loved how they kids kept most of the toys in the fence!  I loved bragging about my handy husband and showing off all his work.  And I was pretty pleased to show off our new playroom.    The icing on the cake...Mikey put himself down for a nap while everyone was there.  Doesn't get much easier than that!