Crafty Christmas: Collared Aprons

I saw some of these collared aprons on pinterest, and thought they would be cute and fairly simple to make. Originally I was going to make everyone a different kind of apron and found all kinds of cute patterns, but then the reality of making a gazillion Christmas gifts hit me and I decided to just do one type of apron for the girls and one for the boys.



These aprons are awesome. Super easy and really cheap - especially if you already have a few men's shirts lying around. I used 2 of my husband's and one of my grandpa's, and I ended up mismatching parts of each shirt onto all the aprons, so everybody got a little of Grandpa's shirt in their apron (he died last year).

I just used one of my old aprons as a pattern and cut a roughly similar shape out of the front of the shirt. One of them (the one with pockets) turned out really well, but the other two I cut too narrow at the top, so it felt awkward to wear, so I pieced in a strip of fabric on the sides. Then I used long, wide strips from the backs or sleeves of the shirts for the ties, hemmed up any exposed edges, and was done!

Think time

Free, alone think time. It's a rare commodity around here. I feel like during the day my thoughts are jumping from one necessity to the next while trying to be engaged with the little ones clamoring for my attention. Then at night after the boys are asleep, I always think I'll have some, but then the list pops up of things to prepare for, things already on my "to-think-about" list (I'm pretty sure I actually have one of those on my Google Task Lists). This morning Jimmy didn't have classes and he blocked it off in the calendar as family time. What a gift! He took Archer with him to get his safety and emissions done and was gone for a couple hours, while Levi napped. I decided to clean the kitchen. Without kids around, cleaning is so fun! You know, at least more fun. I put on some music, planning to sing and dance while I worked, but instead I just thought.

I thought about politics. I thought about social problems. I thought about issues my kids may run into. I thought about women's rights. I thought about my place in this wide world. It was really valuable, quality-thought think time. Afterwards I realized I was truly refreshed and felt like a real person. Taking a shower and actually getting ready for the day might have helped, too. They say meditation is important to your spiritual and emotional well-being. I couldn't agree more! Even if you're mopping at the same time.

Raking time

Well, it snowed last week, which means the trees have been dropping their leaves in buckets. Well, I wish it were in buckets. As it was, I raked the yard with the boys in the afternoon, and when Jimmy got home, he cleaned up the last bit and towed the can to the driveway. We'll have to rake again in another couple of weeks, but it was a nice day, and it should cut the work next time in half. Henry was a super helper - he stayed outside after I went in to keep going!

Every day is Halloween

I realized today as I was posting about Halloween, that you wouldn't be able to tell which pictures of ours were from Halloween and which were from any other day. These boys are always in some get-up or another. Here are some of my favorites.

 

 

  

  

Brotherly love

 Boys are physical. At least ours are. Especially one of them. Archer has always been our little bulldozer. He'll run at you for a hug and just plow straight through you. He tackles his brothers - both of them - whether or not his brothers enjoy it. I'll let the pictures take it from here.

Notice how it often transitions from sweet(ish) Archer to "Okay, Arch, that's enough!" Luckily, it would seem that in another year or so, Archer will have some competition. Or a playmate. If Archer's lying on the floor in front of Levi, Levi will dive bomb him, open-mouthed. Watch out, Arch!

Halloween 2012

Every day the boys wanted to be something else for Halloween. At first I thought that would be problematic, but then I realized the beauty in it - I could pick any one of the things they mentioned, and they're young enough to still get excited about it! Ultimately we stuck with Henry's astronaut idea. Jimmy and I were Mars and Venus (we had a couples party to go to, so we had to do something that would work as a pair!). 

 We've been on a space kick lately, talking about space shuttles, the Mars rover Curiosity, planets, etc, so this was kind of fun. I followed a lot of the tutorial here, but used yard sale football helmets we had. For the planets, I just painted some cardboard circles.

As a fortunate misfortune, I didn't have any red paint (it was all dried up), so I used some homemade puffy paint from Train Up a Child and dyed it red. It turned out awesome! You can kind of see the texture in this picture - raised and rough, and it even sparkled a little because of the salt!

For Levi, we used water bottles instead of the 2 liter bottles.

ever feel like some things weren't meant to be?

 Sorry for the long post, but the day really was that crazy!

Since we got here, I have been so excited to go to the Washington DC temple. First of all, it is beautiful and it's always exciting to see a new temple, but also I really start to feel it if I go longer than a month without the temple. I am just not as nice. We decided to make last weekend work (June 30).

The plan was to spend the night at my Aunt Mary's house in Maryland, go to the temple first thing in the morning, and then head into the city to see a couple museums. The crazy lightning that night should have been our first clue - there was mischief afoot. (That was the most insane lightning I've ever seen! It was constant, like a laser show, flickering the lights every few minutes)

We woke up as planned and were out the door only 5 minutes past our 7:30 goal. Mary and her girls were in a car ahead of us, coming to babysit our kids outside the temple. About 10  minutes into the drive we got news that the power was out at the temple and it was closed. Major bummer.  Mary turned around and we went on ahead to at least see and walk around the temple.

Then we entered Armageddon. Massive trees were sprawled all over the streets, trailing power lines everywhere. For the next hour-long drive we only saw 2 working stoplights. The others were completely dark. Our cellphones didn't work and we went at a snail's pace. At one point a giant tree was blocking all 3 lanes of our road, so caution cones directed us to go in a single file line into one of the lanes of oncoming traffic. Madness. I wish I'd taken more pictures - I feel like these are pretty mild.

Imagine your world in complete upheaval and all of a sudden this comes into view:

With the world being in such chaos, the temple was all the more radiant and stunning. They had a generator but were using it sparingly, allowing only weddings and live ordinances. We walked around the slightly uprooted grounds, occasionally throwing branches and leaves back into the woods.

The boys found a mini-excavator (their highlight).

After calling the Smithsonian to make sure they had power in DC, we found a metro station to get us into the city (on a train for the boys). Unfortunately the metro station also didn't have power. The metro was running so we could get on, but the station was completely dark. And 4 stories underground. This picture was with my flash - I tried without, but it came out completely black.

Sitting in the dark tunnel almost completely by ourselves - our little family huddled on one of the benches - it really did feel like we were in an end-of-the-world movie. Plus side? we didn't have to buy tickets :)

Oh yeah, and Henry had to go to the bathroom (of course) and there were no bathrooms anywhere (of course), so Jimmy just held him up and he peed over the outer edge of the station (where the lights would have been, not where the train comes). The boys did LOVE the train, though! Probably the best part of the day.

We got to the city and up into the light! And the heat. It was 103 in DC that weekend. It was 1:00 and we were getting hungry. Bad news - we didn't have cash. So we walked in the heat for blocks and blocks to find an ATM. First one was out of money. Second one was closed. Finally, desperate, we went into the museum and paid way too much to eat at their food court. I had done a few "lessons" with the kids earlier in the week about space, so we chose the Air and Space Museum. The boys liked it, but a lot of it was lost on them because of their age and the absolutely insane crowds.Turns out everyone preferred to be inside that day. I swear there was a homeless man napping in one of the exhibits. Smart man.

The child in this picture looks cute. Don't let him fool you. That's what I thought, "Oh, he's tired, how precious." Nope. He's pooping.

And that was it. One museum and we were ready to go home. By the time we got back to the metro station, we practically had to mop the puddles of melted boys off the sidewalk.

We made it to our only transfer and waited for our next train. And waited. And waited. Wouldn't you know they had some malfunction on our line, so we stayed with our 3 boys right next to the track, trying to keep Archer from falling in and each other from going crazy for OVER AN HOUR. Of course Henry had to pee again, with  nowhere to go, so I, being the resourceful (or desperate) mom that I am, just put a diaper on over his underwear.

We finally dragged ourselves into Aunt Mary's house and had dinner at almost 7. Right before bedtime, someone pooped on the floor. We were willing that day to be over, but it just wouldn't end. Oh, and after all that, I had to run out at 10:30 to grab diapers because I hadn't brought quite enough. Sheesh!