It Has Been Too Long

The lack of content on this blog is not due to a lack of things going on in the Rowland ranch. Quite the opposite is true. We have been very busy recently. It seems that the weekends have been just as busy as the weekdays. So here is February in rewind.

William spend Valentine's day with Aunt Lisa and the boys while Mommy and Daddy went to dinner. Kurt and I have been interested in going to Tavern on the Square for a while. The atmosphere is very unique and the food was wonderful!

We traded the weekend after and took Lisa's kids for the night. They are so cute together! They entertain each other and I am sure are going to get into major trouble together very soon!

William went on his first snowshoe hike (around the backyard) and seemed to enjoy the ride. Not sure this picture shows the shear joy that he had on our journey!

William is learning how to crawl. He is much better at crawling backwards than forward but he is working on it. He has mastered the from my butt to my belly manouver. It is only a matter of time until we no longer have things less than 3 feet off the floor.

While I was at Meijer tonight getting potting soil and pots for the plants my students are growing at school I wondered through the clerance section and found a giant bag of ducks. William recieved many ducks for his baby shower gifts and loves them in the tub. We lose them often and find them randomly around the house. I could not resist and wanted to get a good picture of his new friends. Can a kid have too many rubber ducks?

Snow Day

The snow fell last night and we got another snow day. I have mixed feelings. William has not been feeling good so I planned on staying home with him but we were recently told that we will have to make up our snow days at the end of the year. This means that Mommy will not be done with school before William's first birthday. :( Anyway we are taking the time and having some fun.

So Little

Our neighbors had a baby a week or so ago and I went over to see him the other day. Wow, I do not remember our little guy being so little. It is weird now to see a baby that was a pound heavier than our little guy. So I have been itching to make another sling, so I offered to make Kristen a sling for her little guy. I bought returned target curtains, from goodwill, which happen to be a little over 2 yards long. I then went to fields (my new favorite place) and got a fabric that I thought was really cute! and went to work. The sling I have for William is nice but i really wish it had a pocket and a place to hang my keys so I made one for Kristen that had both. I think it turned out really cute. I wish I knew what my cousin was having so I could pick out gender specific fabric. I am hoping for a snow day this week so I can make another sling and finish up the hooded towels I have been looking forward to making.

Dusted Off the Sewing Machine

I got out the sewing machine this weekend. I wanted a sling for my chuncky little baby now that we can not carry him in the infant carseat. I looked up instructions online and went shopping with my mom-in-law and got some cute material and put one together. When you buy the fabric it makes two so I made one for us and one for my cousin who is due in July.

I was then inspired to make a hooded bath towel. I was given one for William when he was born and it was heavy duty and big. I found some new towels (2 towels, 2 hand towels and 2 washcloths) on clearance. I bought yellow and green. I made one with a washcloth. It turned out okay. We will keep that one to use with William. (poor kid gets all the screw up stuff). Then made a yellow one for my cousin. I also ordered some towels from overstock.com and they should be here soon. 4 towel: one for William Magee, one for Brody, one for Bobby and one for Scotty. I am looking for some boy ribbon to put along the front or the sides of the boys. * by looking I mean it is on my list of things to do when Kurt is watching William.*

I then saw a website that gives ideas of things to do with old clothes. I am planning on making William a fleece lined wool hat. I bought the perfect sweater at GW's for 3 bucks. That is something I will tackle this weekend or sometime this week.

I am finding that I have to just make time to do these things, otherwise there would be no time. I am loving it.

Another Thought At Mass

Today at Mass we heard the scripture about Eli and Samuel. The story is about Samuel hearing someone in the night and running ingto Eli's room and saying I am here. Eli responds just as most parents (although ELi was not Samuel's father) would. "I did not call you go back to bed! It is the middle of the night!" It happens again and Samuel again runs back to Eli waking him up again. Eli finally tells Samuel, " Go back to bed and if you hear the call again, it is God talk to him." I do believe that God speaks to us and the story is possible. Having been in a situation similar to Eli I wonder if it was just Eli's way of getting a good nights sleep. It must have worked because Samuel does not return. Maybe because he does not want to wake Eli again or maybe his conversation with God was fruitful and send him back to sleep. Just random thoughts, another angle to the same scriptures.

Mommy's Day Out

Okay so I am a dork and very much enjoy thrift shopping. I think it is because I like to see what other people get rid of, what other people buy and what I can get a good deal on. It always makes me laugh looking through the books. A million copies of What to Expect When You Are Expecting, Purpose Driven Life, Chicken Soup for every soul, and a slew of romance novels. I flash back to the past when I see things like Caboodles in neon colors, floppy disks, computer games that must run on Windows 93, and VHS tapes of movies from my childhood. Every once in a while I find something that catches my eye. Ususally I do not go into Gw's looking for something in particular...you just can never predict what you will find, but I always manage to walk out (payign first of course) with some little treasure.
I enjoy consignment shops as well but they tend to be a little more pricey. When purusing a consignment shop like Once Upon A Child, i can not help but think " I can not wait til we are done having kids and I can cash in all his stuff. But then I think by the time that happens 7 kids will have worn it and a consignment shop would not want it!
More recently I have ventured into the lowest thrift shops. The kind run by a group of old woman who are making money for a charitable organizations. I never liked them before. Too much junk and a small selection but recently I have been shopping for Science Olympiad and have been looking for junk. Goodwill does not sell enough junk, it is sorted too much before it reaches the floor.
I had a great time and found some great stuff for baby cakes.

Guitar Baby

I have wanted to take a picture of William in this outfit for awhile now and I finally put it on him today and said "today is the day because this shirt is not fitting tomorrow!" He is growing so fast! So here is William with Daddy's Wii guitar!