My girls

So since I've been so bad at blogging the last half year or so, I guess I haven't done a real post about life with 2 kids. I put pictures on facebook, but as I was recently reminded, not all of my aunts are on facebook! :) So here's some pics for you. Can't believe we've been a family of 4 for 5.5 months now. I can't possibly catch up on everything from the last 5 months of course. So I won't try. A few highlights - having Heather (my friend from Red Lake) here for the first 3 months of Josie's life and having my niece Sara here from the week before J was born for about 3.5ish weeks. I was truly spoiled with all the help and it was grand. Jocelyn had some eating issues that were very frustrating as a newborn and until around Christmas. She was on meds for reflux for awhile, still not sure if that was the issue or not, but she's off them and doing much better. She would often not fall asleep till very late. She'd be asleep and wake up when put to bed, or wake up soon after she was put down and want to eat more and we'd repeat the process 4 of 5 times until 1 or 2 some nights. I could just about cry when I think about those days. I'm pretty sure she sleeps more now than she did when she was 2 months old. Before she was born, I imagined that she would be so opposite of Aleah in a lot of ways - just what you hear all the time - siblings are always so different, etc. But very soon after she got here I kept being amazed at all their similarities even down to the fact that as newborns they both had a plugged duct in the left eye and a slightly larger right nostril. haha. (as for the plugged duct, if that's what it is, Aleah had a goopy eye and her doc gave us drops to put in and it cleared up within days. Jocelyn had the same thing, her doc says it's a plugged duct and there's nothing to do for it other than massage it and if it's not better at age 1, do surgery. She's 5.5 months and still has it. arg! what I wouldn't give to try some of those drops!) They both had similar eating issues, although not exactly the same, and A was on meds for reflux as well. They both cry at loud noises and seem (a little too) sensitive. They both love(d) to be around people and will go to anyone. I suspect J might have a bit more separation anxiety at some point though. The biggest difference I notice is size (J is longer and not nearly as chunky as A was as a baby) and motor skills (I'm sure the 2 are related). J is rolling all over, scooting all over, and doesn't stay in one place for long. The annoying thing is she constantly flips over to her tummy, then screams because she's on her tummy and won't flip back. So playing on the floor isn't a very fun, relaxing activity for any of us. As a baby I used to lay aleah on the floor or in the jungle gym which she loved, and she'd barely move an inch. like a giant paper weight. just amuses me how they're so different in that area. so anyway, here's some recent pics - 

 couple weels ago - just hangin out

Finally got some snow. I guess I should have taken a picture of her actually playing in it.

A few of us would get together and our 2 year olds would have a blast playing together. Then this fall there was a little population explosion.

 5 months

 A favorite activity these days

 kefir moustache and bed heaad

 A rare moment of not being too upset to be on her tummy

We took a trip to Ohio last week for a grandparent's funeral (my side of the family). I should have taken many pics, but this is the only one I got - the girls with their great grandparents. After a couple days with my family we spent the weekend in Cincy with Dave's grandparents and aunt and family.

Canvases

Original title, yes? So ages ago my sister was here and we had a grand time and she slaved away on my behalf doing ELEVEN, yes eleven canvases for me. I had most of the stuff, but hadn't got around to making them. I had discovered (been told but had to try it for myself) that scrapbook paper put on canvases will wrinkle pretty badly. It's true. I wanted to do a bunch more like the ones I did in Aleah's room, only I had canvases instead of wood. But scrapbook paper wouldn't cut it. Sooooo, this wasn't even one of the projects I thought we'd do while she was here, but I showed her all my stuff and she thought we could just paint them and we could make it work. So that's what happened. For those of you who have been waiting endlessly for this post, I apologize for the needless suffering I have caused! So without further ado - I present.... many many pictures of us, enlarged and modpodged! (most even hanging on the wall) 

 These 2 aren't pod podged over the picture so the pics can be replaced as chilluns grow up and such.

 Aleah's 6 month

 Family shot when A was 6 months (in case that's not obvious)

Family shot in our backyard when Jenni was here. side not - Jenni did most of the painting around the edges. I did this one after she was gone and sorta got carried away with the corners so it looks a little different than the others. also this picture was taken when it wasn't dry, so not 100% like it looks now, but who really cares I ask?

More Canvases

Okay, this little adventure in posting all these pics is nearly convincing me to switch to word press. ARG! So I have no clue what pictures and what posts will post in what order, but they should all be here in some form.   

Top picture is the arrangement with these 3 wedding pics hanging up over the mantle. These pics aren't the best but hopefully enough to give an idea. These wedding pics are 12x12 canvases with 11x14 pics or close to it I think. So I had planned to use scrapbook paper as a background for the ones where the canvases and pictures were different sizes. But since that didn't work, Jenni suggested fancy painting. I liked how the edges looked with a blotchy finish instead of paint strokes, if that makes any sense. So in a flury of unprecedented role reversal, she did what I told her to do (hyperbole is perfectly legal in the blog world). 

Like the lovely stick tack above the pic? Originally we tried to hang them all that way. Well, originally we did hang them that way and what followed was random loud crashing sounds (alarmingly terrifying at times when you weren't expecting it) of pictures falling to the floor. So now they are hanging with picture hanging velco - had no idea that stuff even existed, but perfect for walls where you can't or don't want to use nails. 

 Two more wedding pics, these for our room, 8x 10 canvases and pics.

This one should be in the following (or previous, depending on which way it posts) post - the other 5 pics hanging on the wall. Soon a 6 month pic of Josie will be added. The individual ones of the girls are 11x14 canvases with 8x12 pic (Aleahs, but I think we trimmed it), and 8x10 pic (Josie). I hope to do a family pic every 2 - 3 years and make an 8x10. Once there's too many for the wall, I'll move them to our room, or to the rec room in the basement that we don't have, or something like that.

And this one is just a bonus one of Aleah at almost 5 months, because it's one of those pics that just turned out amazing and you can't believe you actually got it with your unfancy camera - just a snapshot at the park. One of my favorites of all time. I wish you could see it in person because it really is pretty rad. This is a 11x14 canvas and picture. It would also look pretty neat bigger I think. Someday when I get a fabulous shot of J, I'll do a bonus one of her too, to preserve family harmony and such (sidenote - this is the "antique" setting on iphoto). So there you have it. As far as how we actually did them (I use the term "we" quite loosely), I believe we painted all the edges, then used a layer of modpodge stick the pic to the canvas. Oh, before that, if you have an 11x14 canvas AND picture, one would think they'll be the exact same size and all you do is plop in on there. This is a falsehood. The picture will be slightly bigger than the canvas and that won't work. So you're left needing to evenly trim a huge picture, which is what held me up in the first place. How do you get a straight edge with a huge pic that doesn't fit into your nice little paper slicer? Well, I still don't know cuz Jenni did it for me and she's amazingly talented. whew. And in the end, the paint around the edges covered it up enough that you don't notice if it's perfectly straight or not. GRACIOUS! Pardon my excessive details. So after the pic is on and dried, slather on about 3 more coats of mod podge. Then it dries and looks fabulous. For the edges we added some thinner or glaze to the brown paint and blotched it up a bit. So there you go. My little very unprofessional canvas making tutorial.

my days.

So I've had a million posts running through my mind the last few months. It's crazy. I wanted to write about Jenni's visit. Before that I wanted to write about Heather being here for 3 months. Before that, I wanted to write about Jocelyn being born and life with 2 kids... and many things in between. Most recently I wanted to show you pictures of the beautiful canvases my sis did for me while she was here. Alas, NONE of these have made it to the actual screen. why you say? because I prioritize my time poorly and have days like the following. I was also going to write about my day last wed. but after I tell you about it, I think you'll understand why I didn't get it written down for your enjoyment. But here I am now to tell you about it - ok, as I best recall - Wednesday - the day I work all day towards getting out the door with both kids by sometime before 6 for our small group in the evening. The day started with all of us ladies sleeping in a little too late. Well, me anyway. I put together woman would have arisen and tended to her daily hygiene before the small ones arose, but today, I did not. How hard can it be, I'll just find a moment sometime when they're both sleeping or occupied to take a shower and such. So day started - I fed Jocelyn and she was laying on her change table, one of her favorite places to be. And I thought, man, I should really cut her nails, because she scratches herself so bad when they're not short. Before this I had only done them while she was sleeping, but in a lapse of mental judgement I started chipping away, until all of a sudden there was much high pitched wailing. Oh NO! Her poor thumb!!! I CHOPPED it! It bled and bled and bled and turned purple and the like. I felt awful. Sadly, it was also the thumb that she sucks to go to sleep. That's the ONLY thing she will take to go to sleep. I had socks on her hand and didnt' think it wise to let her suck a liter of blood out of her thumb to go to sleep. Around this time, Aleah was talking off her clothes to get in the bathtub (we're going to meet the public after all, time for our mid-week scrubbins) and she slipped and banged her face against the tub and got a bloody, fat lip. Finally she's in the tub, and I was feeding J with the hope that she would fall asleep enough to not need to suck her thumb to sleep. She was eating really well and dozing off and I then I heard it - the 2 year old making a horrible mess from the bathroom, dumping water all over the place in order to try to flood it. Breathing murderous threats under my breath, but not wanting to disturb the good eating that was going on, I tried to ignore it till I could go deal with it later. Put small child down, she immediately went to find her thumb to keep herself asleep and became furious that she couldn't suck it. Went to deal with the child and mess in the bathroom. youngest child will have none of the sleeping thing, so gave up and got her up. cleaned up bathroom somewhat, did normal day to day things that didn't include getting dressed or showered. Got a call late morning/early afternoon from our small group leader asking if I could bring food for tonight since the person who was going to is unable to. tonight. ok, I can do this. got ahold of dave to have him pick some things up on the way home from work. still wondering about fitting in that shower. Put toddler to bed and feed baby who again is eating well and drifting off to sleep. decide the thumb is surely healed up enough for her to suck it. can hear 2 year old goofing off in bedroom instead of sleeping, but again, don't want to disrupt the feeding so try to ignore it for awhile. baby with injured thumb takes a short nap, toddler takes none, hubs arrives home to find wife in a frantic mess of unshoweredness, at which point I take the goods he has brought, fly around the kitchen making food, fly through the shower, get myself ready to go out the door, feed baby, get 2 kids ready to go, make toddler some food to take along, we didn't even have time to eat supper and went through a drive through on the way home from small group. And we arrived late, with the food. Thankfully it was a very small group so no one cared at all. Arrived home with 2 extremely tired kids, an extremely messy kitchen/house, piles of dishes that needed to be done, but being too exhausted to care. Instead I wondered to my exhausted self... how does this happen?? Why can't I get done the most basic of things? I should have put supper in the crock pot in the morning, I should have gotten up earlier, I shouldn't have chopped off the end of my baby's thumb, etc. etc etc. And that was my day. By the end of the day life seemed tragic, but thankfully, we haven't had any quite that bad since then. It's another Wednesday and so far has gone much better. All that to say, I hope to SOON have pictures to post of canvases and also a new lil crafty project I'm working on. until then, you now where I am - curled up in a fetal position hiding from my kids.