I Sew?!

Well I haven't sewn anything since my senior year in High School! Then my friend Camie and I decided we wanted to try making Car Seat Canopies since we are both having babies! Once I got the hang of a sewing machine again I didn't do too bad. I also made my lil girl a minky blanket (thanks to Camie for the fabric!). Looks like this... So adorable and sooooo soft! I showed Sawyer and he LOVED the feel of it and kept kind of sneaking it. I was very hesitant about making both the lil boy and Sawyer a blankie just cause the fabric is sooooo expensive. Seriously, its sick. I decided to make him and our lil boy one anyway since Brandon oked it. Just haven't finished those yet but once I do I will post those as well! Here are my Car Seat Canopies:

My lil boys...

My lil girls....

I have become obsessed with sewing! lol I actually enjoy it! Never thought I'ds say that!

House Projects

Brandon has been working so hard on our house to get ready for the babies. He redid the twins closet so now there is a ton more functional space. More places to hang clothes and cubbies to hold supplies! I looooove it! He did an awesome job! I wasn't able to get a before pic but it was just one row of hanging space with a little storage above it. Now it looks like this....

This isn't the greatest photo unfortunately. I asked Brandon to take one and this is what I got! lol This is HALF the closet. The girls half. The other side is the same and as you can tell its got the cubbies in the center, the storage on top, and what you can't see to the right is there are 4 more storage shelves!! So much more functional!!!!! He did this all by himself and he did an amazing job! We are going to do the same thing to Sawyer's but we will do that a little later.

Our front bay window has given us trouble since we moved in. The window leaked so it ruined the drywall around it and even molded the wood framing. Brandon and his dad took that out, cleaned up the wood, put new drywall in, and repainted! It looks perfect! They did such a great job! Here are some photos of that...

The above picture is the mold we found on the wood. Ewww!

The finished product! Looks perfect right?! (Don't mind the weights they were to hold down the new window seal until it was dried).

Our shower is completely fixed and has been for a while. We also got a new shower head with 2 big shower heads and one you can pull down and use and Sawyer LOVES it! He's so cute he loves showers now! Its an awesome shower head! Now we just need to get the twins room completely organized and cleaned up and set up the crib, go through all of our baby things (swings, bouncers, etc) and get rid of what we will use and what we won't, and get our guest bedroom cleaned, organized, and ready for occupancy! Hopefully, Brandon can get that done within the next 3 weeks cause that's all the time we have!

A Lil Charity

Each year my family and I aways say we need to do some sort of charity for Christmas since that is a great part of Christmas but we have never done it until this year! I decided to rally us together and the end result was fantastic I think! I decided that since my brother has volunteered for the Utah Aids Foundation that that would be a great place to do some charity. I got on their website and found that you could donate money, adopt a family, make necessity stockings, or food baskets so I put feelers out and we decided to adopt 2 families, do a food basket or 2, and do some necessity baskets!

We met at my mom's on a Thursday afternoon and brought with us some bathroom necessities that we already had at our home that we had extras of such as: shampoo, tooth paste, tooth brushes, body wash, soap, etc. We didn't have tons so we went to All A Dollar (don't dis cause we were able to get loads of things for little which meant more stuff for others!).

What adopting a family is is a family puts what they need/want most on a card and people get those items for them. For example, one of our families had never had any sort of baking things. No cookie sheets, baking pans, measuring spoons, cups etc so that's what we bought! Then we went a little further and got them stuff to make with their new bake ware like sugar cookies with sprinkles, cupcake mix, cake mixes, cooking spray etc.

Our other family needed some sheets and an alarm clock. Derik was in charge of the sheets and man he bought the really nice like 500+ count sheets! What a lil giver he is! lol We added a few extra things in their basket as well.

Since we were able to get a lot of items at All a Dollar we were able to make quite a few little necessity baskets! We also made a random basket too that had soup, detergent, toilet paper, paper towels and a few other randoms thrown in. Then my brother has a good friend who travels a lot for his business and he always bring home the shampoos, conditioners, lotions, mouthwashes etc. He donated those to us so I made little necessity bags that were just simple but nice. These weren't the crappy kinds of shampoos either. They were nice stuff!! We didn't end up getting done until 11pm. I was beat! It was so much fun though and we felt great after we did it! When my mom and Derik brought all the baskets to the UAF, they were all so excited to see all the stuff we made. Wish I could have been there just to see their faces. Still knowing we helped others has made a great impact on this Christmas Season for me!

Although we all didn't have tons and tons of money to spend we did what we could to help out others. My sister wasn't able to join us for the packaging in person but she was there in spirit and she made a wonderful donation to help us bring some comfort to those in need! I think this will become a Christmas tradition! Helping others.... is there a better tradition?!

Nutrition Or Lack There Of

So I am 13 weeks pregnant and I am STILL sicker than a darn dog. These babies of ours just don't seem to like anything but crap even then they don't like it. Everything healthy that I try to get down (it is hard to eat healthy cause nothing sounds good) always end up in the toilet or on the side of the road. Blah. I am honestly thinking the babies don't want any outside nutrition and just want to suck it from me until there is nothing left of me! lol I have lost 6lbs this pregnancy this far and I am truly hoping I will stop losing and gain maybe a little back for the babies sake. I did learn last night and tonight that they do like steak and A1! I was able to eat that these two nights (and absolutely LOVE it!!) and keep it down! After being able to keep it down last night and enjoying the heck out of it I sent Brandon to the store to get more steaks! I have one for each night of the week!!! Hoo-raw! Just hope I don't run out of A1..... That would be all sorts of bad news.

My next doctor appointment is on the 19th and I can't even wait! The nurse said that if the babies cooperate we could find out what sex they are! How friggin fantastic would that be?! I can't wait to start kind of buying a few little items for them! And if we find out before Thanksgiving I can hopefully find some awesome deals on Black Friday!! Woot Woot! Excitement!

Here is a picture of my growing belly.

I was 12 weeks and 3 days.

This weekend Brandon went through out food storage and got rid of tons and tons of food. What a sad sight that was. It is almost painful to have to just throw away food. Such a waste. Now we are writing everything we have so we will know what we have, when it expires, and when we will need more. While Brandon was doing this I tried to work on the computer room. Finished the filing so we can get rid of our monstrous filing cabinet and hopefully this week we can move the computer downstairs and start working on Sawyer's new big boy room!! That is my goal anyway. I am still looking for him a new bed. I thought I wanted just another toddler bed but think I am going to get him a twin bed since he is almost too big for his toddler bed already but it would work out great to use at grandma's house. Found a headboard but not a bed frame.

On the potty front I feel almost defeated some days. Potty training is tough! I wasn't expecting him to be potty trained over night or anything but I was hoping after a few weeks of repetitive potty going he would start to get the hang of it. Not so much. I still take him to the potty every hour (and I am pretty darn good at doing it every hour not perfect but good) and yet his pull-ups are always wet. Every time. He even still goes #2 in them which is the worst!! I try to watch him so when he does the hiding and grunting I rush him to the toilet but I haven't been able to get him there in time a lot recently. He never tells me he needs to go. When does that kick in? When I first started potty training I just got him some regular big boy underpants but they don't catch anything so he was urinating on the floor.... a lot. So I went to pull-ups. Bad thing about these is I think they make him think he is just in a diaper so it doesn't matter if he goes potty in them. My friend Camie gave me a pair of padded training pants. They are just like regular underpants but have padding in the crotch area so it helps catch the urine so it doesn't get all over. I tried looking for some at the stores but noone seems to sell them so I ordered some online. I am hoping that that helps him to realize going potty in them is a no no. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Kabobs, Cake, & Deck

Wednesday night, I made my first kabobs and they turned out really good! I had to have Brandon run to the store to pick up a few items and I told him to pick up pineapple. I just thought by me saying that he would automatically know to get the canned kind. I was wrong. He bought a real pineapple! It was my fault I'll admit. I should have specified the can. Thankfully, the real pineapple worked out great. Probably better than can the canned I would say. So much more sweet, juicy, and fresh. Cooking the kabobs wasn't the easiest. I wasn't expecting the sticks to burn and break off. That made it a little hard to turn them but I did it with only a few burns! :0) My friend told me that if you soak the sticks in water an hour before cooking them, they will not burn (as much anyway). Good to know! Next time I will do that! Even though the sticks broke off, they were delicious!For dessert I made a Poppy Seed Cake and it was to die for! Making that cake is very dangerous for me! I could eat the whole thing in a day and a half! Sick but so true.

Also, on Tuesday, Max came over to help Brandon fix our falling apart deck! I was so glad. Our deck looks like it could be nice but when you walked out on it, it teetered and felt like it was going to go crashing down at any second. They stabilized everything (which was so scary to watch I had to go inside cause I was afraid the deck would come down and smash Brandon under it.) so now when you walk out on it its strong and there is no longer a teetering feel! Woot! We have to do some cementing underneath the deck just to make sure the dirt doesn't slip out and cause it to become unstable again but we plan on doing that Saturday. I also want to repaint the deck Saturday. I have a lot to get done but I am so glad that its safe! Whew!

Productive Saturday

I did a ton yesterday! Least, I feel like I did. I got up and make a large breakfast, went waking with Tia and we did 100 lunges (my legs are soooo sore today), came home and cleaned up the house a little, painted my mirror that has been sitting in my living room for weeks, changed my oil (yes I did this!), sprayed my house for bugs, helped mow the lawn, and went to our friends house for a little get together. I was exhausted by 8:00 was the only problem. Yes, I am lame. I get tired by 8. I love when I get things done though. I feel great.

Here is my mirror before I painted it:

Here is the after (I still need to do another coat but I ran out of paint):

It turned out really pretty! I am excited to hang it up in my living room!

Fun Pinwheel Project

I was watchin Studio 5 this morning and saw a gal use a pinwheel as a cute decoration see Heartland Paper so I decided I wanted to do that too! It was pretty simple and turned out so cute!

I only had time to make one but think I will make a few more.