Ohhhh, the Joys of a Mom.....

All this after opening up an orange cream yogurt....

Koen: Mom, I don't like this one.

Me: Just try it. It'll be something new and exciting.

Koen: But I like the green bikini kind, it's more better.

Me: It's called "key lime."

Dan: I like the bikini kind too, Koen.

(Dan can't stand yogurt. Perhaps if there really was a "bikini" flavor he'd be willing to try that one.)

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Tucking Koen into bed:

Me: Goodnight, love you bud.

Koen: Goodnight. Love you idiot.

Me: What!?! Where did you hear that word? Do you even know what "idiot" is?

We then had a short talk on using nice words and words that you know the definition. Wow. Idiot. His term of endearment. Melts my heart.

Made with Love

Three of my favorite gift ideas that have just been waiting to be released: apron, reading pillow, and marble bag. First the apron. I shamefully do not have a picture of one right now and so the professionally sewn minus the blood, sweat, and tears is pictured below. My care-free 5 year old niece just got the latest edition and it's all the rave. It's plain red with red and white candy striped straps, pocket and ruffle. I toss in a cake mix, frosting, sprinkles, etc. Little kiddos love it! The apron is used as store clerk attire, dog washing day or whatever else they are pretending at the time. The cake mix is something fun to do after the birthday hoopla is all over. (The pocket is a must have. What kid doesn't like to stuff random trinkets to save and relish?)This next gift I stole from the YW presidency. They made a pillow with a pocket that was sized to fit a Book of Mormon. The purpose of the pillow was to have it on the YW's beds to help them remember to study the scriptures. So, my little brain started turning and figured a beginner reader would love this as well. Daradie loves helping me pick out material for her friends and then she helps me stuff with batting (is that the right word?). I just barely made Daradie one last night when she kept feeling bad that she hadn't received one yet. Pretty simple: scraps of material (yellow in back is leftover fleece from scarves), sew the pocket on before you stuff, and the last minute star was because I didn't have any pink and purple material and that's what she wanted so I cut out a star from felt and quickly sewed that on. Great gift idea for 8 year olds and a Book of Mormon, friends with a Junie B. or American Girl book, or even for those teens. Make the pillow however big you want.

Koen is into marbles. You'll have to read the post below. I've been pumping out some marble bags for gifts for the boys around town. Sew a miniature pillow case, make a casing and feed some string through. Presto! Quick and easy gifts made with love.

Lost Our Marbles

Dan decided to teach our kids about the good ole days. He bought them a bag of marbles. Which, by the way, is quite hard to find these days. Most Target-ish/Walmart-ish stores do not carry them but we discovered them at the faithful King's. (I know. Most of you don't even know what that store is but is used to be a department store, like today's Target/Walmart. In fact, my mother use to be a model for their clothing line. Go Linda!) Our kids love the game! Their favorite game is played as so: 1. tape off line on carpet, 2. scatter marbles near the line, 3. each player gets one turn to roll their marble (use the second largest size silver marble to push other marbles across the line) and see how many marbles they can push across the designated line, however many marbles is pushed across the line that particular player gets to keep them, 4. player with the most marbles at the end of the game wins.

That's just us after the FHE which reminded me I needed to share this awesomely fun idea with the world. And it doesn't hurt to throw in those sugar cookies with the disgustingly huge amount of frosting on top with the sprinkles to sweeten up the night.