Pumpkin Blocks

The blocks, i actually didn't even have to cut them they were just some scraps on my back porch.

Makayla wanted her picture taken also :)

The finished product, really super easy!

I also made some washable nursing pads today. I used one flannel receiving blanket and a little less then half of a fleece blanket, both of which were hand-me-downs and had seen better days but i think work great re purposed as nursing pads. I used a disposable nursing pad as a guide and also made some bigger ones too. What i did was cut 3 circles of the flannel and one circle of the fleece and then cut a line to the center of the top and bottom pieces, overlapped them to give it more of a contour and stitched them all together with a zig-zag stitch around the edge. the flannel goes on the inside and the fleece faces the outside toward the bra. Supposedly the fleece is going to keep moisture away from the bra so we'll See how well they work come November.

my seven sets of nursing pads i was able to get out of one receiving blanket. If they turn out to be a good thing I'll cut apart another receiving blanket and make more so I'll have a weeks worth but this i guess should at least be 3 days worth... time will tell, I'm kinda a cow and produce a ton of milk so it may be less than that.

My To-do list

I have several projects I'd like to attempt in the near future and tonight i finally read up on one of them. I plan on nursing this baby but being frugal and hating how much i spend on nursing pads, i want to make my own. I read several articles on how it should be done and i think that now is the best time to experiment and to find the best way to make them without them being super obvious when i wear shirts (which i happen to do on a daily basis). The next thing I'd like to do is also nursing related, i want to make a nursing shield (i think that is what it is called) basically something that covers me up better than a blanket being held up by my chin. I think it will be simple enough we'll see.. Also i have a poor amount of Halloween decorations so i want to make some and i saw the simplest looking square pumpkins on a blog that were basically 2x4's cut at various lengths and painted orange with a stem hot glued on top and a ribbon tied around the stem and then sanded for a worn look. Oh and i also saw a tree branch that was spray painted black with treat bags tied onto the little limbs it was in a square box with beans as the filler also painted black. So I'll show you my progress with some pics and you can tell me what you think. If you guys have any cute ideas for fall or Halloween crafts I'm open to suggestions.

Spirituality Gibberish, basicly whats on my mind at the moment

So i have a ticket to the General Relief Society Conference address this coming Saturday and I'm kinda excited, I'm hoping that i can find someone to carpool on down with me. I feel like i pull so much more from Conference now then i ever did growing up. I'm far more inspired to do better and to work on things that i haven't thought too much about. I don't know if its just because i have a child and i know that I have a huge influence on whether my children grow up to be happy productive loved individuals. I don't even remember learning so much from conference when i was only married with just me and Jared, so maybe it is the kids that are a big factor. I also think that not having control over the financial down fall and feeling pretty powerless in changing how things are has helped me have the desire to learn more spiritually and try to become a better person because it is something i do have control over. Sometimes when I'm teaching the young women in our ward i think, man i don't know that they can understand the importance or the weight of the topic being taught, I'm barely learning it myself. I guess its a good thing that you gain more sense and wisdom throughout the years, although i haven't been in school for several years now I think that I'm smarter then i was when i was in school maybe its because i am married and I have more then just boys and how to look better on my mind. In high school i think i just did the bare minimum to get a passing grade and never really cared to learn what was being taught, only on occasion was there a class that actually meant something to me and i found the value of what was being taught. (I think the teacher had a lot to do with that). Going back to listening to conference, its pretty unfortunate that it has taken me so long to gain a desire to learn how to be better when there are daily opportunities to help others be happy, productive, loved individuals and it shouldn't take raising kids to make you want to change. I guess better late then never.

Having a party

Hey I'm having a Pie Party at my house on Friday, if you read this your invited too :) it starts at 7 and will go till 10:30 or later, you don't have to be on time its a come when you can and stay as long as you like party. We'll be having pie and ice cream, bring your favorite pie or ice cream. Bring your spouse or a date or come by yourself or with a friend, if you want to bring your kids great if you want to leave them home great. So far the weather looks like it will be good so it maybe in the backyard but i may change my mind and have it inside so we'll see. If you have questions ask me. So you should come and eat pie and laugh. See you there!

How its going and some pics

We went to the park the other day with pearl and i snapped some pictures. Jared's job is going good so far, he seems to like it and he doesn't mind riding his bike to work so that's good too. The other day he was in a drawing at work and he won a PS3 with a blue tooth, as cool as that sounds I hate the idea of competing with the PS3 again.

I've started a sketch of the bountiful temple that i plan on painting for my living room, its gonna take me forever but it will be a fun project so hopefully i wont get burned out before its finished. I can't believe how big i am getting and i still have 2 and a half months to go, this baby is gonna be a big pumpkin. My little brother Zach has almost been out on his mission for a full year, man i miss him so bad and i cant wait till he gets home. My cousin Kory is leaving on Tuesday for his south Africa mission. It would be so cool for them to meet up while out there, I'm really excited for Kory and to hear what he thinks about Africa. So that's the brief update, we've been busting out butts out in the backyard so when i get a minute I'll take some pics and you can see all of our "work".

A return to normalcy

So tomorrow is Jared's first day of work at teleperformance, I'm thrilled because I can get back to my normal routine. Its hard to have him home for long periods of time because hardly any of the normal housework gets done and so I get far behind and stressed out about it all. I stopped trying to potty train makayla because it just was too much to have Jared home and try to simplify my day to keeping a close eye on her and not go crazy over having a messy house. I think I'll try to train her again once a regular routine has established itself again. Today was a good day though (i rate my days on what gets accomplished), Jared and my brother Coleton tilled half of the back yard (the half that isn't grass) and we picked up some stepping stones with some late birthday money I got from my in laws. So now all we have to do is remove the big rocks and rake the soil smooth then wait for early fall (Sept. 21 or so I'm told :) to plant some grass seed and hope and pray it takes. I'll have to take some pictures of the progress.