Aaron's Bible Cover

A couple of months ago, Aaron was telling how worn his Bible was getting and asked if he could get a Bible cover.  He then asked me if I could make one.  I told him that I thought it was out of the realm of my skills.  However, after thinking about it for a few days and looking up some online tutorials, I found one that I thought I was capable completing.  I didn't tell Aaron about it but decided to surprise him for our anniversary.  Here is the tutorial I used.

The finished project (I tried multiple times to rotate the images but I just can't for some reason):

Inside of the cover

I asked Aaron how he liked it and I told him that he could be honest.  He said that he absolutely loved it but he except for the straps.  He thought they made it look too much like a purse and he did have a point.  Two months later, I finally got around to fixing the problem for him.  Taking them off would ruin the faux leather so I just sewing them down on the inside and cut off the extra.

Updated cover

A Quick Baby Update - birthday edition

Even though I may not have actually updated my blog much in recent times, I've written several blog posts in my head.  The main problem is that my computer time is usually limited to nursing sessions which means that I only have one hand to type with.  As of right now, both of my babies are sleeping.  I should be cleaning or sanding down a chair but I thought I'd take a quick second and right about my children.  

My big girl is officially 2!  We've celebrated her birthday a whopping 3 times.  I saw a version of a butterfly cake on pinterest and decided to give it a try.  She was super excited about for at least a week before her birthday.  Let me just say that attempting to make a cake gives me a new appreciation for those people who actually have cake decorating skills.  I would never get hired at a bakery.  

She loves to sing happy birthday but started to cry when everybody sang to her.  She also started to cry when I told her to blow out the candles so I ended up doing it for her.  

I've started encouraging her to help me in the kitchen from time to time.  This is her helping me make birthday cake #2. 

Even though we don't really encourage her to think of herself as a princess and the only princess movie she's seen is part of frozen, she is such a princessy sort of girl.  This is her in her new chair with her new dress hanging with daddy who is spoiling her by bringing 20 books outside for her to read while he grills.  

 Kira shares her birthday with my good friend Jennifer so we invited them over on their shared birthday for grilled pizza and cake.  And yes she started crying when we sang to her.

The scoop on my little K-baby:

• Weighs approximately 25 lbs.  
• Can speak in complete sentences. 
• Loves songs and asks me to sing them all day long.  She can sing the Doxology, the first verse of Amazing Grace and several kids songs. 
• Her aunts have recently taught her to "dance" which is her new favorite activity. 
• She still loves to read books and she has also discovered the joy of puzzles. 
• Some of her favorite foods are tomatoes, black olives and all kinds of fruit. 
• She knows her colors and can count up to 11 correctly and knows some of the teen numbers as well. 

Baby #2 update:

He is growing so much!  I feel like we might finally be getting on a night-time schedule though now that I write that he'll probably completely change it up.  He wakes up around 2, 4-5 and 6-7.  

He has also mastered the art of smiling and making baby noises other than grunting which he has done constantly since birth.  He sleeps most of the day.  

We think he weighs over 10 lbs.  The proof is in the double chin.  

Time to go enjoy some alone time before they both wake up!

Life With Two

So far we are surviving but I don't have much time to blog because my hands are always full...literally and literally.  I have plenty of time to read other people's blogs one-handed but typing out posts is low priority at the moment.  So here is a quick check-in 3 weeks post baby.
Just yesterday I was thinking about how my current mommy dream is sleeping for 4 straight hours and having the 2 year-old poop on the potty instead of in her diapers.  Today, both of those dreams came true!!!!!
Will slept for 4 straight hours last night for the first time.  Miracle of miracles!  It was just as fantastic as it sounds.
As far as the pooping goes, we've been talking about going on the potty with Kira for several months now.  We finally invested in a little potty chair.  While I've encouraged her to try the potty out, I have never made her sit on it. In the past couple of days, she has asked to sit on it about once a day.  On Wednesday, she managed to go number one and today she managed to go number two.  If you aren't a parent and are reading this, this probably means nothing to you.  If you are a parent, than you realize that having your child go on the potty after two straight years of changing tons of dirty diapers every day is a HUGE deal.  We've invested in the big girl panties and we'll hopefully start potty training for real on Monday.  If it turns out to be too stressful, we'll just call it quits and try again in a couple of months.  After all, Kira won't even be two for a couple of weeks yet so it is a little on the early side.  I would probably wait longer if it wasn't for her recent successes.
Otherwise, my life is rather boring.  Each day I set super low expectations and usually manage to meet them.  My goals for the day are super simple such as make my bed, do one load of laundry, take a shower, make dinner and do the dishes.  If I accomplish those simple things, I feel successful.  Lately, I've been trying to work in a walk or some simple stomach reducing exercises though nothing too hard core.
Some days I'm lucky that the kids actually have clean clothes to wear and other days I have fun dressing them up like little dolls.  This past Sunday I had fun dressing them up and even got to do a big girl hairstyle.

My main food obsession this summer is roasted summer veggies.  Cut up some squash, zucchini, onions, peppers and tomatoes and toss them in some olive oil and seasonings. Then throw them in the over at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally.  So amazingly yummy!  Yummier yet is to throw said roasted veggies on some grilled pizza. To die for.  The day we had it Aaron asked me to make it again the next night.  Yes, it seriously was that good.