the joy of pinterest and new kicks

I really heart pinterest.

I like that when I am nursing, I have something to look at... it might look like I pin a lot... and I probably do, but I only do it when Quincy is eating. :)

I think pinning for pinning sake is a waste of time. Really? I pin a lot of things I would like in a future home, and maybe one day I will have it, but most likely I won't. Am I going to craft ALL those things? No, and who has the money for that anyway...

It is kinda like craft blogs... do you really put all that junk up in your house that you make? Or do you just craft it for blog sake and then throw it away? Some of these craft bloggers have to be Hoarders. For sure.

Anyways, off on a soapbox...

I do love pinterest. 

We talked at a Girls Night on Friday, that we shouldn't "just pin"... so I have created a DONE IT! board, to show myself that I actually have done some of the things I pin.

The best part of pinterest though?

That my mom sees what I like and randomly sends me/kids packages with cute things like these new kicks for Quincy.

Then? I get to go to pinterest and repin something into my DONE IT board without actually doing it.

It is seriously the way to go! 

Thanks mom!

Other things I have been able to put in my DONE IT! Board...

S'more hand pies...

um, yes make them this weekend!

Easy and delicious!

I tried to take a picture of mine, but it doesn't do them justice. 

Photo/recipe credit.

and these which I have talked about...

Carmelitas.

oh, mamacita... make them this weekend too!

Photo/recipe credit.

To sum up. 

There are lots of great ideas out there on pinterest. 

A lot of bad ideas, and a lot of wasted time....

But, these desserts were not wasted calories, and MOM keep making things I pin.

I love it!

no rain=adventures

We have had a couple really pretty, but cold days...
and we have tried to take advantage.

1. Late night movies in our teepee with friends.

2. Walking downtown Salem.

3. Quincy falling asleep in her stroller during a walk.

4. The greatest antique store! I found a door I want!

5. Snow shoeing in the library kids discovery room.

6. Juicing lemons for dinner.

7. Finding cool alleys to take family pictures.

8.  Starting the birth month celebrations a few days early!

9. Pretending to be Vikings in the kids discovery room at the library.

Now you wanna come, right?

At 2 months Miss Q has more facial expressions...

than Kristen Stewart...

At two months, she is a very expressive little girl.

Here is the proof...

Here is Kristen Stewart in EVERY expression...

Her 2 month stats as of yesterday, January 24, 2012...

Weight: 9 lbs 15 ozs ... 24%

Height: 22 inches ... 25%

Head Circ: 39 cm ... 54%

(She is skinny, kinda short, and really SMART. That is basically what that means. :) hehe)

We love her. She is an easy baby. She sleeps ALOT, and can put herself to sleep. 

She put herself on her own schedule, which luckily for me is JUST the schedule I wanted for her.

She must have read Baby Wise. She whimpers at 9 ish, and I swaddle her, and she falls right to sleep, and sleeps until 12. She wakes up and hangs with us for awhile, Merrick and Berkleigh play with her, we try and make her smile, and then she whimpers again around 1:30-2:00 ish, and she gets swaddled and falls back asleep until 5 ish.

She sleeps about 9 hours at night. I can't complain. We are getting there. She wakes up at 5 ish, but I wonder if Tyson wasn't leaving for the gym at that time, if she would sleep longer.

She likes to be on the floor kicking her legs, but after awhile she lets you know she wants some love.

She gives smiles all the time, she coos like a champ, and her strawberry blonde hair is starting to grow, and blue eyes are still blue. I know they can change. Berkleigh's changed at a little over a year, but neither Merrick or Berkleigh had this blue of eyes, and they weren't as fair skinned, or light haired as she is.

Can't wait to see!

bed bugs

I am loving pictures of my bugs all cozy on my bed. They looks so cute, and like they love each other all the time and never fight... I will let you believe that that is true.

This little snuggly wuggly loves being nestled right up next to our Euro pillows...

rain rain

Remember this cutie?

Here he is now.

Death by rain.

Lots of rain.

Lots of Salem is closed due to flooding.

Our poor snowman, myself, and the rest of Salem would like the rain to stop.
We have been stuck in our house, not that it hasn't been nice. We have read lots of books, played games, made yummy treats and stayed in our jammies for a couple of days...

Yesterday we painted. I had wanted to kinda recreate something I saw on pinterest for V-day.
So the twins watercolored too.

Merrick and Berkleigh found an unfinished still life. I probably stopped it cause it wasn't good. If you are reading Laura, don't look to close. I will be embarrassed. hehe

Anyways, Merrick and Berkleigh tried to repaint it on their own...
I like theirs better than mine.

We had lots of fun painting together. I need to whip out the paints more cause it was super fun.

handmade Christmas

I love making things for my loves. It is one of my love languages I think. I made a couple things this Christmas, and I was surprised I even got them done with a newborn hanging around our house, but Miss Q is such a great sleeper (during the day) that I was able to get them done!

I made Merrick a Dinosaur Tail...

{tutorial found here}

Berkleigh has wanted a doll bed for awhile. I finally found one at IKEA for cheap.

Three cheers for IKEA! hehe 

I painted the bed, and made the bedding.

I started the pillow awhile ago. Berkleigh wrote her name super cute at preschool one day, and I always wanted to remember it like that. The E's are to cute... So I traced it, and stitched it on some muslin.

Then I turned it into the pillow and left it unstuffed for 6 months... (lazy)

So.. I finally finished it!

Then I whipped out a quick quilt and she was ecstatic!

I made our stockings! I have been wanting to make stockings like this for SO long, but I just haven't done it. My mom helped me whip up a pattern (she drew the sock) and then taught me how to quilt my own red fabric cause I didn't like the quilted red at the fabric store. (So like me, but I wanted them to be perfectly how I saw them in my head)

And they are, and I love them!

I am proud of myself. I did piping for the first time! I quilted my fabric for the first time! I thought up this little stocking in my head with the help of some random picture online, where the stockings weren't even featured but just barely seen in the back of the photo, and then I added my own personality too them.
They make me smile, and I am so excited to have 5 stockings for each person in our family!
No more fuzzy grocery store stockings for Merrick and Berkleigh!

This is a HUGE thing off my to do list!
Makes me so happy... I might just keep them up for a little while!

Bridges of Marion County

Apparently Oregon has lots of covered bridges.

I thought it was just an East Coast thing, but there are quite a few in Oregon.

We went to one on Saturday before the big Snow dump of 2012.

(Doesn't that sound like a lot of snow? It really wasn't but it sounds good.)

It was a beautiful bridge and I just keep thinking how many fun places you could have photo shoots in Oregon. This being one of them, and then when we walked into the bridge, someone was having their senior pictures taken...

Right next to the glamorous covered bridge was the poor sad mossy one. 

Who decides what bridges are covered and which are not? :)

And you can't just go to a covered bridge and expect two 4 year olds to be happy about it... 

Luckily for us, there was a park Right next door.

With one of these bad boys...

I didn't go near the Merry Go Round. I fell off one and got stitches under my eye when I was 4, but it didn't stop my other three kids...

They don't look like they are going fast, but they are going this fast:

And that was our adventure for Saturday!

randomness

On Sunday morning I picked out our clothes for church (after our snow day) and realized I dress all of us in purple. What does that mean in mood ring language? Cause that is how I must have been feeling.

Quincy is so yummy in this dress, and she looks just like Berkleigh.

Guess who is growing up and becoming a big girl.

She just sat in that bumbo while I made dinner.

Bumbos were made in heaven, I am sure of it.

And doesn't she look like she has cankles?

It is just too cold here for her not to be wearing socks, but she is too small for her socks to stay on...

so we resort to functionality over style. 

Could it really be the 16th and we just had our Time Capsule FHE?

Tonight we opened our time capsule from 2011, read what we wrote, had a good laugh and wrote this years Time Capsule papers. Seal the bad boy up and we are good until 2013.

Somethings did not change:

Berkleigh is still obsessed with Rapunzel.

Merrick still LOVES transformers and dinosaurs, BUT somethings changed A LOT...

How Merrick and Berkleigh write there name CHANGED a ton. I know it had, but putting them next to each other was really cool for them!

And their drawings have changed. I love that their people now have bodies not just legs coming out of their heads.

And the surprise of the night, was what I wrote on my sheet under: "What do I want to be doing this time next year?" 

My answer: 

"I want to be pregnant or bouncing a baby on my knee!"

YES, ACCOMPLISHED!

For our FHE dessert, I made these:

Uh, to die for. Literally, you could die

1/2 C Heavy whipping cream

3/4 C brown sugar

3/4 C butter

bag of chocolate chips

32 caramels melted down...

But worth every single calorie. Please make them, eat one, and share with someone, cause you will have clogged arteries fo sho from eating these. 

So after eating those delicious Carmelitas we had to have a dance party...

Merrick the robot and Berkleigh the dancer. 

She seriously cracks me up.

I videoed it on Tyson's phone. 

I will bless you with that video tomorrow.

Can't wait!

All BEFORE 10 in the morning...

When it snows, build a snowman...

Don't mind our amazing snow clothes! Remember we just moved from the sunniest place on earth.

(PS. Grandmas, Merrick and Berkleigh do have socks on under those broken rain boots.)

and maybe have a snowball fight...

and try to catch a snowflake on your tongue...

and a little sledding (on a snowboard)...

and then come in and have some hot chocolate...

All BEFORE 10 in the morning!