Handmade Christmas

Every year I try to give the kids at least one gift I've made myself. I really love doing this for them and look forward to finding new ideas. They seem to really like it to and it's something that's special to them. Usually they get a few "made by Mommy" gifts each year.

I thought I'd share the one I just finished for Ella. (Actually the first one I've made yet, haha). I've always loved Waldorf dolls and thought they were beautiful. I really want to start making them. I may order the dvd's on them since I think they'd be really helpful. If you've never heard of Waldorf dolls you should google them. They're really neat.

So anyway, I decided to take a stab at making a dolly for Ella for Christmas. I learned a lot and think she turned out pretty cute. It's a good thing Ella's only 2 and won't notice any mistakes I made! =P Her dolly. We thought it'd be fun to give her cute, pink hair.

I made her clothes out of one of Ella's shirts. I chose this particular shirt for a few reasons: 1) She received it for a gift for her 1st birthday and it's now a year later. The time went so fast! 2) The shirt was a gift from her Nanny so I hope that will be special for her too. I made the skirt out of some fun fabric I had.

Total cost for the dolly: $0. I made her from things I already had in my craft stash. Doing many different crafts paid off this time! I still need to add a little blush to her face to make some cheeks.

So what do you think? She needs a name. Anyone want to name her? =)

Cell Phones Hate Me

So I am AGAIN without a phone. I don't know what happened. AGAIN. I put the phone down, and when I picked it back up it was off and refused to turn back on. I've tried everything to get it to turn on. Charging it does nothing. Even though it was charged when it "died". I don't know what on Earth could have caused it to do this. Nobody touched it. Everyone was napping (even Jimmie, Lexeigh, and I). When we all woke up it was off. How strange.

I guess I'm going to have to try and get the other phone unlocked and reflashed but that might be expensive. So in the meantime if you need to reach me you can do so here or through paperdaisies04@gmail.com.

Smallish Update and Creepy Ella

I haven't been updating much lately due to the fact that I've been pretty nauseous and exhausted. Early pregnancy is no fun for me. Most people are surprised to hear that I don't enjoy being pregnant. Having more than the average amount of children I guess people just assume I like pregnancy, lol. I can say it's definitely more than worth it but, all in all, I just don't care for the pregnancy part much.

I seem to only get sick when I'm pregnant with girls. I never had morning (afternoon, evening, night) sickness with any of the 3 boys but did with both girls. Maybe that's a sign we're having a girl? Or maybe just a very tricky little fella. =)

It would be great to have a girl so we could continue our nifty "boy-girl-boy-girl" pattern. It would be awesome to have a boy because I've never had children of the same gender back to back before. It's a win-win either way I say!

Lexeigh has a friend up the street whose mom sent this stroller down thinking we might be able to use it. I thought that was nice of her. We already have two strollers though so I let Lexeigh have it to use with her baby dolls. Sometimes she puts her brother in it though, haha. Real babies are more fun!

She is such a great big sister. She's always trying to help the little ones and is never, ever mean or spiteful to them. She's a great little mommy to Quinn.

Ella after her bath the other night. It's finally long enough to make a teeny little baby braid!

Of course by morning it didn't look quite so tidy. =D

Now, I have to add this here: Ella has been pulling this strange, creepy face at people for the last week or two. We're not really sure where she learned it but she points her face downward and stares up with her eyes. She doesn't blink, or talk, or move. It's pretty funny. Especially when she does it for minutes at a time!

Here she is at lunch the other day giving Lexeigh "The Look" across the table...

And then to Jimmie....

And at me tonight before going to bed. It's the funniest thing. Silly girl!

I need to get some pictures of the other two boys. One insists on taking silly photos and one won't stand still long enough for me to get a picture. He usually just ends up as a blur in the side of the photo. You guess which boy is which, haha.

Reece's 4th Birthday

Reece had a great birthday yesterday! I can't believe he's 4 already. On the other hand it seems like he's been with us forever. I can honestly say he's a true joy to have. He's such a funny boy and makes me laugh all the time. He can definitely be a handful and is very spirited as you all well know...but I believe his personality will serve him well. One day. =)


So we went to Toys R Us when and bought him a train table with his birthday money. Marty brought it home and he was so excited! We spent the afternoon putting it together. As soon as it was done Reece promptly collected his cars and tracks and trains and took them to his favorite spots: his bedroom and the windowsill. *Sigh* So we dismantled the train table and took it back. Boo.

This time we took him to the store and let him choose for himself. Now I have to give you a little backstory here...Reece had had a long obsession with the Wizard of Oz. Mainly the Wicked Witch of the West. At first it scared him but he then decided he loved him. (He thinks the witch is a boy haha). So everytime we go to the toy store we have to spend a lot of time at the Barbie display looking at the commemorative Wizard of Oz dolls. EVERY time. Well what do you think he wanted to choose first out of all the thousands of toys available? The Wicked Witch of the West! Marty and I spent the whole time trying to talk him out of the "Barbie" but to no avail. Finally we just decided, "It's his birthday money, let him choose what he wants". So he did. And he's been dragging it around with him ever since.

On the way home he said from the back, "Mommy, the witch said I can hold his broom. He did. He did say that to me."

This is the other, more "normal" toy that he chose.

Reece on the morning of his birthday. The presents in the white bag are from "Ooey Gooey Nanny" haha

For the past year I've been promising this child a Wiggles cake for his 4th birthday. I took a stab at it and this was the result, haha. Oh well, he liked it!


I spent most of naptime getting it ready so I could surprise him when he woke up

It was really hard for the little ones to have to wait until after dinner for that cake though!

I went to get Quinn up from his nap and returned to the kitchen to find this vandalism. I didn't see a soul in sight so I yelled, "Reece Martin!". I heard a little voice from behind the couch in the living room say, "I didn't do it!". I said back, "Didn't do what?!" and his reply was...."Eat my cake. I didn't. I didn't eat my cake Mommy!" Hahaha. They are so easy get the truth from at this age. They give themselves up

See the green icing on his lower lip? Evidence!

I told him it was okay. It was his birthday cake but he had to tell the truth. He said okay and gave me a big smile.

Finally cake time!

Blowing out the candles!




He wanted the red "R" in Reece. He said it was the "Murray" letter. (Murray is the red wiggle and also Reece's favorite wiggle)

His birthday isn't for another 2 weeks but how could we leave him out? He loved the cake too!

Happy Birthday Reecey!




And I just added this pic because it makes me laugh. Babushka Baby!

Our Family Closet and ChorePacks

So here is the promised post of our Laundry Room/Family Closet. I decided to use a family closet because keeping up with laundry was always a challenge for me. Even at my best attempts to fold things right out of the dryer, some distraction would prevent delivery of the items to their various locations around the house and before you knew it we were just grabbing things out of the basket itself. That did not work well.

My second motivation came from a sweet girl who shall remain nameless who likes to change her clothes. A LOT. I don't know why we even bothered with hangers for that child since her room was carpeted in her "floordrobe".

This works out so much better for us and makes it extremely easy to keep up with laundry. Everything to be put away is right there in the room that it gets washed in. Except for towels, blankets, and sheets which go in the linen closet.
Here is what you see as you enter the laundry room. To the left in the picture is another door that leads to the garage.

Next to the washer and dryer is where we have our changing station. Love this. We use it to house both our current rotation of cloth diapers and disposables.

If you turn right at the changing table you will see our "Family Closet". Hanging garments to the left. Each person's section is labeled with their own divider which makes it easy to hang things up and grab someone an outfit when needed. The dresser is for the kids. Everyone has their own except for the little boys who share one. In their drawers they keep pj's, knickers, and socks.

Above the dresser are where Marty and I keep our pants, tshirts, pj's, etc.

To the right on the long shelf is where we keep the kids' "folding clothes". Bottoms (pants and shorts for the boys, pants and skirts for the girls) and tshirts. Each person has a section from youngest to oldest. One pile for bottoms, one for tops. Under that shelf is all of Marty's uniforms and pt stuff and a basket for each Marty and I. Knickers, socks, etc.

On the ground is a blue tub for boys clothes that have been sorted and are waiting to be grown into. Same thing for the purple tub for the girls.

Closer pic of the hanging rod Marty installed. The kids also have their own color of hanger to make things easier as well.

Quinn: Light Blue

Ella: White

Reece: Dark Blue

Lexeigh: Pink

Jimmie: Red

Marty and I: White adult hangers

The dresser and parent shelves

The kids folded clothing

This is just a view from the family closet area. See that ice cream container on the dryer? That's where I keep my homemade laundry soap. It works great and equals out to about a penny a load!





Now onto our ChorePack system. I posted this pic a little while back of the kids chore packs. I've taken some other pictures to better explain how they work. (The Chorepacks, not the kids. Haha)

Here are their chorepacks. From left to right: Jimmie, Lexeigh, Reece. Each morning they put on their chorepack and follow them starting with card 1. When that chore is complete the slide it into the back. Then when they reach card 1 again they know that pack is finished. They have a pack for after lunch and after dinner as well.






These are Jimmie's chores for the morning. After card number 5 we have breakfast and they finish the rest of their morning chorepack afterwards.

Jimmie's after lunch pack. They both have "clear hallway" as mumber 3 so they can work on that together.

Jimmie's evening pack

Lexeigh's morning pack

Lexeigh's after lunch pack







Lexeigh's evening pack

Reece's morning chorepack. These are just basics to get him used to following directions and learning to be responsible for expected actions without reminding. He does have other small chores in the day to help with such as feeding the dog or putting the silverware away.




These are the chores that the kids do once weekly.

That's a pretty basic rundown of how the chorepacks work. While the kids are doing their packs in the morning I am usually working on laundry and working along side them to help them get things done. Our goal is to have them be able to complete their tasks efficiently without help and in an appropriate amount of time. That takes a lot of work! They are good about helping and are definitely a blessing to me around the house. They are my biggest helpers. =)

I will also be posting Reece's birthday pictures soon. Maybe tonight but probably tomorrow. I have a few pictures left to upload of him blowing out his candles that I didn't want to leave out. Thank you for all the cards! He was very excited to get them and I have pictures of some of the presents he bought with his birthday money. I hope everyone had a great weekend. Love and miss you all.

Thinking of You Today Stacy Leigh

Happy Birthday sweet Stacy. You're missed everyday angel girl.

House Pictures

So here are a few pictures of the house. I didn't include pictures of the sewing/computer room yet because it isn't finished. I also didn't include pictures of my bedroom yet because really, there's nothing in it, haha. The pictures I posted of our recycled night stands show pretty much all there is. I have plans for those rooms though. Oh yes, big plans. So I will post update with pictures when they are complete.

Our house at the moment looks pretty sparse and I have to say we LOVE it that way. It's such a refreshing change from where we just came from. We had an overload of possessions. Clothes from years back, things people didn't wear, toys, etc. When we moved here we reduced our "stuff" by at least 50% if not 60%-70%. It was a blessing in disguise that we were sent that smaller than expected Pod. It really forced us to evaluate what we truly needed.

Having the house sparse the way it is also makes it MUCH easier to clean and keep clean. We can get the whole house clean and presentable top to bottom in about an hour. It's great! So without further ado....



First, we have the corner bookshelf in the entryway as you enter the house. Notice there aren't any pictures after the first 3 shelves. Little hands like shiny things and faces. =)



Here is the left half of the living room.

And the right half where the kids play. We used to have the big dollhouse against the other wall along with a basket of toys but when I realized they weren't being played with as much off they went. I'm afraid of clutter now...

Here are the things they play with most often. The armoire on the right houses things they use daily and we keep a lock on it to prevent toys from being scattered all over the house. They have to come to me when they want something new to play with and also have to show me they cleaned up the toys they were playing with first. This has been working really well for us.

Puzzles, clippos, and other things in tubs. Play food, dollhouse furniture, wooden blocks, cars, railroad tracks, play-doh, etc. I've taken pictures of each tubs contents so that I can put them on the front to make putting things away easier. Maybe I'll print those out today.

Another random shot of the living room from the play area

Jimmie's bed. I still need to get a picture of the rest of his room. He has a cubicle to the right with his books, toys, etc. and a closet to the right of that.





This is the best shot I could get of the girls room. They have their pink cubicle and tv (which is really Jimmie's since the girls' princess tv is in the living room right now) and some other toys along the wall to the right.

Girls bed. They really love this bunk! We plan to get a red or blue one for the little boys when Quinn grows out of his crib.

Reece's side of the little boys room





And Quinn's side. I haven't put up any of their cowboy decor yet but will post pictures of that when I do. Of course!

The bathroom is just a bathroom and pretty boring. But here it is nontheless. The shower and tub are to the left in the picture.




The kitchen. Pretty plain but I love the uncluttered-ness.

Hanging in the kitchen in the entryway to the laundry room, across from the pantry, are the kids chorepacks. Jimmie is red, Lexeigh white, Reece blue. Reece does not have multiple chore packs yet and his are pretty basic and simple. Once daily they do a "weekly chore" which is posted above their chorepacks. They have 3 chorepacks per day. I plan on making a separate post about their chorepacks and how they work for anyone interested.





Here is our dining room. It was hard to get an accurate picture of this room. It seemed a lot bigger until we put our big table in there, haha. But we're grateful we have a place to eat together that a) we can all sit together and b) is NOT in the living room!

So there you have it. Most of our home ;). I didn't think anyone would really care about the garage or backyard or linen closet or whatnot. I'm going to make a separate post for the laundry room because we also use it as a "Family Closet" which I love. I thought that deserved it's own special post. =)