Happy Birthday Gracie!

Four years ago today I ventured out into a frigid winter day and met this:Grace D'Lee. As I held you I knew you were bound for great things. Truth be known, I hogged you all to myself a lot your first day on the "outside". I loved you instantly as only an Auntie could. Being an Auntie is one of my favoritist things ever (just ask Kelli!). I was so sad as I drove away to attend my pumpjacks and compressor. But I did get to come back and stay with you a bit later.

We've had our differences, mostly involving bodily fluids in my germaphobic atmosphere, but what's a little pee/barf between Aunties and Nieces? Don't answer that, Kelli. Anyway.

It doesn't seem like four years have passed by already, but sure enough they have. You are our blonde beauty, our wild child. Our lives haven't been the same for four years.

Don't change a thing, kid. We love you enormously.

Happy 4th Birthday Grace!

(Photo credit to Nana)

Items I've Been Working On

These are some of my favorite things I've been working on. I found a cool cupcake pattern on youtube (watched a video to learn how to make it) and this is the result:I didn't like some of the pattern so I tweaked it and put my own twist on some of the cupcake. It can be used as an air-freshener or play food. For the air-freshener you just put some of your favorite scented stuff inside it before you stitch it up. Cailin insists that this one is hers and makes sure it's in her bed at night. Youtube has been wonderful for getting ideas. I can't read patterns so I don't use them.

These slippers remind me so much of GramE and GG (my grandmothers). They are made out of 100% cotton yarn and are soft and not too hot like normal slippers. Plus you can just throw them in the washer. I made up the pattern myself. I looked online at pictures and combined things I liked from several different crocheted slippers I found.
I found another site with hats I love, and they have these little bumps all over them. I again turned to the internet and found out what they're called (popcorn stitch) and got some inspiration from a viewing of a fairly gnarly kids' show. As an aside, drugs are apparently involved in dreaming up children's television these days. Just sayin'. Anyways. After a single episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, I made this hat:
The bumps are totally creepy. It was weird making that hat, but fun.

Ah, one of my bestsellers, the Rainbow Sock Monkey:
That's just a really fun hat. Cailin claimed it of course. She now has many, many hats.

My Fan page on Facebook is here.

My website is here. Check them out! I recently re-did the entire website :)

Heh. This Blog Thing Again.

We had a really nice Christmas. Cailin played with her cousins and had a great time. Of course it went much faster than we would have liked, but isn't that how it always goes? I swear time speeds up the older I get.

Grace got a cool suitcase on wheels and this happened a lot:
We did Christmas day at GG and Papa Ray's house in Tumbler. Carter is quite enamoured of his great-grandparents.
Carter is getting so big. He's bordering on the 20lb mark according to our highly technological home scale. He's still very relaxed (ie a bit floppy) and needs help sitting up. These kids spend a lot of time snuggling on the couch together. Here they are just after Christmas:
Oh, we celebrated our own quiet Christmas too. On Christmas Eve morning we put out all the presents under the tree and waited for Cailin to get up. She was amazed to see that Santa had come. True to form, she didn't need any explaining or prompting. She simply walked up to the tree and started to rip and tear.
She had a great time and spent the rest of the morning pushing Elmo around in her new dump truck. Carter slept through the whole thing.

So Christmas was over a month ago, but Cailin is still talking about it. She tells us she wants to see Santa all the time and talks about opening presents. She still wants me to sing Christmas songs to her at night, her favorites are Santa Claus is Coming to Town and of course, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

The month since Christmas has passed by in a blur. Carter is really enjoying his solid foods now, especially peaches and apple sauce. He's sleeping extremely well through the night. I set up his crib in his big boy room and he's been napping in there when he's able to. It's kind of hard to get any shut eye when Cailin's awake though. Just sayin'.

Cailin has been talking up a storm and learning in leaps and bounds. Literally. We're bordering on our 10th gymnastics session and she's loving it. Her motor skills are amazing! She holds my hand less and less as she learns how to do moves/skills herself. And her talking. Good grief she amazes me every single day with new words she's learning. Not all of them are good either (ahem, Nana!).

Recently we've all been recovering from a nasty little flu/cold bug. So far Ryan has escaped the worst of it. Might have something to do with the Cold-FX pills he's been chewing like candy or the fact that he's slathering himself in hand sanitizer every chance he gets. Whatever he's doing, it's working. I was out of commission for two days and now poor Cailin is really suffering. Carter has the sniffles and is congested but seems to be fairing better than us girls are.

Currently my living room has been upended to build a fort. Our couch is the perfect fort building couch. To placate a cranky Cailin, I showed her how to remove the cushions and make bridges, slides and tunnels. Now we're lucky to have a cushion left over to sit on at any given moment.

And hats (& more)! My business is really taking off. I thought the rush would be over after Christmas, but I'm still getting new orders every day. I'm swamped in them. I'm exploring new avenues to sell them, namely Farmer's Markets in the area, but unfortunately time is an issue. I can't commit to every single weekend. I am toying with selling them out of my house, but don't have an area to display them yet. Plus there's the issue of having to keep the house clean at all times while waiting for customers to show up. I'll figure it out yet.

Cailin Says

Life is definitely interesting with a crazy two year old around. She's starting to say and do some pretty hilarious things .... on purpose. With intention to be funny.

In the car yesterday:

C: Do it mommy! DO IT! (Rev the car up)

M: Sorry, it's too icy, and mommy's car doesn't do that.

C: Daddy did it.

M: Daddy revved the car?

C: Yep.

M: Oh really.

C: Yep. Do it mommy! DO IT! Daddy did it!

(Daddy insists he didn't. I'm not too sure.)

Walking by the diaper pail (gah, I know)

C: Ew! There's poopy in there! It's stinky in there! P.U.! (Waves hand in front of face)

She also insists that all the pillows and covers on our bed need to take up residence on the floor - several times a day. If I put anything back on the bed, my actions are met with an irate toddler staring at me. Who then waits until I leave the room to tear everything off the bed and toss it all on the floor anyway. I vacuumed an entire bag of dog hair off that floor yesterday so we should be good to have everything on the floor now. Gross.

She blames her farts on other people now too. Even if they are not present. She insists that it's Bailey who soils her diapers and not her. When she burps (which is as often as she can manage) she yells, " 'SCUZE ME!" and laughs like a lunatic. I'm kind of a fan of potty humor myself so there's not a lot of discipline there (sorry Auntie Hedder).

I think Santa is going to give her a little leeway since she is only two, but next year I have a feeling he's going to be sending an Elf our way to keep an eye on things.

Why I Need an Elf on MY Shelf

Santa accidentally sent a gift to the post office for me instead of to the North Pole. I was surprised to get the notice in the mailbox, but warmed up the car and brushed snow off it to make the trek to the post office to pick it up. Wouldn't want to inconvenience Santa by making him do extra work.

The lady was surprised to see me pick up a gift clearly marked for Santa, but since the address matched my ID, she let me take it home.
Where my curiosity got the better of me. Who would know if I peeked before Christmas? Santa made a terrible mistake of not sending an Elf to our house to sit on the shelf and watch goings-on. Or, perhaps he didn't since Cailin clearly doesn't need an Elf to watch her. Okay, maybe she does. At any rate, we don't have an Elf, therefore, no one would be able to tell on me if I did peek.
Just a little slice here in the tape.... No one's looking...
Just a little peek in the box. Oops, there's some paper in the way...
We'll just move that out of the road a bit there.... No one's going to be the wiser...
OOOOOHHHH!!! LOOKEEE!
A scoop coffee pot just for me!! Santa sure knows his stuff! Now I better put this all back in the box before anyone knows I looked. Now where did that box go?? It was right here a minute ago...
Oh. Busted.

Oh, Hi. I DO Have a Blog!

This was our attempt at a) Christmas card photo; b) hat modelling for my website; c) spreading the general cuteness around. Cailin is saying, "Look mommy! Two Carters!" in this picture. She knows how many "2" is. Carter says NOM! ARM! TASTY! (he's getting his first two teeth). He is modelling the teddy bear hat I made him. It's made out of pure 100% itchiness. Poor baby. I'm hoping a wash in copious amounts of fabric softener will help.

Things have been wild around here the last month. I've had my hands full with kids, Christmas preparations and starting a home business.
Carter had his 4 month shots. He's 16lbs 13oz, pretty tall and has a big head. Measuring in the 75th percentile for all. He cried for quite a while, but didn't react to his shots other than getting a tad hot/feverish later. He's a very happy camper, belly laughing and generally in a good mood. He has been sleeping all night again since starting rice cereal. He's loving the rice cereal; he makes all sorts of squeaks with his mouth wide open if I don't spoon it in there fast enough. Carter is just the sweetest happiest baby. He's now been playing in the Jumperoo.

We hit another milestone too. Cailin is now in a big girl bed. I sold her first toddler bed on Kijiji and ordered a pink sparkly racecar bed instead.

Last morning in her crib:
We actually got the bed at the right time. Cailin was able to climb into her crib by herself. She wasn't quite able to climb out by herself, but I'm sure it was forthcoming. At any rate, she would fill her crib to the rafters with every stuffed animal she could find then climb up and jump in like a weird ball pit. Then of course get stuck and demand OUT quite loudly while jumping around like a crazy person.

I kept telling her she was getting a new bed and showing her pictures of it online to get her excited. She seemed to understand she was getting a new bed, but wasn't excited until it came in a big box one morning (a week early!). She helped by hiding the various pieces under the crib and using the screwdrivers before hiding them in the couch.

It wasn't too hard to put together and finally:
She transitioned without any issues at all. I put a spinny doorknob childproof thingy on the door and she went to sleep without getting out of her room and playing in the middle of the night. Although one morning she came downstairs and scared the poo out of me - holding the door spinny thing in two pieces. "Hi mommy. It's broken. Throw in garbage?" I taped the crap out of it and she hasn't been able to escape since.

I'm pretty sure she dreams up interesting things to tell me when I open her door in the morning. This morning she greeted me and said, "Daddy's truck has hemi." Why, yes it does. She surprises me with this stuff all the time.

Cailin has been able to play outside here and there this winter. She really enjoys it. Especially when Bailey is out there with her running around.So anyways, I'm making crocheted hats and selling them online. I've had a whole bunch of orders since opening my virtual doors almost a month ago - almost 60 hats have been made/sold/shipped/waiting for pickup since then. I'm very excited about it. Unfortunately I've also been running myself ragged tackling the Christmas orders. I'm down to 2 hats now that have to be made before Christmas. I still need to update my website with the newest hats, but here it is Sock Monkey Hats by Krystal. There's a link to my Facebook page on there too.

I've met some very cool ladies - and ordered a couple neat items from another online store. Carter is getting a froggy cart cover (well, both kids can use it, really) and Cailin is getting a Thomas the Tank Engine blanket. In the past whenever I've told her about something she's getting (ie her bed) she hasn't been all that interested or excited. When I asked her if she wanted a Thomas blankie today, she went ape! She asked for it many times over today and looked in the dryer, shower, closets and toy box for the Thomas blankie. I can't wait to pick it up tomorrow.

I am working on Hello Kitty hats and a rainbow monkey hat tonight. I better get after it! Good thing I have a box of chocolates to keep me company...

Happy 2nd Birthday Odin!

Our sweet little Odin turned two today. Two years ago he was born on Friday the 13th, the first grandson and our only nephew. We love him to bits!

Yesterday we packed the kids up and loaded them in the truck with sippy cups, toys and snacks galore. Then we drove up to B.C. to spend the day with Odin and family for his birthday party. It was snowing a bit here and there, but soon cleared up and it was a good drive.

Cailin was painfully shy to start with, but after a while of Papa snuggles, she joined in and played with the kids. They ran all over the house and had a great time.

There was cookies, cupcakes and happy kids (of course!).

We had a great time visiting, and the birthday boy was so funny. He got some cars and didn't want to share his new Jeep very badly, especially not with Gracie.

Cailin cried when we left, she wanted to keep visiting with her cousins. I wish we lived closer! The kids really enjoy their time together. Cailin sang songs about Odin on the way home and wished him a happy birthday over and over. I wish he had gotten to hear it from her himself!

So happy birthday Odin, from Auntie, Uncle, Cailin, Carter and Bailey. We love you!