Black and White

Third time's a charm. I finally made a shirt for Adrian. You saw the first attempt. The second attempt looked too feminine. The third attempt is currently on his body and it's my favorite so far.

Nice mug shot. He is so cranky right now, he's headed to my bed to take a rest, I hope he falls asleep even if it is after 4. It took me about 8 hours to make this shirt because I had to keep stopping to rescue Isaac from whatever torture Adrian was currently using on him. (This picture is so goofy, he didn't have any pants on so I was trying not to get his undies.)

I swear that top stripe is straight, the neckline is so tight (looking) when the shirt first goes on but it will open up after wearing it for a little bit and look more normal.

We tried out a new restaurant this past weekend and I had salad for the first time ever. I feel like such a big girl. All three of us solid-food-eaters had burgers and you could either have a mixed greens salad or potato salad on the side. Cold potatoes just seem wrong to me so I decided to try the green salad since the server mentioned a maple vinaigrette. It was so good! I can't stop thinking about salad now. I'm all, "Oh! Is this why you crazy people love salad so much?" So much so in fact, that tonight we're having burgers and salad with whatever vinaigrette I whip up. I think I'll throw in some sliced almonds and dried cranberries too. Can't wait!

Say "Aaah!"

Is that not the coolest drinking fountain you've ever seen?

Favorite Snack

We've been hooked on almond butter lately. Our local co-op sells it freshly ground. You literally flip the switch on the machine to fill your container. We like to eat it on bananas or apples. At first, it was weird because we were so used to eating peanut butter with fruit but now it has become my favorite snack. I also like to sprinkle pour on the cinnamon. (I held back for the picture.) Our favorite apples are Pink Lady!

We're out running errands today. I'm hoping to have a picnic lunch if it doesn't rain!

My Man

I mentioned a while back that Jeff had started a blog to document his weight loss journey. He did a full round of P90X and he looks like a totally different person. Go check out his results!

This time around, his attitude was completely different, he's learning more about nutrition...which you would undoubtedly know if you have talked to him AT ALL in the last few months. To say it has become an obsession is an understatement. I couldn't be happier. I've been learning a lot about our food and health in general (we take a holistic approach if you haven't caught that yet) in the last few years so it has been pretty awesome to have him getting just as excited about certain topics.

BTW, when I flipped over to the P90X page to grab the link Adrian shouted, "That's P Nondy Eks!" (He's a bit of a Yooper doncha know.) Yeah, we've seen a bit of Tony Horton lately.

Now he's onto round 2, be sure to follow along! (And I'll be sure to remind him to blog more often.)
(And we'll try to remember to take the pictures the same way each time.)

An Early Summer?

We have been having some awesome beach weather lately. I have to admit, it's not so awesome when we have to do stuff inside but when we get a chance to skip across the street and enjoy a nice breeze off the lake, it's pretty awesome.

Wassuuup?

Totally awkward picture, I know, but he kept looking up like that even when no one was there to talk to him.

Hey, look! I was there too! I have to keep handing the camera to Jeff so it's actually documented that I'm part of this family. It's working, I'm starting to appear in our pictures. ;)

Sundays are perfect for relaxing guilt-free for hours on the beach. This one is no Lake Superior but it sure is convenient! I went with the boys in the afternoon and then again when Jeff was home in the evening.

We went the next day too...is it summer already?

Big Brother needs a swimsuit. One more thing to add to my sewing list. It just keep growing.Until then, he doesn't mind splashing around in a pair of gym shorts.

It was so windy yesterday that the 80 degree temps actually felt quite comfortable down by the lake. I was able to wrap Isaac up in the beach blanket while he slumbered so he wouldn't get pelted with whatever flew our way.

It was so windy, I eventually had to use our water bottles to hold the blanket down so he didn't get completely covered up.

Little buddy slept the entire time.

We had some pretty dark clouds overhead and I was sure it was going to downpour so I packed us up as quickly as I could and sure enough, it started raining humongous drops. We ran halfway home (Adrian too since I hadn't brought the stroller) and by that point it had stopped. Ha. We must have looked like fools. Hopefully someone else had a good laugh anyways.

It did end up storming in the evening and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees. It was awesome. I'm loving the 60's today.

Cowboys Caviar and Seagulls

We've made the unofficial commitment to stay away from fast food in the last year or so. It's a pretty loose commitment and I guess, technically, we break it every time we eat at BG. Anyways, it forces us to put at least a tiny bit of thought into the meals we eat when we're on the road.

During our most recent trip downstate we tried the Cowboy Caviar (an exciting alternative to salsa!) from Costco and it was so good! Jeff picked up a container along with some Food Should Taste Good multigrain chips and we had our lunch for the ride home. It was a gorgeous day so we took advantage and stopped at the Mackinac Bridge to eat.

While they waited for Isaac to eat, Jeff taught Little A to chase after the seagulls.

With his trusty water bottle in hand of course.

Downstate Rundown

Wednesday: Surprised Dad. Or tried to. Amanda, Kaitlin, and Gretchen were expected and Jen showed up to my dad's surprise. We were hiding out at Lassila's (we didn't actually get in until 10) but I heard that Jen's kids met my dad at the end of the driveway when he came home from work. Fun! Later, as everyone was sitting around visiting he asked if Jeff and Heidi were here too. This obviously wasn't rehearsed because everyone fell completely silent which was a dead giveaway. Ha! Oh well, it was so much fun to get most of the family in town for the weekend.

Thursday: Woke up to go garage saleing with my mom and sisters but got a stomachache a half hour before they were supposed to pick me up. So weird since I never get stomachaches. I thought I was sick but I felt completely fine after a few hours and they happened to be at a nearby garage sale so I met up with them then. We stopped at Panera Bread for lunch and then went on our merry way. Spent the rest of the evening with my family since Jeff's mom was working.

Friday: Basically a repeat of Thursday but no stomachache (yay!) and meeting at Leo's for lunch.

I spy my former boss.

My mom made spaghetti for supper and I bought some spaghetti squash for everyone to try. I think everyone who tried it liked it. Woohoo! I love when that happens!

Not sure if I should say this or not but Adrian is sitting next to me insisting that the above picture is Grandma and Papa. In case you're confused too, this is actually his Uncle Mark and Auntie Jen.

Saturday: We spent the morning with Lassila's where Jeff made smoothies yet again. He dug out the long lost forgotten blender while we were there and now everyone's hooked on smoothies.

That evening, we had a 60th birthday party for my dad. Totally looks like I'm about to lose my hold on Isaac here, sorry buddy. I'll blame it on the awkwardly close camera. I meant to get a better picture later but it never happened.

We were able to meet Isaac's newest cousins.

Aria and Isaac. Not pictured, a sweet little boy cousin who was born a month after my little dude.

Sunday: Mother's Day! We were up late every night and by the time we got home on Saturday night I was ridiculously exhausted. The congregation is building a new church this year and our previous church sold so for now they are renting a local (unused) school and having services at two separate times on Sunday morning. We had planned to go to the 8:30 service but we didn't even wake up until 9 so we ended up going for 11:30. Afterwards, we headed to Kensington where we had a delicious grilled lunch prepared by my father-in-law. We also made it to the farm. I've been wanting to take Adrian but it never worked out during other trips.

We made a quick stop at my mom and dad's to say "good-bye" before finished off the evening on the back deck back at the Lassila's.

Adrian walked around with these goggles for the longest time. They go with a workbench and tools that he loves to play with.

It was a really great Mother's Day!

If you're still reading at this point, have a fantastic weekend!

Trying to Catch Up

Aaah, I totally meant to schedule posts while I was away. As you can see, that never happened!

We had a positively wonderful long weekend with both of our families. There were garage sales, a party, and a beautiful Mother's Day Sunday. We got home on Monday night and I still feel like I'm trying to catch up around here. Thursdays are always busy since Jeff's off work and it's our running errands day. Hopefully Friday will bring some relaxation for the four of us.

A Thousand Words

Every time I try to get a picture of the two of them. (Obviously less than ideal location here.)

At least the immobile one is cooperative.

P is for Potty

The little dudes were hanging out on my bed the other day while I was doing...something. Can't remember what. I'm not sure I even knew at the time because I was pretty distracted by their cuteness.

That Isaac is a wild one.

We'll pretend the sun has only just risen and that's why Adrian is still in his pajamas.

At least his diaper is off...Adrian has been doing awesome with the potty training. A couple weeks ago I decided to make the switch to "undies" because I knew I was going to run out of diapers before my next order shipped from Amazon. I can't believe how smoothly he transitioned. It only took a day before he started "getting it," and about a week to go from a couple accidents a day to one or less a day. The only time he wears a diaper is at night--he has yet to have an accident if/when he naps--and when we go somewhere. The only reason I put one on him when we're running errands is because he seems afraid of using other people's toilets, although he just went on the potty at the chiropractor the other day so hopefully we'll be done with that too. (I do have to admit that I dread having him use public bathrooms.)

Anyways, I'm basically super excited that we don't have two kids in diapers! Oh yeah, I was able to cancel that Amazon order.

Too Small for the Big Boy

Yellow Striped Toddler Tee

I finally added a new item to the shop! Try as I might to branch out, I keep coming back to these baby and toddler t-shirts. I can't imagine ever running out of ideas.

I have another one ready to be photographed, hopefully we'll get a sunny day again soon so I can list it.

This yellow tee was actually meant for Adrian. I love it, but it ended up being too small. The pattern I've been using is a size too small for him in the biggest size so I made it a little bigger, but it still wasn't quite big enough. I have fabric cut out for another shirt that will be a little bigger than this yellow one, I hope it works!

A Daily Occurrence

Adrian's been skipping his nap lately so at some point in the day, he inevitably gets super cranky and starts acting out. The best solution to get him to snap out of it seems to be asking him to come snuggle. Works (almost) every time.

Good Morning, Sunshine!

My latest breakfast:

I really struggle with finding tasty, filling, and healthy breakfast ideas. I really, really wish I liked eggs, but the truth is, I really don't. I can handle a veggie and sausage/bacon stuffed omelet every once in a while and quiches are good every month or so. As for hard boiled eggs: I could probably eat one every six months. Eh. I recently tried steel-cut oats which I really like. They have more protein and a chewier texture than rolled oats. I first heard about cooking quinoa like oatmeal quite a while ago and finally tried it a week or so ago. I soaked it overnight in coconut milk and cooked it in the morning, just like oatmeal. I added cinnamon, a lot of cinnamon, I really like cinnamon. I sweetened it with a bit of agave nectar and topped it with raw almonds and bananas. It was pretty good, still very quinoa-y, but definitely bearable and it left me feeling a bit more full than oatmeal does. The next day, I topped it with almond butter and bananas. It was really good! The almond butter covered the quinoa taste more than the whole almonds. I found a new breakfast (until I get sick of this too). I think it would also be really tasty with toasted coconut flakes.

If you have any great breakfast ideas that don't include eggs as a main ingredient, please share!

Let's Review

I used this tutorial to make a baby wrap similar to this and it turned out like this:

Did you follow that?

If you actually clicked over to the tutorial, you'll see that it uses half the yardage that most other tutorials would use by simply cutting the width of the fabric in half and then sewing the two pieces together.  I was able to buy 3 yards instead of 6. Basically, with most other tutorials you're either paying the same, if not more, than you would if you had just bought the Moby Wrap in the first place.

My thoughts on the tutorial and resulting baby wrap:

1. Great idea for using half yardage. I was able to make a wrap for half the price.
2. Very straightforward directions...if you have the space. The hardest part was getting the fabric lined up to cut since it uses a knit fabric. I did it in my hallway since it was kind of long enough but it wasn't wide enough and a certain 2-year-old was constantly running across the fabric.
3. There is a step to sew patterned fabric over the center seam (which is a nice, neat french seam) so I chose some super awesome fabric somehow failed to notice the pink factor on this one until it showed up at my door:

Source

Not sure how I missed that. I looked at a local quilt shop for an alternative but found absolutely nothing that interested me so I decided it looked okay with the french seam (it's not showing in the picture) so I'll leave it that way for now. Or forever.
4. The ends of the wrap are tapered to make it easier to tie and I just lined up the ends and eyeballed it. Trust me, no one else will notice it's not perfect. In fact that's the nice thing about the knit, the edges aren't finished since I don't have a serger (someday!) and it looks just fine.
5. When I first put it on (after watching this video) it was WAY TOO LONG. I mean, after wrapping it around my waist and tying it, I was still tripping over it. Huge bummer because this could have been an even cheaper wrap. I ended up cutting an extra 5 feet off and now it fits perfectly.
6. I used an interlock knit (you need a one-way stretch) and I somehow managed to miss that it was made of polyester, I would have much preferred cotton. We'll see how that works out in the summertime...
7. Considering the patterned fabric didn't work out, I really wish I would have chosen an interlock in a fun color. I was having a hard time matching solids to prints when I was starting out with the solid interlock. So I reversed that which is why I ended up with a boring gray. I actually love gray but this one looks almost like slate blue on its own.

Overall, I'm loving the wrap. It's such a simple design (really, just a very long strip of fabric), it's easy to put on, and Isaac loves it. Plus, it's more comfortable, less bulky, and easier on the eyes than my front pack. I can't wait to use it for grocery shopping instead of lugging his carseat in. (I have yet to go anywhere with him by myself.)

You can find instructions and videos for several different holds here.