Merry Christmas & Happy New Years!

Wow am I glad Christmas is over but now I have 5 days until Luke turns 7 and he wants me to make his birthday cake. Still trying to figure that one out.

I have missed all of you guys so much and I will be making my rounds here soon and life will be back to normal.

First off here are a few of the things that had me really busy this past month. First, I made 4 little girls purses and I have one more to still make. I made them all different and two of the girls that got them were thrilled to get them. The other one was to busy with other things to care and my other niece was not at Christmas this year so I will not get to see her open hers either.

First up... Princes purse #1.
It is exactly the same on both sides.

Princes purse #2
Front view

Back view.

Princes purse #3
Front view

Back view
(oh and this was my favorite of them all)

Princes purse #4
Front view

Back view
This one came out the best as far as sewing goes
but I think I got better with each purse. The 5th
purse I need to make will be like this one.I also made a Mickey Mouse fleece blanket for Thomas.

I have just really started getting into sewing but I have lots of things I want to try and do.

I think the kids had a great Christmas. Luke got lots of Lego's and that is great because he can sit and play Lego's for hours on end.

I also had two sick kids, one with strep right after school let out for the Holiday's and one that ended up with Croop (spelling), really bad cough and fever that started Christmas day. Figures!

I have this next week off and looking forward to putting my house back in order and celebrating my babies 7th birthday and ringing in the new year.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wishing you all a Happy New Year. If I find time I will get some more pictures of Christmas up soon.

Tree Picking

Went on Sunday and selected our Christmas tree. The boys had a blast running in and out of the rows of trees. Gotta love kids!
Unfortunately, my tree is leaning against the wall and still not in water. This is not good. My husband has been sick and not able to get it cut and into the stand. I am hoping this will happen soon or we are going to have a dead tree.

Don't know when I will get it decorated and Christmas is right around the corner. Makes me a little nervous that we are this far behind this year.

Other updates, still lots to do and feels like nothing is getting done. Sorry if I haven't been around much. I promise I will do my best to make it around when I can and after the New Year all should be back to normal.

Oh and Diane, sorry I had to turn the word verification back on. I am getting spam in my comments daily and I have had enough of it.

Happy Holiday's all!

A whole lot to do

I am sure most of you have noticed my lack of presents recently. I have been super busy and just can't seem to find the time to blog and I am having trouble thinking of things to blog about. I guess a lot of my thoughts often come to me during my work day but this past month work has been crazy insane and my full focus is required if I am going to keep my head above water.

On top of crazy work tasks, my life has been really full of craziness. Hosted my first ever Thanksgiving this year. Wow is that an undertaking. I was going to take lots of pictures also and totally forgot. My husband is redoing our dinning room. Was supposed to be done for Thanksgiving but I am not holding my breath for Christmas because he is so slow.

I am also sewing some gifts for Christmas. Can't wait to finish, take pictures and share. All the little girls are getting purses and my first one came out fantastic. I am also making a Mickey Mouse Fleece blanket for Thomas. I have to find the time to do that one also when he isn't around.

Have not started Christmas shopping yet. My girlfriend is going with me on Friday and I am thrilled because I love spending time with her. We went to a Daughtry concert in Kentucky a couple weeks ago and I had a blast. Great concert to see! We got a hotel room because it was a far drive home for me. We stayed up until 2 in the morning just talking away. I swear we could talk none stop for days and not run out of things to talk about.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday season.

Where Is My Mom's Manual

I grew up in a house as the oldest child. I can remember my mom always being way harder on me than my little brother. It often created a major rift between me and my mom because I felt so unfairly treated. I think for this reason I was a daddies girl but also I think he saw how much harder my mom was on me and he had to compensate for it with me.

Today, I have two boys. It was just Luke and me for the first 4 almost 5 years of his life. We were very close and I did everything for this child. We were really tight and then his baby brother was born. Now I had to find a way to divide myself between two children. Something that truly is not as easy as one might think.

As Thomas has grown, I have found he gets the majority of my attention and Luke not as much. I have also found that I am so much harder on Luke. I yell at him more because he is supposed to know better. He should do more for himself and should be more grown up. When he doesn't do these things I become very frustrated with him and I am often really hard on him.

This really bothers me because I am treating Luke just like my mom did me. I now see her side of it but it still doesn't make it any better for Luke. I have to remind myself, yes he should know better, and yes he can do these things for himself but he is still only six years old.

Recently the two of them together have pushed every button I have and I end the day frustrated and flat out exhausted. I don't want to be like this and I have got to figure out how to be easier on Luke, but he can't just get away with things either.

So my question to all you moms with two or more kids. How do you divide yourself among your children? How do you make sure they feel equally loved by you? Its not that I don't love them equally but I do not manage my time well between them and I am a lot less patient with one over the other.

DADDY WATER

When Luke was two he could not tell us he wanted Fruit2O flavored water. His dad loves the stuff and drinks it often but I don't like it and drink regular water. Because he couldn't say Fruit2O Luke called it "daddy water" and he was very specific that he did not want "mommy water" as it was just water. Soon we were all referencing flavored water as "daddy water".

Even now at the age of 6 Luke calls it "daddy water" just as we all still do.

Then the other day Thomas's babysitter asks me, "what is daddy water". I just laughed because clearly flavored water will always be called "daddy water" in our house.