Homemade by Me

This is what I've been making lately. I have 13 nieces and nephews and everytime one is born I have made them a blanket. The more I make the more creative I get, or better at stealing ideas, whatever you want to call it. So here are some pics of my two latest designs. These two are for our beautiful new niece, Saffron and sweet new nephew, Jhett. Sorry boys but the nieces now also get a few hairbows, I'm sure you're not offended. This is mine and Kindy's new hobby. Kya likes to make them with me sometimes too. I love her!

(Back view)

(Front view)

(Front)

(back + my little helper)

When Tom got laid off for the second time in 2008, we decided we'd start living even more frugally than we already had been. It would only make sense right? So along with hand grinding our own wheat to make our own bread all the time instead of only occassionally and teaching Conor & Kya to handwash our dishes instead of buying a dishwasher which we did not have, we also started making our own laundry soap. I was inspired by Mrs. Duggar (love her!), you know the amazing woman on TLC who has 19 kids now and they live debt free. Well I read her book and used her laundry soap recipe and I have made my own soap ever since. I've been doing this for over a year and am still using the same laundry soap container. I just keep refilling it with my homemade stuff. If you want to know how to make it just google homemade laundry soap. Even though we can now afford to buy soap I have chosen to keep making my own. It's a satisfaction thing for me now.

Conor's Braces

This is what we did for Presidents day. Got braces on Conors teeth. We've known for years that he would be getting braces early. Several dentists have told us so. He has pretty badly crowded teeth and a crossbite. So to prevent him from having to have some pretty gruesome oral surgery stuff done in the future, we've opted for early braces. This will make things much easier on him in the end. He may have to have braces again when he's older but they can work with his growing bone structure now to make things a lot easier in the future. Thank goodness for modern technology and knowledge. If they had known to put braces on me early I could have kept those 4 teeth they pulled before they put me in braces. People just get smarter and smarter. It's great!

Conor was SO EXCITED to get them on. He can't wait to show them off. I'm sure in 15 months he'll be SO EXCITED to get them off!

Right before getting them on. Does he look happy or what!

Conor with his new braces & goodies from the Orthodontist.

The Braces!

Tom's surgery

Tom got his cast off on Monday after 10 days in the white cast and then 5 weeks in the blue one.He has osteoarthritis in one of the joints of his right thumb. Which apparantly means that he had to have had some trauma to that area, but we cannot think of anything that could have caused this. After about 2 years of getting cortisone shots they decided that he needed surgery to fuse the joint. He had no cartilage between the two bones so they were just grinding against each other. OUCH! Eventually they will do another surgery, taking a tendon out of his forearm and creating a little cartilage thing to stick in there. They said that he is way too young for that procedure. It is a permanent fix and they don't want him wearing it out.

So here's what he gets for now. A T shaped metal plate screwed into his bones with 5 metal screws! He has two different braces he has to wear for a few weeks and he got two different tubs of puddy(they are exactly like silly puddy, one softer one harder) to do therapy with. He sees the doc again in three weeks and if the physical therapy he has him doing on his own is not working then he is going to send him to physical therapy. We are so hoping that it works because we cannot stand to have another medical bill! We've had them flowing in nonstop for years now.

Backpack

It's every little brother's dream to get to go to school and wear a backpack.

Crew's prayers

This is how Crew kneels for family prayers. I can't stop taking pictures of it. It is the cutest thing!

Where's Crew?

Crew's favorite thing to do lately is hide from us. He stays very quiet. It seriously takes me a while to find him. When our other two kids have played this game we can always find them easily by following the giggling sounds. These are a few pics of some of his favorite hiding places. We're so happy to have this sweet little guy to keep us entertained.

2010 at our house

Tom's Birthday.......................day after MLK Jr. Day

Tom & Krista's Anniversary.....Memorial Day

Conor's Birthday....................He turns 8 (special bday)

Kya's Birthday........................Fathers Day

Crew's Birthday.......................Labor Day