Day 303

Here is my cute little man with his very own jack-0-lantern he made with dad this evening. We spent our day at preschool dressed up as a king, went trick-or-treating at dad's office and then finished off our day with a little pumpkin carving. And I actually got a picture of him actually looking through his glasses. He's such a joy and I'm so blessed!

Day 302

We were out and about running errands this afternoon and as we were stopped at the light ( you will notice it is red, so I was completely stopped before taking this picture) I noticed not only the dark clouds to the east of us, but how intense the light coming from the west hit the shopping center in front of us. I just thought it was a really cool display of God's awesomeness.

Day 301

As I was taking Andy to preschool this afternoon, I finally noticed my neighbors red maple and had to snap a photo. I love the colors of the green evergreen, the red maple and the yellow something or other plant that I don't really know and the moss on the rock. Just a fun picture of God's wonderful creation.

Day 300

My little guy has learned the knack of climbing in and out of his crib. Unfortunately this has started to cause a bit of a problem at night, so I put up the baby gate to his door so he at least won't escape out of his room. As I was doing my last check in of my boys tonight, this is where I found my two year old. Totally asleep in the rocking chair with his favorite blankie and puppy. I had to walk out of the bedroom so as not to wake him from my laughing. I then grabbed my camera and snapped away. I'm thinking it's time to move to a toddler bed perhaps.

Day 299

I have currently completed 20 blocks for my buggy barn quilt. This is a crappy picture so I'm not sure if it's mainly the lighting or my iPhone or both, so sorry the colors look really washed out. Tonight was our quilting group so I took them to show off as some of the other gals have their buggy barns completed and here is the young mom of the group still plugging along. I just love the bright colors and have 10 more to go.

Day 298

Tonight I pulled out a few beads and started playing with a couple of ideas for a necklace for a friend. It will probably take me more time to figure out my color scheme than to string it together. I'm thinking more pink and brown, but we shall see what happens.

Day 297

Today I had the rare privilege to not only go bead shopping, but to also spend some time with my sister-in-law by ourselves. She received an invitation in the mail for a wholesalers only bead show and invited me to join her. The show was mainly gemstones with some findings, chain and tools. We decided to split a couple strands of dyed rainbow jade and aquamarine along with a roll of chain.

This picture isn't the best, but is was the sterling silver table where I could have very easily spent way too much money, but amazingly we walked away from the table deciding we didn't need any silver at this time.

Day 296

My one goal for today was to vacuum my living room. I spent about 30 minutes picking up Lego's and the various sizes and assortments we have. Once I started vacuuming, I had a request from Andy who wanted to help out and vacuum himself. I figured if he wants to help, then why not. He did vacuum around his trampoline, but decided it was too hard to push that vacuum cleaner around.

Maybe I should find a lighter weight one that if he should so feel compelled again to help than he has his very one vacuum cleaner.

Day 295

Tonight we have bible study and I volunteered to bring something to snack on. I have been on a quest lately to find a pumpkin bread recipe that does not have a large portion of sugar and I found one that is quite tasty and has less than two cups of sugar. I used less than the recommended flour as some of the comments below said to weigh the flour and since I do not own a food scale, I used about two tablespoons less than the recipe called for.

It baked up quite nicely with a good golden crust that seemed to be the best part. Everyone enjoyed the bread and I only brought home enough for breakfast the next morning.

Day 294

My little man got his first tuxedo fitting today and since I'm obviously slow on the take, this was the only picture I managed to get during the whole process. Pathetic, I know, but he is going to be one super cute ring bearer when his uncle gets married next month.

Day 293

I finally got my sewing to a place where I could clean up that project only to throw another project at my work space. The boys are at grandma's house today so I have a few hours of uninterrupted time to finish up some preschool paperwork. By the way, this is part of the job I dislike the most because no one told me we had to file taxes this year before I signed up for the job.

Day 292

Tonight's dinner was brought to us via the Internet and a good old fashion cookbook. I need to go grocery shopping in the absolute worst way, but I'm cleaning out my pantry and using what I have to make my version of cheesy rice, chicken and broccoli casserole and sour cream and dill biscuits. Since I no longer use the cream of sodium soups, I found a recipe online that is a great substitute. It's also another cookbook I would like to have too.

Day 291

Crossroads Bible Church has started another capital campaign to raise money to pay off our moving bill and a few other improvements to our facility. This campaign is called Moving Further in Faith and Mike and I received coffee mugs as part of the leadership dinner. This morning was the all church service at Meydenbauer Center in downtown Bellevue as it is one of the only places that could hold every single person who attends Crossroads. This service was our commitment service where families make a pledge above and beyond the normal giving towards moving further in faith. We find out next Sunday the grand total of money pledged, but God has been faithful in our church and I'm confident this will continue.

Day 290

One Saturday each month, the Companionship Quilters get together to spend a day quilting on whatever projects we currently have in the pile and enjoy each others company. Today was a little different as we have a family who recently lost a son in Afghanistan and the ladies wanted to make a quilt for his family and one for his bride. He was married in May, shipped to Afghanistan in July and went home to see the Lord in September. There were quite a number of ladies who worked on the quilts and each of us had a part whether sewing, ironing, or cutting. This was one of the quilts set out ready to be sewn together. I took this picture before I left so I don't know how far they got, but I'm sure they had at least both tops down.

Day 289

In rare form, here is a picture of me and my little man courtesy of another mom. Today we went to Fall City Farms to the pumpkin patch with Andy's preschool. The field trip was both the morning and afternoon 4's classes and the children were able to see a few farm animals, learn about making cider and tromping through the rain and mud to pick out a pumpkin to take home. Even though the rain was a bit of a damper, my theory is the amount of mud equals the amount of fun and fun was had by all parties.

Day 288

Mike and I were getting ready for bed this evening and Mike wanted me to look at something he spotted. I'm pretty sure I have a certain two year old who might have been playing in mom's bedroom with his cars and decided to line them up. He usually knows where Red is, so we were both surprised to find our little treasure tonight.

Day 287

I was trying to get a picture of Aaron making one of his funny faces and in the middle of the snapshot. Well, Mr. AJ moved and this was the result. Most of the time cameras these days are not this blurry, but I thought it was a fun picture and about the only one I took today.

Day 286

I spent a good part of my time working on preschool treasurer work. My office/studio space is a little bit in need of a storage solution and every space is somewhat unavailable, so I have moved my work to the floor. Not the best working conditions, but maybe I need to finish up a quilting project or two or figure out how to store projects when they are in the midst. Until then, the floor or couch will probably be my companion.

Day 285

This morning my boys wanted to play with the play-doh, so mom willingly let them play inside on their little table in the dining room. I was absolutely amazed at how well those two not only played together but how quiet they were, too. I sure enjoyed my peaceful morning before the preschool rush.

Day 284

This afternoon while the boys were napping, I was able to head to my studio and work on some piecing for my buggy barn quilt. Mike and I were both downstairs so when the boys got up, they came downstairs to hang out with mom and dad. I was still wanting to finish up the block I was working on, so I kept working, but as you can see, I had a little helper. He also likes to push the buttons on my sewing machine, which unfortunately for me, I'm going to have to take my machine in to see if they can reset what he did.

Day 283

The. Best. Birthday. Gift. Ever.

Only the gift wasn't for me, but for the birthday boy and it's totally not in my size either. One of our good friends gave Aaron this short sleeve t-shirt as a gift and it only makes sense if you watch the television show Lost and know that my husband and I are big fans of the show. Our friends are also big fans of the show.

Day 282

Tonight Mike and I went out on a date night. Shocking, I know, it doesn't happen often. We had a gift certificate to the Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed splitting an appetizer and entree. After dinner we went birthday shopping for a little 2 year old whose birthday party is tomorrow. Lego's are pretty much a sure thing and of course we found the firetruck and a mail post motorcycle. I'm sure they will be a big hit.

Day 281

God is so amazing! Remember those daisies my mom bought me, well, the pretty orange ones that I thought AJ killed have grown back. I wonder if I will see any more flowers before the frost sets in.

Day 280

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AJ!!

Yes, my little monkey boy turns two years old today. He has been in the throws of two for awhile, but I still can't believe how big he is, how much more of a monkey he is than his brother and just how much joy and laughter he brings to our lives. I love you kiddo!

Day 279

Today was yet another eye doctor appointment for Andy. This check up was to see how his patching was going and also it was his yearly exam. It was also Aaron's yearly check up as well and while Aaron is free from having to wearing correct lenses for now, big brother is still working on the patching, but his left eye is improving. Today we got the story book room instead of the pirate room. It's a good thing there are toys and they get to watch videos because we were at the office for nearly two hours.

Day 278

The only thing I haven't figured out is how to take a picture of the crisp cold mornings we have been having. As you can see, there is not a cloud in the sky and it's been so nice to have sunny days, albeit a bit chilly. We were at the park this morning to run off some energy and I wanted to convey somehow our beautiful fall weather God has blessed us with.

Day 277

Mike, the boys and I have been spending out weekend with the children of some good friends of ours. The husband was out of town for work and his wife was able to join him for a little weekend getaway. We offered to watch their children for them so they could get away. I believe each couple should try to have one weekend getaway a year because most of us were husband and wife before we became mom and dad.

I was doing some work online and AJ picked up my iPhone and started snapping pictures. It was just too funny to see what comes from him. The garbage truck was a huge hit with him and it's sitting next to my computer bag.

Day 276

Since our little announcement, I have been thinking about the one thing we need to get before baby arrives: infant car seat. When Aaron outgrew the infant car seat, I knew that I would need to purchase another car seat if we had another child because of the six year life span before they are expired. I sold the other seat a year and a half ago so someone else could get some use out of it. Granted there were four babies who used it, my two and two of my friends' little ones.

Enter the kids sale and that little gift certificate I won. I had noticed this car seat when I dropped off my items and was completely impressed at how unused it look, but I was a little bummed on the price. It was more than my gift certificate, so I thought I would wait until the half price day and take a chance on it being there. Lucky for me, I am a consignor so I was able to shop the half price sale before the general public and yeah for me, the car seat was still there. My sweet sister-in-law knew I wanted that seat, so she got to the sale before me and put it on hold until I could purchase it. I love the colors and since we will not be finding out the sex of the baby, it's perfect.

Day 275

Somehow I was the one consignor of The Kids Sale to win the $50 gift certificate. There were many chances to have your name in the drawing and I only had one and yet, some child picked out my name. I'm not sure what I will spend the gift certificate on as my boys have all they need right now, but I'm sure I will use it.

Day 274

After all of the appointments and driving around I have done today, this was my last errand before I could go home and crash. All my items are tagged, clean and ready to be put out to sell. The Kids Sale is in a building that was once a sports goods store that has gone bankrupt this past year. It's a huge space and so nice to have more room this time to move around and find where the items are to be placed. I hope my items sell otherwise some will be coming home and others will be donated to Eastside Baby Corner.

Day 273

I thought I would showcase a bit of Andy's preschool artwork. Last year he wasn't really into doing much artwork or the projects which honestly was fine with mom. Less stuff to have to find a home for. This year, however, he is branching out and painting more. Some of his artwork is hanging in my studio since I like his color combinations.