Banners, Bundt Cakes and a Bag

So, it's been forever since I posted any crafty stuff.  The blog has been a little top heavy in the recording of family doings lately.

I have been doing some things in my craft corner though :)

My first real project with my new Silhouette Cameo {Christmas gift from Andy} was, of course, a banner...

I am amazed at the detail of which it is capable. (Didn't that sound so grammatically correct? :)

There is much trial and error involved in learning how to use my fancy new machine.  I'm afraid I'm a rather slow learner, but hopefully, soon, I will be able to show some fun projects made with the Silhouette.

During Novemberfest, a nice woman asked if I would make a custom chalkboard banner for her Special Ed. classroom.  When I agreed, she went and bought the fabric and brought it to me right then.

She told me not to hurry, and I'm so glad because it took me quite a while to recover from the holidays.

She was very patient and I finally made it and delivered it a couple of weeks ago.

Lest you think I am only able to make banners these days, let me show you a couple of other fun things I've worked on.

In my church, I coordinate all the women to visit each other frequently and take care of each other's needs.  I work with 8 women who, in turn, supervise 10-14 women each.

Recently, I did a training for my supervisors and made some thank you gifts to express my appreciation for all the work they do.

These are Red Velvet, Mini Bundt Cakes...recipe here.

I found this super cute printable here.

I coordinated my training hand out with pink paper...

...and there we go :)

Remember, another thing I can make is a bag. {Previous Post Here}

I made this one as a {three month late} birthday gift for my good friend and neighbor.

She chose the fabric.  I love the combination :)

School Moments

Matt sang with the first grade at an assembly.

I love watching his face when he sings :)

Ben made himself at home on the floor with the iPad with "Ha" (Katrina)

Josh received his "Iditarod Champion" reading award.

Abby is part of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM or gifted and talented) program.  There are only 6 kids in the third grade that are in the program and four of them are in our ward...kind of fun :)

Abby did her most recent presentation on Electric Eels.

She did great!

I love seeing what she does with her artistic abilities.

Josh and his friend, Donny, decided to participate in the Science Fair together this year.

They did a fun project on which brand of gum had the longest lasting flavor.

Good job guys!

This same duo created a project for the Art Show also...a 3D shark :)

Ben Update

Ben has been going through a phase lately.  He likes to keep his hat on in the house.  He gets off the bus, comes in and takes his coat, shoes and socks off, runs to the laundry room and puts his socks in the laundry and then runs into the living room and asks to watch "Go-Go" (Cat in the Hat).

I think he got the idea from Abby who, for a couple of days, wore her winter hat around the house all the time.

I thought it was just an at home phenomenon until his preschool teacher started sending me pictures from the classroom :)  She says he "successfully negotiates" keeping his hat on there too.

A week ago Ben set a new record for himself as far as number of seizures in one day.

1 A.M. (just as I was going to bed I hate to admit) I heard him start seizing.  He slept with me the rest of the night and went on to have several more.  By about 9 a.m. he had had 15 total.

He slowed down after that but still had four more throughout the morning/early afternoon.

19 seizures in 12 hours.  15 had been his record until that day.

It was probably Monday evening/Tuesday before we felt like he had his strength, balance and full mental abilities back.  He took several non routine naps those few days.

Every time we see a cluster like this we are worried about regression.  It happens so often with these kids.  So far, we see little set backs such as forgetting or mixing up signs and words but they always come back within a day or two.  Nothing serious.  But we worry that one day it will be serious.

The medical marijuana debate is gaining attention throughout the nation.  I've had several people, including friends, relatives and doctors, bring it up to me.

When I went in for my D&C follow up my O.B. asked me about it.  She said she had read an article where Dr. Sanjay Gupta (a highly respected doctor who used to oppose medical marijuana) said that his hope for 2014 was the legalization of cannabis for medical use.

When Andy and I first heard about this topic a year and a half ago, it was pretty much out of the question in our minds.  However, now, it is a very real option.  We were definitely uninformed at the time and have since learned many hopeful facts.

I want to continue to research and be knowledgable on the topic.  There are so many misconceptions and prejudices about it and I want to be able to be one to educate and support.

I'm sure I will be posting more about this as the issue progresses.

Fellows and Frost

I usually like to have a book that I read out loud to the kids at night.

We've done some really fun ones.  One of my very favorites was The Candymakers.

Sometimes Josh likes to suggest our next book.  I gave him the full set of Hardy Boys books a few years ago and he reads them when he doesn't have any other books on hand.  Just recently he wanted us to read the first book as a family.

We weren't too far into the book before we realized Mr. Dixon used many fun, old fashioned words in his writing.  For some reason, I thought it might be fun to count the times that the word "fellow" was used.  We decided to add the word "chum" to the list as well.  Every night we read the book, one of the kids would grab a pen and keep a tally on each of those words.

We ended up with 25 fellows and 4 chums.

It was kind of a fun activity :)

Yesterday was a green air day...so I had to take advantage and go for a run.

It was -3 degrees but once you've been moving for a few minutes you warm right up.

On the way home I could see some whiteness above my right eye.  I pulled out my phone and looked at myself in the camera.  I found a surprising amount of frost on my eyelashes and it just begged for a picture (even though I can't stand posting selfies :).

On a side note: when Andy saw this picture he wondered why I had a picture of my sister.

I had to tell him it was his wife he was looking at :)

The January Clean Bug

Like a lot of people around this time of year I get the clean bug and I want to take care of all those messy corners in my home.

Usually, as the fall comes on, I go through all my kids' drawers and take out the summer clothes and put them away.  With the business of Novemberfest and then Christmas, I just hadn't gotten around to it.  So I tackled it the other day.  On top of summer and winter clothes being in the same drawers, none of my kids have gotten the hang of the art of folding.  

To put it shortly, all 9 drawers were a wreck.

I threw all the offending clothes in a pile on the laundry room floor and did several loads of over the next few hours.

I felt much better after that was all taken care of.

Also, I reclaimed the breadbox.

Somehow, our breadbox has become the catcher of all things little and useless.

Things like fast food meal toys, party favors and so on have ended up being thrown in there to hide them from the kiddos since I didn't want them adding to the clutter in their rooms.  The theory was if they didn't ask for it within the few days after it had been "put away", it was forgotten and bound for the trash.  I guess I got a little behind on throwing the forgottens away.  A week or two ago Andy made a comment about there not being room in the breadbox for the bread.  That spurred my cleaning session.

I'm a nerd and was curious about some numbers.  I divided the items into categories.

     

Here are my biggest piles...

                       14 bouncy balls...

 10 bottles of bubbles...

8 containers of putty or playdough...

 and 10 plastic rings.

Also, I've been collecting stray socks in a bag in the laundry room for a couple of years now.  I figured it was about time to go through and find some matches :)

Like the geek that I am, I counted how many socks were in the bag and then how many matches I made.  I wrote down the numbers and then promptly lost the paper...of course.

From my memory, I had right around 100 socks and I made approximately 40 matches.  

Pretty good right?

I know this is all very interesting to everyone :)  I just thought it would be fun to record.

Welcome 2014

We welcomed in the new year with just our own little family this year.  It was cute :)

Andy put together a nacho bar for dinner.

Then we watched some Studio C (Josh's fave).

While we waited for the hour...or, the hour before the hour (we were going to celebrate at 11:00 with the kids so they could get to bed)...we played our new favorite game - Sleeping Queens (Thanks Andrus family for the gift).

Ben was content to sit next to me and do Sesame Street on the iPad while we played.

For some reason, we could never catch the ball dropping on t.v. to show the kids.  The channels were all showing other things at 11:00 :(

So, Andy found a you tube video online that we watched and counted down with 5 or 10 minutes after 11:00.  Later we realized the video was from 2011.  Oh well :)

 A little sparkling cider.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Ben couldn't have cared any less :)

This was his position during all of our celebrating.

Post Christmas Celebrations

* Prepare yourselves for a very long, picture laden post :)...or just skip it if you would prefer :)

Olsen Family Christmas Party

Both of our family Christmas parties this year were held in places other than the traditional homes.

With Grandma O. still in rehab after her fall in October, we decided to take the party to her.

It worked out great :)

Food and gifts and family...that's what these parties are all about :)

After Christmas with the Bryans

 "Favorite things" with the girls!
From foot scrub to drinking straws, coconut oil to candy, handy kitchen tools to soap, we loved sharing our favorite things of 2013.

 Ben's cousins were so good to play with him.  Duck Duck Goose of course, was a fave!

Ben literally spent hours each day down on the carpet with the trains and tracks.  He was so content whether he had friends or not.

A huge hit and highlight of this year's gathering was sledding behind a 4 wheeler.
Uncle Mike is always good at entertaining the kids.  They got such a kick out of this activity.

Matt loved it even though he looks scared to death in this picture :)

 The first couple of times Josh kept saying, "I'm gonna die!  I'm gonna die!"
but then I think he became more comfortable with it.

Then it was the adults' turn.
I had no intention of going out but then Jenny invited me.  I scrounged in the mudroom for some winter apparel since I had not brought any with me this trip.  I came up with quite a fantastic and bright outfit :)

 It was an absolute blast!

We almost lost Lyndi in the canal...

 Andy enjoyed it as well :)

 Rosy cheeks after sledding

 Ben and Austin
(I love Austin's face!)

 Cassidy, Lauren and Abby before church on Sunday.

Tom was so patient and kind with Ben.  He let him fly his remote control helicopter.  Ben couldn't get enough of it.

We did several puzzles over the few days that we were there.

We even did puzzle races one afternoon.

The girls worked on one together while Andy, Wendy, Nancy and I each did our own 100 piece Eric Dowdle puzzle.  I don't want to brag or anything, but I did win both times :)

It's always a party at the Bryan's place...and we always have a great time!