4th of july... and a few at home insights

these are some pictures of our lovely trip to andrew's parent's mountain house at lake junaluska assembly. elisha had the opportunity to spend a good bit of time with his cousin micah. andrew's sister and her family live much farther away than we would like, so it was a treat for the boys to spend so much time together!
we went to the parade by the lake... it reminded me of the parade that would go by my house when i was little. elisha was a little terrified of the firetruck... i was too. it was quite loud! we were hot in the sun at the parade, but that might have been the only time i really was the whole trip... it was so nice to sleep with the windows open at night and wake up chilly. there was a sleeping porch upstairs and i kept finding that andrew would sneak off with a book to that ideal spot... it will hopefully be just the first of many 4th of july holiday weekends spent up there.

the porch was a fun (enclosed!) place to play...
this is a picture of elisha at our house in front of the tv. i hate to watch tv-- and i hate for elisha to as well... i know i'm being a stick in the mud, and that i'll make up for lost time if/when we have more children and i'm desperate for the couple of minutes of free babysitting that the tv offers... but for now it is a rarity. i would hope that that would mean that elisha isn't that interested in it, but no! he will point to it and rub his chest( signing 'please'). he just love 'thomas' videos... well we only have one. this is a shot of him dancing in front of the tv to the opening music!

i hope that we don't look like to big of rednecks! i left andrew at home one morning and when i came back, elsiha was wearing his camo pjs(that he has outgrown) and using andrew's deer call! it has become his new favorite toys. just a new way to make animal sounds(his favorite past time). andrew relishes a chance to watch hunting videos when i am not at home(see above not as to my dislike of tv... and hunting videos are certainly not an exception!)... now it seems he is training elisha to join him ;-)

pretend

this is a cute little video of elisha playing with his little friends... he was in there happy by himself for quite a while; i got curious and this is what i found him doing. there are so many thing she can do at one that i just didn't think he would be capable of-- having imaginary conversations between his stuffed animals certainly falls into that category!

10 minute pants/shorts

this is sooo easy ... you've got to try!
this pic doesn't do them justice-- they are extremly cute! a light weight denim w/ a little scrap of quilting fabric for a pocket.

i found this post { http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/2008/06/tutorial-10-minute-trousers.html } on a crafty blog i like to read. i took the 10 minutes (plus a little extra b/c i put a cute pocket on them) to make darling pair of shorts. she has a whole tutorial including how to pictures. check it out and make a pair.

i don't know if y'all have seen the pledge to 'buy handmade'... these were so easy, i'm tempted to take the handmade vow and make elisha's clothes next season... maybe i'll vow to make half, and buy the other 40% at consignment sales... we'll see...

celestial seasonings - 'on napping'

granted, it's not all that late for some of you night owls... but for me it is past bedtime and i am wide awake. so i have brewed a cup of celestial seasoning's 'sleepytime extra' to hopefully send me on my way to dreaming. it has valerian in it, so it's a little 'extra' helpful.
on the side of the box it has a quote from david jacoby. i like it:
"when we were young, the 'tall' ones told us when to slow down. when the demands of the world became too great, their powers of reasoning proved maddeningly accurate. 'i think someone's tired,' they observed. and off for a nap we went. ten minutes later, our dreaming faces had put us back in good favor with our exasperated parents. when we woke, the world somehow made sense again. what kind of truth might a napping child impart to us? now we are the tall ones, living in a complicated world with no one to tell us when to slow down. the slumbering little one knows the value of not having the last word, of accepting a minor defeat. it's so simple. miss out on something. put yourself back in your own good humor. the world will wait."
good night!

picture this

i haven't become totally comfortable w/ our new camera and the whole download process, so i'm behind on my picture posting. here are the highlights... and in a few days i'll cover our most recent trip.
first off-- this is elisha on the morning of his birthday. he was obviously excited about his present! if you are low on storage space for toys, i highly recommend the collapsible tunnels and tents -- big fun that doesn't take up much room when put away... plus they are so fun, everyone wants to play. this is a picture of elisha playing on the tunnel w/ 'big mama' (my mother-- and yes, she chose her own grandmother name! she had a big mama that she loved-- who was actually not quite 5 ft tall!) he thought it was hilarious when she crawled all the way through! we were all amazed!
isn't he a ham! leave it to his aunties to have giant sunglasses for him to try on...this picture isn't great-- i took it myself. it is a wrap stlye carrier that i made for my sister-in-law. i used one like this A LOT when elisha was tiny... i loved it. the moby wrap is the biggest brand that makes ones like this... but they are easy to make for yourself. i embellished this one, but if you make a basic one, it is a no-sew project. you just cut 5 yards of stretchy jersey knit fabric(preferably a mostly cotton) to be about 2 feet wide. so you can usually get 2 or three out of 5 yards of fabric, depending on the width of the bolt.
i appliqued a funky fabric in the 'tree of life' shape onto a lightweight denim square and sewed that onto the center... it is beautiful and gives it a little more structure-- great as her tiny girl gets to be elisha's size!
you can find directions for use on the moby wrap website... if you take a bit of time to practice it will be simple to use... and worth it, because wrap-style carriers are super comfortable! they spread the weight out over your back and shoulders- no pressure points-- and you are totally hands free. you can use them from birth until 35lbs... elisha loves to play the 'give me a BIG hug' game... his daddy thought it would be hilarious for elisha lion to give him an extended big hug... he was actually pretty happy to have a lion tied to him for quite a while!