Sleeping Beauties and Fingers in the Pie

Callie was sick all week long. She was so pathetic and oh, so cute. She was roasting hot and spent most of the days laying on the couch or my bed. She liked for me to make her a nest of pillows she could snuggle in.

Mostly I set her up in front of the TV and let her watch cartoons all day. She would watch and nap and watch and nap. Here she is, fast asleep in her nest of pillows. She is almost back to normal now. She still has a stiff neck from sore, swollen lymph nodes on her neck.

I didn't go out much this week because Callie couldn't go out. I got wrapped up in my Quiet Book making and occasionally left Delaney to her own device while I was working. I was nearly finished the other afternoon and I looked up to see Delaney, falling asleep in the computer chair!

The poor little pickle had just conked out right there. I was afraid she was going to fall off, the way he head would nod down and jerk. She was too cute!

And Rylee.. ah, non-sleeping Rylee. She is working on growing some back teeth. She has very swollen gums as her molars think about making an appearance. This translates into not much in the way of napping, lots of night waking, and not staying asleep once she is asleep. This day she finally fell asleep after much grumping, but I had to leave in 15 minutes to go to an appointment. Sigh. I just lay her on the couch while I got everyone else ready. Then I took a picture.

And the last picture has nothing to do with sleep. We had the missionaries over for dinner and I made Chocolate Truffle Pie for them. The whole evening was kind of a comedy of errors, but it all began earlier that afternoon when I saw Delaney sneaking away from the refrigerator....
Little Stinkpot had been scooping out pie with her fingers! The evidence was on her chocolatey face. Grrr. Yes, we still served it and yes it was delicious.

Top 10 Excuses

Its been what, a week since I blogged? Since I like to post 2-3 times a week, that's a bit of time off for me. I know when my family and friends don't blog for a week, I miss them. In case you have missed me, let me give you my top 10 excuses for why I have not blogged:

1. I HAVE blogged. I just did them all in my head and they never actually got written down.

2. I get to deal with a lot of things and currently, Joshua is having issues with the mysterious case of the hives. He has been breaking out in them every evening. I guess he is allergic to bedtime. Actually, my best guess is an allergy to the new laundry detergent, but he sure is itchy all the time. Here is a picture of what he looked like last night:

3. Rylee has been having some intestinal issues that have given her such diaper rash that it has blistered and currently looks like raw hamburger. Poor kid is not happy about that. I changed 6 poopy diapers on her yesterday and it looks so painful. To make things worse, (or perhaps the cause?) she is working on her first molars. She has 2 painful swollen gums that feel like squishy blisters. Poor kid.

4. I'm tired. Rylee's teeth growing is a painful process and she is waking up a lot and when she does fall asleep, she expects me to be her human pacifier, and when I say no, she wakes up and cries. Not much fun.

5. I am the mom. I have lots to do and lots I want to do. Good thing I have cute kids!

6. Callie is sick. She's been a little off since Friday with a fever off and on. She went to school yesterday, because she'd been fever-free since Sunday. Unfortunately she came home from school burning up. Aargh. She is quite roasty-toasty today, so she's home from school curled up in a nest of cushions. She's a good sick kid.

7. I discovered a series of books. Darn Goodreads! One of my friends had reviewed a book on there called "Gone" by Michael Grant and I had to check it out at the library. I have been completely sucked into it and I am half way through the sequel. I really hope it isn't a trilogy, since I cannot afford to neglect everything much longer!

8. Halloween is coming. The kids must go through the box 500 times to decide what they want to be and to see how they will look in it. Plus, I have some duties to do before the ward Trunk or Treat. I have done about half of what I need to, but I still need to set aside an hour or 2 to get it all done. Here is Rylee, trying on Callie's Cat ears.

9. I'm unmotivated. The effort of kicking Delaney, or Joshua off the computer and sitting down to write is too much work for the paltry thoughts I have.

10. I am still in Quiet Book Heaven! I now have acquired the coveted pattern book (thank you Ebay!!) and I am almost done with Camden's Christmas present! It is so fun and so darn cute, if I may say so myself! Check out 2 of my favorite pages:
I like the Noah's Ark a lot. There is a plastic piece on the top of the boat so you can set the animals in it. That's where Noah and the horse and giraffe are. The animals all fit into the pocket of the ark. The skink and the hippo are my favorite animals! (The fish are just for fun and do not come up off the page.)

I think the house is adorable. Okay, not that it is well done, but because the door and 2 upstairs windows open. What is behind them?

SO cute! We'll leave the upstairs windows as a surprise for Miranda!

And those are my excuses.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

I have a hard time with "Wordless Wednesday". Mostly because I LIKE the words! I WANT to hear the story. Yes, yes, the picture may very well tell the story, but I still like more than one picture. A series of pictures is better than one, and might even be better than an explanation, but usually, I like the story to be there with the picture.

That being said, I took these pictures to put up wordlessly, but I can't. See, Rylee was falling asleep at the table. I was trying to make dinner, feed her, watch the big kids through the window playing outside, and grab the camera all at the same time. I didn't get the shots I had hoped for. Fortunately, Dan came home and took her out of her chair, wiped her grubby hands and took her up to her crib. Here she is though, falling asleep in her chair, still wearing the residue of leftover pumpkin chocolate chip scone:

And there was more excitement this evening as Joshua headed up for bed. He came racing down with great delight. His other front tooth finally came out! He's been wiggling it for months now. So, my 9 year old, yes NINE year old son has finally lost a grand total of 4 teeth. I'm not sure what the Tooth Fairy will bring him, but he was fairly specific on the envelope he put the tooth in. Can you see if in the picture?
The last 3 teeth have netted a mere $.75 each and he wants at least $1, but up to $20 would be just fine. I think his request may be phrased a little rudely, but I'm also not sure the Tooth Fairy has anything less than a $1.

Temple Trip

Rylee is a force to be reckoned with. She opens the cupboards and pulls out the pots and pans. She also loves her baby dolls. This week, she combined her two loves and pulled out the pots. Then she sat in one with her baby. I laughed much.

The Primary had an activity this week and the kids all went to the Temple. since we have so many, I talked Dan into making it a family trip. So we all went. It was a neat experience for the kids, and they behaved very well. At least, all the big kids did. Rylee ran rampant. At one point, I thought Dan was keeping an eye on her and I was taking pictures of the kids and I looked up to see a family coming around the corner of the Visitor Center carrying a baby wearing the same dress as Rylee. then I realized the dad was carrying MY baby! Rylee had just taken off and never looked back. The nice family saw her racing away, all alone and brought her back. Embarrassing!

Anyway, here are some of the cutest pictures of my children from the trip. And we even managed to get a shot of our whole family! Yay!

Quiet Books!

I love Quiet Books. I love making them, I love playing with them, and I love the memories I have of the one my mom made for us when I was a kid. My sister suggested that her little manling might like a quiet book for Christmas and I was delighted to bust out my stuff to get started. The last time I did this, I had 2 different paperback tutorial books and a hardcover ABC tutorial book. I still have 2 of the 3 pattern books. The third actually was borrowed from my mom and I really hope I gave it back to her, because I cannot find it! The problem is that some of my favorite patterns are in my mom's book. I have been diligently searching online and there is a TON of great stuff out there! Unfortunately, I am not finding the specific patterns I want.

I do love all the variety that I am finding, although it is making things mighty difficult. So many choices! So many ideas! How can I do them all?!! Google "Quiet Book" and check out some of the great things people have done. Some are really simple, and some are pretty elaborate. I like to think that I fall in the middle, and I hope you will support me in this possible delusion.

I am in the throes of creating, so I am not fully finished with any pages, but I thought I'd show you what I have done so far. I am using muslin an the pages and mainly felt for the decor.

This will be the back page and it will hold a notebook and pen. This is the first page I worked on and I made the unfortunate discovery that my fabric pens are not up for another use. Please forgive the lack of polish on this one.

I find this page a bit drab. Perhaps once I get the writing done....

The red, yellow and green circles are velcroed on.

I thought this came out quite cute! And my family may understand why I made the apples large enough to not be eaten!! Plus, I don't have to make as many. The apples velcro on and can be put in the basket.

The fishing boy is one of my favorites. The fish are velcroed on, and can be put in the bucket. I still need to sew a loop on the fish mouths and I need to put the fishing line and hook in the boy's hand.

The kite is cute and simple to do, so I like it!

I had not made this one before, but I thought it came out very nicely! I'm not sure I like the white colored egg on the light colored page since it looks a little plain. But the chick is adorable and goes inside the egg.

So, I am off to a roaring start and neglecting lots of other things to work on it all! If I remember, I'll post pictures of the finished product.. but I may have to wait till after Christmas!