New blog Update!

So it has been a while!!

Daisylyn is now 11 months old and time is passing away! 

I have started a new blog and I no longer will be updating this blog.  If you are interested in my new blog send me a message with your email address and I will send you the link. 

I have decided to make my thoughts semi-anonymous to the world out there. I hope to use our family blog for cute picture updates of our cute little Daisylyn.



A month or so from now I will make this blog private and you can get updates from my family blog (see sidebar) or message me for my new blog address!!

I am loving the spring weather and can’t wait to get a garden planted!

Nine Months Pictures

Little Miss Sweety Pie is Nine Months Old today!

We ventured outside to the backyard to take some pictures.  Our first outside photoshoot together.  She was most interested in the leaves.  She was a good sport for sitting on frosty ground part of the time.

Some of the new things she has started doing over the past month:

-Crawling.  She started doing this a few days after Christmas.  She has grown so much since she has been able to really move.  She loves exploring all over the house, every nook and cranny.
-She is talking more and more.  The new sounds she started yesterday is a 'g' sound deep in her throat. She also does these sounds: bababab, gagagaga, mamama, bupbup... There are others I am sure.  In the morning she sings in her crib until I go to get her out.
-She now can clap and likes to move ot music.
-She now is up to seven teeth, four on top three on bottom.

She is an overall fun active girl with quite the personality.

Projects, Projects....

I have had a number of projects lingering over my head.  I would get them started and then something else would lure me, then another project would come about.

I made myself put the new ideas on pause to finish a couple of projects.

A year ago my in-laws gave us a mantle as a house warming gift.  I was so happy to have something to put above our fireplace.  It took a year to get it painted and placed. Yeah!!

Toy box.  I found this at DI for $15.  I thought it would make a great toy storage.  It is a really dark brown, but hard to tell by the pictures.

Some of the other projects on the list, hopefully I will get to them this week:

-New carpet and paint at the rental.... let's get this baby rented!! Anyone looking for a 3bed 2 bath in West Boise??

-Sewing some new diaper covers, from a jacket.  I will have to post about this one, it is my latest experiment with the cloth diapering fun.

2009 in Review.....

What a great year! Here is the recap of the fabulous year of 2009….

January: I had discovered in January that one of the things that triggered my sickness while pregnant was chocolate. It was guaranteed to make me feel terrible and usually resulted in throwing up. I was so grateful to figure this out, even though it was one small thing to avoid, to feel a little better. I was also seeing a Nature Pathologist to maintain sanity in health, which was very helpful in the pregnancy.

February: My niece Sydney was born one month early, a sweet addition to the family. Daisylyn got hiccups for the first time in-utero towards the end of the month when I was 33 weeks along.

March: I started feeling much better mid month. I was feeling so good that I started enjoying food for the first time in many months. Daisylyn was a wiggle worm day and night. I thought she might come early. I had a really fun baby shower with family and friends and got tons of really cute outfits for our sweet little one that was soon on her way. We also took a road trip with the Croff side of the family to Rexburg. A cousin of Brinton’s was getting married. The Rexburg Temple is simply beautiful.

April: Dream come true, I am finally a mom!! Our little sweetheart made her grand entrance into the world on her due date, which was wonderful! I can truly say each day gets better and better and I love her more and more every day! A rough ride, that resulted in the most beautiful little girl.

May: Loved staying at home with my little darling. I had to return to work mid May to complete my last month of teaching school. I am so grateful we have made a way I can stay home. Thank you Brinton for taking good care of our family and allowing me to stay home. Dasilyn had a difficult time gaining back her baby weight. She threw up nearly everything, and had troubles pooping too. We started her on Soy formula and we saw great improvements. Brinton passed his first section of the CPA, one down and three to go. Wahoo!!

June: Celebrated my first wedding anniversary by blessing Daisylyn. Took Daisylyn on two road trips where we camped. Both campouts were rainy, the second at Bear Lake we had tornado like winds and ended up packing up and staying in a motel in Pocatello. Nothing like trying to take care of a tiny baby and hold down the fort (literally). Our tent was blowing away so we had to sit in it to hold it down until we came up with a better plan. Thank goodness we had family with a trailer there, so my cousin-in-law Valerie took care of Daisylyn while we took down camp and packed up. Daisylyn finally surpassed her birth weight, and we started her on reflux medication, and saw even greater improvements in weight, mood and sleep.

July: No big events other than celebrating 4th of July with a combined party for my 94 year old grandmother’s Birthday at Dean’s house. I ventured out in trying out cloth diapers with Daisylyn. We had her first continuous laugh at 14 weeks old.

August: Ison Family Reunion in Caldwell. A great time with family near and far. I love getting together with my cousins. I have lots of great cousin-in-laws and really am blessed. Daisylyn started solid foods.

September: Started babysitting a little guy a month younger than Daisylyn. We have a great time and they really enjoy one another’s company. I learned how to can and preserve food. That has been a fun adventure. Daisylyn started rolling over and has been mobile ever since!!

October: Finally got around to taking family photos. Daisylyn turned six months and I thought it was about time to get a shot of all of us, so I could fill the empty frame that had been on our living room wall since March! Daisylyn cut her first teeth (the bottom two, the same week).

November: Took a fabulous cruise to Mexico with Brinton’s parents, sisters and their spouses. I loved the Extreme Canopy Adventure we took. Great memories were had. Daisylyn mastered sitting up on her own.

December: Had a wonderful happy Christmas holiday. Brinton was able to take the week of Christmas off, which was fun. Christmas brought in Daisylyn’s two front teeth putting her at six teeth (four on top and two on bottom). She also learned how to crawl a couple days after Christmas. Brinton and I spent most of New Year’s Eve at his parents place watching bowl games. We left about a quarter to the New Year and the traffic was the least we have ever had between Eagle and Boise, it was great. We got home three minutes before the New Year, with just enough time to celebrate at home with a fire in the fireplace, sparkling juice, cheese ball with crackers and a romantic holiday movie.

Happy New Year. I look forward to the adventures of 2010!

Merry Christmas and Happy 8 Months!

Daisylyn's 8 Month old photos wearing her new Christmas Upcycled Outfit

(see next post).

Merry Christmas!

Upcycled Wool Sweater

Here is my latest project. I got a cute skirt for Daisylyn at the Other Mothers Quarter Sale. I was going to go out and try to find a black sweater. I didn't want to go on a sweater hunt really. I then remembered I had bought an adult size black sweater at a thrift store a couple of months ago. I had already felted the sweater to make a diaper cover so it was ready to cut up and do a project.

I made a pattern out of one of her sweatshirts that is a bit too big so there will be room to grow. I used the bottom ribbing for the bottom of the baby sweater.

I had to get creative for the sleeves. I wanted to use the adult sleeves to make a pair of wool longies for under the skirt. So one of the sleeves has a seam down the outside as well as the inside because I just didn't have enough fabric.

I also had to get creative on the collar. Part of it comes from the adult collar and the other part comes from some of the excess ribbing at the bottom of the sweater.

It was a fun project and surprisingly only took a couple of hours.

Top Ten of What's Keeping me Busy in no particular order...

Top Ten of what is keeping me busy .......in no particular order.
This is basically a catch up blog. Things that deserve separate posts, but will be satisfied with just one.

10. Constructing a padded headboard for our bedroom. Something that has been on my to do list since we moved into our house a year ago. I have wanted to do one of these for a long time. I still need to attach it to the wall and do a little tweaking. But overall I am satisfied, even though it isn't perfectly square.

9. Organizing and cleaning. Brinton and I wanted to be able to park in the garage for the winter so we got our garage semi-organized. I say semi because as you can see there is still a mountain of stuff, the great feat is that it is all stacked at the back of the garage. But there is room for two cars. All we need to do now is get the garage door opener working properly!! The cars were parked in there when we were on vacation, but haven't returned there since.

8. Refinishing project. This will be our toy storage when I get it completed. So far I have sanded and will be priming and painting next. We’ll see if I actually get pictures up on the blog when I get it done.

7. Loven up our little munchkin, I mean Turkey. This was her Thanksgiving duds!

6. Cruised to Mexico and back. We took a great family vacation with Brinton’s parents, sisters and their spouses. We had three stops, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, and Puerto Vallarta. The weather was wonderful and warm, almost a little too hot. It felt like summer all over again which has wonderful! We went on an “Extreme Canopy” tour. It started with an hour boat ride. After our smooth ride on the water, we entered a mix between a hummer and a jeep and took a bumpy ride up into the jungle canopy. Next we rode mules up more windy trails. Then the exciting part where we rode back down out of the jungle by zip lines and repelling. In our group of around 15 I was the first one to go on nearly each platform. The first zip line was around 150 feet above the jungle ground. It was thrilling and ended far too soon. Three quarters of the way through we got to the waterfalls where we repelled down. Well at least we repelled down the first. The second they told us to go over the edge, then free fall and they would catch us on belet. ?sp?? We then stopped suddenly before hitting the pool of water, they took our picture, then all of a sudden we were dropped into the water. It was a wonderful memorable adventure. The last cruise I went on I didn’t accompany my friends on the canopy tour and regretted it, that is one reason it was a must for this trip. I would post pictures from our excursion, but really they are a little too revealing, ya know with the tight harness and all.

5. Baking Bread. I am learning how to become a home maker. It has been fun. Each week or so I try out a new bread recipe. So far I have tried four different recipes including Sister Hinckley’s. They are all good in some way or another. So all of you who have yummy whole wheat bread recipes pass them my way. I would like to give them a try. I have two or three more before I run out of recipes that I have stumbled across. The picture is from today's batch. I even experimented with making cinnamon raisin bread.

4. Food Storage. This is in combination with couponing, I suppose. I have been subscribing to five Sunday papers so that I can get five sets of Sunday coupons so that when there are sales I can stock up on items. It has been a lot of fun. There are some things I need to continue to get for our storage. But over all we have a great start from what I have canned and gathered. Costco had a great sale on their 45#s of wheat. I stocked up and purchased seven. On my to do list, I will make a fabric cover to cover all this wheat. As you can see, in our garage clean up we finally set up both of our Shelf Reliance. I still need to work on filling the second unit, but we will get there. One of the big things we still need is a way to store large amounts of water. Anyone have any thrifty resources for barrels?

3. Managing our rental. Our renters are moving out at the end of the month. We are grateful that they have been good renters for the most part. There has been a couple of late rents, but over all they have gotten us the money. We are so grateful!! So keep you ear out for us. We have a three bedroom two bath in West Boise with a fireplace, washer dryer, fenced yard, two car garage for $850+deposite. It will be available Jan 1st.

2. Working Out. After having a baby, lacking sleep and going on an all you can eat cruise. All I can say is that my body is in desperate need of some TLC. I have been using the elliptical that was gathering dust and Brinton’s TKO machine which was gathering even more dust. I put Daisylyn in the doorway jumper and she has a great time “dancing” to the music as I workout. It is great to have a punching bag to work out any frustrations.

1. Cutting back on Holiday shopping. Typically I thrive on getting good deals and shopping. Brinton and I are trying to cut back on our spending to focus on more important things in life. I did however have to do one Black Friday shopping trip. I got a gift for Brinton and one for Daisylyn at Kohls. It was fun to hear the stories of those who hadn’t been to bed yet and had been shopping since 11pm the previous evening, at the time it was 10:00 in the morning. They were complaining. I was thinking, why on earth are you doing this to yourself????? I love getting a good deal and I don’t mind getting up super early for the deal if it is really that important to me (which I must say it has been many years since I have done any early shopping on Black Friday). If I do, I sure hope you don’t find me whining as I wait in line to buy something for someone (or myself) that they probably didn’t need that bad!

Now I know why I don't blog very often. It takes way too long to convert my pictures to a smaller file for the internet so it is essentially faster when I upload them, but it took me well over an hour to do this post.