Lazy Days...

It has been raining like crazy here and I have had a bad cold so needless to say we didn't get out much this past week. One of Carter's favorite things to say is "Mom, I just want to be lazy today". Which means he wants to stay home and watch cartoons, play with Rusty, bake cookies, cuddle up and read books, do his paint with water books, put together puzzles, etc. We had mostly lazy days this week and it was great. Really nice to stay home and not go, go, go. I think my cold is finally mostly over and I am really glad. It is hard to take care of kids and do everything else with no energy. Thank you coffee.. Here is a new picture of Carter and his "best dog friend" Rusty. Today I am taking the boys to see Madagascar 2 so it is a big day - we are venturing out of the house for the first time this week. Ha! Back to real life I guess and that also means I have to go grocery shopping.. no fun.

New sewing book...

I got this new sewing book today and it is fabulous. It is by my favorite fabric designer (and she has a blog too). Anyhow, it is filled with cool, funky projects I can't wait to make. If you love to sew or want to learn I recommend it, the beginning is filled with the basic "learn to sew" instructions and it is just fabulous.

I have already gone to the fabric store (this evening) to get some fabric for my first project in the book, the "taxi hand-bag". A smallish purse, that looks really cute and pretty easy. We shall see..

Halloween

We had a great Halloween.. the boys and I went shopping at Goodwill in early October for costumes and we got a bunch for like $1.99. We got a new "cooler" batman costume and mask, a darth vader mask, buzz lightyear costume, ronald mcdonald costume, etc. Anyhow, Carter had decided right away that he was going to be batman again this year and Gavin changed his mind about 100 times before Halloween. He mostly said he was going to be darth vader but then at the last minute, insisted on being Robin (old costume from last year). So we had batman and robin. They were both really cute and we had a fun time trick-or-treating.

The boys and I had a small Halloween party here at our house with some friends on Friday morning and then Kevin and I also went to an adult party that night (after trick or treating). It was fun and good to catch up with some old friends. As you can see, I dressed up as minnie mouse.

We also attended some good friends' harvest party on Saturday night so we got some good use out of our costumes this year.. Rusty even came along for trick or treating..

New Addition...

So, we decided we didn't have enough going on around here with two kids, and two cats so we got a new puppy!! We did some research about what kinds of dogs are really good with kids and we knew we wanted a medium to small sized dog. We ended up leaning towards a Springer Spaniel and we found one in Silverton about 15 miles from Salem. He is 8 weeks old and after much debate we named him "Rusty". He is soo cute and cudly. Wants to be held all the time right now. We brought him home yesterday, introduced him to a crate (he had been in a kennel with his Dad at the breeder) and he is really taking to it great. Kevin and I went out to dinner last night for our 8 year anniversary, which is actually on Wednesday, and Rusty came along with us crate and all. He stayed in his crate in the car and did great. Last night we brought his crate into our room when we went to bed and he whined for about 5 minutes and then gave up and went to sleep and slept the whole night! I couldn't believe he did so good in his crate the first night. I think it helped that he knew we were right there and could hear us breathing (or snoring) Ha!

The boys are just thrilled. Carter told me last night "I love him soo much Mom" and he flew out of bed this morning when I said he could let Rusty out of the crate to take him potty. Fun stuff! We have been wanting to get the boys a dog for a while and I am glad we decided to go ahead with it. I can tell this is going to be a really fun time.

"Warms"

I made some rice pillows or "warms" as we call them now around here for the boys. They are the neatest thing and I have taken over Gavin's because he doesn't seem to like it much... (I need to make some more) but Carter and I love them.

They are easy to make and then when you are done you heat them up in the microwave for 2 minutes each night before you go to bed and you have this really warm little pillow to cuddle with. They stay warm for 3-4 hours too. Really great for cold feet which I always seem to have. I read on another blog that someone said she was sick with the flu and her "warm" was the only thing that made life worth living.. that cracked me up totally and reminded me of myself. I can totally see myself in that position when I get the flu- I usually get it once a year and I am knocked out for like 5 days (I mean, cannot even get out of bed knocked out).

Anyhow, here are the directions I followed for the litte "warms". Oh, the best part is when you heat them up they totally smell like rice and make your bedroom smell like you are cooking it or something.. Kevin, (again) thinks I am nuts. I have read that you can fill them with other things like corn kernels, etc. but haven't tried that yet. Oh and one other thing is that when you first make them and heat them up they give off quite a bit of steam so they may feel damp when you take them out of the microwave. The more you use them, heat them up and so on that dampness will go away. So.. hello winter and cold toes, we are ready!!

Super easy fall scarf..

I made this cute fall scarf today. It is raining (pouring) here and I am getting ready for fall & winter. Washing all the coats, etc. This scarf is made with the some Anna Maria Horner (my favorite) fabric for the front, a nice cozy flannel from JoAnn's for the back and lined with some extra cozy fleece. It is a really fun & funky print and I love how it turned out. I used this tutorial, here, but I really think most people could do this without one, super easy. I have the urge to make another one too, with some of the fabric I have laying around.

Fall..

We have been enjoying the start of fall here in Salem. We went on a nature walk and collected a bunch of leaves, nuts, sticks and all sorts of fun stuff and then we made this cool collage. Carter had soo much fun doing this and is really proud of it. He signed his name on it and insisted I sign it too because "you helped Mom". But I had to sign it Stormy and not Mom. He is a pretty funny little guy.

Carter is looking forward to his preschool starting on Oct. 14th and Gavin and I will get to spend some quality time together then too which is fun.

We are in the process of building a new deck in our back yard (our last project around here for a long time!!!, says me anyhow). No, I am of course excited to be getting a new deck, just can't wait for it all to be done so we can relax and enjoy it.