Spikey hair

Asher just loves being like his daddy. Whenever Derk puts his styling paste stuff in his hair as he's getting ready for work, Asher will ask to have some, too. I was at the beauty supply store the other day and saw a huge tub of gel on sale, so I decided to get some for Asher. He was so excited to have his hair spikey. I sure think he looks cute!!

The most random, ridiculous accident ever!!

DISCLAIMER: There will be icky pictures, so don't read this post if you're squeamish!!


I still can't believe this happened. It's just beyond random and is just, well, stupid!

Last night, I was cooking dinner and went into the pantry to grab a can of black beans. I was walking out of the pantry and shut off the light. Well, as my hand was going down, my ring somehow caught on the strike plate on the door jamb.

I have NO idea why there are those yellow strips on either side of the picture. Strange. But anyway, you can see the lip of the strike plate that sticks out on the left side. That's where my ring caught.

I didn't realize I'd caught on anything, so I kept walking. There was such force that my finger ripped that strike plate completely off the door jamb! It flew across the room. I remember hearing a clinking sound and turning to figure out what had fallen, then the pain set in. I looked down at my finger, and my ring had sliced into my finger when it caught on that stupid thing. Oh, man, I haven't felt pain like that in a long time! Thanks to my medication, it bled a bit more than it probably would have otherwise, but it was controlled easily enough. Also, because of the force, my ring was yanked hard into my knuckle, so now my knuckle is super swollen. It was probably 2.5 times its normal size last night, but it's gone down some this morning.

Okay, here come the icky pictures!

You can sorta see how swollen my knuckle is in this picture...

And here's another one to show that the gash goes all the way across my finger.

It's A LOT more bruised than it looks in the picture. I took the picture right under the chandelier in the dining room to get good light, so it kind of drowns the nastiness of the bruising. There is a blessing in all of this, though! At least it was my left hand and not my right! It's hard not being able to use my left hand, but I can't imagine trying to function without my dominant hand.

So anyway, how's that for a freak, random accident?!?! Ridiculous!!

Cambria the Superhero

I posted a while ago about Asher's new Superhero ABC book. He still loves it, and the girls even have grown to enjoy reading it. We read it a few days ago, and Bri ran off to play after the story was over. She came to find me a few minutes later to show me that she was a superhero, too!

Here is the page from Asher's book:

And here's Cambria's version:

lol!

A cutie in a playpen

I babysit a 1 year old during the week, and I forgot to take down the playpen the other day. Bri spilled her water bottle all over her bed, so I asked her if she wanted to take a nap in the playpen. She was ridiculously excited over that idea. :) I thought she looked pretty darn cute!


I love sleeping pictures! I just want to pick them up and smother them with kisses when they look like this. So angelic!

Bikes!

Today was a busy day! We had a pancake breakfast activity at church this morning for all the Primary kids, so we were out the door by 8:15 to go to that. Afterward, we had to go buy the kids new sandals (Why did they all decide to grow out of them at the same time?! That was one expensive trip!). It took going to several different places to finally find shoes for everyone, which was annoying.

We got home around 12:30, and Derk and I decided to clean out the garage. The kids were riding bikes, and we realized that Kyrie was way too big for hers (she's had it since she was 5). So the rest of the day was devoted to bikes! Since we were getting Kyrie a new bike, we decided today was the perfect time to teach Asher how to ride without training wheels (he tried once about a year ago, but he was too afraid after the initial excitement of that first ride wore off). He's getting too big for his bike, too (shhh...he's getting a new one for his birthday!), so we wanted to teach him how to ride without training wheels on his smaller one so that he's confident enough to do it on his new bigger one in a few weeks.

After a looooong time shopping for bikes (Kyrie didn't want the bigger size, and it took a lot of convincing!), we finally got home and were able to get to the park! Derk helped Asher on his bike and helped him get started, and that was it! He took right off and didn't stop. He didn't even fall once! I'm seriously impressed, and he was sure proud of himself! While Kyrie and Asher were enjoying their new bikes, Cambria and I were having fun on the swings. :)

And here's a video of Asher (and my handsome hubby!!)!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

An ottoman redo

I LOVE our ottoman. The cushions come off, and there are 2 huge storage areas underneath. The problem was that the upholstery was torn in numerous places (thank you, kids and cats!), and it looked horrendous. I was seriously embarrassed for people to come over and see it. Derk told me to just trash it and buy a new one. But I love that thing! I store our movies in one side and our blankets in the other side. I'd have nowhere to put those things if I didn't have that storage, so I really wanted to keep it.

So, I figured why not ask my mother-in-law to help me redo it while she was in town for Kyrie's baptism! She knows how to do pretty much everything under the sun (seriously, she even made her own tooth to save on dental costs!). So off we went to the fabric store. After a lot of searching, I finally found the perfect fabric. It ended up costing around $50 to cover the whole thing, but that's a heck of a lot cheaper than replacing it would have been. And now it has my own personal touch. I think it turned out awesome!

Before
(sorry about the awful glare from the lamp!)

After!

My mother-in-law helped me do the base, and I did the cushions completely on my own. The base fabric matches the lightest square in our rug, and the cushion fabric is an exact match of our couches, the red wall and the lightest square in the rug as well. It's still not quite done yet. Underneath the cushions, I stapled the fabric on, and I want to do something to cover up the staples. I'm not sure what yet, though. I'll have to walk around JoAnns to get some inspiration.

Here's a close-up of the cushion fabric. The stripes are raised and feel almost like a corduroy type of fabric.

Thanks for your help, Mom! You're awesome!!

Sweet siblings

I've been having a hard time getting Kyrie to focus during school time the past few days. Asher and Bri always distract her, and it just makes things really tricky. Normally we sit at the table with my laptop and do her school work. Her work isn't all online, but there are still lesson helps that I typically use. Today, though, I decided to just work straight from the books and set Asher and Bri up on a DVD on my laptop. I put them in Asher's room so Kyrie wouldn't be distracted. I just went in to check on them, and this is what I found:

They fell asleep together. And Asher is snuggled up with the blanket I crocheted for him while I was pregnant. It just melted my heart. I love these kiddos.

I just had to speak his language!

I have been working with Asher for a long time to help him learn his letters. We were doing a preschool with some friends from church up until we moved last May, but he just wasn't very interested then. When Kyrie and I started homeschooling at the beginning of this school year, I started including Asher. I printed off letter pages and worked with him. I thought he'd love to do school like his big sister. But that was always a fight, too. So for the past few months, I backed off completely, until I realized that he'll be starting Kindergarten this fall. By the time Kyrie started Kindergarten, she was reading. I know every child is different, but I also know that Asher is capable of learning his letters and should know them by now.

So anyway, I turned to the internet, as I typically do when I need advice. And I found 2 products that I am indebted to for the rest of my life!!!

Superhero ABC book and the Letter Factory DVD

He BEGS to read that Superhero book. We read it at least twice every day and then again for his bedtime story. And he loves to watch the movie (he's watched it twice today already). The best part is that he has no idea he's even learning. It's so funny because I'll ask him if he wants to work on his letters, and he'll glare at me and say no. But then I rephrase it and ask him if he wants to read his new Superhero book or watch the Letter Factory movie, and he gets super excited. He went from not being able to recognize any letters to being able to recognize 6 within the last week. I'm just thrilled! I highly, highly recommend these products. The book obviously won't be something a girl would enjoy, but the DVD is something any kid would like.

Family Night

Tonight for family night, we decided to go miniature golfing. Kyrie has been begging to go again for a few months, so she was very excited when we told her we were going. While I was paying for the golf round, I noticed a coupon near the register for the restaurant they have there. The deal was way too good to pass up, so that's what we did for dinner. They were offering a large 1 topping pizza, 8 wings, 12 breadsticks with dipping sauce, a large salad and 4 sodas all for just $22! We couldn't believe it. By the time the pizza came out, we were too stuffed and ended up taking the entire thing home. :)

The kids were having too much fun to cooperate for pictures, but I managed to get a few (you can click on the picture collage to enlarge it).