Christmas Pictures 2014

 There are a million pictures here. You have been warned.

Trying to get some pictures for the Christmas card this year:

Decorating Gingerbread houses:

Christmas treat baking with Grandma:

Tanner climbing under the tree.

Opening Christmas Eve PJs:

Before the opening began:

Some of Santa's loot:

Poor girl couldn't decide if she wanted to vacuum or push a stroller, so she did both:

He was so thrilled to get an Xbox:

Ninja Turtle toys from Aunt Sandrina:

Paw Patrol!

More Paw Patrol:

Books and Xbox games for Joey:

 Yes, he had to go ahead and start reading.

Brinley and her Frozen pillow and blanket set.

Who doesn't love cash?

Grandma helping Brinley open presents from Aunt Melissa and Clint.

Brinley feeding her new baby from Aunt Sandrina (and making Grandma feed another baby).

Mom opening her gift from me.

Aunt Angie visited and brought more presents!

Angie and Dritan's present from me:

Angie made this awesome gift for us:

Grandma and Brinley time:

Movie night: Guardians of the Galaxy!

Christmas 2014, we missed Earl and Dritan, but had a wonderful holiday!

Josiah

Josiah is such a little man. He still loves school and does great there. He loves science and art the most. He is still very much obsessed with Legos. He is getting into the Star Wars Lego theme now, but still loves Ninjago too. He loves Marvel superheros, especially Ironman. He loves the Avengers. He's still the sweetest, most generous and forgiving big brother. He and Tanner share a room, and most nights (especially since Earl's been gone), Tanner sleeps with Joey in Joey's bed, even though his bed is just a few steps away from Joey's.

He's lost 2 bottom teeth so far. Still hasn't had any cavities. He's learned how to play Chess at school and loves it. He loves computer games. He gets on m Facebook account to play some Facebook games there, and he's got this Roblox site with games he loves. He could really spend all day on the computer if I let him. He's been selected to participate in these pull out sessions at school because of his academic potential. It gives him more challenges and skill building practice. He loves to read. He enjoys reading those massive Bible story books, and for fiction  he likes the A to Z Mystery books. He's in 2nd grade, but is reading at a 4th grade level.

He gave up TaeKwonDo this year because he wasn't really enjoying it anymore. He loves Cub Scouts, still and is doing very well. He loves doing crafts.

He would argue with a stop sign. When I tell him that, he argues about it. He is so clever and funny sometimes. He likes his hair long and it's a battle sometimes to get him a trim.

Tanner

Update on the middle child. Tanner is as funny as ever. He's had a very hard time adjusting to his daddy's deployment, though, so it's brought out alot of aggression and rage that we hadn't really seen in him before. I've been reading lots of Positive Parenting books and have gotten much better at learning how to get him through the tough moments. His loving side is SOOO loving. He can be so sweet and thoughtful and just downright delightful.
He loves school. He goes 3 days a week, for half days. He especially loves singing and dancing. His L's still sound like Y's and he starts skipping numbers when he gets to 13. He loves monkeys still. And still enjoys Elmo. He loves superheroes, especially Spiderman and Hulk. Ironman and Captain American are runners up. His favorite cartoons are Paw Patrol and Peppa Pig. He and Joey will watch the movie Rise of the Guardians over and over and over again.
One day, me, Tanner and Joey were discussing if Tanner would grow up and have kids. Tanner said he would. Joey said, "but first you have to get a m--" (he was about to say a mommy, but Tanner interrupted...) Tanner jumps in and says, "I know, I know. First I have to get a mustache." We died laughing. So funny.

Another funny story. We were at Cub Scouts one night. Joey's a Wolf now. There's also Tigers and Bears. Tanner heard someone direct someone to the Bears room.  A few minutes later, he started asking to go see the Pandas. I had no idea what he was talking about. Finally I figured out that he thought the Bears were actual Panda Bears across the hall. He was pretty disappointed. We need to get up to Aunt Angie's and visit the DC zoo.

He goes to Awanas at Church, where he memorizes Bible verses and has other fun. He enjoys going to Cub Scouts with Joey, even though he's not old enough yet. He loves playing in water. Water hose, water puddles, sinks, bath tubs, you name it.

He doesn't like wearing pants. He's usually got them before we're all through the front door when we come home. He cut his own hair not too long ago, so he's sporting a buzz cut these days. He loves the big red slide at Sonic. I can't get him to leave there when we go. So we don't go often. But he loves it. He wants that slide in his backyard.

Brinley's 9 Months!

Boy is this girl growing fast. She's full of spunk, attitude, and adorableness. She drives me crazy with her unpredictable sleeping and eating times. She already loves her brothers like crazy. She knows how to crawl, clap, say Ma Ma and Da Da, and maybe Jo Jo, too. She smiles at Earl's picture on the wall like she remembers him, even though she was just 3 months old when he deployed. She has no teeth yet, but seems to be teething non-stop. She despises the car seat even more than her brothers did, if that's possible.

She's not crazy about being strapped in a high chair, either, for that matter. She eats a little of the solids I feed her, but not much.  Her eyes are still  that beautiful gray newborn color. Her hair seems to be Joey's dark shade of brown. She was in the 93rd percentile for weight a couple months ago, but since she's more mobile, she's dropped down to the 60-something percentile, which the doctor said is completely normal. Her massive cheeks are starting to thin out. She wears size 18 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

She wants to pull up so bad. We work on it a little, but not too much. I'm kinda hoping she waits for her Daddy to come home for that. She's definitely a Mama's girl right now, and doesn't appreciate anyone else trying to hold her or take her from me. She has slept through the night maybe 3 times since August, where as before that, she was an awesome all-night sleeper. She puts anything and everything in her mouth, but seems to prefer the strings that break off the shag rug from the living room. Oh, and chalk. And paper.

She definitely knows her name, and recognizes her brother's name. All I have to do is say that one of them is coming, and she looks to the door for them to walk in the room.

I've been off dairy for her sake, for many months now. So I'm starting to ease back into that and see if it gives her the horrible upset stomach issues it did when she was tinier. If that goes good, I'll even try to get a little caffeine in my body.

She gives kisses, blows raspberries (in the air and on skin), copies squeals and sounds you make to her, imitates you sticking out your tongue at her, and has her very own monster growl.

She's our precious, clever, amazing little girl. And her daddy can't wait to get home and hold all 20 lbs. of her chunkiness.

She had a very rough start, but she's healthy and full of life now. Happy 9 months, sweet Brinley.

How to Make a Ninjago Green Ninja Costume

Joey, my 6-year-old, wanted to be the Green Ninja for Halloween, but they haven't started selling those costumes yet. So I had to make my very first Halloween costume for him. I searched all over the Internet and couldn't find any really good how-to for us. There were a few that made it very "lego-y" where it was boxed and yellow, like the legos, but Joey wanted to skip the lego details and just concentrate on the Green Ninja (Lloyd)'s costume and outerwear. So here's how I did it:

We were fortunate to have an old TaeKwonDo uniform to use. I couldn't find any online that were green, so we took Joey's old white one and bought some green fabric dye I got at Walmart (I think the brand was Tulip and it comes in the little packets of powder) and dyed it a couple times to get a good shade.

I hung it on a step ladder in the garage to dry. Then my husband brought home some fabric paint tubes for the details.

I needed the diamonds with the crosses in the middle, so I made a diamond stencil for myself to keep them uniform and evenly spaced.

There's a folder inside the jacket to keep the paint from bleeding through and sticking the front and back of the fabric together.

Then I just pained on the the diamonds with the metallic silver fabric paint and the little paint brush supplied.

 Then, after the silver dried,  I used the black paint to paint on the crosses in the center of the diamonds. (The wet spot is my attempt to clean up a spilled paint drop.)

 The back was harder because I have no natural drawing ability. I searched for the design that is on the Green Ninja's back, the golden snake, but couldn't find one online to print out and use as a stencil. So I had to use Word Paint (I think) to create a circle within a circle, and then free-draw the snake head in the program, along with the snake tail wraps.

Then I printed it out the size I wanted, and used a seam-ripper to trace around the design leaving a "stencil" for me to trace. I used a black permanent marker to draw it on the fabric.

 Then I just used the gold paint from the pack to fill in the snake.

 It wasn't centered well. But luckily, my son didn't notice.

Then I needed to put more diamonds with black crosses on the back.

Then I put the diamonds with black crosses on the pants. I started a little low because the jacket comes down low on my son's uniform, so I didn't see the point in painting on some that wouldn't never show.

 Next came the hood. I found an easy online how-to on making a ninja mask from a t-shirt at How2DoStuff.blogspot.com, so we bought a white t-shirt (my son normally wears size 6, and we tried a few different sizes on in the store and thought the size 14/16 fit him best as a hood) and dyed it the same color as the uniform.
Then I put it on like the ninja-mask instructions said (inside out and upside down, with his face looking out the neck hole) and tied the sleeves behind his head, folded the "tag" under and inside, and pulled it up over his nose. And pulled the top down to his brows and folded the seam under. Then I did a quick freehand draw while it was on his head, about how and where the design should go. (I should have made a stencil or printed it offline if it was available, I am horrible at freehand!)

 We let it dry. (I did this part on the night before Halloween, I think.)
We had purchased the black double sword and holder from the Spirit Halloween store, along with the ninja gloves. My husband and son made the golden weapon from a wooden dowel painted gold and plastic sword ends screwed onto the ends.

 I used one of my sweater belts to wrap around him and a piece of foil wrapped around the knot to mimic the Green Ninja's buckle.

 My very picky son was extremely happy with the results!

I hope this helps someone else from searching online for hours trying to find help or something similar to purchase (in stock).

Family Status Update

It has been many  months since I've updated the blog. It's just so easy to post pictures and brief things on Facebook, since most of my family and friends are on there. But I thought I'd do a quick update on what we are doing these days.

Josiah: His most recent obsession is Legos, and more specifically, Lego Ninjago. He is going to be his favorite, the green ninja, for Halloween, but they don't sell those costumes in stores yet, so we are having to make it. I'll post pics of that when I'm done. He loves 1st grade and Cub Scouts. He is still doing, and enjoying TaeKwonDo. He just recently earned his yellow belt in the juniors class. He's still the most fabulous big brother to Tanner. It's really amazing. He's working very hard on eating more and eating more healthy. He's very eager to weigh 40 lbs. so he can take the back off his booster seat in the car. (He's at 39.6 lbs now.) Recently, he's really gotten into golf with Earl. He has his own little set of clubs and goes to the golf courses with Earl.

Tanner: Tanner is Tanner, wild and crazy as ever. But still so sweet, too. We're working on getting him off the pacifier, but boy is it hard. He's attached to that thing more than Joey was attached to Green Daddy. He weighs about 27 lbs. now, I think, and has become as picky an eater as his big brother (and mom). He loves playing Legos too (the bigger kind for toddlers) and Joey plays with him often. He's still in the crib, but we are thinking of letting him and Joey share a room soon, so we'll transition him to a big boy bed then. He's not potty trained yet either, but I don't know when I'll get to that. Hopefully before the new baby arrives. I don't want to deal with 2 kids in diapers.

Baby #3: We should find out Nov. 23rd if it's a boy or girl. I'm leaning towards thinking it's a girl, but I also though Joey was going to be a girl, so I don't trust my intuition. I'm happy no matter what, so long as he or she is healthy. I'm 16 weeks along now. So far, Baby #3 loves Ramen Noodles and plain Philly Cheesesteak Sandwiches from Andy's. Baby #3 seems to hate my favorite food: spaghetti. She or he still makes me nauseous some days, but I am much better than the first 3 months of this pregnancy where I stayed tired and nauseous all day and night, every day and night. Here at Lejeune's Naval Hospital, they schedule c-sections at 39 weeks. Since my due date is April 10, this baby should be arriving around April 3 or so (it's not scheduled yet), unless I go into labor before that.