Easter Egg Dying

Happy Easter!  Our Easter began at about 9:30am on Saturday morning, a little early, by dying eggs when Judah went down for his morning nap.  I had hard boiled 24 eggs so that they each got 6 to decorate.

Unlike with the gingerbread houses, I always enjoy this tradition.  It was so much calmer than in years past since all but Drew can take care of their own eggs.  Drew only cracked one this year, but he didn't really want to get his hands dirty and participate much.  I helped him quite a bit.

Drew and I tried dying a brown egg green and it turned out camouflaged.

19 months and counting

Judah is now over 19 months, but he got his 18 month check up a little late, and it reminded me to do a little update on him.

He was 33 1/2 in. and 25.13 lbs.  His head circumference was 21 in.  He was good for the doctor, but didn't like when they tried to get his pulse/ox on his toe.  He cried for just a moment when he was given the four vaccines, but then he was done and happy to eat his lollipop.

Judah's schedule is still the same.

Wake at 6:45am (usually already awake and playing quietly in his crib when I go get him)
Nap 9-11am (occasionally will not sleep, but play the whole time nicely in his crib)
Nap 2-4pm
Bed time at 7:30pm

In the shower

Judah is a good eater most of the time, so I don't worry if he won't eat much for dinner on occasion.  He eats a good amount of vegetables and fruit.

Unique things about Judah at this age...

He loves to hug babies or anyone around his size that he deems a baby even if they are strangers on the playground.  And not just one hug either!  He hugs them until they are telling their mommy that "the baby won't stop hugging them."  It is adorable and funny to watch!  He's going to be such a loving big brother.

He's very particular.  When it's time for mommy cuddles while I pray and sing with him before bed, he needs to lay his head on my chest, but he only likes his face to touch skin, not my clothes, and he always demands that I move my hair and necklace out of the way for him.  Judah is a big fit thrower too when he doesn't get what he wants.  We saw that with wanting to go outside when he couldn't or having to to come inside.  It extends much further now, to  everything from not wanting to wait for his food to come out of the microwave, to not wanting a banana cut a certain way, to not wanting to be buckled in his car seat or high chair.  It's getting ridiculous.  I don't give in to him almost ever, but his fits never seem to end.  they go on and on and on sometimes, unless we can distract him before he gets too worked up.

He loves baths, animals, books, hugs and playing outside!  His favorite song was Twinkle Twinkle, but is now My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.

On Sunday, he got a good boo boo on his face.  Drew picked up a chunk of pavement from the road about the size of my hand and threw it without looking.  It hit Judah right in the corner of his eye.  he's pretty scraped up, but he was mostly okay.  Drew was finished with his outside playtime a little early that day.  Judah loves outside so much that when I brought him in to clean up his face and get a cold pack, he was oscillating crying out "eye" and "outside" until I took him back outside.

A Few Chats with a 19 Month Old

I haven't done videos of Judah nearly as often as I did with the older kids.  I love to look back on these little interviews and see how they have changed and remember how it used to be.

He drinks Coconut or Almond milks that we have always called silky to distinguish it in his mind from the cow's milk that he can't have.  Judah says Hannah for both girls most of the time even though he can say Genna.  I don't know why he is reverting to that.

I love this cute dimply guy!

The Home-Improvement Train

 Apparently, the home-improvement train is hard to get off of for my husband.  He replaced the laminate floor with a matching (matches the other floors on the main floor) hard wood floor.  He did it all in less than 3 full days which is pretty impressive.

Work in progress

Before replacing most of the furniture

Finished product

A month ago, I moved the toys out of the breakfast area and moved the mini sofa into that area.  We were tripping over toys and now the toys stay in the living room and don't seem to get dumped all over unless we have other kids over.  We all like it a lot more this way.  The kids love to read on the little sofa, and it is a great place for me to rest when I have a second when cooking dinner.

Kitchen sofa in action before the floors were replaced

What they did without me...

I had a weekend with girl friends this past weekend at a spa resort, but it looks like everyone survived the weekend without Mama.  This is what Daddy did with the five energetic children of ours.  Looks like fires, forts, and baseball was the theme of the weekend.  Brian also took them to German school and Isaac's Cub Scout's derby race/award's ceremony and to his favorite restaurant.

He even got them ready for 7:30am Mass!  I asked for a picture of this so I could see how everyone was dressed.

 I'm impressed.  The fits didn't start until I was safely back at home.  Isn't it sweet of these kids (actually just one kid) to save them up for me?  I thought so.  ;)

Prayer Pillowcases

My cousins are having babies like crazy all of the sudden.  It's great!  I've been waiting for this.  For so long, I was the main supplier of babies at family gatherings (when we could make them since we don't live near our families), but now there are all sorts of cute babies to see!

I decided after purchasing several of these prayer pillowcases from Prayer Pillowcases for friends' children that I would try and embroider one in a similar fashion.  It was fun, but took a lot more time than I thought.  I thought it would be quick because of all the fabric markers making things go faster, but the embroidery was still a lot in the end.

The picture and the name are a combination of embroidery and fabric markers.  The prayer is just fabric marker.

I drew the picture looking at a picture on the internet and then transferred it onto the pillowcase.  Then I used the fabric markers and chose what parts I wanted embroidered.

I threw in a couple of extra goodies and mailed them off!

Saint Swap: Part I

Okay, background.  A year or so ago, I chose not to go to a saint peg doll party exchange because I thought I was too busy, and I, being a perfectionist about this kind of stuff, frankly thought that the ones other people painted might not be up to par.    I wasn't even sure I'd be able to paint such tiny features.  A friend that did go showed me the results and I was amazed at how well they all turned out.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year.  I am certainly no less busy.  Some may argue that I am more busy.  Okay, it wouldn't really be an argument with me, since I won't deny it.  Anyway, a friend from back in Texas and a friend of hers wanted to do a saint peg doll swap via the mail.  Because of my regrets for not doing the last one, I volunteered without letting myself think too much about the amount of time it would take me.  That group dissolved suddenly because a new more organized group was found.  I joined that one because it looked super organized and easy to comply with their rules.  I did accidentally order my dolls too small thinking that there were no guidelines for that part.  When I realized my mistake I talked to the leader of the group and she said since I signed up for Saint Lucy and she is a child then it is fine as long as I could handle painting on such a small doll.

Being that I despise returning things I decided to make it work.  I set up shop in my very own brand new and shiny craft room made by my wonderful husband.  Nap times that I could stay awake during I began working as soon as  I received my pegs and made a run to Joanne's for the extra supplies that I needed.

I googled examples of St. Lucy peg dolls painted previously all over the world to give me a starting point.  I had to paint 24 dolls.  First I painted the heads.

I made some practice faces on these clothespins.

The girls though the red lips one would be the best.  I painted the clothes white.

I painted on the yellow hair.

I added a different shade of yellow to make the strands of hair look more realistic. ( Here's where I started forgetting to take pictures.)

I added dress details, hands, and a red ribbon around her waist.  I tried out a crown of candles and it worked pretty well.

And after more dress detail and everyone finished up, here they are.

The part I struggle with the most was the red ribbon.  Originally I made the bow too thick and I painted over it...a bunch of times with white.  It fell right at the same height as her hands and at first I had her hands forward more and it looked less like a belt and more like she was holding something.  I ended up just putting her hands down and to the sides more to avoid this.  Hannah, my biggest critic, thought I made her waist dropped too much in some dolls.  Painting over the red again did not seem worth it for that small problem.

They are mailed off and I will be posting again on this when I receive my box of saints from all over the USA.