A back pack for William

William has been asking me for a long time for a back pack. I would occasionally look in stores, but most all back packs are just huge for a 3 year old. I mentioned to my crafty friend Jill that I wanted to try and sew William a back pack and she printed me a pattern. It's a pattern from made by Rae. Pretty simple looking, cute and functional for a 3 year old. My adult ed sewing class started this month on Monday nights so I took the project with me. I accomplished more than I thought I would the first night seeing as the first step was to use a zipper foot and attach piping and a zipper to my pattern pieces! Never done any of this before (used a zipper foot, piping or zippers) I was impressed with how it all came out! The next class I made the straps and tried to figure out how strap adjusters worked. Once I got all that figured out I sewed the rest at home when the boys went to bed. I think it came out pretty good for my first attempt as something new. William LOVES his back pack and has slept with it in his bed for the past two nights since I finished it. He wore it all day today, and yesterday and it is already filled with lots of "treasures". I think it looks adorable on him and the size is perfect. He told me today that I need to make a matching one for Zachary now :) Hooray for a project complete and a happy boy!

Sweet moment

Tonight while I was singing to the boys in their bed they were quietly laying side by side. Then they rolled to face each other and William asked Zachary "do you want me to hold your hand?". Zachary just nodded as William took his hand and that is how they fell asleep. My heart melted.

I just love my sweet boys.

Boys Room

A couple of weeks ago I decided I was finally going to repaint the boys room. It has always bothered me how I didn't spend enough time on the walls in there prepping, sanding, patching before we sprayed the room with paint 2 and a half years ago. Plus there was pieces of moulding missing and unfinished spots that I never got around to painting. After we repainted our condo in carp to prepare for new tenants, there was a gallon of neutral paint that didn't match on any of the walls, so I took it home and decided it would be the paint for the boys room. The color is almost the same as what was in there before, kinda funny, but I like it. Not sure if I will do something fun like a stripe around the room for an accent eventually, but for now it is done.

I put both of the boys names together on one wall so that I have the wall over the crib for our new addition in a few months. I also wired a light bulb to one of the paper lanterns as the main light in the room, though I need to find a brighter light bulb. Billy finished the wall off with a very simple moulding that is white and complete! I'm happy with the room and I think the boys are too. Although we are already talking about bunk beds.....

FHE

With the start of the new year, we sat down and had a family home evening to set some goals. One of our goals was to be more consistent in holding FHE. With the boys being so young, it wasn't something I made a priority in the past. Now that William is 3 and soaking everything up, with Zachary watching his every move, it's time to make sure we are holding a regular family night. So this last week we pulled out our amazing FHE binder given to us last year by Aunt Tracy and so lovingly made by her and Aunt Kristy! It is such a GREAT binder! So far both lessons have been a huge hit with the boys. We had a lesson on Noah the first week and the boys loved playing animal charades! Even Zachary got into it acting like an elephant and a lizard. William wanted to play until he had the chance to act out every animal in the stack, twice! It was so fun. This last week we had the lesson on David and Goliath and of course the favorite was chucking marshmallows at Goliath for like 20 minutes. Boy do the boys have good arms and pretty darn good aim too. It has been a wonderful addition to our weekly routine so far and I know it will continue to be. I will have to read this post once fire season starts and I have a newborn to remind myself to keep at it :)

Thanks again Tracy & Kristy for the great binder! Our family loves and appreciates all the hard work and many hours that went into it!

Christmas Highlights

I am finally sitting down to write a little bit about our Christmas time. We had a small early Christmas as a family before we left for our trip to Truckee. William was so excited for Christmas this year. We had a chocolate advent calendar that he got to open every day and he would always tell me "Mom, Christmas is a long time". I would agree with him that Christmas is a whole month long. The big thing that he kept asking for was a watch. We would sing Santa Claus is coming to town and even Zachary could "sing" along with a pretty good melody. They both understood that they had to be sooo good if they wanted Santa to bring them what they wanted. William did find a CARS watch in his stocking the night of our family Christmas. He was SO happy and excited! I also noticed that he takes after me in the present opening department :) He would rip his gifts open so fast and then hardly look at them and be on to the next. It made me chuckle.

Zachary really enjoyed ripping the paper off his gifts this year which was so cute to watch. He also got really mad when all the ripping was done because he still wanted to rip more, not because he cared to much about what was inside. Christmas is so fun with little kids.

We went to Truckee for 5 nights to be with Billy's family this year. It was so cold, but there was no snow. Billy actually went golfing the day after Christmas rather than skiing, which I'm sure made him a little sad. It was a good trip. The boys made a ginger bread train one night, William got to watch a lot of trains driving on the hill over and across Donner Lake, we skipped rocks on the ice of the lake and hung out inside a lot. Zachary's highlight was the fact that there was a big black lab in the house. He would hug, kiss & lay on that dog as much as the dog would let him. (which was a lot because she is now 8 years old and lots more mellow than in years past) One night he would only let the dog "hold" him while he drank his bottle of milk. To funny.

I also made Christmas baskets this year for all the girls I visit teach (5) plus one for the Bishop and his family. It was fun to do and even more fun to deliver them. I just love the extra giving during the Christmas season.

We got lots of Christmas cards this year which was really nice, I still have yet to take them off the door- they have been so fun to look at everyday.

We were excited to get home to warm & sunny Santa Barbara after our trip to the Sierras and it has been such a warm and beautiful winter so far. We did not mind coming home to the 77 degrees and even an 85 degree weekend!

Now onto 2012!

The big news

Well, this evening I went to see Dr. Soffici to have an ultrasound. He found a beautiful brain, a healthy heart and strong spine on a baby BOY! I guess we are creating a basketball team :) Our fingers were crossed for a baby girl.... but I guess they weren't crossed far enough. Dr. Soffici said "maybe next round". Hmmmm.
A baby boy will definitely be easy. We have all the clothes, all the toys and we know just what to do with boys! We are excited to welcome brother #3 into our family come May. Now I really need to start thinking about names! I will have to put my Leila Anne back on the shelf for another day.
Hooray for Boys!

Hiking & Battle wounds

Yesterday we decided to go on a family hike. So we put on our backpacks... Billy packed William and I packed Zachary. We started from our front door and headed down the trail to the compound, across the river crossing to sage hill camp ground and back to the Aliso Canyon trail. The trail is a 3.5 mile loop and adding the distance to and from our house it was a little over 5 miles. It was a perfect day for a hike, the weather was not to hot nor to cold and perfectly sunny and clear. The Aliso trail climbs up to a ridge top where you can look down at the Santa Ynez river and across to Rancho Oso. I was surprised that there was still so much water in parts of the river. Then the trail turns back toward the back country and there is a connector trail that you can take to upper Oso camp ground where you can get on the buckhorn trail. (You could do some serious backpacking on that trail). We stayed on the aliso trail which loops back around, drops you back down to the canyon bottom where you follow a creek bed back to the trail head.

By the end of the hike, I was tired, hungry and my feet were starting to hurt. I guess that would happen with all the extra weight I was carrying plus being about 18 weeks pregnant. It was so nice to get out and get some good exercise though. As we were crossing back through the camp ground, all sharing a pear and not paying attention, we walked under a pine tree. Billy ducked, but not quite enough and William took some branches to the throat :( Poor guy. He was scratched up pretty good and not very happy about the surprise. Kind of a bummer to finish off the hike that way. Especially because the bruise on his forehead, from tripping and head butting a big rock not quite a week ago, is finally fading. Good thing he is a tuff boy.

Sorry William, I know you will heal fast.

I love living in the wilderness!