A New Baby!!!

My brother and sister-in-law just had their newest addition. Clover Ellen joins her big sister Ambrosia. Very exciting news. I'm hoping for pictures soon.

I'd better get working faster on those longies!

2007 Costumes

I know I need better pictures, but I want to be sure that I post and don't forget. So here are most of our costumes from this year.


Here are Tim & I at a party on Saturday. Halloween is our 10th anniversary, so we made wheel of fortune (we are those old people who have to be home by 6 for wheel hehe.)
The wheel spins and the letters turn. People actually played a game. It was fun.


Our youngest wanted to be a transformer. Optimus Prime was picked because we thought it would be the easiest. If it were me I would have sewed something up, but my hubby and son figured it HAS to transform. So the above is a picture in truck form. Below is robot form.



Here's my middle son as Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter. His magical eye really does spin. (I'm hoping to get video of that soon.) And his wand he made with his dad and it lights up green and red (depending on if he's stunning or killing deatheaters.)



Here's one of my nieces. She wanted to be a Strawberry Icecream Cone with whipped cream on top. Well you bet. So here she is.


Here's a picture of all of my boys and 3 of my nieces at church. They have trick-or-treat for unicef every year. My oldest is a grim reaper, but I haven't gotten very good pics of that yet.

Hair today, gone tomorrow....

ok, bad title. But it's quite a big deal in our house. My son Levi, has been growing his hair out for a long time. He did get it cut about a year ago and got about 4 inches off. Now it's not quite as long as last time, but he was ready for a change. And with his impending 11th birthday he thought now was the time. With 2 days off of school it was now or never. Here's the before and after.

Front

Back

Pigtails (hehe doesn't he look like a pretty girl?)

AFTER

Cleaning off the extra hair

The After. Isn't he a little stud muffin?!?

Baby Longies

My new niece's birth could happen at any moment. I have been asked to make some wool longies for her. I have never done this before, so I am totally new at this. Here is the first one I made.

I made the cuffs so that they will flip over the baby's tootsies to keep them warm.

Here is the next one I started, I like the top, but I'm unsure of the purple, it looks a bit garish.

No more papertowels!

Ok, maybe not quite yet, but much closer. I had seen in stores microfiber towels, but never thought much about them. I then read on a blog (somewhere I can't think of right now, sorry) about using them and not needing paper towels any more. I thought... really? I guess these little buggers are worth a try. We go through more paper towel than I care to even know.
So I searched and searched and couldn't find any, ok I didn't search that hard, but I try really hard not to go shopping, and when I do I try to make it just the grocery store (not to mention I don't have anything but a gas station and a meat market in my little village, so shopping isn't a daily part of my life.)
Then I had to enter the most evil of evils, WalMart, and I checked there. All I could find was a 4 pack with different purposes for each towel, (one polishes furniture and shoes, one cleans mirrors and screens, etc...) I bought it for $4-5. It sat in it's box for about a week, then I went to grab a paper towel to clean off the counter and I went... "Wait... I have new towels" I then had to find where my husband stashed the box.... read the directions, and gave it a whirl!

OH, MY, I'm in LOVE! I wiped off my bathroom counter with out even needing water! No cleaners at all. It was spotless. I cleaned my mirrors with no water, and there were zero streaks. And I have to be honest, there was major toothpaste, and hairspray gunk on my mirror and counter. I still worry about the germs and stuff, so I went over the counter with some vinegar anyway, but WOW!

I was going to clean off my stove top (my kids have been cooking, and they NEVER clean it off.) So there was really gross burnt on stuff. I didn't even think it was going to work at all, so I didn't take a picture of the before. I am so upset that I didn't. Because I cleaned the whole thing with out water!!!!! My kitchen is now paper towel free!!! I will buy some more towels when I go to Target (I've heard I don't have to buy a multi type pack there.) I would be completely free of paper towel if only I could handle cleaning the toilet with them. I really need disposable for that. It grosses me out pretty bad, (4 boys need I say more.)

Maybe you all know about these, and I am truly behind the times (it's been known to happen.) But I thought just in case, I would share my little nugget with you all. It has certainly changed my life. (Plus I clean more trying to prove it isn't better!)

Soccer Tournaments can be COLD!

Ok, in all honesty this one wasn't too bad, in fact by afternoon it was pleasant. But it was still 45 degrees F when we got to the field at 8:30am!


There is absolutely no way I could sit through another soccer game for quite some time. Let me give you the quick version of what my day was like.


-8am leave house to get Jorden

-8-9:15am Austin's (nieces' step brother so considered a nephew) first soccer game (Lost 4th so they took 4th place he played really well though!)


-8:30am get to field for Lore's warm ups


-9-10am Lore's first game (Wins Lore was awesome, stopping goals and kicking like crazy!!)


During the game we were eating bagels, dried fruit, almonds and having hot chocolate.


-10:30am Liam starts warm ups

Ate a hot pretzel with cheese (oh so good)


-11:00am- 12:15pm Liam's 1st game (Wins did AMAZING!)

-11am-12:15pm Alia & Cassy (Alia's step-sister, so considered a niece.) played their first game (Won, I didn't see much, but the fields were next to each other so I watched a bit)


-12-1pm Lore's second game (Lost he did really well though, took 4th place for tournaments and division)




-12-1pm (running late) Alyssa's first game (won, didn't see much, but was brilliant of what I saw of her.)

Quick ate a burger some noodle and vegetable salad that I brought and YUMMY ginger cookies I will try to post the recipe later!


-2-3:15pm Liam's second game (The team did amazingly well, besides for the fact that our fill-in coach wouldn't let the defense be on the defensive side of the field.... so the goalie was the only one protecting the goal, her reason was that she wanted to get the other team in off-sides so they couldn't score, plus only played Liam one out of 4 quarters!!!.... I'm not caring for her much. They lost. They took 1st in division and second in tournaments.) [I'm not bitter about the lose, I'm biter that once you see we're losing and your plan isn't working, wouldn't you tell them to just go have fun!]



-2-3:15pm Alia & Cassy's second game (they won, did wonderfully I hear. They took 1st for tournaments, and second for division.)




-4:30pm Alyssa's last game (she won, she did wonderfully! Took first for tournaments and division)





-Went out for pizza at a local pizza place.


So as you can see I am totally soccer-ed out! I kept warm by drinking hot chocolate and tea. And by wearing my hooded scarf.





I had one of these when I was a kid, but this one is so much cuter! It has little pockets at the bottom too. It was wonderful at keeping the wind off of the back of my head.

Oh Ravelry.... I do adore you!

I signed up for the Beta version of Ravelry WAY back when I first heard of it. It sounded very nice. I was invited to join I believe in June/July. I was quite sick and didn't really try it out then. Well I know so many people that are just waiting with bated breath to be invited, I thought it was terrible of me to not be taking advantage of my good fortune.

I posted a few of my projects. And then more and more. I am keeping track of them better than ever before. I know what hook size I used (I tend to start something, get sidetracked, then forget what hook size I was using. This is a very common way for my favorite projects to get frogged or forgotten about)

Right now I am working on some wool longies for my sister-in-law and the baby that's going to be here any minute!!!! I am also working on some dishclothes for Christmas gifts. This is motivating me so much and helping me to stay organized. There are still some bugs, and a few things I hope get easier to navigate (the forums) But so far I like it very much!

In case you are one of us lucky ones that already is on Ravelry my name is Ezri, feel free to friend me!

The Solar System to EAT!

Liam had to make a 3 dimensional solar system for his class. He wanted to make rice krispy treats and a cake. So that's what he did. All I did was put the cake in and out of the oven (he burned himself once and is a bit apprehensive to do that.) And I melted the marshmallows while he was gluing the labels together (it was getting late) But he did everything else from reading the ingredients, measuring, mixing, frosting, coloring, and shaping, etc... all by himself. Can you tell I'm a proud mama?!?

This was a quick picture snapped before school, since I doubt I will ever see it again in tact! I should have gotten a better picture, the colors are off a bit, and you can't see the asteroid belt.

Dishclothes for Christmas Gifts

I am working hard, and find these dishclothes to be super ego boosters. I am hoping to crochet one for each woman in my immediate family. I plan to give these along with a quilted pot holder, and an embroidered towel.



The blue one is my favorite. I got the pattern from Cocoa Cream's Closet


The red one is ok, I changed it a bit because it was boring for me. I got it at Lion Brand's Website (which means you have to sign up to get it, it is free though.) It's called Vanilla Grit.

Soccer Hats

It is getting cooler here (well, not today, it's supposed to be 85!!) And we've had to start bundling up for the soccer games. My boys wanted to have something on their heads for the soccer games, so we made new soccer hats. We don't have soccer offered in our little village, so we drive to the nearest town for soccer. The shirts are all of the other town's colors, (black & gold). The boys wanted to show a little pride for their own school colors, so we made the hats in our colors (green and gold). They are wearing them today for the local homecoming parade (in the 85 degree F weather!) The boys are pretty happy with them. I personally like the one on the left better, but Lore really wanted the green and gold stripes down the side, so I can't complain, he's quite happy about it.

I winged this pattern. It's all half double crochets. Quite easy really. I'm working on writing the actual pattern up. I copied this one after one I did last year. I got the inspiration for that one from a crocheted patch on a sweater I had seen.

Argyle Crochet Square

I am angeling for a swap on craftster. I am made a 12" crocheted afghan square. The requirements were 12", washable, and green. This is what I came up with.





I used Bobby's Square pattern, but I wanted it to have that argyle look. So I changed out the yarns. It was a bugger to weave in all of those ends, and I can't help but think there must have been an easier way, but I am quite happy with the results. I would really like to see an entire afghan made with this square pattern.