Etch A Sketching

As we begin our nine hour drive to Idaho, Shay picks up the Etch A Sketch and says, "I've never understood how people can make actual pictures with these things."

Three hours into the trip we have this.

A Girl Can Never Have Too Many Dresses

I'm at it again! I've made another dress for my Solee from one of my shirts. This refashion proved to be a bit more advanced than the last dress I made, but I made it, so it couldn't of been too difficult.

I started with this reversible shirt I bought awhile back.

I typically wore it on the flowery side, but thought the polkadots would be oh so cute for my toddler. Anyway, the sleeves were starting to fray, so I could either throw it away or REFASHION IT! 

I started by pinning one of Solee's dresses that fits well onto the shirt to serve as a pattern.

I snipped away leaving a seam allowance.

I turned the fabric inside out and pinned up the sides, leaving neck and arm holes of course. Because the original shirt was reversible it had two layers. I wanted to keep these layers separated below the waistline, so I pinned them separately.

I sewed up the sides and hemmed the sleeves and neck. I originally made the neck really big to fit over the baby's noggin. I'm not at the level of adding zippers or buttons yet. The neck was WAY too droopy on Solee though, so I added elastic.

After adding a ribbon belt and making a simple head-wrap from scraps and ribbon, the finished product is way too cute! 

Solee got to wear refashioned dresses to church two Sundays in a row. I'm on a roll here! 

Red Velvet Cheesecake Poke Cake

I'm typically not a big fan of cake. I mean I'll eat it every time because it is sugar, but it's just not my top pick. For some reason I felt like making a cake though. A poke cake. They at least are moist and delicious. This cake ended up being really delicious, especially the longer it sat. Enjoy!

Red Velvet Cheesecake Poke Cake

Ingredients:

• Red Velvet Cake Mix, prepared
• 2 (3.4 oz.) boxes of Cheesecake Pudding, prepared
• 1 tub of Cool Whip, thawed
• Graham Crackers 
• 1 C. mini Chocolate Chips

 Procedure:

• Prepare cake according to directions on the box.
• While the cake is baking,  smash the graham crackers into crumbs. I used 1 of the 3 bags of crackers that are included in the box. Just make enough crumbs to cover a 9x13-inch cake. 
• Mix 1 cup of chocolate chips with the crumbs.

• Prepare pudding according to package directions.
• When cake is done baking poke holes into it.

•  Pour pudding over warm cake and spread to cover.

•  Spread the Cool Whip over the pudding.

•  Next add the crumb/chocolate chip mixture. Yum! The best part!

•  Finally, place in the fridge and cool for at least an hour. The longer you wait, the more moist and delicious the cake becomes, to a point of course! Enjoy!

Gotta Love Shave Cream

My kids…

practicing letters and words in shave cream. 

Plus, the shave cream cleans all of the pencil and crayon marks that inevitably get all over our work table. I've tricked my kids into cleaning! *sinister laugh* Ha ha ha ha ha!

All in Good Time

Veteran's Day 2013 was a big day at our house. Shay had the day off, so Cayben decided he wanted his dad to teach him how to ride a bike. He learned with relative ease and now rides like a champ.

Embrie enjoyed riding her glide bike as well.

And Solee, Shay and I enjoyed just watching.

Cayben learning to ride a bike got me thinking about the timelines we put on our children. Cayben will be seven in a few short months. Back in my day, most of my contemporaries and I learned to ride bikes around age five or six. Nowadays kids are riding bikes at age four, or even age three. I guess you could consider Cayben "late" at developing this skill. He also hasn't lost any teeth yet. He's "slow" in that area as well.

There have been many areas Cayben has been deemed an "early developer". He was "quick" to walk and talk.

Does anyone else find all these timelines we put on our children's development a little disconcerting? I guess it's not the timelines that really bother me. I understand that there are normal ranges of development that are important factors in assessing children's health. It's the constant push to make our children do things sooner and better that bothers me.

Maybe it's because peoples' lives are so public and we tend to compare. I'm so guilty of this when it comes to my children. I find myself worrying. Even now I try to push out the thoughts that I'm failing as a parent because my 16-month-old daughter doesn't talk.

Or at church there is a little girl in my daughters class, so I'm guessing she's four, that reads very well. After hearing her read I had the thought, "I need to push my kids harder." I'm their educator. Where am I failing? Why can't they read like that yet?

Why does it matter when they learn to talk? Why does it matter when they learn to read? Why can't we just let our kids enjoy this fantastic time of life called childhood and let them develop on their own timeline?

This doesn't mean I don't believe in teaching our children or encouraging them to learn something. It simply means I think kids should get to guide there own lives as much as possible.

It's something for me to learn over and over again. I pushed my young, barely 3-year-old son to play soccer and to learn to read. He hated both. Still does to this day. He chose to do karate and developed an interest in math on his own and loves both. When Embrie was potty training I constantly demanded of her to try and go to the bathroom. "Let's try and go potty again!" Every. Thirty. Minutes. When I told my 2-year-old girl that I was done asking if she needed to go potty and told her to let me know when she wanted to go, she quit pooping her pants that very day.

My mind often wanders back to the country song, Let Them Be Little, because I need the reminder.

Rant finished!

Let's Kick Some Martial Arse!

Cayben had his first go at sparring tonight at karate. I always wondered how he would react to his first fight. He loved it!

Cayben is in the black helmet.

Solee wanted to fight too!

I Sew Made This!

I'm feeling proud and a bit braggy! I am not a seamstress. I've tried to sew a few things here and there with my second-hand sewing machine my mother picked up for me. I'm not very good at it but occasionally feel ambitious.

Awhile ago I stumbled upon a blog. Jillian over at ReFashionista makes all sorts of beautiful clothes out of thrift store duds. I spent half the night perusing her blog admiring all of her wonderful refashions. I felt inspired, yet incapable.

Last night I felt like I wanted to sew. When I told my husband my desire he responded, "WHAT?" and gave me a weird look. Like I said, I don't sew. Anyway I pulled out my small stash of fabric to see what I could do.

In my stash I found this old new shirt my mother had bought me a few years ago but never fit me right.

I tend to resemble a pregnant lady as is. Empire wasted shirts only add to my problem. Smocked empire wasted shirts REALLY accentuate my problem. It had to go! Although, I love the little details on the fabric, so into my fabric bin it went… and waited.

I really wasn't sure what I was going to make, but started by ripping the seam that connected the top portion of the shirt to the smocking. You would laugh if you saw the way I did this. I don't even own a seam ripper, so I used a small flat-head screwdriver to do the job.

After I separated those two pieces, I stripped my daughter of the dress she had on. With the white shirt turned inside out, I layed Solee's dress on top as a guide. I placed pins into the shirt leaving a bit of a seam allowance.

The red dress is inside out just because that's the way it came off.

Next I sewed up the side of the dress.

Then cut the excess fabric off.

At this point I had a cute tube top dress for my babe, but I wanted some sleeves. I don't have pictures for the remaining steps because we were nearing bedtime. I was trying to work quickly before my kiddos started melting down.

Next, I removed the original sleeves from the bodice (I had to google that word.). While my babe had the dress on I carefully pinned the sleeves where I wanted them. This was the most difficult part of the process due to my squirmy baby.

I sewed the sleeves on then cut the excess fabric and thread away. I missed the ironing step, but that's something I can always do later. (I always tell myself I'll get to the ironing later.)

My little model wasn't very cooperative for pictures, but I got a few shots of the dress.

Today she debuted her new dress at church, wrinkle free, and looked oh so cute.

If you sew you're probably thinking this is way too easy and doesn't count as a real sewing project. As for me, I'm feeling awesome!

Roasted Spaghetti Squash Seeds & Lemon Garlic Spaghetti Squash

We failed to carve pumpkins this Halloween, which means we didn't roast pumpkin seeds. No worries. Yesterday as I sliced open the spaghetti squash I was prepping for dinner, I thought why can't I just roast these seeds? They look just like pumpkin seeds. So I did.

I cooked both the seeds and the squash together in a 375 degree preheated oven. I'll provide the recipes for both. I pulled the seeds out at the 30-minute mark (You can smell when they are done.) and let the squash bake for another 30-minutes.

Roasted Spaghetti Squash Seeds

Ingredients:
1 Spaghetti squash
Non-stick cooking spray
1-2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
1/8 C. Brewers yeast
Dash of Sea Salt

Procedure:
Slice the squash length-wise and pull the seeds out. Separate the seeds from as much of the stringy stuff as possible, but don't fret if it's not all the way string-free. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray then spread the seeds on the sheet. Spray the top of the seeds with cooking spray as well. Pour the soy sauce and brewers yeast over the seeds. Add a dash of salt. Move the seeds around to evenly coat all the seeds. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-minutes.

Lemon Garlic Spaghetti Squash

Ingredients: 
1 Spaghetti squash, seeded

Non-stick cooking spray

Salt & pepper, to taste

1/4 C. Butter

2-3 Garlic cloves, minced

1-2 tsp. Lemon juice

Rosemary, optional

Procedure:
Slice the squash length-wise and deseed. Spray the flesh of the squash with cooking spray and add a dash of salt and pepper. Place flesh side down on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 60-minutes.

When squash is finished baking, melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat. Sauté garlic in butter for about 1 minute. Meanwhile, scoop the flesh of the squash from the peel.

Add squash to the garlic butter. Pour lemon juice over the top. Add salt, pepper and rosemary to taste. Continue to cook until heated through, stirring occasionally.        

The seeds were super tasty and proved to be a delicious pre-dinner snack. They were even kid approved!

1st Belt Advancement

Cayben has been in karate since the beginning of September. He has progressed quickly and most importantly is loving it. Today he had his first belt test.

Cayben is in the middle.

He is doing so well. He skipped a belt and progressed to an orange stripe. Way to go kid! You saved me $10. ;)

My Mechanics

Last night our car's check engine light came on, and guess who fixed it this morning! My very own Shay and Cayben! This was a nice change from the typical $1000 check I write to the mechanic every time something needs fixed with our vehicles. Plus, it was super cute watching my 6-year-old using a ratchet under the hood of the car. Enjoy!

2 Visits in 4 Months

One of the BIG reasons we chose to move to Reno from beautiful California was to be closer to home. We're already reaping the benefits!

Grandma and Grandpa Bullock met us here in July when we were house hunting; Shay's brother and family met us here later that week; my parents, Heather, Jim and Jorie came the week after we moved here in August; we went to Idaho in September; AND SHAY'S PARENTS CAME AGAIN TO VISIT US LAST WEEK! I'm loving this!

Shay's parents came last Wednesday and went back home on Monday. We spent our time enjoying each other, eating, shopping, watching Embrie's first dance performance, trick-or-treating and going to the movie theater.

Here we are ready to go trick-or-treating.

Getting ready to watch Despicable Me 2. Cayben and Embrie were snuggled up together the whole time.

And I got to share a couch with just my man… and Solee a bit. She wandered around mostly.

"You Can Dance If You Want To"

Embrie's dance studio was invited to perform at a school carnival. Embrie is quite the little performer. She positioned herself front and center for both dances. She danced so wonderfully. I was nearly in tears watching from backstage.

"You can leave your friends behind, but if your friends don't dance…then they're no friends of mine."