More weekend fun

We had a very fun Halloween party last night with Jonathan's and our friends. All the kids were of course dressed up super cute, although didn't like that we tried to get them to sit on the couch long enough for a picture, and none was more determined to get off than our own. :) WE also carved pumpkins which was fun too! We have been so blessed to have such great friends up here and now to watch the little ones growing up and even interacting with eachother is really fun!

Ok, these pics are pretty much in reverse order, but they at least have captions :) - ok and for the most part the captions are on top of the picture, and a couple are a little off, but pretty self explanatory - sorry but I've been working on this way too long, and it is dinner time! :)


Some of the kiddos in the hallway, the two older boys loved running up and down the hallway - a sign of what is to come for us in the next couple of years


I loved this picture I caught of Jonathan and Renee and her son Emerson, all smiles and happy


The kiddos working on their pumpkins, I loved watching Levi focused on his pumpkin scooping


Jeremy and I holding Jonathan's hands to paint our pumpkin, ok so not really the greatest idea with an 11 mo old, especially when EVERYTHING goes in his mouth and his reflexes are quite quick, but between the two of us we didn't get paint anywhere else


Moms and their kiddos working on the pumpkins


Kiddos totally done with the picture thing


Starting out taking pictures, constant movement, just had to snap as possible - Melanie did a great job trying to keep my little one on the couch, because he was determined to not stay there!


Trying to get the kids positioned and ready to go


I LOVE this one of Natalie and Kaleb - so sweet - both of them


We had a cow, Buzz Lightyear and a Tiger playing in our living room


Laura's really yummy spider web cheesecake


The pumpkin cupcakes I made - I got to use all the cake decorating stuff I bought for the class I did this summer - yay


We used fingerpaints to do "handprints" on a fake pumpkin. It actually turned out pretty cute, and my idea is that it is something I can use as a decoration next year.


More Handprints, Jonathan didn't love doing this, but put up with us :)





ROAR!! - my little Tiger - just waking up from his nap



Attempting a pumpkin carving Sat night, Jonathan was actually totally afraid of it, and wouldn't put his hand in, right after I snapped this picture he turned around and essentially crawled up Jeremy and clung to his neck. Unlike anything he's done before, but wanted nothing to do with the pumpkin.

Fun Weekend

To start you off, some pics from watching the Nebraska game on Saturday


Picking out a gameday snack


How about some leftover potatoes dad?


Sharing Daddy's apple


TOUCHDOWN!! Let's text grandpa and my uncles, ok dad?

Yay I get my husband back!!

Well, since I've been accused of using this blog to only talk about Jonathan, let me talk about my husband for a post. :)

I am so proud of him right now, he just this week finished up the last of his master's level classes for his Master's in Business Administration!!! He does have one undergrad class to complete, which he will do during the spring quarter, but he is done with the hardest of his classes. He has done an awesome job being a husband, father, working fulltime still and completing his classes this last quarter. - oh and still keeping up with the Huskers and his fantasy teams :)

I am very happy to have him back to not having to do so much homework at night again. It has been so nice this weekend that our schedule hasn't been dominated by his need to get homework and papers done. And might I mention that he has excelled in his classes receiving mostly A's! Possibly due to my help editing some of his papers. :) But, just wanted to share about this and now we can enjoy the rest of this fall and winter not thinking about classes, and no more night classes! :)

He has had plenty of help along the way! We like to call Miles his "study buddy" :)

For the Record....

Apparantly Jonathan knew that I said in my post last night that I didn't mind him waking up early, and he took that to heart! He was up at 5 am!! So, I gave him the binky, and went back to bed thinking he would fall back asleep, well after an hour of crying, I finally got him up at 6, and he was wide awake and ready to go! So, he played hard for about 45 min and then I was feeding him breakfast in his highchair, and I looked at him and he was nodding off, and gave into the need for sleep. IT was really sweet, so of course I took a picture! :) This is really such a rare sight for me, he typically doesn't fall asleep anywhere but in his bed or carseat, and sometimes some people's arms, but not usually.

Big Things Going on Here

Well, I've been debating whether to post this or not, because it seems as soon as I get excited about something, it changes - wow this sounds like I'm leading up to a baby or big move or something, heck no, that's not what I'm talking about, we are very content and happy with where God has us here right now - my exciting news is that Jonathan is sleeping through the night!! This has been an ongoing battle for us for a few months now. He started out great, sleeping through the night young, around 8-10 wks, but at 5 months decided that wasn't for him anymore, so I went along with it, being pulled into a long downward spiral of waking up once, then twice a night and a few weeks ago I was at the end of my rope emotionally, physically and mentally and couldn't do it anymore. So, after some good encouragement from a good friend of mine, I decided it was time for tough love. I had to just let him cry it out. We knew this would be hard, because he is, I would say, strong willed, and will cry for up to 2 hours, that's the longest I had let him go, who knows how much longer he would go. So, when he woke up rather than feeding I just gave him the binky, and kiss, and laid him back down, of course he stood up immediately and stood at the side of his crib and cried, but I left him and turned his music on also. Also, I would turn off the monitor and set my alarm for an hour or two later, to just check. Needless to say, he was always asleep when I would check later. After just a couple of nights, the crying became less and then we even went to no waking at all!! He is going to bed a bit earlier, but that's ok, and waking earlier, which is fine too with me, it actually works better than his 9:00 wake ups. So, we are at 2 weeks of this now, and he has been a happier baby, eats better during the day, and mommy and daddy are happier too! :)

The other big thing that I think I can officially claim now is that we have a walker!!! He started taking steps a few weeks ago, and then got up to about 4-5, then a week ago got up to about 10 steps at a time and then yesterday he just realized that he could keep walking. He still crawls some, mostly what he does is find somewhere to pull up on, then walks as far as he can, then when he falls will crawl some again, pull up on something and walk more, he still hasn't figured out how to stand up on his own. It has been so fun to figure out this new "trick" of his and he gets so proud of himself!

So, those are the big things here :)

Oh, he is also loving to talk on the phone - it's super cute, he will take the phone and hold it up to his ear and babble babble babble, yesterday he was talking to daddy on my cell phone, and just started walking around carrying the phone and talking away - don't know whose behavior he's imitating there :)

He is also trying to climb on things, stairs, he also loves that there is a ledge under the oven, where the drawer is, and when I'm not looking, will get his foot on there, and use the oven handle to try and pull himself up on, needless to say, there is a natural punishment when I don't get there soon enough, as he falls backwards when the oven door opens, yes, I am going to be looking into an oven lock :)

And, the fridge has a great leadge to climb onto and anything else he can find. :)


Finally a picture of a couple of his teeth - he now has four teeth all the way in, and two more working their way in.


This was him talking to daddy and walking with the phone in his hand! haha I love it! :)


Helping Mommy with laundry by pushing the basket around.


ROAR!!!


Everything is used for pulling up on, although we are working on sitting in the tub, he continues to pull up on the side.

In Process

A friend suggested posting what I'm working on right now, well, that's a loaded question, because I have quite a few projects I'm in the middle of, and seemingly making little progress. But I'll get it done at some point. :)


These are the 9-patch blocks I made from the squares my grandma sent me a while back. - I mentioned these in a previous post - It was really fun to put these together. None materials that I would typically choose or put together, but when sewn together, I love how they work together in their own way.


This is how I'm going to lay out the quilt, and put the 4-patch squares in between the blocks with the sashing.


These are the materials for the borders, sashing and backing of my quilt. The tans are the sashing and backing and the blues will be the borders.


This is material I have bought for fall bibs for Jonathan, guess I should get going on it, since it now looks like winter is coming :/


I had the brilliant idea to sew Jonathan a winter hat and mittens and found this fun fleece and bought the pattern. Only to be reminded that I have never really sewn from a pattern, so this has been a slow experience for me, but I'm hoping to finish is before the end of the winter. :)


This is a completed project. I saw this on a website and wanted to try it. You just sew leaves onto a piece of leather-like fabric, and then I put a pretty bowl with gourds and small pumpkins, I really like the fall colors.


Some fun fabric finds - I really like the Rudolph material! All will hopefully be finding their way into some fun Christmas gifts ;)


Another fun fall craft! I was really excited about it and telling my mom and she was like "Oh, I think your brother did that in 1st grade!" Well great, I have the crafting ability of a 1st grader, but I enjoyed making these and love them on my mantle, just a nice fresh pop of color. They are jars - good reason to clean out my fridge of expired condiments :) - covered with Mod Podge and tissue paper, then finished with fun ribbons and a candle!

So, there you have it! For anyone wondering what is going on here in crafting world - or not going on. It's fun to look it all over and see what I'm working on, and will be fun to look at when it is all done.

Tough Loss

Well, it was a sad day here, but at least my boys look cute watching the game! :)