18 Months

Braden is 18 months old and officially going to nursery (although we've been sneaking him in for the past two weeks). I didn't realize how happy we were about leaving him in nursery until Kevin and I got a few comments at church about the smiles on our faces. This boy is seriously BUSY. He's definitely the busiest out of all three of our kids. Keeping him entertained for three hours at church was a chore, and I'm happy to be getting rid of two of those hours.

Here are a few things to know about Braden:

• We tried the sock for a while, but it didn't work out, and I'm sorry to say that he is still a thumb sucker. My friend Emily suggested using bandaids and cod liver oil, so I think that's what we will try next.
  
  
• He is way more vocal than his brother and sister were at this age. He can say juice, baby, no, uh-oh, my (mine), isa ball (which sounds like it's a ball, but I'm not quite sure), and we catch him trying to mimic words we say every once in a while. He also says mom. Not mama or mommy, just mom. It's funny to hear.
  
  
• He says uh-uh to everything I ask him. "Braden, do you want some juice?" - "Uh-uh".
  
  
• He's got this cute pigeon-toed walk.
  
  
• He just got four new teeth, so he now has all of his teeth until he starts getting new molars. I don't keep up on when babies should be doing what or when they should be getting certain teeth, but after talking to Jenna, I think I've realized that my kids are very early teethers. It must be the steak we give them as infants that makes their teeth come in. (Just joking. Don't call CPS on me.)
  
  
• He likes to dance when music is on.
  
  
• He is a lover like his brother. He's content to sit still on my lap and cuddle, which I'm sure is tough for him being a busy one-year-old. I'm enjoying every minute of it.
  
  

I know I've joked about Braden being our little accident, but I am really happy that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself and that He blessed us with this busy little boy. He's a perfect fit for our family, and I can't imagine life without him.

Check It Out!

Holly created a new blog for the Relief Society. It has all of the projects we are doing for Super Saturday, so if you didn't get a chance to see them on display today, you can see them on the blog.

coronadoreliefsociety.blogspot.com

My First Blog Tutorial

I've been meaning to do this post since Thursday. Here it finally is. I'm just showing how to make the flowers because they are SO EASY. The necklace is online, but you will have to go find it because I don't want to give too much away before Super Saturday. (If you are really interested in the necklace, send me an email, and I'll send you the link to that tutorial. embowman28@yahoo.com)

To make the flowers you will need: 1/8 yard of satin fabric, a lighter, a glue gun, beads.


Step 1: Cut six circles from your satin. The biggest should have about a three inch diameter, and the rest get smaller from there. The circles don't need to be perfect. The other tutorial I read on this said that the flower actually looks better with less than perfect circles. (I know I have five circles here, but I just went to the other tutorial and there were six. I don't want to redo all of my pictures.)


Step 2: Use your lighter to singe the edges of the circles. This will keep the edges from fraying and will also make your petals curl. I used matches to do this because I didn't have a lighter...

...but this gets annoying, so I would suggest buying a lighter if you don't have one.

I would also suggest not using white satin fabric because on some of my petals there were black singe marks. The other tutorial suggests using a nicer satin that will burn okay. Maybe that's my problem.

Step 3: Use your glue gun to glue all the petals together.

Step 4: Once the petals are glued together, put a dot of hot glue in the center of your flower...

...and dump your beads on the glue.

Pour off the excess beads, and this is what you are left with.

I bought these cute white hair clips at Michael's, and glued one on the back. The other tutorial shows two flowers on a headband that is so cute. You can find that here.

Doesn't that look so easy? And once you make one flower you will realize that it really is easy. Happy cute flower making!

Senator Harry Reid

The Mormon Business Association in Las Vegas holds its quarterly meetings at our school, and Harry Reid was the guest speaker at today's meeting.

I promise this is a picture of Harry Reid. It's the best I could get with my cheap camera.

Our principal asked all the teachers to be there, but I probably would've gone if she didn't. How often do you get the opportunity to see the Senate Majority Leader speak? I try not to talk politics with most people because 1. I get a little too heated about some things, and 2. I honestly don't like offending people, and getting into politics is a good way of figuring out how you are different from someone else. But I have a few thoughts about Harry Reid from the meeting that I would like to record, so please don't take offense to anything I have to say.

I can't say I agree with most of what Senator Reid had to say, but I will say that he is a brave man. After his short speech, he opened up the meeting to questions from the audience. He got some tough questions and a little bit of harsh criticism, but he answered all of the questions asked to him, and he graciously took the criticism. If I were a politician during a difficult economic time, I don't know if I could ask a room full of non-supporters to give me their best shot. I definitely respect him for the way he handled himself and for opening himself up to questions in the first place.

Am I going to vote for him in this upcoming election? Probably not.

She's Crafty

Yesterday I made a necklace AND a fake flower. Two crafts in one day is kind of a big deal for me. I read a few crafty blogs, and I spent some serious time and money at Michael's, and I really enjoyed it! Here are some pictures of my creations:

with flower added

We will be making these for Super Saturday in October, and I decided that if I can make them, everyone can make them. We (and by we I mean Holly) came up with these and some other amazing crafts that we'll be putting on display in a few weeks, so start getting excited!

Hidden Treasures

A few weeks ago I was looking at Kevin's phone, and he has a lot of fun pictures and videos he's been keeping from me and my beautiful blog. I finally got him to send them to me. Here are some of my favorites.

I knew about this one because this is the picture Kevin uses for his Wallpaper.

Lately I've been a little sad about how my baby isn't a baby anymore, so I am loving the baby pictures we have of him.

The boys love Opa's drums.

My kids seem so excited to meet Woody and Jessie. Just look at those faces.

First carousel ride on a horse instead of a bench.

This boy loves books.

I asked Kevin to take this picture, and as soon as he took out his camera, the baby said "Chee" just like his brother and sister do for pictures. He's learning the drill.

This picture is my most favorite. When Rebecca was 39 3/4 inches tall, we tried to sneak her on every 40 inch ride at Disneyland. The ONE ride we got her on was Tower of Terror. As you can see, she hated it. I love how Kevin and the lady next to her are just laughing at her.

And lastly, we went camping in Mammoth, CA for the 4th of July with Kevin's family. There was enough snow that they still had one lift open. We tried to get pictures of the people coming down the mountain on the 4th of July in shorts and bikini tops, but we didn't get a chance since they closed the lift before we got back from town. I took these pictures on July 5th, and that's when I noticed all of these great pictures that were being kept from me. I'm glad I finally got a hold of them.

The Good News?

The good news is that Kevin has a job. A guy in our ward got him a job as a Property Services Officer. He fills in for guys who go on vacation or call in sick who are bellman, valet parkers, and security officers for Park Towers condominiums. He started yesterday, he worked today, and he will work tomorrow through Tuesday. We didn't expect that much from just "filling in", so we are thrilled with how much they are having him work already. And they are willing to work around his school schedule, which is exactly the kind of job he was looking for.

The bad news?

The bad news is that he is not going to be home as much as he has been for the past four months. We've LOVED having Kevin/daddy around all the time. Last year Kevin worked in Sacramento five days a week, and people would say to me, "Well at least he has a job." And I would think in my mind, "I would rather he be unemployed then do this anymore." I got my wish, and I was right. Sure we have been really poor, but I've been so much happier in the past four months in poverty than I ever was when Kevin was in Sacramento during the week and we had money.

But bills must be paid, so he is doing this job AND going to school, and I am back to not having him around all the time again. I'm glad we at least got four months together, and I am grateful to better understand what is most important to me in this world.