Did ya know?

So, I'm adding a shameless plug here, but I love to show off my kids. :) I don't have any followers yet over at my P365 blog. I think I only have two people who even look at it. :) If you get bored, head on over and see! The link is on the sidebar here it's the "Another Day in Paradise" one, or you can go to: www.heidisparadise.blogspot.com

Sisters and Brothers

Dana lent me the big sister shirt she got for Kylie because it matches Hannah's little sister shirt. I had to hurry and take these pics of Rachie and Ladybug before Baby Brinley came.

I love them! Jakey even got a couple shots. He didn't have a fancy shirt, but that's ok. Becka was at the Portland Art Museum with her class from YW, and was sad when she saw that I had done pics without her. I'll have to do some of the two of them later. It makes me happy to see how much the kids love Hannah, and how much she loves them!

Baby time!

Miss Brinley Claire Christensen is here! She was born November 26, and weighed 9 lbs, 4 oz. I think she looks just like her big sisters! I love all the nieces and nephews I've been getting this year! It's so fun to have babies to play with!

blessed

Today was a long one. Fighting kids to get ready and on time for school, dentist appointment, flat tire, dance class, make dinner, help with homework....the list was long today. I did get a chance to go to a craft night with some of the ladies from my ward. I haven't ever really felt like I have any real friends here. Even though we've been in this house for 7 and a half years, I just haven't found my "niche". There are a few girls from church, and I enjoy being with them, but I tend to feel really insecure about opening up and actually stepping out of my comfort zone with anyone. Thank goodness this wonderful group of women doesn't give up and continues to invite me to things despite my lack of friendliness. Tonight I got to go to a craft night at one of their homes. There were only 6 of us there, everyone doing little projects or just chatting. I had so much fun! I finally glimpsed a little bit of what I've been missing for so long. I enjoy the company of these ladies so much, and love that they are so much fun to hang out with. It might sound a bit silly that I am going on and on about it, but tonight I am feeling blessed to have had a wonderful evening with some wonderful friends!

Miss Mia

I did a mini shoot for Miss Mia. Here are a couple of my favs! We are planning on doing more asap!

Bazaar

Well, my first bazaar went about as well as I expected. There wasn't a lot of advertising, and with it being their first year, not many people knew about it. I only sold about $11.00 worth of stuff. That's ok though. I wasn't expecting much. Plus, it makes it so that I don't have to stress about finishing things for the big bazaar on the 20th.
I was talking to Ang and Melissa about it and I think this is my last year doing the bazaars. I enjoy having the day of fun with them and I love making things, but I don't like the mess and chaos it tends to create at home. I'd rather just spend the day with them shopping or go spend the night at the beach or something. Maybe I can see if we could use Grandma Ard's beach house one Friday night or something like that.
I have also decided that I can still make the fun things I enjoy making, but instead of mass producing them to sell, I can make a few here and there for my family and friends. So, watch out!! Crazy homemade things may be coming your way soon!

Congrats!

Jake was really excited to "apply" to be the Student Council rep for his class. At his school, they start Student Council in 3rd grade, and he has been anxiously anticipating it. Each kid who wanted to be considered had to write a paragraph about why they would be a good choice. The teacher then read the paragraphs anonymously, and the whole class voted for their favorite. Jake had to leave early from school yesterday for an ortho appt, so he missed hearing the voting results. He saw someone from his class last night at the school book fair and found out that he was the winner! He's pretty excited! He was all smiles and called Nana right away to tell her, and couldn't wait to tell Dad and Becka when we got home. He's such a likable kiddo, and is friends with pretty much everyone, so I'm not surprised at all that he was chosen. Plus, his paragraph was great! He'll do an excellent job!

Pumpkin carving!

Our little punkin!

Uncle Derek lighting the pumpkins

Daddy!

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we went over to Dana and Derek's house to carve our pumpkins. It was so much fun! Everyone enjoyed being together, Derek and Dana treated us to pizza, pop and homemade caramel apples, yum!

A new Sweetie!

Baby Mia is here! Jason (my brother) and Catalina had their little girl on Wednesday, October 20th at 9:02pm. Her name is Mia Alexa and she weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz and was 19.5 inches long. She ADORABLE! So much soft fuzzy hair to snuzzle and I love the brand new baby smell!

Pumpkin picking...

We had a fun afternoon at Bi-zi Farms pumpkin patch with Dana and Derek's family. There is tons to do! Hay maze and pyramid, pumpkin launching, animals to see, hot chocolate, pony rides, corn maze, yummy food, hay rides and even a special place to wash your pumpkin! It was so fun!

Cheer!

Rachel did a cheer clinic at the high school with her friend Kayla. They had two evenings of practice, and then got to perform their dance and cheers at the varsity football game at Columbia River HS. She had so much fun, and was so adorable! :) Hooray!

Another project

I love these bibs! Best part about them is that they are made from old jeans, so they are cheap! I'm working on lots of different colors/designs for the bazaars. :)

Another challenge

I am feeling frustrated. I've been trying hard to lose more weight and now it has affected my baby's health. I know I'm not getting enough calories to keep my milk supply up for Miss Hannahbug. I had a terrible time with this when I was nursing Becka, had to quit at 4 months, then with Jake, I met a WONDERFUL lactation consultant who helped me figure it out and get over the crummy 4 month low supply issue and I nursed him for a year. I didn't have any problems with Rachie, so I wasn't expecting any with Hannah. Well, I was wrong! So, I'm going to try and focus on eating healthily, getting a moderate amount of exercise and taking the herbs I need to take to get my milk back up where it needs to be for her. I want to lose weight, but breastfeeding her is more important to me, so I'm willing to wait on the really low cal diet until after we are done nursing. Heck, I've been overweight for 12 years, what's another one? :) I just get frustrated because it seems like other women don't have to deal with this issue, and they are skinny. Ugh!

A few of my projects

Here are a few of the projects I'm doing. I have some more that aren't done enough for pics yet.

Ladybug modeling her hair bow

Another one just cuz she's so dang adorable!

Rachie wearing her matching flower

Singed flowers (I keep burning my fingers!)

Binky clips. I'm not so sure about these. They are a lot of hand sewing/embroidery, and I think I could only sell them for a nominal amount. They are a posy flower, cupcake, baseball and basketball. I want to try a daisy, ladybug, princess crown, car, boat, sunshine and smiley face. We shall see if I end up doing these or not.

I'm also working on some cute denim bibs, burp cloths, flower clips and taggie blankies. I'll post pics soon!

To prove a point

Two gross posts in a row! You guys are never gonna want to visit me here again! One of Becka's jobs is to do the dishes. She puts it off and only does one load a day, etc until it ends up like this. A huge, icky mess. I can't cook anything, because I can't get to the sink, we have no bowls or utensils. The counter is half covered with dirty dishes because the sink is full. My question is: how far do I let the mess get in order to prove to her that she needs to do the dishes until the sink is clear every day? She thinks she should just unload and load once a day. Even then, she is sloppy about it. Only loading a few utensils, not filling the dishwasher up completely, etc. I am tempted to start making her do them all by hand so that she will (hopefully) begin to appreciate the dishwasher. I can't stand the way it is in there right now and it has taken all my willpower not to just do the dishes myself. Part of me wants to just tell her that she can't do ANYTHING (eat, homework, TV, YW, sleep, etc) until all the dishes are done. I know exactly how that will go. She'll yell and fight and stomp and bang dishes and slosh water everywhere and treat everyone around her badly until they are finally finished. Anyone have any ideas for me? I've given her extra chores, taken away privileges, begged, threatened, pleaded ignored. Help!!

Not again!

GROSS! I have been trying to use up the size 1-2 Costco diapers. They say they are good for up to 15 pounds, and Hannah is only 13.5 pounds, but these are a bit shorter than a regular size 2 diaper so when she has a blowout, it really blows out. Her poor outfits only get worn for a few hours at a time! At least I realized this was happening before it got on me this time!

Whoopsie!

I thought I had posted a pic of the singed flowers here, but it was on my P365 blog. Here is one of them. I love how they turn out, but they are time consuming and I keep burning my fingers, lol!

Flowers, flowers everywhere!

In addition to the singed flowers I am also making these cute fabric flowers. Thanks to Katie and Jessica for sharing the blog link with me! I am having so much fun working on them! Cutting and gluing are some of my favorite activities, lol! Plus, I LOVE my glue gun, so anytime I get to use it, I am one happy lady! I have about 20 of these made so far. There are lots of different colors to choose from and two sizes. This is the bigger size. I'm thinking of letting people choose if they want to have it attached to a clip or a headband, or just a safety pin. They are fairly quick and super easy, so it feels good to be getting them done. Rachie wore one to church on Sunday and I got a few compliments on it. :) Let's hope they sell, or I will be giving lots of bows to my nieces for Christmas!!

Uplifting

Going to RS conference last night was so nice. I got to go with Afton, so that made it even better. It's nice to have someone you are comfortable with to sit by and chat with. I especially enjoyed Pres. Monson's talk. He was right on with everything he said, plus he was so funny! You could feel the love he has for the sisters of the church and it made me want to be a better person.
As usual, the music touched me. Especially when the choir and congregation sang "More Holiness Give Me." I've always found that song to be inspiring, but the words of the 2nd verse were especially meaningful to me yesterday.

"More gratitude give me, More trust in the Lord, More pride in his glory, More hope in his word, More tears for his sorrows, More pain at his grief, More meekness in trial, More praise for relief."

It made me think about myself in relation to my gratitude and thankfulness for the Savior. Do I have all those things? Do I trust in Him? Do I show my pride in His glory? Do I have hope in His word? Do I remember the pain and sorrow he went through for me? Am I patient in my trials and do I praise Him when those trials are lifted?
Today's lesson in YW was appropriately about gratitude. It seems like lately this is a theme for me. Between my new P365 blog, where I am trying to focus on being grateful for the wonderful things/people, etc in my life and now last night's and today's lessons. Apparently Heavenly Father wants me to be mindful of all that I have and be careful not to deal on the negative. I am trying to do that and I hope that someday I can get to a place where I can truly become a more grateful person.

P365!

I started another Project 365 blog. The address is: http://heidisparadise.blogspot.com. I put a little explanation about it there and have my first picture up. I've missed doing it every day and am excited to start it up again.

Ahhh! The cuteness!

Hannah has grown out of most of her 0-3 month size clothes. I am sad about that, but excited for her new outfits. Here she is in one of the adorable outfits from Grandma Ard. Look at the little flower on her bum! CUTE!!! The bib is a teddy bear face and is super cute too. I just want to squeeze her!

So Sweet!

I didn't get as many pictures taken today as I had hoped, but I had to share these. Chris and Kerry and their boys were in town, so we all went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house visit. Katie really liked Hannah, and asked to hold her. She sat with her on Grandma's couch just as proud as can be. At one point, she leaned over to Becka and asked, "why isn't the baby talking?" SO CUTE!!!

*Just a quick note. I have the most adorable nieces and nephews ever, so in any posts with pics of them, you will be hearing about how wonderful they all are!

A day with friends

Angie, Tammy and I have been friends forever. We met at the park one afternoon with our kiddos (13 in all!) to enjoy each other's company.


All the kids! Back row: Jaron, Jake. Middle row: Jaren, Jenea (holding Jadon), Becka (holding Hannah), Kallie, Kelsie. Front row: Jude, Jolie, Rachel

Here we are!!! I have a picture of the three of us that is very similar from high school. I'll have to dig it up and scan it to compare. :)

Beach trip!

We spent the day at the beach with our friends. It was hot and sunny and everyone had lots of fun!

Becka and Jake spent most of their time in the water. They both love to bodysurf. Rachel and Kelsie love playing together. They worked hard on a big hole that they filled with water.

Cheese!


I had to lighten this picture kind of crazy so you could see it. Hannah was the princess of the beach in her carseat, beach chair and covered with the big umbrella.

All the kiddos playing!

Three girls in the bed...

Catch up!

Smiley Baby!

Sissy gave Hannah her first ponytail

Snuggly girls

Goof

My little man is too grown up! Ready for his first year at Cub Scout day camp