Making Memories

Many times, I've heard variations of a phrase that your children won't remember how the house looked, etc but will remember what you did with them. We've taken that phrase to heart and are doing our best to create many fun, lasting memories for our kiddos. While I'm uptight, OCD, and extremely Type-A, I don't want those to be the characteristics my children think of first. So I've been letting the house slide and we've been out doing fun things.

Monday night was park night. We all hop in the car and ask for park suggestions. We originally were going to go to North Park, a cool park that is mainly a large wooden maze-like structure. Unfortunately, there are many small soccer fields around that park and it seems there are some serious tournaments going on right now as the large parking lot was overflowing and there was even a police officer on patrol duty. So we drove past the entrance and down the road. Jake took a random turn and low and behold, there ahead was another park. Ok, it was actually a school playground but it was at a school we hadn't scoped out yet so we stopped.

The kids had a blast! Two different structures to play on and even a tire swing!
This was as much as I was allowed to push it. It barely moved and then Carter told me that it was high enough.

Park time is ok for the baby. It doesn't hold the same excitement for her yet that it does for the others. The downside to school playgrounds is that there are no infant swings. That's about all Hannah can do at the park so she spends most of her time staring into space and being passed between us as we alternate who helps the older kids and who cares for the banana.

Carter bailed on the tire swing and I was actually allowed to push the girls a little!

He went to this swing instead. He wanted to be strapped in and safe but I still wasn't allowed to push him. Carter prefers to just sit in the swing.

Tonight, we took the kids swimming at the outdoor pool at our gym, Lifetime. It was a nice change up from the usual park escapades. There weren't many people there and even Hannah had fun sitting at the top of the zero depth entry and splashing in two inches of water. We left behind a stack of dirty dishes, a heap of laundry, and sticky floors. That's what tomorrow is for. The older three love, love, love swimming and I wasn't about to stay home doing housework while Jake had all the fun. I want all four to remember the days they spent doing fun things as a family so family outings it is.

I had a couple comments asking how I manage to get to all the projects I do while caring for four children. It's a combination of several things. 1) Taking advantage of nap times, especially the baby's. 2) Taking advantage of the power of the black box. 30 minutes of Jake and the Never Land Pirates can get a lot done. 3) Sleeping the bare minimum. I average maybe 6-7 hours of sleep a night. Every now and then it catches up to me and I need a 30 minute nap in the afternoon but otherwise I tend to stay up until 11:30-midnight and am up between 6-6:30 with the baby. But I get several hours at night to myself to work on things and an hour or two in the morning before the older kids are moving. This probably explains the bags under my eyes and the scale not budging since sleep is a big component in the reduction of both but right now I'm more about my me-time than my sleep-time.

I've also had comments that the blog is getting Hannah heavy. So here are the older three, alive and well. My apologies, but the little one changes much faster and if I don't document it somewhere, it will be lost in the abyss of my memory forever.

Latest Projects

It's that time again. I've discovered that I go in cycles of needing to create. So my house currently looks something like this
while my "tools" are out like this. Sewing machine, iron, and my bag of yarn are all on full display at the moment while I fuel my creative juices.

Which reminded me that while I made my deadline of wrapping up my last round of projects before school ended for the summer, I never shared those projects. So here is most of what I created in May and June. There is one project still waiting for the last step as I can't decide if I want paint or vinyl letters. That one I will show when I finally make the decision.

First up, my "W" canvas. As few ideas I ever have are original, I found a similar item for sale on a website. It was a British site and while my conversion rates may not be accurate, at their price of 145 pounds, something like this could have cost me over $100-150. Instead I made it for about $10.

Materials:

12x12 canvas that I already had as it was a bonus in the pack I had purchased when making E & H's letter canvases

wood letter

wood glue

spray paint

I managed to turn this

into this. I love it. Only thing I would have done differently is gone easy on the wood glue. Jake thinks the letter should be painted a different color to pop out. I love it like it is. If I wanted the letter to pop out, I'd have done it similar to the kids' canvases. The purpose of the wood letter glued on is to create a monochromatic multi-dimensional piece. It's the solid color that makes it so interesting.

The next project I tackled was turning this wall in our hallway upstairs into a gallery wall. Jake was tired of it having only wedding photos and I wanted to have more photos of our family somewhere in the house.

A trip to the thrift store for some cheap frames that I sprayed black, a few I already had, and some new ones from Target,

tracing all the frames on newspaper and taping it to the wall to create my design,

and I ended up with this.

I couldn't love it more! Now I have all our family photos up from the last few years instead of just the current one downstairs. There are plenty of openings to add more frames if I like or I can change out some of the current frames. Probably one of my favorite projects so far and it was so easy to do. Since before we ever sell this house, we'll have to neutralize the hall/loft area, I'm not worried about all the nail holes.

Another project I did was create a photo book of myself from birth to about 10-12 years old. I'm sure this sounds extremely narcississtic but in my defense, all photos of my childhood are 2,000 miles away. If I want a photo of myself, I have to call my mom, attempt to describe the photo I'm thinking of, and wait for her to scan and email it to me. When I was there to visit in April, I went through every photo album she has and selected a stack to bring home and scan. I earned the photo book credit due to my Coke addiction and the rewards points I got from all the Coke products I've been buying. The book cost me less than $8 in shipping and handling.

Having gone through all the photo albums myself, I know that I have every photo I would like to ever see and have a neat little book with all the pictures. I do plan to make one for Jake as well but as I gave up Coke and all pop a few weeks ago, it's taking me longer to earn all the points I need to get another one free.

The final project that I completed in my May/June creation spree was the redo of this headboard for Ellie's room. The one thing she was missing in her room was a headboard. I found this one on Craigslist for $5. It was a nasty wood veneer but I knew a few coats of white paint would make it cute and tie it into her room.

Now on to what I've created this week during my latest creative spree. My mom and I are planning to open an Etsy store to sell our creations (her purses, my whatever I feel like making). One thing I plan to sell are some of the flowers, bows, and headbands I've been creating. Here's Hannah modeling a crocheted headband and crocheted bow that I made.

I also found a tutorial online for a double-sided fabric headband. I whipped up four this week for me and the girls. Took me about an hour to make all of them.

So that's the project pipeline. The sewing machine is still out so I may whip up the pillowcase dresses that I tried to make last summer but didn't turn out the way I'd have liked. JoAnn Fabrics' flyer this week had lots of coupons so the kids and I are off to visit today to see what other things we can create around here. I'll let you know when we finally get our Etsy store up and running so you can see what I've finally committed myself to making!

Catching Up

Per the norm, I am behind on all the posts I've been meaning to write as of late, so here is a big catch-up post of all that the Wendorffs have been up to.

Olivia was back to visit July 5-10. One of the favorite activities to do when she is here is for all to take a bath together. It's a little different at Papa & Mama's with their big jacuzzi tub. At our house, you get to pile in like sardines. The kids didn't seem to mind though!

The reason for the visit was because Papa was inducted into the Albert Lea High School's Athletic Hall of Fame. We got to attend a fancy dinner sans children and see Papa receive his award while the children played with bonus Grandma DC (or Daisy as Carter kept calling her!) and Jeff. Denise said Carter was confused by the fact that she looked so much like Grandma Debbie. I guess when you are a fraternal twin with an opposite gender sibling, the identical twin thing is lost on you! The kids had a blast though and got to cruise around on a golf cart, play at the park, and take a bath in another big tub. We just enjoyed our evening without children hanging around!

Saturday the 9th, the day after Papa's ceremony, we had a baby shower for Baby Kunkel. Uncle Tony, or Uncle Kunkel as we like to call him, is getting plenty of children practice in! We had a great time at the shower and Amanda got lots of wonderful things for the baby. The visit was bittersweet though as we won't be seeing Holly and Joel for some time now. Baby Z is due mid-November so Holly's flying days are limited and they won't be coming back before the baby comes. It will probably be 2012 before we see them again since they understandably don't want to fly with a month old baby for Christmas. Olivia will be so different when we see her again! All we hope in this household is that at least one of them has a boy. Carter is outnumbered 4 to 1 right now and if both Holly and Amanda have girls, he will be outnumbered 6 to 1! We need at least one boy cousin for Carter! Neither is finding out in advance, so we'll have to wait until November to know.

In other news, Hannah's eyes appear to be turning green. There are some definite greenish tints in there. We seem to produce anomalies. If her eyes turn green, we will have two green eyed girls (Ellie is the other). We also already have two lefties (Ellie and Carter). It will be interesting to see which hand Hannah uses and if her eyes do turn.

This girl loves to eat! She now chows down on green beans, carrots, squash, bananas, pears, and applesauce. Next up are peas and peaches. She loves it all! She will even eat her cereal now if it has a healthy dose of fruit mixed in.

She's such a happy little lady.

And she's mastered sitting up! At 5.5 months! It helps to have such a solid base. When you are a chunk, it is easy to sit yourself in place.

It looks like she's having trouble sitting up here.....

but really she just wants to suck on her toes. Don't you wish you were this flexible?!

Nothing like nice slobbery toes!

Once she's had her toe fix, she can snap herself right back up.

Now she hangs out on the floor with pillows around in case she tips.

She loves hanging out where the older kids are and feels included in their play now. The only downside to sitting on the floor is that every now and then your brother can't help himself and has to push you over. She's defenseless and lays there like a turtle stuck on its shell which I think is what humors him. Once Hannah can start crawling, she'll get him back when he least expects it!

So that is what we've been up to around here. It's been so hot lately that we've just been staying inside and trying to find activities indoors to keep us busy. We've been logging in lots of pool time at Lifetime but have to watch our sun exposure since the baby shouldn't really be out in the sun. It's been quite a balancing act this summer. Next year will be much easier! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer as well.

Quotes of the Little People

The little people, specifically the twins, have been full of great quotes lately. I'm sure there are more but these are all that I can remember. Ellie is witty but I think she's now at the age where she has learned to keep some of her comments to herself. I do hear her snickering from time to time though when she overhears what the twins have to say.

Earlier this week, the kids were all napping upstairs and I was downstairs enjoying a few moments of quiet and a book. Suddenly, I heard a booming voice from the top of the stairs. "Alissa, your baby is awake. Get up here and get her." I obliged and when I got to the top of the stairs, the little scamp followed me to the crib. As we peeked at her through the bars, he touched her head and whispered gleefully, "I woke her up!"

"Mom, you have a big butt," Ava has told me numerous times this week. Thanks dearest, I wasn't aware.

This morning I had the radio on due to the big thunderstorm (tornadoes fall in my list of fears, right after small spaces, heights, and fire). The latest Britney Spears song came on and as I think it is a little catchy, I turned it up. Carter came downstairs and said "What's this song called Mom?" I replied with the song title. "No," he said, "it's Britney Spears." Sharp boy! And no more youtube for these twerps either!

We had to cancel our gym appointment today due to the storm. Carter was concerned that if we went outside, "we'd be shot by lightning."

It was also really dark outside this morning before the rain started. Ava asked, "Mom, can I go to bed? It's really dark out." I think she was concerned that it was night and I was keeping her up really late!

We listen to youtube a lot around here. The other day Ava requested a song from "Juton Fever". That would be Justin Beiber. I asked her if she liked him and she gave me a big smile. She and Ellie have a case of Beiber Fever!

That's what I've got for today. I really need to start writing everything down as I know there have been more things they've said recently that are amusing.

Ahoy, Mateys!

Earlier this year, the Disney channel launched a new show called "Jake and the Never Land Pirates". It was an instant hit in our household and Carter watches it multiple times every day. Thank goodness for the on-demand feature through our cable that allows us to watch selected episodes to our hearts' content!

Watching a pirate show has created a huge interest in pirates in our house. Grammy Sara sent us a care package that included pirate patches and, best of all, gold doubloons! Jake, Izzy, and Cubby get gold doubloons when they solve pirate problems. Now we've got gold doubloons of our own! We just need a pouch for our fairy dust (the fairies gave it to us so we can fly, but only in emergencies!) and Bucky, our pirate ship, and we are set for many adventures in the Never Seas!

Aargh! Here are the buccaneers with their pirate patches and single gold hoop earrings. The littlest pirate wasn't thrilled about the patch and earring!

Silly Baby

The twins were tossing blankets in the air the other day and Hannah thought it was absolutely hilarious! I was in the kitchen and came to investigate because I couldn't tell if her throaty chuckle was her laughing or crying. She's easily amused!

Hannah also loves bathtime and kicks and splashes while in the tub. This night she was having a blast!

5 Months Old!

Are you as shocked as I am? I can't believe I'm 5 months old already!

Time flies when you are one of the cutest babies ever.

I'm such a big girl. I've got to be over 16 lbs now. I still have my beautiful tuft of hair. Mom started feeding me this mushy stuff. I think it is absolutely disgusting. I push it all out of my mouth with my tongue. Last night, she gave me some green stuff that I think she called green beans. I thought it was delicious and gobbled every bite that didn't have white stuff mixed in. She thought she was so smart and mixed that mush with the beans. I was on to her and if I tasted too much mush, out came everything. But I loved the beans!

I'm so big that I'm trying to sit up on my own now. I've got enough of a base that I should have it mastered by the end of the month. I still don't like to lay on my tummy so I'll probably just go from sitting to crawling. Rolling holds no interest for me.

I laugh and talk a lot. It's so hard to be heard in this household so I often have to talk really loud. I've also started gumming Mom and Dad's shoulders. I haven't figured out if I'm doing this because I'm excited or if I'm trying to bite them. I'll figure out which one soon and let you know. No teeth yet. I did find my feet the other day. There are these little things that wiggle on the end of my feet and they are fun to watch and try to catch. I'm also finally figuring out my napping schedule so that there can be some predictability in our house. It's taken me a while to decide if I want to get on a schedule or not. I go to bed around 8 and sleep until 6 or 7 and you'd think that would be good enough, but it's not. So I'm working on setting up regular naps for myself to make Mom's life easier.

Anyway, that is what is new with me. I'm such a cute and happy little girl. How can you not love me and want to squeeze me?!