It Was A Good Week

This past week Zeke was home on Spring Break. It was a good week. We didn't do too much out of the ordinary, but it was nice sleeping in an extra 20 minutes every day and just having him home (when he wasn't aggravating Deacon that is). The weather recently has been gorgeous too. The days start out cold, in the single digits usually, but by the end of the afternoon, it'll be up in the mid to high 30's. It's like spring. And it's sunny. SOOOO wonderfully sunny. But once the sun is gone, it cools of really quickly. So quickly in fact, that a friend came over for dinner Tuesday night. In the hour and a half she was here the top step froze and she fell down the stairs. (She's fine...she milked it the rest of the night while we were at Bible study...but she's fine.)

Tuesday was also the day we had a new friend come over to play. Zeke has made friends with this sweet boy at church. They are in the same Sunday school class, and they both are in the same class on Wednesday nights. Last week we sat behind them in church, while Zeke sat with them. So, Tuesday morning, this boy, his little brother (20 months old), and his mom came over and hung out with us for a good hour and a half. Zeke was SO excited, he told Josh all about it when Josh got home from work, as well as my friend when she showed up for dinner. He can't wait for their next playdate (which sadly, most likely won't be until school is over in May).

(I didn't take any pictures during the playdate, so this is a picture from today actually, of the 2 boys not mentioned in the above story.)

Monday, Wednesday and Thursday were normal days, so not much to say about them. Friday, Josh came home from work super early, like 9:15am early, so we all took a trip to Target. We did a little shopping, ate a little lunch, and really had a fun time. At Target, Zeke finally got a chance to spend his birthday money and so he got a nice, big, talking, Spider-man toy. (And since Deacon's birthday is coming up soon enough we let him get a "matching" Iron Man toy.) Poor Zeke had to wait until after his nap though to play with his Spider-man, and I'm pretty sure he spent the whole time sitting in his room just waiting. As soon as I opened his door he jumped up said, "I play Spider-man now?" and was out the door and up the stairs.

On Saturday, Zeke's speech was cancelled, so that didn't happen either. But it was okay because Zeke had a birthday party to go to. A boy in the other preschool class at his school turned 5 this weekend and invited Zeke to his party. This is kind of a big deal as it was the first school friend birthday party he's ever gone to (he got invited to another one earlier this year but couldn't make it). It's an even bigger deal since I didn't stay. I dropped him off at 3 and picked him up at 5, and he had a blast. The boy's dad very sweetly invited Deacon to stay too, but Deacon was at home in bed. Sigh. My little boy is growing up so fast.

Also on Saturday, this happened:

Yep. Since Finn is everywhere and into everything all at once, a gate had to be put up to stop him from going into the kitchen when we're trying to cook or do the dishes. Of course, none of our gates were wide enough to span the entire space that is the "entryway" to the kitchen, so Josh had to move his nightstand there. Eventually I'll hang some artwork on it so it's not so...um...there.

Sunday was church and naps and hanging out. Just how we like our Sundays. And that was our Spring Break. All in all, a really good week.

Just Call Me "Knitty McKnitterson"

If you remember back at then end of January, when I wrote the post on the shawls (and hats) I had made up to that point, you might remember I mentioned that I had started work on 2 new shawls. Well, two weeks ago I finished the first one, and on Monday I finished the second one. (I also made another hat during this time, but it's a gift so I can't say any more about it...yet.)

Here is the second one I finished, which I actually started first:

And here is the first one I finished, which I actually started second:

This one was a riot. See, I decided to make this one horizontally, but since I've never done one like that before I decided to make it up on my own instead of looking online for similar patterns. So I did some math based on other shawls I've made with the same type of yarn, and figured out how many stitches across it should have needed. Well, something somewhere went wrong and when I finished the shawl, and took it off the needles it measured 4 inches shy of 10 FEET long. See?

And oh, how we all did laugh.

To fix it I just sewed (with my sewing machine) up and down each side, to make it the lenght I wanted it to be and the cut the ends off and let them hang to make a fringe. It does look lovely now, but it really was a sight when it was first "finished".

Now, for anyone who might be curious, I am working on another shawl with a pattern that requires more concentration then I care to give my knitting projects so it might be awhile before it's finished. I am also working on a new blanket for Deacon since I never really made him one (I did make him one, but it was very small and a poor effort on my part - most unlike the ones I made for Zeke and Finn), as well as a "granny hexagon" blanket that I started a long time ago. Hey, I need something to do while I watch tv and movies with my menfolk. Right?

Iditarod 2011

This past Saturday, Josh took the bigger boys to the Iditarod start, while I stayed home with Finn (because it was too cold for Finn [and me] to be out there is why). They had a great time. Besides splitting a reindeer dog (you know, a hot dog made out of reindeer), they got to see some of the dogs and racers start,

they got to see Izzy the Immunization Dog, and play with one of those face things (which was too big),

they went to the train station,

and to the ice sculpture display.

As you can tell by their faces, it was cold out there, but oh so much fun.

Oh, and the best part for me, besides getting to spend a morning with my sweet bug-a-boo, is the sah-weet boots Josh got for me while they were there. Apparently this once place was having a ridiculous sale and so Josh bought me some rabbit fur boots.

Aren't they lovely? They're rabbit fur and suede on the outside and wool and fleece on the inside. They are so warm and soft and while I didn't know I wanted them, I love them. And Josh says he feels better now that his wife won't be leaving Alaska without any fur.

So, a good Saturday morning all around.

February Photo Dump

I have a bunch of pictures on my computer from February that I guess I had intended on writing posts for, but now I think I'm just going to dump them all into one post so we can move on and write about whatever March brings us. And now, in no particular order, the rest of February:

This is my hunk, hoisting a hunk of ice he chipped off of our driveway on day.

Deacon worked so hard on decorating this chair. When he was finished he started singing to it. "O Christmas house, o Christmas house, something, something, something." (to the tune of O Christmas Tree)

If you thought Finn couldn't get any cuter, you should see him in a cowboy hat.

My couch got tagged one day. Thankfully he used the eraser end of the pencil and not the lead end.

Me and my boys. Not to mention further evidence that 3 kids is enough for me.

This gorgeous boy (sob! the hair!) was pretending that water tower was a megaphone. He's so clever and imaginative.

Ahh, a nice warm fire on a cold winter day.

Poor baby was having a rough time waking up this morning.

Finn decided he wanted to be "fancy" one day so I dressed him up. Eventually we did get pants on too.

On the 17th, Josh took Zeke to work with him. Since this is the last photo, I'll write a little more about that. A few weeks earlier, Josh had taken Zeke in for his 5 year check up. The original plan was for me to bring in the other boys, get Zeke from Josh's office, then take them all to the dentist. But the dentist wasn't there, so Josh took Zeke to work for a few minutes while he checked to make sure they wouldn't need him for the next half hour or so, then brought Zeke to school. Well, Zeke talked about going to work with Daddy for the rest of the day. He was so excited. So, when Zeke had off for parent/teacher conferences Josh took Zeke in to work again, this time for more then 10 minutes. They both had a great time and did a bunch of stuff.

Like sit on a stuffed musk ox that's hanging out in the building Josh works in. Good times.

And that wraps up the rest of our February. Good times, indeed.