Jasper's Wool Stash

I've been meaning to post this for a long time now (like 4 months).  He's now grown out of his newborn woolies and in between his smalls and mediums!  This guy is growing like crazy.  I know my other guys are growing too but it's just not as apparent on a day to day basis.  But if our grocery bill is any indication, we are definately a house full of growing boys!  I came home from Costco yesterday totally blown away at how much food we go through!  They aren't even that big yet...maybe it's the food that's just expensive?  Please, someone tell me that's it...Even in the summer when we grow a garden it doesn't seem to slow the spending on groceries.  I feel like we just eat our money up!  I'm sure in another 10 years I'll be an expert at cooking rice and beans with the occasional 'ramen' surprise to keep from having to re-mortgage our house to keep up our eating habits.  Ugh.
Ok, back to the wool stash...here are the newborns. 

Oh, and that's the little shirt that I dyed and appliqued.  This is what he wore home from the hospital.  Wow, I'm really late in posting these pictures!  He looks nothing like this anymore! 

And I had to add a picture of some of the stuff my mom has made for us over the years.  She's the official 'bootie-maker':)  She also made the adorable bonnet, but unfortunately that hasn't gotten much (any) wear from our boys!

Here is a jumper that I actually made the pattern for.  I totally love it, but I actually made it for Noah and then never put the buttons on it until Jasper came along.  I figured that I'd better get it done for this one or it would not get worn!

Here are some of his small longies that we are now having to phase out of.

The yellow and green pair were made by my friend Janice who dyed her yarn and made them in Tunisian Crochet.  These are amazing!!  We wear them more than the one's I've made...and they fetch compliments all over the place.  We love them!  Here's her shop.

The last pair I have to show are my upcycled debut.  I bought a bunch of sweaters at the thrift store a few weeks ago and decided to try my hand at a pair of yoga pants.  They turned out really cute and fit well, but I'm not sold on the soaker side of things.  They don't really do the trick, maybe it's becuase they're too thin.  Anyway, I am going to be trying some wool interlock soon (as soon as it arrives!).  meanwhile, these are way cute on my little baby-J!

Spring!!

Since we got home it's been sunny sunny sunny!  It was almost 60 degrees when we got here on Saturday.  For me, that's a breath of fresh air...for my husband (bless his heart) it means the end of winter is near...in other words, the end of ski season is near.  Oh well!  The garlic I planted this last fall is bursting through the ground and my rhubarb has started to sprout up as well!  I just LOVE it when these little promises of spring burst out of the ground.  You never know when you actually plant something if it will actually produce something so when it actually shows up green months later, there is something so satisfying about it.  I think without the waiting in between I wouldn't appreciate it so much! 

We're finally home!

Yay for home!  After a loooooong journey, we are finally sleeping in our own beds again.  I'm not sure how I would've done it differently but two days driving with three little youngsters is a lot.  Then, flying with a baby accross the country is even more!  Glad it's over and we are not taking any long trips again soon.  With that said, the kids desparately miss their grandparents and think it is so sad that we don't have a tree house like they do!  (My parent's have a grown up size tree house, complete with a window seat and small little fake stove and front porch).  Oh and the cat was hard to give up too!  So many things about living in the country that are good for the soul.  Each time I leave Moscow I get a little pushy about finding a place in the country here.  I'm insisting on looking for property somewhere...but really don't know where that would be around here!  I guess I need to be thankful for what God has provided for us and our house really is great.  Isn't it funny how we are never satisfied where we are at? 

Anyway, Jasper is getting better...his RSV is not as bad at all.  In fact, he doesn't even have  runny nose anymore.  The only indication that he is sick at all is an occasional cough.  I still have him sleeping in his carseat though.  Does this look like the face of a sicko to you? 

One thing is for sure...the boys were spoiled at Nana and Grandpa's house.  Jack even thanked Nana  the night before we left for spoiling him.  They watched so many movies that I'm surprised their eyes aren't buggy.  The new favorite is Ice Age (The Dawn of Dinosauers).  We have been hearing the phrase 'liar liar fur's on fire' over and over and over again.  We couldn't figure that one out until finally on the way home Saturday we heard it on that movie!  The mystery is solved.  Although, now it's becoming an issue...it's not exactly the nicest thing to say to someone.  Why is it that they pick out a line like that instead of something sweet and kind to say?  Hm.

So here we are....

Last summer we were invited to join the National Lifelines Ministry team.  Such an awesome opportunity for our ministry and it aligns perfectly with where we feel God is leading us in our careers with Crusade.  Not to mention it's totally a promotion!  We were excited to accept the invitation and have been working at moving ahead with the change since.  It means a number of things, one of which is an annual meeting with the team in Florida.  The team is made up of several people accross the country, from Maine, Vermont, Virginia, Arizona and now Utah (there are 9 of us in all).  Mark was totally bummed to leave Utah in the height of winter as he was certain the snow would start to fly the minute we left town.  He's such a ski bum.  I was excited at the prospect of warmer weather and some sunshine.  Anyway, our first meeting was this week. 

So here we are in Florida.  We left last week for this adventure.  The two older boys were left with Grandma and Grandpa (and Granny) after a two day drive, and Mark, the babe and I flew here a few days later.  The morning of our flight our little bundle of joy barfed all over himself in his crib...needless to say my anxiety over leaving was heightened even more (I didn't think that was possible).  The thought crossed my mind that maybe this could be my reason for not going...I could turn back and not have to give up a week spent with my boys.  It's ironic becuase I was the one who spearheaded this trip planning to begin with.  I always have an urge to travel deep down and when an opportunity arises I'm pretty quick to jump on it.  But, for some reason this time I had some major fear in leaving them and flying accross the country for a full week. 

By the time we arrived here, baby J had exhausted my stash of back up clothes after puking one more time and then blowing out his diaper and was wearing an improvised outfit.  Luckily we were blessed with front row seats on the airplane for our 5 hour flight (yes, 5 hours between the flight to Chicago and then to Orlando, ugh) so we had the extra leg room luxury to lay him on the floor to kick around.  I felt a little guilty when I saw the families with multiple kids walk by trying to find seats that would isolate their chaos from the rest of us.  I've been there and done that! 

Anyway, we'd made it through four days here when I started noticing that the babe had developed some bad mucus.  He had even vomited a couple more times (when I say vomit I'm not talking about spitting up, it's full on tossing cookies).  So, I finally decided to take him into the doctor yesterday.  We had to find a doctor who takes babies since the local quick care doesn't see babies under 6 months old, not a reassuring thing to find out...however we did find a pediatric quick care place not terribly far away.  So, long story short, they swabbed the poor guy and found that he has RSV.  Argh!  My first reaction is to pack my bags and get the heck outta here.  All I wanted was to be back home where I know my doctor and we have our very own children's hospital if we need it!  But, after spending the night in his carseat, much prayer and mucus sucking he's doing a whole lot better today.  We did find this fantastic piece of equipment at Target that sucks the snot out of his nose like a vacuum.  It's really cool and works exceptionally well for $25 if anyone is interested (check it out here).  I really think it's going to save our bacon.

So, as for our meeting here, it's been going well!  It's always such a challenge for me to go between business and being a mom in the same room.  It's so fun though to be with our National Lifelines team and talk about the future of this awesome ministry.  I'm thankful overall for this opportunity and a job that allows for me to still be a part of things even when I'm at 1/2 capacity.  I guess life is never ideal right? 

Ministry on the Move

I am just in the middle of getting our latest newsletter out. The way we work it is Mark writes text and then I put the newsletter together and send it out. Usually I'm left feeling like there is so much more to say but I can't fit it all into a one page newsletter! I feel like there is so much going on here that I want to share with people but the newsletter just doesn't provide the space for what God is doing!
I'm sitting across from Emily (one of my co-workers) and she just told me about how many people are coming to our weekly meetings. In the last week there were three new LDS students who came to our Bible study at SLCC, two new LDS students came to a women's Bible study at the UofU and 18 women came to a brand new Bible study starting at Utah State University. Can I just tell you, that is amazing! We see such ebb and flow here with ministry, but over the past 5 years there has been a steady increase in interest toward the gospel. We only occasionally get to see the fruit of our labor when it comes down to numbers. The soil here is hard and the culture often prevents people from turning toward the true gospel of Christ even when they are convinced of the Truth. So, to hear about such an upturn in attendance is incredibly encouraging!
There are also some other ministry things that are happening that I wish I could talk about more openly here. But let me say that God is on the move here! People are taking chances for the gospel and choosing Christ over family and friends, even coming out of lifestyles that leave them with nothing.

More Goodies on Etsy!

The other day I found the most precious Valentine's goodies on Etsy! These are plantable cards for your sweetheart. The paper is imbedded with seeds for flowers so it's a bouquet and card all in one! I couldn't help it, I bought the 20 pack. I'm sure I can find 20 well deserving friends to give them to. I'm a sucker for unique things and this one did me in! I've also been drooling over her 2010 Calendar...might have to make another purchase soon...find these irresistable goodies right here!

P.S. Free shipping to boot!

Valentine's Day is coming up!

So, this is really a Christmas gift that I gave my husband this year but I thought I'd post it here for a Valentine idea. I have a husband who has pretty much everything he could ever possibly want or need. For some reason he seems to attract friends in the outdoor retail business who have excess 'stuff' and love to give it away...this means that he is already well equiped for pretty much all of his interests. Great for him, bummer for me when I'm brainstorming for gift ideas. Another interesting thing I've learned about my guy is that he's a 'quality time' lover. If you've ever read or heard of 'The 5 Love Languages' you know what I'm talking about. Basically it means that he really feels loved when you spend good quality time with him. He's also in the 'acts of service' camp too (another love language)...like he'll clean house or do the dishes or watch the kids for a day so I can go to the opera with a good friend (like he did this last Sunday:) just becuase he wants to show me that he loves me (don't I have a GREAT husband?!). Anyway, this year I was really trying to think of something he'd appreciate for Christmas that would speak his 'language'. I was checking out gift ideas on the internet when I came across a little notepad idea. It was so cute, made up like a little book of matches only with scrap paper inside. I didn't really have a use for that, but I decided it could pair quite nicely with the old coupon book idea. So, I made up a stack of coupons like '1 day of skiing with a friend', 'An evening by the fire with me', '1 steak dinner', '1 day to yourself', and so on. There are back rubs, car washes and coffee dates in there too. I did put an expiration date on them all of December 31, 2010 and a place to write the date that each one was redeemed. This way, he's required to use them all within the year guaranteeing that we'll spend some good quality time together and we'll also have a record of when we did what over the last year. These days, if we don't plan our time together it's likely not to happen!

Anyway, you can make one of these too! Just type and print out your coupons then cut and stack them in the order you want. Cut out some card stock that is a little longer than twice the length of your coupons (you'll have to use the 12x12 paper for this). Fold the card stock so that it wraps around the coupons and then overlaps toward one end and staple it all together. Then you can tuck the longer end of the cover into the stapled end and voila! You have yourself a cute little coupon book. This was a big hit for us, in fact a few of them have already been put to use. If you make this, write me a comment and tell me how it goes!