Seeing the End in Sight!

So after two months of potty training I think that Lucas is finally crossing the finish line of potty training, at this house that is (he still has accidents at Grandma's house). Sean and I have been trying to figure out what to do during naps and at night because it seemed to us that Lucas was holding his body movements in until we put a pull-up on him and then he would just go. Plus, pull-ups are counter productive in that they are just like a diaper. But when we put nothing on him, he would have accidents in the bed because he still has a lock on the door so he can't come out (that opens another can of worms if we took it off and I really don't think that Lucas knows enough to get up and go out to the bathroom.) So one night Sean and I put Lucas's little training potty in his bedroom and told him if he needed to go to use the toilet. Much to our suprise, at about 4 am Lucas was knocking at his door to let us know that he went pee in the toilet! Hurray! No more pull-ups for Lucas!

The only bad thing is that now, when he needs to take a nap he basically empties his body so that I have to keep coming in to clean it out and he can prolong his nap. But I am thrilled with how well he is doing, plus as an added bonus, a couple of weeks ago when we went to see the Princess and the Frog he actually told me at the movie theatre that he needed to go potty! I was floored! I really think we are starting to see the end of this long tunnel that has been potty training. I was talking to a lady in my ward and she was saying that she thinks that potty training is the hardest job for a parent and I think I would have to agree with her!

Isaac is doing well, I can't believe my baby will turn 4 months in March (and Lucas will turn 3 years in May!) He is drooling a lot so we are all convinced that he is going to be making teeth soon. He is already in 6-9 month clothes and still growing. I must have whole milk or something because he is 100% breast fed but still getting huge! He is definitely a smiler which we all love. When you are having a hard day, just pick him up and smile at him and he will smile back a huge toothless grin! I am in the process of making him a play mat so he can lay on the hard wood floor and maybe start working on rolling! Check out my craft blog to see the progression!

Craft Blog

I decided to start a craft blog. If you want to follow my crafts visit me at:

http://www.crazycraftbugs.blogspot.com/

Come an join the fun!

The Most Amazing Hooded Towels

I finally made it over to my mother-in-laws so she could teach me how to make her amazing hooded towels and they are just that, amazing! I love them! They are SO much better then the store bought hooded towels. They cover more, they are softer and they can be used for older kids too! So here is the tutorial I promised on them:

Supplies:
     1 regular towel
     1 regular wash cloth, tags clipped
     thread
     pins
     preferably a sewing machine
     10 minutes of you time because that is all the time they take to make!

Step 1: Fold the towel in half and mark where the half point is with a pin

Step 2: Fold the washcloth in half and mark where the half point is with a pin

Step 3: With the wash cloth, fold over the decorative part of the wash cloth and pin

Step 4: Fold in corners, start buy pinching the corner and folding in towards the center, pin (on the same side of the decorative piece

Step 5: Do the same on the other side so it is even.

Step 6: Line up center pins on the towel and washcloth, make sure that you are pinning on the outside of the towel so when you flip it around, everything is on the inside) pin together. Then begin to pin down the sides of the wash cloth. Pinning vertically allows you to sew without taking out pins!

Step 7: Ready to sew. It should look like this. Towel will be curving to accomidate the washcloth

Step 8: SEW! Because of the bulkiness of the towel sew 6/8 inch in and sew it twice to make sure that it is secure. Take your time to ensure you get through all layers.

Step 9: Fold out and enjoy!

(My less then enthused model!)

I hope you enjoy this tutorial and if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them!

February Project

I hate to admit it but I think my family may be a little to addicted to TV. When you have a crazy two and a half year old it is nice to stick in a movie just to have some peace and quiet. If you aren't there yet, trust me you will get there. But as much as I love being able to do that, there is still alittle voice in my head that feels guilt about doing it. So some things in the Meyer house are going to change this month. Not sure when or how but they will. So my project for this month, besides crocheting like a mad man, is to make some felt food. I have seen on numerous blogs and etsy shops, this has become a new fad. So I am going to set out this month to make Lucas some food. He got some kitchen supplies from Grandma for Christmas but he just needs some food to along with it. I am not as skilled on the sewing machine as I would like to be so this will be an adventure. Hopefully, like last month's project, I will grow in my skills and aquire new ones.
As a side note, I will be posting some tutorials. One will be how to applique and I plan on having my mother in law teach me how to make her fabulous hooded towels, so I will write a tutorial about that. Also, if anyone is interested in my crocheting pieces I opened a shop on etsy.com so that they can be purchased. The website is www.esty.com/shop/ahlaam and I know it looks ugly now but it will get better. So today it will be onto JoAnn's to purchase some felt!

Grocery Shopping 2/3/2010

So as you probably know my addiction, and it really is my addiction, is couponing. I love the feeling of standing up at the cash register and watching the amount I owe widdle down to nothing. If I spend more then 20 dollars in one transaction I start to wonder what I did wrong! Here is a picture of what I purchased yesterday at Rainbow.

The total for all these groceries came to $75.70, I paid $14.96 plus I got a coupon for $5.00 off my next purchase, so really, I only paid $9.96. That would be a total of 87% in savings! Not bad for all the groceries pictured! I am also excited because on Saturday the 6th and the 13th Rainbow is doubling 10 coupons! We will see what I get if I choose to go out again.

Last night I finished another hat. This time I used Ecru and Burgundy Cotton Yarn. What do you think?

3 Months!

Isaac has now turned 3 months old! I can't believe that time is just flying by. He is such a good baby. We are so blessed in this family to have him be a part of it. I can't wait though until him and Lucas can pal around!

Here is a picture of my shopping trip to Target last night. We were in great need of diapers so I took advantage of the fact that I had 8.00 in coupons plus they were giving a 5.00 gift card with the purchase of two boxes. So for diapers I ended up getting both of those boxes for 27.00 which is not bad when you think that I bought a little less then 200. The wipes were the only thing I paid full price for. Everything else I got for alittle over or under a 1.00. Pretty cool huh? All in all I paid 52.00 for everything on the table plus got a 5.00 gift certificate.

Here are more crocheting things that I have accomplished this week. My new addiction is to crochet. It is so fast and easy and I love the way they turn out. I hope that I can make up a ton and then open a shop on etsy.com, we will see though. Just trying to get through each of my patterns I bought.

Little Girl's headband and hat

Boots for Isaac that are alittle big but by the way Isaac is growing it shouldn't be long until he fits into them.

A Real Headache

Here is the result from the project that I embarked on. After throwing away the first one because I cut it too short and almost screaming profanities while I broke my sewing needle on this one, I finished the project. I started with no pattern, just an idea in my head. Hopefully if I make any more, they will turn out a little more professional. So here it is!
I am huge into coupons, if you couldn't tell and I have been using the baseball card sheet and binder method to keep my coupons organized. However, the binder that I use doesn't have straps and Sean was always complaining about how hard and ackward it was to life my coupon binder. Anyways, they do have binders that have shoulder straps but I think that they are ugly and expensive. So I set out to make my own binder cover that would fit a 1 inch binder. This is the result.

I sewed zippers up both sides so nothing falls out and they stay together. I was thinking about having zippers go all the way around but I was not going to even attempt that! But now I have a binder that has handles and looks pretty!