Where have I been??? I know you have all been wondering and are also probably sick of looking at that crazy picture of Jayden, that I think is absolutely hilarious.  Well, let me tell you.  But first, I just want to show you what is lined up around our house all. the. time.

Dinos…..

…and more dinos…

…the meat eaters all grouped together, the leaf eaters all grouped together, who are always grouped around a plant, alive or fake, it doesn’t matter.  The leaf eaters are always hungry.  And for that matter so are the meat eaters.  The meat eaters are always hunting the leaf eaters and they say to each other, “The leaf eaters are always eating, we will find them by the plants”

Anyway, the obsession with dinosaurs is still crazy around here.  Even Willow runs around the house roaring.  Willow often gets to be Jayden’s baby T-rex and he goes and hunts meat for them to eat.  It’s pretty fun to see them actually playing together, even if most of the time Jayden is bossing her around, telling his baby T-rex to sit in one spot while he hunts and the baby T-rex never listens and follows him running around the house roaring and attacking things.

Well as for why there have been no new posts lately….Jayden found this pattern for dinosaurs that his Grandma had sent in one of her packages and he asked if I could make them for him.  I said sure, I mean how hard could they be right?  I can follow directions, cut things out, sew them together.  They are just little dinos, it shouldn’t be so hard.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a good sewer, seamstress, whatever you want to call it.  I’m just not very good.  I’ve only had my sewing machine for about a year now and I have to keep reminding myself about the drawers full of knitted stuff that just wasn’t that good when I was first starting to knit.  It takes practice to get better and I don’t have a ton of time to practice, but really, practicing on things for a 4-year old is perfect, he doesn’t care what the details look like.  :)   I had no idea these darn dinos were going to take me like a week to finish.  All my spare time was spent at the sewing machine, not on the computer coming up with anything to entertain my 5 blog followers with.  So, as for the dinos, Jayden decided he wanted them four colors - red, blue, yellow, and green.  We went to the fabric store last Saturday and Jayden picked out material for each color.  I tried to influence him, but no, anything I suggested he said absolutely not too, so I just went with what he wanted, I figured he’d like ‘em better this way.

So, here are Jayden’s finished products.  They totally turned out patriotic looking with the red stripes and blue with stars material.  Perfect for this time of year!  And he even picked out the googly eye colors.  Blue for the flyer - “so he can see in the dark like me” - Jayden has this strange idea that only people with blue eyes can see in the dark, I’ve tried explaining otherwise, but he’s set in his ways and it’s just not a battle I’m willing to argue over.  The T-Rex has one red and one green.  And the stegosaurus has one blue and one green.

I had no idea they were going to be so big.  I thought they’d be like a normal sized stuff animal.  Oh no, they are practically life-sized.  I didn’t even look at the pattern before we went and got material and I’m such a novice when it comes to sewing that I didn’t even figure it out when I added up the yards of material we were going to need.   Oh well, at least Jayden likes them.  :)

or, as Willie and I always called it, Happy Singles Awareness Day!

For part of the kid’s presents this year, I decided to make them something.  For Jayden I made him a flannel dinosaur pillow case, which sadly has already gotten a lot of use since it was opened this morning.  Jayden has been real sick for the past few days.  He had the flu on Thursday and then Friday the flu seemed to turn into a cold, and now he’s all laid up on the couch.  Poor kid.

For Willow, I made a little valentine dress.  And for the 5 minutes she had it on today so I could try and take some pictures, she managed to get food on it!  How the heck did she find food????  I figure she’s got a secret stash  around somewhere…

For lunch, I made the kids and Royal some heart shaped sandwiches.

And then I finished up my heart sugar cookies by frosting them with some chocolate royal icing, Royal’s favorite.

The weather here has been so great lately! 75 degrees and sunny! And while I think this weather is a little freakish and I kinda wish it was colder, it has been nice to play outside without worrying about hats and coats and stuff!
On Saturday, the kids were starting to come down with a cold and I just couldn’t handle an entire day of cranky, whining kids at home, so Royal and I got them dressed, loaded them up, and headed to the zoo. Well, we forgot the zoo is now on winter hours, so we got there a good hour before it opened. Bummer. There was no way I was going to drive all the way home, so we went to a park and played there for an hour and then went back to the zoo when the gates were open. Wouldn’t you know it, but I forgot my camera, and Jayden got to feed the giraffes! I can’t believe I didn’t have my camera! It was sweet! He got giraffe slobber all over his hand and arm. Willow kept acting like she wanted to feed them too, so we gave her a leaf to give to the giraffe, but when his long, black tongue licked her arm while reaching for the leaf, she kinda freaked out..sad… Oh well, I have one more free coupon for giraffe feeding, so maybe we’ll try to hit it up again next time I’m at the zoo with my camera!

I managed to get a lot done this weekend as far as projects were concerned, because pretty much once we got home from the zoo, we stayed here because the kids and their colds went downhill in a hurry. :)

I finished Willow birthday cake hat! Here’s a little preview. It’s not her birthday yet!

I also made a happy birthday banner. The pattern is here!

And since I was on such a roll on completing things, why stop there?
I made Jayden a new apron because we are going to be taking a cooking class together and making gingerbread houses! I love this apron because it doesn’t have ties, so he can put it on himself. The neck strap has eleastic in it so it stretches over his head and the waist strap velcros around his back and to one side. Genius! You can find the pattern here

And last, but not least, I made a giraffe rattle because there are a ton of people I know who are pregnant and I’m going to be sending them presents and why not include a little cloth giraffe that even has a bell on the inside so it jingles when it shakes around! So, prego friends, don’t be surprised to be getting one of these in the mail!

I’ve been whipping out pumpkin hats like there’s no tomorrow. No one was real interested when it was like July when I made my kids’. But now that Halloween and Fall are right around the corner, everybody wants one! And I’ve got to finish them up so I can get Willow’s Christmas stocking (that I’m having to redo from last year….boo) done before I put up Christmas decorations! But other than pumpkin hats, I’ve sewn up a couple things too!

I made the kids some trick or treat bags.

And then I also made them some matching pj/lounge pants!

Royal has been working a lot over the past couple weeks, which in turn means I am working a lot here at home, if you call what I do working. :) And I have been really sick and am just starting to feel better. So, those are my reasons for my lack of pictures of the kids recently. Tonight, I decided I’d just take some pictures of the kids in the bath and post some of those, just so you had something new to look at. I got one picture snapped and then my battery went dead. It’s like it’s just not meant to be. So, here’s the picture. It cracks me up, because Willow just starts smiling whenever I bring the camera out, and Jayden pretty much tries to not look at me as much as possible.

Oh! and one other thing I thought I’d share. I have made a few things on the sewing machine I got for my birthday. One of them is this sunhat! And even if the hat is pretty shoddy workmanship, the kid wearing it is pretty cute!