Freezer Paper Setting for your Cricut Explore

It has taken me so long, and so many trial and errors to figure how to cut freezer paper on my Cricut without it tearing the design while cutting. However, I finally figured it out!! And here is what worked for me.

POTTY TRAINING WOES

"Honey... Kadence took a huge dump in her room! Can you clean her up and put her clothes on so we can go to the gym!?"

My favorite thing to hear now a days is that one of my potty training almost 3 year olds has taken a dump on their bedroom floor. At this point, they are potty trained, right? They can pee on command, not only in the toilet, but in their pants when they are mad at me. They can officially go to a hiding place a poop on the floor, why they can't go to a secret hiding place called the bathroom is beyond me. So why is this taking so long? And so hard?

I have read 3 potty training books and looked up around 20 blog posts about potty training and nothing is working! I have even resorted to confining them to one room with a toddler toilet and stripping them of their clothes in order to keep a very close watch on them in order to catch them in the act and put them on the toilet like puppies. Somehow, the one minute intervals I wasn't watching them when I was either taking my own potty breaks or making them food they managed to do their business. I'm certain this was not a coincidence.

Are my children really this stubborn that they are refusing to go to the bathroom in the proper place? Or they really just not get it?? I can't tell. I know that training toddlers have accidents, but honestly, my kids really don't care. If they could wear a diaper all day they would be ecstatic because then they would get to just let it all go with no worries. I'm sure everyone would like that but I have made such HUGE deals for them going on the potty, short of throwing an all out party for them. However, even if a party was thrown for them they would pee and poop in their pants in the middle of it. That is my reality at the moment. It is very frustrating.

Sadly, I have 3 of my 4 children in diapers right now. I have to send my 2 year 50 week old twins to the gym childcare center with diapers on it is so sad.

As for now, I'm off to the store to get MORE carpet cleaner so I can clean up the prior mentioned dump on the floor of the twin's bedroom. If you are wondering why I don't have any on hand, it is because the last time I cleaned poop off the carpet, Liam got a hold of the bottle while I was scrubbing and sprayed every last drop of it onto the wall in the hallway.

Raising a Child that is Strong-Willed

....Not to be confused with "raising a strong willed child". Changing those words around makes a big difference. You can coach a child to be strong willed. They can definitely grow up with your voice in their head telling them "they can do it". What I'm talking about, is the child that doesn't hear any voice except for theirs and if you try and tell them different it goes in one ear and out the other. They hear you, they just aren't listening.

I have been at a loss with my 2 and a half year old son for a while. I have read and skimmed through a few parenting books. I've read Christian based books, discipline based books, "happy child" based books etc. and the suggestions and tactics have definitely worked with my other children. Noah (6) and Kadence(2) both respond to any type of discipline whether it is positive or negative. Kadence is in her terrible two stage, so she lets her emotions take over a lot, but I know that is something she will grow out of (until she is 12, then I'm sure it comes back with a vengeance if she's anything like me).

That leaves me with Liam(2). My very rambunctious "bam-bam" two year old that not only does NOT respond to any type of discipline, positive or negative, but he enjoys getting into trouble and doing whatever he wants. Everything that works with Noah and Kadence does not even put a dent in this kids behavior. Whenever I read parenting articles or books that tell you to get down to your child's level and talk to them about what is acceptable and what isn't, it makes me laugh. It is also funny when they suggest time-outs, spankings, taking things away from them, positive reinforcement, using a stern voice etc. NOTHING WORKS ON LIAM!!

 I know what you are thinking.

You are thinking that I'm not doing it right. You are thinking that I must be giving in or I must be inconsistent with the discipline. You are probably thinking that there is no way that Liam doesn't respond to anything and that he is probably just a brat due to lack of good parenting and I'm trying to find something or someone else to blame it on.

HOWEVER... I strongly feel that there is a BIG difference between a bratty kid and a "strong-willed" kid. You know who the bratty kids are...they are the ones at the playground, hitting and pushing other kids and you are looking around trying to figure out who their parent is to see why they haven't come and had a talk with their child about not hitting. Then when the child finally runs back to his parents they don't even notice that he is standing in front of them because their head is down with their nose in their cellphone because finding out what your "friend" on Facebook is eating for lunch is much more important than keeping an eye on your child. You understand that maybe the child just needs some love, attention and boundaries. The brats are the kids that will respond to discipline if the parent gives it.

The "strong-willed" child is a different breed of child and seems to be a little less common. I'm sure that many parents think that their child is strong-willed, when in reality they are really just brats. Maybe you think that I'm one of those parents and you can have your opinion, that is totally fine. I'm 110% sure I have a strong willed child. Liam has received every type of discipline I can google. I have set boundaries and laid out expectations and I used to think that I was failing miserably at being a parent, mostly because he is 1 of 4 children and a twin and my attention is divided between all of them which sometimes seems unfair.

I got a book called "The New Strong-Willed Child" by Dr. James Dobson and this is from the short synopsis on the back cover:

"They come into the world smoking a cigar and yelling about the temperature in the delivery room. As toddlers, their greatest delights include painting the carpet with Mom's makeup and trying to flush the family cat down the toilet."

OMG that's Liam. But then it also says:

"Challenging as they are to raise, strong-willed children can grow up to be men and women of strong character--if lovingly guided with understanding and the right kind of discipline."

When Liam gets older and is a millionaire I will definitely be reminding him that he egged his room, took off his diaper and pooped and peed behind the couch (where I had to search for it because I could smell it but not see it), got on the bathroom counter and dumped all the soap into the sink and all over himself. All in one day. We can reminisce about how he laughed when he was spanked, and smiled when he was reprimanded, and thought it was hilarious to get in and out of time out, and cry when he was sent to his room only to come out of his room and do the same thing that got him there in the first place within 30 seconds of being let out of his room...

I realized that raising Liam is going to be an adventure that will require a lot of wine, patience and impulse shopping but I have a strong feeling that in the end, it will be more than worth it. I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to the destination but I'm also going to make the most of this journey.

I'm pretty sure both of these Frisbees ended up in the neighbors backyard...on purpose.

Baby Feet

Weekly Recap

Learning Lightroom 5

I received Lightroom 5 from my Mom and Stepdad for my birthday last year and although I have played around with it a little bit, it is still like a foreign language to me. I don't have time to take a class on it (even an online one) and there's no way I could learn from a book. There is too much lingo that I don't understand.

So..... I found some tutorials on Youtube that I'm going to follow and I already did the first 2 and I transformed a really sad excuse of a photo to something AMAZING that I have to print and hang on my wall.

Check out my Before and After pics....

BEFORE

AFTER

 

 

So the tutorials that I'm watching are here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLllFqBuTM0WI0fC_PujkGoLMyXWXd3yF7

 

And they are by Anthony Morganti. I'm hoping to do at least one tutorial per week and document my progress as well! The tutorials are really informative. What I did is watched the tutorial on my Ipad and used my own photo to follow along with the video.

 

 

Toddler girl's hooded cowl.

HOODED COWL

 

 

Kadence is super cute and ready for fall in her hooded cowl. I followed the free pattern from "The Hat & I" on Ravelry.com

 

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/harlequin-hoodie

 

It was pretty easy to whip up and with all the different color combo you can choose from it'll go with plenty of different outfits.

 

 

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

GRANNY SQUARE HAT FOR EVERY OUTFIT!

Personalize your child's outfits this fall/winter with crocheted granny square hats. They are so fast and easy to whip up if you are an experienced "hooker" (he he) and very easy to learn how to make if you are a beginner. I have always wanted to make one but could never understand any of the written patterns. So, luckily, recently a YouTube channel I am subscribed to posted a video on how to make these. I added the ribbon and bow which I found for $.99 at Michael's. And it matched her cheetah print pants and flower on her shirt.

 

Here is the link for the granny square hat tutorial:

http://youtu.be/sQG_MBnXtY4

 

Have a great week!

 

What I'm Reading...

I have been on the waiting list for this book for weeks now and I finally get to read it. It is wonderfully written by Pastor Francis Chan and its a book that makes you want to live for God because you want to, not because you have to. So far he talks about being a "Lukewarm Christian" which admittedly I AM. I don't want to be. This is the first book I have read of the genre. Christian Non Fiction. I have to say that it is definitely a wake up call. In chapter 4 the author tells you to put the book down, pick up your Bible and read the Gospels for yourself. So, that's what I'm doing. I have read through Matthew and I realize that even Jesus' disciples were subject to worldly distractions and doubt. They didn't doubt that he was the Son of God, but they tended to lose faith when an obstacle occurred instead of looking to Jesus and be unafraid. He reprimands them, of course, and seems to be pretty harsh at times. Imagine if Jesus yelled at you "You with such little faith!" Man, I'd be scared.

Link up this week.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Party DIY Decor

My friend recently had a party for her son's first birthday. The theme was "Very Hungry Caterpillar". It is such a cute idea and yet you cannot find decorations at party stores or dollar stores for this theme. So I offered to help make some decorations to spice up the atmosphere.

 

 

 

This Happy Birthday sign is really easy to make. I used a cricut to cut the circles and letters but you can easily cut them out by hand. I used regular scrapbooking cardstock that I bought at Michaels. I needed 6 sheets of green and 1 sheet of red. Each sheet made 4 circles.

I bought a pack of brads at Michaels for $1.99 to hold each of the circles together.

Next you can stencil and cut by hand the letters, or if you have a Cricut you can use that to cut out letters. I liked having the white behind the black on the letters because it stands out more. The caterpillar face you use:

brown paper for long ovals for the ears and a small circle for the nose

yellow paper for ovals for the eyes

green paper for the pupil of the eye.

I loved using brads for this because you can easily put the banner up where you want and give it that little wave like a caterpillar moving.

 

This cake was made by someone else. It was one tier of chocolate and the other banana. All of the cutouts, minus the candle, are made out of fondant.

 

Instead of making one cake for the birthday boy Mom made a series of cupcakes. Great for this theme!

 

Birthday boy eating his cake. The banner around the highchair was made with glitter paper from the scrapbook section. I used the Cricut to cut them out but of course you can hand cut these. I didn't want there to be too much red  and I was tired of circles so the stars were just a little different. I used left over brads from the banner to put the brads on ribbon which is easily taped onto the highchair. Mini spools of ribbon that only cost .99 at Michaels are perfect for this. 

 

 

 

I made this crochet hat for James (which of course he didn't want to keep on, most 1 year olds don't). But I did get some good pictures of him. If you would like this pattern I will gladly write it down and post it for free. 

1.

Trendy Little Link Up: Fancify white

 

I can't resist a cute outfit. I found this white onesie with tutu attached at Once Upon a Child secondhand store. It seemed a little plain to me so I finally found a cute iron on to put on it. I found this princess iron-on at Michael's. I never knew the giant selection and personalized stuff you can put on clothing. They are very reasonably priced too! I will definitely be using them for birthday outfits. This iron-on was perfect for this outfit.

 

 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

If you are looking for cute, inexpensive boy clothes that coordinate look at Kohl's. I only go shopping there when I get my 30% off coupon in the mail (you get them with a Kohl's charge acct.). These coordinating separates on Liam were $5 each and I love that the shorts fit great.

 

 



Lovely blog hop.

Link up with "Her and Nicole" Lovely blog hop every Thursday!

Rewarding Good Behavior

I used to reward my son's good behavior or lack of bad behavior with screen time. I would let him play my Ipad, Iphone, Nintendo etc. Unfortunately, I found it very easy to give him one of these things and have him sit quietly and let me get stuff done around the house. However, he does not know how to have this screen time in moderation and it took a meltdown at Tball practice to realize that I had to cut him off and come up with something new.

Instead of rewarding him after EVERY good thing he does I decided to let him earn something after multiple times of being good. I made a sticker chart for  him that has 5 rows and the numbers 1-10 on each row. Now he gets a sticker for things like eating all his dinner (which is a struggle most of the time), not crying at TBall practice, cleaning his room etc. I don't punish him for bad behavior by taking OFF stickers, he gets time-outs for that. This chart is strictly for positive reinforcement. It is working out great!!

 

Materials:

Small poster board

Computer print outs of rewards

Stickers for rewards

Stickers for title (I used a Cricut to cut them out)

Sharpie

 

Directions:

1) Make title at the top. You can name it whatever you want. "Good Job ____" worked for me.

2) Use sharpie to make lines for 5 rows

3) Use Google Images to search for pictures for your rewards. Save them to your computer, then insert them all on a Word document to print them out. You can adjust the size on Word.

4) Cut out the pictures and place them at the end of each row.

5) Hand write or use scrapbooking stickers if you want to be fancy to put in the number of stickers you want your child to get before getting their reward. I did 10.

6) Give your kid a sticker to start off and watch how fast they want to help you out or clean their room to get more stickers! 

 

1.

Everyday Onesie and Leg Warmer

First "Trendy Little" link up!

 

Most of our house is tile which can be hard on little knees and feet. So I go to my trusty onesie and hand made leg warmers for an "at home" outfit. I know I posted before on these leg warmers but I love these hot pink ones and had to share.

 

You can find the link to the tutorial on this post:

http://theeverett5.blogspot.com/2013/04/fave-baby-leg-warmers.html

Reading The Great Gatsby

I always love reading classics (although I hated it in high school and college). I appreciate them more now, I guess. I saw the previews for Gatsby and now I have to read the book again. I honestly don't remember a thing about it since I read it over 10 years ago. My new favorite type of reading is books that are turned or have been turned into movies. I love to see the similarities and differences in them. Sometimes I like the books better, sometimes I like the movies better. For example, I like the whole Twilight Saga MOVIES way better than the books. Especially Breaking Dawn. But I recently saw "The Lucky One" and loved the book, not so much the movie, however, Zac Efron made it more than bearable. I would like to start a Book to Movie book club, I just have to convince some of my friends to do it too and then we could go see the movies together. It would be a great friend's night out.

Fave Baby Leg Warmers

Since it is getting very hot here in Arizona I want the babies to be able to wear light weight clothes without callousing up their knees. Kady already has a little callous on one because she has been crawling longer than Liam. I looked at a lot of different tutorials on how to make leg warmers and I found my favorite one. It looked a little complicated to me at first but it ended up being pretty simple and it makes the cuffs at the bottom smaller so they don't slip off her feet :) Also, if you have a .99 Cent Store around I found a gigantic selection of knee high socks so I went a little crazy and bought about 10 pairs so I give some of them away.

Just Go here http://bloomingbums.blogspot.com/2011/04/diy-baby-leg-warmers-tutorial.html

Crochet upgrade!

Went from homemade pain in the butt Pom Pom makers to amazingly easy should have bought them sooner real Pom Pom makers. I just made a Pom Pom in about 2 minutes. I bought these off of amazon.com.

I'm a Bridesmaid!

Tonight my family and I went over to one of my husbands best friend's house for dinner, and I was surprised with an invitation to be a bridesmaid in their wedding. Of course, I said yes! I am very honored. This is my third time around with the bridesmaid duty and now I have Pinterest, so I am very excited. I'm a sucker for wedding ceremonies though, I always cry. I am looking forward to spending time with her and the other girls these next couple of months.