Sickies

The littlest Fords have not been felling well.  Our days have been filled with lots of cuddling.

We hope to be returning to our regular schedule soon!

Some Fun Easter Printables

I love these Easter Printables.  They make fun, quick projects to do with kids and most of these are free.

 Bunny finger puppets.  I just printed out a set to go in our church bag to keep Creed busy during our meetings on Easter Sunday.

 Tumble bunnies.  I need to get some marbles so we can try this one.

 The Bunny Crew and Yolk Folk from Mibo studios.  These ones are $3.90 per download.  I used them last year and Creed's Easter Bunny birthday party.  They take a while to put together, but I think older kids really might enjoy doing it themselves.  It would be fun to have printed copies in their Easter baskets.

And to spend the Easter Cheer, it would be fun to surprise another family with an Easter egg hunt (Cat Surprised me one year and I was giddy).  This sign is ready and waiting for you to leave on the door.

A few More Fun Easter Ideas

As promised, here are a few more fun Easter ideas I've seen online this year.

Cake filled eggs.  I'm not a fan of hard-boiled eggs.  I'd much rather search for these.

 Surprise Crepe Paper Carrots.

 Sparkly Dot Easter Eggs.  We made these at enrichment and they are really easy, but they work better if your eggs aren't cold.

 I'm not sure about an original source on this one, but I love the idea of decorating things around the house so make them Easter-ish.

 A jelly bean monogram.

 Chocolate Bar Bunnies.

 A streamer egg hunt.  I might try this one with Creed this year, only maybe I would still hide the eggs and have the streamer lead to his basket.

 Crystal Egg Geodes.  Creed and I made crystal snowflakes not long ago and he thought they were magical.  I'm sure he'd love making these too.

 Plain wooden Easter eggs.  This makes me want to order a bunch to replace our plastic set.  I love them plain, but they would be really pretty died with rit dye too.  Maybe I need to plan a DIY night with friends?

Little egg pinatas or paper mache eggs.  Another brilliant idea from Not Martha.

Are there any fun projects that you're attempting this Easter?  I'd love to hear about it!

Pencil me in

So remember when I asked you if you'd mind if I talked about our Christmas all through January?  Well, how do you feel about me continuing through April because I'm still not done.  This one is just too fun to leave out though.  

My siblings and I draw names for Christmas gifting, but on the odd years that we are actually all together, I like to have a small gift for everyone.  It's usually something I make.  The first year it was magnetic poetry including magnets to make each person's most common sayings.  Another year it was hand-carved stamps with a picture of each person and their name.  This year I gave each person a set of personalized pencils.  Larry helped me think of what to have engraved on each of them.

Candice is a huge Jane Austen fan so her pencils said "Mrs. Darcy, I mean, Stringham"

Mark's evil genius pencils might be my favorite.

My dad's a professor so "Don't steal Dr. Borup's pencil" seemed just right for him.

Marissa's said "Bob Saget Fan Club President" because one year when she lived with me and Larry, she made me a shirt that said "Bob Saget Loves Me" and ever since then it's been an inside joke.  Thinking of her using these makes me giggle.

Marissa's husband Mike has a heterosexual-man-crush on Ronald Regan, I swear.  It was Larry's idea to make him pencils that said "Still winning one for the Gipper"  I can see him using these in his office in Canada and feeling like he has a little bit of home with him.

I made Larry's say "Dr Larry Freakin' Awesome Ford" because I would laugh so hard if my doctor had pencils that said something like that in his office.  I'm sure he will never use them in his clinic, but I still find them very entertaining.

They looked so pretty all together that I couldn't resist stilling a few from each person.  They I tied up the rest in a bundle for each person with a big red bow.

I think they are so fun that I sent a batch to our adopted family in Ohio too. I just wish that I could have been there to see them open them in person on Christmas morning.

Now I'm tempted to make these for every occasion: birthday party favors, baby shower favors, Easter Basket filler . . .

Creed Atticus Turns Four

I try to do a little photo shoot of Creed every year on his birthday so we have some current pictures on hand.  We shot these ones quickly as we headed our the door for our bowling bonanza so they are literally right out of our front door.  It's a mess because the house is due to be painted as soon as the weather is nice so perhaps we should have ventured out to a better location, but Creed wouldn't have had the patience for that.  I guess this way, we'll remember where we were during this stage of his life.

This kid's adorableness kills me!

Easter ideas

I just came across a bunch of bookmarks I saved last Easter to share with you so here are a few that I would love to try (and you actually still have plenty of time left before Easter to try them!).

 Reusable carrot candy pouches.

 Easter Candy on Parade

Easter eggshell crafts.  You should click through to see the others.  They are so funny/cute.

Egg cozies.  These are no longer available, but you can find a tutorial for similar ones here.

 Sweet and simple lamb pillows.

 Grow your own wheatgrass.

 Bunny finger puppets.  I made some last year and they are so fun to work on.

 Felted egg pocket.

 Easter surprise eggs.

 Surprise chocolate eggs.

Easter Eggs with notes inside.  I really wanted to do this, but it's been so popular on blogs this year that I was afraid it wouldn't really surprise anyone.  I would still love to get one in the mail though, wouldn't you?

Hopefully I'll stay motivated and I'll post some of my favorite ideas from this year soon.

Ollie at one year

I'm posting these almost two months late, but I have to post about Ollie at one-year-old, and the joy that he brings to our lives.

 This little guy is so friendly and full of smiles.  He has absolutely no stranger anxiety (I think it's because we don't leave him with babysitters because we worry about him having a seizure while we are gone).  We will walk up to anyone and lift his arms up, begging to be picked up.

 We visited a new ward a few weeks ago, and he reached and reached for the woman sitting behind us until she picked him up.  He continued to reach and be passed back about five rows, and I had to crawl over people to get him while he kept smiling and charming everyone.  One of the cute older ladies he visited said she called dibs to be his adopted grandmother.

 He's still very tiny, between the 10th and 25th percentile but his pediatrician thinks he will shoots up soon.

 Just after his first birthday, he stopped talking and didn't say or sign anything for a few weeks.  His doctor wasn't worried because he was still so social and happy.  Now he's started talking again and has a completely different vocabulary.  He doesn't say things like "hello" or "bye-bye" anymore, but he says "doggie" and "uh-oh"

 Ollie happily goes to bed at night, and is usually asleep within minutes. He still wakes up once or twice a night though so we're looking forward to Creed and Ollie having separate rooms where they won't disturb each others sleep (and more importantly, our sleep ;) )

 It amazes me how much he understand what we say to him.  If we mention going outside, he is waiting at the door or bringing us shoes within seconds.

 His favorite time of the day has got to be bath time.  He frantically tries to get in the tub while we fill it and undress him.

 Ollie is a climber.  Creed was always timid, but Ollie is fearless.  He is an amazing climber and has no fear of falling.  I'm not sure when he will start to get it and not walk off high surfaces because we always catch him, for fear falling with cause another seizure.  Any advice?

 He loves to share big slimey kisses with us.

He's becoming a better eater than Creed but he will not touch raspberries or strawberries. He has an unfortunately love in Cheez-its and even recognized the box in the grocery store the other day and strained to grab it off of the shelf.

He loves making us laugh and will do the same thing over and over if it causes us to giggle.

He's found his love for books and is constantly bringing them to us so we can set him on our lap and read each book over and over.  His current favorite is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.

He's becoming fiercely independent and gets upset when we try to help him with things.  He wants to climb and eat and drink by himself, thank you very much.

He's not grumpy very often, but when he is, you can whisk him outdoors and he's as happy as can be.

Creed has always been a Momma's boy but Ollie has a special bond with his dad.  He sprints to the door when he hears Larry come home from work and flaps his arms with joy.

He LOVES I-phones and gets upset if we try to pass him the I-touch instead (how does he know the difference?)

I know this post is crazy long, but I couldn't resist posting the rest of these pictures to sum up the last few months of Ollie's life.

He likes to wander the house exploring on his own, getting into everything possible.

He loves to color and gets desperate to get a hold of any crayon or pens he spots.

He's such a terrific little person!