Look out....it's a sock...no wait....IT'S A MONKEY!!!!

What happens when you take some scissors, thread, stuffing, buttons, a pair of mismatched socks and miss your Sunday afternoon nap?

You create a SOCK MONKEY!!!!

......drumroll please....

~Introducing

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~"Mr. Monkey"~

I have longed for quite some time to make one of these adorable creatures.  I was just waiting for the right pair of socks to jump out at me!!!  I found these pairs at Dollar General on clearance!!!  That made me even happier!  I spent my Sunday afternoon creating a new stuffie that my daughter immediately claimed as "Mr. Monkey"!  I wanted to name her Millicent.  Boy, you'd get a kick out of hearing Callie say THAT name! ;)

She wanted a picture of "Mr. Monkey" on her head!  I'm going to have to make another one now--for ME!

Getting a head start of summer play shirts for Samuel.  I tried some reverse coverstitching on these and I LOVE the results!

The orange one was the sample and turned out WAY too wide.  That's what you get for sewing while your son is sleeping! :)  Oh well.....it will work as a sleeper shirt!

Still have 3 more cut out waiting to be sewn up into something wearable!

Samuel tried on the shirt and he said, "Mommy, I LOVE this shirt.  It's so warm and comfy!"  Makes sewing all the more rewarding when your child says stuff like that!!!!

15 coin purse & tissue holders.  These will be shipped off to Mexico tomorrow.  Hopefully the snowstorm isn't as bad as predicted and I CAN get to the post office tomorrow!!

A close-up (fuzzy one) of the boxed corners of one of the tissue holders.  Don't you just LOVE that lime green mushroom fabric???  I do!!!

~Need a BIG room JUST for costumes~

I jokingly told me boys last night, that by the time they are raised, I'm going to need a BIG room just for costumes.  They have spirit days & pep rallies throughout the school year that require some new and creative costume for me to make for them.  This weeks' theme for the elementary was something to do with Noah's Ark.  Personally, I think my boys are a little big to be dressing up like an animal....soooo.....they are dressed like a hammer and an ark today.  I was very happy that these costumes cost NOTHING to make.  I had the brown fabric leftover from a children's worship theme I did years ago.  (It was actually stored in the attic!)  The silver fabric was scraps leftover from a Mr. Goodbar costume made for Simon last year.  For the animals, we used little people animals and the blue water is a rib knit hand-tacked onto the ark.  I'll take that off when he comes home and store it back with my knit fabrics! :)  It took a couple hours on 3 different evenings this week to make these.  I'm happy they are finished and the boys love them.  Can't wait to see the other costumes when I go to the pep rally later this afternoon!!

Seth wanted water/waves for his ark.  I thought it was a very creative idea!  I love it when the boys get involved in their costume making!

Mr. Hammer, with his sidekick, Mr. Nail

Mr. Nail was Simon's idea! :)

Samuel's 5th. B-Day!

Samuel turned 5 last Sunday, January 17.  He had talked about his birthday for WEEKS!!!!  Thanks to some wonderful ladies at church, Samuel had a big lasagna dinner and a chocolate birthday cake.  My mom & I went out shopping late Saturday night for a few gifts for him.  He was one VERY excited boy after church to open his presents and eat his special meal!  I can hardly believe my baby boy is 5 already!!!!!

~Seth & Grandpa watch Prince Caspian~

Samuel LOVES construction equipment!

Mommy & Callie sang "Happy Birthday" to Samuel!

The construction playmat I made for Samuel the day before his b-day!  I found this fabric on clearance at Hobby Lobby and thought it would be the perfect gift for Samuel.  He LOVED it!

Daddy bought Samuel a new John Deere tractor set.  I hid it under the perfectly smoothed out playmat while he wasn't looking.  When he turned around and saw the bump on his mat he had to fix it. 

He was excited with his find!

Callie plays with Samuels Hot Wheel set from his Uncle & Aunt.

A neat game from his Grandpa & Grandma McIntosh.  We've all played it with the kids! :)

Seth takes it easy.

Samuel playing with his birthday gifts.

Callie begged Samuel to let her play with his new toys.  He was NOT happy with sharing with his little sister.

Samuel's birthday dinner compliments of a wonderful couple at our church!

Samuel blows out the candle of the cake made by another lady in our church.

Samuel being silly!

Callie hid when I tried to take her picture.

~The story of the Candle~

Once upon a time, a mommy went shopping.  It was the day before her sons' birthday.  She had no gifts, no cake and no candles.  She had spent the last several days in the hospital with her oldest son and had no time to plan a nice party for her youngest son.  Late Saturday night, the mommy went out shopping with her mommy.  They bought lots & lots of liquid food for the oldest son.  They bought gifts for the youngest son.  The mommy decided to splurge and buy a 'fancy' #5 candle for the little boys' cake.  She got home and put the candle down.  She wrapped presents and got the table all ready.  Someone came and brought dinner and a cake for the candle.  They even brought a can of candles for the mommy to use.  The mommy said, "No, that's okay!  I bought a candle for his cake."  She gave back the can of candles.  The gifts were opened.  The food was eaten.  The cake was brought out.  Where was the candle?  It was NOWHERE to be found.  She searched high and low.  She had every member (minus Seth) of the family searching for the candle.  She was very sad when it could not be found anywhere.  She scrounged around in her drawers and came up with one lonely balloon candle.  That would have to do.  The candle was lit.  The pictures were taken.  The candle was blown out.  The mommy said, "I imagine we'll find it sometime later."  Sure enough, it was discovered on the fooseball table underneath an instruction booklet for the Hot Wheel set.  So mommy sent the now 5 year old boy off to get his picture taken with the #5 candle that missed being put on his cake by a few minutes.  The candle is now stored away in the drawer in hopes that it will be found to put on a little girls' cake in 2 years time!

Seth, who NEVER has an ounce of fat on his body was sporting a double chin from all the fluids & swelling.  He's looking like his mommy now! :) 

I saved the best for last.  Duane's dad & Simon washed and dried the dishes!!!!!!!

Simon hides being the dish towel!!!

UPDATE to He shouldn't rode on the bus!!

I'm FINALLY getting around to blogging about Samuel's Christmas program. After coming back home I was able to LOTS done around the house before packing Callie back in the van to go back for the program. Upon walking into the school, it was a complete Ghostown. No one was in sight. I heard the faint sound of children singing, so I followed the sound and discovered where the program was at. The place was packed. I spotted some empty chairs on the front row. I walked up and asked the lady if she had all those seats saved. Have I mentioned I can't stand it when parents arrive early and reserve HUGE blocks of seats up!!! Well, she said I could have ONE of the seats. So...Callie had to sit on my lap! That was VERY interesting with trying to take pictures and videos! We made it work though. Samuel and all the little kids (3-5 year olds) were adorable. At one point, Samuel started picking his nose. This was, of course, when I had the camera zoomed in on him during one of the songs!! :) On Go Tell It On The Mountain, all the kids were jumping up and down during the chorus. Samuel was looking around at all the kids like 'what in the world are you doing?'. Meanwhile, his sister, Callie, is jumping and twirling madly in the aisle. At that point, I just let her jump. You will see the camera jerking around when she crashes into me!! Finally, on the third chorus, Samuel decides to give a little hop up and down along with the other kids. He then rolls his eyes as if to say, 'Why on earth did I do THAT!"  Oh, and did I mention at one point his shirt goes up and I see his UNDERWEAR band sticking out the top of his jeans!!!!  I could have died laughing!  Especially when I discovered that he was wearing his 11 year old brother's underwear!!  That might be the reason why they were sticking out and bagging over the edge of his jeans!!! lol  You can see it all in the videos below. Definitely worth watching to see all the kids antics! On a side note, there were supposed to be 3 teachers there for the program. One for each class. 2 were sick, so Samuel's teacher had to run all 3 classes and the program by HERSELF!! I thought she did a wonderful job!

All the kids waiting to start the program.

The 3 & 4 year olds are sitting down.  The kindergarteners are standing.

Whew....all done.  We can walk off the stage now.

They had a cookie decorating station set up for the kids.  Samuel & Callie got to decorate their own cookie to eat. 

Eating their plate of goodies!

Samuel and his teacher.

He should've rode the bus!!!

My son, Samuel, should've rode the bus today.  If he had, I wouldn't be writing this.  On a normal Friday, I am up around 6:30AM fixing breakfast.  Samuel is on the bus by 7:07AM, I sit down and eat.  Today was NOT a NORMAL morning.  The phone rings a little after 7:00AM.  I am still in bed, and it's a good thing I was when I heard who was on the other end.  It was one of my nocturnal friends that rarely get up quite that early.  It was a rather unexpected suprise to hear from her so early in the morning.  I laid in bed and chatted for awhile.  After all, I was taking Samuel to school this morning for his Christmas party.  There was really no reason to get up early because he didn't need to be there 'til 8:15AM.  Well......I FINALLY get off the phone.  It's 7:45.  I need to leave by 8:00.  Samuel is dressed.  Callie needs to eat breakfast and get dressed.  I get her dressed.  She eats while I fix breakfast.  I race to my bedroom.  Throw on clothes and slap a headband over my unruly hair.  Add some gel to tame the frizzy mess and we're good to go.  Then....I CAN'T FIND MY KEYS!!  Panic sets in.  I have 3 sets and not one of them are to be found.  They're not in my purse or eithre of my coats.  I don't see them ANYWHERE!!!!  Finally underneath a stack of mail that needs to be sorted, I find them.  Breathe a sigh of relief and pack the kids into the van.  We race across town to Samuel's school.  I pull into the parking lot with a few minutes to spare.  I realize I missed clipping the threads to the sleeves of the shirt I made to wear to the party.  Grab a pair of fingernail clippers and clip the threads!!!  We hurry inside.  I send Samuel to his classroom.  Callie & I follow behind.  I asked the teacher about the party.  She said, "Oh, it doesn't start until 10:00AM!!!!!!!!!  WHAT!!!!!!!!!  She had JUST told me that it would be best to bring him in MYSELF(instead of him riding the bus) and just stay all day!!  I peek into his classroom and discover that just maybe he didn't dress right today.  I see freshly pressed dress pants, shirts, ties, sweater vests.  A little girl is dressed in red velvet with white tights and shoes.  I want to scoop my jean clad child up(that INSISTED upon wearing a faded red shirt), race him home, and re-dress him.  I feel like a BAD parent for not ironing his Sunday best and sending him to school in.  On the other hand,  WHY would you send your cihld to school dressed up sooooo much to eat loads of junk food at a party????  Oh well.....the teacher was in jeans.  Now to get on with my day.....I wonder how much I can accomplish at home before I need to leave at 9:45AM????  The house looks like a bomb exploded!!!  I've sewed FAR TOO MUCH and neglected cleaning in a TERRIBLE WAY!  Now to pack all my sewing stuff away and become a lean, mean cleaning machine!!

The Mad Dash...Only 10 Days to go!!!!!!

Sewing like mad the last several weeks.  Every spare moment has been focused on sewing gifts for Christmas.  Well, I needed to make Callie's Christmas dress so this morning I cut out and sewed up this dress for her to wear on Sunday.  I just have to hand sew the hem in the sleeves and the dress is finished.  Here are a couple of shots of her while she was modeling it for me this afternoon.  Silly girl!!!  Couldn't get one single 'normal' shot of her! :)  Later this week I will make a pettiskirt to go underneath to make it 'poof' out more!  She loves her new dress.  I'm just glad to cross one more thing to sew off my sewing Christmas list. 

Here goes.....keep in mind the sleeves are not hemmed in this picture yet!  She insisted on a picture with her arms up in the air.

Don't know WHAT this face is!  I was told by someone that she looked just like ME in this picture! :)

The green taffeta sash and rose are made with the scraps leftover from the bridesmaids' dresses from our wedding more than 13 years ago!!

My 3 boys are learning how to sew!!!!!!!

All of my kids have been begging for me to teach them how to sew.  I saw an idea for making rice bags.  I thought that would be an easy project for them and they could give them to their teachers for Christmas gifts.  The boys picked fabric from my stash, cut out the pieces they needed and we got started. 

Here is Simon sewing all by himself.  I'll have to admit, he did pretty good for his first try.  He needs to work at sewing in a STRAIGHT line, but that will come.  He LOVES sewing and wants to do more now.  He learned how to sew a straight stitch, reverse, pivot at a corner and clip the threads.  He also used the iron to press his project. 

Simon with his teacher's Christmas present.  I found a cute poem on my sewing forum that I'm a part of that we will type up to go along with the rice bag.  These can be heated or chilled for aches and pains. 

Seth was very nervous about the whole sewing machine thing.  I'll give him credit, he stuck to it and finished it.  I don't think he'll want to do to much in the future.  He absolutely REFUSED to use the iron.  He definitely is my cautious child!!!

Seth is very relieved he's finished with his project!

Samuel helps pour rice into the bags.

Since he can't reach the foot pedal, I ran that and he helped guide the fabric through.  Before we were through, he was telling me that HE could do it all by HIMSELF!  He was pushing my hands out of the way and guiding the fabric through on his own. 

Samuel is proud of the bag he made for his Grandpa for Christmas.

A picture of all 6 bags we made tonight.  With all 3 boys helping, it went VERY FAST!!