Where I've Been

I've never been a very consistent blogger. I probably never will be. But I have a few legitimate reasons for my most recent absence!! Life has been crazy. And good. As for the bigger picture, we bought a house (what a process it is to search for a house, negotiate a deal, and close a loan!!), moved again (5 times in 4 1/2 years of marriage!), and are starting to get settled. We have a list of new homeowner projects that will provide us with new challenges every chance we can take! We had blinds installed already, and on the horizon there are rooms to be painted, furniture to be found (and saved up for!), rooms to be shuffled still, boxes of less used items to be unpacked, etc etc etc. But we aren't really in any rush to do any of the above. It will all happen in its own good time, and we've got plenty of other little things to keep us occupied in the meantime!

We are currently potty training Gabriel (or trying, that is... it should be obvious, but still came as a surprise that very strong-willed children are more difficult to potty train than most!) We've been fairly home-bound during the process in order to get a good foundation. Our little man has shown himself totally capable of using the potty as well as knowing when he needs to go #1 and #2 (YAY!!!!). However. He has also shown himself uninterested, and otherwise fascinated with his bodily functions. He has "successfully" peed in a bucket, on several toys, off of a chair (this was his personal favorite), and right up over the top of the potty, and in our bedroom, as well as once or twice in his bedroom because he was mad at me. This has been a challenge I have to say I was not anticipating. But with the support of Dan, my mom, my sister-in-law (who potty trained 3 boys herself - some also very strong-willed) -as well as other friends and family, we are getting through it one day at a time. Tonight was a big success when after being put to bed in a diaper (night training happens much later and pretty much on its own) Gabriel came to find us to tell us he had to use the potty, and he was right! And his diaper was dry! Yay!

Little G-man will be starting preschool in September! Wohoo!! I can't wait, and I think it will be so good for him! Enough potty talk!! Baby Maddox is cruising all over the place at high speeds. He can walk anywhere with a hand or two on something, and he is beginning to practice standing and balancing on his own for longer and longer! We think he'll be walking by his first birthday in September or shortly afterward. HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! IN SEPTEMBER!!! I am having such a hard time fathoming that my little baby boy is turning one! And Gabriel will be turning 3 in October which is no less difficult to swallow! I have to say, there are times when I just can't wait till this phase in our lives is past and the kids are a little older, but then there are those moments at naptime or in the middle of the night when I am cradling little Maddox in my arms and listening to his sweet breath, that I know I will truly miss these times when they are gone. As for Casebolt baby #3, we recently found out its a GIRL!! Yay!! We could not be more excited! I think Dan might actually be even more excited than I am... well, maybe not...I don't think that is possible! She is ahead of schedule by about a week, so we are looking at a delivery of December 21 or earlier, we hope. It will all depend on how she's looking a little later on. We are doing our best to schedule the C-Section so that I will be home for Christmas Eve and Christmas. We are excited to have my parents and my sister-in-law join us here for Christmas and for the birth of our baby girl. And yes, we have a name. She will be named after her two grandmothers; one of whom she will meet, the other who will have passed away one year before her birth. Sara Katherine Casebolt will be her name. :)

Sewing/crafting! Believe it or not I have been fitting in quite a few little sewing projects, mostly in the last few days, and certainly not as many as I had hoped. I have no pictures for you tonight because I can't find the cord to my camera!! Most recently I finished my first "quilt". The "" refer to the fact that it is nothing more than squares pieced together, and as for the actual quilting, I only "stitched in the ditch" since I really don't know how to do the real thing. As for the binding which I was most intimidated by, I ended up taking the easy route and bough Quilt Binding at JoAnns and simply sewed it on! It was actually the easiest part of the quilt. Next time I hope to do it the real way - whatever that is. I used fat quarters from Anna Maria Horner's "Garden Party" collection, as well as a few from her "Chocolate Lollipop" line - both out of need and just because I had them and they were cute! She is definitely my favorite fabric designer! I had to buy the backing, binding, and batting, but the entire quilt-top was made from fat-quarters that I already had in my stash! I also sewed a little curtain for our kitchen window...I hope to sew curtains for at least all of the downstairs windows that open up into the kitchen/breakfast nook/living room. lastly I sewed several diaper inserts for Maddox's diapers using old receiving blankets and some microfiber cloths.

On the list of things to do next are: A rag bag - we plan to start using old T-shirts and other discarded items to replace some of the zillion paper towels we use, so I'd like to sew up a cute little bag to hold them in. This as well as the other ideas I have coming up all come from Amanda Blake Soule's books "Handmade Home" and "The Creative Family." I love both of them, but especially "Handmade Home" which I just got this week. Next I'll be making a little flag banner for Gabriel's room to keep "bad men" and monsters out. Poor kid has a lot of fears these days. Then maybe a quick cute purse for me, and lastly, I'm toying with the idea of making Baby Sara's crib/bedroom set on my own instead of spending the exorbitant amount of money it costs to buy them new. The only ones I like (not really into the whole pastel pink thing) cost like $300...literally...so if I can just make the time for it, I can probably knock a good $200 or $225 off of that by making it on my own. I already have the pattern in Amy Butlers book "Little Stitches for Little Ones". As for what I've been reading...here is the list:

Completed:

The Reader

The No Cry Potty Solution

In Progress:

Potty Wise

The No Cry Nap Solution

The Strong Willed Child

Three Cups of Tea

Hopefully I haven't bored you with too many details, but that's pretty much where I've been and what I've been doing over the last month or so!

Happy Upheaval

Our lives these days have been anything but settled! With 2 little ones, a third on the way, our first home purchase in the works, and trying to potty train, we have our hands full!

Since this pregnancy is so close to the last, I am showing very very early. I mean, like really showing. This creates for some interesting conversations and a lot of funny looks. I just love watching people (over and over and over!) look from Gabriel to Maddox, to my belly two or three times, and then looking me straight in the eye like they are completely perplexed. Usually I try to pin down what they are thinking based on their expression: "Surely not...", "Are you kidding me?", "Are you mormon?", "Are you CRAZY?!?", "Didn't anyone teach you about birth control!", and "Oh you poor thing!" are the most common things people seem to say. Its pretty entertaining!

I have finished one more purse:



Now I'm on to a birthday project for my nephew, a snuggy blanket for Dan's coworker's baby, and one for ours! We think its a girl by the way! Next I want to make a very basic quilt, mostly to put on the ground at parks etc for the babies to sit on.

As far as I know, our home purchase is moving forward, although my lender is playing hard to reach, so who knows what that is about. As long as that's all good we are set to close on the 24th!

Also, last weekend we visited friends in San Antonio and went to Seaworld which was lots and lots of fun! That's pretty much all I have time for!

Always Changing

I am SO not doing well at this whole blogging thing, but I am NOT giving up! Life has been hectic and sometimes slow...very slow...lately. About a month and a half ago we found out we were pregnant with baby #3! We are very excited (and the teeniest bit terrified) for what is to come. We aren't really sure how we're going to manage, but we'll figure it out when we get there, and we know God wouldn't give us more than we can handle... which is reassuring when we consider what it will be like to have (possibly) 3 boys under 3 1/2 years old! Yikes!! We are thinking pink, but boy or girl will be a blessing.

Shortly after finding out about the little bean I was hit with some super miserable morning sickness unlike anything I had experienced with either of our boys... I was literally parenting my children from the floor for about 3 weeks, and would bury my head in shame if anyone calculated the actual amount of TV we watched in that time. But! We are at week 10 and I am feeling MUCH better! Thank goodness, life can resume!

Also, we have stepped up our potty training efforts for Gabriel, our search for a house, put Gabriel in (and then took him out of) preschool (I'll wait for a cheaper spot to open up thank you very much), and watched Maddox start to army crawl! It has been an exciting time for sure!

Gabriel is doing pretty well with potty training. He loves going #1 on the potty (like Daddy, lol) but is not so keen about #2. Oh well...in time I guess! For now he pretty much prefers to run around with only a Tshirt on, and announce with glee each time he successfully goes. "I Pee!" is the newest and most popular household phrase these days.

We put an offer in on our dream house and backed out at the last minute for a variety of reasons, and then made an offer on a house that would be much more suited to a family with small children. They accepted, and barring any unexpected inspection items, etc, we will be homeowners for the first time on July 17!!! We are so excited! We have been glued to HGTV, and spent tonight at Home Depot picking out paint colors, imagining the fun things we can do with the house, etc.

I've been busy on the sewing front too -although I'm too lazy to post pictures right now. I have made 2 out of 3 bags that my cousins wife's mother requsted, and have been working on making some 4th of July shorts/pants for the boys out of bandanas! The first one I tried to eyeball for size for Gabriel and they ended up too small for Maddox! Oh well, at least bandanas are cheap! I wish I could say I learned my lesson and won't do that again...but we all know I will.

That's about it for now! Hopefully I'll get back on before as much time goes by, but if not, keep in mind that we'll be in the middle of moving and spending a week in Colorado over the next month, so we'll probably be a little busy!

Yay for Vaca! Yay for the end of Vaca!!

Going on vacation is always a lot of fun...and now more than ever it is also a lot of work! We spent the last 5 days in Colorado visiting my family which was wonderful! The best part of it was that our visit was a surprise to my father for his 60th birthday!

On Thursday after flying in, my sister and law and her three boys picked Dan and I and our two up and took us to Grandma's house. Gabriel had been SOOO excited to see Grandma he could hardly stand it! We waited around for Grandpa to come home. It was no surprise for him to see Amy's car at the house since that is pretty common, but when he came inside he did a double take as he saw Gabriel playing with the other boys! (Dan and I were hiding and Maddox was asleep). We got the whole thing on camera - it was great!!

The best part was that the surprises were just beginning! On Saturday my mother had coordinated a dizzying amount of details to get my dad out on a motorcycle ride for the day and at least 55 people packed into a small school house to wait for his riding buddy to lead him up! He was fully confused when Terry pulled into the dirt parking lot, but started to get suspicious when he saw my brother's truck parked ahead (and then my mother and her camera peeking out the window). It was pretty funny and fun! Gabriel and Maddox got to meet several of my cousins for the first time and had endless fun playing with his older cousins. He took some seriously good naps!!!

And now we're back! We're heading to Colorado again in July, but we are sure wishing we had decided to drive there this time instead of flying! Getting through security is quite a trick with two kids (one who you can't set down and the other who runs away) a double stroller, a carseat, and our bags through all without shoes, jackets, toys, etc...and then we have to put everything back together again! On the way home they decided that the diaper bag looked particularly dangerous and removed every single neatly packed item from it for examination...and then of course stuffed it all back in with no organization at all! Over all it went well though. The kids did great on the flight, and we had lots of fun visiting with family.

Now it's time for catch up! Laundry, dishes, cleaning, emails, phone calls, and tomorrow is my first OB appointment for the baby! (Did I mention that I'm pregnant?) Supposedly this office does an ultrasound even this early, so it should be pretty cool to see my little peanut! Obviously there will be no Aikido for awhile after all :(.

As for sewing...well, obviously I haven't done any, but I plan to. Last night I put the magnetic clasp in one bag which just needs a final seam and press, and then I cut out the pieces for two more bags I hope to get started on this week.

No pictures this post, but I'm sure I'll make up for it in a day or two!

Moratorium on Spending - and some new projects

Last week, after a rash of spending - some necessary and some completely frivolous (Dan's motorcycle, and Eye-Fi card which none of my cameras are compatable with, kids clothes, Old Navy clothes for me, etc etc etc) I suddenly realized I am in serious need of some spending control. I was about two minutes from blogging it and putting in place an "official" morotorium on spending for some amount of time, when the kids woke up, I got distracted, and another week of spending went by... New walking/running shoes from New Balance, New Crocs (I needed the arch support!), another new pair of Crocs (see below), a Motorcycle Helmet, a Motorcycle class, a new camera (which ended up not being compatable with my Eye-Fi card even though it is supposed to be), a ton of fabric for some new projects (see below) and 14 patterns (for 99 cents each can you blame me??), and about 8 (more) tank tops from Old Navy (they were $5 a piece and they come in tall sizes...again, can you blame me??), and a QuickCam for my laptop so that we can talk to the family in Colorado using Skype. This is why I have decided the spending must end. We are in need of nothing. I resolve not to buy anything but groceries until after we get back from our trip next week. And once we get back, I'm putting myself on a serious budget!

Now for sewing news! I have been asked to make a couple purses for my cousin-in-law's mother...phew! I was pretty stuck for a bit on what style/colors etc to go with, but today at Hobby Lobby inspiration took over. These may not end up being the ones she likes, but at least I'll have something to go on. Nancy - if you are reading this let me know if the color schemes below look at all appealing!





Also! While scouring the 99 cent patterns I found this pattern which will make a perfect little button up shirt for Gabriel using the Cars fabric pictured behind the pattern! I was thrilled to find a good pattern that I can use for the boys as well as a neat print. The best part was that all of the fabric I bought ended up being $1 off per yard as well!! So now I have my work cut out for me, but that's OK! I like it that way!



Tomorrow I start my motorcycle class, and then next week I hope to start some Aikido classes! I'm going to be a busy girl, but I just might start feeling a little bit like myself again! Sometimes motherhood (now matter how much we love our children and enjoy being mothers) can really take away your sense of self if you aren't careful. I had a particularly rough patch the last couple weeks, mostly I think because I'm also starting over in a new state with new friends. The friends in CA that we enjoyed hanging out with, and that helped us have some identity as adults (and who also could relate to us as parents in some instances) are gone. Still friends for sure, but so very far away. The more time I invest in mothers groups out here, in hobbies that are outside the home, and in church the better I will feel and the more "I" will return to myself!

I Learned Some Important Lessons In Church Today

Along with a very valuable and applicable lesson on doing to others as you would have them do to you - including but not limited to avoiding judgement which I really should work on more - I also learned some "Life in Texas" lessons.

Lesson #1: When in Texas on a Sunday morning, it is very important to think very carefully about what you are going to wear to church. No, the people are not as old fashioned as I had envisioned (I didn't see a single pair of white gloves, and no large hats!). Neither did I see anyone else struggling to keep their lightweight wrap-around skirt from blowing all the way up and into their face as they carried their 7 month old and held the hand of their 2 year old through a busy parking lot. Turns out, everyone else already knew about the wind, and had taken into consideration the need for clothes that could be much more easily managed with one or fewer hands. I on the other hand am fairly sure I sent a few Texans home with some new information as well - hopefully not too many though, as I like to keep the color of my underwear mostly among close friends...I must have been feeling generous today.

In some slightly less exhibitionistic news, I am now completely finished with the purse (even Scotch-guarded it!) and the baby blanket - I'll spare you additional pictures since they really won't show anything that new and exciting. I have started on the baby blanket for co-working #2 in dark and pastel purples with some fun sparkly/starry fabric which I hope to finish tonight during some much needed and, I believe earned, free time! Once that has finished I think I'll do the second Kimono PJ's - or I may use that fabric to make a little jumper instead...I haven't totally decided...

Happy Easter (A day late since I forgot to actually publish this!)

It was a pretty quiet Easter at the Casebolt household. We are still adjusting to not having Nana around and apparently, as we discovered today, holidays will be bittersweet for awhile.

It was not all sadness and loss though - we truly did have a good Easter with fun video messages from the family in Colorado, Easter baskets for the kids with a few goodies, well, for Gabriel that is, an Easter Egg hunt with Mama and Gabriel while Daddy and "Mad" snoozed for a bit. The best part was smashing the confetti eggs on the back patio with Gabriel at the end of the big hunt. He was so upset when we ran out of eggs! Then the day was ended with a delicious Glazed ham that Dan picked up along with baked sweet potatoes and some Pinot Noir. We were planning on having some Key Lime Pie for dessert, but there just wasn't any room in our bellies!

I finally did get some sewing done, although none of it is for Flutterby Threads...se la vie! I'll get there some day! I finished the bag I was working on for a gift, although I do still need to add the magnetic clasp, and I am about 3/4 through with the baby blanket that I'm making for one of Dan's co-workers. Pictures are below:

Also, I have included pictures of my workspace...mostly because it is so pathetic!

When we moved I had just gotten things organized just right - everything had a place (and everything was put away!), so its going to take awhile. For now I just keep shuffling fabric around, sewing on a jiggly folding table, and ironing on a little mini ironing board on the floor. All of this is due to some very good news though... I am not allowed to buy the furniture Dan and I were planning on getting for my sewing/crafting room ... because... we have prequalified for a loan to buy a house!! We haven't picked out a realtor yet, but we've been looking at the houses in our price range and just can't believe what we are going to be able to get!! It is so amazing what the prices are here compared to California!

In the area we were living, the smallest Condos - about 800-1000 square feet and 1 to 2 bedrooms were selling for $350,000!! Here that would buy a mansion!! We couldn't afford that much out there, and we can't afford it here either, but we can certainly afford to get a pretty decent house -big enough to allow for a sewing room, office, and guest room!! So we are saving all our pennies for now so that we can furnish the new place when we get it!