Lately...

(This is Miley. Don't look her in the eyes or she might attack. Just kidding, she is really a sweet dog but sometimes she looks kind of creepy)

Sometimes I like to drop off of the blog radar for a minute. I like to clean my house, I like to sew and bake my own bread, I like to play outside with the kids, and sometimes I'm too lazy to upload my pictures onto the computer. Here we are again, however, and a lot has happened since I wrote a few weeks ago.


Gracie is amazing us with all of her letter skills. She got the movie "The Letter Factory" for Christmas, and I wish I would have purchased that movie long ago. I highly recommend it to any of you who don't already have it. Gracie now recognizes the names and sounds of every letter in the alphabet, which is really fun. I love hearing her "read" books to Gunner and am often impressed at how close she usually is to what the books really say. Gracie is also getting more coordinated in her drawing and although she perfected circles long ago, she is learning how to write some of her other letters.

Gracie has always been a great helper, but she is proving to be even more helpful around the house. I can now give her jobs like feeding Miley, vacuuming the stairs, sweeping up piles into the dustpan or washing the sliding glass doors. (I knew she'd make a great servant one day :). I remember telling my mom that she only had us so that we could do all her work for her (sounds like I was wrong huh? I was).

Gunner is walking like crazy and we are so proud of him. He got the hang of it shortly after I wrote the post about climbing on everything (which he is also still doing). He also learned how to play the recorder (above) and blows the whistle all the time. I might have to post a short video of it because it always makes me laugh. I will also try to post a video of him walking sometime soon for the grandmas.

Gunner loves to blow kisses to Justin each day before he leaves and finds other cute ways to melt our hearts. He is at such a fun age. Speaking of fun, he has just started throwing tantrums in the last little while.

Not much else is new. I may post some sewing project pictures soon. One of my resolutions was to finish a sewing project each month (because I didn't sew much last year). That has been fun, and I've been crafting a little more. I've also been deal shopping and clipping coupons. I saved 66% off my order one day at the grocery store in the past few weeks and over 80% on another grocery trip. Gotta love great deals!!

Justin stays busy with school, tests, meetings, projects, and our little family. He has another batch of tests/projects coming up in the next few weeks. Pretty fun! Good luck, Schatz.