Back to the Sewing Machine!

I love to sew, but it's been a while! I've been wanting to sew again, but it's hard to find the time. I finally dusted off my machine the other day, and volunteered to try a test pattern for Sew Sensible . The designer has really cute patterns, and it felt so good to be sewing again! I turned in my review last night, with pictures, so here they are! The actual pattern is for a top with ties at the shoulder, but as it was a test pattern, it still needed some tweaking in the size department, so I altered it a little bit to make it fit better. I have to pick up some fabric-covered button kits before I can finish it, which is why there are pins instead of buttons. I'm going to put little buttons covered in the contrast material. I must say, the fabric didn't look quite so neon yellow in the shop--darn fluorescent lights! I picked it out quickly--it's VERY bright in person.

I am going to have too much fun sewing for Lillian!

"Lillianisms"

1) The other day, Lillian wanted to hold Andrew, who was on my lap. I lean him forward, and just as she comes in to hug him, he throws up all over her shirt. She's usually pretty tough, but this really grossed her out. "Yuck yuck yuck! Take shirt off!" She then steps forward, looking Andrew straight in the eye, and says fiercely "Don't spit on me, stinky boy!" Where she got this from, I have no idea!

2) Last night, we had a trip to the ER (a not-that-uncommon occurrence in the last 3 years) after Lillian fell backwards off a bar stool in our kitchen, bumping her head. She seemed really out of it right afterwards, and then vomited in the sink, so I took her in. She quickly recovered on our way to the hospital. As she was waiting for her precautionary CAT scan, the sweet elderly nurse was befriending her by chatting niceties with her about her age, her name, her Nana, and her new baby brother. Lillian answered her questions appropriately and cutely, scoring lots of points. Nurse then asks, "What is your baby brother's name?" Lillian looks up at her and says, "I have gas." Luckily the nurse thought it was hilarious, and was too busy laughing and telling the technicians that Lillian had diagnosed herself with gas, to notice when the smell hit.

We love you spunky Lillian!

Kindergarten's Over--let the summer chaos begin!

This is all of us at Luke's kindergarten graduation! We loved seeing him in his classroom with his friends.

Yesterday was the last day of Kindergarten for Luke, and I am honestly terrified. I had been looking forward to this: no more schlepping 4 children around in the car, picking up and dropping off. But, today solidified my worst fears for the summer: 4 children, home all day long, with not enough to do except for driving mom bonkers. Today was a day full of couch cushion/pillow/blanket forts in the living room, "What can I eat???" all day long, lots of crying from children fighting and hurting each other, fits being thrown in resistance to the time outs mandated for the hurting, one child being shoved off the trampoline by the other, another fit for then being sent to their rooms, a much-needed naptime for the youngest 3 (whew!), an entire thing of bubbles dumped on the floor (twice! once upstairs, once down), a whole jar of Carmex smeared around the bathroom, and you get the idea. Most of the action takes place while I'm nursing the baby, then I clean up all the messes until it's time to feed him again--it's a wonderful cycle.

I love my children . . . but I am dreading these next 3 months! Today made me realize that I REALLY need to do some planning and get some structure going to keep us sane. I would love to hear you share your best summer tip for staying sane with kids--leave a comment!

Luke with his wonderful teachers, who I can't thank enough!

Below are the gourmet candy apples that I made (and LOVED) for Luke's teachers. These are some of my favorite treats, and they cost a fortune at the candy stores, so I was thrilled that they turned out. The best was the one on the right: dipped in caramel, rolled in crushed peanuts and Heath bars, and then dipped in chocolate and flecked with white chocolate. Sooo yummy. I think I'll make these each year for the teachers. I got everything I needed at Walmart, made them in one afternoon, and we get to enjoy the extras!

Andrew, 8 weeks old . . .

"Are they ALL really going to be home all summer, mom??" Hang in there, buddy!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Marseilles Dress SHABBY APPLE GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Awesome modest dresses! Man what I wouldn't give for a dress this cute! They're having a giveaway . . . hope I win! :)

"Give your sister back her nose!! NOW!"

The things we say as moms. I found myself yelling the above phrase from the kitchen this afternoon. A month ago we discovered that the old "got your nose" trick was a lot of fun with Lillian. It didn't scare her, but she was not satisfied till you "put it back." So, it's morphed into a family game. We take her nose, throw it in the air, put it in our pockets or our mouths, and she laughs as we grab it and stick it back on. Better yet, she'll "grab" it: out of the air if we throw it, dig it out of our pockets, etc, and stick it on her own face. Now if you don't give it back to her, or let her get it, she will eventually flip out: "Gimme back my nose!!" or more common, "Mom, he won't gimme my nose!"

This afternoon, she was bothering Luke, so he methodically takes her nose and won't give it back. Now starts the ear-piercing screaming and crying which mights as well be nails on a chalkboard. Prompting me to yell the most ridiculous phrase to date, and not be the least bit joking.

Sullivan graduated from Pre-school! One grade down, 17 more to go!

The Best Brownies Ever!

I'm trying to lose baby weight, but my cravings for chocolate, peanut butter, and sweets keeps getting in the way! The other day, I succumbed, and made some brownies which came out slightly overcooked around the edges. To cover that up, I looked online on a whim, and found the best recipe ever for Peanut Butter Frosting, which would satisfy my other craving and pack on more pounds. Yay! Thanks to the frosting, these turned out to be the best brownies I have possibly ever had, and made me feel so incredibly sad for people with peanut allergies. Here's the recipe, Enjoy!

Fluffy Peanut Butter Frosting (from Allrecipes.com)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 
  
• Cream the butter and peanut butter together till well-blended (and try to ignore the fact that you are about to eat all of that fatty buttery goodness). Add in the sugar gradually, mixing well. Finally, add in the milk. Mix just till blended and creamy. If you overmix, it may start to look grainy. Supposedly you can fix that by microwaving it for a couple seconds and then mixing it a bit more.

I only made HALF of this recipe to frost my pan of brownies, and I am telling you, it is soooo GOOD! The frosting tastes similar to the insides of Reese's Pieces, so if you like those, you'll love this.

Introducing . . . Andrew

Our little guy was born April 8th, weighed 7lbs 11oz, and was 20.5". Labor was fine, thanks to an epidural, though long (it was an induction), and the delivery was short--a personal record of about 2 minutes worth of pushing! He looks like a blend b/w all three of my children as newborns: Lillian's mouth, Luke's hair, Sullivan's head shape, and a blend b/w Luke and Sullivan's nose. Everyone says he looks a lot like Cameron, too, but everyone says that about all of our newborns who are born with dark hair, so time will tell.

We chose a nice, classic, neutral first name that Cameron and I could both agree on, which is not easy. I was pushing for Phineas so we could call him Finn. Cameron was still rooting for Matai, which is both his and Luke's middle name. "But it makes a great first name too, Sara!" Andrew's middle name, Knox, was chosen in honor of my grandfather, John Allen Knox, one of the most neat and admirable people I've ever known.

We had several scares during this pregnancy regarding Andrew's health, one of which actually was valid. He had Wenckebach heart block, a very unusual heart rhythm to be found in a fetus, and it was considered to be a high risk pregnancy. We were lucky to live near one of the best pediatric heart care programs in the nation, MUSC, and attended weekly ultrasounds and echocardiograms for a while there to monitor his heart and make sure the condition didn't worsen. We had so many wonderful friends help us out. Luckily, after a lot of worrying and some special blessings, Andrew's heart block, (an interruption in the electric circuit which controls the rhythm of the heart) disappeared suddenly a few months before his birth, and did not return. We're so grateful for that miracle. He had a temporary heart murmur for about 24 hours after his birth, and while more common and not considered a big deal, it of course caused me a little worry, but that cleared up as well. His heart was monitored after his birth for a couple days, and he's been given a clear bill of health. We're so grateful to have him here, seemingly healthy and strong, and very sweet.

The kids have really enjoyed having a baby brother. Lillian is constantly telling me, "She's so cute!" (everyone's female to her). Sullivan just adores everything about him, and is always telling me, "You need to feed him" every time he makes a peep. Luke is a terrific and helpful big brother. Luckily, they all give him space enough that it's not overwhelming or dangerous! 4 kids feels good, and for the moment, complete. (And yes, we think we're done).

Oh and by the way, Cameron found a job here in town that he started last week, so it looks like we get to stay here a little longer after all--though we'll still be moving to a new house next month! Thanks for all the kind words and prayers for us over these last months. They've meant a lot.

Conversations with Sullivan

I was tucking Sullivan into bed tonight, and had just turned on some music for him. Tonight, like last night, it was the "Safety Kids" cd, the one that has cute songs about saying no to drugs, etc that my mom played for us when we were little. As I turned to leave, Sullivan says, "Mom, drugs are bad. Some people have drugs."

Trying to keep this at a 4 year old level, I say, "Yep. Not in our family though, huh? Drugs are bad!"

"Yep. I don't have drugs . . . but Luke sometimes has drugs."

"What?" I'm laughing now--I figure this is just a 4 year old mind trying to make sense of why Luke always seems to be in trouble while Sully is almost never in trouble (these two boys have night and day personalities). Drugs = Bad, Luke = Continous Time-outs for "bad decisions", so therefore, Luke probably has drugs.

"Like he smells goo." (I had trouble understanding this one--he had to repeat it about 6 times, but I think that's what he said).

"Huh???? What do you mean? Where did you hear that?"

To self, 'please tell me my 6 year old hasn't been learning about smelling glue in kindergarten!'

Sullivan just pointed to the CD player. After asking a couple more questions, it's pretty clear Sully doesn't really understand what drugs are at all, which is what I would expect. I emphatically tell Sully that Luke does not have ever have drugs.

I'm pretty sure Luke's not smelling glue or goo, despite his crazy behavior at times, but I think I need to listen to this CD again--it has been about 23 years! Maybe our enlightening conversation will make sense then. Talk about TMI--I think I'll shelve this CD for a couple years.

Camcorder Advice Please?

So, we are shopping last minute for a new camcorder before our little guy is born. I'm torn: HD mini DV camcorder, or do I go with a Hard Drive camera??? I'm terrible at downloading family movies--I've got 6 years worth of tapes that we've never seen, from the old big ones, to the mini DV ones, so I need something that is not going to be hard to figure out! Any suggestions out there? Thanks!

Funny Boy

Those who know Luke, know that he is a Mr. Personality. He keeps things lively at our house! Yesterday we were going over his weekly word list: words made of 3-5 letters that he has to read and make a sentence with. Usually his made-up sentence consists of "I saw the ___" or "I like to ___." Yesterday was a little more exciting though. Here are a few of my favorites (he happened to also be saying all of these words and sentences in a deep frog/Italian mafia voice, which added to the experience):

hunt . . . "I am hunting for fresh fish."

bust . . . "My brother busted my eye."

plug . . . . "I plugged the toilet."

He was referring to clogging the toilet. The last two sentences give a pretty accurate take on his everday life! I think he was bored at school that day--he was wired!

We then went on to read his school book on dinosaurs. On one page, it mentioned how some dinosaurs had very strong jaws. I tried to show Luke what his jaw was. "I have a strong jaw too--want to see?" I was a little nervous, expecting him to look for something nearby to bite, which was most likely to be me or Sullivan. Instead, he started pushing his face into my shoulder. I'm wondering what the heck he's doing, and if he's going to bite me next. "See??" He continues to push (not very strongly I might add) for another minute while I busted up laughing--he was trying to push me with his jaw! I guess that's one way to see if your jaws are strong.

December

Here are some snapshots from our Christmas. We had my family in town for a few days (every sibling but John made it), and it was so much fun! Unfortunately, I came down with a major sinus infection, so a lot of it's a pressure-filled blur, but it was wonderful! I have the best family a girl could ask for.

Lillian took quickly to her Aunt Jean with the help of only a few treats!

What are younger brothers for if not to hold the umbrella over your head while you blow bubbles in the rain?

This is how Santa Clause makes the rounds in the South. I sure hope that rocking chair was tied down! The boys loved it!

Family photo with Cameron . . . Jesse taking pictures.

Family photo with Jesse . . . Cameron taking pictures. B/w the two of them, you can pretty much get the full effect! :)

From left front to back: James, Luke, Sullivan, Gillian, Tim, Elizabeth and Eleanor, Jean, me and Lillian, and Jesse!

January Beach Trip

We had family in town in January, so got ambitious and took a short and cold beach trip! Got some great pictures, though!

Last picture courtesy of Luke--he's actually pretty good!

We can't wait for April, because . . .

Lillian will be a . . .

Most of you probably heard the news a while ago, but for those of you who may be farther away and not in regular contact, this is for you! We're expecting the fourth (and 99.9% likely to be the last) Bunton - Powell near mid to end of next April. I don't believe in due dates anymore, but they tell me around April 13th. I'm adding a couple weeks to that based on past experience, and hopefully I'll be surprised. There's NOTHING worse than being overdue, so if I plan now for later date, there will be no such thing this time, right??? Lillian will be 2 on March 8th, so they'll be two years apart. We had an early ultrasound since the baby gave us a scare by hiding his heartbeat, and at 14 weeks along, it looks like we'll be having another boy. I've about come to terms with it. I really felt like I was done with the baby boy thing, but that's okay! So now, we're just praying to have one more mild-tempered child. We've got one mild one so far (Sully), and the other two are soooo feisty--they take after their Dad, of course. ;) We're really excited to complete our family. I hate odd numbers--there always seems to be an empty gap. Cameron and I think it will be wonderful to have them all close in age as they grow. Sure, I'm sacrificing two more years of my sanity having 4 children age 6 and under (yikes!), but I'm sure it will be worth it and we can't wait for the adventures ahead!

Luke's excited for the next baby to come b/c I've told him there will be no pet dogs until the next baby is 5 years old!

Fun in the Tarheel State!

After the family reunion, we headed over to Linville, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains to stay in my great-Aunt Kassie's cabin for a few days. The leaves were changing, and the weather was nice and cool. It was beautiful and relaxing (well, as relaxing as we get with our group).

We drove to Asheville to spend the day at the Biltmore Mansion. That place is humongous! It's like it dropped out of the sky from France into rural North Carolina. We had loads of fun. The kids behaved incredibly well during the 2 hour self-guided tour of the house--thank goodness, b/c once you start there is NO easy way out--it's like a 2 mile one-direction maze, with one way in and one way out. We loved it--and after that we took the kids over to the Biltmore barnyard and farm. They loved the animals, and there was tons of fun things for them to do: a live country band, crafts, butter-making, carpenter-demo, etc. Lillian was too cute with the animals: "HI, Ki-caa!" over and over again (she calls all animals "kitty-cats"), to the goats, horses, chickens, etc.

We had a fantastic week in North Carolina, home sweet home.

The boy's with their "Nana and Pop-pop" who stayed in the cabin with us for a few days.

The boys had been longing to make a leaf-pile, but we don't have enough at home in SC yet. They were in heaven here!

(For the life of me, I cannot get my layouts on here to work well. If you can help me, call me up! )

The Knox Farm Reunion, 2008

We just went to the Knox family farm this past weekend, in North Carolina for the 250 year reunion of the Knox Farm and relatives (My mom is a Knox). Her father, my granddad, grew up on this farm, working it as did generations before him, and now generations after him continue to do so. It was a dairy farm when I was young, but now the mostly grow grains for feed, and soybeans. It's a beautiful, fascinating place. We even got to tour the old homestead house (left) that my grandfather was raised in. Unfortunately, my camera wouldn't work for the first day of the reunion, so I'm going to have to wait for pictures from others. The next day, we had a fish fry at the shed, and a hayride after. This is me and Lillian with my great-aunt and great-uncle, Lois and Robert. Robert resembles my grandfather, John Allen Knox (whom I miss terribly--he passed away last summer), and just turned 95! It was wonderful to see them.















Sullivan was trying to take his turn on the cool tractor, till Luke hopped on and commandeered the pedals. Poor Sully was helpless, despite being in the drivers seat, as Luke took over the steering wheel next. I thought the whole thing was hilarious. (Luke still got called out though). Their cousin James is behind them. They had a fantastic time playing together.











Lillian was so cute--flashing everyone right and left. She's just entered the inevitable skirt-up phase.























This is Lillian with my Aunt Betty, who gave us that lovely dress Lillian is wearing. It's my favorite. Thanks Aunt Betty! I took 3 pictures to try to get Betty with her eyes open, but no joke, they were in the EXACT same position every shot! ;)










There were two wagons on the hay ride--this, obviously--is the one we weren't on, which is why I could take a picture. It's a yearly tradition, and this is the first time in the last 2 years that I've attended that the wagon didn't get a flat tire, inspiring a long and beautiful walk back.





We had such a nice time. The Knox reunion is one of the highlights of my year! It is a lovely place, with kindest, friendliest group of people you've ever met. I'm so proud to be related to them.




And finally, drumroll please, we have . . . . . . . . AMANDA and AMILDA !!!







We see this woman on the hayride, and the more we look at her, the more we think she resembles my mom, on the left. We'd never met her before. Come to find out, she is my mother's 6th cousin who heard about this special reunion and decided to come. Different, but eerily similar. Amanda, Amilda. They hit it off: same tinted glasses, same salt and pepper curly/frizzy hair, similar smiles, similar style of dressing. My mom actually asked her how she did her hair. My mom never asks anyone how they do their hair. Within minutes they were even discussing their mutual love of fanny packs, and how they were both "granola" rather than "eye candy", etc. They set up a meeting in 6 months. Amilda's son, who was also there, lives just one town away from Cameron and I (he and I are 7th cousins I guess), so we may be meeting up with him as well. CRAZY! And here I thought my mom was one of a kind . . . . :)

Quirky Me, TAGGED

I've been tagged twice now to do this, by Jean and and Lea-Ann, so here we go!

The rules are:
1)Link back to the person who tagged you & post these rules on your blog
2)Share random and/or weird facts about yourself
3)Tag 7 RANDOM people
4)Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog


I'm truly not a very quirky person . . . but

1) I do have an "air thing." I have to have fresh air to breath. Fresh mostly meaning not second-hand. If someone is "close-talking" to me, where their breath is coming in my face, I feel like I'm suffocating on their CO2-laden breath. Plus, I'm hyper sensitive to smells: I can't tolerate bad breath in my face, but I would never dream of letting on or telling someone, so, in both situations, instead I hold my breath and try to discreetly turn my head to intake air, letting it out very slowly to appear normal, meanwhile trying not to pass out and to still hear what the person is saying. I'm pretty sure I just look like a freak. If Cameron wants to drive me nuts, he just comes really close, and then starts sucking in air, "I'm stealing all the air right here! There's not going to be enough for you!" It doesn't work anymore, but it used to drive me nuts.

2) I have a phobia of falling. Always have. Stairs without rails, beautiful overlooks with not so big guard rails (or guardrails with big gaps in them). I've have this sensation of gravity literally trying to pull me over the edge, and I'm not as sturdy on my feet. I've always felt that gravity has it out for me, and if I'm not careful, it will yank me--or now my children--over. (This is only very tall places I'm talking about, 2nd story or higher.)

3)I have crazy half-dreams sometimes. I open my eyes while I'm still sound asleep, and see things in the room that my still-sleeping mind interprets poorly. I've woken Cameron up several times yelling in my sleep-world about the window that was scary, and my personal least-favorite, the ceiling fan which has several times woken me up by looking like a MASSIVE spider with it's legs outstretched descending on me. Which maybe explains why I'm starting to develope a fear of spiders. Cameron loves being woken up by a loud yell in the middle of the night. The yelling wakes me up, to find my eyes already open, looking at a ceiling fan instead of a spider, and feeling sheepish. It happens enough that Cameron is used to it now.

4) I have to have every light out and every closet/bathroom door shut before I can sleep.

5)Ever since being told "Bloody Mary" stories in elemetary school, I will not look into a mirror in a dark room. Creepy! Who knows what I might see???

I'm going to tag my blogging sister-in-laws:

Buffy, Nancy, Tiffany, and Heather.

If you've already done it--sorry!

Luke's First Spend-the-Night!

Luke was invited on his first spend-the-night! He had a great time, but I'm pleased to say that I think he was ready to come home in the morning. He told Shana (the mom), "I better go home, my mom really misses me. We don't see each other very often, so I'd better go."
Hilarious! (For those of you who don't know our routines: we're lucky to spend 2 hours in seperate rooms, much less apart!)

"Hey, where's their . . . . ?"

a little anecdote:

Luke loves watching Discovery shows with Cameron in the morning before Cameron leaves for work. The other day, they were watching a nature-ish show that included the obligatory authentically naked indigenous people. Since this is Discovery, they courteously blurred out the men's unmentionables as they walked around in the rainforest. After watching for a while, Luke, always trying to figure things out, calmly asks Cameron, "Dad, do those guys don't have any privates??" Too funny! . . . I love how little kid's brains work--a perfectly logical conclusion for a 5 year old!

A little summer fun . . .

Summer's beginning! Cameron and the boys did a fire pit in the back yard and we had foil dinners and corn on the cob and roasted marshmellows--delicious! Then Cameron and the boys slept in a tent in the backyard (heehee). There was no way I was doing that with Lillian! They all came running inside at 6am. Cameron was exhausted from a night of sharing the air mattress (he's a cushy camper) with Luke and Sullivan, who like to kick- I was really glad I missed that one!