My "Pinspired" Quiet Book

I love Pinterest- I remember the day I stumbled upon it over a year ago while I was still teaching.  I immediately showed it to my students and shouted "It's the dream website!"  As a computer teacher, I was always saying I wish there was a way to save pictures without having to copy and paste them to a word document.  THIS IS THE DREAM!  Now as a stay at home mom, it's even more of a dream because it gives me tons of ideas of things to do whilst at home.  I have a friend who just wrote a hilarious post on her take of Pinterest, but my take is that it gives me a gillion ideas for me to be a more productive mom- especially since I moved from a ginormous metroplex to a tiny town where I have lots of extra time (and no chick-fil-a to meet friends at 3 times a week).

I've done lots of random things- from the endless lists of activities for toddlers, some home decor stuff and a number of failed recipes but my biggest project from Pinterest was a Quiet Book for my son.  I spend about 2 weeks worth of naps to complete it but he seems to like it- especially the buckle and the finger puppets.  I used this blog for most of my ideas because her pages were really clean and simple.  I also added a few things specific to what Brooks likes (sports).  Since it consumed about 20 hours of my life I "felt" like I needed to show it off.

Here is the cover- shout out to myself for making SIX button holes with my sewing machine!  I mustered up all my sewing skills from 6th grade home economics, read part of the manual and managed to figure it out.  

This page has velcro paint splotches which he can move around and take off (and eventually will be lost somewhere in our house or car).

 This page is obviously to help little guy start to learn his numbers and counting.  He just looks at it and shouts "Ball, Ball, Star" over and over while trying to rip them off the page.

 A little shape practice, again attached with velcro and the hope that they don't all get lost.

 A velcro puzzle- he doesn't care for his page.  It's one of my least favorite also; however, I was proud of myself for cutting the shapes out so they fit almost perfectly together.

 He is super into buckles, I should have done 4 buckles.  I would have had I known he would hook the buckle then drag the book to me so I can unhook it and he can buckle it again.  Side note- He buckles ALL of Caleb's stuff- bouncer, high chair, swing, carseat- whenever I go to put Caleb in anything I have to unhook them first.  It may be worth my time to spend an afternoon teaching him how to unhook them.

 The farm with 3 finger puppet animals.  Hands down, favorite page. Brooks says they are "broken" when he can't get them on his fingers.

 Color matching with snaps.  These snaps need to get broken in a bit, they are tough to take off and snap back on.

 Number matching- the numbers are attached to the string (so they wouldn't get lost).  I think he will like this page more later but right now he tries to pull the balls off and just tells me what they are "boot-ball", "rocker-ball", "bat-ball", and "basketball".

 This is a far off, but easy to make so I stuck it in there.

 I thought this page was cute, snaps to change the seasons (leaves and flowers are stuffed in the grass).

If I were to ever make one of these books again, I think it would turn out much nicer since there was definitely a learning curve with both the cover and a few of the pages.  It was fun to make because I like crafty stuff like this.  Again- Thanks to the lady at Pink Lemonade for templates and directions!   

Caleb James

My friend, Niff, made these adorable announcements for Caleb, I love how they turned out!  Hopefully you've gotten yours in the mail already.

She also made Brooks' last year.  She just whips them up- very talented!  

Good Ol' County Fair!

This past week was the county fair, I believe it was the first one I've ever attended. Good times! We went one morning with our cousins to see the animals (which I didn't take any pictures of), then again the other night for the rides.  It was lots of fun!  For future reference, just buy the "unlimited rides" armband- even for the 19 month olds.  Brooks and Jenna would have been in heaven if we just parked them on the train for two hours.

Before we went on the rides, we had to fill up on fair food!  Brooks trying the turkey leg, he didn't care too much for it- which meant more for me!

Brooks' first amusement park ride- the Ferris Wheel!

Brooks rode the train 3 times with his cousin, Jenna.  He LOVED driving- his seatbelt was so tight that he could hardly reach the wheel.  He and Jenna sang their "All Aboard the Choo Choo Train" song and would wave as they rode by- little cuties!

Then we hit up the giant slides.

All the Fitzwater girls!  

Everyone liked it so much that we all went again. It was just like the colored slides my family would go to in Estes Park every summer when we lived in Colorado.

My sweet little guy (finally getting out of the stroller).

This is how we roll these days, this stroller is a lifesaver!  Thanks Chelle!

Third Times a Charm...

We'll I've attempted to start a blog on two other occasions and failed miserably.  As a former computer teacher you'd think this would come naturally to me but instead I got frustrated and just uploaded my pictures to Facebook.  Much easier.  

However, I got the blogging bug again, so let's hope that this turns out better than it has in the past.  I apologize in advance for any grammar errors (thank goodness for the red wavy line, otherwise every 6th word would probably be misspelled).  

Here are somethings that I tried to blog about before but never finished:

Brooks 1st Birthday Party

We had an "All-Star" First birthday for Brooks.  All of his cousins came, along with some buddies.  It was a really special day celebrating out little guy and having fun with family and friends.  AND- that day was also awesome because that night RG3 won the Heisman!!  

Our Trip to Hawaii with my Parents

We spent a week in Kauai relaxing with my parents.  We had a great time going to the beach and eating snowcones!  Mark was able to go zip-lining and 4-wheeling but I couldn't join him since I was preggers.  I guess we'll have to go back so I can do those things with him! 

The Birth of Caleb 

Caleb joined us on April 12, 2012.  Everything went perfectly, he was 20 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces.   My parents drove in from Dallas to meet him and a few days later my sister, Jess and Charlotte came as well.   Caleb is such a good baby, he is so laid back and happy!  We love him to pieces! 

Those were some of the main things I had attempted to blog about- the cliffnotes version was much easier!  Hopefully from here on out I'll have success since I've sort of got the hang of it!