Quiet Book with a Prayer Theme

Three Sundays ago my husband told me after church that what I was bringing in the church bags wasn't working for the kids.  I had been planning on making a quiet book, I had even bought all the supplies (or so I thought).  When he told me this, I knew that it was time to make the book. I had been brainstorming ideas for months before I sat down to make this.  Check out my Pinterest Quit Book board. And after all my preparation I still made 4 trips to the craft store.  All told it has taken me two weeks worth of nap times to make and roughly $40 (not including the price of things I already owned, like most of the felt). I hope the investment pays off in the end!

The cover is simple.  It ended up being larger than necessary, but I like it that way.  I still have intentions of adding handles. 

Like this post's title says, this is a (mostly) prayer themed quiet book.  If my kiddos are going to be playing with this through church than it should be gospel focused.  I chose prayer for my theme. All the words are written with a paint pen ($3.42 each), someone mentioned that paint pens can bleed or run. If you're worried I would do a test run before using.

1. Joseph Smith prayed in a grove.  I sewed clouds over clear vinyl.  Below is supposed to be an image of the first vision, but I will have to wait until April to get it. So instead is a picture of Mary and Jesus praying. The image can easily be exchanged out of the pocket, which is closed with Velcro.

2. Daniel prayed in the lion's den, and the Lord closed their mouths. The lion's mouth closes with a zipper. Inside is a tongue and teeth.

3. Jonah repented in the whale. The whale swallows Jonah (who is currently M.I.A.) and you can see him through the clear vinyl belly.

 4. Time to pray.  A clock. I put the hands on a grommet, using button holes for stability. I originally glued the numbers on.  But when they started falling off, I sewed them on.

5. Count your blessings. Simple, simple, simple.  I even let my oldest daughter help me and sort all the beads out for me.

 6 & 7. The Jews fasted and prayed for Esther.  Dress Esther. I expect these pages to be my 4 year-old's favorite pages. Esther is made with the doll pattern from the Still:Living blog.  I changed the doll a little, and traced the body to make dresses for the queen.  The queen has four hand-beaded dresses to wear when she meets the king.  I'm sure that when my son is old enough to play with the quiet book I will make him an "I hope they call me on a mission" page.  Until then, this is good enough.

 8. Faith is like a little seed. If planted, it will grow.  Is your basic button and flower page.
9. Notebook and crayon.

 10. Thread the bee through the flowers.  It's a unique idea from Imagineourlife.com. I'm not good at using patterns, so I just free handed the flowers.  You know, whatever... it turned out great though. It may be my 4 year-old's 2nd favorite page.

 We had a bee bead.  Here's a close-up of flower #9.

11. The Brother of Jared prayed and saw the finger of God. This page is your basic mitten page.  I traced my child's hand and then added an inch or so to the tracing, until she could fit her hand inside. It would have been cooler if the finger was free moving, maybe next time.

12. Build a house of prayer. I really (using my whinny voice) really wanted a SLC temple page. I had finished the book and was afraid I wouldn't be able to make one. But while strolling through pinterest quiet book boards I found enough inspiration to make one.  I used the temple from Mormon Share, it's a pdf. Traced onto wax paper and then cut out on the felt. I glued the temple onto some felt for backing. The page pictured is not yet complete. But the temple will be four pieces, like a puzzle, which is then built on Velcro. The grass is actually a pocket.

 This is my favorite page, so I hand embroidered some flowers and a tree.

 13. Alphabet. I used snaps to make an alphabet page. Yes, I know this is only half the alphabet. The other half is not yet all sewn together yet, so I didn't take a picture. I used snaps because I didn't want my child to spread the letters all over the bench (headache).  But snaps are the WORST! I would do the hand sewn snaps if I could do it all over again. If you do use the snaps, and you have the tool, and you've figured how to do it, I would put the snaps through the muslin and a second layer of felt (I did this on my second alphabet page). This provides stability for the snaps.  I tried to make up for the thin muslin on the first page by sewing the muslin to felt around the snaps, we'll see how that goes. For now I'm stuck with it.  This was by far my most expensive page. I bought a felt sticker alphabet and matted them on green felt, cut them out, and put on snaps.

There are some other pages still in the works. We bought some awesome buttons at the store that I cut a page out for, but my daughter would not give me permission to sew them permanently onto the page.  They were going to be attached with elastic so they could move freely. Too bad.  Maybe I'll sew a pocket at the top and place them in the pocket...?

This is still a work in progress.  A few pages are left to be invented and sewed.  But for now I'm going to focus my free time on scrapbooking my son's first year of life.  Happy crafting!

P.S. I'd like to give a special shout out and thanks to my mother-in-law.  She gifted me all her crafting stuff and has made many dreams possibilities with crafting!

Week 18 Valentines

Happy Valentines!

This week we sent those we love some valentines.  Last week we melted crayons into heart shapes.  This week we used those to make valentines. Our valentines say

 "I love having a cousin/aunt like you! Love, Josie"

 Then we sent different valentines to the grandparents. These awesome homemade valentines said,

"With a kiss and a hug from your little love bug."

During Grandma School (when we do Google Hangouts with Grandma who lives across the country), I provided some hearts and Grandma and J worked together to construct these wonderful valentine animals!  We got to decorate our house for valentines with these lovely animals.

In exchange for the hug we sent Grandma in the mail, she sent us a book kit.  There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose with all the pieces the old woman swallows.

We took a milk carton (which was about to be recycled) and made it into an old lady.  Then we had fun reading our book and feeding the old lady.  Thank you, Grandma! xoxo

 We worked on patterns with some conversation hearts.  I used stickers to create a pattern and then left a couple spaces blank.  I had J use the conversation hearts to make the patterns and then finish the pattern in the blank space. It was fun.

 Nana sent us some boxes of chocolates for the hug we sent her.  J, C, and W have the best grandparents!

 

 Thanks Nana!

Week 17 Color Mixing

I think our lesson on color mixing should have come before rainbows. Maybe.

Carnation Dying
This week we splurged a little and bought some white carnations.  I asked the florist at Albertsons is they had a bundle I could buy.  She found one in the back. I was afraid the carnations weren't that pretty when we bought them, but they bloomed nicely when we put them in the water. We worked on dying the carnations and learned a couple things. 

 We used food dyes in water.  We mixed up a rainbow, we like rainbows.

 Here's what we learned: red is too heavy to be absorbed by the carnation.  The flowers in the orange turned yellow, the flowers in the purple turned blue.  Nothing happened to the carnation in the red jar.  If I locate the picture I took of the carnations I will post it later.  When I was rinsing out the jars afterwards, the red was stuck at the bottom.

Crayon Melting
We have hundreds of crayons. We sorted out all the broken ones, peeled them, and sorted by color. This was great practice in color sorting and then some small motor activity in peeling crayons.

We used washed cans and melted the crayons down in a pot with a small amount of water. I used my oven mitts to hold the cans and pour the melted wax.  Then I poured them into our silicone hearts.  I asked Josie to stay back so she wouldn't get burned. I would recommend extreme caution so no one gets burned.

 We made four of most colors and then we layered colors.

 They dried super fast and pretty soon we were using them to color.  It was simple and yet really fun!

Who Pays for Which Wedding Expenses

Who Pays for Which Wedding Expenses

With a temple wedding, many expenses can be passed over. Like alcohol at the reception or a venue. I would always recommend a temple wedding, even if it means no trip to San Diego. 

Traditionally these expenses get split a little differently than this list, however given our family's financial situation here's how the expenses were split when I got married.  You can use these as a guide and then make your own adjustments.

Bride's Family		Groom's Family
Invitations sent to her people		Invitations sent to his people and all postage
Wedding dress and accessories		Tux rental (JC Penny's has ones you can buy now)
Bridal bouquet and bridesmaids bouquets		Corsages or Boutonnières
Photographer (super important!!)		Luncheon (happened in Utah)
Reception (happened in Washington) Decorations Appetizers Drinks Plates and silverware		Open House (happened in Boise) Food Decorations Location rental Plates and silverware
The cake		The marriage license
His ring*		Her ring*
Transportation and lodging for her family	Transportation and lodging for his family
	The honeymoon (we went to France)

*My hubby and I put our wedding rings on a payment plan and then paid them off while married.

Bridesmaids	Groomsmen
Dresses and accessories	Tux and tie
Wedding gift for the couple	Wedding gift for the couple
Transportation and lodging for self	Transportation and lodging for self
Bridal shower	Bachelor party

The best way to plan is to begin with your fixed costs, invitations and rings, subtract that total from your available funds and see what amount you have to work with.  Then you can budget the dress and the reception.  Also, make a list of people you're going to invite before you order the invitations (we didn't -- whoops!)

Week 16 Rainbows

Rainbows - I love rainbows and the happiness I feel when seeing one.

Objectives: learn how rainbows are made, learn the order of the colors in a rainbow

We spent a lot of time discussing how rainbows are made last summer.  So my daughter already had a basic understanding. We read Rainbows by Jacqueline Dwyer from the series Nature Books. It was in the 551.567 section at the library. We also own a wonderful book called What Makes a Rainbow by Betty Ann Schwartz.  This simple board book talks about rain and sunshine making a rainbow. It even covers all the colors in the rainbow and animals which are those colors.  Below is a youtube video which covers all the same information.

Salt Painting
We tried salt painting from the blog Juggling With Kids. I let the glue dry before painting and I think that was a mistake.  Although the painting was still very beautiful and vibrant.

 We listed what order the colors go in as we colored our rainbow.

Grandma School
This week we started something called "Grandma School" where we Google Chat with Grandma and she teaches a lesson.  This was awesome! Grandma shared a flannel story about a turkey that needed to work on his temper, throughout the story the turkey's feathers changed color and in the end he has a rainbow of feathers. Find the Turkey with the Terrible Temper here. For Grandma School we also mixed colors to make a rainbow with playdough.

I was disappointed with the play dough recipe I used.  Here is a different recipe that works much better from The Imagination Tree:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt                          
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Up to 1.5 cups boiling water
• food coloring (optional)

 Directions:

• Mix the flour, salt, cream of tartar and oil in a large mixing bowl
• Add the boiling water
• Stir continuously until it becomes a sticky, combined dough
• Add the food coloring
• Allow it to cool down then take it out of the bowl and knead it vigorously for a couple of minutes until all of the stickiness has gone. * This is the most important part of the process, so keep at it until it’s the perfect consistency!*
• (If it remains a little sticky then add a touch more flour until just right)

 Here's our beautiful rainbow, we weren't ready with purple yet.  Thanks Grandma!

Kitten Rainbow

I found a very cute rainbow flannel board poem, so I made it.  These silly cats get too curious and cover themselves in paint, like a rainbow. You can find the poem and some suggestions for presenting it at Read Rabbit Read.

 After we read through our Kitten Rainbow story a couple times we did a color sort, matching our items with the cats.  I found random items in my craft room.  If we had been in the toy room I would have held up a cat and asked her to find objects that matched the cat.

Jello Jigglers

 Lastly, we made heart shaped jello.  I had the intention of doing a rainbow of jello, but I decided to keep it simple. Half was gone in an instant.  Somehow shapes make jello more delicious.  But my toddler was sick and so this was perfect for her sore throat.

Week 15 Musical Instruments

Musical Instruments can be so much fun!
Objectives: Name and identify instruments, identify different groups of instruments

We read Musical Instruments from World of Design.  It was great because after each group of instrument it has simple instructions on how to make that type of instrument.  We also read What Instrument is This? by Rosmarie Hausherr.  It teaches about many different instruments.  Look in your local library in section 784.19 for musical instrument books.

We took our box of instruments and sorted them into groups.  We have drums, maracas, and flutes which we sorted into like groups.

Then we started dancing.  One day I turned on my Pandora to Disney songs and another day we danced to toddler songs.  We took turns with each instrument and had a lot of fun.

It's also fun to discuss tempos with instruments.  Some songs have quick tempos and some songs have slow tempos.  You can practice playing your instrument to match the tempo of your song.

We also got in some finger painting.  We love finger painting!

10 Reasons Not to Postpone Motherhood after College

Deciding to start your family can be hard.  I remember being penniless and in law school and the thing I needed to hear was "children have a way of paying for themselves".  That sentence removed all my fears and I was ready to start my family, although we did wait another four years.  I see it's not that simple for you, so here I am awake at 2:32 AM because my baby boy has a sore throat, writing this post because if I don't get these thoughts out of my head they will continue to keep me awake--or I will forget them.  Both are highly likely, and I want to go to sleep.  So here are my top 10 reasons not to wait:

1. Cute things come in small packages.
Here's a shallow reason: baby clothes are so CUTE! My little baby boy wears a shirt that says "Mr. Handsome" and I melt all day long.  He sure is handsome.  Or I dress him for church in his button down collared shirt and I think of the future when he'll be a man, and my heart melts a little.
Or the countless tutus that line our dress-up box.  When my girls get on their tutus and dance around, or their never ending stash or mardi gras beads...kinda annoying...they're so adorable! Lol.

2. You can do hard things.
You were sent here to be tested and tried and to succeed.  If life gets hard, just remind yourself that you can do hard things.  Did you know I finished my personal progress after having three kids, because it wasn't hard enough to do while I was in high school; for some reason I needed a greater challenge.  You moved a lot, kinda like Tyler, I'm glad I didn't have to do that.  That would have been hard for me.  You've done hard things in the past and you can do hard things in the future. Accepting that it will be hard seems to make it easier!

3. Your baby is a mini-you and that bonds them to you in a heartbeat.
When I look at Charlotte's eyes I see my eyes, I love our eyes!  When my children walk into walls I think of my-clumsy-self and I love them more.  When Josie acts red-in-the-face-stubborn I think of my first year of marriage and all the growth I went through.  I love her even more for being like me.  When she exhibits all my flaws I think on how I can be better.  I think about how I have grown and changed through my flaws and how my children will have similar growing experiences.  Your children are like you, for better or worse, I think it's for better.  You know how to manage your flaws and you are the perfect person to help your beautiful child manage theirs.  Besides, your children get to share your likes.  I love crafting and so does Josie, today she was sewing.  Nicole likes sports and so does Egan (he know the names of balls that I don't even know).  Imagine going to the zoo with your little baby and know that you will both love seeing the seals swim and the monkeys swing.  (Wouldn't an ocean themed nursery be cute?) Sheri said when she was raising her children she never realized she would be raising her best friends.

4. Because waiting won't make it easier.
If you do it today, if you wait until after the summer, if you work first..if...if...if... it won't be any easier.  Today or tomorrow, you may be a little more mature, but it will still be hard.

5. Watching a father hold his child heals your heart.  
No matter how long the baby has cried, how many times the baby has spit up, how worn out or exhausted you are, your husband will pick that child up in their arms and all your hurts will be healed.  Watching your husband, whom you love in an eternal way, hold your baby makes every fairy tale true. 
There's no greater experience than watching Charlotte play the piano and sing while instructing her father to play along.  There is nothing sweeter than a father holding his daughter while he explains why we give toys to others at Christmas, struggling to help his daughter be self-less.  Or when he rolls on the floor with your 9 month old with pure joy on his face.
When your husband holds his child, you feel the trust they place in him and you know that you're not alone in the beautiful journey of parenthood.

6. Now is a transition in your life, why not choose the transition into motherhood.
I squeezed my first child into my last semester of college and that was one tight squeeze!  But you have a break, you are beginning the next chapter.  What would you like this chapter to be like? Besides, you live in a place where you will be a common denominator.  I never fit in.  I was the only married 19 year old in all of D.C., then I was the only person living in their in-law's basement in a well established ward.  I've never been invited to a play date--EVER.  Josie is still the only girl in sunbeams. I'm envious of Nicole for that, no one wanted to be in my preschool co-op. NO ONE.  You're in Utah, where lots of moms will join your co-op and you'll have play dates every week.  You'll be so lucky!

7. You are never alone.
Your mother may live far away, your mother-in-law may live a little closer; but you are never alone. They are only a phone call away and besides, you have a village at your disposal.  You husband is only a phone call away.  I remember when William was born I called Russell and said, "Everyone is crying at me." And he said, "I'm packing up my stuff right now."  When he got home I had managed the situations, but his gesture is what helped me through!  My Visiting Teacher watched my baby so I could take the girls to see Frozen. (I love my visiting teacher).  You live next to Lindsey, who has already spent most of a semester watching my baby, she's already trained.  I'm sure you have family that I don't even know about that you can rely upon!  Not to mention Bryson and Nicole who would have you over for dinner in a heartbeat.  You are so lucky to live in a village.  Have you heard the story of Sheri buying a plane ticket to Mexico when Charlotte was born?  Our mothers are never more than a plane ticket away.

8. You are never alone x2.
I face hard things with three kids under five.  But somehow, with prayer and love I make it through everyday.  More importantly, I like myself at the end of everyday, because I rely on my Heavenly Father for support in my down moments.  I have yet to have a prayer over my parenting go unanswered--except for Charlotte to start talking.  Still waiting on that one.  I can ask Heavenly Father why my baby is crying, I can receive inspiration from the Holy Ghost to help my baby calm down.  Or at least I can better understand the pain they might be going through.  Heavenly Father answers prayers over his babies quickly.  He loves your child, he loves you!  When you have bad moments you have repentance.  You can say sorry to your toddler for being impatient, and you can try again tomorrow to be amazing.  Children are very forgiving and forgetful and they love you back so fiercely.  Parenthood is a perfecting process, but you only have to do it one day at a time.

9. Everyone has a different experience with motherhood and pregnancy.
Sheri has some horrible pregnancy stories, sorry Lindsey.  If you ask Nicole and I, we never had it that bad.  In fact, other than being uncomfortably big, pregnancy wasn't bad for me.  Labor was cake--hello Epidural.  Recovery was a little rocky for me after the first baby, but it was way easier after the second.  Did you know some people's babies sleep through the night?  Mine NEVER do that. There are stages you'll love and stages you won't love and life will ebb and flow.  Your experiences will be tailor fit to your body and your personality and your baby.  There may not be a guide to your life, but there are plenty of "how to" manuals, and some of them are pretty comedic!  Don't trust a mom who thinks she has everything figured out...the only thing I have figured out is that everyone in my house is constantly changing and growing and I need to be flexible.  Flexibility and forgiveness will bring happiness.

10. The greatest compliment you can receive is that of Mother.
When Adam was giving names he named woman Eve, because she was the mother of all living.  The greatest compliment he could give his wife was not skinny or sexy, but Mother.  He understood her eternal potential, he understood where she would find the greatest happiness.  He was wise and when she had to leave the garden, he loved her enough to go with her.  He wanted to help her fulfill her divine destiny to mother the human race.  He understood the great commandment and he was eager to begin. God has given us nurturing qualities that will kick in when the stork delivers our bundle of joy.  There is no greater joy on earth than being a mother! 

This is all the wisdom I can squeeze out at 3:39AM, I hope it was enough.  You can never really be ready, you'll have to jump in with both feet.  There are too many incalculable things for anyone to really be ready.  You just have to be confident and know that the Lord is ever mindful of you.  And when you decide to begin don't forget to let us know.  I kinda hate finding things like that out on Facebook.

Love,
Debra