Self-portrait Tuesday: Week 23

Black is slimming, right? Right?!

My Five-Year Old (Son Named Spencer) is Cuter Than Yours!

I finally got around to getting Spencer's five-year old pictures taken. I never do it around his birthday because it's already busy enough during the holidays. Besides, what's an extra month's wait? Nothin'.

I like the pictures this year, although there were a lot fewer good ones to choose from. For some unknown reason Spencer has adopted a really cheesy fake smile whenever someone is taking a picture. I'm sure he thinks it's cute, but, quite frankly, it's a little creepy. So is the glare he gives me when I tell him to "Smile normally".

Don't worry, grandparents. Copies of this cute eye candy was put in the mail for you this morning.

I always like to get a full body shot so I can remember the cute outfit. The boys couldn't care less about what they're wearing, but I care!

I think this is my favorite of the bunch.

I always have close-up shots like this in the frames in the office. Not quite sure what's going on with the red dot on his chin. Oh well, if I waited until he didn't have some sort of spot, bruise, scratch or scrape on his face, he'd be 30.

Boy, did that photographer know how to sell to five year olds. He did all sorts of funny face poses. Spencer begged and begged to buy them all - I relented with a sheet of this one.

And will wonders never cease? Remember how much 'fun' Josh was for his two-year old pictures? For Spencer's he was bound and determined to get in on the action. Since it didn't cost any extra we threw him in. Dude, why couldn't you have been this cooperative for your birthday pictures? Pesky child...

Ten Fun Facts

Here are ten fun facts from my life lately:

1. There is such a thing as a 12 hour flu bug. I started feeling pretty gross yesterday around 11am. I was regretting life in general by 1pm. I even had Lance come home a little early. But by 11pm I was feeling a lot better. (Of course, this was after I had canceled my Primary presidency meeting for the next morning, dang it.)
2. Just because you feel better doesn't necessarily mean you're fully recovered. I spent the morning fairly busy, which completely wiped me out. I spent the afternoon taking a pretty productive nap.
3. Kids will bother you every 10 minutes if you try to take a nap in your bed. In other words, taking a nap in your bed with kids around is simply impossible.
4. Kids won't bother you at all if you take a nap on the extra bed in the guest/baby room. Experts have yet to find a reason for this.
5. A prickly two year old turns into a snuggle machine when he sneaks into the guest/baby room and climbs into bed with you.
6. It's nice to have your two year old take a nap.
7. You'll regret it at bedtime - he'll want to stay up all night.
8. You know it's been waaaaayyy too cold when it's 33 degrees outside and you seriously consider ditching your coat because it's so 'warm'.
9. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. After nearly two months of dealing with dopes, getting the run-around, and making lots of phone calls, our warranty company finally let us just get a new TV. And since what we paid for our TV 18 months ago now buys a better TV, we now have a wonderful, fancier, and (this is the best part) working TV!
10. Little boys who haven't seen a 'real' TV in two months are bound to be mesmerized. (Especially when Curious George is on.)

Making Valentines

I felt a little weird today. A little off. Not exactly sick... but not fully well, either. Just meh.

But that didn't stop Spencer from remembering my promise that we would make Valentines today. I think that he just wanted to play with the glitter glue, but whatever gets him to do anything artsy-crafty is fine by me. (Spencer's never been into coloring or cutting or anything along those lines. Josh, on the other hand, loves it.)


As you can see, plenty of glitter glue was used by all. I had to add the border to mine because Spencer said there wasn't enough glitter on it.

I just hope these all dry by Valentine's Day!

Bleached Valentine's Day Shirts

In an effort to better ignore some housework that really needs to get done around here, I decided the boys needed some Valentine's Day shirts. Manly Valentine's Day shirts. Because we are all about the manliness around here. I had recently seen bleach-design shirts somewhere online (sorry, I can't remember where), so I thought I'd try it out.

First, I found a very manly heart design online and tweaked it a bit in Photoshop. Regular hearts? Not so manly. Hearts on fire? Very manly. Then I printed them on some vellum. (Why vellum? I think paper would just soak up the bleach; vellum doesn't.)


Next, I put some aluminum foil in the shirt so the bleach wouldn't go through to the other layer. For Joshie's shirt I decided just to put a small heart on the upper left side. (Side note: I bought these shirts at Goodwill for $2 each. Sweet. It wasn't until I got home that I realized that Joshie's shirt was actually a girl shirt. No matter. I cut off the label and viola! It's now a boy shirt. Yes, I'm magic.)


Time for the magic bleach pen.


I lurrrve bleach pens. Quite possibly one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.

No, I'm not exaggerating.

Using the fine end of the bleach pen I traced the pattern.


Okay, so now I kinda have to backtrack a little. Because the pictures of Spencer's shirt are better at this point. So here's Spencer's shirt.


Instead of just putting the heart smack dab in the middle, I decided to have it kind of going off the side. (Thus the odd angle of the shirt.)

And here's his heart, completely traced with bleach. BTW, if you're a righty like me, start on the left or it gets tricky to trace everything without getting bleach on yourself. (I learned that the hard way on Josh's heart.)


So once the heart is all bleached, carefully place it on the shirt and gently press it down. Yes, the bleach will squish a bit, but don't worry - you want that. Leave it on there for a minute or two.


Then carefully peel the vellum off the shirt, making sure not to smudge any bleach. If you see any lines that are a bit too thin or just don't have enough bleach just carefully go over them with the bleach pen.


I let the shirts sit and dry for several hours until they looked like this.


You could probably get by with just an hour or so. Or maybe even dry the bleach with a hair dryer. But I got sidetracked with laundry and other (secret) Valentine's crafts.

So once the bleach had dried I threw the shirts into the washing machine with some old towels and washed and then dried then normally. They came out like this.


I think it looks super-cool! I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't want a shirt like that? It's Valentiney and manly all in one. Spencer was very excited. (Model pictures to come tomorrow.)

I don't think Josh's turned out quite as well, mainly because I think there was too much detail for the small size.


But I still think it looks cool. Kinda like a heart with a lion's mane, which perfectly fits Josh's demeanor, so there you go. He wasn't as excited as Spencer was, but he's two and that's a good enough reason right there.

Okay, I totally want one of these shirts now. Think I could find a red maternity shirt a Goodwill tomorrow?

Maths

Late night watching "The Office" after the Super Bowl + Working out a bit too hard this morning = One HUNGRY and EXHAUSTED mommy

One late night at a super Super Bowl Party + An exciting morning of finger painting = One tired toddler who miraculously took a two our nap

One little brother passed out in bed + One mommy passed out on the couch = Unlimited time and access to the kid computer for Spencer!

One nap + One Red Vine left over from Lance's LAN party = A new woman

Today I Am Thankful For

Today was a MUCH better day than last Sunday. (i.e. I didn't have to deal with crying Sunbeams for two hours.) For this I am very grateful. I am also grateful for:

• Answers to prayers, even if the prayers are silly
• Little baby feet kicking directly on my bladder (Okay, not really. But I am thankful for the baby!)
• Little boy slobber kisses
• Stealing kisses from a big boy
• Friends who invite me to their fun parties (I love throwing parties, but it's always so fun to go to someone else's house and not have to worry about anything!)
• Friends who don't freak out when my son drops a piece of pizza on the carpet and makes a big mess (Sorry. Again.)
• Nights where I get a full eight hours of sleep
• Valentines on the mantel
• Lance helping Spencer write his name on Valentines
• Joshie always being willing to put his dirty clothes away
• Chocolate cake
• Lance's job