Sewing Frenzy

I spent most of this weekend in my sewing room while the boys were being entertained by Brian. Very nice, indeed. Here are a few of the projects I was able to finish up this while locked away.


A teacher gift: And yes a stocking:

(Christmas in July)

And finally another teacher gift, this time a sweatshirt. Heard everyone that saw it today, loved it. That is very nice to hear, especially since Kristin knew how much of pain this one was for me.

Front: Back:

My goal for the summer is to continually post new things that I have been working on. Next up, I am going to need to tackle some pj bottoms for the boys. Heading back to Ohio in a few weeks, the long sleeves and pants are going to be WAY TOO HOT! They have requested some shorts. Now I just need to search for a pattern.

Who's got style?

The winner is...

Brandon.

I was in the kitchen this afternoon and I looked out the back window to check on the boys and what did my eyes find? Well, Brandon in his most stylish outfit yet.

Now, I know I complain about the weather in Washington, but I didn't realize that my children felt the same way. It may not be super warm here, but it was close to 70 degrees, and I don't think it requires his WINTER COAT. Now it did look like rain, but he usually is barefoot or in his crocs, not in rain boots. Needless to say, I had to share with all of you Brandon's fashion statement. And yes, he does have shorts on under that coat. You gotta love 'em.

Yellow Belts...

Last month, the boys and I tested for our Yellow Belt in Tae Kwon Do and now we finally have those belts tied around our waists to show how far we have come. I watched both of the boys receive their belts at the same time, it was such a proud moment. I have seen how much they have grown over the last few months. Logan's confidence in himself and the other activities in his life have just blossomed since his involvement in tae kwon do. Brandon on the otherhand, never needed help in the confidence department, but has thus learned a little more control in his behavior. Plus they are both learning how to actually fight with one another. Not sure if this is a good thing, but maybe we will be less likely to end up in the emergency room over the years to come.

As their mom, it was a very emotional to watch them move up one more step. Will I be posting pictures of these boys in black belts in the years to come? They certainly seem to follow in their dad's and uncles' footsteps in so many other ways...

Congrats, Logan and Brandon!

I am so proud of all your hardwork.

My new reason to exercise...

Most of you probably know by now that I am very involved in training for Triathlons. If not, here is the scoop, this is my third season training and I absolutely love it. It all started by a friend mentioning that she was training for a race and I told her I always wanted to do something like that. She asked "What is stopping you?" I think I just stared at her, because I really didn't have a reason. I loved swimming in high school, had a bike I could train on and had a pair of running shoes to put on my feet. So really there was no reason for why I wasn't doing it. So I said "why not?"

The summer of 2007, Brian was on a patrol and the boys and I were heading to Ohio by ourselves. Luck would have it, that my brother-in-law, Jeff, was going to be there at the same time and was participating in the Cleveland Triathlon. Now, I was hoping to start on a smaller scale, but what better way to start that to have someone be there to walk me through everything. It took a matter of minutes to talk myself into it. I had Jeff to help me prepare for the race and I had the Guises there to watch the boys and my sister, Angela, was willing to dust off her bike and allow me to use it while I was in Ohio.

Well, that was just the beginning. I did the Cleveland Triathlon in August and then completed the Tri Turtle Tri (back in Washington) in September. The following summer, we headed back to Ohio, instead of the Cleveland Triathlon, I participated in the Lorain Triathlon where I placed third in my age group. That was a MAJOR BOOST to my ego and confidence. (still not sure how I accomplished that, but who cares?) I again completed the Tri Turtle Tri at the end of the summer.

So now, my third year into triathlons, I was ready to commit myself to continuing this on a regular basis. Over the last two years and four triathlons, I have been riding a Mountain Bike. If you know anything about bikes, they are HEAVY compared to road bikes. I was probably putting ten times as much effort into biking as the other bikers. Well, that has all changed. I finally decided on a bike and bought it today. According to my other brother-in-law, Andy, I could possibly take 10 minutes off my time. That would just be nice to get off my bike that much faster.

I am so excited, I can't wait to get out and actually ride it, as Brandon said this afternoon, while I was riding up and down the hill on our street, "Mom, that bike is SO COOL!!!" I couldn't agree more!!!

Father's Day with the Mauk Family minus the Dads

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there that are enjoying family time. My good friend Jessica and I were helping the boys celebrate Father's Day by allowing them to sit around in their underwear and have control over the remote all afternoon. Ok, they actually had clothes on the last time we checked on them.

Jessica and I were lucky to have a few hours to spend sewing and working on my new blog design, we only locked the kids out of the house a few times. But really, I have a new design for our blog. Those that are around me most often know I have a Twilight Problem. I am addicted to it. Books, music, movies, magazines, trivia, you name it...I probably own it. And yes I do have all four books on audio cd, so that I don't have to read my books at the red lights. You think I am kidding, but just ask Jessica, she knows the truth. Be sure to check out Jessica's Blog to see just how insane I can be about it. Moving on...

Today was a productive day over all, I managed to get two shirts made for a big and little brother. Way too cute. I also made the most adorable baby bib. I love them so I wll share them with you.










As always, these items are available for your personalization, just contact me if interested.

Hope you enjoy the new look, I sure do. I will be continuing to post more sewing projects, since Jessica and I will be resuming our once a week craft days, now that school no longer gets in the way.

Logan's Birthday Party

Just looking through the old posts realized I gave an entire weekend of posts to Brandon and have completely neglected Logan. Isn't it usually the second child gets less photos and the parents are always behind on their scrapbook? Well, I am definitely not part of the norm.

So I am going to make it up to Logan by sharing his birthday weekend with all of you. If we have a gathering for the boys' birthdays, we choose to keep it small and/or do it someplace else. It is just too chaotic to have it in the house, not to mention the weather is usually unpredictable to have something outside. Well, again, we through the norm out the window. We had a few of Logan's friends and their families over for a bbq.

Not sure how much entertainment a houseful of 7 year olds would require, we decided to come up with a treasure hunt for all the kids. While the boys and I were out getting ready for the party, Brian used his strategic planning experience to come up with maps for all the kids and placed treasure along the street for each of them to find. There was really no winner determined, but that certainly didn't stop them from racing down the hill.

While the kids were on their treasure hunt, Brian was inside getting the hamburgers and hot dogs ready, so that we didn't have too much time for them to get hungry and whiny. In between all the activities, all of the kids managed to pile on the trampoline. It was amazing their were no major injuries.

The fire blazing in the background was used for s'mores, which all the kids and adults completely enjoyed. If I didn't have marshmallows and chocolate all over myself, I would have had some great pictures. But I too, was enjoying s'mores with the rest of them. And of course, a birthday party is not complete without cake, so on top of all the sugar from the s'mores, we gave the kids some cupcakes and then sent them on their way with their parents. Actually most of the kids were running around the house with the balloons and the nerf guns, so I think most of them were tired by the time they went home. After the fun was over, we were left with (an almost) 7 year old.

Last Day of School

Logan on his last day of school:

This morning I had a first grader and now I have a second grader and Kindergartner. Hard to believe...

Since I only had a half day left before having both boys home all day, every day; I kept myself busy. How, you may ask? By working on a gift for Logan's teacher. Yes, I enjoyed creating an apron for Mrs. Zeringer. I do hope she likes it.

Here is a picture of Logan with his First Grade Teacher, Mrs. Zeringer:

Child Outsmarts Parent

This evening, we went on a bike ride and were discussing the reasons for buying the boys new bikes for the summer. A few weeks ago, Brandon popped his rear tire. We were able to replace the inner tube, but not the outside tire; therefore the tire will always be a little flat and it is just a matter of time before the tire blows again. Now Brandon has a 12" bike, while Logan has a 16" bike. Since they are both small, they usually fight over riding Brandon's bike. Unfortunately, Logan usually loses because Brandon doesn't want to give up his bike and ride the bigger one. Well, since we are not going to buy another small bike, we need to convince Brandon that is way cooler to ride a big bike like Logan's.

The following proposition is made at the top of hill: If Brandon rides Logan's 'super fast' bike and Logan beats him to the bottom of the hill, Brandon could get another 'rocket' bike. I knowing where this is going am trying to get Brandon to race me down the hill (since I am on the scooter). Brian is trying to keep Logan at the top of the hill and give Brandon a head start. Brandon says to me, if Logan wins I can get another rocket. So I am going to go really slow. Now I can not really argue with this logic (we never said the boys were dumb). So Brandon continues to go as slow as possible, while Logan is thrilled to be riding Brandon's bike zooms down the hill as fast as he could. Brian tries to get in between them to slow Logan down and speed Brandon up. Brandon rides the brakes the entire way down while Brian is trying to push him.

I am trying really hard at this point to be supportive of Brian's decision. But it was too funny watching the entire scenario play out. When Brandon finally makes it to the bottom of the hill in TEARS, he won't even move on the bike. Brian tells him he cheated by not pedaling, and Brandon tells Brian he made him cheat by pushing him down the hill.

The outcome: We encouraged Brandon to be a big boy (otherwise he was going to bed at 7:30). Therefore, both of the boys will probably be getting new bikes and probably both the same size but different colors. Glad to know that children know how to think logically.

Time Flies

Ok, I am the first to admit that I am horrible with updating this blog on a regular basis. I am hoping to change that, although no promises will be made. Both boys will be out of school in 5, yes count them, FIVE days!! Am I ready for this? Probably not. Since it is inevitable I will do my best to start a routine. One of them, will be updating everyone on our regular activities.

Since I am not positive I will be able to designate individual blogs to each of the happenings that have occured over the past few weeks, I will give a brief run down here and possibly go back to give more details over the course of the next few weeks.

After Mother's Day, we celebrated Brian's Birthday. Not many pictures from that event, since Brian is not a big fan of celebrating, but we did however make a cookie cake and sang Happy Birthday to him. The boys helped him open his presents and that was about it.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Brian and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary. Wow, 11 years. Where did that time go? Oh that's right, 8 moves and 2 kids. Gotta love life in the Navy. I will have a picture from this evening, because those are usually so few and far between.

This past week, we celebrated Logan's 7th birthday. Yes, he is 7. Again, I ask, where did those years go? Just 3 moves and another child since then. He is getting so big. Like Brandon's birthday weekend, we never celebrate just one day, so I will add more details for his special weekend. It is only fair, although I must say this is probably the first time that Brandon got more photo time than Logan. Isn't usually the second child that gets slighted? It all evens out in this household.

Currently, I am listening to Brian and his brother Andy play Guitar Hero; while Amy (soon to be the newest member of the Guise Family) reads the Jungle Book to Brandon. Oh right now, Logan is getting ready to sing "Hit Me With Your Best Shot", gotta love Pat Benatar.

I will definitely post some pictures from our evening around the firepit enjoying s'mores. The boys have really taken to Amy; so happy she tolerates the boys hanging all over her.

That is it for now, stay tuned for more details from our crazy lives.