Becky and Jared's Blog
Becky, Jared and Sarah
19 Months
1Sarah is 19 months old!
Singing and Dancing
Sarah has been singing and dancing so much this month. Sarah loves to sing. I don’t think that there is anything more cute. I sing two bedtime songs every night and she has started singing them with me on some nights. She will also sing to herself in the car and when she is playing. Sarah loves dancing too. She will almost always move to the music.
Putting on and Taking off Clothes
Sarah is contantly taking off clothes. She knows how to work a zipper and so even footy PJ’s aren’t safe. We will go to get her in the morning and she will look like this.
Too Smart
Sarah is now getting almost too smart. She knows how to unscrew things. This keeps throwing me off because things that were pretty safe from her are now a disaster. For example, Sarah got hold of a pepper shaker and unscrewed the top and dumped out the whole contents on her lunch. Sarah is also talking off the tops of apple juice, milk, lotion, and anything she can get her hands on. Sarah also zips up her own jacket once we put the zipper together. She can put on her own shoes and socks and she can almost put on her own pants, but she mostly likes to take pants off.
Here is Sarah taking off the pepper top
Food
Sarah has become very picky with food. She loves some food and will completely refuse to eat dinner if we serve something she doesn’t like. I decided it would be cute to make brownies for Sarah’s 18 month day, I told her it was chocolate to simplify it. Sarah now asks me for chocolate everyday. She also loves fruit snacks which she call simply, “snacks”. This gets me, her mother, in trouble a lot because I ask if she wants a snack and she thinks fruit snacks not a small meal. Sarah does like some healthy food. She likes to eat Cutie Oranges and even likes to peel them herself. Sarah also loves grapefruit. One day, Sarah ate almost 2 grapefruits herself.
Sarah eating chocolate
Sarah’s Grapefruits
Taco Dance
Talking
Sarah has been continuing to talk a lot. She often repeat the last word you say. It is fun to watch her grow.
Other Pictures and Videos
Sarah loves technology but sometimes it can be an overload, such as when she is playing two games at once.
Sarah loves to vacuum and always wants to vacuum. Unfortunately there is only so much mess. So, the solution is to make more mess.
This video is in honor of our road trip.
Loves to Read
Sarah loves going down slides
Quiet Book
1I made Sarah a quiet book for Christmas.
To get started I researched different quiet books by a simple Google search. The blog I used the most as reference as well as some of her templates is http://servingpinklemonade.blogspot.com/2011/01/quiet-book.html (http://servingpinklemonade.blogspot.com/2011/01/quiet-book-templates.html), I also used http://quietbook.blogspot.com/ as a reference. I looked at a wide range of blogs and may have gained some ideas from other blogs and sites without realizing so sorry if I have something very similar to you.
My quiet book is made out of felt. I read many places about using muslin or pellon but I decided on felt for the ease of use. You can get 8.5 by 11 pages of pre-cut felt at Hobby Lobby so it saved a few steps. This quiet book may be a little too advanced for my daughter, Sarah, but I figure she will enjoy a few pages at a time and grow into the other pages. I am really excited about this. Here is the overall layout. Here is the finished copy
Cover
Coloring materials and bear (tie the bow)
Button the Flowers and Count the Beads
Clock and Match the Shapes
Barn with finger puppets and Seasons
Clothes and Purse
Here is the break down per page
First Page: Coloring
I have a place for 6 crayons with a cover so the crayons don’t come out. It has velcro circles to hold it down, with a pocket for paper or a memo pad.
Second Page: Tie the Bow
This is the typical tie the bow page. I got this idea from http://quietbook.blogspot.com/2009/11/teddy-bear-tie.html but I changed it for my own personal use. I got the shape from the Silhouette Studio.
Third Page: Button the Flowers
This is also a pretty common quiet book page. The activity for this page is to button the flowers. The flower pot also doubles as a pocket.
Fourth Page: Abacus counting to 10. This page is designed to help Sarah learn to count to 10.
Fifth Page: Clock
For this page I just hot glued the numbers on. I used plastic from an old binder to make the hands of the clock and a brad for the center.
Sixth Page: Shapes an colors
In this page Sarah can match the shapes or colors to each other. There is a shape at the bottom Velcro to keep the shapes in place.
Seventh Page: Barn
I love this page just because of how cute it is. I got this idea from http://servingpinklemonade.blogspot.com/2011/01/quiet-book.html
I also made the finger puppets that she showed in her blog. They were surprisingly easy. Also, they are a lot thinner then the Ikea finger puppets so they make it a little thinner for the book, since it is already so thick.
Eighth Page: Seasons
I also got this page idea from http://servingpinklemonade.blogspot.com/2011/01/quiet-book.html. I really thought this page was so cute. I used Velcro circles to hold on the leaves/flowers. I also love it because the grass is a pocket. I didn’t want the leaves or flowers to fall out so I put a cover on it.
Spring
Summer
Fall/Autumn
Winter
Ninth Page: Person
I love this because I was a girly girl and I love having a dress up page. Also I had way too much fun with the clothes so there is probably more than I really need.
Tenth Page: Purse
I love this purse because I designed it myself. It has a buckle and a zipper. This is my daughters favorite page because of the buckle. Also the purse strap can be used. I just feel like there is just still so much to do even though it’s really a pocket page.
Purse with pocket open
Overall, it was really fun to do but this isn’t a project for the faint of heart. It really takes much more time then you would think. I read that on every page about quiet books but I really didn’t believe them… I do now. Each page took me well over an hour. I also kept running out of the supplies I needed and making small trips to the craft store. It was also hard because I would only have about an hour at a time to try to do anything. I’m not an amazing crafty person so I feel really accomplished to have completed such a huge project.
Christmas
0Christmas was very fun this year.
To get started with Christmas we had the annual gingerbread house decorating. It was fun but also a lot more work when you have a toddler who wants to be in the action but it still too little to really help.
We got Sarah a cute Christmas dress for Christmas it was much harder to get a cute picture of her in it. Here are some of our attempts.
I also tried to get some cute pictures of her in her Christmas PJs but with the same success
We left for Washington on December 21. Only while we were traveling did we realize that we had decided to go on a long road trip on the shortest day of the year. When we got to Washington we hung out and had some yummy home-grown steak.
On December 22 we took advantage of the convenient baby sitting to watch Mission Impossible… in a real theater! It was a good action movie but not a movie that I would watch over and over again. That night we had our annual Bleazard Christmas Caroling party.
Sarah also loved playing the piano
That night my brothers family also came and added a lot of excitement with his 3 young kids.
The next day was December 23 and we had a lot of fun. We started the day by putting Annie in the doll stroller and pushing her.
Then they moved to bouncing on balls.
The twins wanted to join in the action and bounce with their daddy
But Sarah didn’t want to be left out
My amazing brother even added little Annie to the mix but I don’t have a picture of that. The twins love to jump on my moms small trampoline. Sarah is not much of a jumper herself but always loved jumping with others. Her jump wouldn’t get her feet off the ground. The twins loved it though and would jump high and even hang from the bar.
Sarah also loved to eat chocolate. She if officially a chocoholic and will ask for chocolate 5 times a day. Since it was Christmas time we gave her way too much. We will have to really cut back now that Christmas is over.
On Christmas Eve we had a lot of fun. We played a lot in the morning.
And of course Sarah tried to get into the presents one more time before she should.
We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pie. All of which the kids eat nothing and insisted on yogurt for dinner. After dinner we tried to see if the kids would like the hot tub (turned down of course). Well Sarah stayed in the longest out of all of them but even then she was holding on to my neck as tight as she could. Afterwords Sarah took a bath with the twins. It was so cute but I unfortunately didn’t get the pictures from that yet.
After baths we had our Christmas Eve program. Emily started the program with a song accompanied by the twins.
Then Jared read Luke 2 and we opened our one present each. Sarah got a quiet book that I made for her (I will share more about the quiet book in another post.)
Here all all the kids
More shots at the family meeting
December 25 -Christmas
On Christmas morning we woke up and the kids looked at their stocking, opened some presents, and we had our traditional Pancake in the Oven breakfast all before 10 AM church. It was all a little sporadic because we had a lot to do before church.
Here we are on Christmas morning
Can you tell the Sarah is eyeing Elizabeth’s present in this picture
Sarah was more interested in dancing on her present then opening it
But then she finally got around to opening it
She got a new doll
We were off to church, when we got home Sarah wanted to keep playing but I was trying to take family pictures
Family Pictures
The kids needed to eat a quick lunch before they all went down for well needed naps. Jared and I were really tired from the vacation so we also took naps before we had even opened a single present. After naps we continued the important business of present openings. Sarah was a little spoiled by mom and dad this year and got a lot of presents
We spent the evening playing games. My cousin Brittani came over and we had a ton of fun playing chicken feet dominos, Ticket to Ride, Kinect, and lots of fun games.
December 26
In the morning we spent some time just playing. My dad pushed Sarah and Mark on the elliptical. They loved it.
They also got some jumping in.
Then we took Sarah and the twins to the farm to see the cows, cats, and horses. Sarah loved the cats especially. Lots of the cats on the farm are wild but there was one little older kitten that would let Sarah hold her. Sarah loved it.
We had a wonderful Christmas vacation!
Christmas Letter
0
Dear Family and Friends,
This year, 2011, has been a good year for us. This year we have done a lot! We went to Washington twice, boating at Delta and Utah Lake, to the farm, rode horses, four wheeling, Seven Peaks, wave running, mini golfing, to the zoo, Idaho, corn maze, trick or treating, duck pond, hiking, and just having lots of fun. The majority of time has been spent watching our daughter grow from a baby to a toddler.
Sarah really accomplished a lot this year. In January, at 7 months old, she could push her toy lion around and crawl really well, but she couldn’t say real words. Then Sarah started to say “uh-oh” followed by “doggie” and “daddy.” Sarah took her first steps on April 1st at exactly 10 months old. She was walking very well within a month. Now she is running all over the place. Sarah can now say a lot of words in sign language as well as speaking. Sarah’s favorite things are doggies and playing “Ring Around the Rosie” or as she calls it, “Ashes, Ashes.” She loves to eat candy, cheese, fruit, and yogurt. Sarah is growing into a cute little girl.
Becky is busy as a working mom. Becky started a new job in the end of June at Aetna as a wellness coach fulltime. This is a great job and she gets to work with wonderful people. Becky loves being a mom and playing with Sarah. This year Becky completed her first marathon in October. Becky also has read dozen of books this year and keeps busy with the occasional craft or project.
Jared is really busy in his last year in school and being an amazing Daddy. Jared is working hard with his classes as well as searching for a job at the end of April when he is scheduled to graduate from Manufacturing Engineering Technology from BYU. Jared is enjoying his job working part time for the School of Technology as a computer support representative. Jared loves to play games, especially racing games, learn more about lean manufacturing practices, and being a computer whiz.
The Whittles had a wonderful 2011 and are looking forward to an even better 2012.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Wooden Magnet
0Magnets
My sister-in-law Starrie had a wonderful idea. She made some magnets for her fridge for the kiddos to play with.This was such a cute idea that I had to copy it. So, I thought since this was such an easy project I would write a totorial for it. I don’t know about you, but I really like something to be broken down into simple directions. I tend or really over complicate everything or sometimes over simplify things. So, I just like to know exactly how someone did something so I don’t mess it up. So, here we go…
Easy Wooden Magnets
1. Go to a craft store (I know that Roberts and Hoppy Loppy have them) and buy these painted wooden shapes. They only cost around $0.75 for most of them. Some are a little more expensive if they are bigger.
2. Get magnets -I used these ones with a sticky back
3. Remove paper from magnets and put on wooden shape.you are now done. Wow, that was easy. Now your child will have some fun magnets to play with.
Sarah expecially loves the dog and cat because she loves those animals. Though I have to admit her favorite part is taking them off the fridge.
