Time Flies & All That...

Benjamin turned 1 in October and has been walking since about August! Now he toddles along with the gang like it's nothing! He has most of his teeth (thank heaven, I'm so ready to be done with teething!), so hopefully the restless nights will be behind us soon. He is still sweet & wonderful the rest of the time.

Sam is talking, talking, talking all the time! He has finally discovered that he LIKES to have stories read to him, and that story time is not some device of torture I invented just for him. He will be 4 in about 6 weeks, thankfully his sisters haven't been the end of him yet. Thank you, public school! Heehee... :P

Hannah has lost her first 2 teeth within a few days of each other, and has 2 more that are so loose, it will be any day now for them as well. She is doing so well in school both academically and socially. Hannah loves everyone (at school), and everyone (at school) loves Hannah! She hasn't quite given up on her tantrum phase. Being 6 and throwing oneself on the floor screaming is less charming than absolutely irritating, but we have seen improvement. Hannah had LOTS of ballet lessons during Fall term, and ended the season by performing in The Nutcracker Ballet as a baby mouse!

Emmaly is growing, learning and amazing us continually with her intelligence and maturity beyond her years. In October, she turned 8 and made the decision to become a baptized member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This term, Emmaly will be going swimming once a week to help strengthen her leg and just because she loves to be in the water!

Daddy & Mama continue to be their crazy selves. We finally decided last summer that the time has come for us to find a bigger house for our family. We love our cute little house, but we have definitely out grown it. Decluttering, painting and touch ups around the house have been happening all Fall & Winter. Hopefully, we will be ready to list the house for sale this Spring. Halloween is always a fun time if year for us, but this year's costumes were pretty awesome! Emmaly went as Tinker Bell, Hannah as Queen Elsa, Samuel wanted to be a Minion again & Benjamin was the cutest little shark ever!
Sorry the pictures are all out of order. It's hard to do this from my phone. Hey, daddy, I'm still waiting on that computer I was supposed to get for my birthday last year, and it's coming around again! ;)

A Tad More Fun

This week has been a tad more fun than the one preceding it. Mama finally succumbed to the nasty illness, followed quickly by a nasty infection, and is doing much better today, but this post may be a bit lacking because the memory of the past week is rather hazy to say the least!
I got my new business cards this week! Yay! I feel more official now. Send me your address & I'll send you a sample of Jamberry Nail wraps on a snazzy business card!

Also, after several days of...umm...oil treatment... on my hair, I had like the BEST hair hour ever & took a few selfies as proof!

Daddy has been working hard & spent the better part of Saturday doing some much needed repair work on the truck. I wish I had taken a picture of him when the job was done. He was about 10 shades darker from elbow to fingers!

Today I finally discovered where Emmaly's looks came from. She looks like my cousin, Julee Snelgrove. The resemblance is amazing. See for yourself!

Julee is currently battling uterine cancer and will not be able to have children of her own. So, Emmaly will carry on a bit of Julee into the future. :) Love you, Cuz!

Hannah has been asked by her ballet instructor to lead her group in the upcoming dance recital! The instuctor also said that Hannah has learned her routine better than even the girls in the class above hers. Go Hannah! We look forward to seeing you on the stage leading the way & shining like the star you are!

Sam, Sam. What to say about Sam... Let's hope he makes it to his next birthday! I swear the girls are out to get him sometimes & with the amount of tumbles & head bonks he gets, it's a wonder he can see straight. Hmm... Maybe he needs his eyes checked.

Bemjamin continues to delight us all with his adorable face and absolute sweetness! He now has 5 teeth and 3 more close to the surface. Poor guy. If only he would remember that Mama is not a chew toy, we might avoid future infections which would make us both much happier. Oh, and he pulls himself up to stand very easily now and is beginning to climb.

And that's what I remember from this week...

NOT fun AT ALL

I'm actually starting to enjoy blogging again. Our good friend, Tim, told me a great way to look at it that went a little something like this: it's for your kids to look back on & see themselves growing up. I like that.
So, kids...this week was NOT fun AT ALL. Thank you and no thank you very much!
There was much sickness in the Wood home this week. Suffice it to say that we've made a significant contribution to the good people working in the sewage plants & garbage collection. Bless you for doing what you do, and we apologize profoundly that we made your jobs much, much stinkier this week. Also, we are grateful to the PA & nurses at the local ER for helping Hannah & Sam feel better.

Here is the highlight from the week: Emmaly didn't get the nasty bug, so she was able to participate in her school's beach themed PTO fund raiser on Saturday.

They had face painting! She asked for a rainbow & she definitely got it! Other kids were walking around with tiny little butterflies on their cheek. Not Em!

She came very close to hitting the mark & dunking her very crazy principal.

And being the clever girl she is, when the ball didn't do the job, she knew how to git 'er done!

With all this going on, Ben was also determined to master crawling...which he did... And started pulling himself up on things! Boy are we in trouble...

I wanted to add a video, but the file is too large & I don't know how to change that on my fancy phone (if it can be done). Hey, Love? I REALLY need a computer! lol

On that note: Rachael is now selling the coolest thing since sliced bread; Jamberry Nails!

Vinyl wraps that are heat & pressure activated, come in over 300 designs and last up to 14 days on fingers & 6 weeks on toes. Even if you aren't "girly" (I'm definitely not), you're gonna want to try these things! Ask me all about them! And check out MY fingernails in the picture below. Snazzy, huh? If you think those are cool, head over to my website for more awesomeness mayrachaeljam.jamberrynails.net.

OK, back to the family.

Chris is almost done with his CNC course at the college & there might be some significant changes coming to the Wood family this summer. Hopefully we'll know more this week, so stay tuned!

A Not-So-Quick Update

So... Here's a very brief update on the Wood family-Tim, I hope you are paying attention, cause you're probably the only person who reads this!
We'll start with the youngest & work our way up!
Benjamin is 6.5 months old, crawling, starting to eat foods & has cut 2 teeth in the last 2 days! He is the happiest baby we've had & was extremely sweet even through his fight with pink-eye.

Samuel is becoming more & more clear in his speech and is constantly melting my heart with his capacity for love. He is also a frustrating three-year-old who does the funniest poses for pictures!

Hannah is our little dancer with her own unique sense of style! She is loving ballet class & reports from her teacher are all positive. Maybe a future ballerina! If only she would stop pooping her pants...but maybe the Cinderella ballerina barbie will do the trick! One week into 30 days, so far so good.

Emmaly has definitely had some challenges this last year. Two surgeries to get her on the path to having both her legs the same length, and being so totally bored to tears (literally a few times) with 1st grade in public school. But, she is not letting any of that hold her back! She is amazing & we are lucky to have her spirit in our family! She is also a SUPER big sister and a huge help to Mama. :)

Daddy is crazy. By his own admission. He is taking courses at the local college for a CNC programming certificate, rebuilding his dad's tractor hydraulics that he worked on 19 years ago, and contemplating a job change in the near future. He also lost some facial hair...and about 10 years!

Mama is also crazy(er) by her own admission! Home & children continue to keep me busy, and I recently joined the Jamberry team as an Independent Consultant. Ask me about how you, too can have awesome nails-even if you haven't managed to shower or run your fingers through your hair for 2 days! LOL

Here's a random pic of the kids being goofy. Cause I like it!

Well, that wasn't as quick as I thought! I seriously need a computer, cause doing this from my phone is a pain!

There ya go, Tim! ;)

Welcome, Benjamin!

Benjamin William born October 17th, 9lbs. 11oz. 21 inches.

Special thanks to Tim & Melissa Miner & their adorable kiddles for letting us stay with them for so long!

 Meeting big brother, Sam.

 Ready to go home from the hospital.

 Meeting big sister, Emmaly.

 Meeting big sister Hannah.

 Happy baby having good dreams!

 Snuggling with Daddy.

Little monster all tuckered out after trick-or-treating.

Christmas Spider Tutorial

There are many stories about the Christmas Spider; the most popular being something like this story about why we use tinsel, or this one. Here's a page about the origins of the legends.


Here's what you need for this project:

Ruler
Needle nose pliers
Wire cutters
Round nose pliers (if available)







Craft wire (22 gauge)
1 Large bead
1 Medium bead
1 Small bead
Bugle beads