Hubley Happenings

Friday, September 23, 2011

First Day of School

Hannah started a new school (mother’s day out) this year that is closer to our house. So far she is loving it. She was also pretty excited the first day. Quite the difference from the first day last year.

Nathan- 7 months

Little man is still a happy baby….most of the time! He enjoys rolling around on the floor and watching Hannah’s every move. He started army crawling a few days ago and now he can pretty much maneuver his way around the room (if he see’s something worth grabbing and putting in his mouth). He will occasionally get on all fours and lunge forward or Hannah will “help” him by pushing him forward. I think he will crawl pretty soon.

At his 6 month check-up he weighed in at 16 pounds which put him in the 45 percentile. I looked back at Hannah’s baby book and she didn’t hit 16 pounds until she turned one! He might be average, but to us….he’s a chunk!

He’s wearing a size 3 diaper and size 6-9 month clothes. He nurses 4-5 times a day and is eating 3 solid meals. I give him lots of bananas, pears and avocados because they are easy to mash up. Other than that he’s had applesauce, squash, sweet potatoes, roasted peaches, carrots and green beans.

His sleeping pattern is…well…not that great, but it’s getting better. He takes two naps most of the time (if they are short, we might slip in a third nap in the evening), and he goes to bed around 8:00. He’s finally sleeping through the night on a more predictable basis, so I’m getting more rest (insert Happy Dance)! He wakes up around 6:30-7:00 and sometimes goes back to sleep after he eats.

Nathan…I will take more pictures of you for your next update. Promise!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Giving Thanks

July blessings cont….

21. sweet giggle

22. baby smell

23. cousins playing together

24. time spent playing on the floor

25. backyard scavenger hunts

26. Family visiting

27. air conditioning in Texas summers!

28. clean laundry

29. her imagination at work

30. cleaning peanut-butter off her face

31. a husband hard at work

32. a husband walking through the door after work

33. dishwasher

34. Hannah memorizing scripture

35. little brother rolling over

36. time with daddy in the evenings

37. her button nose

38. little brother sucking his thumb

39. air conditioning (I’m going to count this one twice)

40. little brother rolling on a blanket made by his great-great grandmother

41. Hannah in her PJ’s

42. Scott’s kettle corn

43. family movie nights

44. breezy mornings on the swing

45. clean water

46. Hannah playing dress-up

47. our church family

48. talking on the phone with parents

49. wise counsel of friends

50. library books on the floor….

Friday, September 2, 2011

Entertainment

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Clothesline Busy Bags

*Ok…I’ve been super excited about this! Recently, I participated in a Busy Bag Swap with 25 other moms. What is a Busy Bag Swap? It’s simply putting together bags filled with different age-appropriate games that will keep your little one busy. What’s better than that? I put together 26 bags of the same game. At the end of August, all the moms will meet and swap bags. So, I will end up with 26 new games for my kids! It’s a great deal, seeing as I only spent $27.

This is a post that I wrote for Kirby (the organizer) to put on her blog explaining how I created my bag. I will give you an update when I receive the other bags!!

I was so excited when Kirby put together a Busy Bag Swap and I was able to participate! My name is Jennifer and I have a two year old daughter, Hannah, and a six month old little boy, Nathan. We share a little bit of our journey over at our blog, Hubley Happenings.

Here are a few more fun facts about us:

-How do you spend your free time?

I’m a stay-at-home mom, so when I’m not with my babies (during nap-time) I enjoy reading and sewing.

-When you were a child, what was one of your favorite ways to spend your day?

I loved playing outside with my cousins. We would build forts and ride bikes all day!

-Fondest memory with your mom as a child?

I remember my mom reading to me as a child. I loved listening to her read Happy Birthday Moon and Runaway Bunny at bedtime.

-What does special time with your children look like?

Special time is when we get to do things as a family. We love walks in the evenings when Daddy gets home and storytime at night.

-Favorite outdoor activity with your kids?

Swinging on the back porch and swimming!

-Favorite blog for children's activities/crafts/parenting?

1. I can teach my child

2. Homemade by Jill

-A favorite tradition that you want to pass down with your children?

Celebrating Advent!

Now on to the busy bag! I was blessed to be assigned the Clothesline Busy Bag that MoneySavingMom created. So although there was not much variation….there was a lot of cutting!

For 26 bags, I started out by cutting 416 pieces of felt clothing (16 for each bag). Since I was cutting so many pieces, I used my cutting board and a rotary cutter. This allowed me to cut out four at a time. I used these patterns to create a shirt, shorts, pants, and a dress. I used five different colors of felt: green, purple, orange, red and blue. There were a total of 16 clothing pieces in each bag (four of each kind of clothing). I also included about 3 1/2 feet of clothesline and 18 clothespins in each bag in addition to these instructions from MoneySavingMom.

Here is a breakdown of the materials I used to create 26 bags:

1. About five yards of felt (one yard of each color). This is an estimate because I initially bought way too much fabric! (I purchased the felt at Joann’s using a 40% off coupon for each yard of fabric. It totaled $15)

2. 500 clothespins (5 packs of 100 for $1.88 each at Walmart)

3. 100 ft of clothesline (2 packs of 50 ft for $1.50 each at Walmart)

4. Direction and Variation sheet via MoneySavingMom.

I spent around $27 total (and I had some felt left over).

So how does it work? Well, in it’s simplest form, just tie up the clothesline between two chairs and let your little one go to town hanging them up with the clothespins!

MoneySavingMom also gives two fun variations on her instruction sheet which include an Outdoor Laundromat and Clothing Patterns.

Since Hannah is two, she is not quite able to manipulate the clothespins, so I have to help her out a little. But it has been a great tool in helping her with color recognition and counting! I have her sort all the clothes into different piles of colors and then we count them together as she hangs them up.