Leif

 We welcomed Leif into the world.

 He is a little smaller and lighter than Asher.

 Asher came to the hospital to pick up his new brother and mom.

Asher putting his brother, Leif, to sleep.

Unveiling of the Quiet Books

We're winding down to when this new little baby is going to join our family. I have also completed most of the projects that I frantically wanted to finish before he got here. Now its just time to enjoy one-on-one time with Asher and wait for labor to start :) I finished almost all of the projects I wanted to, but I only wanted to take pictures and share my most time consuming project- 3 quiet books. Actually, I only have pictures from the two quiet books that are for our boys because the third is a Christmas present. Get ready for lots of pictures, even if they aren't very good and some of them are sideways (I really can't figure out how blogger decides which direction to put them)
I got most of my ideas from quiet books I saw on other blogs, I just changed them to be more how I liked them. Some of the pages are my original idea- both covers are original (of course with lots of input from Austin). Also, I'm quite proud of the fact that I only used patterns for a couple of the pages and the majority of the felt was cut free-hand. I've gotten pretty good at cutting shapes from felt over the years and doing it free-hand saves lots of time. I used wool felt for this project because I'm hoping it won't pill as much with all the use these books will get. I used Pellon for the actual pages (that's why they are all white) because I read that it tends to hold together better than felt.

Quiet Book #1: Geared toward older skills. 

 This is the front cover

 The classic barn page

 The doors open with barn animal finger puppets inside

 A page to learn shapes and colors

 all the shapes are velcroed on

 Asher has been really into tools lately, so hopefully he will like this in coming years too

 A little set of tools to fix things at church or around the house

 The clock hands are moveable so kids can change the time

 I was just going to do the analog clock, but thought having a digital version with lots of numbers to change to match the analog clock would be fun and educational

 A veggie garden- complete with beets in honor of Austin's grandparents :)

 You can pick the veggies and put them in a basket

 Every boy needs a truck in their quiet book

 The wheels are removable to practice buttoning skills

 Classic Noah's ark page with a zipper to practice that skills

 More animal finger puppets inside

 A paint pallet with a brush so kids can pretend to paint the rest of the book

 The colors are all attached with velcro so they can be moved around

 A cute little forest scene

 The strawberries and apples are attached with snaps and the tree has a flap that opens to reveal an owl

 Tic-Tac-Toe

 I really hope none of these little playing pieces get lost because they were time consuming!

 A laundry line and washer to dress a little boy

 I hope both of our boys end up with blond hair :)

 Cupcakes with velcro tops to match the number with the number of "sprinkles" on the cupcake

 This page doesn't do anything special- the kids can just trace the letters and maybe we can play a game of find things in the quiet book or in the room that start with each letter

 This is the back cover and my signature page- I thought it was quite fitting with my favorite color and favorite animal. All three of the books have this as the back cover.

Quiet Book #2: Geared toward younger kids

 Austin insisted that I make the cover of one of the books with a viking ship. I kept saying no because I thought it would be too hard, but it ended up being my favorite page of all.

 A horse just to feel the texture of his mane- made from yarn.

 A monkey

 The banana velcroes and peels down

 A sweet little owl.

 Both of her wings lift up with a baby owl hiding under one.

 A frog

 His tongue has snaps so he can "catch the flies

 An alligator with a zipper for a mouth

 He has fishes numbered 1-10 in his mouth

 The giraffe doesn't do anything except have buttons to feel the texture

 The fish snaps on and off- he doesn't move, but the kids can practice snapping.

The lion has all kinds of textures in his mane for feeling.

Even  though I'm very proud of my quiet books, it feels kind of strange to have them done after working on them for so long.

16 Months

Asher has become quite the independent little soul. He has always likes to get into everything, but it seems like it has intensified lately. As you can see from these pictures, he really likes spatulas (I think he just likes to carry things around and spatulas are his object of preference). Another thing you should be able to tell about him from the pictures is that he can't sit still! I was exhausted by the time we finished taking pictures because I had to keep putting him back on the couch. He is also very entertained by following me around while I vacuum. This weekend Austin and I went to the temple and left him with his Grandpa Brent for about 6 hours. He hardly even cared when we came home, but just kept doing whatever he was engrossed in. This reassures me a little about him being without his parents while his little brother is born. He seems quite content even when we aren't around, so I won't worry so much. Asher showed the first sign of experiencing real fear this morning. I tried not to laugh, because he was really terrified, but it was so cute. He knocked a box over in his room and a toy inside of it made a mooing sound. He freaked out and ran away crying. When I got the toy out and showed it to him he wanted nothing to do with it, but later came over about every 3 or 4 minutes to peak into the box, look at the toy, then run away frightened again. Asher is also getting even better at dancing and can't resist a catchy beat. He involves his shoulders, hips, and knees more now. He has become quite the little copy cat. He mimics noises, head movements, and body movements, but still isn't very interested in using real words. I really wonder how he is going to be impacted by a new little person showing up at his house sometime soon :) I keep telling him that even though he might be really jealous for the first little while, he just needs to be patient and soon he will have a built-in best friend.