Well hello there!

Whew... its has been a while! We had a busy little summer in the Frifeldt house! Let me show you what we've been up to!

These two stinkers are getting even more silly EVERYDAY! 

This little guy had a BLAST during his 3 weeks of summer school ( except for the whole pesky bus injury situation that we are still dealing with)

My wonderful amazing husband and I celebrated 4 beautiful years of being married on July 28th!

We havnt been on our date to celebrate yet.. because that turned out not to be a very good week around here... not only did Owen end up in urgent care for the first time with a super high fever but  we had to make the call to say goodbye to the most amazing little dust mop that ever lived :

I miss my sweet Fuji man very much! He's been my best friend since I was 9 years old and it was not easy to say goodbye! but he had the most amazing long life and I knew it was time. Fuji being the amazing dog he was didnt want my house and heart to be too sad for long though... he had his replacement all lined up and through fate Finley joined our family that very next week!

yuppers... if your keeping track I know have 6 boys under the age of 3 in this house.... your not wondering why I havnt been blogging much anymore are you? LOL 

This past weekend we had Owen's 3rd Birthday Party!! ( his b-day isnt until September 18th...but we wanted to have it a local park and figured having it earlier would help with the weather :) ) I'll bet you figure out the theme pretty quick because your smart like that ;) 

(first time using a sewing machine since senior year of highschool when I made a white iolet  lace potato sack of a dress...lol) 

table signs 

vat-o-vanilla buttercream anyone? 

blue star sugar cookies that I used as favors :) 

we had to do some re-thinking on the decor when we found out how windy it was at the park... hence my cool green paper lanterns and blue tissue puffs that are not pictured :( lol 

color burst cupcakes = SUPER COOL .... but also a TON of work when you try to make 60 of them! 

the only picture I actually got of the Birthday Boy ... on one of his brief hydration breaks... lol 

baby brother had a good time too...and is much easier to capture on film...for now... :) 

speaking of "baby" brother.... can you believe he's 9 months old?? because I cant! He's getting way too big WAY too fast!! 

So there are our summer highlights for you!! We are hoping to squeeze in a trip to the zoo this weekend and are preparing for Owen to start school again next week! 

what a week...what a week...

This was my son's first week of school... and boy oh boy has it been interesting! The second day of school my sweet precious child came home injured on the school bus. No on can/ will explain to me HOW this happened! It is presumed to have happened on the bus but not a single person can tell me how in the world my 2.5 year old child came home with a black eye and scratched up face! I am now on a mission to get security cameras installed in the buses that service my son's school! This a special needs school where almost none of the students would be able to vocalize what may happen to them! My son will no longer be riding on these buses but I feel a responsibility to help get ALL of these children protected! PLEASE PLEASE help me show the school and transportation department how important this issue is by signing this petition and passing it on to everyone you know! I will <3 you forever! :D Below is a link to follow (and thats a picture of my sweet angels face btw)

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

kids table makeover

I am feeling kind of old lately... which is just totally insane because I am only 23! I think it has something to do with my "baby" going off to school next week (insert sobbing and sniffling here) He's also turning 3 in 2 months!! and 2 months after that my other actual baby turns 1!! GASP!!! 3 and 1 ???? WHAT THE HEY??? Also contributing to this asinine theory is the fact that facebook shows me all these pictures of people I went to school with getting married like every other day these days! I <3 weddings! I mean like seriously, I have an entire folder of wedding ideas for someday one some lovely girl I know decides to let me plan her wedding! (my poor Son's future wives... ) But all these wedding pictures are reminding me that our 4 year anniversary is coming up at the end of the month! <3!! 

Does using all your inner strength to stop yourself from running outside in your pj's with no make up on to yell at the neighbors to turn down the music that is rattling in your house make you old?? Ok lets be truly honest here: The other day I honestly WOULD have gone outside with my screaming child on my hip (who the music had just woken up from a nap) had I been able to attain a shower previously in the day! Something about this situation just makes my blood boil and it also makes the cranky OLD  neighbor lady! 

Also in breaking news... The lovely friend of mine that cuts Owen and I's hair made an audible GASP while cutting my hair last week exclaiming that I have GRAY hair and telling me I should start thinking about highlight colors ...... 

You want to see another thing that makes me feel old? 

My grandparents recently gifted me this table and chairs set from my childhood! (I took this pic after I scrubbed the H-E-double-heck out of it and removed the edging on the table) I have so many memories of playing with the table as a little girl and now its was being passed on to my children! 

One problem : Its pretty hideous and even after all that scrubbing it still looked filthy! So I thought I would give it a little revamp! 

I took the legs off the table and hauled it all outside to spray paint it! (The top and two of the legs are chalk board spray paint and the chairs and other two legs are  krylon fusion's bright blue color - I cant remember the actual name atm.) 

   

Then I added some scrapbook paper with mod podge to accent it , and here is how it turned out!

of course he would choose to take his brother's chair to model for a picture ;P 

Much better dont ya think?? I have to say seeing it look so different makes me feel slightly less old! So mission accomplished for the day I suppose... I mean until the neighbors annoying "grown" son comes to visit this afternoon like clock work and leaves his base pumping and my house shaking while he's in the house for who knows how long "chillin", Or when Monday comes around again next week and I have to send my sweet baby boy off with his lunch box and back pack! 

Pinterest Addiction

Do they have a support group for a Pinterest addiction yet? If so someone please get me the info because I think I need some help!! I seriously can not get over how fantastical this site is! Its a scatter brained mommies DREAM! lol I just wanted to share some of the things I am currently drooling over on my boards! You can find me here to check all my magical finds...and if you have no clue what Pinterest is you've seriously GOT to check it out!!

seriously the more I look at this the more I totally want to forget ever buying a real patio set! All it needs is one of those off set umbrellas to the side for some shade! 

http://staceyembracingchange.blogspot.com/2011/06/old-doors-rock-my-world-unique-outdoor.html

What kid wouldnt go BANANAS over this activity wall?? 

http://girlinair.blogspot.com/2011/05/art-activity-wall-with-sliding-ladder.html

The next wreath I am totally making

http://thelongthread.com/?p=1310

ADORABLE and easy aprons from tea towels ( I already bought a super cute towel on clearance at the store yesterday to make one of these!)

http://www.momtastic.com/home-and-living/features/167705-diy-patriotic-dishtowel-apron

Monthly Meal Planning

 My sweet baby boy #1 is about to start school in just a few short weeks I will pause here for the dramatic gasp from all you fellow mamma's  and we are not talking about a couple of hours of preschool a week here folks... I am talking about the sending my little baby almost 3 year old ON A BUS (that has a car seat of course) to SCHOOL kind of school (long half days for the month of July and then full school days when school starts back up in Sept)!! This is going to change the dynamics in our family swiftly and I wasnt quite prepared for this for a couple more years yet! Am I really old enough to have a kid in school? lol   Anyways on the point of this post!

I have always despised planning and felt like it boxed me in! I see the potential benefits this type of planning has dont get me wrong  but even now the thought of planning stuff in detail  leaves me feeling slightly claustrophobic...but like I said above soon I will be dealing with school schedules, lunch packing, ect ... and I have to face the facts...as I am sure many of you moms out there can attest to, that saying "the baby ate my brain" well thats totally TRUE! and it gets worse the more of them you have! Dont you wish someone would have warned you about THAT one? Its either that or my brain is aging at a peculiarly fast pace ... so I am sticking with the first option! Thus I am diving head first into this planning mayhem and trying to remind myself that its just a PLAN if I feel like changing it ... whoopty freakin do! :P 

The first thing I wanted to do was try out monthly meal planning ! I know a lot of people who do this and I always thought... :O .... how do you plan a whole month at a time when I can hardly pick out enough for a week! But I have to tell you it really wasnt horrible - granted I havnt actually implemented it yet... (coming July 1st) But I honestly thought it was going to be this mind numbing project to put together where I stared at recipes for DAYS! But no... it only took me a couple of hours to whip together!

Step one: 

I created a word document with a list of main course dishes we like or I have been wanting to try! I shot for aprox 31 of them for now but I hope to expand on this list as we go! (If the dish was from a website I included the link next to it) 

Step two:

I downloaded a fee calendar online and using word arranged my dishes in an appealing order (of course keeping in mind I will probably still juggle things around some within the week) You can view our dinner menu here   but dont judge me on the health factor.....lol its a work in progress and I try to work in at least a couple meals a week that I know the picky little Mr. will eat! 

Step three:

This is to be completed yet but I am hoping to plan out lunches as well (at least for Owen on school days ) 

Also stay tuned for a little crafty project involving a meal planning board that will make this even easier!

I linked up to Wow Me Wednesday 

Shaving Cream Bath Paints

Fact : kids LOVE shaving cream! Take it from someone who sprayed bottles and bottles of the stuff into sensory tables (and smelled like a man for the rest of the day) for years before her own little darlings came along! They love to draw in it, squish it, smell it... (it smells like daddy is a common response! hehe) Well all of that is fine and dandy unless your my kid! I was so excited to bring home my huge can of shaving cream so we could go to town in our own sensory table.. = FAIL!! He hated it and he actually cried "OUCH OUCH" over and over until I got it all off him (which he often says when he dosnt like the sensation of something). But I wasnt ready to give up on my trusty shaving cream all together yet!! Especially considering that I currently try to work 3 tactile sensory activities into each day for him as part of his sensory diet! ( we need a little variety around here!) I have seen this done a few places in blog land and its soooo easy I had to try it! I think it was a huge success, but you be the judge!

here is what you need : shaving cream, food coloring, new/very clean paint brush, containers for the "paints"   ( I really liked using these disposable pie plates because they floated in the tub without flipping over) 

place some shaving cream and a few drops of food coloring in your selected dish and mix them up well 

Add tubby and naked child : 

 and enjoy! 

A little side note here : the food coloring did not stain my tub at all. It just washed down the drain with a little rinsing, the blue color did how ever turn the little guy a nice shade of smurf that had me freaking out a little ... but it came off with a wash cloth and some soap ;) good thing we were already splish splashin eh? lol

Father's Day Gift :D

My hubby is my hero! He is probably the best husband and father I have ever met... and no I am not just saying that because he's sitting here watching me type this...He really is that amazing! :) So when I came across this Hero Supply Kit I knew it was just the right thing to make for my amazing yet incredibly hard to buy gifts for husband! :D


So here we go!
 This was super easy to do and really easy to customize! oh happy day has labels that you can print if you wish.. I liked the idea of making my own so I customize the wording slightly and play with the colors a little. I just used exel and inserted shapes and word art to my liking. I purchased printable sticker paper from the all mighty hobby lobby! (note to self: realize when you pick up the one package thats half the price... there are also half the amount of pages...good thing I had JUST enough to finish my project!) and then printed my labels out.

I chose to use things I know DH really likes and based my labels off of that. I picked up a package of clear treat bags (25 for $1.99 I believe) and used twisty ties to close them ( I figured they were a little more "manly" than ribbon) 

(this is a bottle of Jones cream soda with the label removed)

This box was purchased from hobby lobby for $1.29 if your like me and dont have the right size just laying around!(I wanted it to look like it was a real package that was mailed vs using a wooden box like the original) 

I had intended just to write on the box but it had 2 lovely very large recycling graphics on the top flaps...  

Happy Father's Day to all those wonderful daddies out there! <3

Just keep swimming just keep swimming

I just realized I havnt posted in almost a month now...so I wanted to let you know I am still here! I have just been  wading through as many yahoo group, websites, and print outs with info about sensory processing disorder that I can get my hands on in my "free" time these days! This past month or so has been a whirlwind of emotions and information and great growth in our family!

 The successes Owen has achieved in the past month have amazed us! ( You know there have been big changes when the receptionist at the chiropractor comments on how much your child has "opened up and is talking more" )He's making noise CONSTANTLY now! ( I almost caught myself telling him to be quiet recently while he was playing and jabbering/ signing to himself because the noise was just irritating me at that moment....and then just before I opened my highly annoyed mouth I stopped dead in my tracks, gave him a big hug and then walked away and cried for a minute).Owen is also starting to be able to communicate complete thoughts between signing and using words! He was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and she clearly understood that he was telling her that I was feeding the baby! Another HUGE accomplishment is that Owen actually ate what I served for dinner 4 consecutive days in a row so far this week including meat! Previously he would refuse dinner at least 85% of the time! He is also sleeping so much better! He's gone from waking at least once a night pretty much every night and crying for hours before he fell asleep to falling asleep peacefully and staying asleep almost every night! Even the way he's playing has changed for the better! He dosnt throw things nearly as much and is beginning to use some pretend play as well! :D

 So you might be asking what did you change? He probably seems like a pretty normal (although rambunctious) little boy to any outsider! Well Owen is not just like any other little boy... He is a child with special needs, and I am the mother of a special needs child. Yes I just said that and I know it might upset some family and close friends to hear that... but it is the truth and I no longer have the time or desire to tip toe around people's feelings on this subject. I know that may sound harsh, but it is not a terrible thing! It is simply a fact that we have come to accept! We are moving forward and thriving in this new journey in our lives! I've said before that Owen has an educational Autism diagnosis and I have also mentioned Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD for future reference). I spend a large portion of my day (sometimes my entire day other than caring for the other little Mr.) helping Owen do his Sensory diet activities. These activities/ therapies are what have caused his recent great successes and I am so proud of the leaps he as made in the past few weeks! All of this is a lot to take in and it pretty much consumes my time other than the normal everyday things that need to get done, so chances are this blog will be more frequented with posts about SPD and Owen's progress than with crafts and recipes for a while! I also am having a hard time finding blogs of other parents dealing with SPD so I feel like I should keep posting about this topic since I read a new statistic yesterday that 1 in 20 kids are being diagnosed with this disorder ! I know many of you are curious about whats going with Owen as well so I think this will be a good place to keep you updated the best that I can! Please feel free to ask me any questions! I will try my very best to explain them! We are so blessed to be the parents of this amazing little boy and I cant even tell you the relief it brings me as a mother that there are things I can do to help him succeed in life!

Here is a great link for you if your interested in more info on SPD or sensory diets:
http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/index.html

cookie therapy

I have a serious problem. I am sure everyone out there can relate to this problem too... I dont have enough time! There are just not enough hours in day to keep the house as clean as I would like, to run the errands that need run, wash & and put away laundry, and spend truly meaningful time with my amazing family (forget any crafting,baking,& blogging that this momma might enjoy!) Add on top of all that the fact that I have to try and fit in as much sensory therapy for Owen as I possibly can in a day to help him be the best he can be (more on that in a minuet)and it usually leads to some days where I feel like I have all my ducks in a row and others where I feel like they are scurrying about a willy nilly!

This morning was a ducks in a row kind of day!:D Man I love those days! The littlest Mr. let me "sleep in" until 7:15 and then since we didnt have school this am Owen sure wasnt waking up early (he's pretty sure he's a teenager @ 2.5 already and pulls the covers over his head if I try to get him up before 9 am...lol)So I was able to shower, tidy up a bit and start some laundry first thing this am while Liam played happily!! I was also expecting a sweet friend for a coffee date late this am (funny how people coming over can lite a fire under your butt eh?) Now, I really love to bake and I also love to have fresh baked goods when I have people over (yeah I know your all signing up for a coffee date soon right? lol )So I was excited to have the time to get ALL that stuff done in time to make some yummy cookies before my coffee date!

These cookies also served a different purpose this am though. They were part of Owen's sensory therapy for the morning! If you've read my previous post about Owen you know he has an educational "autism" diagnosis but the more we research and the more his occupational therapist has worked with him we are leaning more towards the fact that he may have something called sensory processing disorder. (you can read more about SPD here ) I will try not to bore you with all the complicated mumbo jumbo, but basically we need to fulfill  his sensory needs in order for his body to calm down enough to learn and be content. One of the goals his occupation therapist has for him is to achieve better wrist rotation ( turning door knobs, screw on lids ect).... I know this might seem like a silly "goal" to some of you especially if you know Owen because most people think of him as a "normal" child but these "small" things are the kinds of things we work on every day to try and get our sweet, handsome, energetic boy caught up to where he needs to be. I try to sneak these activities in where ever I can in our day to make it fun and since Owen loves to bake with me there is no complaining or resisting about doing it ;) He carries all the heavy things like flour,sugar ect from the pantry and puts them on the island for me, he adds ingredients to the bowl, he stirs... they are all great fine/gross motor activities that any child enjoys but they serve a defined purpose for him in getting some of the pent up energy out of his body! Today I choose a recipe that included a special challenge! DUN DUN DUN the peanut butter jar!!lol

We made peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I used pretty much this exact recipe from Baking Bites  but I left off the icing and I added chocolate chips! 

This recipe is really simple. Basically you mix the dry ingredients in bowl

Then you cream your butter and sugar together and mix in the rest of the ingredients

dont you LOVE the look of success after opening the pb jar ??:

I  pulled the bowl out of the kitchen aid to add the chocolate chips so that little Mr. could get a good work out from stirring that super sticky dough!

and then we waited: 

("hey I am going to get some of those too right?"...yeah not so much buddy) 

Our finished yummy cookies :)