French Sweaters

Hi Janelle!  :)
I finally got around to putting these gorgeous french sweaters on the boys and forcing them to let me play mamarazzi.  And they appeased me!!!  Check out these gorgeous kids!

And one silly shot:

DIY Montessori Color Tiles

For free!

I have been looking up montessori toys lately and am horrified by the prices, so I started looking up tutorials for making some of them myself.  One of the easiest projects seemed to be color tiles, so I decided to give it a go.  I got really motivated to do it when my in-laws dropped off a bunch of balsa wood for us to use.  Perfect!  All I needed was some paint swatches and my handy jar of mod podge and I was on my way.
I also thought that since I was going to be chopping paint swatches and mod podging for the afternoon, I might as well go ahead and make this project double as a matching game too.

First, I cut out alllll those paint swatches and lined them up on the balsa wood.

As I went along mod podging, I realized I had a bowing issue...

I fixed it by cutting out all the pieces and then using clothespins as little vises to hold the colors down while they dried.

And painted another layer of mod podge on top.

Then, to create the matching game, I went on to my second set of paint swatches and mod podged them to the clothespins.

Et voila!

I think to start out, I might cut it down to three or four shades per color rather than six.  Everett was a little overwhelmed by so many pieces and Callum tried to bite them all.... I see lots of fun in the future with this game though!  I love that it can be open-ended or I can ask Everett (or Callum) to do certain things like group all the yellows or line them up by shade.

Life in general, February style

I know, you were expecting daily posts from this whole GF/DF two week trial thing, but here's the situation. I changed my mind.  I actually did go dairy free for about 12 days with no difference whatsoever, so I'm back on dairy as of today.  Because if it makes no difference, why lose those calories when I need them?
I am also still eating gluten.  Much reduced quantities, but I've been eating some.  Even though my initial celiac test came back negative, in the case that my doctor decides I need a biopsy, I have to be consuming gluten.  I talked with a dietitian today about celiac/gluten intolerance and didn't learn much that I hadn't already figured out.  But it was nice to talk with her about it.  After that meeting, I went and got gobs more blood stolen from my poor little vein for more testing.  I'm not even sure of what's being tested this time, but I know they are at least doing a genetic typing to see if I have the DQ types seen in people with celiac.  I've been learning of other autoimmune diseases within my genetic family so I brought that up and some more tests were ordered.  Which is why I got like seven vials sucked from my vein today.  So much blood was removed from my arm that when she was done, I realized my hand was purple.
ANYWAY.  Enough of that.  I need to figure out how to calm my brain down, step away from google, and adjust my attitude.

In light of that better attitude, here are some pictures of my beautiful boys:

This is how Callum kisses.

And Everett