Lately I’ve found a new obsession: making hair accessories for Little Miss. I blogged a while back about some tiny bow clips I made for her. While they’re cute, they don’t stay in her hair very well. I found some no-slip ideas on the internet but haven’t had a chance to try any of them yet.

Then I went to headbands. These crochet headbands are wonderful because I can clip all sorts of bows and flowers into them. No more wondering if they’ll stay clipped into her hair!

Here’s a better look at the flower. Anna had a full belly and was just about to fall asleep.

Stephen has been teasing me because I made several bow and flower clips last night alone. They’re so fun to make though – it’s hard to stop at just a couple.

This is just a little reminder to back up your important files. If you haven’t done it in a while, it’s probably time to do it again.

I had been trying to keep my hard drive as free as possible, so I was saving a lot of files on a USB drive. I did a great job at saving my files, but needed to back them up somewhere other than my USB drive. I just hadn’t done it yet. Now I think I’ll store files in both places, because that little USB drive broke this week. Now I’m researching companies that can repair a physically damaged drive.

Some of the files I’m not worried about, but others I am. Like the year’s worth of pictures that were on that drive. . .I was just thinking how I needed to back them up to a CD, but hadn’t done it yet. Now I’m hoping that whatever company I send my drive to will be able to get them back for me. Those were the most sentimental files, but I had a lot of information that was pretty important to me on there.

So take it from me – back up your information so you don’t lose something important!

I am absolutely loving the My Father’s World curriculum that we’re using this year. It is so much more fun than school was last year.

One thing I really like is all the fun projects we do. Samuel made a mobile of the sun, moon, and stars as a part of his M – Moon unit, and we hung it in his bedroom.

The next unit is A – Apple. We went grocery shopping today, and Aldi had their apples on sale for just over $1 a bag. We bought three different kinds.

Samuel will observe the differences in flavors and colors later this week, and we’ll enjoy eating them in the meantime. The Gala apples we are planning to make into applesauce. The others we’ll eat plain.

These don’t have much to do with school other than the fact that they’re apples. We really enjoyed them though!

A friend of mine was kind enough to take this for me tonight after church.

I really like how Anna’s dress looks on her. Hopefully I’ll be able to find the time to make more from the same pattern.

Riding behind Daddy’s tractor – first time with both boys

Our first outing with the double stroller – the thrift store. My favorite find was this Gap Baby dress – I paid $2 for it. It looks even better now that it’s been through the washing machine.

My first attempt at putting a bow in Anna’s hair. It stayed there all of 5 minutes.

Our first double-yolked egg

The first time I’ve heard Samuel “read” Green Eggs and Ham. I was really surprised how much of the book he remembered, and it was cute to see him trying to read it to his sister. She wasn’t very happy, but he tried.

The other day I posted about my sunflowers. They were getting really tall. Here’s what they looked like then:

This is what they looked like after a few rainy days:

They have a lot more blooms on them, but they’re drooping pretty badly. They do this every year – I’d love to know how to keep them standing tall. Any suggestions?

Here’s a shot I took today of a bumblebee on one of the blooms. It was fun to try and take the picture, since the flower was about 6 feet high and there was just enough wind where the stalk wasn’t completely still.

Here’s one more picture I took today – just because I like how it turned out. This rose bush is right outside my kitchen window.

Last week we took Samuel out for pizza to celebrate the day we finalized his adoption. Most people seem to celebrate “Gotcha Day,” but since Sam was placed with us at birth, we decided to celebrate his finalization date instead.

This is the first year we did anything, but I’m excited to keep the tradition in coming years. My parents always made me feel so special (did you know I’m adopted too?), but it’s a lot of fun to be able to see it from the parents’ eyes this time.

5 years. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long!

When I first planted these, they were in a football-sized clump. Now, they seem to be threatening to take over the side of the house.

I’ve wondered if they would do better out in the open where they could grow stronger. Where they are now, they only grow so high before they start falling over. They’ll need to be divided in the spring, so I guess we have until then to decide where to put them.

As of last night, I am 4 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight. That was fun to discover! I was able to switch back to pre-pregnancy clothes earlier this week, but finding out how much weight I’d lost was nice too. That was a lot faster than I anticipated.

One thing that wasn’t so fun to discover yesterday though was that Miss Anna and I have thrush. Ouch. Our pediatrician and my lactation consultant are absolutely wonderful though – they called in medicine for me and worked Anna in right away. I’m just thankful we don’t have to go all weekend without relief!

The pediatrician weighed Anna yesterday, and she is just shy of ten pounds. I can’t believe she’s growing that quickly.

And speaking of Anna, she just woke up, so I guess my time here has come to an end. . .