15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (11/24)

Craft Project #11 - Paint and assemble a foam airplane.

I found this craft at JoAnn's. I put one of my old painting t-shirts on Avie and let her go to town. She had a great time painting the plane parts. When she was finished with the plane, I let her paint on some construction paper until she was bored with it. Once the paint on the plane was dry, we assembled it and took it outdoors to "fly" around. Another fun day in craft land!

Here is the finished craft. She was so proud of herself.

*REVISING* #74

#74.Take Avie to Dr. Dino's Museum in Pensacola.
While planning to take Avie to Dr. Dino's Museum, we sadly found out that it was closed because the government had seized the property since the owner was in prison for tax evasion or something along those lines. Hopefully all parties can figure this out and it will re-open again one day but in the mean time, I will be replacing #74 with another fun activity for Avie to do. Keeping in the museum spirit, I am replacing this with taking her to visit the Foley Train Museum in Foley, Alabama.

88. Build a picnic table that seats 10 for our backyard.

We have nice patio seating for four but I really wanted a picnic table because I knew it would be a great way to get more "friendly conversation" seating. We love to have people over and we get a lot of out-of-town visitors through out the year. Plus it would be perfect for eating meals outdoors and doing crafts with Avie when the weather is nice. It would have been easy to buy one at Home Depot but I thought it would be so neat to say, "Hey we built this!"

First thing I did was Google "How to build a picnic table" and surprisingly I found quite a few blue prints. The one my hubby and I decided on was at Picnic Table Design 101. He did about 95% of the work because he chose the coldest weekend in Florida to do this project and my body couldn't handle it. I figure that I did the hard part anyway which was going out and getting all the lumber and supplies. Not to mention I had to unload them into the garage which was a workout! All joking aside, he really did an amazing job on it and we just absolutely love it! We are very excited for the weather to warm up so we can use it.

The 1st leg complete.
It was so cold outside that we built this in the garage!Matt connecting the seats to the legs.
Finished picnic table!

This table is HUGE!

This total project cost $149.48 (all lumber and supplies purchased at Home Depot) and took about 8 hours to build over 2 days.

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (10/24)

Craft Project #10 - Decorate Christmas thank you cards 2nd year in a row.

Last year while doing my After Christmas shopping with my mom, I found Christmas Thank You Cards at Hobby Lobby. I thought it would be a great idea to start a tradition that "Avie" send out thank you cards to those that had sent her gifts. I think it's a great way to start teaching her, early on, about the appreciation of other's who are so kind enough to think of her. So staying with our tradition, I sat down to write them while she decorated them with stickers. Each card, we talked about who it was we were thanking and what they had given her. What a fun time together!

15. Plan weekly craft projects with Avie for 6 months. Make it a habit to continue on after the 6 months by putting it on the calendar. (9/24)

Craft Project #9 - Cut out pictures from a magazine of objects your toddler knows. Using sticker letters, have your toddler stick the first letter that the object starts with. A great chance to practice the alphabet and learning to spell.

After we cut out the pictures and did the project, Avie wanted to do it again. We ended it doing it 3 times that day. She had so much fun that the past few nights when I have been cooking dinner, she's been doing this project over and over again at the kitchen table. It's been a great distraction and what's wonderful about this is that she's learning to spell!

19. Read one parent/self-help book a month for a year. (9/12)

#9 - DECEMBER 2009 - Life in the Father's House by Wayne A. Mack and Dave Swayely

After two years of living in Pensacola, my husband and I have decided to officially become members at our church and cancel our membership at our church in Michigan. Since we are going to be living here for awhile we thought we needed to settle some roots and we just love our new church. This book was recommend by our Assistant Pastor to read before becoming a member so I thought it was a perfect way to end 2009.

19. Read one parent/self-help book a month for a year. (8/12)

#8 - NOVEMBER 2009 - Making the "Terrible" Twos Terrific by John Rosemond

I thought this was a great read to help understand what's going on in the mind of my two year old. She is NOTHING close to being "terrible" - thank God - but I thought it would be nice to read a book geared toward her age. This is my 2nd book I've read by Rosemond and I really like his style of writing and his advice. Brilliant guy!

This line describes my little two year old almost exactly. She is so independent and can do it all by herself and is constantly saying, "I don't need help momma. I'm a big girl!"

" If someone tries to lend a helpful hand, the child may become all the more enraged. His frustration aside, he would still rather do it himself and fail than watch you succeed. Can you blame him?" (pg. 32)