Monday, November 16, 2009

Sickies in the House...

After a really fun time at our mission school's Fall Festival this last Friday night (of which we have NO pictures because I forgot the camera!), Gracia woke up Saturday morning vomiting, achy, and running a pretty high fever. This is her third day of sickness, and now Miguel and Micah have it as well. At first I thought that it might be tonsilitis since Gracia is susceptible to that, but now that others are having the same symptoms, it has become obvious that it's a virus. Besides, I found out this morning that Gracia's teacher has been sick over the weekend as well. Miguel and I are both tired from being 'on call' round the clock...we tried different sleeping arrangements, but between caring for Gracia, now Micah, and then a night-time dirty diaper from Jkaile in the wee hours this morning, we just aren't getting a whole lot of rest.

I'm glad that we had no pressing appointments this weekend except for substituting for a Children's Church class yesterday (which Miguel was able to do solo), rare for us! This is partly due to the fact that today is a huge Mexican holiday, el 20 de noviembre (celebrated on the closest Monday), and all schools and many businesses are closed. All is quiet in our normally noisy neighborhood (school behind our property, industrial plots in front and beside our house).

I checked out two books from the school library on Friday and I'm so glad I did! A couple of new Gilbert Morris books for me (nice, light reading compared to some of the reading I've been into lately), and The Hobbit to read out loud to Micah. We've enjoyed it so much that we're very nearly done with the entire book already! At this point, Bilbo and the dwarves are trapped inside the Lonely Mountain, wondering how to conquer the dragon and retrieve their treasure...I only just recently watched The Fellowship of the Ring with Micah, so he's enjoyed hearing Bilbo's story and how he came to find the ring. Now the rest of the movies will make a bit more sense to him. I think The Hobbit was always my favorite book of the whole series anyway...

I will leave you with this really cute video of Jkaile (please ignore messy face and shirt and Gracia sticking her glass in the way!)...he recently learned how to wiggle his eyebrows. And since I finally cut his hair, we can actually SEE his eyebrows! We also figured out that his "funny face" is really a wink! Such a cutie! (by the way, "Gugi" is Jkaile's sibling-given nickname!)


Thursday, November 12, 2009

Boxes and More Boxes!

Here I've pictured some of the boxes that the ladies made at the women's retreat this last weekend...some of them even stayed up until 4:30 a.m. (I hit the sack around 2:30...) making these boxes. I think it's safe to say this craft was a Huge Hit!












How to Make a Box out of Paper

Watch this video to get a good idea
of how to make the basic paper box...
then check out my photos below for
further instructions on how to make it better!



Notice how these boxes have the
half-lid? Follow the instructions below to learn how!

First of all, fold and cut the paper as if you were
making a regular box.
Notice that I've placed dots in four places
around the middle squares that will form the base of the lid.

Now, fold each corner of the paper over to
the point opposite, like this...

...and this...

After making the folds on all sides, remove a triangular
piece from each side of the larger triangular sides.
Notice the half-fold along all the sides of what
will be the base of the lid.
Your paper should now look like this:

Then, begin forming the sides as you would
for a regular box, except notice that the sides are shorter and
the points will end up all the way over to the other side of the lid
instead of in the middle as for the base.

Continue forming the sides...

Here is the finished lid...

You can even put two lids together to
make a very flat box!
Notice how the top of this lid has no center creases?
Read on to learn how!

Here's how to make the crease-less boxes and lids.
I will use a lid as an example...
First of all, fold a paper just as if you were going to make
a box. Then, perforate the paper in the spots where you
would place the corners of the paper for each fold.
Place this paper over the square that you will use
for the lid (you would have just five holes for the base).
With a pencil, make a mark on the paper underneath
where each hole is.

When you remove the pattern piece, your
paper will look like this:

Pick a corner and fold it over to the center dot, like this...

Repeat on all four sides (sorry, blurry, I know...)

Then, begin making the rest of the folds using
the other dots as a guide...

Notice the paper does not have the two diagonal center folds.

Make the final folds and cuts...

The two types of lids side-by-side.

These boxes can be made in any size
and for any occasion!
Here is a cute Christmas box...
it would look quite dazzling with a ribbon tied around it!

Here's a box made from pages from a magazine
with stiff pages...

It looks good with or without the lid!

Here are a couple of cuties that are about
an inch square! This size would look
really nice with a ribbon or bow and placed
on a Christmas tree, a Christmas mobile,
or used for really small gifts...

If you want to make the boxes without the creases
in the lids, you will need to make a pattern for
each size of box. Here are the 1" boxes
with their patterns. The 1" boxes are made with
papers that are 3" by 3" in size.
Always remember to make the base a bit
smaller than the lid!

Now that my creative juices are flowing, I'm thinking about other materials that could be used to make boxes! I think that pages out of old books, especially colorful children's books, would look really cute! Especially with matching ribbons. And how about newspaper/comic page boxes covered with glue decoupage-style to make them stronger? Or even lightly spray painted? The sky is the limit! Be sure to post pictures if you make any boxes! We'd love to see them!

And please, let me know if you have any questions...this is a super long post and was a bit complicated to put together (I know, a video would have been easier, but it runs down the batteries on my camera...).

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

So Sweet

Before I left for the Women's Retreat last Friday, Gracia slipped me an envelope with a "card" in it. I tucked it into my pocket and opened it on the way out to where we were going to stay. This is what Gracia gave me; a picture of the two of us. Isn't that the sweetest thing?! This will definitely be something I will keep in my Bible as a sweet memory...

Close-up...

Family Fun Day Part IV-Rocks and More Rocks!

Miguel continues to work on the landscaping and the rock grill at our house here in town, so after Family Fun Day we took the chance to go get some more rocks! Out behind the Rancho Siloé, there is an old river bed where the rocks are 'sifted' to remove gravel and sand to use in construction. What's left are piles and piles of rocks in all shapes and sizes...pretty much 'paradise' for rock hounds like us! :D


Hard to choose...

JD on top of the world...

So much fun!

Jkaile really loves it out there and it was hard
to keep track of him since he kept wandering off...
just too many rock piles to climb on!

Where's the baby?!

Dust devil came through while we were there...
you can see the buildings of Rancho Siloé in the distance.

Beautiful scenery!

A rather colorful little guy...

Long day! We were all pretty
happy to get back home
and get to sleep!

Family Fun Day Part III-Afternoon Activities

Miguel and the guys took the opportunity
to throw a few rounds of horseshoes...

The big afternoon activity was tug-of-war...
pull, Gracia, pull!!!


Micah's group won their round!

Apparently, Micah got a few 'toritos' in
his hand throughout the day...'toritos' are
thorns, the word literally means 'little bulls'
because of the shape of the thorns.

Even "Grandma" showed up for the tug-of-war games!

JD getting a kick out of watching "Grandma"!
Good to see a smile on his face!

Goody bags for all participants!

After I took this picture, I noticed Gracia's
top teeth were bleeding, but it's only because
they are loose! Tooth fairy should be visiting soon...

Jojo on the swings...