Going stir crazy

So the last few weeks I've been going kind of stir crazy while I'm at home. I think it's the nesting thing that preggos go through, but because our apartment doesn't take a ton of care to keep up and I've scrubbed every surface available, I've been finding other ways to occupy the time instead of watching TV. There's only so many CSI reruns a girl can take!

First I started a crocheted blanket for Dustin and I.

This is part of the blanket so far. I have a lot of blocks made and ready to go as well, they just need to be stitched together. I also have a blanket for Autumn's baby doll and pillows for both Autumn and Prairie's dolls that I promised to finish and send to them. They were so excited! It was very cute.
Crocheting is time-consuming though and sometimes after an hour or so my wrists starts to hurt so I decided that I needed something else to do when that happens.

When Dustin and I worked in nursery I was always amazed at the props that Sister Smith (the nursery leader) had to do songs, lessons, etc. I also saw a lot of kids in sacrament who would get bored and start to scream just to have something to do. So I decided to start early and build up my stash of props for kids. While we were still in nursery I started making laminated cut-outs of animals that the kids would look at and name and make the sounds for. They worked like a charm. Now I've almost completed a set of song props for "Old MacDonald Had a Farm." That was a favorite with our kids in nursery - they loved to hold up the pictures of their animal when we sang. Here's what they look like.

Basically I just found free pictures that I liked on the internet, colored them in, laminated them, and glued them on a big stick that's easy for a little hand to hold.

Here is a closeup of a few of the pictures. I want to make some for "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam," "Love one another," and a few other songs as well.

I'm also planning on a cutout set for Noah's ark and the Nativity. I'd like to have something to keep our kids occupied during sacrament that still has something to do with church.

But ever the one with a short attention span, I also decided that something more fun and not necessarily for church might be cool to try. So I landed on felt finger puppets. I think those can be really fun for kids because there are so many things a kid can come up with to do with them! I made one yesterday - not the best, but I think it's pretty good for not using any kind of pattern.

Meet Mr. Frog the Finger Puppet.

Hopefully with practice the rest of them will get better. But anyhoo, that's what has been keeping me busy lately.