Monday, October 31, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

28 Weeks

... or close anyway ;-) This Friday I will be 29 weeks and the picture was taken at 28.5 weeks...



Nobody seems to come to a unified decision on when it starts, but at 28 weeks I am in my third trimester no matter who you ask :) Yay for me and yay for Jane! At 28 weeks, Jane was around 2.25 pounds and around 15 inches long. By 29 weeks, she will likely be around 2.5 pounds! She has been active the entire pregnancy, but recently her spaz out sessions have increased in frequency. She has also started tickling me from the inside... I laughed out loud the other day when it caught me off guard and Micah thought I was mental at first and then just thought that I had started a new fun game. I'm feeling fairly good, but my body is putting up with less and less time on my feet as the days go by.... that should make the Nutcracker Market fun!


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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Jane's New Ride

When we registered for items for Micah, we tried to make sure that we stayed gender neutral so they would work for future girls as well as boys.... for the most part we did a good job, but Graco thwarted our plan when it came to car seats. Every cover they had at that time was very girl or very boy. The most neutral we could find was this one~





It's not bad at all, but when I found out Lizzie was a girl, I wanted something more girly for her. So I went on ebay and bought a gently loved girls cover. It's adorable, but after my skinny mini used it for 18 months, it's just kinda nasty. Apparently car seat covers have a two owner limit... even with washing. Sooooo, I really wanted Jane to have something new and fresh but I didn't want to jump on etsy and spend an arm and a leg on it. I decided to be ambitious and try to make it myself....


BAM! It's cute, right? I'm so pleased with how it turned out! To make it, I started by literally ripping out every single stitch on the original seat cover. Ummm, yeah... that took awhile. I used the padding from the original cover and just cut new top pieces from my new fabric using the old as a template.... that took awhile too. I then zigzag stitched all the layers together to make new pieces... repeat after me, that took awhile. I reinforced and cut the slits for the straps and assembled all of the pieces to make it a cover again! The reassembly was one of the easiest steps.. but it still took awhile :) All I had left was to re-attach the old bias tape and I had a new cover with pretty, finished seams and sides!



Oh yeah, but then I had to make the canopy :) I reused the front and back panels, but replaced the middle one and lined all three with the gray patterned fabric. I also changed out the piping to my gray fabric and changed the small padded strip on the front... this all took awhile... are you seeing a pattern? But it was so worth it! I once again reused the old bias tape to finish off the edges, re-inserted the plastic framework and it was good to go! The next pic just shows the canopy lining and the bias tape ribbing~



Well, hello there beautiful.....




Do you want to know the best part? By reusing parts of the old cover, buying my fabric on sale, and using a coupon on my lovely gray thread, the entire project cost me less than 8 dollars... for real.



Not too shabby for 8 bucks :)


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Monday, October 24, 2011

Weighing In

Some of you may know that my kids are skinny... gasp!! What you may not have known is that it has become a problem. They aren't gaining weight how they should and as such, I have had to take them back to the doctor for weight checks to monitor them. Lizzie's first weight check resulted in a loss and we were shocked. Ever since then I've had a lot of anxiety over trying to get them to eat. Micah's weight check was last week and... HE GAINED!! A LOT!! He went from 11th percentile to the 33rd percentile and I couldn't be happier! I just praised God for allowing him to pack on some pounds and asked that Lizzie be able to do the same before her next weigh-in in a month. Anyhoo, no more weight checks for Micah!!

Fun stories though, without being prompted Micah thanked the nurse after she weighed him (and measured him (literally, "Thank you for measuring me!!", and gave him magnets to play with.. etc). She was laughing by the end and telling me that he was the first kid to ever thank her specifically for measuring him. Well, then we went to another nurse to get his flu shot. He laid still and perfect, but the second he felt the prick he started crying. HOWEVER, immediately after the prick while he was crying, he turned to that nurse and said, "Thank you for my boo boo..." and then he cried a little more. He's such a sweet kid.

Micah was thrilled at his weight gain!


Oh, and here is a little sneak peek at the fabrics I used in a project to be posted soon... very soon... possibly tomorrow, we'll see :)




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Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Pumpkin Patch

Any planned photo shoot with children should be approached with a realistic expectation that you may not get any good pictures should your progeny not be in a cooperative mood. I have found that the more you dress up your children and the more thought you put into the shoot, the less likely it is that you will get any decent pictures.

I had all of this in mind when we dressed our children for fall and headed to the pumpkin patch.... in 90 degree weather. In Texas it's important to create the appearance of seasons even when they do not, in fact, exist..... It helps to go in the morning so the kids don't sweat too much..... just FYI. The kids were in good moods, but were not standing still for more than 2 seconds at a time. I left thinking I had maybe 2 cute shots, but when I plugged in my camera I was more than pleasantly surprised!


At these ages, a good sibling shot is anything where they both fit in the frame..... if no one has their back to you, it is officially a GREAT sibling shot.



Is it mean to set your kids up? Like, just hypothetically, if I pointed to this pumpkin and told Micah to pick it up...



I have several pictures of him trying... he thought it was good fun! Just another precious Lizzie expression....



Cute expressions = SUPER great sibling shot... are you guys taking notes?



Classic shot..



and another...



Master of the cheesy "CHEESE" smile, this one made me laugh...



and then I saw this one and I laughed harder....



and finally this one had me laughing so hard that Nate was trying to figure out what was wrong with me. But Nate spends a lot of time trying to figure out what's wrong with me anyway ;-)



Finally, Micah politely asked me to desist with the photography and I complied.


Not too shabby for 15 minutes at the patch!


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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A friend of mine from my First Baptist days is due with a little girl a month before Jane is set to make her arrival, and her shower was this weekend! She's one of those pregnant women that makes it look good. When I saw her Saturday I thought, "hmmm, maybe if I put some more effort into it, I could actually look stylish while pregnant!" That thought was followed by a resounding, internal "NAH!!".... and I'm ok with that :) Anyhoo, I made a taggie for baby M out of some leftover fabric from the diaper bag I just made for Jane...


The second picture is a weird angle, but it shows the colors better....



I love this fabric so much and I'm planning on making a taggie for Jane out of the same material as soon as I get the chance! Oh yeah, and I've got to get some pictures of the bag to show you too... but I've got a tiny addition I want to make to it, so I have to get that done first.


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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Things Lizzie Likes

Sooo, I have some cool stuff I want to show you guys, but I have to download pictures first. I'm blogging on my phone so I thought I'd show you a few things Lizzie likes based on the pics I have on my phone from the past two weeks.

Lizzie likes to read to herself....Lizzie likes to snuggle even when totally ignoring you...Lizzie likes using her bib to turn herself into a superhero...Lizzie likes to take pictures of herself with my phone....Micah is still being elusive in pictures :)

Thursday, October 13, 2011

ABC's of me

This little survey is making it's way around the blogosphere, so I figured why not make an easy post of it!

A. Age: 28... and 3/4
B. Bed size: Queen.
C. Chore that you hate: I really hate doing the dishes... so Nate does them :)
D. Dogs: No thanks!
E. Essential start to your day: ummm, potty break?
F. Favorite color: I'm a sucker for a good Tiffany blue and I'm also fond of dark purple right now.
G. Gold or Silver: Silver. Or gold that looks silver ;-) (This, of course, excludes my Aggie ring which is gold gold and always in fashion)
H. Height: 5'4.75".... I can't get myself to say 5'5" since I've been just shy of it for 16 years now.
I. Instruments you play: Tell you what, I'll sing and YOU play... mmm k?
J. Job title: Stay at home mom
K. Kids: Micah, Elizabeth and soon to be baby Jane
L. Live: TEXAS
M. Mother’s name: Susan
N. Nicknames: I literally have dozens, Abby is even one. However, my most significant nickname is Gator.
O. Overnight hospital stays: 2, one for each kid.
P. Pet peeves: Illogical statements, poor grammar
Q. Quote from a movie: "You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." The Princess Bride
R. Right or left handed: right
S. Siblings: 2 brothers, Jesse and Ben
T. Truth or Dare: Truth
U. Ultimate Vacation: Maui is my favorite... hands down
V. Vegetable you hate: Broccoli.
W. What makes you run late: I don't do late..... my kids occasionally do late, but I try to minimize that :)
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Arm, back, foot
Y. Yummy food that you make: Salted Caramel bars. Oh, and I'm kinda known for my scones.
Z. Zoo animal: Otter

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Wednesday, October 12, 2011

That's my name, don't wear it out

I'm not sure when it became almost a given that you had to put up your kid's name on the wall of the nursery. Or, when people started getting everything personalized/monogrammed. I don't remember this being the case at all when I was a kid. But anyway, here we are and I like the name on the wall trend. I like how I can be creative and do it differently for each of my kids. With Jane, I decided to do string art letters. I printed out the letters, cut them out, taped them to plaques that I had painted and painstakingly nailed in a bazillion nails around the edges. I then ripped the paper up (using tweezers) and went nuts with 4 different colors of pink embroidery floss. Here is what happened....


To give some scale, the plaques are each about 12 inches high.








I love them. They took forever....they were a pain in the butt....I'm glad Jane only has 4 letters in it.... but I love them.


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Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Road Trip Stop 6- Rome, GA

My cousin's wedding was the whole purpose behind our trip and that's how we ended up in Rome, GA for the last couple of days of our trip. It really is beautiful in that part of Georgia and the town of Rome itself has a great feel to it. Our hotel was in the historic downtown and was in a renovated factory with exposed brick and creaky wood floors and it was pure gorgeousness. A lot of our time was spent at my Uncle's house it a very pretty area a bit of a drive out of town. The kids were a fan of his neighborhood....


Have I mentioned that Lizzie Boo has learned how to say "cheese" for the camera? The faces that result crack me up....



Micah was very proud of his rocks and we were happy for him... til he chunked one randomly and nearly hit Lizzie in the head... that would have been fun.



But look at that face! He wasn't trying to hit her, so we let it slide....



Lizzie was getting in some good Memaw time and I love this whole series of pics...









She also got in good Daddy time....



And spared a moment for Mommy...



Back to the house to sit out on the balcony.



I love this picture of Micah....



And back to Lizzie and her faces...



Micah was the ring bearer in Sonya's wedding and he did a wonderful job! He didn't particularly care for the sitting and waiting for things to start portion, but when his time came, he was all smiles...



I really hope someone else got some good pictures of Micah in his suit, because he didn't stand still long enough for me to get anything decent!



Lizzie was in typical Lizzie form and laid some good expressions on me...



and, of course, more Memaw time :)



I feel I would be remiss if I failed to mention that during official wedding pictures, they got the entire wedding party posed and added Micah and the flower girl at the end. Micah looked nervous and after the first camera click, started shouting "I HAVE TO GO PEE PEE!!!" over and over again at the top of his lungs.... it was awesome :) My dad got some great shots of the kids in Rome too, I'll have to get those from him at some point!


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