The Kiddos

Lilypie Fifth Birthday tickers
Lilypie First Birthday tickers


Tuesday, October 9, 2012

10 year Wedding Anniversary

September 21, B and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  Crazy that 10 years have already passed!!  A few years ago B agreed to take me to Hawaii for our 10th. I was holding him to that. BUT then I had Dani and she was a fussy baby (still has her moments) and we had booked a family vacation for Christmastime to Colorado.....so I decided that we could put off such an expensive vacation until another milestone anniversary, maybe 15?!

B wanted to do something. He suggested a short cruise out of Galveston.  We had gone on one in January of 2007 to celebrate MiMi's 50th. I knew that he wasn't really impressed with the whole thing so I was surprised at the idea! MiMi and PawPaw offered to watch the kids. I was definitely IN!

We left on the day before our anniversary.  It was a great vacation. LOTS of rest and relaxation. We took Kindles so we had plenty of books to read. I thought I would be able to get through the Hunger Games but every time I laid in the sun to read I would have to make myself finish a chapter before I NEEDED a nap. Needless to say, there were LOTS of naps on the deck.

We did go to a few shows, played a few slot machines and played Bingo (Brandon almost won, but almost doesn't count).

When we got to Cozumel we did the Dolphin excursion. It was called the push and pull. It was so awesome!!

I was horrible about taking pictures. This is the only one I took. Oops. I had good intentions.  We did take a lot of the offered pictures on the ship but for some reason or another (double chin, eyes closed, etc) we did not purchase any of them.

The night of our anniversary the waiters sang to us and brought us a special dessert. The best thing was that we didn't have to eat dinner with strangers! They seated us at a table for 4 but the other couple never showed. The last night I finally asked our waiter what the deal was and he said that no one was assigned there! That was great but had I known that I would have sat across from Brandon every night!

When it came time to port back in Galveston I was ready to get back to Chloe and Dani. They had a fabulous time with MiMi and PawPaw but I was missing them! A HUGE thank you to the best in-laws in the world! :)  

Monday, August 27, 2012

Everyone loves a naked baby!

Dani Paige--6 months
Chloe Grace 6 months

Friday, August 24, 2012

Swim Lessons

For the last several years I have tried to get Chloe in swim lessons. I could never get a class that fit our schedule.  Since I have become a stay at home mom I knew this summer would be the perfect time.  I signed her up for 1 session during the month of July. I wasn't sure how she would do so I thought 4 lessons would be a good start.  I originally signed up for semi-private lessons but was contacted the week before the first lesson because they did not have a class for us :(  They offered me private lessons for the semi-private rate. I jumped on that because I thought Chloe would do much better one on one.  She tends to be a show off so this way there would be no distractions.  During the 3rd lesson she got to go down the slide!  She was SO excited about this because she has asked for the past few years to go down.  She can now hold her breath (she practices in the bath tub) and do the strokes.  We are so proud of her accomplishment!
first lesson with Ms. Micah

SLIDE!!!

Did I mention she likes to show off??

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Matching Dresses

Not the best picture. It is hard to get both to look at camera.




Wednesday, August 22, 2012

My Newest Creation--matching reversible dresses

I found a reversible dress how-to on Pinterest so I decided to give it a try. It was a success. After I finished the dress for Chloe I decided to make a matching one for baby Dani!! I was able to make Dani's in one nap!!  I can't wait to get them on the girls.
one side of Chloe's dress
reverse side!!
matching dresses :)

I have been posting all of my projects on Ebay. My cousin let me know that she had a lot of fabric that she was going to donate to Good Will but she wanted to know if I was interested. Of Course!!  Free fabric :)  She brought over a ton of great stuff. I spent all day washing it and thinking what I could use it for. Here is a taggie blanket that I made for a friend for a baby gift. 
back of the taggie--soft fabric



In a high school Home Economics class I learned to sew a blanket that folds into a pillow (quillow). I made one for Chloe and then a friend asked if I could sew one for her. Here it is:
quillow made for a friend (front)
back of the quillow
folds into a pillow! (front)
pillow back
I am having a lot of fun sewing! I feel like I need to be doing something during naps. B would probably rather I clean ;)

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Prayer Quilt

A little history first.  I joined a February 2012 birth group on Baby Center.  Stuff can be posted to a forum and then all members are free to respond.  I liked looking at the name posts--that's really about it.  I soon grew tired of the ladies that posted about their cheating spouses, how they hated their in-laws and silly drama about baby showers.  One day I caught a post about a group being started on Facebook so I decided to become a member.  I liked it because it was so much easy to post and navigate through postings.  Of the 1000+ members on BC only around 100 became members of the Facebook group.  I believe the number is now down to 60 something.

Anyways, the group was started in January as we were all nearing the final weeks of pregnancy.  There were lots of posts about pregnancy pains and maybe the occasional rant about an unsympathetic spouse.  We shared pics of our growing bellies, of decorated nurseries, etc.

The last week of January the babies began to be born. So then the rest of us would complain that we were tired of being pregnant, blah, blah, blah.  So almost everyday a new baby, sometimes more than 1, was born. Then we shared newborn pics.

As the months have passed we have watched each others babies go from in the belly, to being born, first smiles, videos of giggles, rolling, eating solids, sitting up and a few are even crawling!!

We span across the United States but most are located in the east. One member lives in Canada. Two members live in California. Me and one other Mommy are in Texas.

OK, finally getting closer to the story of the quilt. I know a lot of that was extraneous info but it just shows how close the ladies in the group have gotten---even though we have never met in person!

At one of the checkup visits (we all post the stats) a Mom posted that the doctor diagnosed her baby girl with Craniosynostosis. This is a condition where the sutures of the skull prematurely fuse together causing the brain to grow differently and deforms the head.  Of course this Mommy was very distraught. They had to go see a specialist.....that confirmed that Olivia's case was severe enough to need surgery to go in and open the sutures and reshape her skull.

 Step back real quick:  the husband is in the army and was stationed in April 2012 to Ft. Drum, New York. They moved from Killeen, Texas to Ft. Drum when Livy was 2 months old. Her pediatrician in Killeen diagnosed this. She had to wait until she got to NY to find a doctor there all while dealing with a newborn and a new home thousands of miles away from her family back in Texas.

Needless to say, Mommy was very, very sad and felt guilty even though this was not her fault. This condition happens 1 in 2000 births.

So, a few ladies started another secret group so we could all join together and do something for Olivia. We decided to make a prayer quilt. Anyone who wanted to participate could (the mom was not a part of this group so it was all done in secrecy--which was hard!).  Each person would decorate a 7x7 square of fabric and mail it to me. I would then arrange all of it and sew it together.  Most of the squares had the baby's footprint and many had inspirational sayings. By the time everyone got their squares to me I had a very small window of time to sew it all together. Like a few days!! Thank goodness Dani napped great those few days and I was able to work on it a lot!

All of the top sewn together
soft material I chose for the back
Complete with binding
view of the back
I started on this on a Monday, finished on Wednesday afternoon and had it to the post office by late that afternoon.  It was expected to be delivered to NY on Friday morning. Surgery was scheduled the next Tuesday with the family leaving to Syracuse on Monday. Wow, did you follow that?  Needless to say it was a very close call. I had to get it there by Friday or Saturday to make sure she would have it to take to the hospital so she could literally wrap herself in our love. We all know how cold hospitals are so this was perfect gift. She would have a reminder that even though we couldn't all fly to NY to support her, each and every one of our hearts was there!!

She received the quilt Friday morning and was a bawling mess!  She said it was the most thoughtful gift she has ever received. That made all of us very happy! 

Olivia had her surgery this past Tuesday. All went well!! She already got to go home yesterday even though they were expecting a week long hospital stay. God is good :)

Friday, August 10, 2012

Cousin Love

Dani is SO lucky to have three cousins that absolutely adore her! It's "Baby Dani this and Baby Dani that". It is so cute and I can't wait until she can interact more with them. Here is some cousin love from our last trip to the country.
Jack is her #1 fan
Madi loved feeding Dani
love for Baby Dani
Madi NEEDS a baby sister (hint hint Aunt Holli)
Braydon needed his share too
love for Dani
MiMi and Dani
/>                                
country cactus
Chloe and Madi
B driving the buggy!

the best thing about going to the country--riding in the buggy!!
country cupcakes :)
Jack REALLY loved his cupcake
This was Dani's first trip to the country. It was a LONG drive. She didn't fuss too much but she didn't sleep either.  She was great while we were there.  The way home was again a different story. She fussed quite a bit :(  B decided that I was not doing an acceptable job of keeping her happy so he thought I should drive and he would get her to sleep. He learned real quick that it was not my lack of entertaining......she really is strong willed. He got her to sleep 15 minutes. It is close to a 6 hour drive.  I hate to say it, but "I told you so!"

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Sew Busy

When I was a kid I can remember my mom sewing stuff for me. She sewed Halloween costumes and dresses. I too like to sew and I have been known to call her and ask her random sewing questions. I loved Home Economics in high school. I am very much a beginner sewer but I love it! My brother bought me an embroidery machine for my birthday and I absolutely LOVE it! There is SO much you can do with it. There is definitely a lot of learning involved but thanks to You Tube I have found tutorials on just about everything! Here are the projects I have done.
Not perfect but I learned from my mistake--don't use the measurements online.....duh!
scrap quilt
bib and burp cloth for Baby Isabella
for my friend that loves Charlie Brown and named her son Charlie!
one of my first attempts at sewing--rag quilt with embroidery

bib

bib and burp cloth for Jake!
first attempt at applique

I do all of my sewing during Dani's naps. I use every second! I have been making the bibs and burp cloths for a Mommy Group I am in. I made over $100. Obviously I could not make a living doing it but I have fun so a little money is nice.
getting better at applique--LOVE this!