Adorable Ridiculousness

Baby girls are just too fun to dress up. :)

Things you forget between babies

1) Nursing makes you ravenous all the time. If its slower than me, I'll eat it. Good thing my big kids are fast movers. :)

2) The "baby" you left at home will be HUGE when you get back home with the new baby. I swear Carter grew 4 inches and gained 20 pounds while I was in the hospital. He's so big now!

3) Hormones and your big kids will make you cry for no good reason. Carter had a major melt-down on Monday (he was frustrated with a computer game, and over-tired and probably not knowing how to cope with being a little mad at me for being gone for 3 days and confused by his new role of big brother and "not the baby anymore") that had both me and him reduced to a puddle of tears. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying not to cry while I read books like "The Little Dump Truck" and "Monster Trucks"... books that would not make a sane person cry. Ever.

4) Dozing with a newborn snuggled onto you chest falls pretty darned high on the "best thing ever" list.

5) Having a baby makes everything take longer than it should. And you have less time to manage it all because, inevitably, the second your 2/3rds through your errands, its time to eat.

Oh... and the one I forgot earlier...

6) the Boppy really is the best baby product ever. Makes for easier nursing, easier sibling baby-holding, easy place to safely put baby for a snooze... I forgot how much I love my Boppy and how much MORE useful I found it with a 2nd (and how 3rd!) baby.

Finally...

The long awaited baby:

Lindsey Elaine, born December 16th at 8:02 a.m. 8 pounds, 7 ounces 20 inches long and not happy about being out in the cold. And yes, she has a set of lungs to support that yell...

She's beautiful. And we love her, even if she was late.

Look who's learning...

to read!

Now, she's not reading every word... she's using lots of sight words she's learned and lots of context clues, and maybe a little bit of memory too. But only a little, becuase Brian and I both this Go, Dog! Go! is kind of a strage book and we're probably read it less than 5 times. Ever.

I don't know how this girl got so smart...

More Goals...

So... what did you accomplish in October? Me? I started losing energy fast... but I did get the girls' room painted. Plus Allison moved into it, the crib set up and baby clothes in the new baby's dresser. I made a beanbag chair for Allison's room, and contemplated one for Carter's. I bought canvases to DIY some of these (a football, basketball, baseball and soccer ball) for Carter's room, but have been too scared to try so far. I made roman shades for the girl's room, only to get them installed and realize that the clearance curtains I used to make them were not the same opacity or the same color... so I'll be remaking them when I find the right fabric. Which, now that I think of it, could already be in my fabric stash...

We did not get the living room/entry way/stairwell/halls painted, but I picked a color, which is a start. Its just such a big, daunting job...

For November... finish all my Christmas projects and shopping (I don't have a ton left to do... Princess dress wardrobe for Allison is the big one) and stock the freezer with some meals. Anyone have some great freezer meal plans? I'm thinking some easy crock-pot-in-a-bag "mixes", burger patties, and making double of a few meals this month. Oh... and go into labor.

Little Helpers

I know two kids who are getting pretty excited for their baby sister to get here. They've been practicing lately...

Hopefully their helping will be a little more helpful than me and Ben's attempt at helping when Emily was born... that MIGHT have ended with a dropped baby...

Halloween and such...

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween. We sure had fun at our house!

I was let off the costume hook by my kiddos, which is great becuase I'm not sure I would have been up to making costumes for them. Allison decided months ago that she wanted to be a witch and wanted to wear the costume I got for the dress-up box during last year's after-halloween clearance. And Carter was going to be a wizard, but then decided to be a pirate instead. I found his little costume online for 99 cents... I bought 2 to make the shipping worth while and now my kids don't have to fight of the pirate costume during dress-up... yahoo!

At the ward's trunk-or-treat

trick-or-treating our neighborhood with daddy

Beginning the sugar high...

We had some other fall fun at our house too. A few weeks before halloween we went to a little pumpkin patch near our house. Nothing big, but the kids had fun.

they love silly photo ops...

And were all about the mini pumpkins and gourds.

Unfortunately we went about a week too early. They INSISTED on carving the pumpkins for FHE a week later, which meant that by the time halloween rolled around those poor jack-o-lanterns were BLACK with mold. Ew... Needless to say they got tossed yesterday.

Carter's Post-bath conversation with Dad

Dad: Whoever can be a good listener will get to have story and songs before bedtime!

Carter: *no response*

Dad: Carter, time to get out of the bath!

Carter: *no response*

Dad: Okay Carter... I guess no story tonight.

Carter: *no response*

Dad: Okay Carter, I guess no songs tonight either.

Carter: *no response*

Dad: Okay Carter, no story, no songs AND daddy puts you to bed!

Carter: *crying* NO!!!!!!

Think the kid's a momma's boy? :)

To Paraphrase Dr Suess

Mom is sad.

Very, very sad.

She had a bad day.

What a day mom had.

It ended with me texting Brian, then locking myself in the quietest place I could find (my very small closet) and daydreaming of a one-way plane ticket anywhere. And admitting to myself how insanely jealous I am of my husband's life.

I've reconsidered this mommy thing... is it too late to change career paths?

Blackmail

Beacuse I firmly believe that I'm not fully doing my job as a parent if I'm not collecting plenty of embarassing material to use on my children in 15 or 20 years...

Doesn't Carter make a pretty princess? :)

September

For starters, what happened to September? Out here in NY September seemed to have a bit of an identity crisis (it thought it was July... 85 in September is just unacceptable!), and then it was just over. We did manage to do a few things around here, however.

First, I got my house mostly deep cleaned. I never did manage to tackle a major mop of the floors, and the master bed and beth got generally neglected. But the rest of the house did get a nice clean. And I managed to get Carter's room painted, with Brian's help. I'll take pictures of both kid's rooms when they are (hopefully) completely done later this month. I didn't get my craft room (aka the girls' new shared room) painted, but the color is picked and I think Brian and I might tackle that one this next weekend or on Coloumbus day (which he has off... silliest holiday ever). So, yay for goals mostly getting done!

I took the kids apple-picking again this year, which they thouroughly enjoyed. I can't believe how big they've gotten in a year.

And I potty-trained Carter this month. Yes... I am that crazy mother who decided to potty-train her 2 and half year old. But he was ready, and he took right to it. He is largely accident-free and will tell me when he needs to go... I'd call that venture a success. And now I have a few months of no diapers!

I finished a few sewing projects for Allison: a jumper using Manhatten fabric (pattern is Simplicity 2574 ) and a fleece jacket (McCalls 6430). The jumper is cute, but too big. The little jacket is about perfect, and fills a gap in her fall/winter wardrobe too!

I got inspired about our living room, and how have a whole vision for a make-over. Its involves a different furniture arrangement, new couches, and a new TV, and a new cabinet to hold our DVDs and components. Apparently I don't get inexpensive inspiration, so for now I'll go with a new paint color, slipcovers and maybe a TV on Black Friday. Do you think Black Friday could put me into labor? Becuase that would be kind of awesome.

I love this pallete for the living room, except without the dark greys, and add in cranberry. My carpet is cranberry, I'm going to go a light grey-beige on the walls, chocolate slipcovers on the couches and light blue and green accents. Still hunting for the perfect fabric for window treatments to pull it all together.

What did you do this September? And what are your plans for October?

My October? Paint the girls' room. Finish projects to finish the kids' rooms (roman shades, theme-y painted canvases and bean bag chairs, off the top of my head... I know there are more!). Paint the living room. And halls and stairwell. And I should probably get started on Christmas sewing and crafting projects... hopefully the nesting instinct kicks in hard. :)

Today

Wanna know what we're up to this morning?

Potty training. He's ready... I'm not. So far, so good... Wish me luck!

First day of school

Allison started pre-K yesterday, and she was so excited.

All ready for circle time to start! She might have been one of the first kids to sit down (there was an issue with the school-aged kids using the classroom right before her class and a late bus). That really is a smile of her face, not a grimmace... camera delay...

When did she get so big?

Me? I'm enjoying 2 and a half hours every day of just one kiddo (at least for the next 3 months). And Carter? He wasted no time styling himself out at Target during our first run of preschool-time errands yesterday. What a cute, crazy kid...

Fall Goals

Many, many, many, many, MANY times, I feel like I spend my days accomplishing nothing of merit. Everything I do just has to be redone... clean laundry gets worn and dirty, clean dishes get used and dirtied, meals get eaten and people are still hungry again 4 hours later, clean playroom get played in and cluttered... you get the picture, right?

So, in hopes that maybe this fall, with Allison going to preschool every day (which will bring more structure and schedule to our life), I can accomplish a few big goals. Not many... just a few. So I don't feel so anti-accomplished all the time.

And a goal not written down is merely a wish, right?

So...

September: Deep clean the house (including hiring out upholstery and carpet cleaning) & paint kid's bedrooms, possibly the living room, halls and stairwell too.

October: Move Allison & baby furniture into her new (shared) room (which also means moving my craft stuff out of it) & finish decorating kid's rooms (I've got a few projects I want to try for each room on my Pinterest boards).

November: Stock the freezer with freezer meals, menu plan through January & finish all Christmas shopping and projects by the end of the month.

December: Um... how about survive? :)

What do you do in the summer time...

when your parents are insane enough to plan a 2-week cross-country trip with 2 kids under 5?

You sleep in the car.

You sleep on the plane

(and then avoid sleeping on the next plane when you SHOULD be sleeping because going from East to West is hard like that).

You go to the park... lots of parks.

You ride the ferry...

and the big gold pig at Pike Place.

You go for a hike,

And throw rocks in the ocean.

You "help" grandpa rebuild the deck stairs.

And play with the toys rescued from the attic (even though they've already been sold on Ebay).

You go to the Children's Museum (on the day you thought you were flying home because mommy got the dates mixed up).

And when you finally do get around to flying home you spend a solid 21 hours (!!!) travelling in cars and airplanes to make it all the way home. Which makes your parents vow to pretty much never do that again.

It was great to get to see most of both of our families... But next year, we're staying closer to home for vacation.

Birthday girl!

I can't belive that Allison is 4! Where did all that time go?

How's this for lazy mommy? I just couldn't bring myself to make a cake, so we got one from the grocery store and plopped a Rapunzel figurine on it. I got lucky with a pink and purple accented cake.

She loved all the attention. It was low-key on Sunday, but we'll be hosting a birthday party for 8 little girls on Thursday... wish me luck!

Today I...

Today I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Today I told my almost 4-year-old that I was cancelling her birthday party.

Today I ignored my 2-year-old when I knew he was awake and finished with his nap.

Today I refused to make dinner. Or put the kids to bed.

Today I wanted to run away.

Today was not a good day on the mommy front.

Maybe tomorrow will be better...

Yesterday

Yesterday morning, I had an ultrasound and we all got to find out the gender of baby #3. It was a pretty amazing machine, but a REALLY squirmy baby... which is why the picture is a little unclear...

Baby's profile with hand near the face. :)

Yesterday evening I went shopping... cause thats what you do when you find out... buy baby a new outfit, right? Or two or eight...

...

...

Its another girl for us! :)

By the way, if you love the cuteness that is Gymboree, I asked one of the employees at my store if they had any 0-3 month fall/winter things in back (read: old stuff marked down cheap), and they brought me out a big ol' pile of things to pick through. You just have to ask and they're usually happy to pull stuff for you if they're not too busy. Everything I got was marked under $7 per peice.

Impromptu recital

Here's how Carter and Allison decided to entertain themselves before dinner tonight.

Cute, huh? I had a splitting headache, but I'd much rather have this kind of noise in the background than them screaming at each other, ya know?


Did you like Allison's bow? Or how Carter throws the spoons ("drum sticks") because he's so excited that its his turn to dance? Pretty darned cute...

Right now...

Right now my kids best friends are over to play. We are so lucky that another couple in our ward are our child twins... their oldest 2 are each a matter of days younger than Allison and Carter.

Right now Carter and James and Bridget are having fun in the playroom. And here is what Allison is doing...

Pouting. Refusing to go play becuase I told her she should. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...

On a side note: negotiating the sharing of train engines between two 2-year-olds takes a special kind of diplomacy. :)

Allison's recital

Allison had her dance recital today and she did so well. She's really enjoyed ballet this year and I'm excited to see how she does next year (in whatever studio we decide to land at).


For your viewing pleasure... really, this one's for you, Grandmas!



Carter behaved like a champ during the (two hour) recital. Here's how he spent a good three quarters of it...

And Allison after her dance. We surprised her with flowers, which she, of course, loved.

Carter as a GPS

Brian and I about died laughing last night when we had this thought... Carter would be the worst (or most hilarious) GPS ever.

You see, Carter has a man's "built in sense of direction." He is constantly being backseat driver in that car and telling me "Go dat way." Problem comes when I have my own ideas about where we are going.

Carter says turn left, Mommy turns right.

Your GPS might calmly say "Recalculating" if you ignore its directions. Carter screams at the top of his lungs: "NOOOOO!!!!! DAT WAY!!!!!"

And if you continue driving, your GPS will give you a new route that accomodates your disobedience. Carter, however, melts his screams into sobs of "Noooo! I want go dat way!" For the GPS of Carter there is no recalculating.

Just imagine that next time your GPS recalculates. ;0)

Can you picture...

Can you picture my dining room AS a dining room? Not just the mostly empty, often cluttered dumping ground/playroom annex that its been masquarading as for the last year? But AS an actual dining room?







How about now!

Its a terrible picture, but I just snapped one really quickly before dinner. I found this 7 piece dining set (there are 2 more chairs, and 2 leaves) at a gargae sale this morning. "Luckily" our van wasn't actually ready to be picked up yesterday even like we'd been told, so I was taking Brian to work again this morning and we passed the sale on the way to work. I turned onto the street to look closer on the way home (thinking that maybe I'd find a small dresser for baby) and saw it, disassembled, sitting on the porch with a big price sign... $50!!! Done and Done! The chairs could use a reupholstery (mostly because they're a little dirty and stained, not torn up), but thats easy enough. And the top has some scratches and could use a refinish, but its not in desperate need of it. It really just looks like its been used in a house with kids... some wear and tear, but nothing terrible. So we'll probably just leave it be until our kids are past the stage where they're climbing on the furniture. :o)

The lady selling was even nice enough to offer to deliver (since it was only about 2 miles from home and our van is STILL having its A/C issue worked on by the dealer...) later in the evening if we came cask to help her load.

And now I'm really excited to actually finish the room. I'm thinking roman shades or bamboo blinds and curtains for the windows, a fun fabric to reupholster the chairs, and some art on the big blank wall. Oh, and some non-carpet flooring, eventually. That one may be a few years. :o)

Our Little Graduate

This week was the last week of Joy School, which meant a graduation ceremony!

I can't believe how big Allison has gotten this year and how much she's grown in so many ways. We don't plan to do Joy School next year, which makes me a little sad... but I'm not sure I could handle it next year with Carter and a new baby.

Oh, and how do you like the dress with yesterday's bright, pre-ruffled fabric? I used this tutorial from Make it and Love it (one of my very favorite sewing/crafting blogs). Turned out cute, I think. Its a little big, but that just means she'll be able to wear it for a good while. There is leftover fabric, so Allison with either get another little borther and skirt from the ruffley fabric, or she'll get a little sister with a matching dress. :)

Manhatten Fabric, part 2

I realized the other day that I never posted this...

These fabrics came from StyleCrest, and other designer wholesaler that is not open to the public. At first glance through I didn't see a lot that I like. It was crowded and we were looking at hanging sample, not rolls or bolts, so it was hard to see what there was until people started standing in line to order... then it got MUCH easier and I found a bunch of things.

Clockwise from top left:

*Red rayon blend double knit for under $5/yard (3 yards). I'm seeing a dress for me out of this. Something classic, I think. This is super high quality, versitle stuff. I bought it becuase the price was crazy good (you'd probably pay $15/yard for a 100% polyesther version of it at JoAnn's) and I knew it would come in handy for something at some point...

*2 yards (I think) Teal & Pink madras plaid, $4/yard. This is real madras: small squares of fabric stitched together to make one multo-pattern print. So much fun! I plan to copy my favorite bermuda shorts and make them from this. I'm thinking maybe a knit waistband, which would mean I could wear them this summer...

*3 yards (or was it 4?) yellow cotton gauzy seersucker, $4/yard. Its not at bumpy are most seersuckers that I'm used to, but very nice. It spoke to me. I'm going to make this dress with it:

I've had the pattern several years (I'm sure I got it on a $3 Vogue sale) and never used it. This fabric seemed P-E-R-F-E-C-T!

*2 yards silvery-grey floral print silk, $15/yard. I LOVED this fabric, but wasn't going to get it at $30/yard. The owner heard me talking about it while I was ordering and offered me half off since they were down to their last few yards of it. I'm seeing a skirt... or maybe a wrap dress? Something beautiful and flowy...

*1 yard awful, bright pre-ruffled knit something, $4/yard. I bought this for Allison. I didn't have a project in mind, but I knew she'd love it as a skirt or something. Funny thing is I saw this same fabric on the red tag pile at JoAnn's a few weeks after Manhatten. Original price? $15/yard. I'll post pictures soon of what I've already done with it.

*2 yards (maybe 3) pink/teal plaid lightweight shirting, $5/yard. I'm seeing a jumper/dress for Allison and a blouse of some kind for me. It would make a great lightweight summer shirt.

Sadly, all of the fabric for me is on hold, becuase I don't want to make maternity clothes with it. I do hope to use the wool tweed to make myself a nice coat before this winter, but everything else will have to wait. I will, hopefully, be making a new maternity skirt soon. I have fabric and a plan (no pattern! wish me luck)... I just trying to find the nerve!

Things a 90 degree day might entice you to do...

cut your hair 6 or 8 inches...

allow your children to play out in the pool for hours and hours and hours... (I'm pretty sure Allison was out there for 4 hours yesterday, and Carter got in 2 and a half after his nap)

yes, Allison is about to pull him down the slide here...

while you sit in the shady garage with ice water and magazines (and still get sunburned!).

Here's to the cold front that suppose to come through tonight and take us down 10 or 15 degrees!