5 Months Old

It takes me so long to write a post these days. This one has been in the works for 2 weeks now. Getting a chance to take photos, editing those photos, jogging my memory for all the new things he's doing that were never written down all in itty bitty increments. Sheesh. But here it is - the 5th month post...

Little Eli is 5 months old now. It's so hard to believe. All of a sudden he's like a real boy - eating dinner at the table with us each night, sitting up, jabbering, playing with his toys and interacting with everyone. That baby slug phase is what so many people coo about missing the most, but I am truly more excited about an older baby I can play with. He is just as sweet as always and we are both running on a full night's sleep :)

Milestones, hmmm let's see if I can recall.

He's rolling over both ways now. Only he doesn't do it very often - normally after bath time when he's all nakey and energized or when he wakes up from a nap. But still only a couple times a week at most. Can sit up on his own also but is still pretty tippy.

Loves playing with toys and grabs at everything within reach. Whether that's my cup of coffee, bowl of cereal or items on the counter with he's bathing in the sink, he wants to check it out. And he gets mad when he can't reach something. As mush as he's into everything while still pretty much immobile, I have a feeling he will be a handful when he can actually get to things on his own.

Still teething and drooling like a madman, in case you couldn't tell from his soggy shirt. That pesky little tooth will just not rear it's head.

Eats a lot of food at dinnertime. Maybe 1/2 a cup? I just have to stop feeding him before he's ready cause it seems like too much for such a tiny tummy. I'm excited about making his baby food - applesauce, carrots and sweet potatoes so far. He loves them all.

Laughs a lot, especially for the kids and is ticklish all over. You just can't help but give those sides and thighs a squeeze.

He's started with the da da da da syllables. Dad couldn't be more excited and they can both handle being with the other without mom stepping in after 2 minutes. I will be taking full advantage of that fact soon!

He also finally takes a bottle (still nursing though) which probably contributed to above fact. Not too interested in the pacifier but found his thumb as a good substitute. It is so so cute!!

As my 5 year old daughter said "Mom, our baby is the best baby. I'm so glad you picked this one." Me too hunny.

My Heart

So glad today is finally Friday and this super busy, snowy week is over with! And so glad the kids are finally old enough to really help with chores - it has been a life saver. Plus they love getting to earn a little money too.

But anyway, Liz and I are posting our final projects for the "Have A Heart?" challenge on the Pink by Design blog this week. It's been a long time since I've made a layout but as soon as these photos came in the mail I'd been aching to put this one down. Such a great memory of my sweeties lying in the grass on a warm fall day. Her waiting for a turn on the rope swing; him experiencing the sights and scents of the outdoors for the very first time.

I pulled out the Instantly stamp set even though I used an honest to goodness real 4x6 photo on this page rather than a fuzzy phone pic. It's still got a few great bits for making journaling cards and of course the arrows!

This challenge requires that you use a heart on your project. Link up by Saturday for a chance to win a stamp set from Pink by Design! PBD stamps are not required (but we do love to see them).

My heart. Love them so so so very much.

I am also linking up to the following challenges:
Two Peas In A Bucket - Seeing Double
Scrapbook Steals.com - Monday Craft Madness #8

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013

Tiers Of Joy Christmas Card

Create unique Christmas cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Hoping you had a very merry Christmas! I am running about 2-3 weeks behind on life in general around here, but will be checking in again with some new projects and photos next week!

Enjoy your weekend!

Fall + Harvest Dress

Fall is here!! Hooray for my favorite season! We did a bit of decorating (which I'll share later) and visited the Harvest Barn for my preschooler's first field trip last week. So fun!

Tractor rides. Climbing on hay bales. Petting goats. Picking the perfect tiny pumpkin. Apple cider and pumpkin spice lattes. Check, check, check.

I made her this little green and brown dress especially for the occasion. It was a maternity dress that doesn't quite fit anymore, but the print has a certain harvest-y, little house on the prairie feel to it. I just cut off the bottom, added a band and reattached the sleeves. Easy peasy.

Enjoy your first fall weekend! Hoping our baby shows up to celebrate it too :)

First Week of School!

Our first day of school was last Wednesday! They did short days all week and this week is our first full week of school. So far the kids are loving their teachers, riding the school bus and making new friends. It took a couple days for them to adjust to getting up so early in the morning (and I won't lie - it was probably harder for me :)) and going to bed while the sun is still up but this week they are popping up with the alarm clock and falling fast asleep at 7pm.

They love picking out their own clothes and the girls choose their own hair-dos each morning which I hope adds to the whole feeling of being responsible big kids. It just amazes me how fast they've all grown up. And hoping it won't be too hard to adjust to starting all over with a brand new baby here in just a few weeks.

That's the new kitty that wondered into our yard a few weeks back and decided to make his new home here, by the way. He of course had to be a part of the photo :)

Miss Leah is in Kindergarten this year. She loves school and will be very good at it, I can already tell. She's made lots of girl friends in her class and has already established herself as the teacher's helper. She loves to help, always follows the rules and keeps an eye out to make sure everyone else is doing what they are supposed to as well. My bet is she will be reading on her own before winter break rolls along.

Keegan is in Kindergarten too. This one is a bit of a stinker (can you tell by the ornery look on his face?) and I feel sorry for the teacher cause she has a ton of little boys in her class! He is far more interested in playing than sitting down to do school work. But he catches on to things very, very quickly and then is ready to move on. Smart and super out-going. He talks to anyone and everyone and will make lots of friends easily.

And then there's my little preschooler. I can't get over how teeny-tiny she looks in her school clothes and back pack! Was a bit worried about her since she is pretty shy and reserved around kids other than her bro and sis and especially around large groups of people (she gets that from me) but she loves it so far. She is so proud to come home and show me her papers and tell me about the kids she talked to at recess. I am thankful that she is only in half-day this year and we still have some QT to spend in the afternoon before the baby is here and before the rush of dinner and bedtime routine each night.

My little loves, all growing up.

End of Summer

I am home. We are finally done with summer travel. Phew! I've been out of town nearly 3 out of 4 weeks the last month and it has been exhausting. Very very fun, but tiring too. We just spent the last week camping at Lake Rathbun - the only camping trip we've managed to squeeze in this hot hot summer.

33 week silhouette.

The girls went crazy tubing - their brother wasn't really into it surprisingly.

Lots of swimming, unproductive fishing and hanging out by the fire but not a lot of photo taking. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and enjoy the moment.

Two weeks until school starts!

CHA-cago Highlights

Hi there! Not sure if I ever mentioned going, but just got back late Wednesday evening from a trip to Chicago for the summer CHA show. It was a really amazing time full of ideas, inspiration, and some really fabulous friends too. Mind if I just share some tons of photos today?

I drove the 350-some miles there, which really wasn't too bad except for those pesky toll booths. Not much to see from the Interstate, kinda like driving across Iowa.

My roomie Steph and I stayed at the Hyatt. Nicest hotel I've ever been in :)

Monday was for sightseeing and seminars. We saw the bean...

the Roy Lichtenstein installation at The Art Institute of Chicago...

along with American Gothic...

and had a tasty lunch at the Park and Grill in Millennium Park.

Tuesday was for networking - not sure if these hand-stamped business cards are very professional, but they are very me :)

putting names together with faces - (Kirsty from Some Odd Girl and Leah L'Orange)...

meeting scrappy celebs like Heidi Swapp...

and finding out even the most talented in the industry are super-duper sweet (with Teri Anderson).

Oh and there was Chicago-style deep dish pizza too!!

I met my mentor and friend Jennifer Priest (thank you so much for all the introductions and hold-holding!)

whose breathtakingly beautiful mixed media dress was chosen as Editor's Pick!!

A couple of my projects made it into the Clearsnap booth and I filmed an actual in-person technique video for them as well. It was like speech class all over again! Eeek!

Oh and let's not forget all the new products! But this is getting kinda lengthy, so I will save them for another post :)

Hope your week has been great! Hugs ♥

Busy Bodies

Wow has it been a busy June so far. We have had so much going on and days so full that I can hardly believe today is Wednesday and now is nearly over.

Lets start with last Friday. A nearly all day dress rehearsal. Itchy costumes and one very antsy little boy made for an extra long day, but it's the only chance for the moms who have to stay backstage to see the entire show, so worth it.

Somehow we still had enough energy to take a mile long walk down to the bridge. Actually make that run. The kids ran all the way there. We stopped to take lots of pics along the way. This one is my favorite :)

Saturday and Sunday morning both were the final T-ball games of the season.

And in the evenings we had dance performances. They had one great show and lots of fun with all the primping, make-up and back stage girl time. Very cute :)

Also hit the big 6-month mark with this pregnancy! Still need to take some belly pics of that. Have been cleaning, planning and organizing like a mad woman! Hope this energy keeps up cause there is so much to do.

I've been making a bunch of stuff too but either I can't share it yet or am just to lazy to take pictures other than in Instagram - hope these will suffice ;)

These nightgowns were made from some pretty vintage pillowcases that have been in my stash for a while. Made them to look similar to the dress from this tutorial by Blooms and Bugs if you want to create something like it. I tucked instead of gathered and added fabric flowers in place of a bow.

Made some jammy pants too with skully fabric and this tutorial by Dana Made It. These were my first ever pants and wow they were way easy! I will no longer fear legged bottoms!

A customized planner for keeping track of summer days.

And a  few baby bibs using scrap fabric and this simple tutorial by SewSheSews. Skipped the quilting part and they still look super cute :)

Phew, that was a long post! Hope it counts for the whole week cause I think I'd rather spend the week creating instead of online. See you soon!

Last Day of Pre-K

Oh my. Tuesday these 2 cuties finished up their last day of preschool. It's crazy to look back on this post to see how much they have grown and learned since the beginning of the school year. Keegan pretty much looks the same, maybe a few inches taller but Leah looks so little compared to now! She has really grown up, in so many ways.

We sent the kids with thank you flowers for the teachers plus cards, carmels and chocolate ( I don't really know what a good teacher gift is, so hopefully this was?). They spent the whole day playing outside instead of the usual centers and work and although there wasn't a graduation ceremony or going away banquet, they did come home from school with a giant bag of M&M's each. That seemed to be parting gift enough for them :)

To quickly make the thank you cards before school yesterday, I used CPS265 which I was glad to find was the perfect easy to put together design. The stamps are Papertrey Ink - Rosie Posie and Pink by Design - My Type. Oh and those ink colors you see there? They are a few of the brand new, just released premium dye ink colors from Clearsnap - Nautical, Party Pink, Jalapeno and Kettle. Vibrant and gorgeous!!

And that's all for today. Let summer break begin!

...And She's All Mine

My sweet and lovely 4 year old. I could just smoosh her tiny face in these photos. Such a little doll and at other times a temper-throwing terror. Gaining so much independence but still prefers to hold her mama's hand. I can hardly believe she'll be going off to preschool in just a few short months.

For this layout with pics from her birthday, I had the idea swirling around in my head for months to use numbers and facts instead of regular journaling and finally was able to put it down on paper at a crop last month. (It was the only project I finished in 13 hours!)

My memory is truly terrible and I'll never remember these small facts about her in the future. Even though they are not really significant facts, it's still a fun glimpse at this moment.

I just love arranging all the little bits and embellishments "just so" and this was the first time I'd actually fully used up a kit from a year's subscription to Studio Calico. Seriously all but scraps of the paper, a few embellies and leftover alphas. Wow.

Anyway, have a wonderful Wednesday!