Stuff I've made

I have been on a sewing kick lately.

I made Kate a quilt!  I had so much fun putting together my first quilt that I had to make another right away.  I got this fabric for super cheap at Joanns ($2.50 a yard, and I only bought half yard of each fabric- except for the backing) and I LOVE how it turned out.  You should really see it in person sometime.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

It's ALMOST fall here and we can taste it!  No more triple digits, and it is cooling down a little more each week.  That always gets me in the mood for Halloween!  Although it is still a month away,  we are ready!

I made the kids some Jack Skellington pajamas.  This is one of Kate's favorite movies, so I tried my best to recreate the iconic Pumpkin King's face on the pajama tops.  For the pants I used this super easy tutorial.

http://www.theribbonretreat.com/blog/pajama-pants-tutorial.html
I've also jumped the gun and I've already made their Halloween costumes!  As you may have read in the previous post, Max has been begging to be Mario for Halloween.  Well, he got his wish!  I already had all of the felt so his cost me nothing to make!  I need to adjust the top of the overalls a bit, but it's basically ready.

Tutorials used:  http://smashedpeasandcarrots.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-make-mario-and-luigi-costumes.html
http://www.fleetingthing.com/handmade/dress-up/Super-Mario-hat/&2_2_48

If Max is Mario, the obvious companion costume for Kate would be...Princess Peach of course!
 I need to make a better top but the crown and tutu are done.

Then I had to make some Halloween outfits as well.  I love how these turned out.  They are so cute!



My kids

It's been a really long time since I've sat down and just wrote about my kids. So here is what is new with them lately.


Ah Kate, I think these pictures sum her up perfectly!  Happy, crazy, dramatic, and silly.  She is such a good big sister and her and Max just love each other so much.  They play together all day and even sleep in the same bed at night.  That is not a forced thing at all, it is how they like to sleep!  They are the best of friends, and it will be interesting to see how the new baby changes the dynamic.

Kate is so smart.  She knows all the letters and sounds, can count to 20 without help and I've heard her go up to 60 with a little help from mom or dad.  She can write her name and a bunch of other letters and it won't be long before she is reading!  Awhile back I signed up for ABCmouse.com and she is already 90% done with level 3, and has completed over 60 lessons about letters, numbers, colors you name it.   I'm very proud of her!  She has also gotten very good at coloring and drawing.  She colors inside the lines, and has gotten picky about coloring things "the right colors".

She has the silliest imagination, and it's about time I've told you guys about someone.  Kate has an imaginary friend named Cheena.  She's not imaginary like Kate pretends that she is here with us, it's more of a person she just talks about ALL the time.  Everyday Kate tells me something new about "my friend Cheena".  Lets see if I can remember all of her conquests.  Cheena has lived in Africa, is in movies and tv shows, goes to kindergarten,  is 16 but is turning 45, went to disneyland and got her hair done by a fairy godmother, has 95 60 dollars,  can do magic....it's really something new every day.  I'm sad I can't think of more things at the moment, because they are hilarious.

Kate is currently in singing and dance classes and loving them both.  She has a singing performance on Tuesday and I can't wait for it!

Kate loves to spend time with me and right now her favorite thing to do with me is watch "Once Upon a Time" on the ipad.  As soon as Max lays down for a nap, she runs into my room, gets the iPad, and lays on my bed and we watch an episode together.  It's a really complicated plot to watch with a 4 year old, but she loves seeing all her favorite Disney characters in different stories.


Max- he is the cutest thing ever!  Don't you agree?  I just love this little boy so much.  He has developed quite the personality lately.  He is such a talker, and he will talk all day long.  He talks in sentences now, and talks about himself in the third person.  Like,  "Max is scared of Jack Skellington."  or "Max wants a peanut butter sandwich" or his favorite thing to tell me everyday is "Max wants to be Mario for Halloween!!"

Our wii had been broken for awhile, but a couple months ago we ended up buying Aunt Lacie's old one.  We started playing Mario Party with the kids, and he's been obsessed with Mario ever since.  The kids literally wait ALL DAY long for daddy to get home to play the game with them.  They get their remotes, sit down next to Dad, and yell for their favorite character.  They have still not figured out (not even Kate who I was sure would have figured it out by now) that they are not actually playing.  Haha.  We have their characters set to the computer.  It is so funny.  Max loves to "jump on the caterpillar" and "jump on the bad guys", he even mentions it in his prayers.

He is also my smartypants!  Awhile ago I bragged about him knowing all his letters already, but now I can say that he also knows his letter sounds too!  He can also count and recognize the numbers 1-10.  It's fun having my kids almost on the same level, I can ask them the same questions and both will answer me!

His favorite movies are Cars and Peter Pan.  His favorite tv shows are Jake and the Neverland Pirates, The Superhero Squad Show, and The Super Mario Brothers show.  Yes, the one from the 80's! 

He has lately become my picky eater.  He loves breakfast and lunch food (probably because those are routine and don't change much) but dinner is always a struggle!

I can't keep clothes on this kid.  I don't blame him really, it's HOT here.  But it can be embarrassing when he won't keep his pants on when you have company over!

I can't believe how big he is getting and I still think of him as my baby.  It's crazy how fast they grow up.

And last but not least- Unnamed Baby Boy is growing well.  I am 23 weeks already and I can't believe I'm already over the half way mark.  With the holidays coming up time is just going to fly by and I will be a mother of three before I know it.  I didn't feel this baby until about 18 weeks along which is the longest I've ever gone without feeling the baby move.  I remember being scared to go into the ultrasound because I though the baby wasn't moving enough.  He's gotten past his shyness now and is always moving.  I can feel him kick all the time, but the other members of the family never time it right.  Dustin has felt him kick, but Kate and Max haven't yet.  Kate is so excited for another baby, although I'm more worried about her adjusting to the new baby than Max.  Kate loves to have all the attention on her.  If I'm ever holding and talking to Max, she will come right up and make sure I am paying attention to her too.  Now that my belly is big, Max seems to understand that a baby is in there.  He will give baby brudder hugs and kisses.  They both like to talk and sing to him.

And that's pretty much our lives right now in a nutshell.  I love being a mom to these kids.

More pictures

I haven't posted in awhile and I'm sorry. I really don't have any excuse other than that I'm pregnant and lazy :). Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks. Some I'll write about, some I won't.

This is Kate and Dad right before they took of for the Daddy & Daughter camp out our ward put on.  I think it was such a fun idea because girls always get left out of the camping trips!  They all had so much fun, and Kate loved every bit of it.  Dustin said that it was so different camping with little girls than little boys.  They built a house made out of sticks, complete with a grass and leaves carpet.  He also said that they were much braver around the fire than the boys were!  I imagine there might have been a couple of close calls with that, but luckily everyone made it back in one piece.



Have a mentioned on here before that Kate is a lefty?  Well, she is.  She is getting so good at writing and coloring, she will be ready for Kindergarten in no time!


Here is Max in his element, a mess of toys!


Uncle Andy came to visit for the last two weeks.  I got no pictures of anything we did, but we did have so much fun.  We took our traditional trip to the rainforest cafe, and the kids loved it this time!  We mainly just stayed home, as it's still over 100 degrees outside here.   Once while the kids were painting, Andy decided to paint on them.



Life is just hard sometimes...

One of our favorite activites to beat the heat is to turn on the sprinkler in the backyard. 

Preschool started last week and I volunteered to teach first.  Here is Kate with her cute classmates!

It's been finally raining here lately and the kids never miss an opportunity to go play in it.
And with the monsoons come beautiful sunsets.  My kids love to stare at the "pretty clouds" outside.

Just some pictures...

First hand made item for baby

So...

I made a quilt.

I was in my sewing room the other day looking at all my scrap fabric and decided that I wanted to make a quilt for baby boy Watson. 

I looked on Pinterest and quickly found the tutorials that I needed.  http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/p/beginning-quilting-series.html

I did not buy any fancy quilting tools prior to making this.  I hand cut all those squares just by laying a square card I had on the fabric and cutting around it.  Haha.  I'm pretty lazy when I'm sewing or crafting.  I didn't measure or mark the fabric, I just did it.  If I had, I'm sure I would have run into far less problems on keeping my squares lined up and my lines straight.  Oh well, lesson learned.  I will take my time next time.

The hardest part for me was "basting" the quilt (pinning all three layers prior to quilting).  It was really hard to get all the layers smooth and wrinkle free.  Quilting it actually wasn't too bad, my thread kept breaking which was really annoying, but other than that it was fine.  I took the easy way of quilting this time, just sewing along my seams.  I figured since it was my first quilt that I shouldn't try anything fancy.

I also tried to take another shortcut and bought quilt binding at the craft store.   I rounded the corners of my quilt because I thought that bias tape binding was supposed to help go around curves?  Well, I will definitely not be doing that next time.  I don't like the way it looks, and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't keep it from puckering around the corners.  I will suck it up and just make my own binding and miter the corners (it just looked confusing and hard on the tutorial, so I tried to take the easy way out).

Anyway, here is the finished product:



Though there are a lot of flaws to it, I'm still pretty proud of it.  It's the first quilt I've made after all, I can't be too hard on myself!  It's soft and puffy and I love all the bright colors.  My baby will look really cute laying on it :)


Dance Class

Aside from the fact that it was a big day for our family today, it was also a big day for Kate and her cousin Jaylee.  It was their very first day of dance class!




We've signed them up with a local dance company.  I decided on this company because they are close, reasonably priced and they wear modest costumes!  The girls were so excited for their first day and they had so much fun!










They have performances in November and April and I can't wait to see these little girls perform!

It's a....


This morning we had the big ultrasound.  Dustin took the day off and we brought the kids.  We got to see little hands, toes, fingers, and we found out that it's a BOY!  I am super shocked.  I really thought it was going to be a girl this time, but I have NEVER been right!  My mommy instinct is always wrong.  haha.  Kate was a little disappointed at first, she really wanted a sister, but she seems to be coming around to the idea.  The doctor says everything looks really good and the baby healthy.

After we went out to lunch and to Target to get an outfit for the little guy.  Max was born in July and this one will be born in January, so it will be complete opposite seasons for clothing.  I saw this and I had to get it.  I love little rompers for boys!


We are so excited to meet our little guy in January!