it's snow fun!

Maria loves playing in the snow.

Easton William

Yep, another boy in the family, my youngest brother Ryan and his wife Lisa welcomed Easton William on Wed, Jan. 21. He was 9 lb 5oz...Maria so far has just boy cousins, though she LOVES playing with them. She didn't seem too excited about Easton, but she did share her blankie with him, which is a big deal! She is still struggling with her lingering cold, so we didn't want her too close to him anyway!

We have plenty to praise God for; a healthy baby boy!

playtime with Maria

A couple fun videos of playing with Maria.

She was fascinated by this ladybug from the kitchen floor.

We had fun rolling/throwing the ball for quite a while in the kitchen.

We have plenty to praise God for; a fun, playful girl!

Project Roundup

Over the last month or so, I have done a number of projects...here are the results. Maria sometimes isn't the best model, so I will try to explain what you are looking at, and that's why she is often on the kitchen counter, she can't run away! And if I had a source that I found a pattern or tutorial I will link to it. Maybe you'll start feeling crafty too! These pink and blue dresses were tank tops of mine I no longer liked to wear, they were still in great shape so I crafted up my own design for dresses. The pink one will be too big for this summer, hopefully not too small next summer!(it has an old embroidered pillowcase as the bottom/the blue one has a crocheted flower and petal that my mom had in her stash)

These two dresses were created on the top from old knit shirts of mine I no longer wanted. The bottom fabric was part of a scrap bag my mom gave me to use. I did add another ruffle layer on the lower dress, I didn't intend for their to be a ruffle at all, but due to a screw up I had to cover a mistake, so there you have it!

These two dresses were super easy smocked fabric I brought on the clearance at Wal-Mart, I think I paid a total of $3 for each. All you have to do is sew a straight line up, and attach straps on the one. The bottom hem was even already done for me!

This is my favorite I have made I think. It was originally a men's button-up shirt from the thrift store. So I probably paid maybe a $1 for it. The pattern was easy and it took me only 1 1/2 days from start to finish. Can't remember if I already posted about this, but it is a remnant fabric I loved and found an easy pattern to make this dress.

I made a nice soft flannel cover for our heating pad, by copying from the old scratchy one on it.

In total I made just over 50 different cards; baby, thank you, anniversary, birthday. Just my own ideas on most of the designs.

I made two nursing cover ups; one for myself and one for my sister-in-law Lisa, due any day!

Boppy before; I couldn't stand to look at the cover any more!

Here is the new and improved Boppy. I had to modify the pattern, as my Boppy is the old style.

A skirt I made for my sister in about 40 minutes.

I made some covers for Larry's MP3 player and my Ipod...the results weren't quite what I hoped, but they serve their purpose, to keep them from getting too scratched up.

We have plenty to praise God for; cheap materials, free ideas, patterns, tutorials and fabric, creativity and time.

p.s. there will be more to come soon...I have several project in the making, and what else can you do when the weather is yucky and you're stuck home?

Fun in the snow

Larry was adventuresome and took Maria out to enjoy the snow earlier this week(before the frigid temperatures), several times in fact. She doesn't quite know what to do while she is out there, so he took her on a sled and walked around quite a bit. They were both very red-faced when they returned...I was warm and toasty in the house.

We have plenty to praise God for; daddies who brave the cold to play with their kids!

Brrrrrrr

Yep, that was the low last night! And the "high" today was 3...yes, we love Indiana!

We had ice on the inside of our windows, so all day as it melted...I got to run around and soak it up so we didn't have puddles on the sills or the floor, what fun! Looks like it's going to do a repeat tonight.

We have plenty to praise God for; we have power and heat!

Fancy Pants

We headed to the library today for a Fancy Nancy Tea Party. In case you have never heard of Fancy Nancy, as I hadn't, it's a picture book about a little girl who likes to dress up fancy....so you can imagine the fanciness at this tea party. Maria didn't actually own any fancy dress up of her own, so we borrowed from the preschool over at church to make her fancy. They had cookies and tea, read the Fancy Nancy story, and then made a craft. She wasn't quite sure what to do most of the time, but I think she enjoyed herself.

We have plenty to praise God for; fun, free activities at the library.

a pickle?..?? for the potty?

"I think pickles are cucumbers that sold out. They sold their soul to the devil, and the devil is dill..."Mitch Hedberg

(grrr...I can't get this to load it in the upright position, this is the third time, so sorry you'll just have to watch it sideways!)

We get a kick out of the fact that we can bribe Maria with a pickle for using the potty. She gets so excited for it too...what a crazy girl!

We have plenty to praise God for; pickles are cheap!

It's more pink for us!

Had our ultrasound today and found out Maria will have a little sister...

We have plenty to praise God for; another girl to love!

The year in review!

I've been tagged by my friend Lee!
She issued a very fun challenge that came from one of her friends. So...The game is: Your top 5 pics of 2008 and why. Does it bring back a good memory? Do you look smokin' in it? Any pic and any reason works, but you can only choose 5. Sound fun? I hope so.

Here are some of my favorites. I couldn't choose just 5 (and could find many more still)....

This just shows how much she loves her "bampa". They had a great time together. We were celebrating the 4th of July with family.

So many new things to experience, this captures her excitement of the balloons. She was even more excited to go up in it.

Although both Maria and Larry ended up getting some stomach bug on this camping trip, we had such a great time with Larry's family. We'll have to do it again.

Another exciting day of firsts for her. She had just spotted the train that soon we would take a ride on.

She was thrilled to go out in the "no".

This picture is bittersweet, as we just lost my grandfather this Christmas, but Maria did love visiting with him. (She was a bit tired in this picture however!) How sad she won't have really any memories of him, what an amazing man he was.

Another bittersweet memory as Nana also just passed away. It was amazing watching her interact with her 100 year old great grandmother.

We have plenty to praise God for; wonderful memories from another year.

I didn't feel like tagging anyone, but if you feel like participating, leave a comment so we can check out your favorite pictures also!

Happy New Year!