Sew Busy!

My mom and I have both been "sew" busy at our sewing machines and at her embroidery machine!  She has had an embroidery machine for years - I think she bought it when my nephew Jett was born and he's 7 now - but I never really had any interest in learning how to use it until recently.  Mom always told me I'd get the bug when I had my own little person to sew/monogram for, and she was right! I wish that I had pictures of everything that we've done recently, because we've cranked out some really cute stuff!  But a lot of it has been for gifts and I stupidly didn't take pictures of any of it before wrapping it up and giving it away.  Darn!

So that means I mostly just have pictures of everything for Katie Wynn.  I've been slapping her monogram on everything lately.  The picture below is a onesie, two pairs of bloomers and a really cute bubble that I can't wait for her to wear this summer.

Playing on the floor in a bird applique shirt I did a while back.  Onesies are really hard to do, but thanks to some YouTube videos and some pointers from our friend Lindsay, we're getting much better at them!

I love this circle monogram applique.  The shirt she's wearing below was the first time I'd done it, so the spacing is all wrong, but I've done it several more times since then and love it!

Easter egg I made exactly one week before Easter.  She wore it every other day that week. :)

Sometimes friends ask me to do monogram things for them, and I really don't mind but I have to issue a disclaimer that I could totally ruin their product.  That's the nerve-racking part of it.  This wine bottle holder didn't turn out as well as it could have, but it's ok.

These towels were for a gift for another friend.  Love this font.

Ok, switching gears from the embroidery machine and the sewing machine.   My mom has cranked out some really cute dresses lately!  (Good thing too, because Katie didn't have any church dresses that fit!)  The one below is a really pretty spring green with pink flowers.  Obviously Katie loved it. :)

This is the dress that Mom made Katie Wynn for Easter.  It has cute little ducks on it.  I had specifically asked for something not too Easter-y (bunnies and eggs) because I wanted KW to be able to wear it more than just the one time. 

Precious seer-sucker bubble that has the same circle monogram applique I mentioned above.  We have this in a boy pattern too that I'm about to attempt for some cuties I know!

 Another sweet church dress.  I love the flutter sleeves on this one.

Mom took the smocking up to the next level on this one by weaving a pink ribbon through it.  She's got mad skills, y'all.

She doesn't make just fancy dresses though!  This little number is reversible!  Green with a flower on one side...

...and just the flower print on the other side.  It has bloomers that match (you can see them in the picture above).

This dress is from a pattern that I picked out, but it's way past my skill level! 

I love this fabric that we bought.  It's typewriter keys and we thought the ruffle/bloomer fabric kinda looked like pencil lines on a piece of paper, so kinda coordinating themes.

I decided to dust off my sewing machine and get in on the sewing action.  I told Mom I was going to start with a simple quilt that was all straight lines.  (The idea came from Pinterest, of course.)  "It should be easy," I said, "since it's all straight lines."  "I think it'll be harder than you think," Mom told me.  She was right.  Not as easy as I thought it would be.  Also, in my head it was going to be gigantic.  Like, bigger than a bedspread.  This was going to be our picnic quilt or our take to the park quilt.  In reality, it's a whopping four feet by four feet.  Whomp whomp.  But still cute, no?

You can't really tell but the back is pink with white polka dots and you can see the chevron pattern since that's how I quilted it.

With the quilt turning out somewhat successful, I decided to try my hand at making something for Katie.  I found this pattern online and it's called the easiest dress ever so I figured it was a good place to start.  I made it out of seer-sucker and added a pink monogram before stitching it all together.

I love the criss cross in the back!

I upped my difficulty level and attempted a pair of matching bloomers.  Success!  And not nearly as hard as I thought they would be.

Here's the dress on a hanger for a better view.  I had to alter the pattern to fit Katie since it just came in 3-6 month size.

The best part is that it can be reversible!  I lined it in pink seer-sucker but you can see the darker one through it, so I probably won't ever reverse this particular one.

Last weekend I got stitch-happy and cranked out three  more of these dresses!  One for sweet baby Olivia...

And these two matching ones are for Katie Wynn and her friend Addi Clare.  I love this chevron!

And this time I made them reversible.  LOVE them!

And I made bloomers to complete the outfits.

I think it's official, I've got the sewing bug!  I just downloaded a bib pattern last week and spent the weekend cutting them out and monogramming them.  Now I've just got to sew them all together.  Anyone in need of a bib?  I could probably make them adult-sized...

More Phone Pics

It seems silly that this morning I was concerned about how long it's been since I last blogged, considering there are many, many people waking up with their lives changed forever in the wake of yesterday's Boston bombings.  I can't imagine what would compel someone to do something like this and it breaks my heart for all those involved.  Just like the Mr. Rogers quote that's circulating says, in times like this we must look for the helpers.  Look for the good.  I pray for a speedy recovery for those injured and peace for those who have lost loved ones.  And God bless all those that are there to help. Today I have another post full of poor-quality iPhone pics for you.  Part of me hates doing these because it takes me forever to go through my camera roll and pick which ones to use and then I painstakingly email them all to myself and then save them to my computer from my email.  I know all you techy people would probably just plug your phone in and download them that way, but I rarely, if ever, plug in my phone because nearly every time I do, something goes wrong.  So it's a long process that I dread.  But at the end of the day I really want to have Katie's life documented here - especially since I have zero desire to scrapbook - so that I can remember all of these sweet times.  And Katie, when you're 25 and finally allowed to read this blog, hopefully you'll know that your mama put a lot of effort into recording your life.

The biggest change in our daily routine these days is that bathtime has moved from the sink to the bathtub!  Doc thinks this is much easier; I think it's incredibly hard.  She slips and slides while I try to wash her and I can't scrub all those places that are under the water!  Katie, of course, loves every minute of it and doesn't ever want to get out.

In addition to sitting up in the bathtub, she is also sitting up in a high chair!  This one is at her Mimi's house and is the same one that her mama, uncles, and all of her cousins have used.  We still don't have a real high chair at our house...it's on the to-do list.

A week or so ago, we got to keep my niece, Bren, for a few hours after school.  She was the BEST helper with Katie Wynn!  First, we had to take her on a walk. 

Then, we had to play in Katie Wynn's room.  Brennie opened the closet and all the drawers so she could go through all of Katie Wynn's clothes, and exclaimed that they were all "so cute!" and "so adorable!"

When dinner time rolled around, I knew a certain 4 year old that would really want to get in on the action!  She begged to help feed Katie, so I let her. 

Needless to say, it was not our cleanest meal to date.

A messy meal obviously has to be followed by a bath.  I hope this is the first of many baths together for these sweet cousins!  (Please note that Lolli had to supervise.)

I don't know how it happened, but this little girl spent one morning enjoying our bed all to herself.

Doc was quick on the draw and managed to snap this picture of Wyatt feeding Katie her bottle before he was able to duck out of the way.  I guess it's not cool for teenage boys to feed their little sisters, but I think he enjoyed it even if he wouldn't admit it. :)

Out to eat and enjoying hanging out in Mimi's lap.

We have this tough period of time every evening after I pick KW up from her sitter's.  I know she's tired but it's almost time for her to eat and she's too excited to be home to go down for a nap.  The result is that she barely makes it through her dinner before crashing.  On this particular night, she didn't even make it out of her bumbo seat.

Wyatt got to travel to Nashville to participate in the state Geography bee.  He placed 26 out of 100!  (Well, technically out of the whole state, I guess.)  We are so proud of him!  The good thing about your teenager having a cell phone is that you can text him pictures like this from his littlest sister the morning of the competition.

I took Katie Wynn up to my office one afternoon that I wasn't working so my coworkers could see how big she's getting.  She was immediately hired as the new Director of Accounting and put to work!

Later that same day, we stopped by Mimi's house.  The weather was so nice that I couldn't resist cleaning off the baby swing to see if she'd like it.  No surprise there - she loved it! I have a feeling I'll be hearing "Push me, Mama!" a lot in the upcoming years. 

Coordinating outfits.  I couldn't resist.  Aren't we a cute pair?

My two lovies dressed in pink for church!  On this particular Sunday morning, we got up early, got cleaned up and dressed, hit both Lowe's and Home Depot (30 minutes away) to buy flowers and plants, had donuts for breakfast, made it home and unloaded the car, did a load of laundry, and still made it to church early enough to take pictures.  Impressive, no?  (We all had a nap that afternoon.)

When we moved, I was so sad to leave our cherry blossom tree behind.  It is one of my very favorite things about spring.  I never realized when we moved into our current house that the two trees that flank the house are cherry blossoms!  They are in full bloom right now and I love it!

A sad attempt to get a picture of Katie Wynn in the cherry blossom tree.  One day she'll be able to climb it herself and we'll get a better one.

We had a playdate with some new friends of ours.  Addi Clare is just 5 days older than Katie Wynn.  I hope they will be lifelong friends!  This is the first time I was able to plop KW down on the floor with someone her own size and see how they would react to each other.  There was a little bit of toy-stealing...

...and a whole lot of face/bib/paci grabbing.  But I think they had fun!  Future BFFs for sure.

One evening I took pictures during our nighttime routine.  Here she is all bundled up after her bath, and I have to constantly push Lolli off from giving her a second bath of doggie kisses.

Interested in her brush.

I love that she's finally holding toys and playing with them.  Her Poppy picked the monkey up for her when he was on vacation.  I think she loves it!

I tried so hard to get her to go down for a nap on her Mimi's bed one morning.  She kept pushing up on her hands and knees to fight it off.  She finally gave up and face planted into a nap.  Can you tell she's still up on her knees?  There's no way that could've been comfortable...

Fighting naps was a theme that day because later in the afternoon I took these pictures of her doing it again.

She discovered the monitor that we had sitting over in the corner of her bed and decided to play with it.  She did this early one morning too and from our bedroom, when she's holding it and/or chewing on it, it sounds awful coming through the monitor speakers!  It has since been relocated.  (Plus side of having your mom make crib bumpers for you?  They're in four indvidual pieces.  We have only put up three sides of bumpers because I love being able to see her from the front!)

That short-lived nap created some funny bed hair!

This past weekend, Katie Wynn and I participated in our first 5k together.  I hope it's the first of many!  I wasn't sure if I would be able to make it or not since I haven't done a lot of long-distance walking lately, but we did great.  Beat about 20 people, even!  (It was a small race, less than 150 participants.)  She loved being in her stroller and her older brother and sister both high-fived her as we make it past where they were cheering us on.

I just can't resist a baby in a diaper.  So stinking cute!  She was just sitting and playing by herself one morning while we got ready for work.

She heard my camera click and turned and gave me a grin.  Love her.

We had more great weather yesterday so we hung out on the patio and played after dinner.  After reading and watching the news all day, I just wanted to soak up every minute with my baby.

Mimi and Poppy made it back from vacation last night and stopped back to pick up their dog (we kept Henry for them).  They were so glad to see Katie bug!

And I think that gets us caught up to today!  I have been busy making some fun things on my sewing machine that I hope to show you in the next post.  Stay tuned!

6 Months!

Can  you believe that Katie Wynn is already six months old?  I swear, time is flying by.  I want her to stay my little bitty baby forever! You may remember back when she was three months, I shared that I am taking three different sets of monthly pictures.  Well, here we are three months later and they're still going strong.  Looks like I could actually make it the whole year!

The first pose is the most traditional one - same chair every time with a sign for the date and month.

I love her expression in this one.  She's excited about being 5 months old!

If you look closely at the chalkboard sign, you can tell that this month is when she finally noticed the sign and got interested in it.  Half the pictures I took are of her holding it or rubbing her hands all over it.  This could get tricky going forward.

The next set of pictures are just of me and her on the front steps.  These are definitely the ones that produce the funniest faces from her.  I'm not sure if it's because it's usually cold or if it's too bright or what, but it's hard to get a good smile out of her in these quick photoshoots.  I chose the one below for the four months photo because I loved the little angel wings on her outfit.

Five months and happy!

This is one of my new favorite.  She's wearing a dress made by her grandmother and a sweater made by her great-grandmother!

The last set is themed for each month.  These are sometimes the hardest.  We had no snow in January so I decided to go with the New Year's theme (thanks for the idea, Alexis!).  Unfortunately, if you wait until the end of January to start looking for a party hat like I did, you won't be able to find them anywhere.  I lucked into a friend having one left over from a party (thanks, Kelly!) which was a tad big but definitely better than nothing!  Katie was not in the mood for pictures at all this day, and she couldn't sit up on her own yet so this one was tough.

She got attacked by kisses in the month of love!  And not just from her mama.  Yes, folks, Doc slathered on the lipstick so he could get in on the action too.  It kinda looks like she's been beaten, but I assure you she was not. :)

You already saw this one, but St. Patty's Day was the perfect theme for March.

This next quarter's going to be pretty hard.  What do I do for April, May, and June?  There are no easy holidays to play off of.  Ideas, anyone?

Here's some info about Katie Wynn at 6 months:

• She weighs 16 pounds, 14 ounces and is 25.75" long.  She is in the 75-90 percentile for length and 50-75 percentile for weight and head circumference.  Her doctor says our long baby is pretty perfect!
• Still no teeth, but I have a feeling they're coming soon.  She has a constant waterfall of drool pouring out of her mouth.
• She has been sitting up on her own for about three weeks now.
• She can push up on her hands and knees but isn't crawling yet.  She can scooch backwards and covers a lot of ground that way!
• She can roll over both ways and has been doing that for at least two months.
• So far she has eaten both rice and oatmeal cereals (loves 'em), carrots (doesn't like), squash, sweet potatoes, and a mixture of peach, banana, and granola.  Surprisingly, she doesn't like the fruit at all (so far).  She might've also had a teeny tiny lick of her mama's ice cream bar and absolutely loved it!
• She is no longer swaddled but is sleeping in her zippadee zip.  She still sleeps all through the night, and we are very thankful!
• She babbles and talks ALL the time.  Girl has a lot to say!
• She can pick things up and hold them.  She loves her Sophie giraffe, teething toys, books, and rubber spatulas.  She also loves to spend time in her jumperoo.
• She now takes baths in the big bathtub and seems to like it.  She hasn't figured out splashing yet so it's still a pretty quick and clean process.

I love this little girl more than anything and can't imagine life without her!

Easter Sunday

[I'm still having some layout issues so bear with me while I get them worked out.  Things still look a little wonky!] Ok, Easter recap...here we go!

All three kids woke up to find Easter baskets from the Easter bunny.  Along with a bunch of candy, Wyatt got tickets to a basketball game, Anna got some new ponytail holders and a Vera Bradley jewelry bag, and Katie bug got a teething toy, bath toy, and a new pair of jammies. 

We had a terrific Easter Sunday, even if the morning did start out a bit stressful.  Doc and I were scheduled to play handbells during church that morning (with 5 others).  We were losing sleep over this performance because A) we'd just gotten the music the Sunday before, B) the tempo was really fast and it was all eighth notes, and C) we were accompanying the choir (which is always hard because you have to stay with them if they speed up or slow down).  We had to get to church really early to practice and after about thirty minutes, felt like we were ready.  15 minutes before church started we were finally able to practice with the choir one more time and we had probably our best ever run-through of the song.  We were ready!

And then the actual performance happened.  We started out fine.  I could tell after the first page we were starting to drag so I was watching the choir director like crazy.  Our bell tables were up in the choir loft so we were staggered into three rows.  I was watching the director to make sure I was on beat when all of a sudden the girl behind me rang her bell too hard and completely knocked her music folder over.  The folder flew off the table and slammed into the back of the girl standing beside me and then landed on the ground right behind my feet.  Holy crap!  I thought for sure we would just stop but the choir director didn't even notice we had a music stand down.  It was a train wreck, to say the least.  But, the music folder was picked up, we pulled it back together and we finished strong.  That's all that matters, right?

The rest of the service was great.  Our preacher always does a good job with his sermons and I really enjoyed all the music too!

Per tradition, we gathered over at my mom's house after church for a big feast and an egg hunt.  I told our kids they weren't allowed to change out of their clothes until after I'd taken pictures of them.  Surprisingly, they were really good sports about pictures and I managed to get some decent ones!

 

Wyatt - 13, Anna - 12, and Katie Wynn - 6 months.  I think this one will be going in a frame.

Our whole family.

Jett (7) and Bren (4) are at ages where they're really easy and fun to photograph.  They know how to both look at the camera and smile.  I loved all the colors in their clothes!

Parker (4) and Ramer (1.5) are still a little hard to get smiles from at the same time.  This was about the best I could do!

Obligatory shots of Katie Wynn.  My mom made her Easter dress (in less than a week!) and I thought she looked precious in it.  I specifically requested something without bunnies and/or eggs so that she could wear it past Easter. 

  

I knew Mom would want a picture of all her grandchildren, so we rounded them up.  It was a miracle that we actually got more than one picture with all seven sets of eyes open and pleasant faces!

 

We yanked the pacis from the babies but were starting to lose everyone's attention.

  

We were lucky to have my friend Emily and her family join us for lunch too.  I am totally kicking myself for not getting any pictures of the twins.  They also had on cute little outfits that my mom had made for them and they were precious!  It was a big day for them as they attended church for the first time.  Alice was also adorable in her Easter dress.

 

All the kids did a decent job of gobbling up their lunch so that they could hunt eggs.  We had a pretty wide age range so we had two separate egg hunts.  The first one was out on the screened-in patio for the two littlest hunters (Ramer and Alice).  Alice was a model Easter egg hunter: quiet and calm and walked to each egg she found and carefully put it in her basket.

  

Sweet Alice kept us laughing the whole afternoon.  She kept calling Parker "Partner" and when her Daddy told her to help Ramer find eggs she'd say, "Armer! Over here Armer!"

Ramer, or "Armer," didn't quite know what to do at first, so Jett helped him out.

He got the hang of it soon enough though!  He liked dropping the eggs into his basket.  (Check out those chubby baby fingers! Couldn't you just gobble them up?!)

 

We used the whole upstairs of my mom's house for the big kids' egg hunt.  Eggs were hiding in every room, and there were a ton of them!  I tried to snap a few pics but they all flew past me too fast for my camera to catch them. 

Poor Katie Wynn just slept through the whole thing.  Mimi bought her a little lamb since she couldn't hunt eggs.  (Please excuse the fact that my white balance is way off in this pic.  I don't have time to fix it right now...I promise they aren't that yellow in real life.)

Bren and Parker (also not this yellow in real life) were pleased with their baskets full of eggs.

The kids all gathered in the playroom to empty their eggs and count their loot.

Then it was time to head outside for the big celebration!  Just like in years past, I had gotten some cascarones so we could have a confetti party and all have good luck!  We had three dozen eggs to smash so I told each kid they could start with two - one to crack over their own head and one to give someone else good luck.  By the time it was over, we were all covered in confetti!

 

Katie Wynn's big brother and sister made sure she would have lots of good luck!

 

 

It doesn't matter how many times you say "be gentle," a seven-year-old will only hear "smash eggs on head" and take advantage of it, even nailing his own  mom!

Katie Wynn and her confetti yarmulke.  (I really wish I had taken off her bib!)

I started blowing the confetti off KW's head and she thought that was pretty funny.  Love those pale white chunky legs!

Even after all the confetti eggs, there was still more celebrating to do!  My sister-in-law Erin has a birthday this week so we had cupcakes and sang to her.  She tried to get Ramer to help her blow out her candle...

...but his big brother jumped in and beat him to it!

After we ate cake and Erin opened all her gifts, we started going our separate ways.  It was a really good, jam-packed day!  Hope yours was just as fun-filled as ours!

Silly Bunnies!

Oh man, you guys kept me in stitches yesterday!!  I can't believe I actually managed to fool a few of you guys.  I thought for sure you would know it was a joke right away.  And I think a couple of my family members were the most surprised at our "announcement."  My mother's text to me takes the cake as being the most...colorful...if you will. :)  I'm totally exaggerating.  Her response wasn't too bad.  After she made it through all of her exclamations she did at least ask me my due date.  Put the smocking down, Mom.  There's no baby on the way...yet. I won't lie, though.  I'm a nervous wreck that my little joke may have jinxed me.  I tend to be superstitious and believe in karma so I hope when the time comes for us to add another little bunny to our family, God doesn't remind me of this prank.

Speaking of bunnies, I meant to post these pictures of Katie Wynn with the "Easter bunny" on Easter Sunday and completely forgot!  (We had an awesome Easter Sunday and I am still sorting through the 291 pictures I took to figure out which ones to post.)  These were taken a few weeks ago when my niece, Bren, brought home her class bunny, Hopper, for the weekend.  We stopped by to visit the bunny when it hit me that we should totally have a photoshoot!  I dressed Katie in a sweet outfit from her Lala and Poppa, sat her down with Hopper (after his required hour of exercise) and hoped for the best!

Our photoshoot was held almost exactly one week before she learned how to sit up on her own.  Doc had to reach under the blanket to hold her up for some shots since she kept falling back into the pillows.  You can see some of the outtakes here.

I really wasn't sure what she would think about Hopper or what Hopper would think about her.  But, Katie Wynn loved it and Hopper may not have loved it but he (she?) at least tolerated it.

This one ended up being one of my favorites.  I just love her little hand resting on Hopper's back, like she knows to be sweet and gentle.

My sister in law, Beth, gets credit for editing these last two.  I think they turned out so sweet.

I just love this one of Bren.  She's squeezin' Hopper tight so he can't get away!

I'll be back soon with pictures from the rest of our Easter fun.  Oh, and you may have noticed that things are looking a little wonky around here.  Don't worry, I've been in touch with my Tech Support and we're working on it!  (By "we" I totally mean "he" is working on it.)  Hopefully we'll be giving this little blog a facelift in the next couple weeks!