Macey's Mini Feast.

Macey's pre-school had a mini feast today in honor of Thanksgiving. She has been looking forward to it for SO LONG! Each child was supposed to bring a finger food. We were told to 'get creative'.... so I made these babies. They turned out to be so cute! After we got them all ready to go Macey requested that she wear a "long dress" to school. How could I say no to that? Here she is cheesing it up, waiting for carpool!

She came home with a white piece of felt around her neck and a white hat. She got to be a pilgrim! How cute is that!? I tried to get a picture of her but she was too fast. By the time I retrieved the camera from downstairs she had already changed into her pajamas. :)

Bawl baby.

So Macey came home from preschool on Thursday with a cute piece of paper that had her hand print on it and a poem. She asked me "what it says", so I read it to her..... and while I was reading it I started CRYING!! She looked at me like, what in the crap is wrong with you? It's just a hand!! It totally reminded me of when my Mom would read a story out of The New Era or The Ensign to me. She would almost always cry... and I would always roll my eyes. Funny how things come around full circle, huh?

I still can't even read it without tearing up. I decided I don't want my baby girl to grow up anymore.

Christmas? Check.

I'm a little crazy and started thinking Christmas in August. No, I wasn't listening to Jingle Bells or anything like that... but I was planning, bargain shopping, crafting, etc. I've had this project done since September and have just been itching to post about it! But I could never find the right time to take pictures of it since Macey is my shadow from sun up til' sun down. I finally took some pics tonight after she was in bed... and I got all excited again! :)

So my friend and I were shopping at a craft outlet and found a trunk for $10. It was regularly $65. That's a deal that I couldn't pass up.. so I bought the plain wooden trunk and made a very girly dress up trunk out of it! I am thrilled with the results. I don't know who's going to be more excited on Christmas morning... Macey or me! :)

Before:

After:

The original plan was to just paint it cream with pink trim and paint all the metal pieces black... but I  love polka dots too much. :) The picture doesn't show it well, but there are pink polka dots and very light pink polka dots. I do need to put a finish on still so it's nice and shiny.

Inside with all the goods:

Crown:

The crown is made of felt, I hand-stitched the pieces because I am not a precise seamstress. :) Attached is an elastic with a fabric cover.

Princess hat:

This bad boy was a pain in the butt. I bought one of those super flimsy foam hats at a craft store for like a dollar, then covered it in fabric, ric rac, gems and lots of ribbons. It has an elastic at the bottom to go under the chin which you can't see. I should have had more of a plan when I attacked this project, it was a lot of trial and error before I got to where I liked it.

Wand:

I don't know why that picture is sideways. And it's almost midnight so I'm over it. :) The wand was semi-easy. A little messy. It's just a dowel painted and then 2 felt stars hand-stitched together and filled with batting and then stuffed with ribbon.

Necklaces:

Ugh. Same thing with the picture. Weird. Anyway, I love these necklaces... they were super easy and cheap to make! They are both strung on heavy duty elastic. The pictures don't give them justice at all, they are very pretty and blingy. One is hot pink with pink crystals, the other one is dark green and blue.

Superhero masks:

Oh my gosh these are probably my favorite. I have several pictures of me wearing these... but I won't post those. :P I found a free pattern online and just traced it onto felt, cut it out and decorated! SUPER easy and probably took 5 minutes.

Superhero cape:

I just winged this baby. I am not a pattern follower at all. I get an idea in my head and I go with it... looking back I probably should have done a little research. I could have saved some time. But overall am very pleased with it! The reverse side of the cape is light pink. The button says "Girl Power".

twirly skirt:

Macey loves twirling in skirts... so I thought a longer skirt with lots of fun colors would be fun for her. And I wanted to do something other than tulle. Turned out very cute and again, super easy!

Shoes:

The only item in the trunk that I didn't make. They were $4 at Walmart. Mace is going to flip!

I figure the overall cost for me was about $30. I had almost all of the items on hand, which was super nice! I am going to make one more twirly skirt for Macey and then I am done with it. Maybe another pair of dress up shoes. :) I'm very pleased! And I know she is just completely going to freak out on Christmas morning. All of this stuff is right up her alley!

Hooray for homemade Christmas gifts! I probably won't be able to get away with it for long with her before it becomes "uncool".  :) I also have a few other projects underway but can't exactly post them here because certain people read a certain blog. ;)

Family Picture.

I've had the shirts for our family picture hanging up in my closet for over 3 months, now. I could just never bring myself to actually want to get my picture taken. I've never been one to love the camera, especially after having a baby! It's like my body goes into "what in the crap just happened to me?!" mode for a long time after having a baby. A lot of women can come home from the hospital in their old jeans... I'm lucky if I can fit into my maternity stuff again because I'm so swollen! I can't remember how many times people told me "oh you will love the first week after having the baby because the weight just falls off". Really? Where exactly did it fall off? Because with both of my babies I wasn't able to get ANY weight to budge for a lonnnng time. I am just now starting to kick it into high gear and really try hard. I'm not one where I can go for a walk around my neighborhood and I lose 5 lbs. :) Heck, if I even look at a donut I gain 3 lbs! I just completed my first week without any sugar. My goal was to make it until yesterday and then I could reward myself. I did, and now my goal is to make it 2 weeks without sugar and then I can reward myself (within reason... I let myself have 1 cookie yesterday and 1 today). On top of no sugar I follow weight watchers loosely, and am starting back up on P90X. On days that are nice outside I'm going to go run... I gotta get back in shape for my sister getaway in May (we run a 5k together). Oh... so what was I talking about? Right, my family picture. (Can you tell how self conscious I am right now?)

I finally said stuff it, let's do it now while Collin will still fit into his shirt (barely) and the weather is somewhat warm! It's not about how I look and feel, it's all about the kids, right? :) So we got everyone ready, loaded up our camera and tripod and set up camp in a park across the street from the temple. We set the tripod on top of a picnic table. :) I was surprised that we were able to get a halfway decent one all by ourselves!! There was no way we could get Collin to look at the camera with nobody behind it and with leaves all around! But we said good enough, so here is what y'all are getting on your Christmas card.

Another dose of Macey.

 Macey posing with Kitty in a skirt I made for her (and flower) before preschool.

Sometimes Randy and I just lay in bed laughing about what funny things Macey said that day. We ask each other "what was your favorite Moo today?" or "what was your favorite Bubbas today?" I love it because a lot of times I will go to bed so exhausted and just done with kids. Talking about what cute things they did/said refreshes and excites me for a new day! :)

Yesterday night we were driving home from IKEA and I got stuck behind a sllooowww driver (my mom used to call them D.W.O.'s... Driving While Old) and Macey asked me why I was driving so slow. I told her because the lady in front of me is driving slow. After contemplating this for a minute she asked, "can you tell her to give it some gas?!" 

The other day we were checking out at a craft store and Macey found a stuffed cat that looked exactly like our kitty by the register. She picked it up, noticed the uncanny resemblance and yelled, "Oh my gosh! This fing is digusting!!" The clerk was laughing so hard when I told her why Macey probably thought it was creepy. :)

We have a box in our basement that is Macey's favorite toy right now. She was trying to stuff Kitty into it and close the lid so she would be stuck but Kitty jumped out right before Mace could close the lid. Macey got really mad and yelled out, "YOU TRAITOR!"


 

This kid.

I can't believe Collin is almost 7 months old!

Some things you may not know about this kid:

His nickname is "Bubbas" or "The Bubbas" (no idea where it came from, but it stuck).

This kid can roll around a room like it's nobody's business!

He still won't hold his bottle.

He is either too busy playing with my face

or too busy rubbing his blanky on his face.

Is ready to crawl any day now.

He is a blanky baby and a binky baby!

Love it.

All you have to do is put his blanket up by his face and his eyes roll back.

This kid ADORES his big sister.

Weighs over 18 lbs.

His favorite toys are his swing, jumper and Macey's play piano.

LOVES applesauce, bananas, prunes, sweet potatoes and peaches. Thinks carrots and green beans are just ok. Give him a Saltine cracker and it'll keep him entertained for a good half hour. :)

He's a squawker. Seriously, he loves to squeal and squawk in the highest pitch voice.

Makes Randy a little nervous. ;)

Every time I take him somewhere people ask me if he's teething.

No, he's just a super slobbery baby!

No teef yet.

Macey likes to remind him of that when

he tries to steal her food.

This kid lucked out in the eye department.

He inherited Randy's deep blue eyes and looong eyelashes.

He is SUCH a happy baby.

No matter when the last time he took a bath was,

he has stinky toes.

I LOVE this kid. :)

The grad.

I'm on a posting frenzy, and it feels so good!

So, this is Randy's last semester of school. EVER! I am so proud of him and all the hard work, dedication and patience he has put into it all. Being a music major at BYU is no little task. Part of his major requirement was for him to take lessons for whatever musical instrument got him accepted into the major in the first place. The cello. It has been so fun listening to him practice his pieces... he practices an hour every day! His instrument playing (he can play any instrument, he's a natural and I'm jealous) has been put on hold while he focuses more on school. His official major is audio recording, so technically... it has nothing to do with playing an instrument, but it is in the music major... so really it has EVERYTHING to do with playing an instrument. ;) I'm glad that they make it this way because these guys have such an ear for music (I'm told I have a really lousy ear, cause Randy doesn't like the songs I like) and that makes them more competitive and valuable. Anyway, so it has been a lot of fun for our little family to sit in the front room and listen to him play. A few weeks ago he had a recital at an old folks' home in Provo. I was so excited to see Randy in action again! He's been in orchestras pretty much all his life, and when I met him he was in the Philharmonic at BYU (he's been on TV before, people)! :) So for him this was really no big deal at all, but for us it was so exciting! Macey has never seen Randy perform before.

I figured it's an old folks' home... they love kids, right? I'll be the hit of the night with a crazy toddler and a baby! Riiiiight. Turns out, the old folks didn't care so much about the kids... but thoroughly enjoyed watching (let's be honest, I don't know how much hearing goes on in that place) Randy! I was trying to stifle my laughter... Randy was surrounded by women! I think I only saw 1 man there.

 They loved it! Except for one woman, who got up in the middle of a performance and walked out. As she was leaving she looked at me and said "I hate that kind of music." HAHAHA! It was all classical! That made my night. Randy did fantastic and when he got up some women got up with him and followed him to his seat so they could ask him questions (or check him out). :)

It was a fun night, but really the highlight of the night was while Randy was playing Macey yelled "GO DADDY!" It was too cute to tell her to be quiet.... but also really embarrassing. :) She loved watching him perform, too.