Where I've Been/Halloween Costumes Part Two

After a fun weekend in San Antonio, we all came back sick. Paul's started out as allergies and Charlie and I had sniffles and stuffy noses. Charlie had his six month appointment Monday where it appeared he had the beginnings of an ear infection... plus shots, which equals fever for him. Meanwhile, my sniffles and stuffines have turned into a full blown cold and Paul woke up this morning thinking his is taking a turn for the worse too. So, yay, fun! My house is covered in boxes of Kleenex and crumpled up ones over flowing the trashcans (and the coffee table and bedside tables)... yikes.

Here's a picture with his poor little shot fever and stuffy nose

And in other news... our Halloween costumes are coming along well!!

Move over Leanne, I've got my Simplicity Beginner's Choice Level Two pattern from 1981 and I'm on a roll.

Quote from the beginning of the instructions:

"Smart you, you're about to sew something wonderful! Something that will fit better, look better, and be of better quality than things you buy. But, more importantly sewing will give you hours of pleasure and satisfaction. "

Umm, did that say hours?? Uh-oh, what did I get myself into!!!???

And the Winner is...

Lacey said...
Is it a hot dog stand?? I saw last night that in this months Parents magazine and I thought, maybe she read this and is using this??? So I got on to see your paper and noticed the letters could be that. So, that is my guess. Charlie a hotdog and you and your husband the hotdog vendors??
October 3, 2008 7:45 AM

Yes Lacey, you got it!!!! I cannot believe anyone guessed it. Here is a very bad picture of the picture in the magazine.

And a picture of the beginnings of our costume...

Halloween Costume

Ever since Halloween last year when I was pregnant, I've been trying to come up with a fun and easy costume idea that the three of us could do together for this year... after months and months of searching online, searching magazines, and wracking my brain (okay, so maybe I didn't work that hard for it...) I have finally found our costumes!!! It will be super easy and pretty cheap to concoct, but may take some time, so I'm already getting started...

Here's a glimpse of the beginnings of our costumes...

Any guesses??

*if you already know because we told you, please don't give it away just yet!!

A Good Day

Yesterday was one of those days I just want to bottle up and save for a not so good day. It was one of those crisp, busy, productive, fun, friendship days that makes me thankful for the life that I live. It was pretty ordinary but involved some of our best friends over for the entire day. The guys worked outside and made some pretty great progress on the beautiful deck (which I am so pleased to announce is almost finished!). The girls went for a walk with the babies then came home and subjected them to a long session of picture taking in matching outfits. (Sorry boys, when you can dress yourselves and actually move, you'll be able to get away from us :)

Then we went to the bookstore and strolled around getting GREAT deals on kids books and had coffee. We came home and messed up the house with all of our books, and babies, and stuff. It was the great kind of messy that feels fun, and lived in, and full. I promise Alisha- the mess didn't bother me at all! Then we put the babies to bed and the guys came in and we ate a great dinner of homemade ribs, cornbread (with the BEST butter) and salad. We laughed and ate and talked until it was dark and we were all exhausted and full.

Deck Progress

Hello, all. This is Paul and I'm at the airport awaiting my flight to Las Vegas. I'm very excited as it will be my first time there. I'm going there to attend a mining expo for work (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). Should be fun.



Anyway, I just wanted to give an update on the deck progress, mainly for Bethany, since we are still in two separate cities thanks to Ike.

A picture of K, from behind of course, to keep his anonymity.

I hope you like it Bethany. I love you!!!

Ike

It looks like we are going to be on the "dirty side" of Ike and have decided to hunker down. We live far enough north that we have been told to stay put, even though we could still face 75+ mph winds. We left the area during hurricane Rita a few years ago (which happened just after Katrina) and returned to find that hardly anything had hit our area. So this time, Paul is determined to stay. I just got back from Target, which was surprisingly uncrowded, and got a few canned goods, some water, and batteries. I just hope the power isn't out too long because I've got about 50 ounces of breastmilk in the freezer!!! Ack! Do you know how many hours of pumping that is for me??? It will be a very sad thing if I have to throw it all away...

And as for an update on the progress of our deck: here are three of the six beautiful posts that will hopefully be holding up the roof portion of our new deck... if they are all still there on Sunday!!! Here is a picture to record the work done by Paul, K, and another friend M. Only time will tell...

Five Months and FOOD!

Yesterday, Charlie turned 5 months old and we started rice cereal! I've been excited for weeks about this, since his doctor said he could start after his four month check up, but Paul wanted to wait until five months. So the day came, we were all excited... and well, Charlie seemed like he could take it or leave it. He just didn't really seem to care! He never cried for more or for me to stop. Maybe because it was that flavorless old rice cereal mush mixed with water, I don't know.

See what I mean? This morning we tried it again and I made the cereal a little thicker. We got a few smiles, but when I would stop feeding him he didn't really care.

In other news... Charlie is going to his first birthday party today! In our playgroup, one of the babies is turning one today and we are having a Monkey Party, so I offered to make the cake. I have to share it with you because I am so proud of myself!!!! :) It's really not much at all, but if you know us, you know Paul does all of the cooking in this family. I've been know to throw a few pans of brownies in the oven or maybe a casserole or two, but that's pretty much it. So even though the icing is a little (okay a LOT) less than smooth, I'm pretty happy with it!

Curb Appeal

Since the weather has suddenly become beautifully cool in the mornings (I'm sure it will only last a few days!) I was inspired to get some plants in pots by the front door and pull weeds in the garden. It was so nice to be outside and not feel like you were going to pass out from the heat. Charlie sat outside in his bouncy seat and we talked as he watched bugs fly by and me pulling weeds. One of our neighbors came over and chatted for a bit, and her daughter blew bubbles for Charlie to look at too.

I should have taken a picture of Charlie watching the bubbles outside, but didn't think of it at the time! Here's the little man inside, looking a little sleepy in some of the new clothes I got for him yesterday.
Paul has been working on our deck all day... we decided it would be so nice to put one in a LONG time ago, and we finally committed to it this week when we bought the lumber. His friend K has been helping- his hat can be seen here on the left. He prefers to remain anonymous on the internet. :P They have been working hard out there all day, we owe K big time!!!

While working outside, I also felt a little crafty and so decided to update this little sign by our front door. It says "Sweet Pea" and I had written on it with marker "Please knock softly, baby is sleeping" after about 10 different UPS/soliciting people had woken Charlie from his nap. It was adorable, but had just gotten a little faded from being out there for so long and kind of covered with bug stuff. Ew.

So, about half an hour and a table full of scrapbooking supplies later,

I had this...

Ah, much better! Though it won't be long, and this one will be covered in bug stuff too. Now if I could only hang my fall wreath and put out some pumpkins! Come on Fall!!!

Finished!

Since Charlie spent so much of his sick day sleeping, we were able to finally finish the living room painting project! I couldn't be happier with it! It really makes the room cozy and highlights the white accents like the mantle and the art nook...


I'm so glad that's finished... in the process of doing this I've come up with about 5 more projects around the house that I want to start on! Next up... curtains! Will post about them as they develop...

My {not so little} Project

I have painted nearly every room in the house. I love painting different colors and giving the house a cozy kind of feeling, but until now, our living room, the room we spend the most time in, has remained the blah yellowy-beige painted by the builder. I think I shyed away from tackling this project because of all the arched entryways, rounded corners, mantle, art nook, and windows that make up this space! But this weekend I started and now I have to finish. And I'm already so tired of my living room being in shambles that I'm trying to finish soon. Here are a few pics of the work in progress... the color I'm using is Timeless Taupe in Olympic paint. It's low odor, so there are really no fumes, which is great! The color sort of looks like silly putty when its wet (yeah, I was a little worried when I started painting!!!), but dries to the beautiful color of a Wendy's frosty! Yum! What do you think?

Finished!

Yesterday I finished the rest of the basket liners- they definitely went a LOT faster than the first one. Definitely not perfect, especially the little one- it was a lot harder. But filled with little baby things and diapers, they look great! I am so proud! :) Now I've just gotta find something else to occupy my mind and time for the next 3 and a half weeks, hmmmm...

One Down... (and four to go)

Okay I am completely amazed that I was able to actually make this thing!!! I just finished the first basket liner and I actually think it looks good! Now if you pull it out and look at all the corners and edges, its clearly home-made, but on the basket itself full of diapers, it actually looks great!!!!

I have to admit, yesterday, I thought this would be pretty easy. But when I got the comment from Robin that it wasn't an easy first project, and later got an e-mail from my loving mother-in-law offering to help, I started to lose my confidence! Now it did take me SEVERAL hours tonight, but I'm thinking the rest will be a little quicker. I'll have to work on those another night though... my back and neck are aching!!! This project involved a lot of sitting on the floor to pin and hunching over the sewing machine... a little difficult with this little boy in my belly!!! :) Anyway, here are a few pics of the first attempt...

This Week's Project

In order to keep my sanity this week, my next project is to make basket liners for the changing table baskets! I did as much as I could on the scrapbook for now... more will come later after the baby is here (I know, I know, probably won't happen for a while, but that's my plan!).

We got a great changing table from Robin (can you tell I learned how to do links today??), but the liners match the bedding she used, not Charlie's. So, I am being very ambitious and attempting my very FIRST sewing project ever! I got a sewing machine for Christmas last year (yes over a year ago) but have yet to make anything at all! So I pulled it out tonight and started taking apart one of the old basket liners to figure out how this is going to work.

I haven't bought fabric yet because I figured I should see if I was even going to be able to work the sewing machine, haha. But after about three hours of playing around with it, I think I've got at least a basic stitch down! So tomorrow, I'll head to the fabric store and then begin my first project. I'm feeling very domestic and motherly. My mom used to make me clothes! Now I don't know if I'll ever be to that point, but at least this is a start! I'll post more pics as the basket liners develop...

The trouble with scrapbooking...

...when you're eight months pregnant is all the hunching over and trying to lean over a table. My back is aching!!! Oh well... that's pretty much the trouble with everything when you're eight months pregnant. I've gotta figure out some kind of system to bring it all to the couch.

Here's a few more pics of the two latest pages I made...

Sane is Good

Thanks to the two of you that viewed my first blog entry and commented! :)

The other night, Paul and I were having a conversation... well really I was just talking a lot and he was listening (for the most part). I was trying to convey to him the emotions of this stage of pregnancy for me right now- the excitement, the exhaustion, the uncomfortableness, the anxiety, the desire to hold and see our baby, etc- and I kind of ended up describing it like feeling like I was a cat trapped in a box and then I did a weird hissing/claw motion to demonstrate. Come on, can't anyone relate? Well Paul could not. He laughed hysterically at me while I half laughed/half cried and then got up to pee for the 30th time that night.

Sooo after that conversation, I decided I needed to do something to keep my sanity. So I started a scrapbook! Now I am really not the scrapbooking type, but I have tons of materials and even a kit my mom got me when we first found out we were pregnant. So I literally spent 3-4 hours tonight scrapbooking! And loved it! So I told Paul that this will be my project this week so that I can stay sane. He responded with "Sane is good." I agree. :) I'm trying out the pictures in the blog thing, so hopefully you can see the beginnings of my sanity.