Halloween

I had so much fun making the kids costumes this year! Admittedly, they are all the same basic pattern (I made it up) with some details added to each. Ayla's unicorn costume probably took the longest because of the mane, but Kellen's adorable chipmunk one took about all of 20 minutes to complete! We had so much fun doing this photo shoot with Ashley here in Abilene. The kids were so cute and she got a ton of great pictures with great lighting.
I love these kids.
When I have a bad day and reflect after they have gone to bed.... I realize how lucky I am. 

Sometimes I make the wrong choice and yell at them when I really shouldn't. But overall, we all get along fabulously!

We invited the Wicked Witch into our house after Halloween this year, and it worked out great! The kids get just way too much candy, and I end up eating it over and over again... so we started inviting the WW. The kids pick out 15-20 of their favorite pieces of candy, and the rest goes into one bag. They hide it somewhere, and leave a note for the WW. She has to find it and takes it with her, and then she leaves a little gift. This year she left walkie talkies (or Honkey tonkies as Colton calls them!). And a note... it was fun!

Something for me

This week, I had big plans to finish a couple projects for some people we are visiting with over the next 2 months... and I didn't (yet) get any of them done! 

I have however made a couple things for me! Inspired by my favorite clothing designer, Andrea at  Gaia Conceptions , but unable to afford anything quite yet... I made my own! Here is my version of the Love me two times below the knee skirt/dress. I saved about $70!! 

I can't say that I got it perfect, but it is VERY comfy, and oh so versatile! It is a longer strapless dress, a shorter strapless dress, or just a skirt with a folded over waistband (below).

I even made another of the same version the next day... it is all brown and made from a little bit different knit, so I might have to fix it before our trip.

But then, I probably wouldn't get the other little projects I want to get done, done.... we will see what wins out!

Also, we are in the process of getting our house refinanced, so that is a big deal for us! We are going from a 6.5% rate to a 4.5%!!! So excited for that. But it does require a bit of paperwork to be done, so that will be fun while we are on the road!

PLUS, I am trying to get all registered to take some classes in the fall. I think I have done most of the legwork needed, but who knows... I am trying hard to just make it happen and quit putting it off. If I start school now, and get a bunch of the prerequisites done, I might be able to start nursing school in fall of 2013! We will see if that actually happens too, though!

The kids are excited to start school when they get back (RIGHT when we get back!) but right now, all they can think about is our trip. Colton is trying to imagine his birthday party, and wrap his mind around all the things we are doing on our way to Oregon, and what we are going to do when we get there. It will be busy, and fun. 

Soren is crawling all over the place, and finally discovered the stairs, so gates are once again in our lives. Too bad they aren't the nice ones we made in Montana. I loved those gates... most of the time!

So I think I am deciding to NOT blog while I am on "vacation". It will be hard to do anyways from the Ipad, so I think I will just let it go, and then fill in the blanks when we get back. But do not worry... it is only 2 months. I will probably do one more post before we leave though.


FYI:: I am back on Facebook, but I promise not to be on there too much!

Giveaway!!!

I decided I better host a giveaway... kind of like karma!
Lately, with all the luck at winning giveaways... best to give back right?

So here it is::
The winner gets to pick something from my Etsy shop! Anything... well, there isn't much to choose from, but you can pick one of the items still in the shop! There are some cute outfits and bibs! (no special orders, unless your willing to wait an undetermined amount of time, ha ha!)

Good luck!
All you have to do is leave a comment letting me know what your favorite item is, you can share if you like, but it doesn't get you an extra entry.. .just one per person.

I will then have someone in the house pick a random number (without any helping :)

You have one week... winner will be drawn next Friday, March 9 (in honor of Kellen's birthday!)


UPDATE:: Congrats Nicole McDonald! You won... Kellen picked number 3!

Some things for the littles

These are a couple things I have been working on in the last few weeks... and there are even more to come, however crazy that sounds! Little babe has not made an appearance as of yet, but my parents are coming to stay with us, starting today, so maybe that peace of mind will send me into labor?

I found this pattern in what is quickly becoming one of my favorite books to get little people patterns from:: Meg McElwee's Growing Up Sew Liberated. I absolutely love how it turned out! It is in a 0-6 month size, and it looks a little big around the neck, but I think it will do just fine! The little pilot hats are from Meg's website, and were so easy to make (once I had all the necessary materials), and I made two for us and one for cousin Elin.

And these are the pants I made for baby Elin. The moment we found out she was a "she" I set to work on these.  I love them. And I hope Elin's mommy does too. (I know they are pink on one side, but it is a cute polka dotty pink!)

Hope everyone's Wednesday is going well.
Anything particularly inspiring out there?
Yesterday, during our science expedition on our walk, the kids had such a great time finding the differences in trees! They happily ran to each tree, and said how the bark was soft or rough, the leaves were big or small, pokey or flat, etc. It was a great "lesson" and I felt like we learned something, even it was just observations. (School is going great for now, by the way!)

Another Ayla one

My sweet girl. Here were her birthday presents from us. We tried to keep it simple this year, and I made her a cape (that will double as a Halloween prop for her) and I bought her a pair of Livie and Luca shoes, that I am absolutely in love with! Seriously these shoes are so cute. Kellen has a cute pair of them also. Today she received her bike from Grammy, and she is love with that also! It is a 16" bike as opposed to her 12" one, so it fits her a bit better. It is a mini cruiser, and oh, so, cute! I will post pictures later of that. Thanks Grammy! :)

Ayla's butterfly birthday party

Ayla decided on a butterfly birthday party... I admit I was trying to get her away from PRINCESS!

But we thought we would invite some of the little girls that we know over for a little butterfly fun... Coincidentally we had just done "B" in our homeschool curriculum, and had a fun little butterfly craft, so I bought extra stuff so the girls could make one too.
That was fun. It is super hard to keep 5 little girls, between the ages of 3 and 6, all doing the same thing... very hard.
But it was only for an hour and a half :)
We planned on the craft, playing dress up, and getting to know each other. That lasted all of about 10 minutes.... we managed to get them excited about the pinata that Tyler built (again, a great job!!) They had fun beating that and getting the candy.
Then it was open presents time... Ayla was very happy.
Then cake and ice cream... well DQ ice cream cake and some cupcakes that I had made that morning. We do miss our Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, but this one will do :)
It was a great birthday party, and now we have a big 4 year old. Now let's see if we can convince her that she can wipe herself!

A Family Tree

I found this tutorial a while ago, and absolutely loved it. However, I did some tweaking and came up with my own take.
Family is pretty big around here... in every sense! I have four brothers and sisters, Tyler has 3; add them all together with extended family=a big, crazy bunch! So I thought, A Family Tree! We need a family tree! So here is my rendition:Tyler and I's leaves are in the middle, our parents are in pairs above "us" (3 pairs; Tyler has two sets!), and the three kids are below to the left side of the screen. I chose boy/girl fabric to kind of distinguish between who's who.
The back is a pocket pillow, and I used a 18x18 bamboo pillow.
Absolutely LOVE! It is one of our family Christmas presents, so it is put away for now. But I may break it out early.

I am thinking of making them for special order. Let me know if you are interested:)

Truthful Tuesday (late) and WIP

Truthful :: mess on the kitchen table. But, seriously led to a very productive day! (check out WIP next!)
WIP :: I finished SO much yesterday! A birthday crown and name banner for a bday girl in less than 2 weeks! A O + S shirt for said girl; a stack of diapers (in exchange for pictures, I love bartering!); 2 diaper wraps for Kellen; a pillow for my 17 (?) year old niece... hope I can get the matching quilt done before xmas!
Today (wednesday) I spent the day rearranging and cleaning the house... something I opted not to do yesterday!
AND... here is Kellen getting his first taste of solids! Sweet Potatoes (same as Ayla)So cute!

Kellen's new pants... I'm in love!

Kellen needed some 12 month pants (not exactly RIGHT NOW, but soon :)) and I saw this recipe for adorableness in a book from the library called Handmade Beginnings by Anna Marie Horner. THEN I saw that Amanda, over at Soulemama made some for Harper... I was hooked! So, I went out to the garage and dug through my fabric, and found some perfect for the project. I decided to make 5 paira of 12 months! (they are reversible, so really 10!)

Look at the ducks and chicks! ;)I couldn't be happier with how they turned out perfect for my little babe!next week will continue thankful thursdays (hopefully!) We are off to camp in Canada early tomorrow morning... this time we are keeping the bear spray readily available!!!

My most treasured handmade item

I guess it is not your traditional handmade item, but it is my all time favorite: a journal my mom has kept for me, and only me, since I was about 2 years old. Each of my brothers and sisters have one, and my mom let us read them when we were interested. We read our own, each others. I remember laughing and crying at most of the entries. I absolutely LOVE that my mom did this for us.
And I have kept one for each of my kids since basically the day we found out we were pregnant. I read back through and it helps me remember just how great my kids are. And reading back through mine, it makes me remember just how much my mom really does, and always has loved me.

last weeks visitors

We had so much fun with our 4th of July visitors! Granna and Papa; Jaden my niece; and Noel (my brother) and his boyfriend Justin. The kids loved having an older cousin to play with (she's 7), and of course, grandparents here is always great. Throw in a couple uncles, and you get some spoiled kids! But we had a lo of fun! I hadn't seen my brother in about 2 years (!) and had never met Justin. Also, having Jaden around was great... she is such a sweet, thoughtful little girl.
A trip was made to Glacier... too bad the weather wasn't cooperative! We drove up the going to the sun road, and it was rainy and very windy. Still beautiful though!
We also ventured to the Stumptown Art Studio in Whitefish, and painted some pottery... more on that later.
For Wednesday WIP, Kellen has some new drool handkerchiefs... so cute! I also made Jaden and Ayla matching skirts, and some banner parts for Colton's bday! Jaden even got some sewing in while she was here, and made herself a banner for her room. sp cute and sweet to teach her a bit about sewing!

Look for posts in near future from Colton's bday and our 4th of July! Happy Wednesday!