Sew awesome!

I haven't blogged much this month because... we've been pretty busy. Life is full, but good. Caleb and Chloe both nap well, and sometimes even at the same time, so I have been taking advantage of that! I think Chloe will have a good assortment of baby pictures. She and I get to hang out sometimes during Caleb's afternoon nap and I try to take some pictures of just her. The first child is so spoiled, getting all the undivided attention... :)

 

Hi!!!

 

We have been undertaking several sewing projects lately! I say "we" because sometimes Caleb helps... and with the furniture ones, Grammy and I have been working together.



First up: new pillow covers for the living room

I wanted something "springier" that would tie in with the red throw
and the Turkish rug we are using. This was insanely quick and easy,
and only used 1/2 yard of fabric for two pillows. Low cost, big improvement. :)

Next up: slipcovering the chair and ottoman.
The ottoman was also pretty easy... the chair may be a little harder. :)
I still need to finish hemming the ottoman cover.

 I have been able to get a fair amount of sewing/crafting done while the kids are napping! Working with pins and sharp scissors is not very compatible with kids, I have discovered. ;) I do a lot of "getting things out" and "putting things away" when sewing during naps. I did leave the sewing scissors out on the table once. And Caleb is getting taller... He actually had very good motor control and snipped a hole into my brand-new pillow fabric. Thankfully, he did not cut himself, and there was just enough fabric left, working around the tear, to salvage it for the pillow covers. I learned my lesson.

We have template pieces cut and pinned for the body of the chair (using old sheets).
Next step will be piecing the back and seat cushions, and refining the pattern
before cutting the actual fabric (which started out life
as a set of queen bedsheets, the blue stripes in the background).

I recently threw together a rag quilt for my friend Katy, who's having a girl in August
(their fourth child and second girl)

More sewing!! Here's a new table runner to summer-ize our kitchen!
Again, it provides a good punch of color without using a ton of fabric.

When taking pictures at kid level, I noticed there were often unsightly things in the background. Trash can, backpack/purse storage, shredder... not stuff we need to be looking at. Especially when we COULD be focusing on the most adorable faces on the planet! Or something like that. :) I am biased... 

My original project/intent for this fabric was a
desk skirt to hide the messy things underneath.
The table runner above was bonus!

So I made a desk skirt, also very easy, only straight lines of sewing. Now, it doesn't exactly blend in to the surroundings... subtle it is not. Pretty and soft and cheerful, yes. I call it a success. (Thanks, Mom for providing the tension rod!)

My next project (in addition to finishing the blue stripey slipcovers) is going to be a quilted table runner. I really want to get into quilting, and this is a smallish project to get my feet wet. I've been watching YouTube videos by the Gourmet Quilter, a very sweet gentlewoman with a New Zealand accent. :) I am excited to use up the scraps I have-- I have quite a few bits and pieces from previous projects that I can hopefully cut up into strips or squares and make new, unexpected projects! Stay tuned!

Homemade finger paint!

It was one of those days... I was at the end of my wit's end, and needed something fun and stress-relieving for Caleb and me to do together. Enter homemade finger paint! A little cornstarch and water (and food coloring) later... and voila! It was pretty easy! I just Googled "homemade finger paint" and tried one of the recipes.

 

Can you tell I made a red velvet cake in the past....
so red (and thus purple, orange, and brown) are missing? Caleb didn't seem to mind.

starting to get into it

cool....

It was very fun, and a nice way to wile away an hour or so. We will have to try it again soon!

Caleb's Corner, Spring 2013

Caleb is also a joy and a delight to me, as is his sister Chloe. :) I thought I'd share a few photos of Caleb from the last few months.

Where did Caleb go.....

Getting warmer...

There he is!!!

Hmm...

There he is again!!!

We had a special family movie night recently where we ate dinner in the living room and watched the Tigger Movie together.

When Caleb sported a green striped polo one Sunday morning, Sean remembered a picture we have from when he himself was around three years old. What do you think?

so cheesy

No more kisses, Daddy!!

We found a snail outside and Caleb was absolutely fascinated. He loves being outside, and we have had some really nice weather of late.

Chloe's a movin'!

She goes from this....

to this!

...to this.

I just love watching her sleep

Chloe rolled over from her back to her tummy the other day for the first time, and I MISSED IT! I had laid her on her back on a blanket in the kitchen and took Caleb to his room for naptime. When I came back, she was nonchalantly chewing on a toy... on her tummy!

see?

I think I love this little face more each day, if that's possible

Chloe has also started making a funny growling sound in her throat... it's pretty funny!

We are pretty much used to the "new normal" of having two kids. Things are doable; it's just full. The infant season seems to be going by much faster this time... probably because of The Toddler. :)

4-month photo shoot

These photos are a month old already!!! But they are too cute NOT to share. I tend to take several more pictures than I need to when I am taking her "___ months old today" shots. She is an absolute delight to us. Enjoy!

Easter!

We had a full Easter weekend! I know it's more than a month after the fact, but I wanted to share some family photos.

In order to worship as a family, we went to the sunrise service at my parents' church (Grace Baptist); the 9 a.m. worship service at our church (The Harbor); and then they went to Grace's 10:30 service while Sean, the kids & I had a potluck/egg hunt for the kids at our church. Then we all rendezvous'd at Mom and Dad's house for an Easter meal-- YUM! Lamb, salad, homemade wheat rolls, roasted sweet potatoes, I can't even remember all the yummy foods we had. My mom makes so many delicious veggies and whole-wheat, from-scratch bready things. I am sooo spoiled. :) We have really been enjoying her "experimenting" with new flours like spelt, an "ancient grain" of sorts that is very much like flour, but with a delicious sweet/nutty flavor. I really love the flavor of spelt biscuits. Okay, enough about the food...

The sunrise service was really neat. We were outside in a covered portico of the church, and there was some singing, and a message by Pastor Greg. I must admit we all (mostly Caleb) were distracted by a snail crawling along the ground in front of us, especially as it made its way up Sean's coffee thermos! Caleb brought up the service out of the blue a few days later-- "Orange man talk to us about Jesus?" He says a lot of "_____ man" type things (wrong-way man [doing a u-turn], pink [shirt] mommy, etc.). It was cute, because Pastor Greg had been wearing an orange dress shirt that day. Caleb is soaking in things!

frilly family photo! Chloe is smiling at her brother

My grandparents came up from Redlands for Easter weekend. It was so good to see them. They delight in their great-grandbabies. I have NEVER seen my grandpa get so excited and goo-goo over anything/anyone else like he does his great-grandchildren. :) Pretty special.

Legos in the living room

Chloe's second outfit of the day... we improvised after some spit-up on her  Easter dress
(which used to be MY Easter dress when I was a tiny little girl)

our good buddy Cameron came over for the meal

Cameron is a long-time friend of ours; we all met around the same time while he and Sean were both going through training here at Vandenberg in Spring '09. He was stationed in Colorado Springs with us for 2009-2012; and now he is here in the same squadron as Sean yet again. We are soooo thankful to have such a good friend here... someone with whom you have lots of shared history and memories and jokes. 

The three of us did a 10k race last summer when I was about 10 weeks pregnant with Chloe. (We basically coerced Cam to do it with us, heehee.) I had been feeling sick for several weeks before the race, and had not been working out, but we still did it. Let me also say this... It was in Colorado (high altitude)... and the first four miles were uphill. Boom. Even if I had been in shape, it would have been challenging. I walked a fair amount of it. And the guys stayed with me for a majority of it. :) They did go ahead at one point, made it to the turn-around point, and when I met them coming the other way, they did the rest with me. That meant so much to me. I was pretty bummed that I was so slow. I think it took us 90 minutes and we were THE last people to cross the finish line. (Don't tear down the finish line yet, guys! Guys? Hey, guys! We're coming!!) But oh well. It was still a really fun experience AND we got T shirts just like everyone else!! 

So that was our Easter this year! It seemed pretty hectic in the morning, but we had a relaxing afternoon and were able to think about what Jesus did for us on the cross so long ago.

He is risen!! He is risen indeed.

{12 in 13} Photo recap, January-April

Here is a photographic update of my monthly adventures! It's hard to believe we are almost halfway through the year 2013.

January: potty train Caleb

juice in hand, Caleb points to the success in the potty...

We spent three weeks working on this skill, and saw lots of progress! There were also lots of ups and downs... days with no misses, days with about 50/50 success, days with several misses.... then the day Caleb decided he'd rather go potty in his pants than stop playing to go sit on a toilet. Honestly, I got tired of wrangling the meltdowns and decided to take a break. I'd say, "Time to try and go potty!" He'd say, "NO!" and either fall down on the floor and scream/cry, or run away to the farthest corner of the room, or down the hall (which was actually almost funny, but not when it started happening several times a day). I got tired of spending so much of the day calming him down, talking through it, and finally sitting on the potty for a moment or two, then doing it over again an hour or two later. I was ready to be able to leave the house and buy groceries again! :)

So... he's in diapers again, for now. We know that he knows HOW to use the potty. He can definitely do it on command. I am just going to give it a rest and see if he's willing to try again in a month or two.

February: love deliveries

The love deliveries were a success! I had a couple good conversations with neighbors, and it has opened the door to more conversations with one neighbor named Carl who we see regularly, puttering in his garage. I was extremely excited to receive a couple of thank-you notes in the mail from people I didn't personally connect with, just left the little basket on their doorstep. It's very exhilarating to give love away, in even a minor way like a heart-shaped cookie and some cake balls. :)

March: start a garden

A few weeks ago, Caleb and I planted a bunch of flower seeds in an old egg carton. Our impatiens and alyssum seeds have just started to sprout, and we are waiting for the nasturtiums to appear. We also "adopted" four potted strawberry plants from Grammy and Papa's garden. There are several red berries on each plant, so we are excited to see how they taste in a few weeks!

Sometimes I forget what kids don't know, and specifically what Caleb doesn't know... When we were first getting familiar with the strawberries, I asked him to "water the strawberries" with our watering can. He poured water directly onto the biggest strawberry! I quickly realized I needed to clarify that the best way to water strawberries is to water the dirt beneath them. It was super cute. He responded very literally to my instructions.

April: read the Bible and pray for 30 days

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.... 

 I am loving my morning quiet times! I've kept with it, even beyond April (which was sort of the goal). I'm starting to enjoy getting up early, after that initial groggy period. I can hardly believe I just wrote the words enjoy and early in the same sentence. I think it might be getting easier as my body gets conditioned to waking up at 6 every (week)day. It makes a HUGE difference in the rest of the day when I am able to spend time in the Word before Caleb gets up. Love him to pieces, but it's just not the same if I try to read after he is up and moving and talking. :) I read Matthew for the first 28 days of April, then moved on to Mark and started Luke about a week into May. It's really, really good to get in the Word, something I knew but just never quite got around to doing most of the time.

I promise not to ONLY blog about {12 in 13}! I just wanted to share a few photos to go along with the commentary. :)

COMING UP! 
May: complete Bull Canyon Run 5k
June: try a refined-sugar fast
July: sew, sew, sew
Aug: look into homeschooling resources
Sept: open Etsy shop
Oct: memorize a chapter of Scripture
Nov: prepare for Christmas/Advent season
Dec: make & execute a "giving list", not a getting list