The stocking were hung by the chimney with care

The inspiration (I like the design of the polka dot one, but the colors of the striped one):The cost of the inspiration: $24.95 + shipping and tax

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My homemade version:

The cost of my knockoff: about $8 in fabric and an hour and a half

Now to be honest, I probably would have bought the cute stocking from the catalog, but last year I made Michael and I's stocking and they are facing the opposite direction as the one from Crate and Barrel. Now we all know that hanging stockings in different directions is just nonsense! And plus, all of our stocking are the same size (Santa doesn't discriminate) and coordinating colors. Although I am tempted to redo the two I made last year. Evelyn's is by far the cutest of the three!

(Yep, it is true. If you notice from the picture, we are using pieces from our nativity scene to hold up the stockings. Baby Jesus for Evelyn's, I get a Shepard and Michael gets a Wise man! All very appropriate, wouldn't you say! Hopefully I will find some stocking holders on sale after Christmas this year!)

wordless...tuesday?!?

not much to say...so here are some pictures. (taken with my shiny new early Christmas present of course!)

headache = flowers

Yesterday afternoon I got the worst headache that I have EVER had. It was just terrible. I was nauseous, could barely stand up, and the light hurt my eyes. Poor Evelyn had to entertain herself for a few hours until Michael got home. Then I went to bed.

I was feeling much better this morning. And then this afternoon I got this delivered to the house from my husband:

Hmmm...I think my headache is coming back again! (wink, wink) =)

When the husband is away...

...the wife will play. Ok, not really, but I have been pretty productive around the house. I finally got our master bathroom painted. I got the color right after spending an hour at Sherwin Williams trying to "fix" my original purchase of "meditative" blue. I think the sales guy just kept adding gray and some lavender to get the color I was looking for. It turned out just right.



Let's see, I also organized the office as best I could with the furniture that we currently have. My sewing machine is still on the floor and there are still two big boxes of cords and wires that I have no idea what to do with.


I have also been enjoying some "not-so-Michael-friendly" dinners. Tonight it was roasted butternut squash and cauliflower. Last night was sauteed mushrooms with some mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top, and the night before a big bowl of broccoli, and the night before that was plain pasta with some Parmesan cheese. I think Michael would be begging for some meat by now if he was home!


(oh, and just for the record I got a text late the other night: "Played for 3 hours. Lost 98 dollars." Can you guess where the husband may be????)

8 months

Evelyn is 8 months old today. This is definitely my favorite age so far. She is so fun and playful and laughs A LOT! Here is the update on what she is doing now...

• She has completely mastered crawling and pulling up on things. She goes from room to room looking for new things to get into!
• She can "walk" around the coffee table while holding on to the side
• Sometimes, she even tries to let go and is able to stand by herself for a few seconds before she falls down.
• Giving hi-fives
• Waving bye-bye
• She loves feeding herself finger-foods, although I end up cleaning half of her meal out of her chair when she is done!
• She just started signing "more" at meals
• She has her first tooth and another one on the way!
• She is sleeping through the night like a pro!! (mama likes this one quite a bit!)
• She can say "ba ba", "da da", and "ma ma"
• Swinging at the park is a new favorite afternoon activity
• She loves being tickled under her arms
• And, she is wonderful at stealing other kid's pacifies and sippy cups at church!

Love note

Dear Beehive Baby Spoons,

You are the cutest thing I have seen in a VERY long time. I am sure that I will be dreaming of you tonight and longing for you at dinner this evening when I am feeding my daughter with a plain, mundane plastic spoon. I hope the tears do not spoil her mashed sweet potatoes. Your backside is perfect in every way...cute and elegant at the same time. And the simplicity of your design...perfection. I promise that once I have an extra $22.00 + shipping in my wallet to buy a spoon, I will come after you and take you home with me. Please wait for me. I love you.

Always yours,
k






front:





back:






(via Ohdeedoh)

fall back

I am convinced that the person who came up with the idea of having a time change did not have children with scheduled bed times! I would like to kindly invite him or her over to help get Evelyn to go to bed an hour later and then wake up an hour later. Geez!!

Evelyn's new clothes

I went to Target to look for some pants for Evelyn (since the 6 month ones she has now look more like capris than full length pants) and although they didn't have what I was looking for, I found this cute outfit. It was a steal for only $4.88 for the dress and the leggings! I had to restrain myself from buying all of the cute clothes that I put in the cart, asking myself "Does she REALLY need this??" It was just plain hard to pass up such a good deal! All of the baby clothes were on sale up to 80% off! Darn Dave Ramsey and the silly budget!! (just kidding of course!)

Good blog to check out

One of my best friends and old college roommates is a pediatric dietitian living in the "weird" city of Austin. Both being Aggies, I forgive her. =) Anyway, a few months ago she started a blog here. It has all kinds of info on nutrition recommendations for kids of all ages, food product reviews, comments on current research and nutrition news, food ideas, recipes, and tips for creating healthy eating behaviors with your kids.

I would recommend that all of my mommy friends check it out!!

Happy eating!

This blog needs a little more Evelyn

too funny (or creepy) not to share

You have to check this out.

Cape

So I totally copied Sarah, but I couldn't resist. The ideas was just too cute!

I made a super cape for my niece's birthday last weekend. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before I gave it away. But no worries....I made another for another niece who has an upcoming birthday in November. (Shawna-if you are reading this, don't spoil the surprise for Ellie! She will get it in the mail soon!) =)

I made both of the capes reversible. One side with a tiara and their initial and the other side with a Superman symbol. Here are pictures of the second cape:

All tied up with a bow and ready to send:

One room down...

MANY more to go.

I was certain that I would be all moved-in, un-boxed, and settled into the new place by now. WOW, was I mistaken! Trying to unpack, paint, organize, clean, and make a quick run to Target for supplies with a 7 month old sure is harder than I thought! I guess it doesn't help that I changed paint colors after we had already painted the majority of the walls! OOPS! (side note: if any of my friends are good with color, design, and decorating please let me know so that we can become better friends! I would love for you to hang out over here. And while you are here you could give me some tips!) Anyway, the funny thing is that Michael ended up picking out the final color and I love it! Who knew...my husband the interior designer!

I have completed one room in the house so far. Other than painting the 12 foot ceilings, it was pretty easy. Here are some pics of Evelyn's room. I am SO happy with the way it turned out.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

More pics of the rest of the house to come as we SLOWLY finish!

It's ours!!

We are homeowners!! Here are some pictures that the seller took and e-mailed to us of the "SOLD" sign in front of OUR home.




I can't wait to move in!

(I promise to post about things other than the new house soon!)

Katy...here we come!!

I am about to leave to go close on our house this morning! Oh my! How exciting! I mean, you only buy your first house once! We won't actually be able to move into the house until next week (since we are doing a lease-back...which means that we will be leasing the house back to the sellers for a week until they close on another house). So I will be sure to post pictures once we are moved in. I am planning on painting the house next Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday with my mom. Well, paint as much as we can while watching Evelyn at the same time! Any volunteers wanting to help?!?! =) Right now the WHOLE house is yellow. Yes, yellow. Banana peel yellow. Not bad, but it is a bit overwhelming to see EVERY SINGLE wall in the house the same color!

We are planning on moving next Saturday. We rented a U-Haul and are moving ourselves, with the help of friends. (morgan-let's hope Rob doesn't get hurt again this time!!)

So, right now I am waiting for Evelyn to get up so we can leave. I will be dropping her off at my mom's house and then meeting Michael at the title company. Oh my! =)

a costume and a dress

Saturday Michael was gone most of the day helping out a friend, so after I put Evelyn down for a nap, I began working on her Halloween costume. I finished the dress part of bumblebee costume in just an hour, and all I need now is to make some wings and antenna. I think it turned out really cute. I made a basic dress pattern by tracing out one of the dresses she already owns onto a brown paper bag, did some research online on how to gather a skirt, cut fabric, sewed on some yellow felt stripes, and viola...the beginnings of a costume. It was much easier than I thought and she looks super cute in it!

Here is the bodice pattern I cut out:

I gathered the skirt by sewing a zig zag stitch over a strand of yarn and then pulling the yarn to form the gathers after I pinned it to the bodice piece:

The bodice before I sewed on the yellow stripes:

Evelyn modeling the bodice to make sure it fit ok:

The finished dress! (still needs wings and antenna to finish it off):

Being inspired by the costume and realizing how simple it is to make a dress, I ran out to Joann's on Monday to get some more fabric to make her another dress. This one is still a bit big, but will fit her in just a few weeks. What do you think?

***oops...I forgot to mention that I got the pattern for the second dress here***

6 months

Evelyn turned 6 months old last week. Where did the time go? Everyone that already has kids always tells me how they "grow up so fast" and now I truly believe them! She is getting so big! Here are the things that she is good at now:

• eating solid foods (her favorites are butternut squash, banana, and avocado)
• spitting solid foods out of her mouth and onto mommy
• completely mastered sitting up on her own
• laughing really hard
• smiling back when people smile at her
• making grunting noises
• saying "ba-ba" over and over and over
• spitting bubbles out of her mouth
• crawling (well really scooting, but she gets to where she wants to go...and fast!)
• still taking two really good naps a day
• not taking her third nap anymore (i was pretty bummed about this one)
• getting lots of compliments at the grocery store each week
• finding her toy basket and dumping it over to get all of the toys out
• "helping" mommy fold laundry
• enjoying watching videos of herself...this may be her FAVORITE activity!
• chewing on the remote control and cell phones
• and still just being darn cute!!!

product review x2

1. Yes, I use cloth diapers, but I like to have just a few disposables around the house "just in case". The other day, while at Babies R Us, I spotted these diapers on the shelf claiming to be "chlorine-free". I never knew there was even chlorine in diapers. So, being the afraid-of-chemicals-near-my-baby mom I am, I went home to do some research. Sure enough, diapers contain chlorine which "may" be harmful to baby. (look here and here). Even if this is not true, I wonder to myself, why risk it. So at my next trip to Babies R Us, I picked up a pack of Seventh Generation diapers. First of all, they are SO much better looking than the conventional brands. Really, who wants Winnie the Pooh or Elmo on your baby's butt!? Can you tell that I am not a fan of putting characters on diapers? =) These Seventh Generation Diapers are plain beige and actually look cute on Evelyn. Well, how do they absorb? AWESOME! I put one on Evelyn last night and in the morning she was pretty dry. And the diaper didn't swell up in the front like the Pampers I have tried. So, if you are planning on using disposables, either full time or just every once in a while, I would recommend these!

2. I had been wanting to try out this bread for quite a while. I had read reviews of it online and it was recommended in a book a read last summer. So last week, while at Whole Foods I picked up a loaf of Cinnamon Raisin. The bread was frozen, since it has no preservatives in it, so I had to wait a few hours before eating it when I got home. But it was worth the wait. YUMMY! This bread was delicious! I ate two slices plain and the next day put one in the toaster with a little bit of butter. Even Michael thought it was good! Check it out next time you are at Whole Foods!

my day

First thing, this morning my mom, Evelyn, and I met Michael at the "new house" to get it inspected. I didn't stay the whole time, but Michael said that everything went well. I am sure I will get the details when he gets home tonight. Seems like everything is looking good though. Our closing date is just around the corner! AHHHH! I can't believe this is actually happening!

Later, after Evelyn's nap and lunch, I went o Joann's to pick up some fabric for Evelyn's Halloween costume. I am going to attempt to make a bumblebee outfit for her. I don't have any pattern, but I have an idea in my head. If it turns out decent, I will post some pics later! While I was there I saw a really cute flower print in pinks, greens, and yellows with a coordinating circle pattern. (I would post some pics of the fabric, but I can't seem to find the camera today. darn...I guess we will have to buy a new one. =) kidding of course...although a new camera is on my wish list.) I digress. Anyway, I think I may make a cute dress for Evelyn if I can find a pattern I like.

Then, off to Target to get a birthday gift for my nephew. I called my sister-in-law on the way there to see if she had any gift ideas. Since the birthday bay was with her, she asked him what he wanted. His answer? Fruit roll-ups and candy. Easy enough! Of course I picked up a few more things for him too!!

(after typing this I realized that I really had nothing to say after all. I am considering deleting this post since I can't imagine that there are many people interested in my daily schedule. But I guess if you made it to the end of the post and are still reading, it must have kept your interest, so maybe I will post it after all!)

"Hi, My name is Evelyn and I am ADORABLE!"