Vanilla Joy giveaways

For all you crafty people out there do I have the giveaways for you! Vanilla Joy is hosting giveaways all week including all sorts of crafty goodness. Monday there's a cricut, today there are stickers, papers, punches, and more. Go here to see her schedule. And if you win, maybe you could share with me :-).

Pearrygin Pictures

Pictures from Lake Pearrygin are now posted on Kaylin's site!

New crib and funny things Kaylin does

After nearly 2 months (her first one was recalled, don't even get me started on that process...) we finally have Kaylin's new crib. I think it's pretty cute, and not quite as girly as the last one which will be good if we ever have a baby boy.

As you can see, Kaylin is thrilled with the new crib. She was so happy to get to sleep in her new crib after sleeping in her pack 'n play for 2 weeks. Or maybe not.

The next picture is of Kaylin's new hobby/trick/weird thing she does. She wears two of the rings from the ring stacking toy on her feet. She slips her toes through and rests her heels on top. It looks like she's walking around in high heels. She does really well walking in them. It's hilarious to watch. It has been nice for me because now she doesn't make me put her little link things over her toes for her, she can put these on herself.

Another new thing is that after breakfast she must have at least one pacifier (in the picture below she actually has one in each hand), her bunny, and a blanket. She will go upstairs and pull them out of her crib so sometimes I just bring them down for her if I want her to stay downstairs for awhile.

And no, she doesn't wear her pajamas all day, I just happen to take pictures of her in the morning I guess.

For fans of The Office

image from www.designboom.com

I just saw this bacon cooker/alarm clock on a blog. It is the answer to Michael Scott's breakfast dilemma. He can now wake to the smell of cooking bacon without burning his foot! Now I just have to figure out how to tell him about it...

Snoqualmie Falls

On Saturday the Hiblers came down and we went to Snoqualmie Falls. It is a 270 foot waterfall on the Snoqualmie River. Here is the view from the upper observation deck.

Here we are from another view point. As usual, Kaylin didn't care at all.

We wanted to go to the viewpoint below the falls. Not realizing that it was more of a hike than a walk, we took the babies down in their strollers. Previously I'd only been to the bottom of the falls, I'd always parked in the lot near the bottom. And it had been a few years since Eric had been to the top so he didn't remember the hike part either. Plus it's always easier without a baby tagging along. I'm glad I was wearing shoes rather than sandals, but I wished I had on my real tennis shoes. There was one point where we took Kaylin out of her stroller so one of us could carry her and the other one could carry the stroller. Somehow the Hiblers managed with Brighton in her stroller. I'm not quite sure how they did it. Here we are at the bottom:

And here are Dale and Eric pushing the strollers back up the trail. We all got a good workout. The Hiblers said that next time they come to visit they are going to bring a change of clothes because they never know what we're going to make them do. I think that's a good idea :-).

Water playground

Being the fabulous, wonderful, fun moms that Laura and I are, we decided to take Kaylin and Carter to a water playground in Bellevue. It's a great park just down the street from Crossroads where Eric's office is. The playground has orca whales, a dragon, a frog, a row boat, rock walls, and all sorts of things that spray water. There isn't any standing water, it all absorbs through the really soft rubbery ground covering. But did Kaylin and Carter want to play on the super cool playground in the nearly unbearable heat? Oh no, here's what they wanted to do:

Ah yes, strollers are so much cooler than a water park. Finally Carter went to play, I was hoping Kaylin would follow, but she didn't care. She doesn't like to walk on the grass without shoes on so at one point Kaylin wanted me to put on her shoes. I put on her water shoes and was finally able to change her into her swim diaper and swim suit. I took her to play in the water but she didn't want to be put down. She made me hold her the entire time. I did set her down once so I could get a picture of her. As you can see, she wasn't a big fan of the dragon that sprayed water from its nostrils. I guess that could be pretty scary since the dragon head was bigger than her :-).

After our fun time at the park we went to Eric's office so I could change out of my swim suit. Kaylin and Carter had a blast at the office. They played catch with the guys that work there and shut themselves in a room. I guess next time we want to do something fun we'll just take them to Eric's nice air conditioned office.

Dick's Burgers and Seward Park!

It was so hot in our house last night that I didn't want to cook. When Eric called to tell me he was coming home, I told him that we could take stuff to the park to make burgers. As I was packing the picnic basket Eric called back to say we could go to Dick's for dinner! Our favorite!!

After getting our cheeseburgers we went to Seward Park on Lake Washington. It's a on a peninsula so there are views of the lake from all sides. Here is a picture of Mt. Rainier, it's a little dark because the sun was setting.

Here I am enjoying one of my fabulous burgers while Kaylin looks on. She doesn't like burgers.

We had such a fun night!

Finished baby shower present

While Kaylin was napping today I sat in my super hot craft room and sweat while I finished Cassie's present. Here it all is:



I made a nursing blanket (aka booby blanket, aka hooter hider, aka titty tent, aka...), a diaper and wipes pouch, and a tag blanket to go inside the paint can.

And here it all is inside the paint can with a little bit of tissue paper. Yeah! And there's still a week and a half before the shower. I'm good.

Altered Paint Can

I altered a paint can for my friend's baby shower. Eric thinks I should call this a metal bucket instead of a paint can. I told him I was making a paint can into a gift basket that can be used to wrap the gift and then it can be used in the baby's room. Later I found out he thought I was going to put paint brushes and other paint supplies in the can and then my friend could put paint in the can and use it while painting the baby's room. He must have thought I was crazy when I kept making him "ooh" and "ahh" over it. He probably wondered why I was spending so much time on a can that would eventually just get paint splattered all over it. What a supportive husband I have.

Here are some pictures of the finished product. The baby's bedding is going to be shades of purple and there are butterflies on it. Thus, the theme for my "metal bucket".

This was a really fun and easy project. I bought an empty gallon paint can in the painting section at Lowe's. They also come in pint sizes. Then I used modge podge to adhere the two background papers to the can. I used two pieces of each color, one for each half of the can so it would be easier to cut the holes for the handle. I just used my circle punch and punched half circles where the paper needed to go around the handle. I then made all of my embellishments and adhered those on with modge podge. After that I put a layer of modge podge over the top. Then I hot glued felt ribbon (thanks Kim!) around the seam where the two colors of paper met. Easy peasy. The lid was made the same way. To cut the circles, oval, and heart (for the butterfly on the can) I used my Creative Memories custom cutters and punches which are some of my very favorite crafting tools. I also made a matching gift tag and tied it onto the handle with some ribbon.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Sorry for no Pearrygin pictures yet. There are just so many to go through. I've been so busy watching the Olympics (I'm pretty much obsessed) that I haven't wanted to take the time to post all those pictures. I can decorate a paint can while watching the Olympics, but there's no tv in the computer room. This is another reason why I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want a lap top. If you see Eric maybe you could give him a nice reminder that my birthday is coming in two months and a lap top would make the perfect gift. Thank you in advance.

Pictures from July

I just added a new photo album to Kaylin's site. Click here to check it out. I will be adding pictures from Lake Pearrygin soon.