Halloween!

We were able to get Kaylin to wear her full costume to go trick-or-treating. She wouldn't take a picture by herself, but that's alright.

Kaylin had a fun time trick-or-treating down our street. She came home with a full bucket after going to about half of the houses on our short street. Some of the houses were giving out huge handfuls of candy. When we got home she wanted a sucker, so we put her in her booster seat so she would stay put. A few minutes later, this is what we noticed:

She was sleeping in her chair. She has NEVER fallen asleep in her chair before. I guess that's what happens when you go to bed late the night before, wake up early, don't nap, and then have an exciting night trick-or-treating.

Happy Halloween!

Greens' Annual Halloween Party

Two years in a row is annual, right guys?

Last night we left Kaylin with Eric's mom (THANK YOU again) and went to the Greens' Halloween party. The main event is the pumpkin carving. Since neither Eric nor I are all that into pumpkin carving, we just got one medium sized one to share that we picked up on the way there. We decided to split up the carving, Eric was the lucky one to clean it out.

Kim is already carving her pumpkin because she CHEATED and cleaned hers out at home ;-).

Then it was my turn. I was the official carver.

Dale was on kid duty (they have a 2 month old) and Eric was done cleaning out the pumpkin, so they played Vancouver Olympics on the Wii. I think in this picture they are ski jumping.

I'm not sure what Dale was for Halloween this year, a Hollister model? Damien didn't dress up either. Party pooper.

Brandon told Eric that he wasn't allowed to be a basketball player for Halloween this year. Eric has been a basketball player for the past three years in a row. But I was a basketball hoop, so too bad Brandon.

Here are all of the cool pumpkins.


Ours is the least cool. It's the "S". For Stephens. I like it.

Thanks guys, we had a great time!

Playgroup Halloween Party

Kaylin's friend, Rachel, hosted a Halloween party on Friday. Kaylin was very excited to decorate cookies. Turns out she was just excited to eat the cookies, there was no decorating going on.

I put some frosting on her plate along with a knife so she could frost her cookies. After eating a few bites of cookie, she realized she could use the knife to eat the frosting too.

She asked for a spoon. I didn't give her one.

After everyone finished decorating their cookies and was back to playing, Kaylin was still eating her cookies.

Thank you Kristina and Rachel for a fun party, and of course for the cookies!

Ward Halloween Party

We had a great time at our ward Halloween party this year. There was yummy soup and rolls to eat and fun games to play. Kaylin wasn't too in to the games, but wanted the prizes, so Eric helped her out. Here they are fishing:

There was a cupcake walk. Cupcakes are Kaylin's favorite dessert, so I helped her out with that one:

After the games there was trick-or-treating in the halls. Here are Kaylin and Kylie trying to navigate through the bigger kids to get to the candy:

At the end of the party we were able to get a semi-decent picture of our family. At the beginning of the party all of the ones we took featured a crying toddler.

In case you can't tell, Kaylin is a chicken. She refused to wear the hat or the feet



I think this is an indication of a fun party. She is asleep and her feet are not touching the floor.

Craft Night! And a pregnancy update.

In my attempt to get as many Christmas presents done before Halloween as possible, I held a craft night at my house with a few friends. We ordered kits that came with most of the needed supplies, it was awesome.

If you are related to me DO NOT click on the next link. I might have made a present for you and I don't want you to figure out what it is. We ordered the kits from Windmill Lettering. They were great to work with and I love how the projects turned out. I will post pictures of the finished projects AFTER Christmas :-).

Angie, Kristina, Michelle, Laura, and Ashley. Aren't they all so cute?

Kristina decided that I needed to be in a picture too. I'm 33 weeks pregnant here.

I am now 34 weeks pregnant. I can hardly believe it. I only have about 6 weeks until this baby is born. Here are a few things I did on Saturday and today to get ready:

1. Painted Kaylin's dresser, my grandpa made it for me when I was little and it still had its original coat of paint.

2. Painted the small bookshelf in the baby's room. It was painted probably 10 years ago and needed a new coat.

3. Finished all 7 projects I was working on during my craft night, which finished presents for 6 people.

4. Started the curtains for Kaylin's room. I am using this tutorial.

I'm hoping to get the curtains finished this week. A few things still on my to do:

1. Curtains for the baby's room.
2. Coat of paint on baby's changing table.
3. Pillow for rocker in baby room.
4. New nursing blanket, diaper and wipes pouch, changing pad.
5. Finish Kaylin's quilt.
6. Make some dinners for the freezer.
7. Do some other cleaning and organizing.
8. Let's just end here, shall we?

6 weeks.

Hair bow holder

I finished my first project for the baby! In case you haven't talked to me lately, this also means that I'm getting VERY close to finishing all of the Christmas presents I'm making. Woo hoo!

Here it is, the hair bow holder:

So cute! And now, with her first two hair clips that I bought this weekend:

I love how it turned out! I bought an 8x10 frame at the thrift store and spray painted it white. I then mod podged scrapbook paper to the cardstock in the frame. After that I hot-glued ribbon to the back at the top and bottom. The last part is carefully sliding it all into the frame. Super easy and cute. I'm planning to hang it on the wall in the baby's room.

The bows are initially going to be worn on a knit hat made by my crafty mom and 3 crocheted headbands I bought this weekend. This is going to be one styling baby girl.

Breakfast of Champions?

Note to self: When putting powdered sugar on french toast, DO NOT pour it directly from the bag.

Kaylin's Fashion Corner: This is how we roll

As mothers of toddlers, or anyone who has parented a toddler in the past, will understand, there comes a point when you just have to let your child wear what clothes they want when you go out. Sometimes it's just not worth a fight. Yesterday I was just happy that Kaylin wanted to wear a long-sleeved shirt and pants.

I figure that if I try to look presentable, then hopefully people won't think that I'm an awful mother or that I don't care about my daughter. Or maybe they'll just think that I care too much about me and not enough about Kaylin. But that's just the people who haven't been around toddlers enough to know how strong their opinions are.

My niece loves to dress up like a princess when she goes out. At least that way people know that she dressed herself. Kaylin isn't as sophisticated as Macey. Here's what Kaylin wore yesterday to Target, Eric's office, and the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue:



She is sporting a well-worn, hand-me-down fleece pajama shirt (she calls it "cozy cozy" and has worn it two nights and days straight), almost too small pink sweatpants, lavender socks, and her ever-present purple and pink crocs. I was forbidden to put her hair in pigtails or to touch it much more than to quickly run a comb through it. For accessories we have Purple Baby who has a band-aid on her knee and is wearing a pair of felt underwear I made for Kaylin's potty training day. Kaylin is also holding a Little People bucket of fish, it's meant to be food for a seal, but Kaylin was calling it "pizza". Oh yes, and don't let me forget the bowl of Kix, her favorite cereal.

So if you saw me yesterday, don't judge. I was trying to keep my sanity in tact. And in case you're wondering, it worked.

Finished quilt top!

I have decided that sometimes it is more annoying to be able to sew than to not. For example, I searched the internet and local stores for a quilt, comforter, or something for Kaylin's twin bed. After weeks of searching, I decided that I'd just make a quilt for her bed myself. This project has taken for.ev.er. I'm not even sure when I started it, but it was months ago. I kept getting sidetracked by presents I needed (or wanted) to make or other projects that took only an hour or two. I have a hard time with big projects. But once I was close to finishing the top, I just had to go for it. And here it is:

The colors didn't show up too well on the picture of the full quilt top, so I tried to get a close-up shot too.

I figured out the pattern myself. I am crazy. My mother-in-law has a lap quilt that I LOVE, and since it was just squares and rectangles I decided that I could make a bigger, twin sized quilt. I got out my graph paper and got to work. I used dimensions I found online, but I think mine turned out to be nearly a full size quilt. Little did I know that my mother-in-law's pattern actually had directions for making a twin quilt. Oh well.

Next I need to make the backing. I found a sage green twin flannel sheet set for cheap so I am using that for the back. It's not quite big enough so I am going to add a strip of one of the patterned fabrics. Then I am going to machine quilt it. Then all that will be left is the binding. I really hope I can have it finished before the baby gets here!

I am also making coordinating curtains and a throw pillow. I think it's going to look so cute when it's all done!

Happy birthday and 32 weeks pregnant

Yesterday was my birthday. Not quite the same as it used to be. I did get Kaylin to tell me happy birthday, so that was nice. She was excited to help me open presents and eat cake, too bad for her I didn't really open presents like she's used to from kid parties. We had a *rough* day and I was really glad once it was time to go out to dinner.

Eric's parents took us to 5 Guys for burgers. Yum! Thanks, again! Eric brought along cupcakes from New York Cupcakes by his office. I'm not a huge cake fan, but these are pretty darn good. Kaylin waited as patiently as she could until it was time to eat them.

She's saying "Cheese!".

Cute cousins and their daddies (Eric, Kaylin, Ryanne, Chris). Loke's in the background trying to be awesome. She says she's the old one now because she's in high school.

And here I am preggers on my birthday. 32 weeks. I had to stand in front of the tv so Eric would actually take the picture during the football game. That's not completely true, it was his idea to take the picture. Also, that's not a maternity shirt! How sweet is that??

Eric insisted on taking this lovely picture:

That's pretty much what I look like on most nights. Except normally Eric has the remote. Also, not a good pregnancy angle. I look more like a pot-bellied man. Ha! At least I have somewhere convenient to set my food.

I had my 32 week appointment today and everything is looking good. My weight gain is awesome, blood pressure is great, and she is HEAD DOWN. I sure hope she stays that way. Kaylin was breech and I had to go to the hospital on Christmas Eve so they could pump me full of drugs and try to flip her around. Not fun. I do not want a repeat. I can't believe my due date is coming so quickly, she will be here in no time!

Thanks to everyone who helped make my birthday so wonderful!

Toddler Apron

I've been wanting to make a toddler sized apron for awhile. I found this tutorial online for an apron with an elasticized neck. I made a couple of slight changes. I didn't use binding at the top of the apron or on the pocket. I added a ruffle to the bottom and made my own bias tape for the strap.

I loved the idea of an elastic neck. That way the toddler can put it on herself and it will still (hopefully) cover most of her shirt. I made this one for Brighton's 2nd birthday, so Kim, you'll have to let me know how the neck works out.

I couldn't get Kaylin to model it for me, so I had to wait until I gave it to Brighton to get a picture of someone wearing it. I think it's a little long, but hopefully that just means it will last longer, and keep more clothes clean.

I think it turned out well and I'll probably make more. One thing I might change next time is to make the arm hole straight instead of curved, it would be a lot easier to sew the large binding on that way.

Happy birthday Brighton!

My big girl

Kaylin has been sleeping in her new, big bed for nearly 2 weeks and she loves it. Here she is on the first night:



She has yet to sleep under the sheets, but she loves the pillow. We didn't have any problems switching her into her new room and new bed. We would have kept her in her crib longer because she hasn't ever tried to climb out, but I wanted to get her used to her new room and bed before the baby comes.

Now if we could just master going #2 in the toilet. Any tips are welcome :-).

Halloween preview:

Aunt Carly and Uncle Parker came for a visit with baby Jack. They brought a chicken costume for Kaylin to borrow. She wanted to put it on, which is a good sign. Last year Eric wore Kaylin's costume while we went trick-or-treating. Hopefully she'll wear her own costume this year.