Baby shower!

Kristina threw me a FABULOUS baby shower on Saturday. I told her that I didn't need one, since I'm having another girl, but she insisted. I didn't complain :-). We had a great time.

We played the game where you sift through a bowl of uncooked rice and safety pins with your eyes closed and try to pick out the safety pins. It was actually pretty tough.

Pam, Stephanie, Toni, and Aubrey

Carly and me. My eyes are closed on purpose, it was my turn for the game.

Angela, Krista, and Stephanie holding Bosten (Krista's one month old).

Opening presents and modeling the "body bib" from Angela. I think I might use the bibs until I have this baby ;-).

Kim and me with the AMAZING princess and the pea quilt she made. If you look closely you can see a little green "pea" button near the bottom.

Thanks everyone for a great shower.

The quilt is finished!

I finished Kaylin's quilt last night! I am so happy to have it completed before the baby comes.

I had a hard time getting a picture of the whole thing, this is the best I got:

A close up of one of the corners, don't look too closely :-).

And here it is on Kaylin's bed!

Kaylin LOVES her new quilt. She was bouncing all over it and hugging me.

Thanks, Mom!

And a few minutes later, how did she thank me? By peeing on it. So now it's in the washing machine and Kaylin is quite upset that she won't get to sleep on her new quilt during her nap.

Baby presents for Kelsey

I made these months ago, but I can finally post the pictures since Kelsey got them all this week.

First up, my favorite:

I saw a blanket similar to this one somewhere online, and it screamed "Kelsey" to me. Kelsey's favorite color is orange and she loves polka dots. They are using bright orange, green, yellow, and blues in the baby's room, thus my color choices for the polka dots. I hope Miles likes it.

Like I said, Kelsey's favorite color is orange. I made her a hooded towel and wash mitt.

Close up of the wash mitt.

Burp cloths. I should have made more, I found out later that she doesn't have a lot. Hopefully Miles isn't a spitter.

My latest version of the pacifier leash. I wanted a pacifier leash that could hook onto all types of pacifiers and this should do it. The loop can fit through the small holes in the soothie, around the loop thing on the Gerber (?) ones, and around the front of the Mam type. I tested it on all of the types and it seems to work well. Kelsey will need to verify :-). The loop part was a pain. I think it took me three tries to get it right.

And lastly, what the mom of every baby boy needs, pee pee tee pees. Kaylin thought they were little hats and would try to wear them on her head. Lovely.

I hope you like all of your presents Kelsey!

Kaylin's baby cousin is here!

Kelsey had her baby today! Kaylin loved to look at the pictures of him. She kept saying, "That's my new baby cousin!" Go to Kelsey's blog for the details and pictures. We are so excited and can't wait to meet him! Good thing Christmas is just over a month away since I can't fly right now.

Ruffle pillow, quilt progress, and 36 weeks

Tonight I made this:

A ruffle pillow for the baby's room. I LOVE IT. I thought my back would appreciate a pillow during late night nursing sessions. I also thought the glider needed something to dress it up.

For you crafty types--I used a 12x16 pillow form and cut my front piece 13x17 to allow for 1/2 inch seam allowances. I cut 6 pieces 3x26 for the ruffles. I serged the edges of the ruffle pieces (THANK YOU Kristina and Kristina's mom for the use of your serger, you are seriously the best). I then sewed the ruffles down and gathered by hand as I went. I pinned each ruffle piece at the center, then the ends, and then half-way between each end and the center to help distribute the gathers evenly. I cut two pieces for the back, both 11x13 and hemmed one 13" side of each. I used this tutorial for the back. The only change I made is that I pressed the outer piece 1/2" and then 1 1/2" (instead of 2"). When I used this tutorial previously I found that 2" did not give me enough overlap. Then I sewed the front to the back and there you have it.

Baby's room:

Notice the curtain panels are up. I finished them last week and we hung them up on Wednesday. I'm not a huge fan. I think the valence needs to be higher, but we have a double curtain rod that makes the two hang at the same height. I might just have to make Eric install another rod up higher. I do like that they make the room dark during the day. So at least they're functional. Since I don't really like them you're not getting a full picture yet :-). I also hung up the bow holder I made. The nail was already there from the cross-stitch I made Kaylin. The baby's cross-stitch will probably hang there eventually, so the bow holder might need to find a new home. It works for now.

Today I finished quilting Kaylin's quilt! I think it turned out well. If you don't think so, keep your mouth shut ;-).

This was a daunting process. I worked on quilting it for 6 days, with most of the work taking place on 4 of those days. It took me somewhere between 8 and 10 hours. I used over 700 yards of thread. This is only the second quilt I have free-motion quilted and the first one I've done on my machine. I bought a darning foot for my machine so I could do it myself. I used this tutorial for reference, I highly recommend it. I love that I can do this on my dinky machine. Next up is making the binding and sewing it on! That's next week's project.

And in case you're curious, here's how I looked at 36 weeks (Tuesday):

I'm now 36 1/2 weeks. Only about 3 1/2 weeks left! It's stressing me out. I still have a lot to do. But I am making a lot of progress. And whatever is done when this baby comes is done. That's my new mantra :-).

Weekend in Portland

We went to Portland this past Saturday and Sunday. Here's what Kaylin looked like for most of the ride there:

To have her pacifier and bunny she has to be asleep, so she usually decides to take a nap pretty quickly when we go on long car rides. I don't complain. I don't know if you can see them, but her baby is wearing the underwear I made for the potty party. This baby pretty much always wears underwear.

After checking into our hotel, we met the family at a restaurant for dinner. It was a cute place in what used to be a school. Kaylin was very excited to see some of her favorite people. She spent a lot of time with Uncle Parker, Grandpa, and Ryanne.

Here she is with Grandpa.

Kaylin and Ryanne enjoyed their coloring pages. Kaylin really just liked going to get more crayons for her and Ryanne to use.

After a birthday party for Parker at the Lamm's, we went back to the hotel to swim. This was the highlight of the trip for Kaylin. She didn't want to get out of the pool. Thanks again Uncle Parker for letting Kaylin hang on you most of the time.

The purpose of the trip was to take part in Jack's blessing at church on Sunday. Lucky kid had most of his uncles and grandpas there. He even had his great-grandpa there. Pretty impressive considering we live the closest and we're three hours away.

What's up with all the short guys? They always make Eric stand in the back. This time he got a row to himself.

Kaylin didn't want to go home. She's still talking about the trip. Just last night we were running some errands and I said that it was time to go home. Kaylin said, "I don't want to go home. I want to go to Portland."

Thanks Carly and Parker for a fun weekend!

Also... I've heard a terrible rumor that we might be eating ham for Thanksgiving. No turkey. If anyone can confirm or correct this rumor I would greatly appreciate it. AND... no turkey might equal a Thanksgiving boycott. Just so you know. And by "you", I mean "Stephens family".

Kaylin's Fashion Corner

I'm just grateful that we didn't have to go out in public like this.



"Cheeeeeeeeeese!"

Friday night football and volleyball

This past Friday night we went to the Lindbergh vs. Bainbridge playoff football game. Eric played for Lindbergh and this is the first time in 25 years (or something like that) that they won their league. Eric was pretty excited to go to the game.

It rained the whole time but the stands were covered so we were fine.

I'm not quite sure why Eric decided to put on Kaylin's hat.

Kaylin had a fun time. She loves to shout "touchdown!". Lindbergh scored quite a few touchdowns, so Kaylin got to do a lot of yelling. She also yelled, "Go Seahawks!" a lot. Lindbergh is the Eagles, but close enough. She was also very excited whenever anyone would clap.

We only stayed for the first half because Eric had a playoff volleyball game. This is the first game that Kaylin and I went to this season. All of Eric's games have been at 9:00 pm which is normally too late. But since Kaylin took a good, late nap we decided to risk it. She did well, thankfully.

A team that played before the men had extra creamcicles. Lucky girl.

Eric serving.

Eric's team won so they will play again next week. Apparently they also have an automatic place in the regional tournement too. Yea... more volleyball (sarcasm).

Lindbergh plays at home again this Friday, so we'll probably be doing the same thing this weekend.

Kaylin's Curtains

Kaylin's curtains are FINISHED! I finished them on Thursday and we bought a curtain rod and hung them up on Saturday. They block out so much light, it is amazing. I really hope they help Kaylin sleep in later in the morning, not that she gets up too early, but still. I'm also hoping they help with nap time. I'm also looking forward to the heat they should keep out this summer.

I used this tutorial. I made two panels, each twice the size of the one in the tutorial. The black out fabric wasn't too hard to work with. The hardest part was probably cutting everything because all of the pieces were so large. One new thing I learned was how to miter corners. I hadn't done that before and it was really easy.

After finishing the curtains I needed to make something I could actually finish in a short amount of time, so I made a hooded baby towel. Then on Friday I made a diaper and wipes pouch and most of my new nursing blanket. It felt good to get some projects completed.