Double Birthday

Thanks for taking and getting these fun pics to me, Kim!

Happy Birthday to Lizzie's two friends, Abby and Leah (sisters), who had a double birthday party!Leah had a princess cake.

And Abby had a baby cake.

The kids loved the face painting by the artist and hostess, Erin!

The kids had a good time decorating their super capes.

Lizzie had her first experience with a pinata!

She caught on really fast to the gathering of the candy part!

Even the cute lil babies at the party seemed to have a good time!

Julie is 6 months old!

Julie is 6 months old!!

Julie is such a little sweetheart. Her little personality is really blooming. She's becoming more vocal, more mobile, and more opinionated! No more silent observing for this one! She sees what she wants and she will reeeeach and grab and squawk about it to let you know how she feels. Its really pretty cute to watch.

Current updates: She's sitting up by herself! (a bit wobbly still) She's still rolling around.

She also had her first bite of rice cereal this week. She is really taking to solid food pretty well. Shes a real pro at eating rice cereal already! :)

She was so excited she was shaking when Daddy let her drink a sip of his water from a cup.

She loooves her big sister. She laughs and laughs at Lizzie's antics. She even smiles at her friendly rough housing.

Julie, we love you so much!! We are so blessed to have you in our family! You are such a precious little baby. I'm enjoying every second of it. If only I could freeze you in time and never let you grow older....I suppose that is why these pictures are so important :).

Projects and More Projects

Dave and I have been busy working on various projects in the last couple weeks. Most of these were done when we had a little down time in Chicago!
I had a lot of fun working on a swaddle blanket for my SIL. These pics are actually of one I made a couple months ago for my friend, Mary. Lisa's swaddle blanket had a lot more blue than this girlish fabric. I used a doll for my model until Julie woke up from her nap and made for a much cuter model!

The pattern for this blanket was created by my ever so talented mom!

This project, created after our washing machine broke down and leaked gallons of water all over the floor, was far less cute than the swaddle blanket. However, it was far more profitable. We were bummed when it broke down about having to pay a huge sum to have some repair guy come out and fix it. So I decided that I was going to fix it myself!! After a couple hours of research on google, perusing do-it-yourself websites, I was able to diagnose the problem and learn how to fix it! I'll be the first to say I'm not very handy with tools so I waited for Dave to come home then showed him/explained what to do.

It turned out my diagnosis, leaky water pump, was correct. And here's the evidence! We ordered the new part and it is now back to working condition. So back to the CUTE projects. My mom and I had a blast making these hair clips for Lizzie!

While I was busy doing girly projects, Dave kept busy learning to work with wood with my Dad as his guide! They started out with this plain piece of Brazilian wood:

And after much work and creativity......turned it into this beautiful tile, mosaic, frame!
Its one of the first things you see when you walk in the front door, displaying "The Family: A Proclamation to the World"

It was so fun to see all of the beautiful puzzle boxes that my dad has created with his wide variety of tools, and types of wood. He's already sooo talented in this fairly new hobby of his!

The Girl Who Lived in a Bubble

Catching up on the blog...these pics were from Chicago! We went to the Children's Museum and Lizzie went absolutely nuts over all the cool things to see and do.

She loved the bubble station where she got to play in the suds, pop bubbles, and even stand in the middle of a giant bubble!

She is always a big fan of playing in the water, or "watee"!

Everyone had fun at the shadow making area- adults and children alike!

Oh, the fun you can have with shadows!! Lately, she has been very interested in her shadow at home on the walls. Today, she exclaimed, "Look Mama! A ghost in the wall!" as she pointed to her shadow. I think our excitement from Halloween is still having an effect on her. Hehehe...poor girl

Any Day Now

Lisa is full term now and little Thomas could be arriving any day! This will be kid number 3 for Adam and Lisa. We are so happy for them and Jared is sooo excited to have a brother! Lisa is absolutely the cutest pregnant woman ever! Having her so far along on Christmas day was a great reminder and very reminiscent of the reason we celebrate. All she needed was a cloth draped over her hair and she'd be the perfect Mary!

I was originally hoping she would have the baby while I was in town, but with the stomach flu going around I don't think the kids or I would be well enough to even go visit!

Cousin Party!!...or not

Getting 4 children ages 3 and under to sit still enough for a group picture was quite the feat.

The cousins have been having a great time together! This is the first year they have really been old enough to interact and its been fun to watch them.
Lizzie and Allison were a bit shy at first, but ended up bonding while sitting side by side in their high chairs.

We had planned to have a "cousin party" that entailed games, crafts, and treats all for the kids, but that night Lizzie got sick with the stomach flu and threw up! That pretty much put an end to any fun activities and now we have all been dropping like flies! First Lizzie, then Dave, my Dad, Allison, and now me! We are just hoping and praying that 37 weeks pregnant Lisa and lil Julie will stay healthy!

Winter Wonderland

Snow pants, sledding, mittens, building snowmen, snow angels, and snowball fights are all a part of the white Christmas experience.

My brother, Tyler, is 6ft 2in tall, but this snowman still towered over him! Lizzie was very excited about this giant snowman!

Julie is not a fan of the Chicago weather so besides a quick picture with Great Grandma we have kept her snug inside a warm house!

Brandi and Allison built a mini snowman of their own!