I am not long and lost...yet!

It has been 11 months since I blogged last, AHH! Sad. What can I say-- I have a husband, two kids, a part-time job, a volunteer position with MOPS, and a LIFE that seems to run away with my time!
Britton will be 3 this weekend. Emery Jane has joined our crew, and she is almost 5 months. I sometimes look at myself and think, "Do I really have two children? And a mortgage? And a house to clean? And dinner to cook for a family? (speaking of which, what should I make??)" When exactly did I "grow up?"

B is 2!

This past week B turned 2... wow! Poor kiddo had a rough week leading up to his big day. He caught a stomach bug and was pretty sick for a good 6 days! Praise the Lord-- by his big day, he seemed to be doing better. (Then the day after his bday he came down with a cold, but we'll get into that later!)

He had a very special party at Chick-fil-A and I must say, they did a fabulous job! The manager had balloons for each kiddo and was very attentive to our large group's needs. He was running constantly getting drinks and kid's meals and whatever else we needed. Plus, it was FREE to have the party there! So if anyone is in search of a good b-day kids spot, I'd highly reccommend it. Ok, that's my plug :)

B had so much fun running around the restaurant with his little buddies; I love watching kids having fun! He is usually a little shy in big groups but he seemed to sense that this was HIS day, so he made the most of it.

After opening his giant pile of presents we had cupcakes. These were not just any cupcakes, and I must admit I was a little sad to see people sink their teeth into them after all the hard work I did! It took me 3 hours to frost them to look like soccer balls, baseballs, footballs, and basketballs (PS- why is soccer balls two words and all the rest one word? Hmm...) but I should be glad no one spit them out, I suppose!

When we got home we figured B would be ready to crash into bed. He played with his new train set from grandma and grandpa for a while, then off to bed. Daddy and I were close behind him, but had to stay up till 10:30 listening to him on the baby monitor. Apparently he took a while to wind down from all the excitement... he layed in bed for an hour or more singing "Happy Birthday" to himself and telling his bear-bear about the party! He talked about all the guests and how they went "bye-bye" in their respecitve cars, about eating chicken and "dip dip" and opening presents. We were cracking up listening to him and recorded some of it to share with him when he's a teenager and will surely appreciate it. :)

Although I'm still having a hard time realizing that my baby boy is already 2 years old, I am so amazed to see the precious little personality developing in him. He is sensetive yet strong, independent yet needs mommy or daddy close by for quick refueling. He is smart and thoughtful and very hands-on. We think he's going to be an engineer some day.

Ahhh....what a blessing children are. Even when they're covered in vomit at 2 am, crying "mommy hold you!" You just love them so much, how can you resist?

Happy 2nd Birthday, precious B man... We love you so much.

Easiest ever cloth pumpkins!

Everyone has been asking me how I made these cute little cloth pumpkins, so here goes my first attempt at a tutorial! Forgive me if it's confusing.

To start, trace around something round on desired cloth. I chose to use B's drum to trace around, which is about 9" in diameter. Then cut out your circle and thread a needle (thread color doesn't really matter- it barely shows).
Start stitching around the edges of the circle and make sure if it's a patterned piece, that the patterned side faces out.

Once you stitch all the way around, pull the thread tight (but not too tight, or you won't be able to stuff it) and material forms a sort-of ball.

Stuff with filling and knot off your thread so the pumpkin stays tight.

For the stem, I used grapevines. I have a slight vendetta against these grape vines, as they have taken over my backyard, but they were perfect for this project! You can also use plain old sticks, or whatever else you can find to make them look cute.

Hot glue the stem to the opening of the pumpkin (this also helps to seal the thread so it won't come unraveled) and you're done!

See, told you it was easy!

Success....I hope!

Four hours, three shredded t-shirts, a whole spool of thread and two bleeding fingers later...

Ta-DAH!

A pair of lounge pants... complete with quilted knee pads.

I was tempted to wake B up and try them on him, but I'm not that crazy. WHEW. Time for bed.

Making B some lounge pants...

I found a GREAt tutorial for making some comfy, cozy lounge pants for the little man (here- http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-knee-pad-pants.html)! And decided to try it today during B's afternoon nap that he kindly decided NOT to take. Thus, I was sewing furiously while trying to keep him entertained and out of trouble! The result? See below...

Cute, right?? Soft and flannel-ly... Yep. Then I had B try them on... and that's when the trouble started.

So either my son has incredibly chunky thighs or I am awful at making my own pattern!

Oh well. Maybe I'll try again tonight since hubby is working late!

Crafties!

I am a nap-time crafter. I am working on Christmas presents for this year, and LOVING all the fun new ideas I am finding! Here is what I have been working on most recently...

This was supposed to be a reusable grocery tote, but I love it so much I've never used it for groceries!

This is such a fun idea I found on one of my favorite craft blogs... it's a clutch made from a placemat! Watch out, all my girlie friends, you might be getting one for Christmas... :)

That's all for today...little monkey man will be up any minute and I've got to get laundry folded first!

Swimming Lessons!

This week Britton had his first two swimming lessons. The first one was a sob-fest... someone's kid threw up in the kiddie pool (eeeeeewwwww!) so they sent our "Mommy-and-Me" class into the big pool with the rest of the guppies. Poor Britton cried and cried and cried. It was cold and loud and the big kids were right next to us doing lots of excellent splashing. I got LOTS of snuggles though-- mainly because he wouldn't relax his death grip on me for anything.
We looked up into the balcony every few minutes and waved to Dada, Mahmaw and Ba-Ba who were cheering him on from above. The expression on his face says it all... he was begging them to come rescue him!After about 20 minutes of the poor little guy crying and clinging to me, I decided we'd had enough for one night.

Swimming lesson #2-- two days later... we were late because Mr B's nap was late. (Never ever ever wake a sleeping baby...) We hurried in and jumped into the kiddie pool where Britton promptly started crying again. After a few minutes of the same routine, I remembered a story I'd been told about a certain cousin of mine (I won't mention any names!) who learned to like swimming thanks to his little stuffed friend "Buddy." So out of the diaper bag to save the day came Bear-bear, and hopped straight into the pool. Alas, this idea, though brilliant, didn't seem to make a difference to Britton. I was about to call it quits again when the instructor stuck her face into the water and blew bubbles. Almost instantly Britton stopped crying, stared and whispered increduously, "bubbles?" I stuck my face right in, blew some of my own, and that was it. Mr B turned into a little fish. He giggled and put his face in, kicked his froggy feet and splashed around for the next half hour. The transformation was amazing to see, and we had to drag him out of the pool after class!
(Hopefullyhis fear of the pool is abolished... I guess we'll find out next week!)