I did it!

I made a skirt!

Two skirts, actually. One for each girl.

I've given sewing several attempts and failed miserably. But I'm drawn to cute fabric, so I keep trying again.

This time I asked my super sewing skilled cousin for some advice. She summed up a basic skirt in about 30 seconds. Seriously. She made it sound so easy! I went home, and whipped them out, no pattern or anything.

And it worked!
They're wearable!
And they fit my girls!!!
And they didn't even fall apart when I washed them!!!!

I couldn't be more excited over this!





She learned to pose by pointing her toes. (I'm sighing at my daughters cuteness.)



Madie is my little fashionista.


She does things like wearing swim suits in the middle of winter.



Without shoes. Stylin'.





I was even able to put in that band of contrasting fabric near the bottom. The front and back sides of the skirts even line up to make it a neat little circle. Yay!



Next, I want to try something with ruffles!

Nutty, nutty, nuts.

My kids are craft nuts.

And cooking nuts,

building nuts...

project nuts in general.

They aren't the type to sit in front of the tv all day and let their brains rot. But in the I-feel-so-sick-I-must-be-dying state I've been in the last few months I've done absolutely nothing fun and creative with them. But in honor of the upcoming card maker invented holiday (Valentine's Day, in case you missed that), we broke out the red and pink paper and did some crafting.

When I broke out the camera to take some pics of the crafts, my kids were excited to show off what had been going through their crazy little brains.

First, taping your own mouth closed.

The perfect way to keep yourself quiet when Mom tells you to keep in down.

And then, of course, to keep your sister from hitting you, you can cuff her with the cupboard child lock.

All while in your swim suits. In January.

Of course.

And if they're not in swim suits, they are in undies, or pj's.

I can never seem to take a picture of her with a clean face.

Now on to the crafts.

Oh wait! That's my not-so-camera shy girl standing in front of the craft.

And Jared getting in on the camera action.


And not to be left out, the half diaper, half pj clad youngest of the group.


But, jeesh, she's adorable!


Oh, there's the craft. I knew I had put it back there somewhere.


We cut out hearts, then sewed them on my sewing machine.


I think it's almost the coolest thing in the whole entire world that you can combine cute, crafty paper and sewing machines!

Seriously, almost the coolest!!!

And then we made these!


So fun and easy to do with the kids!

(!!!!!) <--- Can you tell I'm excited to pull out the crafts again?!?

We just cut out 3 of the same sized hearts in different paper, folded them in half and glues all the half sides to each other. I could even give little jobs to my 2 year old so she didn't feel left out.


Ta-da! Now we are ready for Valentine's.

Now to brainstorm for the next really big holiday around here...St. Patrick's Day! (no, that was not sarcasm) This year we are catching that leprechaun!

Of Birds and Fog

The strangest thing happens on really foggy mornings.

First, I suddenly think it's ok to let my little girl dig in the dirt in her pj's and bare feet even though I know she's got to be freezing.


And second, all of these birds gather in the tree across the street and hang out until the fog starts to
lift.


There's always one or two big ones, and a bunch of little ones.



It's like a regular convention for them. Or maybe it's like some kind of birdy hydrating spa treatment or something. All I know is, the birds dig the fog, and the old dead tree.

Happy Birthday Baby!

I can't believe that this little girl...







...is now this two year old little girl.




Abby has been the sweetest little girl in the whole wide world and even after 2 years she's as charming as ever. She loves kisses and snuggling and lately, yelling no and running away...but she did just turn two, after all.

We had a little party at home for her.

With cake!




We gave her a scooter that she LOVES. Now she won't have to steal her sisters anymore.

The Black Eye Story

The girls and I were scoping out the 75% off toy clearance at Target when Abby, who can no longer be contained in the cart and insists on walking everywhere, tripped over the cart's wheel and went face first into the isle's bottom shelf. You know, the one with the tiny little, skinny edge that could cut through flesh like butter. I had flashes of blood, gaping wounds and rushing off to the ER for stitches flash through my mind, but as it turns out, she just got a really good shiner.





The tough little cookie cried for about 2 minutes, then was ready to continue the toy hunt.

I'm a little tiny bit exhausted and short tempered today.

But then, I came across these pictures of my girls.









And now I'm just exhausted.

Spontaneous Pictures

My little brother come over to get some tips on using his new camera, and I got these craptastically brilliant pictures of the girls.



That's a combo of pb&j, blue eye shadow, pj's, crazy hair and a black eye.



And this was just a very contrary girl.


It was like, the most picture ready day ever!

My Girly Rant

These pictures are unPhotoshop'd.



But do I look like this in real life? No, I do not.

The light was hitting my face just perfectly and washed away all my imperfections. See, every time I've been pregnant, I get these brown blotchy spots on my face that basically look like I've been playing in the dirt and then forgot to wash. And they're getting pretty dark the 4th time around here.

Very annoying!

So after I have this baby I'm planning on doing something very untypical of me. I'm going to buy crap to put on my face to fade my dark spots and maybe even see an esthetician for some microdermabrasion.



All on the off chance that my face will get half way back to this and maybe, just maybe, no one will ask me if I have dirt on my face ever again...unless of course I do have dirt on my face. Because that would be ok.

Look What My Family Can Do!

The kids all took a turn behind the camera. And not just any camera. My big ol' honkin' huge and heavy camera. They did pretty good.

Abby took these.




Madie took these.




Nathan took these of his own volition. He just stepped right up and took them and I didn't even have to ask him.


Look, Jared and I have the same quirky half smile happening, like we share the same genes or hang out a lot or something.




And Jared took these.




Ignore the junk on the table, we were unpacking groceries when the mood to play with the camera struck.



Not bad for a bunch of munchkins.