Copy of Expensive Baby Dress

A few months ago I found this adorable jumper at Nordstrom by Mini Boden. I really liked it but it was like $45 or something. I rarely spend $45 on clothes for myself, let alone a baby who will wear it twice.  Anyway, my mom and I were shopping at Target before Lela was born and we found this plain yellow corduroy dress that was maybe $7 or $8, and she got it for her. I also have this tea towel that I've always loved (from my aunt Gail), so I combined the designs from the Nordstrom dress with the tea towel and made this cute, springy dress for Lela. I'm really happy that it turned out and that I actually finished the project, instead of letting the plain yellow dress hang in her closet forever! :)

Past Month (or so)...

 I have been slacking on keeping up with the blog since we moved a little over a month ago, so I thought I'd do a quick rundown of what we've been up to...

Life has been busy getting settled in and unpacked. This is definitely the slowest move I've ever had. The combination of the heat (didn't opt for AC in this place -- really wish we had!) and the boys (you remember the analogy of brushing your teeth while eating an Oreo? It applies to unpacking your house while parenting two boys, too) has made it a slow process. But it's coming along and we are absolutely loving the place!

These are a couple of finished (or partially-finished) projects I've been working on.

The "shed guys" put up this shed in about 4 hours. Every time I went to the window to check them, it looked totally different! This shed is huge and we are loving it -- a place for Christian's tools/equipment, and also storage for me!

Eric has really been enjoying preschool. We are really glad we decided to enroll him this year. One night last week he was crying and told me he didn't want to go any more and he was scared. I asked him what he was scared of and he said chapel. We told me it is dark in there so I talked to his teacher the next day about it so she could sit by him or hold his hand or something. She said he had already mentioned that to her (I was proud of him for that!) and she immediately came up with a few solutions and ended up having him be in charge of turning on all the lights in the sanctuary when they go in. He told her he wasn't scared anymore after that. We are really thankful for his teacher and the school, we've been really impressed so far!

E at preschool

In other news: We've been making lots of Angry Birds.

And we brush our teeth A LOT!

(Jakey likes to wear Bubba's undies on top of his diaper)

We welcomed this beauty into our family last week! 

I'm in love!

Passed my glucose test! :)

These guys wore crazy hats

Jake turned 2!

Here he is having Birthday Sprinkle Waffles

Then he slept through a yummy Birthday lunch.

He and Eden had a party!

Birthday Girl

7 years old!

Birthday Boy

2 years old!

He had his well-child check up and was very healthy and talkative. He's 32 lbs, but we didn't get an accurate height since he couldn't stand flat on his foot because he got a bee sting (on his birthday!).

He said he was "Just like Daddy" with his glasses like this.

I had an OB appointment this morning and got to see the baby. My belly is measuring 30cm at 28 weeks, so she's a bit big. Doctor said he thinks she'll most likely be bigger than Jake (he was 8 lb 5 oz -- so not huge, but big enough, thank you very much!) 

Sweet little girl!

Welcome, Home!

Our house is here! The delivery was scheduled for between 10 and 12 this morning (well, it was originally scheduled for last week, but there was a mix-up at the factory). We were all over at the office waiting and around 11, the first half arrived.

 

This was our first look at it. It is parked out on Ranger Road.

Christian talked to the transporter who told him he had to drive back to Corona and get the other half. He said he'd be back around 1:30. So we went and had lunch to kill some time.

 

But first we peeked in the windows. Here I am admiring my new kitchen!

 

Looking in the baby's room.

 

Gramma came along and spent the day with us, too. They are looking in at the dining room.

 

 

Around 1:30 the transporter called us and we went back over to see the rest of it. 

This is our first look at both pieces.

The transporters were really amazing. They had some issues getting into the main driveway, but they figured it out and maneuvered this 64x13.5' beast in! John got the tractor and moved some debris around and the second half came through a lot easier than the first.

 

 

Here it comes!

 

Winding through the oak trees.

 

They used this remote controlled tractor machine to pull it through the tricky spots.

 

The guy just walked in front of it with the controller.

 

Mommy and Jake watching our house go by!

 

So cool to watch!

 

Jakey was amazed.

This is a short video of the "robot" pulling the house past the office. (sorry it's a little bumpy)

 

Made it!

This was an amazing and hectic process to watch! We love what we've been able to see through the windows and are so excited to get inside and really look around! Tomorrow they will set and attach the pieces. We are so happy to finally see it. What a fun day hanging out with family and seeing our new home arrive! 

Life-Sized Angry Birds...

 Ok, so the combination of one seriously Angry-Birds-Obsessed 3 1/2 year old and one dad with a couple days off of work have resulted in this:

Our very own Angry Birds sling-shot

Christian in his element

He designed it after the plastic version that came with one of Eric's toys. He even distressed the wood to make it look the same. Eden and Eric got to paint it, which they loved (I did have to throw away Eric's shirt though, because he was covered in green paint!). The slingshot fits the pillows we got a Costco a couple weeks ago just perfectly!

So excited about his new toy!

These are the type of towers we knock down with it. We also use cardboard boxes, drums and anything else that seems stackable.

Fun dad; happy kid :)

Eric's Book of Dinosaurs

A few months ago I got a coupon for a free 8x8 photo book from shutterfly.com ($29.99 value). I had forgotten about it until they sent me an email that it was expiring at midnight that night. I am pretty unorganized with my photos right now and I know I eventually want to do larger photo books for each year/kid, etc. but I didn’t really want a single 8x8 book about March or a random event… So I had the idea to make Eric his very own dinosaur book!

We collected one of each type of dino from his basket and took them outside. Then we staged them in the yard by the rocks and weeds. Eric had so much fun coming up with ways to pose them. He put a dinosaur skeleton toy next to the T-Rex like he was eating it and made sure the plant-eaters had plants nearby. We also made a lake for the fish-eater and the swimming dinos. The Pteranadon even looks like it’s sitting in a nest!

Then I just put the pictures on my computer and used Picasa to crop them to squares and add each dinosaur’s name (hopefully I identified and spelled them all correctly!). This type of book is Eric’s favorite right now, so he’s been so excited checking the mail each day to see if it came, and today it finally did!

I want to make one for Jake, too. Maybe from photos of his favorite things? Or favorite people? Or to help him learn some new words? Or we could make up a story and take pictures to go along with it… The possibilities are endless!

(These are the pages from the book)