New Slippers

Even though our winters here aren't that cold I still get a little chilled, especially in the mornings. I'm not a big fan of getting out of a nice warm bed and walking on cold tiles with bare feet! So when I'm at home, I usually wear slippers. I have several pairs, one of which quacks! :)
If you've ever heard the saying, "Mom's cold so everyone put on a sweater," that's kind of what it's like with me and Parker. When I'm getting him dressed in the morning I think that since I'm cold, he must be, too. Right? Poor little guy...I'm sure there are days when he wonders why he's wearing fleece pants and long sleeves when his father is walking around in shorts! And although he always has on socks, sometimes I carry him outside for a few minutes or put him in the car and don't bother with his shoes. But I don't want his little feet to be cold, so I made him a pair of slippers today! I made him a few pairs when he was a baby, and we put them on his feet all the time! They were so soft and easy to slip on and they actually stayed on his feet. The style is somewhat similar to Robeez, having elastic around the ankle. I found them on a blog: http://www.stardustshoes.blogspot.com/2006/10/cloth-shoe-pattern.html
The Stardust pattern is only size 6 months, so I found another baby shoe pattern here that was a size 12-18 month and I enlarged the Stardust pattern until the sole was the same size as the 12-18 month one I had found. Next I went through my pile of fabric and picked out some blue flannel with a dog print for the outside and blue fleece for lining. Then once Parker was down for his nap, I started sewing...

This pattern is super easy to make. It's only three pieces, so it sews up pretty quickly. I finished cutting out the pieces and sewed both slippers during his nap.







The sewing is finished and now I just have to add the elastic.

And they're done!

I wanted to put them on his feet when he woke up, but I decided to wrap them up for Christmas instead. :)

Christmas Sale!

Oops--didn't realize it had been a month since my last post! :) I've spent some time over the last few weeks sewing baby accessories! My sister-in-law went to a craft bazaar last week and had asked if I'd like to take anything to sell along with some cute little baby hats and headbands she had made. I couldn't actually go to the sale because it was a weekday (and she lives in Sacramento), so I gave her a box of stuff to take and sell for me. I made burp cloths, bibs, pee pee teepees, shoes, and coloring wallets (a small fold out mat that holds crayons and a notepad). She called after the sale and told me I sold a few things, so I'm happy for some extra Christmas money! :) And now I can use the rest of what I made for baby gifts or sell it online.
There was a Christmas craft fair here, too, last week. I didn't go to sell anything, but I went with a friend to look around. I love looking around at craft sales--it's a great place to get ideas for making gifts!
I was only planning to look, but I ended up buying a fabric book for Parker, and a necklace pendant. I kind of hate that I bought a fabric book, which is something I could easily have made but I haven't seen the fabric panels for it in stores. We like to read the story of Jesus' birth every Christmas, however, Parker has a hard time sitting still while we read from the Bible. So I thought it would be nice to get a book that has colorful pictures along with the story. And the best part is that because it's all fabric, he can grab it, bend it, chew it, etc., and he won't damage it. :) AND it's totally washable! Yes, it's the small things that make a mother happy! It is pretty cute, though...

A Busy Month!

I have a few pictures I meant to post in October but the last couple days of the month were a little crazy so I never got them on! I'll post them now instead...
October was a fun month this year. It started out with my parents coming to visit!! I was so excited they could be here and see Parker again--the last time they came was a year ago, when Parker was only a few weeks old. What a change! Now he's walking around trying to talk to them! What made their visit even more special was that they came for Parker's 1st birthday party. They got here a few days early which was a HUGE help. They were more than happy to entertain Parker while I made his cake and then Mom and I got everything else ready for the party. The next week we had plenty of time to visit and go shopping.

And we took a tour of Alcatraz on their last day here, too, something they had wanted to do the past couple times they've visited but it never worked out.






Then, about a week after they left, it was our turn to go on vacation--to Disneyland!

We went to Anaheim with two other couples the last week of Oct. We drove down on a Sunday afternoon and came back on Thursday. Our friend, Dana, had booked a house for all of us to stay in, which was within walking distance from the park. It was the perfect arrangement because each kid (the other couples each have a toddler as well) could go to bed in his own room and the rest of us could still spend time together in the evenings...and it was nice to have our own kitchen so we didn't have to eat out every night!
So Monday and Tuesday were spent between Disneyland and California Adventure. We only went on a few rides that weren't baby-friendly, so we just traded back and forth with the guys. They'd go on a ride together, then they'd take the kids so we could ride something.

Kyle said this was the most relaxing and enjoyable time he's ever had at Disney and I agree. Usually we're in a hurry to get from one ride to another and we don't take everything in, but when you go with babies you know starting out that you're going to do things slowly and take breaks for naps, snacks, diaper changes, etc. So we found that the slower pace was nice!

Thanks to Parker, we got to go on a lot of new rides this time! :) We tried the Little Mermaid (where he was quite taken with a life-sized Ursula), Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland, the Ladybugs, Flick's Flyer, Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear, etc. Parker seemed to like them, but we couldn't help wondering what he was thinking of it all...the dark tunnels, flashing lights, loud noises and music... It was quite a contrast to the quiet days he spends here with me!

Wednesday we looked up a local park and zoo and took the kids there for the afternoon. The zoo had maybe...6 kinds of animals? :) It was the tiniest one I've seen but it was perfect for Parker!

And he got to pet some goats.

The park also had a pumpkin patch so we tried to get some pictures but he didn't want to sit still for too long.

And finally, Parker got to go out for Halloween! I waited a little too long to buy him a costume so there wasn't much selection. But the good thing about waiting was that I only paid $3.75 for it--and it's super cute! We had a choice between a monkey and a shark, and here's what we decided on...

In the afternoon we had a few friends over and the kids had a little 'costume party.' Aren't they adorable?? :)

And that evening we went to the home of some friends, where we decided to take the kids out trick-or-treating! We went to a neighborhood that was blocked off and it was crazy! There were people everywhere and at times it was difficult to keep the others from our group within sight--especially after it got dark! It was fun, though, and on the way back we stopped at a few individual houses as well.

As you can see, Parker did pretty well for his first time out! But, as he doesn't eat much sweet stuff yet, we donated a lot of it to church--they were wrapping boxes for Operation Christmas Child. They wouldn't accept chocolate, though, so I guess I'll have to take care of that myself... :)

Kyle's Birthday!

Kyle's birthday was November 3rd! He's not much for big parties, so we didn't do too much that night. We stayed in and I made him one of his favorites for dinner--a Mexican chicken casserole. Dessert was a mini apple pie with a candle in it! (sorry no picture!) :)

The next day, Friday, our Bible study group was coming over for a potluck so I had planned to make Kyle's birthday cake for that evening. I was up early with Parker, and after he had breakfast I started on the cake. Parker was happy to sit and 'help' me for a while...

Kyle prefers white cake, but I only had one white cake mix and the pan I was going to use took two mixes. So I made one white and one chocolate and poured them both into the pan at the same time.

I looked around a little for some decorating ideas but didn't see anything I liked so I made my own 'design.' :) I covered it with white fondant, then cut stripes of blue, green and white fondant and put them all around. I used cookie cutters to cut out the letters for Kyle's name and put that in the center, then made different sized fondant balls for around the bottom. Here's how it turned out:

And after our dinner party this is what was left--you can see how the two flavors were split pretty well!

Happy Birthday, Kyle! Love you!!

Rocky Road Bars

We were invited to a friend's home for dinner yesterday and, although they said we didn't have to bring anything, I still wanted to take a little something as a thank-you. So I got out my dessert recipe book and was about to make a batch of cookies. Only one problem.... I had no brown sugar. Okay, I could just make another kind instead. But I looked through several other recipes and I was missing an ingredient for everything I wanted to make! Arrghh!
I put my book away and looked in the pantry to see what I DID have....aside from the usual flour, sugar, baking soda, etc., I had some graham crackers, lots of marshmallows, peanut butter and a few chocolate chips. Rocky road bars! My parents used to make them for us as kids. They were thick chocolate squares with little colored marshmallows. I don't have a recipe for it and I was a little short on chocolate, so I made my own version:

Rocky Road Bars

3 graham crackers
1 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 cups mini marshmallows

Break the crackers apart and line the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan. Set aside. Crush the remaining crackers into coarse crumbs.
Melt the butter in a small pot, then add chocolate chips and stir until melted. Mix in peanut butter until smooth. Stir in marshmallows until coated, then spread over the wafers in the loaf pan. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs and chill until firm. Cut into 8-10 squares.

These weren't as thick and chocolately as the ones I remember having, but using the ingredients I had, they turned out pretty good--definitely sweet enough to satisfy a chocolate craving! And I think I liked them better with a little peanut butter mixed in.

You had to 'BEE' there!

I realized the other day I'm a little behind in my 'weekly project' posts! I haven't put anything on here for a while, not because I haven't made stuff, but because I've been getting ready for Parker's birthday party. I was waiting until everything was done and I had a few pictures before posting. I can't believe he's one already!! Wow.
A couple months ago I started looking up birthday cake ideas for Parker. I had all kinds of cute themes in mind, but they're all for older kids and Parker is still too little. He wouldn't have a clue what was going on or remember any of it, so we decided to just do something baby-ish for his first birthday. I wanted it to be simple and have bright colors, so when I saw a picture of a beehive cake, I thought it was perfect! Kyle looked at a bunch of pictures and liked the bees, too, so that was the one I ended up making.
I went online to look up ideas and supplies for bumble bee-themed parties and was surprised that the results were pretty limited--and were mostly for girls. I didn't see any invitations I liked for a boy so I found some honeycomb scrapbook paper and cut it up, printed out the party details on white paper, then put them together with pieces of black ribbon. For a finishing touch I added a little bumble bee die cut (no, I didn't make the bees. I found them on etsy!)

I also ordered a few dessert plates with bees on them, then bought the rest of the supplies in plain black and yellow. It was an afternoon party so instead of a full meal we had snack foods--veggies & dip, fruit, cheese & crackers, chips and drinks.

And for dessert we had birthday cake, cupcakes, ice cream and Nanaimo bars! Yum! :)

It took a few hours on Thursday night to make the fondant bees but they turned out super cute! I made the cake on Friday...thankfully, since it was a fairly simple cake it didn't take too long to put together. That left plenty of time to ice the cupcakes and wash/cut all the fruit and veggies.
And since Parker and his little friends are too young for most party favors, I ended up making each of them a small stuffed bee toy! A little cheesy, yes, but I wanted something bee-themed to give out. :)

We had reserved a local park gazebo for Parker's birthday and on the day of the party we were blessed with a beautiful sunny day. We didn't have anything specific planned...just a time to get together and enjoy everyone's company.

We were amused as we watched Parker walk around from one person or group to another, like he was mingling, yet still in his own little world. :)

Finally it was time to cut the cake! Parker had his own big cupcake to get his hands into.

He wasn't sure what to do with it at first. He sat and looked at it for a minute. I picked up a small piece of icing and put it in his mouth thinking that once he tasted it he would dig in. But he still sat and looked around--guess there were too many people around talking to him and taking pictures and he wasn't sure what to do. Finally he poked his finger into it. Then he started squeezing handfuls of icing and cake, then he finally started putting some in his mouth. And he wasn't being dainty! He was shoveling it in by the fistful, using his arm to push in any falling crumbs. :)

So fun to watch! I'm glad he enjoyed his first cake!
He was getting a little tired after the cake but we wanted to try and have him open some of his gifts before everyone left. Kyle sat with him and helped him pull paper and gifts out of the bags.

We barely finished opening everything when the meltdown started. Poor little guy...he had a big day and he did really well with all the people and attention!
It was the perfect afternoon and we were so thankful we could celebrate Parker's first year with family and friends!

Parker?

Recognize this baby?

Hard to believe this was Parker last October! It's amazing how fast time goes by...and how easy it is to forget things so quickly. Was he really that tiny? What did we do before Parker came along? Although this year has sped by, it's been incredibly fun and we've made so many sweet memories with our little boy! He will be a year old tomorrow, October 10, and we thank the Lord every day for our little blessing. I don't think a day has gone by in which Parker hasn't made me smile (or in many cases, laugh out loud!).
A couple days ago I was sitting on the floor playing with him when he came over and reached toward my face. Usually when he does that he's trying to touch my glasses, which he's not allowed to play with. But I waited to see what he would do. Rather than go for my glasses, he put both hands on my face and then leaned over and gave me a kiss! He's never done that before and it was the sweetest thing ever! Totally made my day! :)
Here's a picture of our little guy from a couple weeks ago. Isn't he handsome in his little suit?

I knew he couldn't stay tiny forever, but now that he's starting to get more independent, I'm already starting to miss snuggling with my baby! He started walking when he was 10 months old, but over the last several weeks he has really taken off--preferring to walk rather than crawl. But along with that, he doesn't like to be held as much. Now he will only sit on my lap for a few minutes at a time before he wants down to walk around and play.

But one of my favorite things is when Parker's playing and every so often he looks at me with a big grin. If I hold out my arms he comes over for a hug before running off again. Snuggling may be over, but I'll take hugs from my baby boy any day!! :)

It's a....!!

Today I had a fun project to make--a 'secret' cake! Let me explain...
My sister-in-law, Jessica, has a friend who is expecting her first child. Today that friend had an ultrasound to find out the gender. But she likes surprises so much that she wanted to wait and find out tonight, with the rest of her family, what they're having. So she had the doctor put the results in a sealed envelope and then gave it to Jessica to bring to me.
My part was to make a cake! I would make a large, round layer cake and the icing between the layers would be either pink or blue, depending on the ultrasound results. Then when they cut into the cake, the icing color would show what they were having! Pretty cool idea, right? :)

So Jessica came over this morning with our adorable little nephew to give me the envelope, then she hung out with the boys while I made the cake. Once I had the colored icing in place and hidden from Jessica, she came out and helped me figure out how to decorate the top. we decided to ice it white, put some pink and blue flowers on top, and write the letter E in the center (regardless of the gender, the baby's name will begin with the letter E). Made some little white flowers around the bottom, and it was done! And I was the only person, aside from the doctor, of course, who knew what she was having! I told Jessica that even though I didn't know her friend, it was fun being in on such a big secret! :) I'm excited for them to cut into it later.

I had told Kyle that I was making a cake today and explained what it was for and he thought it was a cool idea. What was funny, though, is that he came home from work today and right away he asked what they were having! He doesn't know them either, but since it was a secret, he had been thinking about it earlier and started wondering what they were having. I told him but swore him to secrecy! :)

It was a fun afternoon! Got to hang out with Jessica and Tristan, and to do something special for a friend!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what her friend was having! The icing in the middle was......

Yay for boys!! :)

A very long weekend

We don't usually do anything special for Labor Day long weekend, but this year we decided to take a mini vacation. A friend from church has connections to a cabin at Lake Tahoe, so he and another friend invited us along to spend a few days there. Our last vacation ended up being...well, not much of a vacation. We drove to Wyoming in June and when we got home a week later we said we weren't going to travel again for a long time. Having Parker in the car for hours on end, not sleeping through the night once the entire time we were away, and then getting sick made for a very unhappy eight-month old. Which, in turn, made for very tired and unhappy parents!

But that was three months ago--surely he would do better now, right? *sigh...*

Well, our long weekend started out fine... Kyle came home from work early on Friday and we hurried to get packed and load the car so we could get a somewhat early start. We left here around 11:30 and traffic, although slower in some places, was still moving along pretty well. Then, about 30 minutes or so from the cabin, we were stopped--for almost 3 hours! It was down to one narrow lane, so we're guessing there was some kind of accident and they had to clear the road. We finally made it but our four hour drive turned into seven hours! Poor Nathan had arrived early and had to wait outside for a few hours until we got there with the key. After we got the car unloaded we drove to Safeway to stock up on food for the weekend. Brad also took a long time to arrive, getting in after we had already gone to bed.

Saturday was a beautiful day and we all decided that we would go sailing. We drove to the dock and boarded the Woodwind II for our two-hour cruise. So relaxing! They threw out a bunch of huge pillows on the deck, but we were afraid Parker and his fair skin would burn so we spent a lot of the time below, looking out the windows. Our first time sailing! And nobody fell overboard! :)

Later we went back to the cabin, where the guys grilled steak for dinner and we played a few games. Sunday we just hung out at the cabin and played some board games and chatted. There was supposed to be a fireworks show on the lake Sunday evening. We didn't want to drive to where they were being set off and be out too late so we walked down the hill, thinking we'd be able to see them from across the lake. We got there a little early and Parker was getting a little antsy...I'm sure the anticipation was killing him! :) However, once the fireworks started they were so far away that we could barely see it. Just a little round colored light here and there. Not a complete waste, though. At least we got our exercise hiking back up the hill!

I think it was good for us, especially Kyle, to get away and take it easy for a few days. He's been super busy with work lately. And Parker? Well, he didn't sleep so well the first night and he woke up early. The second day he woke up at 5 and didn't go back to sleep so Kyle took him for a drive and they saw a sunrise. :) The last morning he woke up before 6 again and was wide awake, so it was my turn to get up early with him. Guess he just doesn't sleep well in a strange place. Can't blame him, though. Sometimes I don't either!

we left Tahoe around noon on Monday and it was very slow all the way home. Traffic was moving, but it still took about six hours to get back. All in all it was a fun weekend, but the drive was a little longer than we would have liked. And Parker was very happy to be home! It was fun to see his face light up and hear his happy little sounds as he played with his toys again.
Yay for familiarity! :)