Blessed

Well, we have a baby girl! Her birth story is coming soon, I promise! But for now, just wanted to share why I feel so incredibly blessed these days.

I am so blessed for this sweet girl. Do we have a newborn, not yet 2 weeks old (2 days old in above picture)?? I'm not sure.... Aren't newborns supposed to cry? Aren't they supposed to wake up every 2 hours at night to eat? Aren't they supposed to take a long time or lots of soothing to fall asleep?

As for me, shouldn't I feel like I just had a baby? Shouldn't I be tired beyond comprehension with three babies at home? (Ok, well Muffin is not a baby, but she's is not even 3 yet!) Shouldn't I feel overwhelmed at home by myself with all of the kids? Hmm.....

The answer is, No, it doesn't have to be that way. God, in his infinite grace knew what I needed, and graciously provided: Angel baby-sleeps-4-6 hours at a time and at least 2 1/2 hours during the day-never cries-puts herself to sleep-girl.....quick labor with no stitches needed (Thank GOD!!) and super quick recovery....and a relatively sound mind! Even the kids are adjusting beautifully.
Above picture is the first time the kids met baby girl...she was about 12 hours old.
Proud big sister was soooo happy to finally hold baby sister.
And the biggest surprise of all: Mr. 13-month-old hasn't even said his first word yet Baby knew exactly what was going on! It was like he had listened to me preparing big sister for the new arrival, and already knew her and loved her so much! When he first saw sister all he wanted to do was kiss her. He was so gentle and loving- he proved to us that he knows WAY more than we give him credit for. He is such a loving big brother.

A sleepy Daddy man with his girls.

Other blessings: a super helpful Daddy Man who continues to get up early with Muffin before work...now he makes us all lunch in the morning too!

An amazing 3 weeks spent at my parents house with love and help poured on us from all sides.

The best in-laws ever and their many days of helping with the kids while we awaited sister's arrival.

Having baby at my parents house with the best midwife ever and the best doula!

So, I am soooo blessed to have our family complete, and so far it is looking like it (or I) won't be as insane as I thought! Stay tuned, next week Daddy Man starts school again. Sure, lets add one more thing into the mix and see how we handle it! ;)

Oh Deer

What was my favorite part of the 4th of July this year? Super sale at Joann Fabrics!! Well, I probably had more fun being with Daddy Man and the kids for three days in a row, but the sale was amazing!! Their patterns were on sale for 99 cents! We're talking about $12-$16 patterns here! One of the patterns I found was for three different vintage-style stuffed animals, in two sizes. I started with the Momma and Baby Lamb for Baby Sister. For the material I used some flannel receiving blankets that my Mom bought for me and told me to make whatever for her room. I wanted her animals to be soft and cuddly, so the blankets worked perfectly! The only downside- the sheep turned out to look like deer. Hmm....The long legs and neck, and skinny body make them look like deer, but hey, they are still totally cute!
I embroidered eyelashes, mouths and hooves, and used vintage buttons for the eyes. I made sure to cut out the Mama's body so I could use the cute butterfly that was on the blanket. Too cute! Muffin is excited about Sister's sheep, and is playing with them as I write, but asked me to please make her the pony ones. (the pattern has a lamb, giraffe, and a horse). I'll get right on that, Muffin!

Another Gilded Treasure

Today I would like to share with you a successful project, and a failed one.

First, the successful project:

Last December I picked up three of these crown ornaments thinking I would paint them and make something for my mom and Sister (sorry girls, I never got around to it!). Once I decided to do a castle/princess theme for Muffin and Baby's room, I thought they would be perfect in pink! I started out with the same color as the poodles, but it just wasn't popping, so I went a few shades darker.

From gilded......

To perfectly pink!
I even followed through on the project, and hot glued them to her cubby shelf. I'm hoping the glue will hold. If not, I will call in Daddy Man and his power tools.
Close up:
I took the opportunity to give you a little sneak peak of Muffin's work in progress room. I think I'm pretty much done, it's just that its hard to get photos of the whole room at one time (this would mean the whole room would have to be clean. ;) Asking too much, right?).
I found this cutest-of-all chairs at Ross, and got 25% off for a scuff on the leg! So girly and cute!
On to the failed project:

My third attempt at upcycling a men's shirt into a boy's shirt did not go so well. This time I used this tutorial for making a onesie, and modified it for a shirt. It was looking good until I sewed the ribbing on backward on the front half of the shirt. Arg!! At first glance it looks OK....
but closer inspection reveals a slew of errors. I'm new to sewing knit fabrics, so the neckline is all warbly (yup, made that up). As I said, the front neckline that you see is supposed to be on the inside of the shirt...the other side looks better, but since I used the existing hem of the old shirt, I couldn't turn it around. And, as you can see right by Muffin's fingers, I didn't catch the edge of the ribbing in the sleeve.
Well, I will try again. Hopefully I can get it right before this weekend's birthday party for Baby Keller! As for the fate of this shirt? It's not so bad to be doomed to the dumpster, so I think Mr. Baby will use it for a sleep shirt (just like the first two I tried. UGH!)

Outdoor Oasis

When Nana and Pa came to visit, Pa bought the kids an "outdoor oasis." I wanted something like this, but figured our little $5 turtle sand box would suffice as a pool. It worked, but was not really big enough for me to sit in. That's right, I (all 9 months pregnant of me) get right in the toddler pool with my kids. :) So this is perfect! We ALL love it! ;)

Muffin enjoys lounging on the slide.....

You can't tell here, but the yellow sides are filled with water, and it squirts out through little holes all over the edges.

They love riding the dolphin
Or sitting under the rainbow. The part you slide onto squirts out water too, as Mr. Baby is discovering.
It also came with inflatable starfish rings that stack on a tower that squirts water....or on the palm tree.
We go 'swimming' in the few inches of water almost every day! Thanks Pa!
It also provides lots of indoor entertainment. It was REALLY funny watching her try to walk with these on! Oh, and what is she wearing? A play shirt, pajama shorts, 2 different baby legs, and two different socks. Hmm, must work on the outfit co-ordination.
Lastly, I thought I would treat you to Mr. Baby, in all of his full glory. ;) Quite the tank, isn't he?

A whirlwind week!

Last week we all went down to Sonora for a visit. The original plan was to go so Daddy Man could work at my Parents' house for the week, getting some much needed property work done for them. We would go down for a week, Daddy Man would work, and the kids and I would hang out with Nana and Aunt Sister. Sounds nice and relaxing, right? Well, my Mom and I decided that this would be our only opportunity to throw my Sister a Baby Shower, so we decided to plan it for Saturday. A couple days after deciding that, I realized that we would be in Sonora for Mr. Baby's 1st Birthday. I know, this should have been in the front of my mind, but alas, I had overlooked it. So naturally, we HAD to plan a Birthday party while we were down with most of our family. Can you see what happened? Our leisurely visit had turned into the party marathon week. Between planning a birthday party, a baby shower, and watching two kids (plus Madelynn for two of the days), it seemed my mom and I were going non-stop! Oh yeah, and I decided to have my baby with Ellie in Sonora(story to come on that one), so I also had two marathon appointments (we're talking 2 hours +!) with her during the week. It was crazy, but we had so much fun. I always love staying at my mom's house, but it was so much better since we were able to stay a whole week. I barely had time to take pictures last week, but here's a few of the parties.

Enjoying his favorite food.

The cake was not bad for Safeway, but nothing compared to the one for the baby shower!
He enjoyed the cake, of course!
After cake and presents (thank you everyone for the fun presents!) Mr. Baby gave us his classic Mr. Baby face. Time for bed!

On to the baby shower. Sadly, I failed to take pictures of the front of my mom's house, but we put flowers like these lining the driveway and walkway up to the front door. There was also a chain of three flowers on the front door, and all around my Mom's house. We used the tutorial from this blog to make these flowers out of different colored napkins.
The food table.....
I made a baby buggy fruit salad out of a watermelon. It was pretty cute. I got the idea from a picture I saw online.
The cake table. If anyone needs an amazing cake in Sonora, go to Kim Angel! I have her email address if you are interested.
She mimicked the design from our napkins. It tasted divine!
Miss Muffin was so sweet and had a great time at Aunt Sister's shower. She kept singing Happy Birthday to Aunt Sister. Super cute. Thanks to Mama Mockabee for letting Muffin hold her sweet baby girl. It was adorable.
Here is a not-so-great picture of my gift to Sister. I made her a car seat tent, burp cloth, 3 baby blocks, 2 binky clips, a toy clip, a bib, and a little dolly. I also included a wooden rattle, and the Love and Logic parenting book(more on that later). I just might do a little tutorial on the dolly, just for you Bobbi, and my 12 dear followers. ;)
I don't think dolly's eyes were sewn on at this point, but rest assured, she had eyes. :)
Well, that about wraps it up! More to come later about having baby girl in Sonora! Exciting!