New Project

I have decided that I am going to make a quilt. This is a scary project for me, but I have been wanting to do it for awhile now. I decided to make it for Ella. This doesn't seem as scary because it is small, so somehow it seems easier:) I found a really cute one awhile ago found here http://http//www.modabakeshop.com/2010/02/baby-life-quilt.html and decided that was the one. I went and bought the fabric on Saturday and started working on it today. I got kind of obsessed and couldn't put it down. Here is what it looks like so far, I have the top of it done!

I am not quite sure how I feel about it yet, but I think once it is all done I will love it (hopefully). I am terrified for the quilting part of it, but excited as well. I think I need to add something in the right hand corner, what do you all think? I was thinking of putting Ella's name there or maybe a flower or something? Come on, give me some input!

I will leave you with a cute picture of Janey and Russell at snacktime today. They were being so cute together all day! Russell looks like he is not enjoying himself but he really was!

Fun Things

Here I am once again staying home and blogging instead of being at church. Russell got croup on Friday so we are staying home until he gets all better. Poor little boy sounded awful yesterday. He was talking in a high pitch squeaky voice all morning. I took him to urgent care and they gave him steroids so he is feeling much better now. I am paranoid whenever he gets croup, it was almost a year ago that he ended up in the hospital with it, so I pretty much freak out now whenever I hear the barky seal cough! Here are some fun activities that we've done the last few weeks. The weather has been beautiful and we have been enjoying it as much as possible!

About 2 weeks ago I decided to plan a Mother Daughter date with Janey. We invited her friends and there moms, which happen to be a few of my best friends as well. We went out to dinner at Red Robin, it was so much fun! I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did! I feel another date coming in the near future:)

Unfortunately I never got a picture with everyone in it.

Janey being silly while she ate her dinner.

I'm too lazy to flip the picture. It's not that great of a picture anyways since Janey wouldn't look at the camera.

Janey and Ella played like this for about 30 min. the other day. Ella was laughing so hard at Janey, it was one of the cutest things ever!

Janey being motherly and giving Ella a bottle. This is the first time Janey has fed her and she has been talking about feeding her since before she was born. It was pretty sweet.

The kids decided to play "astronauts" so Janey went and found some bowls to be their helmet.

I don't know what this little astronaut is looking for:)

We got a new bike for Russell. It's an early b-day present for him so he can enjoy it all spring and summer. He was pretty excited about helping Daddy put it together.

Going on their first bike ride together. Russell was in heaven, we couldn't get him off his bike to go back home.

Russell feeding Ella for the first time.

The kids made a band. I was tinkering around on the piano and the kids went and got all the musical instruments and sat behind me and started playing. It was a really fun afternoon.

We had a sneaky leprechaun come to our house on St. Patricks day. He left a rainbow treasure hunt for us to follow, in the process he also left some footprints behind. Janey followed the footprints all around the house.

Janey found another 4 leaf clover.

looking in the flowers for the treasure.

They finally found their "treasure". We went to the Renton library last week with some friends to watch Caspar Babypants. The kids love him, and I actually love him as well. His songs are super fun and catchy!

Kevin even left a meeting early to join us for the concert:)

Russell watching Caspar Babypants with his buddy Cameron.

After Caspar babypants we went and played at the park. It was such a beautiful day but it was too windy!

Janey took this picture of Russell and I thought it was too cute even though it is blurry. A few Saturdays ago we decided we were going to do something fun even though it was rainy and cold. We decided to go to the Woodland Park Zoo and enjoy what we could. When we first got there it was raining harder than we had expected. We wondered what we had gotten ourselves into, but it ended up being really fun!

The zoo was super cold and rainy but the kids still loved it. It was actually perfect because hardly anyone was there and all the animals were out!

We played indoors at the Zoomazium for quite awhile.

Russell built a big tower. I got this picture just before it collapsed.

We have LOVED the sun this past week and hope it comes around more often! I can't wait to spend all of Spring and Summer outside in the sun:)

Stuff

I feel as if I have been fairly productive lately. Productive in the sort of way that I clean my house...I am pleased with myself...and then ten minutes later it is a complete disaster again! Seriously, how does this happen? How do people stay on top of it? Lately I have been in the mood though where I am okay with it being a little messy, this creates a lot less friction between me and the kids:)

I have finally finished some projects that have been in the works for months. Meaning, I started them, couldn't formulate in my brain how to finish them, so they sat untouched/or not worked on for months. Take this chair for example. I started recovering it with my Mom way before Ella was born. She did most of it, but then she left and I had no idea how to finish. All that was left was sewing the bottom part together on the top cushion and recovering the arms. Try as a might I could not figure out how to recover those arms. The other day a lighbulb came on in my brain and I sat down and had it all finished in about 15 minutes...with the kids at my side! I can't believe I waited to finish it for that long when that was all it took!

I made a fort today for the kids. My kids destroy forts, for some reason they don't know how to enjoy them and play in them. I decided to make this one more sturdy by using the kitchen table. It was way too much effort for how long they used it. Lets just say I had to do a lot of sweeping and mopping before they played under there (who knows what kind of stuff they would have been sitting in!) They had fun for awhile pretending like they were going to sleep under there. I will be honest though, it did not distract them for as long as I had hoped :)

This is a cedar chest in Russell's room that took me forever to reupholster. I had the material forever and never did anything with it, I thought it would be too difficult. I finally decided to just do it and it took like 5 minutes. It looks so much better and looks way cuter in his room now.

Ella is now officially in her own room. I don't know why I had such a hard time moving her out of our room. Maybe because it means she is not such a little baby anymore? I don't know. I like the way it has turned out though...there are just a few more things that need finished (crib skirt and bumper)

I found this rocking chair on sale for ten dollars on craigslist. I was super excited because I needed a rocking chair in Ella's room. The great thing about it was the lady only lived like 5 minutes away! I came home and decided it needed a seat cushion. I whipped one up that night because I am awesome like that (I hope you sense the sarcasm). I was pretty happy with the way it turned out though! It looks super cute in her room especially with the cute blanket covering the back that my friend made for Janey when she was a baby! That baby blanket just tied everything together!

Janey and Russell are obsessed with flossing there teeth lately.

I had no idea his mouth could get so big. He was being super silly.

This is the first time I straightened Janey's hair (I've only done it twice). She looked so different I hardly recognized her and I could not believe how long her hair was....I had no idea! She was so cute about it and couldn't stop looking at herself in the mirror! It was the main topic of conversation for days.

Janey with straight hair wearing the dress I made her awhile ago. For some reason she has decided she doesn't want to wear the dress anymore (grrr). So we dubbed it her straight hair dress. Now if she wants straight hair she has to wear the dress (this is a plus because she is recently obsessed with me straightening her hair). She is way to fashion conscious for her age:)

Doing fun twirls in the dress. Seriously....what little girl wouldn't want a fun dress that twirls up like that!? Apparently mine doesn't.

That was a lot of random stuff.