The Bright Side

2011-12-08T19:21:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas!

As this year comes to a close we are so grateful for all of the many blessings that have occurred this year. We have all had lots of fun things happen and this year we have decided to give you a glimpse of the year for each member of our family.

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Brian- This has been a super exciting year for Brian. After 3 years of hard work, Brian graduated with his DPT-Doctorate of Physical Therapy from Texas Women’s University (TWU) in May. He quickly passed his licencing exam & started work right away. Brian started work in June for Concentra. He really enjoys his job, though he wishes there was less paperwork.
One week later he helped Sophia bring his third child, Gideon Eduardo, into the world by catching him & cutting the cord. Brian loves all of his children so much, and he really enjoys playing with all of them. It has been fun for him to be able to interact with Cameron & Lilliana in more engaging ways as they have grown.
Brian also loves his calling. He has been working with the Young Men in our ward through the Scouting program since we moved into the ward in August of 2007. He really loves the Young Men

Sophia- Has been keeping very busy being a Mommy. The highlight of her year was bringing Gideon Eduardo Crane, her third child, into the world. This was her third successful home birth and she feels so blessed to have had Brian with her as her champion in it. Gideon has been a true blessing with his smiling face.

She has since been busy trying to figure out the balancing act of being a Mommy to three little ones. She keeps busy with playgroups & going to the park. She has also been hosting an art day with a neighborhood home-school group. This has been really fun for her. She has been able to find a fun way to incorporate her love of art with her love of teaching children. She also has a pre-school co-op that she & Cameron participate in.

Cameron- This year Cameron turned four. He started Primary as a Sunbeam & really loves it. He has given two talks and led the Article of Faith in Primary opening exercises. Cameron really likes his friends from Sunbeams & was sad when almost half of the Sunbeams moved out over the Summer.
  Cameron has been making more friends through the pre-school co-op & home-school group we attend. He does pre-school with some friends from church & our home-school/art group with friends from the neighborhood. Cameron really loves art, especially collage & sculpting with clay.
  Cameron has always loved books & this year he excitedly started reading them on his own. His new skill has been put to good use as he reads to his brother & sister. Also, when he wakes up before everyone else, rather than waking people up, he usually pulls out some books- his mother and father greatly appreciate his consideration.
  Cameron also loved all the time that he has been able to spend with cousins this year. He loved spending a whole week with all of his Crane cousins this Summer during our Crane Family Reunion. He also really enjoyed seeing all but three of his Crane cousins at Thanksgiving and just wishes that he could have seen cousins from both sides this year.
  We asked what his favorite part of this year, Cameron said getting a baby brother. Cameron REALLY loves Gideon. He loves being a good helper & making Gideon laugh.

Lilliana- Our little monkey turned two this year. Lately, Lilliana’s motto has been “monkey see, monkey do.” It has been so fun watching Lilliana’s personality emerge as her language skills have exploded this year. Some of my favorite quotes of the year are: “I not princess; I monkey!”; similarly after I called her gorgeous, “I not go-juss; I monkey!” Lilliana is definitely the feisty one in the family. She loves singing & dancing. She can often be found walking around la, la, la-ing her own little ditty. Lilliana has also followed in the footsteps of her Mother & Vovó, she loves shoes. Sophia’s high-heels are often strewn about the house because Lilliana has pulled them out to try on.
Speaking of trying things on, Lilliana loves playing dress-up; Her favorite thing to dress-up as is Super “Groger” (Lilliana’s way of saying Grover). Having a new baby brother has added a new sense of Mommy-ness to Lilliana. Lilliana, loves being a mommy to her plethora of baby dolls & stuffed animals. She can regularly be found making massive piles of blankets so that all of her babies can sleep close to each other.
Lilliana is a very considerate little girl & loves her friends and family very much. Her prayers are often the longest of any of the rest of her family because she has to pray for all of her friends & family by name, multiple times per prayer. She really loves nursery & all of her friends in it.

Gideon- Our newest edition is one happy baby. From the day that he was born he has had a smile on his face. His bright countenance has made the transition to three so much easier. He is dearly loved by his family.
We had a scare early on with the doctors thinking that he had a heart problem, but thankfully (I am sure in large part to all the prayers imparted in his behalf by our friends & family), it was nothing serious. He has a stenosis of the veins that go to his skin in his arms and legs (I forget the whole medical term) making them appear purple if he is cold or if there is pressure applied to the joints. We were told that he would mostly grow out of it & that it is not serious. He will also likely end up with asthma if current signs mean anything, but asthma we have dealt with with. So, all things considering he is great.
My chubby little guy is a light weight. At only 18.5 lbs at 5 months, he is the smallest thus far of all of my babies. He is currently sitting up for 30-60 seconds, depending on how quickly he is distracted. He has also started rolling around & scooting himself backwards. It will only be a short while before he is crawling around and getting into everything.

*******

We have been truly blessed this year by the love and support of all of our friends and family. From meals & babysitting to prayers & well wishes, we have really appreciated & been touched by the outpouring of love. We have also been blessed by a kind and loving Heavenly Father and His Son, who, when we thought we couldn’t make it, was always there for us. We have felt our Savior’s love for us time and again.
We pray that you too have felt His love. And, as we take the time to celebrate His birth this Christmas season, that we might all take the time express our love and gratitude to Him, who gave us the greatest gift all all- His life.

May His light & love be with you now & always,

Brian, Sophia, Cameron, Lilliana & Gideon Crane

Cameron's First Talk

2011-01-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that my little boy is big enough to be giving talks in Primary. But sure enough, the day came & he did so well.

His topic was on "How I can know the scriptures are true." We spoke to him about it and He dictated the talk. He spoke about some of his favorite scripture stories: Nephi building a boat; Helaman & the stripling warriors; Samuel the Lamanite preaching on the wall; Captain Moroni; Shadrach, Meshach & Abed-nego in the fiery furnace. He followed by talking about how good he feels when he hears the scriptures read to him & how that feeling is the Spirit. He concluded with telling the Primary that when you read & pray about the scriptures the Spirit will tell you that they are true.

Let me tell you, Cameron loves the scriptures. He will not let us forget or skip the scriptures before we go to bed. He loves to pretend that he is his favorite scripture heroes & even gets his imaginary friends (Abbot the Rabbit, Clat & Nat) in on the fun. It touches my heart to hear him enthusiastically tell you about his favorite stories & what he learns from them. I feel privileged when I hear him speak of Christ and His love for us. Cameron is such a blessing to have in my life. I am constantly amazed by the power of the large spirit in his little body.

I was so proud of him today giving his first talk. I couldn't ask for a cuter Sunbeam to have in my life right now. Congratulations Cameron, your first talk and you are already a better pro then Mommy.

2010 Family Christmas Letter with lots of photos

2010-12-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

With the end of the year approaching I have been thinking about the complete lack of year end family letters during our almost 5 years of marriage. So, I decided that I needed to rectify this problem by actually sitting down & writing one this year. As a brief means of catching up, Brian & I have been in Houston, TX for the last three and a half years. Brian is in his third and last year of Texas Women’s University’s Doctoral program in Physical therapy. I stay home and try to keep up with our rambunctious three year old Cameron & feisty one and a half year old Lilliana.

This year has been lots of fun. We started off the year by, using our Christmas gift from my dad, and visiting Piney Shores Resorts in Conroe, TX for a mini family vacation. Unfortunately, there were record lows, I think it got down to 15 degrees- which is very cold for here, and the pipes froze. We still managed to have fun swimming, playing miniature golf and board games, going to The Woodland’s Mall play area, the kids also loved playing in the extra large bathtub (I did too, it is not often that I find a bathtub that I fit in). I also celebrated a quarter century of life this month.

In February Lilliana, at only nine months, started walking. Talk about energetic, this girl does not stop. She was very happy to finally be able to keep up with her big brother. We enjoyed the nice weather by spending lots of time at the various parks close by.

March’s big event was Cameron’s third birthday. This year we had a big fireman themed party. I made a couch sized cardboard fire truck- that stayed in the house for a month and a half before we finally laid it to rest in our recycling bin, a 3D fire truck cake & then we ended by visiting a close by fire station. March is also Rodeo month here in Houston. Cameron LOVES it and is always disappointed when it’s gone. Brian participated in PT Olympics in San Antonio and we took the opportunity to have another mini vacation so we could go cheer him on. We also went to Lulu’s Cafe and ate the biggest cinnamon roll that I have ever seen- mmm… it was delicious; it took us almost a week to finish.

April our baby girl turned one. It never ceases to amaze me how fast children grow and in an infant’s case was a difference a year makes. This year I made Lilliana a birthday dress, it was lots of fun and it turned out mostly how I wanted it. We also enjoyed Easter this year. We dyed eggs for the first time & Lilliana had a lot of fun her first egg hunt. She also had her first taste of candy when she found a chocolate egg and unwrapped it before we noticed.

In May we celebrated 4 years together. Then at the end of the month we headed out to Utah & were blessed to attend the wedding of my brother Jonathan to his beautiful wife Haruka. Cameron was thrilled to get to play in the snow at Alta ski lodge , where the wedding took place. I was glad to get to spend time in the mountains that I love so much.

In June, Brian started a two month clinical rotation at a hospital in Ogden. We were blessed to be able to stay with my Brother Dax, his wife Kim & their great kids. They had a great view of Pineview Reservoir from their home and, living in a valley, we were surrounded by majestic mountains. We had fun playing at Ogden’s children’s museum called the Tree House, going to the library, finding fun parks to spend our time & going to my nieces’ t-ball games.

Being in Utah afforded us the chance to visit a lot of friends and family that we haven’t seen for a long time. In July we went and spent the fourth with Brian’s Brother Brent & his wonderful family. I chopped off 15 inches of hair to donate; Brian did a double take when he first saw me. We were also able to attend two family reunions, the Crane family & the Pinegar Family. We had so much fun. For the Pinegar family reunion we camped & that was a first for our kids. S’mores became a quick favorite of Cameron’s; Lilliana preferred plain uncooked marshmallows. We also did a lot of hiking & playing at the beach by the reservoir. with the kids in July. I sure do miss my mountains.

Home again in August, it was nice to be back. We spent a lot of time playing in the water to keep cool. The kids loved playing in sprinklers, parks with water features & the beach in Galveston. Lilliana is like a fish when it comes to water. When we went to the beach she spent most of her time playing in or near the water. Cameron, on the other hand, was much more content playing in the sand & looking for sea shells.

In September, Brian started his last year of his Physical Therapy program. He had another clinical rotation start. Fair weather meant a lot of time spent outside. A clearance sale purchase of a kiddy pool meant the kids spent almost everyday in swimsuits. I found some really excellent bread recipes and started baking loafs almost every day.

We spent a lot of time celebrating in October. We went to three or four pumpkin patches, a Fall festival and two different trunk-or-treat activities. October was also our National Night Out event that I planned as part of participating in our neighborhood board. I made Cameron a Dalmatian costume. Lilliana was Dorothy.

In November Brian submitted his research project that he has been working on since his first year. It was a huge burden off his shoulders to have that done. I started watching some kids from our ward during the week during school hours. Cameron & Lilliana have really enjoyed having friends to play with during the day. We spent Thanksgiving at Brian’s Uncle’s house and had a really good time.

December is promising to be a festive one. We have lots of parties to go to and lots of friends and family to visit with. Mostly, I am just grateful for this time to reflect on the life of my beautiful Savior. I am so overwhelmed by his love that I see manifest in our lives everyday. May His light shine bright for all of you the Christmas Season.

2011 will be an exciting year for us. In May, we will celebrate five wonderful years of marriage together. Brian also graduates in May & will then take his licensure exams in June. This summer a fifth Crane will also be making their way to our family. We feel so blessed by the Lord & we pray His blessings on you too.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Brian, Sophia, Cameron & Lilliana Crane

One Year Already?

2010-05-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that it has been a year already. I can believe that this little baby girl of mine has gone from

this tiny baby

alert and attentive from the beginning

so precious

smiley new born;

to a smiley

noisy, fun loving

one year old baby girl.

Happy Birthday Lilliana!

We love you and your smiles so much.

My new favorite outfit for Lilliana

2010-04-17T18:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, I totally admit it, I love having a girl. Now don't get me wrong, having a boy is fun & I love it. However, girl things are so much cuter & way more fun to make. Here is my new favorite that I made for Lilliana using a plain white onesie, about a quarter yard of fabric, some elasticized ruffle ribbon & some black & white polka dot ribbon. I used some scraps I had of the fabric that I used for the skirt to make some cloth covered button. Cameron (and one of his cousins) has a bow tie made with the same fabric as the skirt. I really love the contrast between the black & yellow.

4 rows of ruffles, cloth buttons, bows on the sleeves

a cute ruffly bum peaking out under the skirt

a bow on top of all the cute ruffles

It is done!

2010-04-17T18:18:00.000-07:00

So here it is, my gorgeous new wreath! I absolutely love it. I took two trips to the park to collect all the acorns. On my second trip a mom asked me what I was doing & I told her that I was collecting acorns for a wreath. She must have told some other people, before long about half the kids at the park were bringing me acorns and putting them in my bucket, it was super cute. So, after a lot of gluing, it is all done. After I (spray) painted it I went to go and get some ribbon for it, when I came back Cameron had scraped most of the paint off with a twig he brought in the house. I had to repaint it, it you look at the back from inside you can see some of the scraped parts that I missed, but at that point it was hung and I didn't want to bother taking it all down again.

The natural look matched our door too much so I brightened it up with this awesome blue color & I love it.

Spring time fun

2010-04-16T20:24:00.000-07:00

We have been really enjoying the Spring. Here are some of the things that we have been busy doing instead of blogging.

Lilliana, Avery, Levi all lined up together to explore the woodchips. I thought it was super cute

Daddy & Cameron were having slide races at the park. This is one of our favorite parks to go to. People donate toys to the park. So, along with the play equipment there are push toys, ride-ons, scooters, trikes, tables, you name it.

Lilliana likes to slide too, but that is probably because Cameron does. She likes to do anything that he does.

I have no idea what kind of flower this is. It is in our yard and blooms every year the blooms stick around for a few weeks & then we don't see them again until the following Spring. I think that they are gorgeous.

Lilliana enjoying the swing that our friend Emily brought over to us. Emily found it in someone's large trash pick up pile. Just goes to show that "one man's junk is another man's treasure." Whenever we go outside now she bee-lines for the swing and signs "up" (both arms raised) or points to it. She loves swinging, much unlike her brother- who loves the idea but once on a swing and actually swinging he begs to get off within a few seconds.

My cute Cameron posing for a photo in his studdly pinstripe suit coat & bowtie

I am so glad they love eachother so much.

Easter

2010-04-16T19:58:00.000-07:00

I love Easter. What a wonderful time of year. The world is reborn and it reminds us of our Savior & his glorious resurrection. I am so grateful for a time to remember his sacrifice & love. Here are some photos from our Easter celebrations this year. We ended up attending 4 different egg hunts; one at the library for story time, one at Ikea during the March birthday party we went to for Cameron, one for our ward play group & one at home.

Lilliana enjoyed her first Easter & first egg hunt that we had at a park for our ward playgroup

A few of the sugar cookies that Cameron & Mommy made and decorated. This was the first time that I personally made sugar cookies from scratch. I got the recipe and a great tutorial from MADE -have I mentioned that I love that site. I love that you don't have to chill these so they are super fast to make.

Cameron & Mommy having fun dyeing Easter eggs, it was Cameron's first time

The finished product. Some are hard boiled and some are filled with chocolate. Can you tell the difference? Cameron was really surprised when he cracked into the egg with chocolate

Cameron finding his basket. We had our egg hunt in between Conference sessions this year, so everyone was dressed up

Lilliana finding her basket. Lilliana LOVES puzzles so that is what she got in her basket along with some eggs filled with cereal & baby goldfish crackers

It took Brian a while to find his basket

Cameron hunting for more treat to fill his basket. He kept stopping to open every egg and see what was inside. Needless to say, the hunt took a long time.

San Antonio Trip

2010-04-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Brian playing basketball

Brian at the net

Happy spectators

Gigantic cinnamon rolly goodness

I Love Spring

2010-04-11T21:26:00.000-07:00

Attn: This is going to be a image-less post. I left my camera at Brian's parent's house.

Sorry, for the hiatus. Between, nice weather, spring cleaning, crafting & trying to get the house ready for the Summer, I haven't spent much time on the computer. A few week ago we went to San Antonio so that Brian could compete in the PT Olympics, a competition against all the PT programs in the state of Texas. We had lots of fun. Brian competed in basketball & volleyball. His school got 2nd place. The school that hosted (and always does) won 1st place (they always do), coincidence, I think not. Brian also says that I am now officially Texan (I am not) because I ate Texas size food for the first time, including a 3 1/2 pound cinnamon roll. The cinnamon roll took us 5 days to work our way through and was DELICIOUS.
Lilliana's walking has really taken off, she is now practically a pro. It blows my mind to see her walking around she is becoming less & less a baby everyday. I can't believe that in 2 weeks she will be a year old. She has such a fun personality & is so curious. She also LOVES her big brother. I have been struggling with her & solids. She wants to eat the things that she can't have, due to an allergy to egg whites and a considerable number of food sensitivities, but the food that she can have she is generally not interested in. I am always paranoid about what she has in her mouth because I don't know if it is something that will give her a reaction.
Cameron is a great big brother and a wonderful helper. He has really been loving being able to play outside. The last several Springs we have been stuck inside due to allergies. His new favorite thing is telling jokes and stories. He also loves having stories told to him.
I have been busy working on getting the house ready for when we have someone else living in it. I have also been working on a few crafty projects. I made Lilliana a super cute outfit, by embellishing a onesie & making a skirt; it is probably one of my favorites. I am also working on an acorn wreath like the one seen on MADE. I ran out of acorns, so I need to go back to the park and collect some more tomorrow.
Well, that is it for now. I will try to get my camera back this week so I can upload some of our super great photos.

Craft Therapy

2010-03-22T21:36:00.000-07:00

I practiced some craft therapy today to help relieve some of the anger from last nights bad news. Due to focusing on Cameron's birthday party & then taking care of sick family members my house has been greatly lacking in Spring time cheer & decor. So after seeing this craft over at Crafty Sisters I decided to dress-up my mantle.

Here is what my mantle looks like now.

My jelly bean topiary

I ran out of jelly beans so I wrapped a few styrofoam balls in variegated Spring color yarn

P.S.

Remember how I said that I won a give away from Dana over at MADE ? He are some photos of the cute hair clips I received last week

The baby shower story

2010-03-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I spent several hours making the following girly get-up. Beautiful, right? So, you ask, what is the problem? The problem is that I forgot that the baby shower on Thursday was for a boy. After going to at least 3-5 baby showers & missing but still preparing gifts for 2 others in the last month or so, plus having spoken to my sister-in-law who is expecting a little girl (I have another sister-in-law also expecting a girl) I got my shower recipients mixed up. I got to the shower and saw all the blue and immediately felt like an idiot. I knew she was expecting a boy, I was her visiting teacher until last month. Oh, well I blame the fact that I had been dealing with sick kids & husband for 3 days.

The whole outfit

The skirt & matching hairbows

I love ruffly bottoms

P.S.

2010-03-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Sorry, that last post was not very bright sidey. It was definately a glass half empty and cracked kind of post.

Not Quite As Planned

2010-03-21T21:47:00.000-07:00

This week did not go as planned. I posted this last weekend "We have a fun week of Rodeo, parks, walks, garage sale-ing & the Zoo planned. " Monday was the only bit of sun-shine that we got all week. Tuesday morning I was woken up at 5 am by being vomited on (mostly neck and hair- gross) by Lilliana which continued all day. 3 baths for her, 6 clothes changes for me, 2 sets of king sheets & mattress protectors, 2 blankets, 6 towels, 4 loads of laundry and over a dozen vomit messes to clean-up later she felt better (it lasted about 14-16 hours). The next day on his way to the rodeo with Grandma Cameron started throwing up too. The first mess was GROSS to clean up, I basically stripped him down to his skivvies before sending him inside to take a bath. I had to completely take apart the car seat and clean nooks and crannies with q-tips. The rest of the day though he carried around a bowl and never missed. He even carried it to the toilet and dumped it. He has been feeling better since Thursday minus throwing up halfway through dinner Th-F-Sat & today. It is the most bizarre thing; all day he is fine and eats things that would make someone with a stomach bug throw-up (grapefruit, jalapeno sausage, cheese, etc) and is fine, then at dinner half way through he throws-up profusely & comes back to the table wanting to finish dinner-weird. Brian came down with the bug too. Luckily he was just tired and nauseated. Needless to say, aside from Monday, there were no walks, parks, rodeo trips or zoo excursions this week.

I did get to go to the big town of Needville ( the town is not big but the town wide sale is) wide garage sale & found some EXCELLENT finds. Several pairs of jeans in bigger sizes that were in good condition and had adjustable waist bands (genius invention) for $1 each, several pairs of nice jeans in my size (even the Long sizes I need) for $1 each, lots of cute shirts for myself & Cameron and to re-purpose into several project I have in mind, an awesome old-school sewing book - the front cover would have been enough for me to buy it (photos to come) & a super cool tool to help form armscyes, hip curves, front & back crotch curves, neck curves in patterns - you usually would have to have several different tools and this one is all in one, & some photo frames to refinish and a few other odds and ends. The best finds were probably the book & tool- I got them both for $ .50 combined- & the jeans. The garage sale was cut short though. An hour into my bargain hunting it started torrentially pouring rain, so most of the good sales packed up and went inside, a few that were actually in garages stuck around.

The week ended poorly as the beautiful weather turned cold, windy & grey. Thursday I worked really hard on a baby shower gift & got it all wrong. I will post about it tomorrow as it is slightly humorous despite how frustrating it was. And lastly, the worst thing that did not go as I wanted it to was the stupid Health Care bill being passed. I am so mad. I don't understand how stupid trivial bills get pulled apart and stay in committee for years, but this one bill that the majority of the nation does not want that is pretty much the biggest step toward socialism our country has ever taken get force fed through the house and senate in less than a year. I am not saying that there was no call for change in the healthcare system that we have/had, just that government run systems are WAY worse than the system we had. Why couldn't there have been research done, options weighed and discussed, open discussions about possible solutions, public clarity in the bill. Obama campaigned on promises of open and clarity on all legislation, on putting an end to ear marks & backroom deals & in this one bill alone he not only broke all of those promises but stomped on them and lied to and deceived millions (again) as to the nature and meaning of this bill. I am depressed. Perhaps some fun crafts will cheer me up this week.

I Made it ALL by my self

2010-03-16T10:06:00.001-07:00

Proud Mama

Action shot. The skirt is the perfect length.

The turquoise has yellow contrast thread & the yellow has turquoise contrast thread.

I made this using the 90 minute shirt tutorial from Dana over at Made - one of my favorite craft blogs. Last month they had celebrate the boy month and this tutorial came up. I haven't had the guts to try and adjust the pattern for Cameron yet, but that is my goal this week. Anyway, I used fabric from 2 different shirt that had shrunk & some ribbing the I had purchased. I love the color combination, thanks Cameron- he picked out the colors. this is the first time that I have done sleeves. I tried doing a smaller gather at the top in the middle to make it more girly, you can sort-of tell but not really. Anyway, I love it & am proud of it.

Something else super great about the Made blog is that I one of the giveaways last week. I was totally floored. I never win anything, ever. So, thanks to Dana for her great blog. I will be eagerly checking my mail box this week.

Here Comes the Sun

2010-03-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging about us more lately. We have been spending as much time as possible outside enjoying the sun shine & 70 + degree weather that we have had for the last week. Brian finished midterms last week & has Spring Break this week. Basically, that means that he is at work all day instead of at school all day. We were able to get a lot of desperately needed yard work done this weekend. And cooked up a tasty roast dinner for Sunday and had friends over. I sure do love Spring time.

Oh, we also got our tickets for Utah. I am SO, SO excited to get to spend the Summer with family and friends. I get to attend the Pinegar family reunion for the first time since we were married almost 4 years ago. I sure do love my family reunions. I already have a running packing list in my head. I think that I can pack a good deal of Lilliana's clothes now since she is in borderline sizes; I will just keep her in the smaller size until we leave and pack up the next size up. I have so many people and places that I want to see & visit, I just hope that I will have time for it all.

Well, I hope everyone else is starting to see the signs of Spring too. We have a fun week of Rodeo, parks, walks, garage sale-ing & the Zoo planned. If flickr, picasa & I can all decide to get along I will have photos for you guys to enjoy.

Learning curve

2010-03-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

I had an idea pop into my head the other day for a gift for an upcoming baby shower, but wanted to try it out before making something to give away. So, I scrounged up an old onesie, some scrap fabric (for the flowers), buttons, ribbon, tulle & "silk" flowers. I was guessing my whole way through & learned a thing or two about working with knits. Here is the finished product. Needless to say, I have some kinks to workout before I feel comfortable giving it away to someone.

I made this yesterday & definitely learned a lot. While from a distance it is cute, if you look closely you can tell that I haven't worked with knit fabric & embellishing it much.

I really like the concept & the flowers are way cute. The machine didn't feed the fabric well though & to get this to fit I had to put Lilliana's feet through the top and take her diaper off. Apparently the fabric got bunched in a few spots and so the ribbon was a little on the tight side. I also misjudged the hight that the skirt needed to be added.

I cut the crotch part off & put some white bloomers on her. The shirt kept sliding up over her cute pudgy belly. I learned several good lessons about working with knits. Hopefully I remember them next time. As for this cute little number, I am not sure if she will get to wear it again.

Fireman Party Cont.

2010-03-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some more shots from the party

Getting in on the fun

Lilliana liked the truck a lot too

Not only did the cake look good it tasted delicious

I think he liked it

After a bad case of the shy and grumpies Cameron decided to be happy and sit on the back of a real firetruck

The Fireman Party

2010-03-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

We through Cameron his Fireman Party today. The party was so fun, despite the very small turnout. *Note: I was so sad for Cameron, while he enjoyed the 2 friends that came +1 that showed up for the fire station tour, he kept asking where all of his friends and buddies were. He even had me delay the cake twice saying he wanted to wait until more friends came* All the effort was well worth it Cameron & Lilliana have both spent all day playing inside the firetruck & if for no other reason than that I am pleased with the turn out. As a recap, I made a 3D firetruck cake, a large card board firetruck to play in & for favors each child got a fireman hat & badge and a hose to put out fires (cut up piece of an old damaged garden hose with ends taped shut). Since pictures can say a lot more than I can, I will show you some of the details & add commentary as needed.

Side Shot- Our friend's came over, one of whom is a firefighter, and were impressed with the accuracy of the fireman's emblem on the side. The Truck is the size of half of a sectional couch (3'x6' maybe?) and we stayed up until about 2 making it.

Front view- The truck is about 3-3 1/2 feet tall

Action shot

I made a platform for the cake out of cardboard wrapped in paper so that it would look like the truck was actually driving on the wheels. I used 1/2 of a 9x13" pan & two loaf pans for the cake (I double the recipe and then made 1/2 chocolate) & made my favorite frosting recipe, which I divided it up as needed and used gel coloring to get the vibrant colors

I looked at several pictures online and then pretty much winged it from there. Everyone was impressed with the cake, including myself. I don't have much experience with children's cake, but Cameron's last two cakes have given me the confidence to create many more fun, 3D cakes in the years to come. Hooray for an "I can do that" attitude.

The baby shower onsies

2010-03-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

As promised (to the whole 2 of you that read this) here are photo's of the onsies that I made for the twin boy baby shower I went to. I used a combination of techniques from online tutorials here & here. I think they turned out really well considering it was the first time I tried either technique.

Happy Birthday Cameron

2010-03-02T19:39:00.000-08:00

I have this whole Ode to Cameron all thought up in my head, but Lilliana is sad and teething so I have 5 minutes while Brian gets her ready for bed. I just want to mention how much I love my little boy. I can't believe that he has been around three whole years, time really does fly.

P.S. Cameron is sporting his birthday shirt that I made for him this morning using fabric of his choice and a stained t-shirt. I seriously finished it in less time than it took his birthday muffins to bake. I used this technique to applique.

Counting my blessings

2010-02-26T22:45:00.000-08:00

Today we had to take Cameron to the doctor. I thought that he had pneumonia again (he had it 2 weeks ago) and I didn't want to wait until Monday to see if it was the case. I am sure glad I followed my gut, it turns out that he was having an asthma attack and had we waited much longer we would have had to go to the hospital. Cameron is doing much better now after 3 breathing treatments in a row and an oral steroid. He will be on the steroid for 5 more days to get his breathing under control; and fingers crossed that it won't have to be added as a daily medication. I am just so glad that the Spirit didn't let me blow off the feeling of needing to go in as a paranoid Mommy feeling. Please keep him in your prayers that he will recover quickly.

P.S. On a happier note I embellished some onesies for a baby shower for twin boys & they turned out really cute. They are drying now, so I will post photos tomorrow.

Fiddling

2010-02-23T08:34:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Amanda & http://www.leeloublogs.blogspot.com/ . I plan on fiddling with things 'till I like them so there will be changes. Yay! for cute blogs
Sophia

Look what I did today

2010-02-22T22:02:00.000-08:00

Today was very productive. Cameron has been in need of a hair cut, so I took him to SportsClips because I had a coupon for a free boys hair cut. I guess you get what you pay for because I could have done a better job (and have been doing so) in my sleep than the girl did. My poor boy has a hack job of a hair cut and just a week before his birthday.

I went to Jo-Ann's & Micheals (sorry my dear Hobby Lobby, there was a sale) and picked out these fun fabrics for a skirt for myself.

I will be using this tutorial from Freshly Picked I am way excited to see how they turn out. At Micheal's I picked up some wooden letters to jazz up our hall wall after being inspired by this tutorial on Samster Mommy. Can you tell that I love craft blogs. Those are just two of some of my new favorites.
I came home and Cameron & I painted the letters to spell out "I am a child of God". I weeded, raked and trimmed the trees & shrubbery along our driveway today & picked some fresh oregano, rosemary & thyme from our garden to give as a thank you to someone who wrote a letter of recommendation for Brian (the guy likes to cook). After dinner, FHE & putting the kids to bed I painted the circles on the wall & with left over paint painted a star wall hanger that I have been meaning to for awhile for Cameron to hang up his painting smock.
After the wall dried I hung up the letters.

Now, all that is left to complete the wall will be to paint two picture frames ivory & put photos of my two beautiful children & hang it up. I can't wait to get it done. We have lived here 2 and a quarter years and still most of my wall are bare it drives me nuts. So, in the last few months I have been putting things up & slowly my house is feeeling more and more like a home.

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

We had Fondue for dessert on Valentine's Day and it was a big hit with Cameron. I think I will make this a V-day tradition. I was so much fun. I went back to the video a few times and now have decided to share. I know it is a week past Valentine's, but if you don't want to watch you can choose not to.