3 quilt finishes, the beach and a random deep moment.

Wow, it's been a while.

The past few weeks have been a crazy whirlwind of finishing up school, scurrying to get quilts finished for gifts (two graduation and one baby!), making end-of-the-year teacher gifts, waiting for my brother-in-law to return from Europe with my camera, a little bit of medical drama, packing, and heading to the beach for one (long, long) week of family time (30 people in one house from 2 countries and 3 states). Sheesh.

It's all over now and I can officially say it's SUMMER (I wish someone would have made me this sign) and we're home and ready for it!

Remember these plans?

They became reality just in time!

(I hand-sewed the binding in the car on the way down to the beach!)

I warned Sarah and Abi that I was totally about to be that person who gives you a gift and is then like "HOLD ON! I have to take a picture of you holding it!". I wish I could have been able to get some more pics of the awesome quilting (can you believe that a friend quilted those two quilts and the baby quilt below and only charged me... wait for it... $40?! Insane!).

The 3rd quilt I finished at the beach is for a dear friend that I met in embroidery class. After having a terrible time getting pregnant, losing babies, debating IVF, and finally turning to accupuncture, she is expecting their first child:

I made this one using the Moda Bake Shop recipe for "Random Reflections", but only made one row of blocks, and the rest white. The fabric is from that random Robert Kauffman jelly roll that I just couldn't figure out and the font for the name is Smiley Monster.

and in the spirit of tradition, I obviously had to take a pic on the porch at the beach house.

Though I am ecstatic to be home, we did have a lot of fun at the beach. Noah is getting to be so much fun and it just blabbering on and on to anyone who will listen. His new favorite thing is telling everyone "hey" all the time. He's been saying it for a while now, but it's just funny to watch him walk into a room and wave and scream "HAAAY!".
Man. I sure love that kid.

It's becoming more and more clear to me that God sent Noah to us for a reason. After a terrible pregnancy with him (and no luck with subsequent pregnancies so far), Noah's sweet spirit and loving heart comfort me when I'm fretting about the future. He has always been the easiest baby and the happiest kid and I know that God entrusted us with his care because we would need that sweetness and love to get us through times of heartache and uncertainty.

I find it hilarious and ironic that Noah's name means "rest" (if you've ever been around him, you know why), but that reminds me of a verse about peace that I cling to when nothing makes sense:

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

Not as the world gives, do I give to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."

1 John 14:27

That verse is helping me out a lot lately, and I hope that you're finding at least a little peace in your life as well!

I'm linking up to Fabric Tuesday- check out all the awesome projects!

soon, when people ask me how old Noah is...

... I'll have to say "He's one.'

... and then cry a little.

My little teensy (ok so he was never "teensy") boy will be one next Sunday and it seems like over night he has started doing these "tricks". I didn't realize it until tonight when we were at a friend's house and she was freaking out about the fact that he can high-5, but he can do a lot! For the sake of my horrible memory and that poor, dusty, unopened baby book with nothing written on the blank pages, let's take a look at things Noah can do at 12 months:

• walk (blegh. I envy everyone whose children didn't walk until after 12 months)
• high-5
• stick his tongue out
• clap
• dance
• sign "finished"
• give kisses (precious)
• give hugs (even cuter because he goes "mmmmmm" while he hugs)
• blows kisses
• shows his muscles (hilarious!)
• use a fork (we're working on that one, but he can definitely stab something then get it in his mouth!)
• make a "motorcycle" sound ("bbrrmmm")
• go to bed on his own without nursing (Thank the Lord! I am FINISHED nursing! I was never one that loved, or even liked, nursing but I wanted to stick it out until he could have cow's milk. Our pedi gave the ok to start introducing the milk at 11 months and except for one middle of the night wake up where nothing else would calm him, I haven't nursed him in over 10 days.)

I can't believe that I only have 8 more days of having a baby. I act like that's a sad thing, but it really isn't. He's getting to be so much fun and it's hard to imagine going back to the infant stage with the next baby, but sooner or later that will (hopefully!) happen. It seems as though each stage is more exciting and fun than the last, and I'm very excited for each new thing he learns!

first day of "school"

Noah had his first day of school today.

He made me this:

Ok, so it's not really school. It's just Parents' Morning Out- but it is 3 days a week from 9am-11:45am so that's gotta count for something! It's on the same campus as my office, so on Mondays I plan to do office work and Wednesdays and Thursdays will be for running errands and... erm... sewing.

...and possibly napping.

Speaking of napping- I think Noah enjoyed PMO.

I know for a fact that he had fun and was busy- here's the proof once I pulled into the garage:

Man, he's sweet.

On the sewing end of the spectrum, I've been pretty busy. I have three (yes, THREE!) baby showers this week! All the babies are 2nd children, so I went with a more personal gift rather than something off a registry.

One is for a sweet baby girl to be named Lilah.
(the other parts ofthe gift are monogrammed onesies)
One is for a little guy to be named named Tanner:
(his gift also consists of more- a monogrammed onesie and some USC-themed burp cloths)


and last is a little guy who has no name yet. :)

Words can not describe how much I LOVE that "Transportation" fabric. I wish I could do Noah's entire big boy room of just that fabric. Alas, that would be a little overwhelming... and a lot expensive.

Meanwhile, this beast is still lurking in the corner of my sewing room:

I have one more round to go and I'm calling it a day on that quilt! I'm just sort of chipping away at it a little bit at a time. I would love to have the whole quilt finished by Noah's birthday party.

Hey, we all need goals, right?

(even if they're not realistic)

Speaking of Noah's birthday, it's about 2 weeks away. Go ahead, ask me have I even sent out invitations. Nope. I have done nothing yet but plan it all in my head.

In my defense, I TRIED to make his invitation but couldn't get a decent shot of him to put on it. I guess I'll have to work on that soon... maybe tonight!

in the photo friday- erm, uh... saturday night. Ok, fine- extremely early Sunday morning. Whatevs.

Joe bought us bikes! Well, let me re-phrase: Joe has a ridiculously expensive mountain bike that he is basically in love with- however, with a baby, your wife doesn't always let you leave and go mountain biking with your bros (sorry, pal). Thus, Joe bought me a bike (I'll probably post a picture later- it's so cute!) with a seat on the back for Noah so we can all at least go on rides around the neighborhood together! This picture was taken this afternoon right before we headed out on a little family bike ride!

Eek! My boy is getting so big!

Less than a month until he's one year old. Yikes.

6 months old.

Are you kidding me?

It seems like just yesterday I brought this teeny thing home from the hospital

set him, sleeping in his car seat, on the den floor, looked at Joe and said

"Ok. Now what?"

I never claimed to be original

For Noah's first Valentine's Day, I wanted something easy to do but still better than those dang ole store bought Valentines. I stumbled upon a blog that had this great (and so easy!) idea for Valentines. Then, I found ANOTHER blog with the same idea. I have no idea who came up with the idea- maybe one of these, maybe someone else- but I love it! Here are the ones I found and where:

24-7-365

my insanity

Well, the one small detail that I didn't think of when planning this little project was how the hang I was going to get a 5 month old to make a fist. Mmmk?

Well, we had a mini photo shoot in which Noah didn't pay attention:

blew raspberries:

and pulled the blanket backdrop over his head:

le sigh.

We did finally come up with something useable, though it's not as clear that he's supposed to be "holding" the lollipop as the other pictures are.

Oh well- Happy Valentines Day from Noah!

Noah is truly his father's son.

... gotsta get that xbox controller.

Wait, does that mean we're officially MOBILE?

Today is Kindermusik Day!!! (the day formerly known as Tuesday)

If you haven't heard of Kindermusik, please CLICK!

When I told my parents that Noah was enrolled in a music class, my parents were a little skeptical about us spending $110 every 7 weeks (ACK!) just to "teach the baby music", but in my opinion, it's more than that!

Now, it could be just because I was a music major and then a music teacher, but I really wanted Noah involved in music from the start.

I've read Bluestine's book, I know all about the Music Learning Theory (thanks, Edwin Gordon!) and I'm well aware that a child's musical aptitude peaks around age 8. I wanted Noah to have music early not so he'll be a prodigy or anything, but because the effect that music has on the brain can help him learn to learn (does that make sense?) better, be a more relaxed person, and... well, music is FUN, folks! Ok, I'm off my soapbox. Onto Kindermusik!

Can I just say, first off that the "K" at the end of "music" annoys me to no end. There. I've gotten that off my chest.

Noah is in the Village class- it meets on Tuesday nights from 5:30-6:15pm and there are 7 kids in the class- 5 boys and 2 girls. Noah is the youngest at 4.5 months- the others are more like 9-13 months (the Village class is for babies ages birth to 18 months). In class, there is lots of dancing, movement (marching, swooping, councing, patting, etc), singing (by the teacher and the parents, not the babies, obviously), massage, instruments (shakers and drums) and other fun stuff. This 7 week session is called "Cockadoodle Moo" and the songs are based around farm animals (duh) and the main concept of the session is telling the difference between music/silence and moving/being still. It's been so fun and, since Noah doesn't go to daycare, this is the only time of his week other than church nursery (where he basically gets held the whole time) that he gets to interact with other babies.

When you sign up, Kindermusik sends you a package of home materials as well. You get a CD for the house of all of the songs that you sing in class, some animal flashcards that you can use to reinforce animal sounds, a fun rattle, a book and... well, something else. My mommy brain is failing me again. Moving on-

Noah loves his book and is ever so studious.

Sike, he basically just chews on it.

He does get REALLY excited when we open the book and
show him the pictures of the animals, though!

If you look closely, you can see his fun sunshine rattle:

Here are his flashcards. He loves looking at and touching them.

I put one on the wall beside his changing table:

... and one on the wall behind his crib:

So, long story (not so) short, I love Kindermusik! I think it's fun for Noah, and while I'm not dreaming of him being the next Beethoven, I think it's good for him!

So what about you? Have you gone to a Kindermusik class? What did you think?

Psst! Usually, if you call the Kindermusik people in your area, you can go and participate in one class to try it out and see if it's for you! It's worth it just to go have a fun outing with your little one!

This guy will keep you BUSY-

dang, caring for a baby is time-consuming.

(duh.)

So, Project 365: I have been keeping up with it! I promise! I have faithfully taken (at least) a photo a day all year! The only thing is, I have exceeded my 100MB on flickr for a free account. So either I resize my pics... or pay for a membership! Or, I guess put the pics on here, but that would be pretty boring for anyone reading... Oh well! I'll figure it out!

Well, I did it. I opened the etsy shop. I mainly did it for those friends of mine who live in Georgia who had seen things that I've made for Noah and wanted me to make some for them- but within 24 hours of "opening" the shop, I had 3 orders from people I didn't know! Alright! I put a link down on the right side of the page, under Project 365, if you wanna look at it!

Also, I've been working a lot and Noah started Kindermusic last week (I'm gonna write a whole post about Kindermusic soon- I LOVE IT!) It's been pretty busy around here, yet we haven't really had anything exciting enough to post about! :)

Cloth Diaper Review

I know what you're thinking: "You don't do reviews! What blog is this? Who do you think you are?"

Well, first: calm down.

I'm bored... and don't have much exciting to post about.

Plus everyone else does them and I was starting to feel left out.

So there.

Last week, something awesome happened: I entered a giveaway on one of my favorite blogs (shoutout!) The Eco-Friendly Family. The giveaway was for a Thirsties Fab Fitted diaper and a Thirsties Duo (onesize) diaper cover- AND I WON!

WHAT?! I never win anything!

I don't think I've mentioned it on here, but Noah is a cloth-diapered (CD'ed) baby. To be 100% honest, we did it because they're cheaper (and cuter) than disposables. But come to find out they're also better for his skin, better for the environment and, dangit, a great conversation starter! PLUS they're not even nasty to wash (just ask Joe!) It's a win/win/win (Michael Scott's favorite kind of solution, btw). If I can CD, anyone can! And if MY husband is for it- then holy crap, it must be easy!

Anyways, back to my FREE diaper and cover!
They arrived within days of my winning them, and I immediately washed them and put them to use! We typically use prefolds with covers and Bum Genius 3.0 diapers- this is my first experience with a fitted diaper.

The Fab Fitted is so. incredibly. soft. I wanted to just rub my face all over it... but that would have been inappropriate. So I put it on da baby. Here it is on Noah's little tushy (it's a size small, recommended for babies in the range of 12-18lbs):

What a cute tushy.

And for size reference, that is a 9 week old, 13lb 4 oz tushy.

I tried it on with the cover that came with it (Thirsties Duo size two, smallest setting):

I ordered a size two because Noah already has a size one (reccomended 6-18lbs) and it's on the top setting with his prefolds already. And since I know you're curious, here is the diaper with his size one cover that we already had (top setting).

For good measure, here is it with my other new favorite cover, the Litewrap.

(Mini-review of this cover: I'm not gonna lie, I bought it solely for the print, but it has suprised me and I love it a LOT! It has a less-trim fit, but with jammies and clothes that are already kinda big on him, it works great! Plus, it's "un-trim-ness fits over the diaper easier. I don't feel like I'm stuffing the diaper into the cover, which is nice and I'm sure is more comfortable for him. Plus, it has great leg gussets... PLUS who doesn't love a huge fluffy heiny?)

And now, my review:

Thirsties Fab Fitted (size small):
I LOVE this fitted! I've never used fitteds- because I figure, if you're velcro-ing a diaper on your kid, why do it with one that needs a cover? Just use an all-in-one that has the cover built in. I was skeptical as to the "point" of a fitted. After using this diaper twice now, I understand! It's much softer than my AIOs and it fits so snug- there's no way poop is getting outta that thing! And if by some act of God, poop does slip out- it's not getting past this guy:

Thirsties Duo (size two):
I still love it! The leg gussets are perfect for holding in just about anything that comes out of the south end of a north-bound baby. The cover itself is made of PUL that is thin enough to be comfortable, but thick enough to not worry about leaks. With Noah between sizes, we went ahead with the size 2 (reccomended 18-40 lbs) which fit him! Sure, we velcro'ed the tabs on top of each other, but it was still a great fit in the legs!

So, 2 thumbs up from *the luckiest* family! Noah's tushy says thanks to it's friends at the Eco-Friendly Family as well! What a great giveaway!

We didn't really have a Happy Halloween- but we had a cute lobster!

Hello there!

Things have been a little crazy around here (could you expect anything else with an 8 week old?)

Sadly, my Pawpaw passed away two days before Halloween- he had been in the hospital for 10 months, recovering from a surgery and after bedsores, heart problems and pnuemonia, he went to be with Jesus on October 29th. We spent Halloween day driving to Georgia for the funeral and didn't return unti labout 8pm. I was happy we were able to go be with Nana that day and see all of our family, but in light of the travelling, Noah's first Halloween was kind of a bust- we only had about 4 trick-or-treaters.


However, after the funeral, I did get a few pictures of my handsome handsome brothers all dressed up (which my mom had been BEGGING me to somehow accomplish for a while now).

Eh, they couldn't stay that serious for long.

Ooh! But the night before Halloween, my aunt and uncle had a bonfire and Noah got to debut his outfit there!


So all in all, we did get a couple of things accomplished that weekend!