ready for spring

We have had a couple days of some nice weather here. Yesterday, while all our friends and family in the midwest were snowed in and freezeing, we had a 70 degree spring day! I had been a little bummed about missing all the snow, but it only took about 5 mintues of my kids getting to run around outside for that feeling to wear off.  Here's what we've been up to:



Boden was supposed to be giving Claire a hug...

excited to finally get to use his big dump truck




I've also been doing some sewing and sewing planning getting ready for spring, now that I've finally got all my sewing stuff back together.  Here's the bubble skirt I mentioned before:



and a cute outfit for my friend Laura's baby girl



This skirt was really easy and fun, it really took less than 2 hrs start to finish - I plan to make a few for Claire for this summer and spring.  I got the tutorial from Prudent Baby, one of my absolute favorite websites (layer cake skirt tutorial here).  They have great tutorials for easy sewing projects and tons of other crafty (non-sewing) projects too.

And now, I've got a couple stacks of adorable fabric just begging to be made into spring dresses and skirts


including these fabulous prints my friend Kelly gave me just before I left Missouri.


I'm excited to get started! Kelly, I think you need to hop on a plane and come sew with me for a weekend!

Claire will be 5 months old in just a few days! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. She's such a sweet, happy baby, and Boden loves being a big brother. Claire started rolling over in the past couple weeks and her new favorite thing to do is squeal and play with her feet. It's adorable. I'm pretty certain she's working on her top two teeth now - her little gums are quite swollen, so I'm guessing it will be any day now.


At the end of February we went back to Virginia Beach for a week. We rented a condo on the beach - it was beautiful to look out at the beach, but it was COLD! It even snowed one day. We did get one afternoon where it was warm enought to at least take a little walk on the beach. Boden was so confused as to why it was cold at the beach, he remembers being there last summer and it was warm. He kept wanting to swim in the ocean. Daddy took him down by the water to put their toes in, but it was freezing cold! Boden loved it! We visited the aquarium one day - Boden really enjoyed seeing the big sharks and fish....once he figured out that there was a big piece of glass between him and the shark and the shark couldn't get him! :) It might turn out to be our last trip there as a family - Michael will likely finish up his degree at Regent this summer, and since he'll be really busy taking 2 classes in one week - we probably won't go with him then.


I've been busy sewing and making up some new things. Boden's friend Aiden turned 3, so I made him a "Super Aiden" cape for his birthday. Boden tested it out and approved :) I guess I better get busy making one for him too.



And yesterday, I made this little dress for Claire. I used one of her dresses and kind of traced the outline so that it would be about the right size, then just made it up from there. I think it turned out pretty good - and it actually fits her!



I'm planning to try and make Claire's Easter dress this week too - We're visiting my parents for the week while Michael is in Guatemala (therefore I have much more freetime to sew while the kids hang with Nana & Poppa and their aunties). We also got to go to my sister Molly's first bridal shower on Saturday -which was lots of fun. I'm so excited for her. It was actually a joint shower with my cousin Julie who is getting married in July and my cousin Scott's fiance Kelly who are getting married in June. It will be a busy summer for our family!

Michael and the team arrived safely in Guatemala on Friday and I haven't gotten to talk to him a lot, but he said they were going to an orphanage on Sat, preaching in a few churches over the weekend, and then working on a home for widows and street children for a lot of the week. He said it was 95 degrees there at 9pm the other night! Yikes! And we came to Nebraska and got snow.

A funny little conversation occured the other day between Boden and my sister Micaela....

Caela : "Hey Boden, where is your daddy?"
Boden: "Daddy's at Guatemala"
Caela: "What's he doing there?"
Boden: "He's telling people where Jesus is"

Don't you just love that? He was so matter of fact about it, it was so sweet.

If you think of it this week - would you pray for Michael and the rest of the team as they minister to the people of Guatemala and "tell them where Jesus is"?

Little Whale Designs

I've enjoyed making baby and kid items every since I found out I was pregnant with Boden. I love to sew, knit, crochet - basically anything crafty. Finally, I've decided to open an etsy shop to share some of my homemade items with you! and to support my addiction for fabric stores. Michael jokingly told me the other day that he was getting concerned that I liked going to the fabric store more than I like going to church. LOL. I reassured him - I do like going to the fabric store - but I LOVE church! :)

Anyway - here is a link to my shop - Little Whale Designs. Check it out and see if there's something you like for your kids! I will be adding things periodically - I like to make a variety of things - bibs, burp cloths, t-shirts/onsies, nursing covers, baby shoes, hats, etc - so you never know what you might find!

More Sewing

I spent some time last week working on the bedding for the baby's crib. I'm still not completely finished - I want to make some curtains for the room, sheets for Boden's toddler bed and a few other little things, but I've got the big stuff out of the way.

Before:


During:


(I could entertain Boden for hours just putting pins in the pin cushion!)

After:

And now it matches Boden's toddler bed with the quilt I made this summer:


And here's one of the new bookshelves we got at IKEA - Boden loves it, he can take the books on and off all by himself...and he does...mostly during naptime :) (notice how it's a bit of a disaster right now)

my new baby carrier

I've been wanting one of these mei tai carriers since I had Boden, but never could bring myself to spend the $80-$100 for one, or decide on what color/print I wanted. This time I decided to make my own - I found a basic mei tai pattern online and adapted it to fit my size and made some adjustments to make it more what I wanted. I'm so excited and can't wait to use it with our little girl in just a few months!

I made it so I could change out the panels - so far I've only made 2 panels but I'm sure I'll be making many more. I get bored of prints easily. (Which is why its hard to decorate my house...about a month after I get done I'm ready to do something different.)

Since I currently look like this:

(no, Michael was not standing on the couch to take this photo - he's just that much taller than me!)

...and don't yet have a baby to put in the carrier to model it for you (I thought about trying it out with Boden, but I think he's a little big), so here's a couple photos from the babyhawk website of this type of carrier:

So, it should look something like that...I hope. And the bonus is that i didn't have to settle on just one print, and it didn't cost me anywhere near $80.

I've actually been doing a lot of sewing lately. I made a new nursing cover for myself out of the same polka dot fabric I used for one of the carrier panels, made a nursing cover for a friend who just had a baby, and I'm working on finishing up the rest of the bedding for the crib. Every time I go to the fabric store I find more fabric that I love and want to use to make something - I just need about 10 more hours in a day and I could do it all! :)