It's a.....

GIRL!!!!  So very excited to be expecting a little girl.  Of course we would have been thrilled with another boy, and that certainly would have made many things easier, but now we will have the best of both worlds!

We did the reveal on Saturday, and after a little more effort than I had imagined was needed in finding a big box, it went really well.  Our neighbor did a great job putting it all together and I think we got some cute pictures.

Valentine's Day!

So I will give credit where it is due, and confess I actually saw this idea for re-using toilet paper on the Sprout Network.   I used a paper towel tube cut in half and added a little tape for support, because younger kids aren't going to hold it together to keep the heart shape in tact.  For some reason one half held its shape on its own, the other didn't.

Materials:
Paper towel or toilet paper tubes
Tape if needed
Finger or craft paint
disposable plate or paint tray
Glitter
Paper, preferrably cardstock weight
lots of paper towels for cleanup

I was surprised Colton did as well as he did with this.  I figured he'd smear it around and if I got lucky something in there might resemble a heart.   He had a blast!  He loved stamping the hearts and did a pretty good job.   If you are doing this with older kids (or hell, yourself!) check for air bubbles on the tube before stamping, because that will fill in part of your heart when the stamping is done, but I just let Colton go to town until the paper was over saturated in parts.

 

 

He was having so much fun that I cut a second piece of paper in half and made Valentine's for the grandparents too!  The paint does take quite a while to dry, so that left plenty of time to add glitter.

 

 

 

 

Colton has a secret...

As you can see we found out shortly before Christmas that we are expecting baby #2!!  Our 3rd attempt at FET was successful and we are thrilled.  This shirt is how I told Rich.   I tested in the morning and we weren't sure about the results but figured it was still too early.  Naturally I was too impatient to wait until the next day so I tested again when Colton went down for his morning nap and it was clearly positive!  So I grabbed some felt real fast and threw together this shirt and sent Colton into Rich's office when he woke up.

Who thought "No" could be so sweet?

A few weeks ago Colton finally added No to his vocabulary.  But it isn't that whiny toddler "Na-O!" that you would expect.  Instead, we get this quiet little "no-no-no-no".  It is absolutely adorable. 

Holiday plate

Another Pinterest project without directions.  It took a little googling to ensure I wouldn't have exploded plates or toxic surfaces when I was done, but the basic instructions were really simple.  Execution is another story, but I think it turned out well and the grandparents loved them!

Materials I used:
Porcelain plate
Craft enamel paint - red and green
sponge brush
disposable paint or tray
oven for baking

I found paint at Michaels, they've got several brands but just make sure it is an enamel paint, not just the regular craft paint.   I used Folk Art brand.  If you've got the right kind, it will have baking instructions on the back.   I found 2 Villeroy & Bosch plates at Marshalls that didn't have any lip, so they were perfect.

 

You can just stick your kids hand directly in the paint, but I've found other blogs that recommend using a brush for a cleaner result with handprint crafts.  One coverage is good for 2 or 3 handprints.  Now, this paint dries fast, so if you mess up wash it off immediately using a wet papertowel.  The upside to this is you can also just redo a partial handprint without worrying about smearing the completed part.   At Colton's age, I controlled the hand placement entirely and rotated the plate while I "stamped" his hand on it.   I followed the baking instructions on the paint and they turned out nicely.

 

 

Halloween

Time to resurrect this blog.  I've been slacking big time, and the holiday season probably isn't the best time to attempt to fix this, but I'm going to use this as a space to feed my pinterest addiction in addition to the usual family stuff.

So my original inspiration for Colton's costume was this.




Adorable, right?

So I brainstormed a little and decided that instead of using a onesie as the base, I needed something that could go over a long sleeved outfit.  After ruling out a black hoodie jacket, I settled on an old black t-shirt of Rich's.   While playing around with it, the hood piece became one of the sleeves.

 

I cut off both sleeves and made a Tshirt dress more or less, and sewed giant feather boas to it.  The comb was made from a red Tshirt leftover from last year's crab costume, with some cardboard inside for support.

 

 

The legs were pajama bottoms that I got lucky with finding on amazon...2 toned Dr. Seuss PJs were perfect!  And good old dish gloves for the feet.   The beak was orange felt with a little stuffing sewn to a pacifier.   For about a week before Halloween it didn't look like we were going to get it on him at all, but with a little distraction from neighborhood friends and Rich, we succeeded and he had a blast trick or treating.

 

 

 

The beach and boating.

The past 2 weekends we tried to get in a little experience with the sand and water.   Our beach trip was not as successful as we'd hoped, as the weather was cold and very windy.  We spent all of 20 minutes on the beach but Colton did seem to enjoy it.

Memorial Day weekend we finally got out on the boat and had a great day.  We timed things so Colton got his first nap in the car.   He wasn't entirely thrilled with his life jacket, but once we anchored up and got on a nice little patch of beach he spent the day swimming,

playing,

 and just hanging out.

He was not having any part of his 2nd nap in the afternoon, so as soon as we headed back in he was out!