Pumpkin Patch & Trick or Treating

Taylor, Ya-Ya, and I ventured up to a local church that always has a pumpkin patch.  Ya-Ya even got there before us and stacked some pumpkins up for the perfect picture.  I am learning that with a toddler you should plan for the best but always anticipate for them to do the exact opposite.  Taylor did not want to sit down for any pictures so I chased our cutie around the pumpkin patch.  It was a bit windy that day, but it made for some funny pig tail photos.  Taylor loved the little pumpkins since they were just her size.

It made me laugh the way she worked really hard at picking out just the right little one (or two).

Tonight was very different then the way we’ve spent the last 5 Halloweens.  We normally have a costume party at our house and spend the evening enjoying adult beverages and running a contest for the best costume.  This year we took a break from the party scene and instead took Taylor for her first time trick-or-treating.  When I started putting her hair in the little ponytail on top, Chris said she had to be Pebbles for Halloween.  After a short fit over not wanting to wear parts of our Halloween costume, our little trick-or-treater was ready to go.  Well, we were ready until Taylor decided to take a pit stop to see if the kitty wanted to go with us.  Then we were off to find some candy. 

We made it to several of our neighbors houses’ without any tears, but Taylor didn’t quite get this trick-or-treat thing until watching some bigger kids go to one door.  Then the guy let her pick out what she wanted and she grabbed a sucker.  It was like winning the lottery in toddler world and Taylor was then done going door to door. 

Not too bad for her first time and I look forward to many more Halloween nights with this little cutie!  In our book she takes first place for the best costume this year!

Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween

I should really stop looking at crafty blogs because I see all these wonderful things other Mom’s create and get ideas of what I want to do next.  For some reason I got it in my mind that a store bought trick-or-treat bag was not going to cut it this year and decided to make one.  I wasn’t quite sure how to go about this, but I knew there had to be a kitty involved.  After a few rounds with Google and some time examining of few of my own bags I was ready to go. 

The letters were cut out using my Cricut.  Did you know that you can cut fabric with a Cricut???  I didn’t until a few days ago and that has opened up a whole new world for me!  I didn’t have a kitty design so I pieced this one together from an image online.  I made the bag out of cotton fabric that was on sale at Hobby Lobby and lined the inside to make it a big stronger.  I am hoping this bag holds up for a few years or at least until it’s not cool to carry a non-store bought bag!  And yes I realize I can’t use orange fabric without adding black polka-dotted fabric too.  I just LOVE the polka-dots!

I couldn’t be the only one doing craft projects this week, so Taylor got to join in on the fun.  (I have decided that Elem teachers make great Moms bc they know all the cool crafts to do with their kids.  Poor Taylor just gets to play with my office supplies and adding machine from my days doing accounting.)  I saw this idea on another blog and just HAD to try it out with Taylor. 

She laughed as we covered her foot in pad and stomped it down on the paper.  Her grandparents were thrilled to get a Halloween treat in the mailbox! 

Taylor’s costume is ready, bag is empty and ready to be filled with treats, and Daddy can’t wait to escort his little girl to each door while Mommy takes pictures. 

Hope you have a very Happy Halloween!

Quick Thank You Card

I needed a cute and quick thank you card to give to all the customers who ordered at my recent Stampin’ Up workshop.  I have been wanting to use the combo of the new SU color Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip.  Now that I look at it on here, it could just a few more embellishments to add a little zing.  Maybe next time!

 

Supplies: (all Stampin’ Up)

Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White paper; Chocolate Chip Designer Series Paper; Garden Whimsy & Trendy Trees stamp set; Melon Mambo & Chocolate Chip ink; corner rounder punch, word window punch, curvy label punch

Taylor Tuesday

A tisket a tasket

A Taylor in a basket

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor found it amusing to sit in the laundry basket to read her books.  I got her to say cheese, but she wouldn’t look up from the book so I switched to video.

Mojo Monday 109

I got a chance to sneak into my craft room and do more than clean/organize last week. 

I used the design from this past week’s Mojo Monday sketch as my starting place. 

  Supplies:

Elegant Eggplant, Mellow Moss, and Whisper White paper; Elegant Eggplant and Mellow Moss ink; Teeny Tiny Wishes and a hostess set that I can’t remember the name of right now, white grosgrain ribbon, scallop oval punch, oval punch, and Swiss Dots Cuttlebug embossing folder

10 months until 30

Two months ago I started a list of 29 things to do before I turned 30 and just thought I would give you a recap of some of the items that I have been able to cross off my list:

1. Travel out of state again

12. Rub it in to Chris that I’m still in my 20’s while he is in his 30’s

20. Sew a pillowcase dress for Taylor

22. Own a brand new car

Not too bad if I’ve accomplished 4 of them.  As I read over my goals I am starting to realize that some are very ambitious and others will be fun to reach.  I am in the process of cleaning out my closet little by little and will get more done as the colder weather creeps in.  Plus the recycling has been going great and our local elementary should be making a few dollars off all the paper we’ve been taking up there to recycle.  Now I just need to remember to update you when I actually do something that is on my list.

Baby Thank you cards

A friend is getting ready to have her second baby and is having a little girl this time.  I know when I had Taylor, I really appreciated when my friend Melinda made me the most adorable thank you cards.  So I offered to make some thank you cards that matched her nursery bedding.  I love how the bedding is girly without really having any pink or purple in it. 

Plus it gave me a chance to use my Cheep Talk and Trendy Trees stamp sets.  I ended up with two different cards and then did half of each style with blue birds and half with orange/cantaloupe colored birds.  I embossed the green layer using my Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder.  I wanted to create polka dots like on the bedding, but white dots were just too busy.  Then I clear embossed the flowers on the coral layer to give them that extra pop.

After going through my pictures, I now realize that I didn’t take a picture of the blue bird card below that had the yellow layer with embossed flowers.  This was my first version of this card and Chris suggested I flip the blue and yellow and add the embossed flowers.  He’s really getting good at helping me with this design stuff!  I liked the simple inside design of the card above, so I repeated it again here. 

Don’t you just love those birds?  Happy stamping!

18 months

I can’t believe 18 months ago I was laying in a hospital bed enjoying the sweet face of our new baby girl.   

12 months ago we were watching you start to crawl everywhere and were wondering how baby proof our home was

6 months ago we celebrated her first birthday and were so excited that she was starting to walk.

Now I can barely keep up with Taylor as she is running everywhere, climbing on everything, and getting into everything she can.  She is every bit toddler and the tantrums remind us all the time that the terrible two’s started early in our house.  The sweet kisses and hugs make up for all the fits and I love watching her learn new things everyday.  Taylor has 16 teeth and is actually pretty good about letting me brush her teeth.  We do have to start out brushing them by ourselves for a bit and then letting Mommy help.  She loves to get the small step stool out of my closet and put it against the bathroom counter so she can see herself in the mirror.  It amazes me how excited she gets everytime she steps up and sees herself.  It makes me laugh and worried of all the other climbing to come.  She loves all the girly things like Momma’s makeup and jewelry, but loves to push around trucks/cars and play outside in the dirt.  I can’t wait to see the person she will become based upon how much she has changed already. Plus look at all that hair that I now get to put bows in everyday! 

Favorite Foods: oranges, pasta, mango

Favorite Books: Counting Kisses, Princess Baby Night-Night, Go Dog Go

Favorite Toys: necklaces and bracelets, Little Mermaid push car, ball popper, Momma’s purse(s)

Favorite Activities: watching Elmo, going outside, pulling stuff out of kitchen cabinets, hide and seek, going thru our animal sounds, reading books

Least Favorite Activities: diaper changes, going inside

Sleeps with: Bunny, Kitty, Blankie, Elmo, and Zoo Kitty, plus we need seahorse in the crib(but not on) and our aquarium on

Sign Language: more, thank you, please(this one is pretty funny when she really wants something), all done, milk, stars, hungry

I find it funny when family members turn to me to find out what sign she’s making and it’s not really a sign but some random gesture.

Very clear words: Mama, Dada, Ya-Ya, Nana, PawPaw itty(kitty), no(often said many times in a row), uh-oh, hi, bye-bye, inside, Elmo, off, up, apple

Words you need a Momictionary for: Sadie(adie), Tessa(teta), uice(juice), ice(used for rice and ice), bah(ball), boo(book), bebo(belly button), ouside(outside), fru nack(fruit snack), uh-fly(butterfly & flower), ma-o(mango), choo-choo(train), beebee(baby), ocur(open), acur(tractor), dah(down), nana(banana)

Halloween Dress

I promise I did not forget about you my blog followers.  I have been busy getting ready/celebrating my brother-in-law’s wedding and finally found a few moments to stop and blog.  I had Taylor draw from the names last night and our winner is….

   

Melinda!

Melinda decided to enter for our friend’s little girl Canaan, so Mindy a Halloween dress and bow are on their way to your house.  I know your little girl won’t be able to wear it this year, but she’ll be ready for next year!  Thank you to everyone who entered!

Taylor Tuesday

I may have forgotten to take any pictures during the wedding or reception for Chris’ brother(bad Momma), but I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera when we got home Saturday night.  Taylor had been a dancing queen at the reception and didn’t even make it the 10 minute drive home without falling asleep.   Now I had a picture to remind her later in life that even if she goes dancing, she can be in bed by 11 pm!

Taylor Tuesday

Taylor has started saying all kinds of new words everyday.  Well Sunday she decided to pull some of her bows down, bring them to me, and proceed to point to her head and say ‘Bow’.  Does that mean that I put bows in her hair too often?  I now realize that we need to have the discussion about too many accessories at one time, but she thought she looked ‘pitty’(aka pretty). 

Happy October!

Can you believe that it’s October?  I am so excited and as soon as I finish this post I am headed to start decorating our house.  I loved how great Taylor’s Texas Tech pillowcase dress turned out that I knew right away that I would want to make a Halloween one.  When I was buying the cutest Halloween fabric I got enough to make two, so blog readers…. one is for you!  Here is what the finished product looks like:

Taylor was my ‘helper’ again and kept pointing out the ‘itties’(aka Kitties) on the fabric, so I think she will enjoy wearing this dress all month long.  If you notice at the top of the hanger, I also made a matching hair clip.  I found the these bat buttons the other day at JoAnn’s and couldn’t resist making a clip to match.

Keep in mind that I am not an expert sewer, but the dress is made with love.  It will fit 12 month to 3T sizes and you can add a shirt underneath as it gets colder.

To enter for a chance to win just leave me a comment about your favorite thing about October. 

Goodbye dear friend

So Tuesday night we said goodbye to one of Taylor’s long time friends… Paci.  I have to say that I think this whole process was easier on Taylor than me.  Paci has been a lifesaver for so many months to assist in naptime, night time, teething, ear aches, and any other rough times.  Taylor threw her last two pacis away in the big(and stinky, Chris you need to clean it out) trash can outside and said goodbye.

Just a look back at our dear friend(s)

So long our old friend.  You will be missed, but Taylor has lots of new adventures ahead of her now … paci free!