A new dress for Lil

 

I LOVE to sew. I really do. In fact, I want to go do it right now, but that's beside the point.
The other day I was checking a good craft/sewing blog called Homemade by Jill, when I saw an adorable little coral pink dress and thought, hey, I could make that. My friend Krista recently gave me a nightgown pattern that could be adapted to make it, so I went and got some cute linen fabric and started adjusting and cutting. Other than some extra large sleeves that had to picked out and slimmed down, it was pretty easy to make and actually turned out how I wanted it too. (That doesn't always happen, things usually turn out better when I follow an exact pattern.) She wore it on Sunday and looked so cute! She had a cream headband and a bun in her hair and a pearl necklace to finish it off. Adorable. Seeing her then, you'd never believe that this is the same girl who has been getting into trouble at preschool as of late.

Can you tell she loves being four?!?

Frankenarms

 

If you're facebook friends with Eric, you've probably already seen this picture, but Eric had 12 lipomas cut out of his forearms about a week and a half ago. They already look so much better. Most of them will hardly leave scars, which was hard for me to believe when I first saw him. He said he felt like a human pincushion, but other than that, never really complained. He'd been wanting to get them out for years, all the thanks goes to an air force surgeon, who is also our friend, for making it happen. Eric keeps getting weirded out about not feeling any bumps when he runs his hands over his forearms. A good weirded out, he's had a couple since high school. Honestly, it's one thing that I hope our kids do not inherit from him, since it's hereditary.

Rainbow Raucous

I still haven't written about Christmas, it's kind of a daunting task, so instead, I'm skipping ahead to Lillie's birthday to help motivate me to keep up this blog and not get overwhelmed about how far behind I am.

Lillie turned four on Monday, which happened to coincide with MLK Jr's bday and so Eric had that day off from work. And because of the extra long weekend, my parents decided to come visit us, so we had an EXTRA FUN time. The birthday extravaganza started on Friday with a birthday party for Lillie's friends. It was rainbow themed and our house was filled with color! The kids played, ate rainbow cupcakes, opened (Lillie TORE through them, lots of practice at Christmas) presents and took bags full of colorful candy as a party favor. It was a fun time, I had fun decorating for the party, of course, and to top it off, my parents were flying in that afternoon.







Unfortunately, in the chaos, I didn't get a photo of everyone there. Oops, this is the best I got of about half of them. Gonna have to remember next year.



We went out to eat at Back Bay that night, Lillie dined on shrimp and frog legs.

The next day, Saturday, we swam at the Kroc center all morning, Lillie's favorite place, then went to our city's visitor center in the afternoon, and finished off the day with bbq at The Shed. Man, I love their ribs.

The last day of partying was Monday, where we took my parents to New Orleans to see the city... after taking Lillie to the Waffle House for her favorite breakfast. Once we were there, we walked around the French Quarters, enjoyed local music, explored the Riverwalk, ate at Cafe du Monde, rode on a ferry across the Mississippi River, and walked around the old cemetery. It was such a perfect day to end a wonderful weekend.

I really loved having my parents here and so did my kids. Lillie loves my mom and Henry loves my dad (he wouldn't give my mom the time of day :/ ). We're so glad they came.

Monday night we had an impromptu birthday party with cake and ice cream and Lillie opened her presents. We got her an American Girl doll and I've been making it clothes the past couple months. Lillie loves it and it's a good thing because those clothes were a lot of work, but really quite fun, I kinda love sewing doll clothes, who knew?

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

I am going to have to come up with a new nickname for Lillie now that she is four years old and definitely no longer a baby. I am so lucky to be her mom, she is such a spunky little girl. We love her so much!

2012!!

Not gonna lie, I have high hopes for 2012. I want it to be my best year yet. I've decided to challenge myself and I've chosen a theme for me this year, which is "Be Strong". I feel like I could handle some major growth this year, physically, emotionally and spiritually. Usually I'm just trying to hang on-- to my sanity, to get through each day with two living children, to make dinner, etc. But they're getting older, and therefore a little easier, and I just feel like I'm in a good spot to focus a little more on me. I've gotten back into an exercising mode second half of the year and want it to continue and to see more results. I want to be more humble, to be more patient and to serve others more. I want to strengthen my knowledge of gospel doctrine. I know it won't be easy, but I'm excited to see the difference in me 12 months from now. All I gotta do is make it happen. :)