This girl's got skills

Kevin and Caroline were playing with the Aquadoodle tonight. Kevin spelled "Helen" for her and she wrote every letter herself - without help! Wow... We are so proud! (Don't you love her dirty face from dinner?)

Little Peanut

Our Helen is such a petite little girl. We really can't believe how tiny she is. Caroline was showing Helen her new dolly and I swear the doll's head was almost as big as Helen's. We finally found socks that are small enough, but they won't stay on!

Things are going really well for the four of us. Caroline is a great big sister - loves to pat Helen's back or give her a sweet kiss. We are just enjoying these early days with lots of snuggles and a few quiet moments. It's so fun getting acquainted with this new little addition to our family.

She loves sleeping with her knees scrunched up.

I love a swaddled babe.

Helen had a little bath.

This was in the hospital right before we got to pack up and go home. I made her little "coming home" gown. I'm really glad I made the preemie size - the small size would have swallowed her whole!

Helen Renee

She's here! Helen Renee was born Wednesday, March 25 at 1:57pm. She weighs 6lbs-14oz and is 20 inches long. Kevin and I both think that today (Thursday) she looks incredibly like her big sister when she was born. We think she's a beautiful addition to our family. God has blessed us richly!

Happy 3rd birthday, Caroline!

We had a big weekend. Caroline turned 3 on Sunday! We are so very proud of our little girl. Oops - I mean our BIG girl! I could go on and on about how wonderful she is and how much joy and laughter she brings to her Daddy and me... We thank God daily for the wonderful gift that Caroline is to us!

Sunday we celebrated here at home. We took her to the zoo that afternoon. The weather has been so lovely. (It snowed on her birthday last year!) We played outside for a bit. We opened presents from family.

Today I had a party here at the house for some of her friends. We invited our music teacher, Mr. Joe, to come and do her party. It was great. The kids loved it and I think the moms did, too. And the house is still standing after all the jumping and dancing and running! I've got some videos that I'll get around to later.

It was a very, very good birthday!

Snow videos

Here are a couple of videos I took in the snow. It might be hard to understand her, but Caroline tells me she thinks the snow tastes like lemons in the first video.


And the second one shouldn't be this long, but I couldn't remember how to stop the camera from taking video. Ah, one of the many perks of pregnancy...

Snow day

We had an awesome snow here in Memphis! I think we got about 6 inches here in the city. Daddy couldn't be here to play in it (he's the big play-buddy these days), but I think I did a pretty good job helping Caroline enjoy it. She kept begging me later in the day to go out in it. I wanted to build a snowman, but once Caroline figured out Tigger liked to chase snowballs, she had to keep throwing the ones I made to him. So we went to the front yard and I showed Caroline how to make a snow angel - without actually lowering myself down into the snow! I was relieved that I didn't have to roll around. It melted quickly in the sun and warmer temperatures, but we did enjoy it while it lasted.

Packing

I promise we didn't tape her up. Big boxes make nice hiding places, though!

Daddy-daughter day

I was invited to a baby shower on Saturday, so Kevin took Caroline to the boat show. It looks like they had a pretty good time picking out Kevin's future toy!

New poll

I have to admit that I'm surprised at the results from the gender poll! 70% of you think this is a girl and 30% think it's a boy. I guess I'm leaning toward thinking this is a boy, which is why I'm surprised. We'll find out soon enough!

On to the next question... How much is this babe going to weigh? Caroline weighed in at a hefty 8 pounds, 9 ounces. No complaints here - that big girl slept mighty well when we brought her home! On the other hand, this week at my appointment my doctor said my tummy was measuring a little small. (Everything is fine. I'll get an ultrasound in 2 weeks just as a check.)

Knit nightie

I wanted to answer a question from Katie and Michelle: "Where did I get the blank nighties?" Well, I made them. The pattern is The Children's Corner Bunny's Knit Nightie. The pattern also has a hat, booties, a bib, and a receiving blanket pattern. I used white knit fabric, but there are tons of cute baby knit prints out there (not so many cute gender-neutral ones, however). It's a really easy pattern to follow. It gives good general instructions on applique technique, too. Sewing with knit can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, garment construction goes quickly.

I've never seen a blank elastic-bottom nightie. Maybe I'll do a google search and let you know what I come up with. I do a lot of applique on blank onsies, burp cloths, and tee-shirts. That's always a fun little gift for a new baby!

Layette

I've been doing some sewing for G2's imminent arrival. I can't wait to see him/her in these sweet little outfits. There are more little sewn things to come...

This is an embroidered daygown for Easter. It was my first time trying shadow embroidery and I did really well. This was just going to be a simple little project with plastic snaps up the back. But once I got the tatting on the neck and the sleeves, it was too pretty for snaps. So I had to put buttons and buttonholes in. I really impressed myself with this one.



And these appliqued knit nighties have been so much fun to make. I've got one more cut out and I'm trying to decide if I want to go ahead and whip it up or wait and make it with pink or blue...

February fun

The weather has been so lovely this past week! We took a trip to the zoo with Elizabeth. Here are the girls at the sea lion show.


Caroline and I made conversation heart cookies to give to her friends. I ordered special food markers. I think I had more fun than Caroline did.


Caroline had a great time with the markers. (No pictures of her actually decorating...bummer. I guess I was trying to keep red food marker from getting all over her clothes. I'm not sure the markers are washable!)


And here's the packaging...

And today we went to a birthday party for a little girl in Caroline and Elizabeth's class at school. It was at this place with all these blowup activity stations for kids. I didn't feel like I should be bouncing and sliding around at almost 8-months pregnant. So I owe Bryn in a huge way...


Happy Valentine's Day to all! XOXOXOXOXO

Just like Mommy

Apparently Caroline started this little game at Bible study last week. I'm so thankful the nursery director caught it on camera! Silly girls...

Pajama time

I love these sweet cousins in their pjs! It was a pajama party!

Polling

Go ahead and vote in some polls about G2 (located on the righthand menu at the top). We can't wait to meet this little child. I thought it would fun to predict some stats in the meantime! I started with an easy one...

Dog

Caroline and I were driving home from Mayfield last Sunday and she was happily entertaining herself in the backseat with her magna-doodle. She said, "Look, Mommy! I drew a dog!" I glanced back and had to pull the car over to take a picture. Wow...

Grizzlies

Caroline and I gave Kevin tickets to a Grizzlies game for Christmas. She loved going downtown and picking out 3 tee-shirts for us to wear. I can't even describe her excitement when we all put them on last Friday night. We had so much fun. It was a great gift idea. The best part is getting to experience things like big ballgames through Caroline. She had a blast. I think her favorite part was getting to use her "outside voice" inside!

Big Christmas

We had a great Christmas break. Santa stopped by our house in Memphis early. He knew we were going on a trip and brought Caroline a suitcase of her own. Smart Santa... We started in Mayfield and then headed down to Paris on Christmas Day. Caroline really got into the whole Christmas season this year. Santa brought some baby doll things, which are proving to be a big hit. Other favorite things were a doll house, Dora dress-up clothes, books, games, and a dance cam. It was so much fun watching her get so excited over every gift.

I made the girls' Christmas dresses. The pattern was really easy and I'm hoping I'll have time to make Caroline another for the spring. I kept the dresses away from the red and green theme so they can wear them through the spring and into summer. They really remind me of something Shirley Temple would wear -- especially Caroline's. I got the hem a little bit short. Very cute.

And, as usual, I wish I had taken more photos. My New Year's Resolution, perhaps?

More fun

We've had some more December fun! Caroline loves helping me in the kitchen. I love finding little tasks for her to do. She takes her job very seriously!

My friend Bryn and I took the girls down to the Peabody hotel to see the ducks march. It was so fun to see how excited the girls got when the ducks got off the elevator. Then we watched some older kids from our church play Christmas songs on their violins. It was a beautiful morning and we girls loved every second.

We went to Zoo Lights again this year with a group of friends. It was cold, but we still had a great time. I think everyone's favorite part was the quick train ride through the petting zoo.

We want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We pray that your hearts and homes will be filled with the joy and peace and hope that can only come from our Savior - the Christ child. He was born for each of us - what an incredible gift from God!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
-Isaiah 9:6

Christmas village

We were invited to go to a Christmas village with some friends. It was great fun for the girls, but way too crowded and over-stimulating for the adults! The sacrifices we make for our small ones... Everyone's favorite part was the snow pit. It was madness in there. And I don't know what the snow was made out of, but it was almost impossible to get out of Caroline's hair! I'm still finding snow. I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures. But the kids were moving way too fast to stand still for a photo!

Fireside

Caroline got to have her bedtime story by the fire tonight. She loved it!

The past couple of weeks

So we hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and I took no pictures the day of. I did remember to get some photos of my floral arrangements the next day. I really enjoyed decorating and being hostess for a day. I told Kevin I may not be the greatest housekeeper, but I can set a nice table!

A couple of table decor tips:

• Pick an easy "theme". Mine was lime green and brown. I love lime green and brown was the perfect fall contrasting color. Then I just looked for lime green and brown things - flowers, napkins, placemats, etc.
  
• Use scrapbook paper for your placemats. It's cheap, easy, customizable, and disposable. Think of all the options for birthdays and other holidays...
• Fresh citrus can freshen up and fill in any floral arrangement. I used little key limes cut in half. Lemons and oranges work well, too. You can either leave the fruit whole or cut it in half. Get some wooden picks from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. (Some picks also have wires on them so you can wire the fruit into your holiday wreath.) Jab the pointed end into your fruit and the other end into your arrangement or wreath. It will look pretty for about a week.

Just call me Martha!

Since Thanksgiving, we've been decorating (slowly) and gearing up for Christmas! We've got several fun things lined up. I just have to remember to take lots of pictures!

Ring around the rosie

Caroline and her friend Maddie love this game.

Still around

I don't know why I've neglected the blog. I haven't been taking as many pictures as I'd like. Sad... Sometimes I feel like we just go all the time. I'm glad this week will give us some time to relax and stay home. Relaxing is pretty high-up on my "to-do" list this week!

This was taken before school one morning. I was trying to get her to model the new jumper I made for her. (I can't wait to show you the Christmas dresses!) But she just wanted to cheese with Mommy. Oh, goodness. I love this girl so.


Here's Caroline at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was a cowboy/cowgirl party. Caroline loved wearing her boots and having braids in her hair. The hosts had a trailer with hay hooked up to a lawnmower for hayrides. Caroline went on every hayride John gave. She loved it.

Sneak peek

Everything is perfect, beautiful, and right on track with G2! We are halfway there! We didn't get a good profile, which was a little disappointing. And we didn't find out the gender (by choice). Kevin promises he didn't look! Now I guess I need to pull Caroline's ultrasound pics out and see how they compare.

Trick or treat

Caroline was really into Halloween this year. She had a costume party at school on Wednesday and got more candy than she did trick-or-treating tonight. We did some fun crafts here at home to celebrate. We carved pumpkins and even painted two little ones. I planned a spooky meal - mummy dogs, witch fingers, cobwebs, and ghost cakes. I was pretty pleased with myself over the silly meal plan. She had a great time saying, "Trick or treat! Happy Halloween!" at all the neighbors' houses. And then our little kitty helped hand out candy to the other kids.

I'm not sure how many trick-or-treaters we had this year. We always get a ton. Kevin got 1200 pieces of candy and gave out all of it - mostly two pieces at a time. I think he was a little more generous toward the end of the night.

Overall, it was such a fun Halloween for all three of us!

Little helper

Caroline helped me make pumpkin bread. Then she kindly offered to do the dishes.

Itsy bitsy

Are you sick of the singing yet? I might find an agent and see if we can cut an album.

More singing

I never tire of hearing her sing. Good thing she does it a lot these days!

Lazy daisy crazy

Here is Caroline's fall dress - finally finished! Hooray! I started working on it back in July, but then that pesky first trimester hit and I could hardly muster up enough energy to make dinner, let alone smock. When fall arrived, I kicked it into high-gear to get it done. I finished it last night, just in time for church today. I am very proud of the sunflower dress. Here's a little math problem for you: there are 32 sunflowers on the dress. Each sunflower is made up of 10 lazy daisy stitches. That equals 320 lazy daisies. Yikes.

This is the back of the dress. This is one of my favorite dress patterns because of the back.

Yes, it was a very sad morning for some reason. She was not going to smile at all.


I think she'll wear it to church every Sunday until Advent!

Punkin patch

We took Caroline to a real pumpkin patch this year. It was so much fun and the pumpkins were very reasonably priced (much more so than at the "patches" in town). She loved looking for little ones just for her. But my favorite thing has to be that she says "punkin"!

Overheard

Kevin was playing with Caroline while she was in the bath. Caroline said, "Daddy! I'm trying to do some serious work here!"

What a goof! I wish playing in the bath were my serious work!

Big girl bed

St. Louis

We had a really great time last weekend in St. Louis with Kevin's sister, Emily. We did Grant's Farm Saturday morning. Then Aunt Emmy took Caroline to Build-a-Bear, where Caroline built a tiger. Apparently once the stuffing was in, Caroline immediately wanted to do a bear. Saturday night we had a wonderful meal on The Hill with Emily's boyfriend and his parents. I don't remember the restaurant, but the food was really good. Sunday, we took Caroline to the zoo, which was just as neat as I remembered. It's a huge zoo, so we'll have to go back to take in all the areas we didn't get to.

My camera battery died the minute we arrived, so all these photos are courtesy of Emily. Thanks, Em!

Creativity

Caroline woke up one morning and her first order of business was building a nest. She kept talking about eggs and baby birds and nests. So we helped her fashion a nest out of blankies and gave her an Easter egg. She was so happy with her little nest. She played in it all day. I'm amazed at the workings of her little brain. We've never really talked about baby birds being in eggs. I'm guessing it's something she got from Word World. Regardless, I hope I am doing my best to foster her young, creative spirit. (And she had said egg started with "E" 2 seconds before I took the video - stage fright!)


Remember when Caroline liked a nest of a different variety?

Her two favorite songs

It's not what you think, Mimi and Papa

No, we haven't suddenly become Longhorn fans. We're still saying, "Boomer Sooner!" around here--I promise! This is Caroline's new sign. She came up to me yesterday and said, "Look, Mommy! I did it! I love you so much!" (My family has always waved goodbye using the "I love you" sign and now I do it to her and Kevin.) I didn't even realize it was something she had been trying to do, which makes it even more endearing. Talk about tugging at my heartstrings... I got a silly video of her, too. It's hard to get video these days because she always wants to "see the movie."

Rain, rain

This was a couple of weeks ago when the remnants of one of the hurricanes came through. I sent Kevin and Caroline out to pick up dinner. She had a great time with her umbrella.

Why we love wire-haireds

I had no idea Tigger liked balloons so much. I guess I should have known. About 5 minutes after I promised Caroline he wasn't going to pop it, he did. Good thing balloons are everywhere we go these days.

Thank you and all the details

Thanks so much for all the warm congratulations and love for little G2, as we have affectionately nicknamed him or her. We are, of course, very excited! I'm 12 weeks along, with a due date set for the end of March. Mornings are great, but afternoons and evenings are tough - tiredness and nausea make it hard to get dinner on the table some nights. It's getting better, thankfully, and I realize that it could be much worse.

And the thing that sometimes helps my stomach discomfort? Super bubble. Weird, I know. I hate the stuff under normal circumstances and think it's disgusting. But for some reason, it settles my stomach.

No, we won't be finding out the gender of this little one. Caroline's gender was a complete surprise to us. Kevin swears he never peeked during ultrasounds and I have to believe him. We'll have to hold him to the honor code this time around, too, especially since he's more experienced now!

We have told Caroline. I love how sweet, gentle, and attentive she is with other babies. I know some of the newness of G2 will wear off after he/she arrives and there will be moments of jealousy or frustration. So any tips on easing the transition are greatly appreciated. Overall, I think she's going to love being a big sister. I told her one day that there was a baby in Mommy's tummy. She looked at me and then looked at my tummy, contemplating. She said, "No. Just food."

Excitement

I think she's going to do a great job!