Sisters weekend in Birmingham

This year, to celebrate Valerie's birthday, we stayed a night in Birmingham, AL. It's about a 5 hour drive from my house and an hour north of Kristin's house. The original plan was to meet in New Orleans but considering Kristin is so far along in her pregnancy, we decided it would be best to keep it close to her place. No thanks to some bad weather earlier in the week making every flight super full, Kelli and Kari weren't able to get in until late Friday evening which meant we really only had all day Saturday altogether before two of us had to head home on Sunday. So it was quite a short weekend but we tried to get in as much fun as we could. It's always such a blast to be with my sisters without any distractions (besides Marshall who was great all weekend). I love every one of my sisters and feel so lucky to have such great best friends in my life. :)

 

 

 

After dinner we headed back down to Kristin's house near Montgomery. Kelli and Valerie left the next day and I ended up staying until Monday morning. Kari left a few days later.. Thanks Kristin for having us for the weekend! and a BIIIG gigantic thank you to my amazing husband for watching Ivy alllll weekend long with NO car! I asked if Sam would rather come down to AL with us or if he wanted to stay home with no car and he said he had some studying to get done so he would just chill at home with Ivy. He is so awesome! And Ivy always has so much fun with her dad. They even were able to get rid of her binky while I was gone! She only had it for naptime and bedtime but now it is no more! Unfortunately, so are her naps most days as well. Darnit! 

Marshall's Blessing Day

January 19th was Marshall's blessing day in our ward and everything went wonderfully. Sam gave a beautiful blessing and our babe was as content as can be. Sam said he opened his eyes when he started walking to the front, then just stayed awake and looked around while he was being blessed. We just had a few close friends stand in the circle with Sam and the bishopric. Not a very big crowd this time around since we had just seen everyone for Christmas but it was just as special. I had my good friend Leila come over and snap a few pictures of Marshall and our family to remember the day. I was terrible at coordinating outfits with Ivy but still love our family picture. I'll have to be a little better at planning next time, haha! Anywho, I love the few amazing pictures we got. They capture the sweet spirit of our little guy so well. Thanks Leila!

Brother's weekend

A few weeks ago, Sam's brothers and Dad all met in Utah to surprise Joe for his 40th birthday. They celebrated all weekend with Settlers of Catan, snowboarding, disc golf in the snow(!), and even caught a BYU volleyball game. Sounds like they had a blast! I stayed back and held down the fort by myself with both kids. Luckily, I had some great friends who helped me pass the time while Sam was gone. I'll throw up a few pics of that later. :) 

Marshall at 1 Month

Most of these pics were taken around 5-6 weeks and he's actually almost 2 months now but just wanted to do a little update on his life thus far! At his 1 month checkup (which was just before 6 wks old) he was 21 inches long and already 10 lb 3 oz! So he certainly is growing! In fact, he really is an awesome nurser. I couldn't ask for better. Ivy was fairly difficult in this area so I wasn't sure how things would be this time around but he seems to love it. Takes a lot of stress out of having a newborn, I think. To know that they are eating and growing well..

Our little guy has the sweetest, most easy going personality. Very easy to please. He does have his moments of fussiness or crying, like any baby, but it's hardly ever full blown fits. That's not to say he doesn't make noise though. He makes a ton of noise! Grunts, snorts, LOTS of coos and squawks.. It cracks me up! Ivy was a pretty silent baby until about 4-5 months (besides crying) so it's been something to get used to, especially at night, lol.. Boys are just noisy, I guess! It's oh so cute, though.

So far, Ivy is a great big sister and loves baby Marshall so much.. She loves to show everyone that comes over or gets in the car where her Baby Brother is. She loves to help mommy take his diapers to the trash and tries to give him his binky (or a toy) when he's upset.. She's such a sweet sister.

Love this, lol:

Marshall loves his binky and loves to be swaddled. And he is quite the snuggler. He just loves to be held and cuddled. I barely have to rock him to get him to sleep most of the time. For the times that he is a little fussier or has a hard time falling asleep, I started using a Maya wrap that I found at a second hand shop (pure luck because those things are kind of pricy). I learned about it from a good friend and so far I looove it, especially in the evenings when caring for Ivy and he is acting a little clingy. It's also been super handy while teaching voice lessons (only teaching a couple students right now who have competitions coming up).

And now, the closest I've gotten to some smiles on camera:

I love this cute little munchkin and think he is just perfect in every way! Can't wait to see him grow! At the same time, I am very much enjoying this snuggly newborn stage very much. :)

Just a few extra pics that I caught with my phone over the past month.. The bottom two are little man all cozy in the wrap:

Crafts and Sewing Projects

Here's a few pictures of projects I did last fall.. The wreath is burlap with light burlap flowers, idea from my lovely sisters. Wasn't too difficult, just a little time consuming. The next two were a couple crafts that I did at our Super Saturday activity in October. The O Holy Night was supposed to be navy blue but it ended up looking pretty darn close to black. Oh well! I still love it. I did see some people do a white wood with gold vinyl which I thought looked gorgeous.... 

In september, my mother in law gifted me these few essential items for sewing and I am forever grateful! They have changed my life in sewing and I have been taking full advantage of them:

I made a few different sets of baby burp cloths, based on this tutorial, for a close friend and my sister. I love how the navy and pink turned out for a girl. For some reason, the fabric in the store just spoke to me:

 

The fabric is navy blue with cute tiny hearts. Had to show a close up, otherwise it just looks like polka-dots:

And finally, my big project that took me a few months to complete... I set out to make my first quilt for baby boy, based on this tutorial. I figured it was an easy enough beginner quilt and I absolutely looved the randomness of the pattern that the girl created. So I picked out my fabrics, cut all the pieces with my new tools, and pieced the front (In some photos the bright one looks yellow, but it's actually a bright neon green):

Then I just quilted along the straight lines of the rows. The next part was a little complicated because it turns out the flannel fabric I chose for the back ended up shrinking when I washed it. Plus I'm not sure the fabric store gave me the right length to begin with but they were in Knoxville and I wasn't about to drive all the way down to get more. Anyways, I really did like the print and didn't want to switch to anything different so I just got some white cotton and made a white border. Finished off with a black binding. Thank you to Mom Robinson for helping me in my crisis days and to Richelle and Christine for helping me with the binding! First quilt=DONE! Not sure I'll ever make another one. It was a ton of work, haha. Good experience and learning though! And I do love the colors.

Sunset photos of my loves

Sam and Jeff wanted to head out one evening to practice taking some landscape shots (Jeff is an amazing photographer and Sam loves learning new tips from him when he can). Anywho, I asked Sam just before he left if he could take Ivy along considering she had been cooped up in the house all day. I didn't expect to get such cute photos of my little girl! I maybe would've done her hair or put a cute outfit on her or at least sent some kleenexes with them for her runny nose, haha! But here she is, in all her toddler snot-nosed glory, lol. Still, I think she is just beautiful. And maybe the toddler messiness of the photos is what makes them so cute....

(Some of the photos are by Sam, some are by Jeff)