A Cold Trip to Seattle...December 2011

A group of friends from the ward planned a day trip to Seattle to visit some of the holiday festivities.  We went to the Gingerbread House display at the Sheraton Hotel.  The donations profit Juvenile diabetes.  We ate lunch at the mall and went on the holiday carousel.  This was CC's first trip to Seattle!

We went to the carousel first, but it was just opening, so the line was long.  So we went to the Sheraton and the line was long there too!  Funny situations in line.  Our little 3 year old friends Jack and Jayden were hanging out by the huge potted plants and before we know it, the security guy was right next to them letting them know that if they pulled that red thing on the wall...the sprinklers for the building would turn on and the alarms would sound.  Thinking as a three year old...I don't know if that would deter me from pulling the alarm.  Honestly, sprinklers inside sounds pretty cool!

Here we are in line:  Sarah, Rachel, Jayden Platterborze, Jack Nedry(backwards), Connor Black
2nd Row: Emily Nedry (only her right eye), CC and I, Kade, Leah and Logan Black.
Kate Nedry not pictured...those elusive Nedry folks :)

She fell asleep in line.



My favorite Gingerbread house of Misfit Toys



Snow Monster!

This is from the front

Yukon Cornelius

Sam the Snowman

Charlie-in-the-box

The Lion, King Moonracer

Rudolf and his buddies

Hermey the "wanna be dentist" elf

"A dolly for Sue" as she calls herself

All that waiting...I was WARM (hence the red cheeks)
But look at those lashes on the little bug!

The roof was all gum. Paul and I can't remember what characters were in the house.

It had a Canadian Theme

Down Under Gingerbread House

The reindeer were Kangaroos!

Our adventure at the carousel.



Our whole group minus Logan(back to work) and Sarah (photographer)



Lights at Warm Beach

On December 20th, we went with our friends the Nedry Family-- Emily, Bryan, Jack and Kate to Red Robin and then went to see the Lights of Christmas at Warm Beach in Stanwood.  We had an amazing time checking out the beautiful lights, meeting Frosty the Snowman, taking a train ride on the Polar Express, watching Jack ride a horse, enjoying Jack talk to the Christmas Tree named Bruce the Spruce (who said "Cedar Later" and "Have a tree-rific Christmas.)

CC was too little to really enjoy it but it was fun to watch the Nedry kiddos enjoy the lights and activities. We were prepared for a freezing good time with lots of layers and blankets. Be prepared is our motto. I thought I was overprepared (which I was), but we all teased Emily for going overboard on all the layers of clothing for Kate.





We enjoyed some cocoa and HAD to try the "famous" warm beach donuts.

Holiday Trip to Spokane December 2011

My sister Kristalyn and her family went to Spokane a few days before Paul, CC and I were able to arrive.  We were all together for about 12 hours on Ella's birthday. We made the most of our family togetherness time.  Thanks to Darrin and Holly for always being such generous hosts.

We had a fun evening altogether eating homemade soft tacos and yummy cake to celebrate Ella's 9th birthday!  We sat and chatted, laughed, and enjoyed spending time together.  The cousins had a blast together.

We spent a couple days with them and it was nice and relaxing. All three of Darrin's kids were in love with CC. They hadn't seen her as recently as Kristalyn's kids so it was "new" to them  Mallory the youngest was the most interested in Claudia Cate.  She loved holding her hands, giving her toys, talking to her and asking questions.  Olivia loved to hold her from time to time and talked to her a lot.  Owen enjoyed seeing her in the walker and playing with her.  Darrin brought up the johnny jump up and the walker for her to try out.  We don't have either of those at home so it was nice for her to get a chance to work out!

We also went to visit Kim and Dave Beckman.  Auntie Kim and mom were really good friends.  It was fun to chat with them, and while we were over there we also went to Texas Roadhouse (yum) and to the Coeur d'Alene Resort to see the Christmas Light Display on the docks.  It was a lot of fun.

Grubbin' time!

A BIG day for Claudia Cate--February 21, 2012 Claudia had her first taste of real food.  Prior to this date her diet consisted of milk, fingers, toys, sweatshirt strings, chins etc.We gave her avocado on one of my mom's milkshake spoons (because we didn't dig out the plastic baby spoons yet) after she did a funny face for the first few tastes I handed her the spoon and she ate it up!  Sorry about the lengthy video...nearly 8 minutes.  we got carried away and didn't break up the video coverage into segments..  About 5 minutes in when we give her the spoon is the best.

********NEWS FLASH*********

The video is currently unavailable.  I apologize for the inconvenience!

She still made the funny faces after the initial sampling but overall it was a positive experience for her.  She had a few green spit ups later in the evening and some fiery toots and a pretty ripe diaper later...(I apologize for the graphic detail Miss CC bug--you're detailed experience with your first food is in the history books--you'll thank me for the such detail when you're older).

So excited to continue introducing new stuff to our baby girl!

Here are a few pictures of the day 2 eating...a little messier as mom mixed the avocado with some formula so it was a little too runny I think.  I'm learning!

Sewing and picking, sewing and picking...

Right before braving the storm to go swimming.
Thanks Jen Lau for the darling homemade tulip hat!

I have these grandiose ideas that I'm quite a bit more capable than I am at some things.... sewing is one that I keep telling myself...it doesn't have to be perfect, no one will notice, right?

Well, these last few days staying home because of Snow-maggedon  I found myself wanting to work on some of the projects I created for myself to do while on maternity leave that didn't get done on maternity leave :)

I sat down and cranked out a few hair clips for some of CC's little friends (and well of course one for CC too!)

The poofy headband is a little 90's I know, but it looks so darling on CC's sweet little head!

Close up--not too focused.  I couldn't find the "good" camera .

I then remembered that I had made these adorable hats from a pattern my mother-in-law gave me but I had a ton of fabric left over and the print is so darling that I decided to make a jumper! I didn't have a pattern, I just used one of CC's jumpers as an outline of how long, wide, etc I needed to make the fabric.  Thanks to my VT Kathleen I knew how to gather more easily so I cranked it right out...had a little bit of trouble because i decided I didn't want to do buttonholes at the top, but had already turned out the finished edge without attaching at the shoulder to it looked funny to do that again (it was jersey knit fabric it stretches).  Sorry if that last bit didn't make any sense! So after I slept on it, I decided to sew down the shoulders as if there were button holes and just attach buttons!  It turned out cute if I do say so myself.  CC is modeling her new jumper.and hat!

Don't mind the leggings she is wearing underneath :)

* A quick note on this jumper handcrafted with love...
I used the pattern for the hat from CC's Grandma Schultz, the buttons on the yo-yo embellishments are from CC's Grammie Rich's vintage blue mason button jar.  So when she wears it, it will remind me of those that love me and CC girl.

NEXT...

I then was thinking, it can't be that hard to do sleeves can it? I'd been thinking about how fun it would be to do a balloon /bubble dress for the little girl, so I started pondering on it and decided to just try it out. Here are two examples I found POST sewing what I ended up making :)

This is was I was imagining.

or this...

 I then remembered I had the pattern from the first dress I made CC that I could use parts of to help me construct the top bodice and sleeves...so I got that out and tried my hand at.  Well, the bubble part didn't work.  I figured out why after I had already cut, sewn, and gathered the fabric at the waist.  I'm just going to go with it this time, but I do want some helpful hints on how to make the ballooning effect.  My guess is that your fabric is really angled when you stitch it on the sides but I don't know for sure. (any helps for the future?) I wish I would have done some research and googled before I used all the fabric. oh well. Another problem occurred when I was attaching bodice to skirt. The pattern I used for the bodice was for an a-line jumper so it wouldn't match up with my skirt.  So I had to take in my bodice under the armpits and in the back to make it a more fitted straight look.  Heaven help me!  Don't look too close it isn't perfect and it may never fit her!  I just need to attach the snaps to the back since I don't have a zipper and it will be done!

the gathering got a little messy when I had to
"alter" the bodice to fit onto the skirt. 

not bad for a first try...

Isn't she the cutest?  

PS. anyone want to give me sewing lessons or know of someone that does? :)  I think I'm digging this new hobby of sorts.