Ryan's Birthday

Christmas pics

Update

Wow, can't believe I missed a whole month without posting. I have been rather tired, but my morning sickness (which is actually called NVP--"Nausea and Vomiting during Pregnancy") has pretty much cleared up, so I'm trying to catch up on things.
I removed my Pattern Review widget temporarily because I'm making Christmas presents this year and didn't want folks who will be receiving some of them to catch an early glimpse. I know, seeing what I sew is the highlight of everyone's day, so I will put it back up right after Christmas :)
I am 13 weeks pregnant as of yesterday. Things seem to be going well with the pregnancy and the doctors are giving me some extra care even though I'm not technically considered high risk. I went for an ultrasound/finger prick yesterday to check for the risk of genetic problems. The lady who did the ultrasound said that everything looked good as far as she could see and I'll get the results from the genetic screening next week. I've now had 3 ultrasounds, and, to be honest, they scare me to death. Since that's how we received the bad news last time, I freak out a little (and cry a lot) until I see the baby's heartbeat. I think I'll just make sure Ryan's with me next time, even though it means we'll have to try to keep Booger entertained at a doctor's appointment (never an easy task...)
Speaking of Danielle, she is doing well. She is still rambunctious and crazy. I'm taking her to get pictures tomorrow, and they should be back in time to make it into the Christmas cards this year. She is learning a lot of new words, even though the pediatrician referred her for a speech evaluation at her 18 month checkup. The speech therapist wanted to keep seeing her (hmm, guaranteed Tricare payment a factor?), but I just received the report and need to read what the evaluation said. It's funny, she started talking right after her doctor's visit (about a month ago) and now she's to the point where she's trying to repeat almost all the words we try to teach her. I'm not worried about her speech development, I figure she's got stubborn on both sides of her family, and she'll do what she wants when she's ready to!
I just realized I should save some of the updating in case I decide to do a Christmas letter this year. And because this post is pretty long. I will try to post some pictures soon, we really just haven't taken as many. I've spent the past two months being a lump and doing little besides taking care of my kiddo and trying not to puke (both seem to be successful ventures).

Random Pics

Here are a few pictures from the past few weeks:

First Beach Visit

Ryan, his mom (Mimi), Danielle and I all went to the beach this past weekend. I can't believe it was the first time we've been since we moved to Charleston. The weather was gorgeous and there was plenty of free parking and space to lay out on the sand. Danielle LOVED the water. She got a little confused at the tide going back out--it pulled at her legs and made her fall a couple times. But she couldn't get enough of being in the ocean.
When we did convince her to take a break from the water (she was shivering), she decided that she loved playing with sand. The sand is a lot finer than what I'm used to, and gritty, and she got a light coating of it stuck all over her since she was already wet. So, of course, she grabbed a handful of Cheez-its and ate them, sand and all. We played in the ocean a bit more to clean her off, grabbed lunch and headed home. It was a wonderful trip!

Embroidered Gifts

We had a birthday party to go to today for Carolina, the daughter of some friends from Ryan's work. She just turned 5 and likes very girlie stuff. I decided to use the awesome embroidery machine my husband got me to make some stuff.

I appliqued some pink corduroy with a princess silhouette, then made a purse with it. I added some silver beads I had to make a necklace and sparkly crown. The purse is a free pattern from a craft blog. I also appliqued a T-shirt I picked up from AC Moore with a little princess applique, using the same fabric for the dress that I used on the purse. Both appliques and the font were from my favorite embroidery site, PlanetApplique. I think they turned out great!






I'm still pretty slow with the embroidery set up, so these projects took me longer than I hope they will in the future. Knowing the right way to stabilize a design and dealing with different fabrics can be tricky. More-so than with regular sewing, in my opinion. The purse could be a quick sew if I tried it again. There is a little button band you can add to it, and I will use it when I make this purse for myself, I'm sure, but I didn't think it was the right touch for a little girl.

Ridiculous!

So, when us girls were all together, we got a little ridiculous. I wouldn't want it any other way.

To start, because my mom bought the fabric and I was sewing, Shawna had all the free clothes she could think of! Here are the fabrics she picked out:

I got a few things for Danielle at that time, and picked up a bunch of flannel for a great price on a subsequent trip. Danielle's fabrics:

I picked up some stuff for myself:


THEN, when I was at my mom's during our return trip layover, she mentioned that she had a bunch of clothes that didn't fit her. Here is what she gave me to wear:

And here are clothes that will be used for their material (this was a GREAT source of knits, especially because they're thicker than what you can find in the fabric store, and making things for babies/toddlers doesn't take much fabric anyways):

Shawna and Matt gave us a bunch of clothes the twins have outgrown, because they're awesome:


And, finally, here's what it all looks like together:

Ridiculous, isn't it?!?

Side note: Just wanted to add that in the past 2.5 months or so I have made 6 pairs of pjs, two pairs of shorts, a dress and a jumper for Danielle, 2 pairs of pants for my mom, 2 shirts and busy books for the twins, a dress for myself, a skirt for myself and caught up on two years worth of mending. So the fabric will get used, even if my mom does think I sew slow... :)

Visit to Texas

Danielle and I got back a few days ago from a vacation to see Grandma, Aunt Shawna and the twins. I drove to Florida with Danielle, then we rode with Grandma to Texas. Danielle did really well during the first leg, but she was pretty antsy by the second day of driving. On the return trip, we stayed for a full day in Florida and she had an easier time with the drive. She missed the ferry on the way there:

but managed to stay awake to see it on the way home. She seemed to really like it. I worked on teaching her how to say "buoy" (which is completely useless for a toddler who doesn't live near the water, I know), but she had a little trouble with that one.
She loved playing with her cousins and picked up a few extra sounds. She sort of says "hi" and "night night" now. That's pretty neat. She is at the 90-95th percentile for height, so she was almost as tall as Morgan and Taylor, and several people confused them for triplets. Here are some pictures of the girls (and one of Aunt Shawna with 2 of the 3):




It was great to see everyone, but 4 days with 3 toddlers and 4 days in a car with just one can be rough! I am still recovering from the trip:) I hope we get many more family visits as the girls grow up though.

First Haircut

I took Danielle to get her first haircut last weekend while Ryan was out of town with friends from work. She did very well, especially since the lady who cut her hair kept offering her animal crackers. Our kid does so love to eat!

Keeping our hands full....

Pictures from June visit with Grandma

A little belatedly, here are some pics from when Danielle and I went to Florida to visit with my mom: