Toddler Bed

We have made the big room swap in preparation for Micah's arrival. Ivory's little room couldn't quite hold all the furniture necessary for the little tikes. So, we swapped with them and now they have some fabulous play space! (more pictures to come once everything's settled) While waiting for Ivory's trundle bed to arrive, we decided to test her out in her crib-turned-toddler-bed. She loves it! Her first night in it she did fabulous and has continued to each night & nap. She's very obedient about staying in her bed until mommy & daddy come and hasn't rolled out yet {knock on wood}!

Saturday Sunshine

Ivory thinks all visitors come strictly to see her. There might be more truth in this then Jason and I care to admit...not that I can blame them. She's pretty darn cute.

Cassie spent lots of time playing with Ivory Saturday. She adores Cassie. Ivory has a difficult time with walking in the grass barefoot, "Ewww, yukky, yukky, yukky!" Here Cassie took her shoes off to show her it was okay to walk barefoot. Ivory's no fool...

Embroidery Fun

My Mom lent me her embroidery machine...6 months ago. I'm just now learning how to embroider on it. So fun! Here are my first projects:

Birthday dress for Ivory's friend Addie:



And of course she needed a matching hair bow.

Then Ivory and Micah *need* personalized matching outfits for a future photo shoot.

(And yes, the blue will wash out...remnants of my fabric pen. I was going to photo shop...or wash again...well, you see it as is.)

Making Pizza

Ivory is quite the little kitchen helper. Last week she helped me make pizza for Daddy & Aliya. Quite the little cook. :-)

C is for Cookie

Here's another little dress I made a while back from donated fabric and a small scrap (the I) leftover from a shirt I made Ivory. The dress is a little wide around the neck so I think I'll gather it a little in the back...if it works out you'll see pictures soon.

And that's cookie. All over her face.

One of the greatest joys for the men in our church (& the youth) is to give Ivory cookies on Wednesday nights.

Tonight was her first chocolate cookie + chocolate icing. She always pulls them apart and licks the icing off first. Hence, the chocolate face.

Who needs a clean dress for a cute picture anyways?

Stripes

It's fun to see Ivory finally able to wear a dress I made her before she was born--almost 2 years ago now!

She even hammed it up for the camera.

She's a great floor cleaner. She finds the tiniest specks, "Eww, yukky, yukky, yukky! Trash!" Then she promptly throws them away.

Celebrate Spring

So glad that Spring is officially here! Even if our weather can't decide if it wants to stay in Winter or welcome Spring...

We're blessed with such a beautiful, happy little girl! Thank you, Lord, for Ivory's joy--an answer to so many prayers. We pray Your joy always shines through her.

Wedding Weekend

Wednesday after church we headed south to my parent's place. We arrived at 2:30AM with a sleepy baby & we were greeted by a smiling grandpa--who was too excited to sleep. :-) Ivory enjoyed quick Pa snuggles & then we settled her in for the rest of the night. Thursday afternoon Jason & I headed further south to our jacuzzi suite to enjoy some getaway time & to attend Eric & Jacqie's beach wedding. We had such a wonderful time! Thank you to my parents for watching Ivory. We knew she was in excellent hands & my mom even catered to my Ivory withdrawl by sending plenty of pic & video texts. Ivory had a blast with Pa & Ganma as well as enjoying time with her cousins Bella & Ally.

The wedding was at this Hilton resort in gorgeous Longboat Key, Florida.

And this is where the pictures end because after this picture I promptly dropped our camera in the sand. Yikes! I was SO AFRAID it wouldn't work. We had already lost one camera to the beach sand. Praise God, we got the sand out and it works like a dream.

The fellowship with friends was fantastic & our alone time was so refreshing. On the way home we drove over the Skyway Bridge in gorgeous 75degree sunshine and stopped in St. Petersburg for lunch at the Baywalk. We loved having no schedule or list of things to do. We relaxed in the spa by the pool, our personal jacuzzi, and king size bed. I enjoyed not cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, or changing stinky diapers. We had some great conversations & good snuggle time. I feel so blessed for the time with my sweetheart.

We headed back to my parent's place with mixed emotions--very ready to see our little girl, excited to see my parents & my sister & her family, but sad to be heading home. Of course, there's no place like home and your own bed and I was glad to be back at our church this morning.

Shoe Makeover

I had a fashion dilemma for a wedding we were attending. I didn't have time to shop for anything and didn't want to spend the money, anyways. So, I decided it was time to get creative. I recalled another great idea from Make It and Love It in this post.

I pulled out a pair of plain, old black sandals my mom passed down to me

bought an 1/8 yard of fabric for 47cents at JoAnn's

bought some mod podge on sale at Wal*Mart for $2

Add to this a paint brush I had hanging in my craft center & I was ready to complete my outfit.

First coat (still wet):


Completed outfit


Well, almost...I decided to add a few more touches to the shoes.

So far they've held up through sand & 5 hours wear! Happy mod podging!

Flip-flops

Recently I have found an overwhelming amount of amazing craft/sewing projects on blogs.

I was recently inspired by Make It and Love It with this post (and its revisions in this post).

Here's how mine turned out:




Just *had* to make a matching bow!



Please excuse the un-manicured toes, it is growing inreasingly difficult to reach my toes for extended periods of time. Anyone anxious to practice your pedi skills? ;-)
You can find these children's flip-flops at Target for only $2.50--the sizes run as small 5/6. They're currently a little large on Ivory; I think they'll be perfect for summer, though.
I just used some black flip flops I already had, hence the worn spots. But that just means they're already perfectly broken in! I do know you can always find some pretty cheap flops at Old Navy. I usually have ribbon on hand that I find on sale. I actually bought ribbon expressly for this purpose because I received a lot of great 40% & 50% off coupons for JoAnn's and this is the sort of ribbon I'll use on other projects later. I also received my velcro 50% off! Can't beat that. This will help me with my travel dilemma of over-packing...at least in the shoe department.

I may add bows/flowers & more ribbon options later. I love the result, but it wasn't my favorite project to create. Can't quite explain why, it just wasn't.

Bedtime

Ivory pronounced dad "cute" after his shoe fashion make-over.

Then she decided daddy really needed a bedtime story.

And a few bedtime songs

And then they'd soon be snoring away