Cute & crafty

Gabriela was doing a great job of playing on her own one day, and when I came in her room, I saw this. She was so cute dancing, singing, and dressing up!
For almost 2 weeks, Ema's been sucking on these 2 fingers and I think it's SO cute!! Gabriela sucked her thumb at 3 months and it lasted only a month and she was done. It's just that age where they discover they have hands. The plus to this is, is that for both girls, it's what got them to cut out another feeding at night! Now we only wake up at 3am (she sleeps from 9pm-9am)!!

Here Emalyn is 3 months old (Gabriela thought it would be nice to give her pillows while she slept). She's growing so fast, but my littlest one by far! At 3 mo. she was only 13 lbs!! She's so little, but it's fun for me because this is my favorite age and too soon she'll be all grown up and crawling and walking :) As part of my nesting phase, I decided to make a baby blanket for Emalyn, but Gabriela quickly decided it was hers. So began my project to make quilts for everyone!

This is my lastest and most exciting project!! I saw this cute fabric on ebay in a blanket and thought I'd give it a try. You can't look at the edges too close (so not straight), but it turned out really cute! I even put a bow on it for myself because I was so proud.

The top 3 photos are my latest & greatest idea (click on the picture to make it larger). I'm going to try to sell these "lovies" on ebay and in boutique-type stores. They are small texture blankets, one side soft minky & the other satin, finished off with a cute pattern border & button hole to attach to the carseat, stroller, etc. Emalyn already loves the one she's got. The stripes keep her attention and then she loves to suck on the satin side. It's been so fun to make them, I almost don't want to let them go!!

Birthday Fun

We had a full week of birthdays this month. We started off in PA celebrating with cousins, and then a couple days later Bren had his little cake (the rest of the batter went to his class in cupcakes) on the 8th. Then 3 days later Isa got to celebrate her birthday with cupcakes again! We had 3 different varieties throughout the week: carrot cake, chocolate, and chocolate/chocolate chip. Yum!!

I can't believe how big the kids are getting. Time's flying!! Brendan is now 10 and Isabel is 8. I remember feeling old when Bren started Kindergarten; I felt like I jumped into a new cohort. He's only got another year of elementary school and then it will be middle school-I'm feeling old again!!

Spring Break!

For spring break we went to PA to visit family and NY to see 2 places before we leave the east coast.

First stop was Niagara Falls and the kids loved it. Gabriela wanted to get closer to the water and started to climb the gaurd rails a couple of times :) We went back at night because they light up the falls with different colors and that was fun to see too.

The view would have been enhanced by going over to the Canadian side, but they now require birth certificates for everyone to get through. Since we still don't have Emalyn's yet, we decided we couldn't leave her behind.

Next stop was Palmyra where we got to take quite a few tours of our church's history. We got to see the bookstore where the Book of Mormom was first published (with the original wood floors), one of Joseph Smith's homes, & the Sacred Grove. The kids loved it and it enhanced their understanding of the lessons and stories they hear in church.

Next was back to PA to visit cousins and we all had a blast. Gabriela was so excited to have someone her age to play with, although she's not big on sharing, so really is was just fun to have someone her age! :) It was really hard to leave this time, because we knew it was our last and I have to admit I cried. It's been so great to have family out here when we're so far away from the rest. One of my favorite thing this last trip was Gabriela calling my uncle Tom, "grampa-uncle-tom".