First Comes Love...

This year for Christmas we made Christmas Tree hand and foot prints for the Grands! (much like the turkeys  for Thanksgiving last year). I thought Abigail would enjoy this project (lots of paint, a fun mess...), but let's just say it turned into a labor of love; with an emphasis on labor. I purchased the paint from JoAnn's.  It said right on the bottle " washable poster paint" but came off much like I-got-drawn-on-after-passing-out-at-a-party marker. She was less than thrilled. But we jumped around and made fools of ourselves long enough to get a least one adorable dirty baby bath shot. And in the end it was worth it; Mamie, Papa, Grandma, and Grandpa LOVED their pictures! (next year we'll use finger paint...) Happy New Year!

Abigail made her first Christmas ornament at preschool today. I was suppose to be in my Parent-Ed class, but Abigail was being shy after a few weeks away from school, so I hung around and made this ornament with her.  I assembled the bell and strung the ribbon through, and she applied the stickers. A thing of beauty...  ;) They say these are the ones you cherish forever; I suppose we'll have quite the tree someday. Merry Christmas!

Watch Me Grow : take 67 , 245 , 342. Our weekly pictures have become a challenge since Abigail finds it increasingly necessary to flip over, crawl away, or generally wreak havoc on "set"  ;) I just finished week 49, which proved the most challenging to date...! Seriously?.... I think she's lost her passion for the arts.   We'll see how the last 3 weeks turn out....

Is it just me, or was last Monday an eternity ago? I loved the week full of parties, days off, and sun, but it sure threw off my idea of a typical week. We headed to the Clayton's on Tuesday for a fun "3rd of July" BBQ.  I had a cute outfit ready for Abigail, but she ran a fever over the weekend (which lasted until Tuesday), so she didn't make it- but it was great catching up with friends and staying out way too late like the olden days! The next day we headed over to my parent's place for a 4th of July BBQ, so Abigail got a chance to strut her stuff after all.... This picture cracks me up. Abigail has got to be one of the most stoic kids I've ever met.  And the most adorable... of course! We enjoyed a lovely evening with both sets of parents, Uncle Bob, great food, views of the Lake Union, Bellevue, Seattle Tennis Club, and Alki fireworks, and some hot tubing. On Friday, Kevin decided to work from home.  This is usually a bad idea (I hov...

As some of you may remember, I made mention of a "remodel" a few months back. Around Christmas time, we noticed some mold in our bedroom (in the corners of the room where the carpet met).  We had it looked at and found out water was coming through our siding.. caused by our ever-so-lovely shed pulling away from the house. So this is was what we had to do.... As well as tear out a bunch of drywall in our bedroom, which resulted in an office camp-out the past 2.5 months... But we kicked butt this weekend and got carpet installed on Monday! Bitz enjoys abstract modeling  :) ...and as of last night, we're back in our room, sleeping in a normal bed. It's nothing short of amazing! Now it's on to phase 2: getting a garage built. The first step is getting blueprints drawn for our permit (pricey!)  So, after all the lovely feedback I got on past drawings, I decided to take a stab at it... Based on the prints, I'm expecting a speedy turn arou...

While searching for a bit of first-month-birthday party inspiration, I came across a balloon wreath.  It was perfect for our glass front door and a fun way to welcome people to the party! It's super easy to put together; you just need a Styrofoam wreath, and approx. 150 small sewing pins and balloons. Just take the balloons, fold them in half, and secure the pin into the wreath through the balloon. It took me about 45 minutes to put together.  Quick and easy, yet super cute for birthday party decor!

Young House Love is one of the blogs I follow, and while pregnant, I saw this awesome weekly picture project they did with their baby, Clara.  For the last few months I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with a spin off, but finally decided, "hey, if it ain't broke, why fix it?" So a big thank you to Sherry and John at YHL for inspiring us to document Abigail's first year in pictures! Click on the new tab above or here for a sneak peak. We plan to take pictures each Saturday (her weekly "birthday"), and have updates every Monday or Tuesday...maybe I should say Wednesday and play it safe! I've also been keeping a weekly journal (about her growth, my growth, and all the fun memories) and will be making a coffee table book of her pictures and my letters to her as a keepsake. Just for fun, I've included a few "out takes" from the first 3 weeks. Hope you enjoy following along and watching us grow!

Remember when I mentioned wood letters for the nursery on my post the other day?  This project has been a week in the making, but came to an end Tuesday night in the form of 7.7oz of glorious custom paint. But let's back up... Last week I purchased letters for Abigail's nursery to hang on the wall near her crib.  We decided yellow would be the best color, so we started with yellow spray paint.  However, it was just the wrong color, so back it went to Fred Meyer and I headed to Michael's to look at wood paint.  There I found what I thought would be the perfect color and came home with "light yellow" craft paint. This should work.... and so our project began. After about on hour of painting, hanging, and sanding we stood back to look at the results.  Sure, it looked nice, but the color was still too yellow. Marital dilemma : Kevin thinks it looks great.  I hate it. What's a girl to do?! So I let them stay this way for a few days.... to so...

Were Kevin's exact words.  2 months ago. Remember when he got a new drill ?  Like a kid at Christmas, he ran around the house eager to use it for anything and everything, minus this bird house... So last week, I took matters into my own hands.  While at Michael's getting wood letters for the nursery (more on that later), I picked up a little bird house in the unfinished wood section- for $4! It sure beats buying one for $20, and with all the stain we had leftover from the deck, we (no wait, I should give Kevin credit here: Kevin!) finished it for free  :) Supplies alone would have cost more.  Let alone the time (ahem...) it would have taken Kevin to finally come around and build it  ;) So there you have it...our own little $4 bird cafe! Now I just need to buy some overpriced bird seed.

Seriously up there with puppies and kitten on the cute-meter! While Kevin was working on the fence this weekend, I was busying myself with all the new baby clothes, blankets, toys, and goodies!  Decided it made most sense to have a two tier closet in the nursery, so I started there: taking out the old rod, doing some touch up paint, then installing the new two tier unit in her closet.  It cost $40 total, but was worth every penny. Okay, so maybe I got a little help  :) I didn't realize how many clothes the little munchkin has till I threw it all in her crib! Then OCD Tanya kicked in and started organizing! It's so cute and fun to look at that I can't find the heart to put the doors back on, so we may just leave it like this for a while...  ;)