I had a flashback when I was creating this doll to 20+ years ago when my mom made my sister and I faux Cabbage Patch Kids. She refused to give into the frivolous trend saying she could make us one just like it. I insisted on having the first one but soon realized the second one was much better and tried to persuade my sister out of hers (the story of my youth). Anyway, they were both much larger than the real dolls, with scrunched up faces and out of control yarn hair.

This was my first attempt at a Black Apple doll featured a couple years ago on Martha Stewart. Very easy and fun to make. My biggest mistake (no pun intended) was over-enlarging the pattern and creating an enourmous version of what was to be a little shelf doll. And I thought I was being ambitious by cutting out the other two dolls as well, both over-sized.

Johnson's No More Tears

For the second night in a row, Leighton has had a tear-free bath experience. For almost 5 months she has hated getting wet, sink or tub. So needless to say she hasn't been bathed all that often. But now I'm proud to introduce the cleaner, sweeter smelling Leighton.

Somewhere over the ...pt 2

The pinata was a great success. It was fortified enough give each kid several good whacks and to the delight of all, candy eventually rained down.

These were also great crowd pleasers. They were my first attempt at cupcakes form scratch, and took a good hour to make, but they turned out pretty good.

mmmmmmmmmm good

We officially have a 5th mouth to feed now as Leighton has entered the world of solid food.

Baby Taylor

Brett brought home two Baby Taylor guitars this weekend (thanks Craig's list!) and Brooklyn got her first guitar lesson. She's ready for guitar because she's already really good at piano (she says).

I did it!

I did it!!! I slept in my crib last night!!!! And for the first time in 5 months mom and dad slept alone (for a couple hours at least- until Ellie joined them needing her nightly snuggle fix).

Somewhere over the.....

You can go from this...

to this...
to this...

to this!

Ellie is turning three this week and wanted a pinata at her party. Now she has been prepping for her "Buzz Lifeyear"(as she calls it) party for nearly a year now. We decided to do a family party and I couldn't justify a pinata for only three kids. Nor could I find a Toy Story pinata, which is bazaar considering the recent Toy Story hype. So our solution was to bring a pinata and cupcakes to a potluck we are going to with several families from church. Now you would think my proximity to the Mexican border would put me in a fine place to find an amazing cheap pinata. But unless I actually wanted to cross the border, I would have to give an arm and a leg at Pinata World for something that would soon be smashed to pieces. So I decided we would attempt to make one of our own. After inspecting the pinatas at Target (what kid wants a bull, burro, or star pinata?) I was ready to go. And would you believe the whole thing cost me under a dollar? Now the real test will be when it gets hit. Hopefully it won't bust on the first try- but hey, if the kids get candy, that's really all that maters right?

TV

The other day I was reading a stat in Parenting magazine that said kids between the ages of 2 and 5 watch more TV than any other age group, 32 hours a week. I was blown away by this amount, and when I did the math I realized this is about 4 1/2 hours a day. Consider this: if a kid is awake for roughly 14 hours a day and spends 4 hours a day watching TV, in a single week they have watched a total of 2 entire waking days of television. I can easily see how this could happen though. TV is easy, no set up, or clean up, just push a button and there you go. There is minimal fighting when the TV is on and it holds the attention of a typically short-attention-span toddler longer than just about any other activity. And TV allows me to sleep past 6 am, nurse the baby, cook dinner, shower, and sometimes (but rarely) nap. But all this to say, I am now making a concious effort to limit the abmount of TV/videos the girls are watching. Easier on me...no, better for them...yes.

Newest Projects

These are my latest inspirations for projects for Leighton's room. Hopefully I can get to them soon....

Girls night in

The other night several of my girlfriends and I got together to chat, eat yummy dessert, and attempt to fit in some sort of craftiness (every girl's dream night night?). We ate Granny's Chocolate Cobbler (thanks Pioneer Woman) which was super yummy and supposedly very easy, and made camera strap covers, also super easy and fun. Brett was a trooper to cancel his plans to stay home with the girls and let me go, as well as to let me "girlify" the camera (he thought it would turn out looking like the camera strap was wearing pink panties- come on now did he really think I'd coose pink?)