Owl Pillows

I can finally share these cuties! I came up with an owl pillow pattern and went to town making Christmas presents. I love how many options of color combos you can do with these!

I'm linking up with:

Kora - 3 years old

Dear Kora,

You turned 3 years old this month! Wow, it is so hard to believe you have officially passed up the toddler stage and have entered the preschool stage. You amaze me on a daily basis. We have definitely figured out that you have your Dad's amazing memory, it is hard to believe the things you can remember and do at such a young age. We read you a book just one time and the next time you look at that book there are certain phrases or sentances from the book that you remember perfectly.

You have a ton of sponk and personality. You make us laugh and bring us so much joy every day. We love to watch you with your baby brother Thomas. You call him 'bud' (which you picked up from Mommy) and it is so cute. You love to color, dance (you took your first Ballet class this year!), read, watch movies (you love all things Disney Princess), paint with water colors and play games.

Favorite Kora sayings:

Warm Coconut  (translation: Hot cocoa)
My feelings hurt (translation: Tummy Ache)

When I reflect back on the day that you arrived into our world I remember very vividly how you were called a 'miracle baby' by the doctor who delivered you. What we did not know when I was pregnant with you was that you had a condition in which your umbilical cord was not deeply rooted into the placenta. This can be extremely dangerous during the pregnancy and delivery as the cord could have become unattached to the placenta. As I held you, my miracle baby, tears streamed down my face and I thanked God for giving me the honor of being your Mom. I know God has big plans for your life.  A life that I am so thankful to be apart of. We love you beyond words miss Kora.

Keep making us laugh baby girl,

Mommy

Alligator Mobile

My friend Mandy had a baby in October and for her baby shower that we had back in August (I know, super late in posting this!) I made her a mobile to match the decor in the nursery. She picked out an adorable navy blue and lime green bedding that had little alligators on it. So, I ran with that theme. I used my silhouette machine to cut out the shapes in different cardstock paper that I had to match the colors. I then used an old wreathe ring that was made out of wire and wrapped it with coordinating ribbon. I used clear thread and put a clear bead at the end of each strand to weight it down and then went to town threading each shape on there. I thought it turned out pretty cute! I made a few others during that same time frame, more pictures to come!

Reading Nook

Over the last few months we have been transitioning Kora's room from being the nursery to being a  'big girl' room. Part of that transition was changing her bed, moving out the changing table and replacing it with her toys. But I had also been wanting to create a reading area....or as Kora calls it 'her fort'. I used pvc piping to build the frame for it and then sewed a cover for it. I also made a pillow that would fit the bottom of it so it would be nice and cozy. I love how it turned out!

Here is a shot of the frame. It was pvc piping that we used but I covered it with fabric to hide the white and unattractive piping. We made Kora's fort to be 3ft x 3ft.  

Tangled Party!

Kora turned three this past week so yesterday we celebrated with her friends and had a big Tangled Party! She is in love with the movie Tangled and it was a lot of fun to plan out the theme. This was Kora's first 'friends' birthday party so I really wanted to make it special. I have literally had this theme in my mind for over 6 months so I am quite releaved to now have it all put into action. Here are a few of the things that we did to make this day fun.

Cody made this awesome sign that we hung on the front door for the party! Didn't it turn out great?! I was so impressed. Him and I tag teamed making that long braid - I definitely needed assistance braiding something that long. But I loved how it turned out! I ended up with it being too long so we used part of it on the table where the girls sat for lunch and the craft.

 

For each of the girls I made them their own personal crayon roll (made with adorable Tangled fabric!!). I wanted to have a coloring activity when they arrived and had been trying to think of an organized way to have crayons out for the girls. Their own personal set worked out great! Plus, they are actually pretty easy to make. I spent about $6 on the fabric and $3 total for the princess crayons (I put 10 in each of the girls crayon rolls). Worked out to be less about $1 for each child, not too bad!

So, when the girls arrived they each had their own spot to sit at - each spot had their own personal goodie bags, crayon rolls, and their personalized color pages. For the color books I just printed up pages that I found online and then printed their own personal covers. I used the yarn that I had to bind the pages together. Total cost is whatever the little amount of paper costs! Less than $.20 each!

The food table. On the menu: apples (since Maximus in the movie loves apples!), jello cups with little orange 'boats' floating in them (made to look like the scene in the movie where Rapunzel and Flynn go out in the boat), veggies and grilled cheese sandwiches. I used my beloved silhouette SD machine to cut out that letters and flags for the Happy Birthday banner - loved how it turned out!

Of course it would not be a Tangled party without a tower cake! So I used cupcakes to create the tower and then an ice cream cone covered in frosting to creat the roof of the tower. I put silk flowers on each of the cupcakes around the bottom. I think the silk flowers were my biggest expense, good thing they are

 re-useable! I also had found these adorable tulip looking cupcake wrappers that wilton makes, so fun!

I had it in my mind that I wanted to make a unique favor for them. So, I used stuff I already had to make these adorable scrabble tile necklaces for each of the girls. I purchased the images from a shop on Etsy for about $2 and the necklace chains as well for about $5 from a supplier on Etsy - so for $7 I was able to make 10 necklaces and then also made 10 extra charms so each girl got an extra charm! I used these as prizes for our 'Pass Rapunzel' game we played. 

One of the games we played was pin the fry pan on Flynn Rider. I had seen this idea from another blog so I went with it! So fun! I used an overhead projector to help me trace the Wanted poster that is featured in the movie. It was really easy and turned out great! Then I printed fry pans here for each of the girls. We printed their names on them, blind folded them and the person that got it closest to his nose got a prize!

As each girl arrived we took their picture with our good ol' iphone. We then used the Tangled app to insert Pascal onto each of the girls shoulders and the Tangled logo. The girls decorated a foam frame and we printed those pictures up to put in the frame for them. The images weren't the best quality, but it still turned out pretty cute. 



Kora was pretty happy with it all! She wore her Rapunzel dress and soaked up every moment of being the center of attention :)  Happy Birthday Miss Kora. We love you!

Thomas is 5 months!

Dear Thomas,

You are 5 months old, wow! Time since you have joined our family has gone so quickly. You had a very busy month! You decided you like to roll over. You don't always make it all the way but you are sure figuring it out quickly! You also took your first plane ride this month! You did great on the plane. You came with Mommy down to Sacramento to see Mandy and Nick and meet their new little boy Ben. You guys are destined to be best friends!

About a week ago we started you on rice cereal. You aren't a big fan of it yet. You seem to not know what to do with the stuff once it is in your mouth. I'm sure you will figure that one out quickly though.

We also celebrated your first Thanksgiving and did a trip to Zoo Lights. You loved looking at all the lights as we walked around. It was a bit cold but you were nice and bundled up!

You continue to be a happy boy, you love to watch your sister, you love to be talked to, you love your carseat and you laugh when we kiss your neck.

Love you my sweet baby boy!

Mommy