dear emme

On this day, three years ago, my beautiful angel came into this world, appropriately named, Emme Angel. Her first few days were marked with a little bit of worry as she had to undergo phototherapy treatment at home for a high bilirubin count, or jaundice. She looked brown, but really was slightly bruised from delivery, which can cause the high count. She handled this treatment like a champion. After a few days of worrying her father to pieces, she came out from under the lights and brought with her, her very own bright light that we see every time we look into her little sparkling eyes. My mother says her eyes resemble marcasite stone, and I agree. They just shine.

Our little girl is such a sweetheart, sometimes I just can't believe how tender and loving she is. Every child is different, and although her sisters also crave and require lots of affection, Emme offers it back to those closest to her. Not a day goes by that she doesn't tell me how beautiful I am. She says, "I love you, my beautiful mudder" (she means mother) or other things like "Mama, you are just so pretty, my sweet mama". She is such a grateful child, always thanking us for everything. Not just with an instilled value of politeness that we want all of our children to have, but she has this unique grasp of true gratitude and it shows on her face and you can hear it in her voice. She is just appreciative by nature.

Her favorite thing to do is to play with her daddy. She loves rolling around on the ground while he tickles her, balancing on his feet, standing on his back, riding his back like a horse and ever since she was baby, with no fear, she'd sit in his hand and bask in the feat. I could cry just thinking about how much her daddy loves her and I am so grateful that I know she will grow up with a good man in her life that will always show her affection and tenderness. It already comes back tenfold in her personality. She calls her younger sister her little sweetheart, or a princess baby, with the most precious sounding soft voice.

Of course, she is a child, which means she is as perfect as can be. She has her whiny days. She drives us crazy like all children do so well. She shrieks like a baby banshee sometimes, and boy is this child loud. We thought my oldest was loud before Emme came, but she takes the cake, for sure.

She's growing up. She is maturing. She is starting to act more like her older sister, and looks to her for companionship that I can only appreciate from the outside, since I never had a sister-sister relationship. But I know it is so special. As concerned as I get that she climbs, when I walk into their room to check on them in the night, and I see that Emme has climbed into Luciana's top bunk, my heart melts. No matter how many toys they squabble over, no matter how much they argue over who gets what place mat or who is touching who, or looking at who, at the end of the day, these sisters want to be together, like friends, looking for an intimate comfort that only a sister can offer.

So today we wish my baby girl, Emme Angel, a very happy birthday. We love her more each day.

Emme had a great time at her Toy Story birthday party. I will post more pics tomorrow of her special day.

..must sleep..

I can't believe I just freely gave up two extra hours of sleep to play Xbox. Ok, maybe I can. The new Lord of the Rings game released this week and we had been waiting for a few months. So far, so good. Its definitely more of a challenge for us than the last LOTR game we played a few years ago. But we both like it. In fact, I can't wait til tomorrow night to play again. Tomorrow is Emme's birthday party and it is going to be a lot of fun. I'll definitely be taking lots of pictures and will share them asap.
Ok, off to sleep I go. I am going to be so tired in the morning!!

...coming soon to pink...

I'm loving the whole blogging gig. Sure, I might not be making cash from it, but it has already opened up some doors for me and I have already gotten some very cool opportunities that show me the future only gets brighter from here. I have some fun stuff coming up so I thought I'd share. Maybe this list will help me to remember everything too, because this pregnancy brain has me living in a fog most of the time!

• MegaBloks MommyParty - 11/18

• Pregnancy 2.0 MommyParty - TBD

• Learning Link Technologies   Giveaway valued at $600

• DIY Holiday Season Series

These things have me so excited. In the next few weeks I'll be looking for attendees for my Pregnancy 2.0 MommyParty where I'll have some awesome products from Britax and BabyPlus with something very cool to give away from them! I will also be starting my review for a breakthrough educational product from Learning Link Technologies where I will able able to give one away to a reader, and I'll be unveiling our radical Christmas plans and subsequently starting a cool, yet totally doable, DIY holiday gift series for anyone interested. I might even throw in a few giveaways for those items too!

I have been really busy with holidays, party planning and just the general mom duties so I was kind of lagging on the frequency of my posts but stay tuned because the next few months should be fun and you might be able to win something for yourself!

Stay updated by liking my page on Facebook or following me on Twitter!

homemade halloween

Here are a few pics of our homemade Halloween. This year I tried my hand at making the costumes and it turned out great. I didn't make them all from scratch, but I bought as little as possible, fixed them up myself and saved a lot of money. A lot. Luciana was the Corpse Bride from Tim Burton's movie, Emme was Jessie from Toy Story, and Roslyn was a ladybug.

For the Corpse Bride costume I hit the thrift stores to find a wedding dress look-a-like. I found a perfect dress and veil combination for $8.99. The Walmart bride dress was about double that. All I did was rip it up a little, make it look dirty with some black face paint I already had and she threw on her boots and a  $5.00 black wig. So, her costume was about $15.00 total. She loved it.

My little Corpse Bride

Now the Jessie costume took a lot of work. But, I didn't mind because this was a three event costume. First, she wore it to the Toy Story on Ice show here in town, then there was Halloween, and next she will be wearing it to her Toy Story themed birthday party this weekend. Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), she LOVES Toy Story and especially the Jessie character. For this costume, I found the pants at Walmart for $5.00. The shirt was on sale at Target for under $10.00. Then, I purchased a yard of $2.99 cow print fabric (could have bought half a yard but I needed extra for her party) and yellow print fabric. I bought a $2.00 strip of belt material and a $4.00 pack of foam to make her belt buckle. The hat was around $10.00 (if I remember right) from the Halloween Spirit store. So, for her costume I spent about $35.00 (subtracted some for the second use of fabric). All I had to do was cut out the yellow shirt chest and wrist portions and sew it on with my machine. Then, I also used my machine to add the red embroidery detail (which you can't really see in these pics) which really set it off. The cow print chaps were hand sewn. I just cut the shapes and voila, the cutest chaps in town. The Halloween spirit store had a "Deluxe" Jessie Costume for around $40.00 but it was so cheaply made and had a plastic hat that I knew wouldn't make it in this house. So, all in all, this was an awesome homemade costume that saved us money and turned out better than the store version, for sure. 

Jessie the Cowgirl

Little Roslyn definitely had a "just-throw-it-together" costume. She didn't mind though. For her costume I bought a red long sleeved shirt and pair of black leggings each for $3.88 from Walmart. She can wear them both again. I bought a pair of $3.00 clearance antennae from Carter's. I went to F&M fabrics and got red and black tulle on sale for $1.00 a yard  and I bought a yard of each. I made a new-sew tutu and added some black and red ribbon. The wings were found at the Dollar Store for, you guessed it, a dollar. Her costume cost about $14.00 total. Could have spent less if I already had black tights for red shirt but her winter wardrobe needed some new pieces anyway. Also, if I would have bought a tutu as cute as hers, it would probably set me back around $40.00 at a children's boutique. So, I win. 

Our lady of bugness

So, the pics I got weren't all that great quality. I blame the eager kids who could barely wait for me to finish getting them dressed and the family members waiting at the foot of my driveway while I scrambled for my own shoes. I didn't dress up, unless disheveled pregnant lady counts? Next year I will take some great shots before the commotion starts.  Maybe even the day before. Someone just remind me next year please.

And here is one more picture with a few stragglers that I thought were important enough to make this a collage heavy post. Again, I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I am beginning to see this holiday as a day when I just send my kids out to collect candy for me, because they barely eat any and already have forgotten we have it hidden. Score. Jokes on you, kids!

Did anyone else make their costumes this year? Or am I the only crazy one with loads of extra time on my hands?

happy november

Where did October go? Halloween flew by so quickly! I will be posting a few pics tomorrow of the costumes I made. I didn't get the best pictures because we had family over and the night was kind of hectic. By the time I was ready to take pics all they wanted to do was eat candy. And guess what? They pretty much forgot about the stash already. Yay, extra snacks for us after their bedtime! I hope everyone had a great time and made happy memories. So excited for the upcoming holidays!! Is everyone as excited as I am?

sew, mama, sew!

Sewing is a handy skill to have. My mom knows the basics, enough to make some small projects. She signed me up for lessons at Beverly's when I was younger and I ended up making a drawstring bag and I think some shorts or something. I didn't keep up with it, but I remember learning a little. Well, for the past few years, my mom and I have had conversations about getting a new machine and getting to work on some easy projects for our homes and the kids. Then, my dad stepped in. He decided that he could also benefit from such an arrangement and they talked it over. My dad bought me a new machine for my birthday and my mom bought me all the sewing accessories a girl might need.

I kept the box laying around for a few months, gathering dust, but also quietly encouraging me to think more and more of all the things I could be doing. When I ripped a shirt, I looked at the box. When I started thinking about curtains and new pillows for my living room, I think I moved the box to a more central location. I did this because I was now lazily planning on eventually opening it up and to see if I could figure the thing out. I couldn't. Not with having about 15 years pass between my first sewing lessons and this new endeavor. I tried following the quick start guide, (I'm usually really good with any sort of set-up on electronics) but this machine is nothing like what I had used in my youth. My dad bought me the Brother Sew Advance Sew Affordable machine. I decided I needed someone to help me and maybe even to make sure I didn't break the contraption.

When looking around for anything, like most of you, I just google it. So, I googled Bakersfield sewing lessons. Up came a few different things, but nothing caught my eye. I started calling around, but sitting in a class with other people didn't seem so appealing. Then came Queen's Knight Seven, lessons by Judi Carrejo, out of Jo-ann Fabric and Craft stores. I checked out her website and I knew this would be perfect for my needs.

So far, I have taken four lessons and I already have the confidence to at least attempt to start some of my own projects. With her help, I completed two projects (pictured below). Let me just say, she is awesome. She is skilled and experienced. She makes so many of her own things and they look amazing. She taught me how to use my own machine and so many basic techniques she taught by leading me through the projects of my choosing. Also, I should add that she is a delight to hang out with during the lessons. We are cracking jokes the entire time, and she laughs at all my jokes (bonus for me). She is one cool lady. I would recommend her for anyone who is interested in taking lessons.

Because of my newly acquired skills, I not only completed the projects I chose below, but I am making my daughters' their Halloween costumes this year, all on my own, in the comfort of my own home. I'm so happy, and the looks on their faces when they see what their mama has made is worth so much more than the time, money and effort I put into learning as much as I can.

Skittles the Cat

Details, details.

It is a pretty big cat/pillow/riding apparatus.

Luci's Blanket

I told her mean moms don't make blankets like this.

It is a big comfy, super soft, lined in satin blanket of looooove.

more pink...

There are quite a few topics I've been wanting to write about lately but now that I've gotten some free time there is one thing I can't put off any longer!

We are having another baby! And to top it off, we just found out we are having another girl! I'm laughing out loud right now, because yes, that means girl #4. She is due February 15th, which also means that I'm already 6 months (24 weeks!). I have been anxiously awaiting the freedom to talk about this on my blog and even in just my regular facebook updates because I always have a lot to say about everything, right? And now, I can finally share the news.

Here's the backstory: I've been nursing Roslyn so I didn't know I was pregnant until I was already over two months. Then, I waited until I went to the doctor to confirm everything was going as it should and with appointment waiting time that took almost another month by itself. We told most of our family and friends within the next month or so, but we were waiting on one final reveal before we made it 100% public. Not that I could hide it out in public (I'm showing quite a lot already), but we were waiting to tell Erik's mom in person. She had been planning her move back from Florida for the past three months and getting her affairs in order, so we just kept waiting and waiting. Well, she finally moved back last Friday and we were able to tell her. Erik went to pick her up from the airport and when he got back, he walked her into to the living room and told her we had a surprise for her. Then, I lifted my blanket and he told her we were having another. She definitely had a surprised reaction but it was a mix of surprise and excitement.

Now, I'll be able to share all my pregnancy glory with everyone. Like the fact that I cry over everything, even just really touching commercials, or that all I want to do is eat, eat, eat. You know, the good stuff.

We are really excited to have another little girl join our family. We love the idea of a big family, because not only do these kids fill our lives with love like we could never have imagined, but because when we are older, we will have many more family members to love and join our lives. So now, we sit back and wait for her to come and we can't wait to see who she is and how she fits into our family. She is already loved by her sisters, who are all so glad she is a girl. We will have to wait until she is born to see how Roslyn takes it, but she LOVES babies and I know this baby will be no exception.