Flutter Sleeve Shirt

Isn't the cutest. I love it.

Madison is in desperate need of a few shirts for Summer outings. I found this pattern online for the shirt that easily could be made into a dress. I was very tempted to make the dress, but my girls have more then enough dresses for the summer.

I bought this fabric ages ago. (about 6 years ago) and had extra that I kept from another project. I had all the materials on hand for this shirt. The buttons, white fabric for the lining, interfacing, and then of course, the extra fabric. It may have been cuter to maybe use some darker buttons, but hey, I didn't have to spend money and more importantly I didn't have to make a run to Joanns! Seriously, probably the worst errand to take little children on.

I haven't sewn flutter sleeves before, but I LOVE them and they are actually way easier to sew then normal sleeves! Win win! The tutorial was fairly easy to follow and the shirt looks very finished! I used a French seam on the back of the shirt that contains the only raw edge. All other raw edges are lined. I have never done buttons before, believe it or not, and I was a tad nervous. I actually really like the buttons, and it is super easy. I just don't know any of the measuring tricks to make sure it is all evenly spaced. There has to be a few tips and tricks right? I measured pretty meticulously a couple of times and one button is still slightly off. :)

What a cute shirt for a cute girl. I did bribe her with a small treat for these pictures..... this girl.

Happy Mother's Day to me

I asked Jordan to take some pictures of me and my babies this Mother's Day. Madison had a really hard whiny day, most of the angles do not capture my best side, (if I have one anymore :) ), and the lighting was never perfect, however, these pictures really capture the essence of what my day to day life is. ( A scattered house and all) Having a demanding toddler and baby isn't easy, but I really love what I do. While the normal pictures that I usually post are actually accurate and we really do have fun adventures and cute outfits a lot of times, a lot of days are spent doing chores, reading books, lounging outside, holding whining kids, and eagerly waiting for our Dad to get home.

These two babies, along with their Daddy are my life at the moment. I am completely invested in their happiness and confidence. While I am kind of a "no-nonsense, list making " type of mom, I am learning to slow down and enjoy the little moments.

Even though at times I struggle a little with being completely confident and proud of the choice that I stay home with my girls, I wouldn't change it in any way. Most days are long, but I love these babies and love to see them progress. I love my sweet Jordyn who is crawling and seems to be a curious little monster who I now have to always have my eye on. She loves being held by her mom and literally her eyes light up when I hold my arms out to pick her up. I love my opinionated little Madison. While her list of demands is unending I am so happy that she is learning to communicate and finds joy in learning. These girls crave my attention and comfort and I am the best person to provide that. I am their MOM! Happy Mother's Day to me!

It is Spring!

We had a little Easter egg hunt in Nauvoo. My ward had a temple day and afterwards we decided to each bring some candy filled eggs and lay them out in the field in front of the Temple. It provided the perfect backdrop, and the weather was fantastic!

And of course I included my little Jordyn happily scooting around the grass and experimenting with her tongue.

Her cheeks!

Mississippi River in the background

The perfect backdrop

 And of course I had to dress my girls in princess dresses for Easter. I actually bought these dresses last Summer after I found out Jordyn was a girl from my ultrasound. As usual there are quite a few funny expressions from these two.

Little updates:

Madison - Talk and talks and talks. She is a very good communicator. She also sings and sings and sings. She knows so many songs! She is a bit of a demanding little two year old. She loves to chat and will not be ignored. Sometimes if I am finishing a task, talking to a friend, or looking at my phone (whoooops) she takes my face in her hands and literally forces me to look at her. She is quite the busy body, and does not stop moving. Her new favorite activity is our calendar time. We sing days of the week, the months of the year, as well as talk about the activities we are going to do on that day.

Jordyn - Is still the sweetest baby. She loves me and we just took a trip to my parents house where she always made sure I was in the room. While it was a bit annoying, it was still cute how excited she would get when I would pick her up or take her from whomever was holding her. She scoots every which way, but forward, and rocks back and forth on her knees. Still no teeth, but we sure see her tongue a lot. She makes little noises while flipping it in and out of her mouth and she loves to blow raspberries.

DIY Ombre Gratitude Journals

I was asked by the Stake Relief Society to put together a little mini journal for people at a stake activity. (About 100 ladies). They wanted it to be a little craft/artsy, but not take too long. I LOVE doing things like this, researching, planning, the whole shebang. It just makes me self-conscious. Luckily, I am not going to be there for the actual activity. I just put it all together and passed it on. :). As it turns out with all projects, every step along the way, there is always a bump in the road. SERIOUSLY! Every step I needed to modify to actually make it work perfectly or at all. I don't think I have just sat and watched or read something for a naptime for 2.5 weeks. It has been fun, just tiring. My idea center needs a serious break. At least a short one.

To begin, I bought a ton of mini notebooks from Oriental Trading company. My budget for the whole thing was around $200. Each notebook was a little over a dollar. Already that takes a little over half my budget. However, the notebooks are pretty cute and seem durable. They have white canvas covers, that leave it wide open to do what you like with them.

After doing some research and getting some opinions I decided to go a route a little different then my comfortable one. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do a water color type ombre look, but decided that watercolor is just too easy to mess up and end up not liking. Doing MORE research I came across distress ink, and loved it. Card makers use it, and it seemed user friendly. I wanted to give everybody their best chance at liking their DIY journals at the activity. The distress ink has a chalky/water color lookish that is easy to create an ombre look.

I  constructed my own cost friendly ink applicator brushes with the help of Jordan's engineering. Because of a potential of a lot of people at the booth at one time I wanted 16 different ink pads with their own sponges. Each applicator brush is $2 at 40% off. Which means, I would be going to Hobby Lobby every day for a couple of weeks to buy these mini brushes that already are a  tad pricey for an amateur activity. However, the circular sponge at the bottom is essential. Luckily, they sell the pads separately as a refill that stick to the brushes with Velcro. Jordan said we could buy a thick wooden dowel for $4 and cut it into 16 pieces and stick Velcro on the bottom. WORKS LIKE A DREAM! BRILLIANT!

As an optional embellishment I cut out a few stencils on my Cricut for people to put on the top. Hearts, flowers, and also a few words and quotes. As I was practicing this technique I ran into a lot of issues. Canvas will bleed almost every material. At first I used a Sharpie. FAIL! Then I came up to actually just use black stamp ink. That also bleeds. I almost was in tears at this point. haha. However, acrylic paint doesn't bleed, it is cheap, and dries quickly! I bought cosmetic sponges and then dabbed my stencils with a little paint and WALLAH!

I literally decided to add gold paint to the options after I wrote the majority of the post. I did this journal just a couple of hours before I hit 'publish'. Shows how my brain works with projects.

I created a little tutorial for them to have on repeat at the activity just to foster a little confidence for people to get started. I wanted them to see how easy it actually is! I also created a little gratitude prompt printable to glue inside the cover that have some guiding questions if they ever get in a journaling rut.

My mother may be the only one that can see the movie. Not sure why it only plays on actual computers and ipads and not iphones. If someone has any expertise, please let me know.

They aren't perfect, but they have character.  I cannot wait to drop them off at the girl's house who is going to take care of them at the activity. This project has been dominating my brainpower and naptimes. Good times!

Open Shelving

So my husband is definitely a boss. I absolutely love that he loves to build things for me. Sometimes it is a bit contentious as we are figuring out designs, location, color, and about anything else that comes with projects, however, we usually love our finished projects in the end.

This past Christmas I got some nicer dishes to use for special occasions. I needed something to store them with and I went back and forth on A LOT of ideas. I came across open shelving on Pinterest and fell in love. I really like the modern farmhouse look and thought that these shelves would be cute and versatile. Since we are still renters and will probably be renters for a while, I needed something that I could take with me and use anywhere. They make my kitchen look bigger and homier.

The final product

My shelves definitely needed to actually store things and not be just decorative. Some on Pinterest were beautiful, had all this greenery, decorative signs, old vintage scales, etc. I am not that classy....yet:)

We just used one board, had the hardware store cut it into three pieces for us, and then bought the brackets. With some sanding, staining/topcoat, and measuring, the shelves finally got done. With my husband's schedule it take forever to get things done. We only have about 3 hours every Saturday where I get him to do my projects, and that includes the convincing part of my projects.

Even Madison wanted to help. She is using a $3 hand sander we purchased at Lowes. If you don't want to quite make the jump to an electric sander we definitely recommend one of these! It makes the sand paper last longer and saves your hands and arms from tiring easily. It is easier to work with then an electric sander and allows Jordan to be as detailed as he desires.

My personal handyman!!! LOVE HIM!

We have really wanted to change the way we stored our whole grains, sugar, popcorn, etc. for a long time. I came across the idea of cookie jars! It was easy to convince Jordan because he hates plastic and loves glass because it cleans up and seems to last longer throughout the years. I made cute little vinyl labels for them on my Cricut. I love the old country font that I found, for FREE! We store whole red wheat now because we got an electric wheat grinder for Christmas. Homemade bread was promised at least once a month. I am still perfecting my ability to carry out that recipe as well as my Mom or Grandma.

Look at me and my slowly improving skills on my camera. I can say that I almost always take strictly in manual mode! Wahoo! It took a while and a lot of practice... still a lot more practice and research to go. And yes, the American Flag sticker is still on the back of the whole wheat container. Jordan is very proud that we bought American made!

Someday we hope to have our own kitchen. Haha, still a ways off, at least 5 years I tell myself, maybe longer. However, Jordan is excited to build a little breakfast shelf for beneath the shelves to tie in the kitchen table. Be excited, but not too excited. It may be a while. (Basically what I tell myself everyday)

The girls

Basically I am living my dream. I love being a mom to two girls. Like I really LOVE it! I hope I am a good mom to boys when they come along, but for now I am enjoying my little girl party.

This post is just going to be full of pictures and updates of my two little crazies. All of sudden I feel they are growing up way too fast and do too many cute things that I just want to remember and post.

Yes, I am that mom that dresses her children to match whenever possible..... yes, I match too. This is a lot of pink, even for me, but it was Valentine's day.

I am not sure where both my girls got their beautiful eyes.

MADISON ELIZABETH -

*She still talks and talks and talks. "Watch this!" to me and to complete strangers, ALL day long. She doesn't even really do tricks, just wants us to watch her doing who knows what.

*She is scared of a lot of things, and I have to remind her to be brave. One day she will think an airplane is the coolest thing she has ever seen and then the next she will be in hysterics as one is flying through the air. She just barely surprised us all and went down the slides by herself. It was a long time coming.

* She loves to sing and dance. Every song is her favorite. It is amazing to me how fast she picks up on songs.

*She is potty trained. I didn't really want to do it in case it was too early. I did not want it to be too complicated for too long. I don't really like making my life harder. However, she was ready and going through way too many diapers and clothes due to her drinking water quirk. She caught on in the three days that I worked with her and it really has been a very mild complication with almost no setbacks.

*She is getting good at counting. She loves her puzzles that have numbers and runs up to me telling me all the numbers she knows. Sometimes she still gets confused on the order. I found a song that will hopefully help with that.

*She loves her shape ball and loves knowing the shapes. She knows circle, triangle, oval, trapezoid, hexagon, star, cross, square, and pentagon.

* She is getting a bit ornerier and is having to be constantly reminded to choose the right. Usually she does okay. She just thrives on being independent and doing things her way and in her time table. Sadly, that is not how life works usually. Fostering confidence, but taking away independence every once in a while is a hard balance sometimes. Keep working with me Madison.

*She still takes a good 3 hour nap daily. I keep my fingers crossed that this lasts. It really is amazing.

*She loves baby Jordyn! She is always excited when Jordyn wakes up from naps and runs to go greet her. She is usually very nice and soft and will run around, twirls and play peek a boo to get Jordyn to laugh. Luckily, Jordyn laughs easily, which keeps Madi entertained.

Look at those eyes!

Every morning we have 25 minutes of independent playtime where she plays in her room. She has done so awesome at this and it gives me a chance to take a shower or read my scriptures.

Having a little chat with dad about choosing the right

We were making a return to Old Navy and found her like this. See video below too!

JORDYN LESLIE -

*This girl is the sweetest little baby ever. Sometimes I remind her to be a little more of a complainer so she isn't overlooked. She happily watches the world around her with her big eyes, big forehead, big cheeks, and just overall big baby body.

*Speaking of baby bodies. She wins for the best one. She has rolls in all the right places. I have a hard time putting her to bed after bath because she is so cute to watch roll around. I love squeezing her thighs.

*She can roll over both ways, but consistently rolls over from her back to her tummy. I could watch her do this all day. She leads with her legs, and it takes so much work for her to get her little booty over.

*She has the cutest little laugh. Anything makes her laugh. She is not hard to entertain.

* She takes two good naps. One long/short one in the morning, depending on if we have an outing, and one long one in the afternoon. She loves her dad's soft Sponge Bob blanket and sleeps for hours. She also shares a room with Madi and almost always sleeps through the night from 8 to 7ish. REALLY, she is amazing. Being a mom to her is the best.

*She adores Madi. Baby siblings take a lot from their older siblings. They seems to always have toddlers touching them, hugging them, poking them, kissing them, or talking right in their face. SHE LOVES IT, especially when Madi is on the other side.

*She just tried her first little bit of oatmeal cereal. She seemed to enjoy it and loved being with us at the dinner table. She makes the cutest little face when she sucks her top lip under her bottom. With her cheeks and wide eyes, it is unbeatable in cuteness.

Those cheeks!

All dressed and ready for a walk around the block

We visit an Old Folk's home every other week with some friends. Jordyn is one of the main attractions.

First time trying Oatmeal Cereal

She has her own set of eyes!

My hope is that these two girls will be the best of friends. They will probably share a room for the rest of their childhood, play with the same toys, wear similar clothes, and experience most of the same parenting. (the good and the mistakes) Even though I want them to have their own individual goals and personalities. I hope they will support each other, cheer for each other, and be each other's best competitor as well. They will probably be known as "the girls" to us, future siblings, and extended family. Very likely, they will be grouped together more often than not, and I want them to be grateful for that companionship and confident in the fact that we love them individually, no matter how often we refer to them as a pair. As my sister, Leslee, and I got older, I realize no matter how different we thought we were growing up, or even now, there really isn't someone that has as much in common with me as her. She knows the 'whole story' of me. I don't have to explain to her who I am and why. I hope my girls can be that for each other.

I love you Jordyn and Madison!