Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Full House

So today we started our new family tradition of Sunday Brunch. I got up early and started making 2 different kinds of bacon, fruit salad, eggs, toast and waffles. Gary made his famous fried potatoes too! The girls and their others halves showed up at 10 and we all ate and laughed and acted silly and it was GREAT!!!! I actually used paper plates (something you never find in my house) so clean up was a breeze and didn't interfere with my time with my family. After we all ate Monkey took Lizzy back to see "HER new room". It was just so sweet watching Monkey show Liz all of her new things. Soon enough everyone was hanging out in there. Well, Gary and Darwin popped in to check out the festivities and then ended up on the couch in front of the TV.

Even our newest addition came to hang out with everyone!
Monkey has gotten a little "crush" I guess you'd call it on Lizzy's boyfriend Richard. He was very sweet and laid there in that Mary bed showing her all of the pictures of his dogs and other people he had stored on his phone.
After a while we sent Monkey back to use the bathroom (she is pretty much all trained now but still needs reminding when there is a lot going on). Pretty soon she came out and said "it no work". We weren't sure what she meant since we had all heard the potty flush? So we went to check it out. She had been unrolling the TP into the toilet and flushing and it got stopped up. This was a brand new roll when she went in there! First things first - I grabbed the camera as she explained how she had only played with the paper and not even tried to go to the bathroom! Then I snapped a few pix before clearing out the l-o-n-g strand of toilet paper stuck in my hall bath. She is just so darned cute! Even (or should I say especially) when she is being rotten!!!!
By about 2:00 Monkey' Mom said it was time to go home to take a nap. Gary and Darwin had already left to go golfing and Lizzy & Richard were on their way out too. But Monkey insisted she wanted to stay at Amma's house (that's me). We told her she could but she would have to take her nap in her new room. That was just fine with her. She still sleeps in a crib, so I was interested in seeing how this would work out. She did great! She slept for a couple of hours and never moved around and most importantly, never rolled out of bed! She just looked so sweet and so little in that big bed while she napped.
While Monkey slept her Mommy and her sister and I watched a movie. Baby Sister got a little fussy for a few minutes so I took her and danced with her. Be still my heart, the little peanut looked right at me and just smiled - like a REAL smile, not a gas or reflex smile. She just watched me and smile and melted my heart! I told Bryanna "I have to write this on my calendar - my first real smile". I write all of my special moments on my calendar - since I don't have a job or big appointments to keep track of, my calendar is just for things like this - the little moments that mean so much to me that I never want to forget them.
What is that saying. . .
"It's not the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away"
Nothing could be more true!
Well that is my day, I hope your Sunday was every bit as lovely as mine was!!!
Toodles

Saturday, August 28, 2010

It Was A HIT!!!!

Monkey Loves HER new room!!!
She got to see it for the 1st time today and she was just so sweet. Gary brought her by after swimming today and so I figured I'd show it to her. I had no idea what type of response (if any) I would get from her. So I told her I had a surprise for her and took her down the hall. She was so cute - she looked in the door, looked at me and then let out the loudest squeal! She then turned to me and gave me the BIGGEST hug, said thank you Amma and then ran over to the bed, climbed up on it and started jumping up and down. It was adorable. I made Gary watch her while I ran for the camera. She played in there for about 2.5 hours only coming out to tell me her new room was "awesome" (a new word she has learned). So I guess it's a hit and she is happy. That makes me happy!





Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Toodles!

Friday, August 27, 2010

WOW! Where Have I been????

I have been on "Maternity Leave"!!! While Bryanna is home on ML with the baby I guess I am too since I don't have Monkey everyday now. I am taking this time to get some projects done and be available to Bryanna and the girls. Since I last posted, lots of stuff has been going on around here - some good - some not so good. . .

Of course lots of GOOD with our newest addition to the family! She is one month old today and just so sweet. She is quite the little sleeper this one, seems everytime I am with her she's got those beautiful dark eyes closed! Us four girls went out all afternoon yesterday and She slept pretty much the whole time!
And of course there is lots of GOOD with my little Monkey - man is she CUTE!!! She is just getting so big and so smart. Everyday I am amazed by how her vocabulary is growing! Yesterday while we were out and about we had to go to Joann's so we could get her some wood to paint. I promised her and she did not let me forget!!! She loves those little cut-outs of wood. She paints them all up and we add magnets to the back for the fridge. Gotta start them out early crafting!!!


More GOOD for my Lizzy. She is loving her new job and her new classes. And her NEW HOME!!! Yeppers I said new home! My baby has left the nest. She has moved into the dorms and is loving it! I have mixed feelings - but mostly I am just so thrilled for her. But I do miss her and knowing that at some point during the day (or night) she would rush through the door with all of that energy! Her last night at home we had a going away dinner for her and everyone was here - we all had a good time with lots of laughs around the table.

I have had some GOOD times playing in my studio working on some ideas that have been rolling around in my head. Things like. . .

Measure of a Woman Shrine. . .
This will be a class in Oct, check the classes tab above for details.

Or the Alice in Halloween Shrine with it's tiny accordion book full of photos Lizzy took in her High School photography class.

So, like I said above my Lizzy moved out last week but before she did, we had LOTS of boxes to fill!
And LOTS of messes to clean up!!!! Lizzy did NOT inherit my "neat-freak gene" as you can tell by this photo of her toom. . .

Although it makes me a little sad to see my baby leaving, it did give us a solution to one little problem around here. We have been trying to figure out what to do about nap times once I have both granddaughters everyday. We all know that babies and 3 year olds do not take naps on the same schedule. And with no extra bedroom in the house I was struggling to figure out what to do. I also hated to take Monkey's crib that's in my room away from her to give to the baby. I just didn't want her to feel like she was having to give up her special stuff for her her sister.
Well, with Lizzy living at the dorm I had an extra room in my house. A perfect solution for the nap time dilemma!
Now to decide on the decor. . .
Easy - I have always wanted a Mary Engelbreit room - now I have one!!!!
More GOOD stuff!
So, I started buying fabrics. But it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Most of Mary's fabrics are out of print now. Thank God for ebay!
So last Friday night I started sewing and today I put the machine away - I am not completely done, but I needed to stop for a bit.
So here is the beginnings of my Mary room - I hope Monkey will like it as much as I do!

I made the patch work quilt out of pillow panels I bought online and other fabrics I bought locally. I used Lizzy's old comforter for the batting (saving my pennies) and lined it with black & white ginham. It is a button tied quilt and has big black buttons tied off with yellow threads. It is just so HAPPY looking!

I also reused Lizzy's dust ruffle (saving those pennies again)
I HATE making pillows and have never made a pillow sham that actually looks good on both the front and the back. But I managed to do it this time! I am just so proud of me!!! There are 7 pilllows on this bed - I figured at least one pair should just be in pillow cases for actual sleeping. So I made the very plain, but very sweet white ones with a Mary border and some lace. I even made a little candy roll pillow.
Monkey is not used to sleeping in a big girl bed so I put the bed against the wall, hopefully she wont fall out of bed too many times!
I kept the window treatments simple and out of reach! She has been known to pull curtains down before so I nice, simple valance was just the ticket in here.
I love the little dark haired cherry girls. And since they have dark hair they were perfect in my Monkey's room! So they are all over the curtains, on he quilt and even framed on the wall.
No Mary room would be complete without tea cups and sunflowers! Thank you Micheal's for having all of this on sale for 80% off this week!!! The little shelf was already in Lizzy's room, but I decided to give it a little lift with some black paint to make the stripes.

These are some of the toys I have made for Monkey in the past that have been scattered around the house. Now they can all be in one place.
I also made this banner a few weeks ago - just because. It says Life is a bowl of cherries. So it was only natural that it hang in here.

As a going away present FROM Liz TO me, she bought me a ME Nursery Rhyme book to read to Monkey. And I also put Monkey's ABC toy I made her in here.

This is a little antique highchair I refnished for my Monkey a year ar so ago. The baby is a Madame Alexander doll I got for her Mommy when she was just a little girl. Bryanna never played with her, but my Monkey likes her. I decided that after 23 years she deserved a new dress so I made one to match the room.
So, this is just some of the GOOD that has been going on in my life over the past couple of weeks. I feel very blessed - in fact so blessed I wont even share the few bad/not so good stuff that has been going on. I hope your life has been equally GOOD!
Now it's time to clean up around here so I will be ready for our new tradition of Sunday Brunch. The girls came up with this idea that we would all meet here on Sunday mornings for brunch together just so we all keep up with everything going on in each others lives each week. What great daughters I have to come up with this idea!
Did I mention being blessed?
Toodles

Saturday, August 7, 2010

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. . .

Do you remember how Mister Rogers opened his show with that song each time as he changed his shoes and sweater? I loved that part of the show (that and Mr McFeely. . .speedy delivery!!!) Well this has nothing to do with Mr Rogers except that I find myself singing that song alot these days! It truly is a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood everyday now. . .
I just love having my daughter and granddaughters so close to me - right in my very own neighborhood!
Today was super cool because it was Monkey's THIRD B-Day Party!!! Nothing big and elaborate, just family. But she picked Mia (aka Minnie Mouse) as her party theme this year.
As of last night her Mommy still had not decided what to do for a cake for the party so I offered to take care of it. Here is what I came up with for a last minute cake. . .

Gotta love that Cricut machine - it makes anything more festive and special!
Monkey got a quad from her Great-Nanny and all of the cousins (as well as my 21yo daughter) took turns riding it. Monkey was a TOATAL daredevil on this thing!!!

Look - even Mommy and baby sister dressed up like Minnie for the party


Obviously she is not ONE - but we could not get her to do THREE fingers
She even made it through "happy birthday" without crying! She HATES that song - sung to her or anyone else and always cries uncontrollably when she hears it. I was very proud of her today. She even blew out all of her candles on her own without help this year!!!

Here is Monkey with one of her cousins playing with her new castle. Last year right after her birthday they got a Fisher Price catalog in the mail. In that catalog was this castle, she has carried that castle around with her for almost a year now saying "this is what I want for my happy Dupa (that's what she calls birthday). The catalog is a little worn now but she has saved it and never asks for anythingelse out of it - just this castle. It was just so sweet. I have never seen a little one be like that with a toy before. So anyways of course she got it and it was the first gift she opened. This afternoon while she was taking a bath she told her Mom thank you and that it was her FAVORITE! How sweet is that!
This was the last picture of the day because I forgot to put a new battery in my camera bag. So no pix of our trip to the solar park or blowing bubbles or any of the other fun stuff.
So that was my day - I hope yours was even half as good as mine. Like I said, It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood!!!
Toodles

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Another Wonderful Day. . .

Lucky Me!!!
One wonderful day after another around here. But how could it be anything but? Look at this beautiful baby. . .
We are working on pictures for her birth announcements this week and are going for a traveling theme (because of her name). That's why she's laying in a suitcase. I have ordered a Union Jack flag to wrap her in but it has not arrived yet so my dear friend loaned me this great vintage suitcase (thanks Judie!). I think this looks super cute. . . can't wait for the flag to arrive to try that one too.
Anyhoo. . .I have gotten to spend the past several days doing the things I love most -
*Hanging out with my TWO Granddaughters
*Helping out my daughter
*Playing with my camera
What could be better?????
I hope your week is going great too
Toodles

Monday, August 2, 2010

What a SPECIAL Day!

Today is Monkey's THIRD birthday
AND
London is ONE WEEK old!!!

I got to spend the day with these two lovely girls (and their Mom) taking pictures. This is just one that I thought was so sweet. As the day was coming to an end and it was time for me to go home, Monkey asked if she could come home with me. How could I say no? So we had a special little dinner guest tonight. We grilled burgers and dogs and spent a little time playing together. Then it was time for my Monkey to go back home with her parents. What a beautiful and special time in my life this is. I want to remember these moments ALWAYS!!!
Toodles