Another Saturday project...

...this time it was for my sweet neice Caroline Grace.

This is the finished product that Caroline is modeling.

I've never been a big purple fan, but I must say I really like this purple chenille.

Caroline is considerably smaller than Maggie Ruth so I had to really alter the cut of the pants to fit her little frame. She's so petite.

Maggie Ruth is seen here sporting her favorite attire... any old, raggedy, worn out, stained t-shirt.

Next on my project list is my other sweet neice, Rachel!

Saturday's project...

Its almost amazing to me that I packed my sewing stuff up and drove about 45 minutes to do a little sewing. I have TONS of fabric and TONS of ribbon and other fun notions, and find NO time to put them all together. A friend of mine, Sam, invited me to come to Ino this past Saturday to sew with her and some of her friends from church. It was SOOOO much fun and I can't wait to do it again very soon. This is my 1/2 finished project...

The pants on the left are for Maggie Ruth, the onesie is for Jack, and the skirt is for Riley Grace. I've still got to put the initials on the girls tops and make the pants for Jack.

The cute waist band and trim on the skirt were actually an accident. I cut Riley Grace's skirt too short and needed to add a little length so ... there you go... a little extra!!

My friend Sandra put this J on Jack's onesie with her monogram machine. I'm hoping that within the next few weeks I'll be the proud owner of a Janome embroidery machine!!! If not, I'll just keep bumming my monogramming and appliques off of my friends.

I hope to have the entire project finshed much sooner than later so that I can start on another. I'll try to post the finished project when I do.

Thank you Valerie for letting us come sew (sorry for the disaster we made of your house). And thank you Emily for the awesome babysitting job!

Scratch...

that is all I can do these days! My usual pregnancy rash had made its grand entrance into my life again. This time it seems to be a little more intense than its been before. After 2 rounds of steroids my entire family will probably be ready to send me to the moon. I'm like a raging bull when I take them and I promise I don't want to be. The bad part is they haven't worked so far and there's no guarantee that they'll work this time, that means I've got 4 more months to SCRATCH!!!! If you've never been covered in little bitty red bumps that itch like you've been in an ant bed, it will make you CRAZY! I feel like a nervous wreck when I'm itching (which is pretty much 24 hrs a day right now.) I promise I'm not having a pitty party (yet) but I'd appreciate any and all prayers you could lift up on my part right now, and if not for me, for my family that they can tolerate me for the next 4 months.


I know a lot of you check all of the same blogs that I do and if you haven't checked The Jewells lately, you need to. First of all her humor is PRICELESS!!! Second she has a really cute link to http://www.boutiquemia.com/ that you need to take a look at. Its got precious little girl clothes and some really cute womens clothes as well. She bought herself 2 of these super cute tops this summer and they are awesome (the peasant top isn't pictured though). I've copied the pattern to the sleeveless top and hope to make it my very next (very soon) project.
She's also having a clothing party on Sept. 18th for http://www.shabbyapple.com/ -again some great clothes for women and children. Let me know if you'd like to go, I'm going to try to make it. I've already picked out a few dresses for the girls


Lastly, a few friends have told me about this website and I'm enjoying it... with the cost of groceries and everything else these days, it somehow makes spending that money not quite as painful. Its actually a little fun to see what I can save... http://www.couponmom.com/

Its been too long...

Its been too long since I've last blogged, I know. There seems to be so much going on I hardly find time to sit down at this computer much less take the time to post. I'm going to try to give you all an update on our past few weeks. First of all, as you already know, school has started, soccer practice is in full swing and we'll start dance next week. Riley Grace is loving 3rd grade and Maggie is having a hard time letting her go each morning. This is Riley Grace's "First Day of School Picture" that was actually taken about a week late because I had totally forgotten to do that!

Each morning as we're getting ready to take Riley Grace to school, Maggie Ruth has to have all of her gear like "Sissy's". She wants a backpack (which RG bought her w/ her own money), a lunch box and whatever else her sister might be leaving with. Riley Grace is such a good sport about it. She usually gets Maggie a snack to put in her lunch box and some "junk" to stuff in her backpack so that Maggie thinks she's "loaded".

On our Hurricaine Fay weather day the girls gave me a flashback from my childhood...forts- in the house! While I was busy doing some laundry Riley Grace was busy building a fort for she and Maggie Ruth. Man, the times that Kim and I would do that! Maggie was loving every minute of it!

She also decided that she now likes the infant swing (which she HATED as a baby). I had cleaned out her closet trying to make room for Jack and some of his things and sat this swing in the sun room. When I came out of the laundry room Maggie Ruth was trying it out. She never fails to amuse me!

This next picture is a typical day at home... anything goes!!! Maggie wears WHATEVER she wants (or doesn't want) and clonks around the house in everyone's shoes. Thank goodness she can't take a picture of me and post it because I pretty much do the same, minus the shoes.

To add to all of the current chaos at our house, our dog Scamper has given us a little drama too. He found a girlfriend about 2 months ago and disappeared. Well, he's resurfaced but doesn't want to stay at our house anymore and his girlfriends owner doesn't want him to stay there. Oh, the drama...he's now at the vet getting "fixed"so that maybe he won't have those girlfriend tendencies anymore...we'll see. Our fall garden is ready for attention so I've also been busy shelling peas and putting them up...FUN STUFF!!!

A few weeks update...

Well, I'm officially out of my "slump." Riley Grace is back home with us, school has started, and life seems to be getting back to normal. Over the last week or so we've had lots of fun and I just thought I'd share some of it with you all.

Maggie Ruth and Caroline enjoyed the TINY little pool one night after they ate supper with us. Its funny to watch them stir around when they're having fun. They're like a bunch of little ants...they never stop moving.

Maggie Ruth also loves her sister's goggles. I happened to catch them actually on her face in this shot, but they're usually hanging around her neck like a necklace. Last weekend we were in Birmingham for the Commodity Conference (Riley Grace had Russell take this picture one afternoon in the hotel). We did some shopping, swimming and very little resting. We were back home Sunday afternoon in time for church and then it was home to get ready for the big week. School started on Monday.

Monday when Riley Grace got home from school, she went to her bedroom to do her homework and guess who was close behind her... her shadow, Maggie Ruth. Riley got Maggie a notebook and pencil so she would think she was doing her homework too. They were too cute.

They had to pose for me once they realized I was taking their picture.

Riley Grace's best friend Julia came home with her on Wednesday afternoon and this is what I found them all outside doing... playing in the water hose (minus a few pieces of clothing).

Riley and Julia were good sports... they'd just sit down on the patio and let Maggie wet them. She was loving it and they were too.

Our most recent fun was Caroline's 2nd birthday party last night. It was so much fun! I'm sure Shonna will be posting it soon so check out her blog for more pictures of that (I forgot my camera, but it worked out well because I was Shonna's photographer.)

Jack is on his way!!!

Its official and by Uncle Mike's prospective--100% a boy!!! Russell and I went by Uncle Mike's office today and he tried for quite some time to get a peek at this baby! We had just about quit when he said, "let's take one more look." This time he decided he would cooperate (Jack, that is). He told us that he is 100% sure its a boy. We got a good look several different times and "the turtle" as they sometimes call it was definately there!!! We're thrilled! Sorry some of the pictures are upside down. The one that says "Its a boy!" is clear enough though!

We're headed out to Birmingham tomorrow about lunch. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Too long, I know...

I'm sorry its been so long since I've posted. I'm kind of in this blogging rut right now. I get in this same rut every year about this time. Its been too long since Riley Grace was home and I miss her so much. We'll be leaving for the Commodity Conference in Birmingham on Thursday and we'll be picking her up on the way. Sadly, (not for her though) she starts school on Monday so we won't have much time before she's gone again. We've been out of touch for a few weeks and there's really not much new info to share. Maggie Ruth is testing out a new very challenging stage that I'm slowly making (maybe not making) my way through. She has decided that it is necessary for me to give her my UNDIVIDED ATTENTION AT ALL TIMES!!! So needless to say we're both trying to adjust to how this works. I'm not doing so sporty with it! By the time Russell walks in the door each night I'm ready to run out into the pasture and into the woods.... you get the picture. I know, this too shall pass, just when???

On a different note, several of you have asked when we would find out what we're having. Well, we're going late Wednesday afternoon and Uncle Mike is going to see if he can tell. We'll be 16 weeks so its a little early, but he said he didn't mind looking each week until we could tell! Maybe we'll have some new news by Wednesday night!

Russell is working nonstop as usual. His hours get longer as the days get longer. He was just recently elected the President of the Covington County Farmers Federation and will take on some extra responsibilities to go along with all that he does on our farm. He's a determined man and I have NO doubt he will handle this well!

That's pretty much it for now. Sorry to be out of touch, hopefully that will change in just a few days.