Unicorns and Rainbows Birthday Party

We started off the girls birthday with rainbow sprinkle covered donut holes for breakfast. We then spent the morning cleaning and preparing for their birthday bash that evening. We got out of the house around lunch time to indulge in Happy Joe's and run a few last minute errands.

When we began planning the birthday party, Reese said that she would like to have a unicorn theme. I chose rainbows for Gretchen as I felt that the two went well together. I knew that we had the perfect theme when we found rainbow unicorn invitations and thank you cards at Target.

 

I attempted this unicorn cake after finding it on Pinterest. I think that it turned out fairly well!

The birthday girl definitely loved it!

I didn't get a picture of Gretchen's smash cake because she was teething and crabby during the party. It was a rectangular cake that was rainbow colored. I had used sprinkles to make a number 1 on top of the cake. Randy stuck her hand into the cake to get her started and she began sobbing and throwing a fit. I cleaned her up and she was done for the night, refusing to go to anyone other than mommy.

Though the party was held outside on our deck, I decorated the kitchen cabinets with pictures from each year of Reese's life and each month of Gretchen's first year.

 

My mom had purchased an American girl doll for Reese, so I made her and her doll matching shirts with a unicorn and a six on them.

Both girls received so many nice gifts and we enjoyed sharing their special day with all of the friends and family that were there to celebrate with us!~

Halloween 2012

Since I had a lamb costume for Gretchen, I decided that it would be fun to dress Reese up as Little Bo Peep. I started looking for costumes and was disappointed to find that most costumes were around $30 or more and were not the best quality. Though Reese was on board with the costume idea originally, she decided after watching the "Aristocats" that she wanted to be a white cat like "Marie". Wouldn't you know that a white cat costume would be impossible to find. Everywhere I looked, I found balck and leopard tails, ears and costumes, but never anything in white. Since I couldn't find a costume, I decided to try to make one. I just needed a white sweatsuit, which also turned out to be impossible to find. Eventually we found a white sweatshirt and leggings the Saturday before Halloween and day before trick-or-treat. I had some leftover fur from a Christmas project and used it to fashion some ears and a tail for her to wear with the sweatsuit. Though it was a fairly simple costume, Reese was ecstatic. She even thought that she should crawl on her hands and knees like a cat for trick or treat and drink milk from a bowl for her meals.

While we were uncertain about Reese's costume until the last possible minute, we had been working on Aidan's costume much longer. I brought a copy paper box home from work and taped off some boxes and the number one. Then I spray painted it blue. After removing the tape, I painted those areas red. I painted a face on a paper plate and spray painted several paper plates black and attached them to the box with hot glue. Finally, I added a striped piece of scrapbook paper on top and some black buffers to the front and back. I added some straps and Aidan's Thomas the Train costume was finished. Just like Reese he was so excited to wear his costume. I put him in it and he immediately began running around the house bashing into things.

Though Gretchen's costume was not homemade, she still looked adorable!

I hope that the kids will continue to allow me to help them create costumes in the future. It was so much fun to be able to work together to create something that they truly loved and was different from anything else that the other kids were wearing.

4 months

Gretchen turned 4 months old! We went to the doctor on October 7 and I couldn't wait to hear her stats. She was 24.5 inches long and weighed 15 pounds and 4 ounces, so she is definitely growing! The doctor confirmed that we were right to start giving her cereal and said to go ahead and start some baby foods. We have tried carrots, beans and sweet potatoes so far. Though uncertain at first, she now enjoys the new foods. We have also given her some of the baby mum mum crackers. She is not too interested in holding them herself, but will suck on them if you hold it for her. The other night as we were eating dinner, she sat with us in her high chair and licked and sucker her lips the entire time. It will not be long now and she will be eating table food with us! Though I am excited for each of the new phases as she grows, I am sad to leave each stage behind.

Besides physically growing, Gretchen has really started to develop her own personality. She is such a smiley, happy baby and so easy going. She barely cried with her shots and rarely fusses at all. She is an excellent sleeper, having slept a minimum of 8 hours most nights since she was about 6 weeks old. She is also very perceptive. She can tell when a member of our family is not in the room, and is definitely happiest when we are all together.
Though she is awake much more she still naps frequently throughout the day. I often catch her catnapping in her favorite chair

or falling into a milk coma after eating.

Whether napping or just hanging out, she has found that she really enjoys her thumb, much like her older sister did and still does. Though I know that I should discourage her from the thumb sucking I still think that it is adorable!

We love you so much Gretchen! Keep smiling!

Hawkeyes

Since football season has started we have had several opportunities to sport our hawks gear. The first time was during an open practice at Kinnick. Randy and I were very excited to take the kids to the stadium and see their reactions. Unfortunately, they were not nearly as excited as we would have hoped.

I snapped these pictures of the kids in their black and gold before the first home game. Gretchen is actually wearing one of Aidan's old outfits, so I threw the bow on to be sure people knew she is a girl!

Whatever the season brings, the kids will definitely be cute cheering on our favorite team!

DIY Baby Sandals

I have been pretty busy lately with a newborn, a 3 year old and 5 year old, starting grad school classes and just keeping up with housework and family commitments. Despite all of that, I have been antsy to do some crafting. My sister-in-law found some baby sandals for her little one and said that she thought they were something that I could probably make. After hearing this I went out and bought a pair of Toe Blooms to take a closer look. I figured that I could make some and began searching online for a tutorial. I came across this one from Laura at The Creative Muster and immediately went looking for supplies. I was unlucky in finding any cotton jersey in the girly colors that I was looking for- all of the stores I visited had darker fall colors out. So I began to think about what I had on hand that I could use. I had a few cotton t-shirts in my fabric stash that I thought could work. I cut one apart and used the pattern from the Creative Muster as well as the Toe Blooms that I bought to create my own pair of baby sandals. The first pair was too big for my newborn, so I altered my pattern and made another pair. This pair fit perfectly, stretching just enough to fit and stay on my little girls feet.

I paired the sandals with a beautiful gray and pink dress for a wedding that we attended recently. My mother-in-law gifted us the kids matching clothes when our youngest was born. Aren't they just adorable!

Though time consuming- cutting out all of the pieces for the flowers and handsewing all of the tiny pieces together- the sandals were totally worth it! It was a perfect project to pick up and work on anytime I had a few free moments. The best part is that you can do it all by hand and do not have to be a great seamstress. Though summer is almost over and the weather will be cooling off, I think that the sandals would also be cute with tights. I have made a pair in black and plan to make another pair in white. I would also like to play around with the pattern and see if there would be a way to make a pair that looks more masculine for boys. Things like this make me wish that I could come up with something like this myself!

Family of Five

Every time that we get into the car, I look back into the full back seat and I can't believe we have three kids!

Reese and Aidan both love Gretchen so much. Whenever anyone asks if they can take the baby home with them, both kids immediately respond that she is "their baby" or "our baby", not just my baby. I love it when they ask me to hold her but that is not the only time they interact with her. They talk to her while I change her at the changing table and play with her while she sits in her chair.

One of Reese's favorite things about having a little sister is dressing alike. I have convinced her that wearing the same color is dressing alike for everyday, but she would much rather have all of their clothes be exactly the same as they were for a wedding we recently attended.

No, I still can't believe that we have three children! Though I can't believe it, it is like Gretchen has always been a part of our family and I can't imagine life without her.

Spring Break 2012

We spent the last week in our very favorite vacation spot- Pensacola Beach, Florida! The last few years, travelling the 16 + hours to Pensacola from our home in Iowa with 2 children under the age of 3 has been frustrating to say the least! I don't know if we were better prepared and more relaxed or the kids were just older and better able to entertain themselves, but this year's trip was so different. We left late in the afternoon after getting home from work. Randy had picked the kids up from daycare and kept them awake all afternoon, thinking that no nap would make them tired and likely to sleep for some of the trip. We started out and the kids stayed busy enough playing their video games that I started in on "The Hunger Games". Suprisingly I read until we made our first stop. We made it to our hotel with 2 potty stops and a stop for a quick dinner. The kids were kind of wound up at first, but we eventually settled into bed and got a good 6-7 hours of sleep. I got up first and showered and dressed. Then I dressed both kids and we went down to get breakfast while Randy got ready and repacked our overnight bags into the car. We left from our hotel around 7 am. The kids played and watched movies in the car while I picked up my reading. Except for passing out the occassional snack, they kept themselves entertained for the first few hours. They started to get a little restless, but were satisfied when I started playing car games with them. Aidan fell asleep late in the morning and stayed asleep until about the time we stopped for lunch. The afternoon went pretty much the same, with the kids entertaining themselves for the most part with me putting my book away to play occassional car games with them. We finally pulled into our hotel on Pensacola Beach around 4 in the afternoon. We unloaded the car and dropped everything in our hotel room. We found our swimsuits and rushed down to the pool! The kids swam and played for a few hours. When the sun began to go down, we finally returned to our room to get some dinner. Thankfully there was a Subway across the street, so we picked up sandwiches to eat in our room and then put our stuff away. We finally called it a night around 10pm. The next morning after breakfast we went to town to get groceries for the week. When we returned, the kids put on their suits and ran to the pool!

The next few days we bounced back and forth between the pools and the beach.

We also took walks to the park.

After long days in the sun, we cleaned up and went out to dinner.

Randy had to leave us for two days to go to New York for meetings. We took advantage of that time to do something new: mini golf!

Reese even made a hole-in-one!

The next night, we enjoyed some shopping, exploring the boardwalk, feeding the birds and an ice cream snack. We spent the last few days building sandcastles on the beach and playing in the pools.

Unfortunately, I did not get any family pictures this year, but I did get a few shots with my favorite kids on our last night.

On the ride home, we left our hotel just before 7 am and drove straight home. We stopped occassionally for meals and potty breaks and made it home just after 10 pm. Though we were sad that our vacation was over so quickly, we were very glad to finally be home and back to our own confortable beds!

Sleepyheads

We had a very busy weekend this past weekend! By Sunday afternoon, the kids were incredibly crabby and in desperate need of a nap. I brought them home from the beach around 3pm and put them to bed after a quick bath. At about 6 they were still sleeping. I went upstairs to wake them up and found Aidan laying on the side of the bed in a most unusual position. I had to take a picture before waking him up:

After snapping his picture, I ran into Reese's room to snap a picture before she had a chance to wake up:

I hated to wake them up, but knew that if I didn't they would be up in the middle of the night!
After this week, I am so ready for the cooler temperatures and lazy weekends spent at home! Bring on fall!

Family Pictures

Since our oldest child was born we have always gone to the photography studios that supplied instant gratification! We schedule an appointment, take some pictures and walk out 1 hour later with photos in hand to disperse to various family members.
A family friend recently started doing photography and I was so excited to try her out. Though it was nice in the past to have pictures taken and receive the prints the same afternoon, I was tired of the same old poses and backgrounds. Our family friend was willing to meet us anywhere we chose to do outdoor shots. We chose a local park, where the kids could run around and play. Though it took us about 2 hours to get all of the shots that we wanted, it was a lot less stressful for me not having to hold the kids down screaming and crying to take a picture in a blank white room. Without further adieu, here are our family portraits all courtesy of Lynn at Portraits by Lynn.

A totally impromptu moment where Reese grabbed Aidan in a big hug!


Randy and I looking at each other with googly eyes.


Family portrait


Love, love, love this one!


Pretty as a princess.


My handsome little prince.


There are so many more, I don't know how I am ever going to choose!