Madeline's Birthday

When Madeline woke up in the morning, she came out to see this:

 I love the sign Ethan made her, makes me smile! 

Then we ate PINK pancakes for breakfast:

 How old are you anyway?

 Then we painted her fingernails for the first time, pink! And got dressed in her new dress:

 Here is the close-up of the bow I made for her.  10pm the night before . . .

 We had her photoshoot (see pictures on my photo blog) and then Ethan wanted to jump in a few.  Madeline was tired of smiling then . . .

 but was all smiles when she opened, "MY STRAWBERRY PACK!!"

 And she even got a Strawberry Shortcake party hat too:

 And a Strawberry Shortcake car from Ethan.

 And a Strawberry Shortcake doll from Gpa and Nana and lots of Groovy Girl dolls from Mimi and Bapa . . . can you say spoiled?!  Dolls and dolls and she couldn't be happier!

Then it was time to blow out the 3 candle!

 And dig in- starting with the Chocolate frosting hair first!

Happy Birthday Madeline!!!  I think it's a toss up who really had the most fun on your birthday!!

Madeline's New Room

The night before Madeline's birthday, her room got a make-over.  This was the part I was most excited about.  It started with her opening a quilt.  I spent the previous two weeks making it with my Mom.  We sewed for hours after the kids were sleeping.  When she opened it, she started jumping up and down and shouted, "It's my new big girl blanket for my new big girl bed!"  It was as if she knew the bed was coming!  Bye bye crib!

See how happy she is trying out the blanket:

 Todd and my Dad helped put it together and she was all smiles when she could finally climb on up:

 and it didn't take her long to get comfortable!

 I am just so happy with how the blanket turned out.  It has strips of pink that match her curtains I made last summer, along with other strips of plain pink, pink lace, pink ribbons, off-white and eyelet lace:

The dresser also matches.  And the bed and dresser have a special place in my heart as they used to be my sister's long ago. 

Now Madeline's room is pretty and pink; the perfect little girl room.  I told Todd if she didn't like it, I'd move in!  But she LOVES it and hasn't climbed out of her new bed even once.

Princess Cupcakes!

Madeline wanted princess cupcakes for her birthday this year, so that is exactly what I made:

They took only a little prep work and a few ingredients . . .

 oh wait, I mean a LOT of prep work and a TON of ingredients!  I stopped keeping track of the hours after a few, but since lots could be done in the days before it really wasn't bad.  Plus, it was fun for me to work on her birthday and get excited about it the whole week before.  I love birthdays!!
The crown is made from a yellow starburst.

 The head from Nilla Wafers.  The dress from sugared gummies smashed together and then rolled out.  The body is made from one normal cupcake and one mini cupcake.  Pink cupcakes, if you are wondering!

And since Madeline was hoping for princesses in a flower garden, I used the last 12 mini cupcakes to make flowers:

 And was it worth it?  Well, just look at her face:

And if you'd like to see more pictures of her cute face (I'm not biased at all . . . )  check out my photo blog for her birthday photoshoot pictures.

Madeline's Birthday PhotoShoot

Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet girl

Happy Birthday Madeline!

You have lit up our lives since the moment you were born:

 And everyone is drawn to you as if you have some magical endearing power.

 I'm grateful every second you are my girl

 but how did you grow up so fast?!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Madeline!

A Story

We made it to church with only a minute to spare yesterday.  But we got lucky and the last bench was still available.  That made me happy because the benches are much easier with little kids than the hard chairs, and more comfortable!  During the meeting, Todd took Ethan out to go to the bathroom.  Then Madeline spilled all of her crayons.  I bent over and started picking them up.  It was a big bag of crayons so it was taking me quite a while, when the man in front of me started to tap my shoulder.  I sat up and he said, "Your daughter is turning the lights on and off."  I whipped my head around and there was Madeline standing on the bench and leaning over it to reach the main switch in the Chapel.  She was flipping it on and off, on and off.  I grabbed her hand and felt the entire congregation looking at us.  Really, they all were.  Even the entire Bishopric.

Okay, can I disappear now?!

But I survived the looks from everyone, because really . . . they all had the expression of "yes, I've been there before!"

More Birthday Girl Projects

Here are the projects I mentioned earlier in the week: the one with the sneak peak picture and the one I pinned myself too! They sat ALMOST done for a long time, and I'm glad they are all the way done now.

This is like the one I made for my niece, only I didn't do a pocket and handles and I added eyelashes.  I like the eyelashes a lot and wish I had thought to do them on the one I made my niece!

 And an apron to go along with a little salt and pepper shaker set and soap dispenser for her play kitchen.

Girly Girl

Madeline has taken a liking to wearing dresses. every. day.  She loves her dress with strawberries on it because she pretends to be Strawberry Shortcake in that one.  And today is stripy dress day.  For her birthday in a few days, she'll be wearing a new pink dress I bought recently.  Between now and then, she might have to wear pants a few of the days - we don't have THAT many play dresses, but I guess if they are PINK pants, she'll be okay.

We went out to do errands this morning in the rain.  She told me she didn't want to put her hat on in the rain because the hat would mess up her hair.

She was devastated a few days ago when she realized her toenails weren't pink anymore.  Don't worry Miss, we'll paint them again for your special day!

Pinned

This afternoon, I was pinning fabric flowers on an apron I'm making Madeline for her birthday when I realized I had pinned my finger right to the apron.  The pin had gone right through my skin and I was hooked!  Luckily no blood, but it's amazing how much harder it is to pull it out when you know it's going through your finger.  I've quilted my finger to a quilt before and that's much worse because you have the thread going through you too . . . has that happened to any of you?

But on a less painful note, I finished a little doll blanket for the bed in Madeline's doll house.  It was fun to find fabric the exact color as the doll house bed.

And here's a sneak peak at another project for her that is almost done . . .

Our Puppet Theater

One of our favorite Christmas gifts this year, was a puppet theater.  My mom made the curtain and my parents filled a tote full of puppets for us.  We often take turns putting on puppet shows for each other.

 Ethan is better at hiding behind the curtain, but they both do a great job!  Notice the bell sewn on the curtain.  You can ring it when the show is about to begin!

We're still working on the actual material in the plays, but hey, this one is better than their first where they held their puppets up and said, "hi" and that was it.  :)

Now, we often enjoy a day at the theatre!

FYI

For those of you who may be interested, I am now in charge of WRITING the road show too.  How did I get roped into this?  Oh, but it's gonna be good.  hahaha

AND, photos on my photo blog today!  Hooray.

Tracks in the Snow

 These made me smile, and I found the contrast in the two kinds of tracks visually interesting

This Week

Strange . . . I posted every single day last week and this week . . . I've got nothing.

But my storage room has SIX less boxes in it now.  Thanks to organizing, recycling, and throwing out!  HOORAY!

And my bedroom changed from brown and blue to purple and white.  Anyone who really knows me is just shocked by this color change, right?!

And my little girl is going to get a few more things made by mama for her upcoming birthday now that I've had this week to work on them.  Though none of them are actually done yet . . .

 But HELP!! I've completely lost my photography mojo.  Seriously.  So sad . . .  one of these days I'll pick my camera back up because I have a really great idea or see something inspiring. 

In the meantime, I've been called to do all the music for our ward roadshow.  I now have quite a few songs to write and choreograph. 

But still, no pictures . . .

A Good Day

I watched a little video clip today at church and heard my prophet say something that really impacted me: 

 Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved

Something I know, but often forget.  I was glad for the reminder and hope to remember it a bit more now.

More Sewing Projects

When my sister was here visiting from DC last summer, we came across a tutorial for a gathered clutch.  When she saw it, she said, "we should each sew one of these, we can work on them together."  Now my sister isn't a sewer like me and so I was really really excited that she had thought of such a fun idea!  She soon went home, and we ended up working on them "together" over the phone.  I thought they were really cute and decided my sister-in-law should get one too, so while my sister sewed one for herself, I sewed one for me and one for our sister-in-law too! 

 The inside has a divider pocket and some card holders.

I also made her this quick camera strap cover

 And since I had my brother's family for Christmas gifts this year, and I had made the pillows for his kids and the clutch for his wife, I didn't want to leave him out of the homemade gift department, so I whipped up this silly little Apple pouch and stuffed it with candy.  That wasn't his "real" present, but it was fun to make too!  Oh, and you can thank blogger for turning the picture upside down.  Blogger doesn't like me.

Naps

Today during nap time:

Ethan played games on the National Geographic Kids website
Madeline sang and played in her bed with doll house dolls
And I fell asleep so fast I didn't even know what hit me

Phew, glad we were all happy!

Cute and Easy Owl

Another fun thing I made for one of my nephews this Christmas was this owl:

I found the easy tutorial here.  I liked how fast it went together and how cute it turned out too.  I think it would be fun to make some girl versions of this as well.  And maybe play around with different feet, perhaps longer legs to make it look more Pottery Barn-ish. 

December's Ten Things

I'm a little behind on this one, but I love how Emmy Mom inspires me to look back and see ten reasons to smile each month.  When I do look back, I find there are usually a lot more than ten and that alone makes me smile again.  I have a lot to be grateful for!


So here are my:

Ten Things To Smile About from December!

1.  I found time during the holidays to actually make five darling Christmas Dolls

 2.  I sang in Christmas concerts and felt the true Spirit of Christmas more than ever before!

3.  We went to a church with hundreds of nativities set up and watched a marionette play of the first Christmas

 4.  Ethan turned FIVE!

 5.  I had a blast making him this crocodile cake

 6.  Then I had a blast making sugar cookies too, and candy cane cookies, and lots of other sweets!

 7.  We enjoyed Christmas Eve with both sets of grandparents and tons of family

8.  Christmas!  Do I need to say more?

9.  I got to play in the snow in my sandals . . .brrrr!

10.  I finished my 365 Photo Blog having never missed a day!