6 weeks...

long time, no type, huh???  sheesh, you'd think i just had a baby, and a major holiday or something! i am stealing a few minutes to update a little:)  here is a brief synopsis of the last 6 (ish) weeks....

camryn is 6 weeks old, what the???  how did that fly by so fast! craziness!

she had her first experience in the sling when we went to see the temple lights...that was while my parents were still in town, but that picture is, unfortunately on my camera and for some weird reason the internet kicks off when i plug my camera in and it's not downloading pics...ahhhh..technology!  

this was her first park visit...in the sling...around 3 weeks.

we all love camryn to tiny baby pieces but avery continues to kiss and hug and stroke her each and every time she passes her and since she makes a special effort to pass her about every 1.5 seconds...it's a lot of lovin'! but can you blame her? NO!!! i just try to keep the love to a minimum while baby is trying to sleep:)

camryn's dearest ambition lately is to get her left arm out of the swaddle...we've been there before with other kids but it does make settling down hard sometimes:)

first swing experience, around 5 weeks.  she likes it okay, better than her carseat which is good, but she still doesn't LOVE it. i'm okay with that though:)

basically camryn is the main attraction around these parts...oh, and new Christmas toys!  Camryn weighed around 9lbs 10 oz at her one month check up, she is moving into 0-3 month clothes and wears a size 1 diaper, since about week 4 (she has very powerful gas...it was getting chancy with the newborn diapers).  She is starting to make delicious baby noises and starting to smile (one of my favorite times!!!) i'll try to get a good smile, but you know sometimes that's hard until they are a little older.  we all pretty much adore her, and are so happy she is in our home!

Christmas Eve tradition of acting out the nativity, Avery is always Mary, Camryn was baby Jesus, which the kids got a kick out of since she's a girl...Blake is Joseph and Ethan was a shepherd with Papa Kyle.

i made the kids (minus Camryn) Christmas pjs.  the shirts are freezer paper stenciled Harry Potter shirts...Ethan's says "I solemnly swear that i am up to no good" Blake's says "mischief managed" and Avery's says "muggle born"  they were fun to do...i'll have to see if i can get a better picture of the shirts later.  and the pants came together quickly, probably about an hour for all three pairs...good thing too, since i didn't do them until about 2 days before Christmas eve:)  i actually measured the kids in their sleep and guesstimated on the waist size based on pants they already had....worked out pretty well:)  if i was smart, i'd write down the measurements though!

Kendall and i celebrated 10 years of marriage, 2 days after Christmas.  We like to tell people the anniversary of our first date was Dec. 26th and we got married on the 27th....but you know about 4 years apart:)  our trip to VA and WA DC that we took this summer was to celebrate our anniversary because we knew with a small baby we wouldn't be up to a big thing in December...but we had a great time, Camryn did so well and we ate at the Cheesecake Factory and of course had tasty cheesecake after! and then watched a movie at home...

kendall....

kendall's funny face...(he's a keeper:))

me

at the risk of being super mushy...i can't imagine my life without Kendall.  He is so kind and loving and a fantastic husband and father.  He helps me be a better person.  In our 10 years together, we've lived in 3 states, 8 different houses, accomplished 2 undergraduate degrees and one law degree.  We've had dozens of church callings, Kendall's in a bishopric now, we've had some job changes, including a recent one.  we've been super poor, and not as poor:)  We've delivered 5 children, had to bury one child, we've been sick, been well, laughed a lot, cried an ocean.  we've been on hundreds of dates, been really mad, made up...and i wouldn't change who we have become together because of the last 10 years.

I love you honey.  You are the best person that has ever happened to me. Thank you for being there for me, always.  Here's to another million years together:)

she's here!!!

i was having some trouble with the blog...posting pictures! i got that figured out (by adding another author...just myself under a different email address i already had) and now i can post! yahoo!!!

Camryn Elaine was born on Sunday Nov. 18th, at 12:33 am, she weighed 8lbs 3 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  (although when we went to her first dr appointment on the following tuesday she was only 20 inches long...riddle me that!)  i am never very sure the hospital measurement is very accurate because the baby is squalling and moving around so much!

fresh from birthing...

scale

mom and baby

the kids came for a visit later on sunday, after church, and they were lucky enough to be there when the cookie lady came! what a great day! a new sister AND a cookie? awesome!

nana sharon and ethan with camryn

and daddy

avery could not be any more smitten with a baby...seriously...it's serious love we have going on over here

papa lewi with camryn

this sums up the way we felt that day...sleepy:)  since she was born in the wee hours of the morning, not much sleep was had!

i'll do a full post next for those that want to know the whole shebang story...in the meantime, we are so happy to be loving our little girl, she's a week old today and is doing really well! we are getting to know each other and learning more everyday! she is eating like a champ and i am feeling good, just normal tired:) and  very happy to have her here.

halloween pictures in november...

i realized i never posted pictures from our actual halloween/pumpkin carving/Blake's birthday party on Halloween...and there's not a ton but i do love to document things so here we go:)

ethan was super gung ho to get carving tools and do his own pumpkin...oh help!

he actually did a really great job and carved almost his whole pumpkin by himself! i was so proud! but now he might think he can use knives...oh dear!

avery was a little less excited to clean it out and she wasn't quite strong enough to do a lot of carving...good thing it was ethan to the rescue!!!

blake was kind of along for the ride, he didn't love cleaning and is too young to carve ( i have to draw the line somewhere right?) but he does make a cute pumpkin head:)

all done!

and a scary one!!!!

out of space...

it would figure that when i get a window of time to post...i am out of space on my blog for pictures...have you had this problem??? what have you done to solve it??? any advice is appreciated!!

Nursery Sewing...

So no baby yet, thought i'd share some of the sewing i've been doing for her....

we decided to get a new crib this time...our old one had been recalled twice, so we took it in and got credit on a gift card to buy a new one, which was awesome!  i decided to get this gray one...but didn't buy it soon enough, then it went out of stock for a while...and it finally came back in stock a month or so ago, i was so happy!!!

pretty much all the fabrics i used came from Joann's, the yellow dot on white is actually an old sheet i thrifted a while ago. i made the dust ruffle and bunting...

this is the "quilt" folded up...it's not a quilt really (cause i am SO NOT a quilter), i didn't put batting in it, because i wanted it to be thin enough to use all year here in AZ, but i do like the appliqued circles...inspired by this quilt...

i decided to make burp cloths a little different this time...try out a new shape, got the pattern from here,  and i think i'll like them a lot. i had a bunch of terry cloth and then i also cut up a towel that was falling apart to use as the back. i put a layer of flannel in the middle for extra absorbency.

i also made some binky clips...there are a ton of tutorials for these, i based mine on this one, but i folded the fabric like this one, instead of turning the tube of fabric as in the first tutorial.

i like that i can make new straps and they are interchangeable, the clips are velcroed on.

then i decided i was feeling hat-ish, so i made one from this tutorial (top), and this tutorial (bottom) with the tie top.

i made 3 swaddling blankets, that are large, 36x36 inches.  two are flannel (on sale at joann's when i bought it) and one is gauze that i dyed (tie dyed)...can't stop dyeing things!

this is a changing pad...the tutorial for this one is over at Lil Blue Boo

made from vinyl tablecloths i found at Big Lots....

outside

inside

carseat cover that i made...my own pattern that i made up a couple of years ago...i weight the corners with washers that are sewn into the cover, so it can't blow away:)

and i can't stop with these covered buttons! i really must buy them in bulk, ASAP!

the other thing i made was a headband that was inspired by this one...which has no tutorial...but i love the wider pieces of fabric around the babies head...

there is a tutorial here, which i referenced when making mine, to help me tie the knot correctly, i just made mine with wider pieces of knit and didn't pull them tight to make them curl in on themselves.

here's mine, yes i put it on a jar of peanut butter, i needed something for it to go around that wouldn't stretch it out a ton before it gets put on the baby's head:)  i like the way it turned out, it is soft and the wider pieces of knit look and feel like they will be more comfortable than the smaller curled up ones to me...we shall see.

and if you made it to the end of this post...wow, thanks a bunch! 

that's some of what i've been making for baby girl Camryn...hopefully she arrives soon to be able to enjoy them:):)

Halloween Baby

we have a boy at our house who is turning 3 today!!!!  

Here's Mr. Blake, going home from the hospital! i love that monster sleeper! so cute!  Blake has always been a sweet soul, a little more mellow than Ethan and Avery were as babies/small kids, which is a welcome change, i'm not gonna lie:)  

Blake also has a charming way about him, he endears himself to people, almost immediately! it is actually very interesting to watch....he's squishy and sweet and cute and his smile is contagious!!!

Bless the third child, he sleeps anywhere...AND easily transfers to his bed! and always has! amazing!!!

Avery and Ethan will randomly run at him during the day, and give him a squeeze (probably too hard) and say, "what? i just can't help it, mom, he's so CUTE!!!"

here's our cowboy from last night's trunk or treat!!!  we are so blessed to have Blake in our family.  He loves to read, he plays by myself or with others well (for the most part:)), he loves to swim, loves to be outside, will give you a hug and kiss when you need one, he is deliberately funny and has been for a couple of years, making us laugh and smile throughout the day.

Happy Birthday Little Man!!!!