I love mornings

Our future seamstress, she somehow managed to get herself in this position into my sewing basket. Hilarious!

I hear a little voice babbling, sometimes impatient and occasionally crying. All signifying a wonderful morning about to begin.

I swoop into the room and talk to my little one, with smiles on my face as she staggers to her feet and walks to me in her "i-just-woke-up" wobbily way.



I pull out the binky in order to hear her words more clearly. Just as I thought, it's gibberish. Silly girl.



As we make our way to the kitchen, I talk to her and she looks at me with sleepies in her eyes and only half understanding what I'm saying until I get to her favorite word. "Do you want a baba?" "Baba" she says back. In fact most days she keeps saying it until I present it to her, full of that wonderful white liquid which is her hearts delight.



I put her down so that I can make myself a bowl of cereal. After I measure it all out, careful to keep track of what I put in my bowl, we wander wherever we feel. Today it is to the computer so I can catch up on my readings. My little Aftyn follows me, her little legs walking quickly to keep up with mine.



I plop myself in the chair, and begin to eat as I read.

A little body pressed against my knees and an impatient look on that face and I know: I had forgotten to share.



In an effort to save myself some time and to get Aftyn to try new things, I had recently been sharing my cereal bowls contents. I doled out a few spoonfuls to her waiting mouth, unsure of her enjoyment. And yet she stays, wanting more and as much as I will share. When the bowl is empty only then does she turn back to her ba-ba.



I love mornings like these. I want to always remember these sweet moments we share where we spend these moments together, sharing and snuggling and all is very very sweet. And so I write this today, so that I can remember.

Because even on good days, these moments don't last very long. :)

And it's ALL because of my sister Laura . .

Last night while talking to my sister Laura on the phone about what she was wearing to our niece's wedding this weekend, I suddenly had a burst of inspiration for the skirt I should wear.

I was so excited I hurriedly got off the phone with her to go and peruse my closet for an old pair of pants that I never wear anymore. I'm sure we all have a pair like that, right?


I found a pair of work pants I had never really liked and had only worn maybe 3-4 times. They had huge legs and a little waist and most of all they were from Walmart and had been on sale when I bought them. Possibly even clearance.


Ever seen those jean skirts that girls made out of an old pair of jeans? That is exactly where my thoughts led me on the phone with my sister.


I took that old pair of pants and I cut the inseam of both legs all the way up to the zipper and all the way in the back just above the part where there is extra fabric to make room for your tush. Luckily, these pants were made of a stretchy, linen-y type of fabric, so my seam ripper worked its magic in about 10 minutes.




I cut the pant legs just below the knee, leaving myself some room to sew under some of the fabric for the bottom of the skirt I was about to make, took the extra fabric I just cut off, added it back to the middle where the legs don't meet with some pins, and away I went with my sewing machine which I was rejoicing and thanking my mother for more and more. Thanks for that awesome Christmas gift so long ago!!


And here's what I came up with:

Complete with a cute little bow!

I came up with that idea while looking at all the scraps I had leftover.

Yesterday's Project

I bought this cute little sleeveless dress a few months back at a garage sale - and my niece getting married this weekend is the perfect excuse for Aftyn to wear it.

I decided to sew in sleeves and make my life easier

not having to find a white shirt that would look good underneath.

My mom ( oh ye of little faith ) asked me how I was going to sew the sleeves in,

as if it couldn't be done. Well I showed you! :) lol

Actually, it looks a lot better than even I imagined.

Must have been a blessing for me.

Yay for projects working out the way you want them too!

For Alyson

So you can see how tall it is, it hits right below my knees

On the bright side, at least my hair isn't magenta . . . .

Here I am, trying to make the most

of my "different than what I thought I was getting" haircut

(forced smile - I was trying, right?)

By the way, you should know, most of these hairstyles are purposely bad

:)

I was trying to be funny

This new cut really brings out all the natural wavy

and curliness of my hair - that's a nice little perk



That is some BIG hair, sistah

Trying to look like Aftyn in her pigtails

Big LDS mother hair

I apologize if your hair looks like this

I was copying my mother, not you or yours :)
Love you Mom!

Hey - I'm starting to recognize a few of these hairstyles! :) Yay!

This is what my hair looks like if I let it air dry after washing it

it felt like it was HUGE

This is what I looked like after actually trying to

style my hair in what felt like a somewhat normal style

Not too bad

Here I am with an added little POP. :)

When you've got bows, you have GOT to use them, right?

Overall, I agree with everyone who commented on my bad haircut post. I just needed to

experiment with it. I never cried over it, but sometimes it's hard when you realize you've been

trying to hide your somewhat wide face behind your hair. Now I have no hair to hide behind and

you know what? I have a wide face. Fact. Of. Life. :) Get used to seeing it.

Thanks for all the encouragement everybody!

REALLY Bad Haircut!

I just got a haircut

The Stylist looked at my pictures to get an idea of what I wanted

She saw this:

And she saw this:

And she came up with this:




How in the heck do I fix this!?!

I could really use some ideas.

Where the heck have we been?

We've been experiencing those moments in life that are all-encompassing, take up all your time and thoughts and energy which leaves very little thought for blogging about it at the time.

We've been enjoying 2 of my brothers in town who normally live out of town. VERY out of town. We've enjoying lots of eating and visiting, some games here and there, and lots and lots of hugs of both the "hello" kind and the "goodbye" kind.

I've been enjoying a few runs here and there, but alas I am currently unsure as to the state of my knees for running and so I have backed off a bit. I miss my runs, and my running partner who had a gift for the gab. We had some great talks.

Reed has been working his hiney off lately. Lots of overtime hours in the hot hot sun. He comes home most nights with a red neck and a thirsty throat. Aftyn is just excited to see daddy and daddy is equally excited to see his little Aftyn girl.

Reed also accomplished a major undertaking a few weeks back - with lots of help from our awesome family,
he managed to put sprinklers in our backyard! Woohoo!! He deserves a major vacation after that undertaking. Alas, we still need to put our grass in after about 20-30 yards of dirt are also brought in. So the vacation will be put on hold a little while longer. :)

Aftyn is growing and learning more and more. Today she is 14 months! Wow! She is currently learning how to climb on anything and everything and even manages to get down on her own too. Usually a little scary to watch, but she manages to not hurt herself. She just picks herself right up afterward and carries on. Currently, we are having a hard time finding a variety of things she wants to eat. Ugh. I've got a few tricks up my sleeve so hopefully this problem will be short lived.

In the next few weeks, I've got a niece getting married and then her wedding reception, so I may or may not find time to post. We'll all just have to wait and see! :)