Making Great Strides

Remember when she was this small and cute?

Aftyn has been doing so many new things lately, I knew I needed to document some of the big changes she's been making.

Now that she's a week away from turning 16 months, here's what she's been up to:

-Finally gaining enough weight to go into a new carseat. Yay!

- Started feeding herself with a spoon this week, she is so proud of herself and likes doing it so much she even tries new foods on her own just because she likes putting the spoon in her mouth .

- When asked, she can say the sounds for a horse, a cow, a dog , and a cat! Normally, we look at pictures and she can do their sounds, so I was completely blown away when she did it without pictures.

- She loves it when she can do new things on her own, such as feeding herself with a spoon.

- She tells on herself when she's getting into something she shouldn't. She says "no no" as she is just about to do what she's not supposed to do. Pretty funny.

- She just got her first molar in last week.

- Some of the words she says actually make sense with what she's doing. This morning, while feeding herself oatmeal, she said "yummy".

I'm sure there's lots and lots more things that I am not thinking of because I see it all the time. She is so fun to be around, except when she's teething. She is a happy little thing, and is so entertaining. We sure do love our Aftyn girl.

Sorry about no new pictures, but I can't remember where our camera is. I better go find it.

Can You Relate?

Watch '>this

Who doesn't love DIY projects?!

Sorry, I forgot to take a "before" picture when it was still all intact.

This is what it looked like after I took out the metal leaf looking thing out of that open space, and I sprayed the oak color over with this reddish primer.

Here we see it's new hue, a beautiful mahogany color!

And the finished product, with a beautiful fabric insert complete with some cool buttons.

Here's a close-up of the fabric - I love how it accents the color of the headboard and it also matches our comforter on our bed! It's only held in by some cardboard and some tacks on the back, so it's easy to change the fabric any old time I want to!

I love it!!

Daddy's Girl

Please don't mind the blurriness - my camera has issues

Sewing projects of the past re-visited

Long ago before Aftyn came into this world, Reed and I bought a nice bed set from one of the stores at the mall that was going out of business. We spent a nice chunk of change and so were loathe to spend more money on matching pillows and the like. So instead I went to our closest fabric store and purchased a pillow with some lovely upholstery fabric to cover it in that matched our new comforter. It will match our headboard which we will also someday put together when we get all the right things and we will cover it in the rest of the upholstery fabric so it will all match. Lovely right?!

Here is Aftyn modeling our new "bolster pillow" which will now grace our bed. It was a fairly quick project, going together in the time Aftyn takes a nap. Yay!

And Our Big Thanks Goes Out To:

This Guy!

Thanks for making your big entrance last 2 whole months. Could you send your buddy along sometime soon?

Meet Alysa

Yes, that really is this Barbie look-alike's name. My twin sister gave her to me for Christmas when I was a teenager. Who wouldn't like a barbie doll named for them for Christmas, I ask you?

Except see, there are a lot of differences between my namesake and me.

She has much better looking legs, owns more short skirts and hats and purses, and wears more dramatic and daring clothes than I ever would.

She has calf-length hair! I'm not sure I would EVER want to grow my hair that long.

I'm glad that I am not in any way shape or form like my barbie.

I'm not sure I could keep up with such high high standards of living.

Or that I would be happy doing so.