Sewing Projects

A while ago my friend Christy made a really cute toy for her son and I thought it was a great idea, so I decided to make one for Sadie.

Here it is, Christy put the packaging for diaper wipes inside the fabric to make it crinkly, what a great idea!

Another thing I just finished yesterday was Novalee's Halloween costume. I'm really excited about this one because I did it without a pattern. I tried to just use my own creativity, a little challenging, :) and I feel like it turned out well.

Anyways, here it is.











And just for fun, here's one of Sadie, keeping us up late, as usual. :)



She is three weeks today and she did actually sleep well last night. So maybe we are turning a corner. :)

Another Week and a Half of Fun

This is a long blog, sorry in advance.

On September 17th we drove up to Casa Grande to spend the weekend with Wes' family. It was super hot there, as usual.

Most of the time we spent inside. Although we did venture out at one point to try and walk to a nearby park. We made it about two houses down from Wes' parents house before we decide it was too hot to even walk and we dragged ourselves back to the house.

The kids did take a dip with Grandma and Grandpa Crockett while Wes and I enjoyed a lovely nap.

We did eventually join them by the pool. The dog really wanted to come too, which we finally gave into.

This was something we thought was pretty neat.

Here's my handsome son.



I think it's pretty awesome that he swims so well now. Here he is jumping into the deep end of the pool all on his own, with no floaties.



Little Sadie enjoyed the pool too.



I'd like to say she enjoyed the water but I think it was a bit of a shock to go from asleep to wet.



Here are some more photos of Sadie at home. And yes, she is in a dresser in some of them... I thought it would be cute...whatever. :)






And I have to add this one because I would bet most of my baby photos look very similar to this. I can only remember seeing ones with my hair shooting out at all angles and my face beet red from screaming.




Novalee loves taking care of baby Sadie



And her baby. She is so cute. I love that she always has her sleeping next to her on her bed.



Now, onto something else.

This is how Novalee's room should look. But about 5 minutes after cleaning it, it is a mess again.



So let's play a game.


Let's play "Where's Waldo" but let's replace "Waldo" with Novalee.


Yes she is in this photo...





And finally Colossal Caves.

This weekend, Wes' family came down to Tucson to explore the caves with us. It was a very interesting tour. I really wanted to see bats but was out of luck.

We did find out however, that the caves are currently dormant and in order for them to be active again in producing limestone the whole area would need to be covered under water again. Considering it's in a desert state right now, I doubt that will be happening anytime soon.

Also one of Wes' relatives worked on making the caves accessible for tourists way back during the great depression as part of the New Deal put into place by Roosevelt. Pretty cool.

Outside the caves. Such a pretty view. (Tucson must be growing on me because I'm not sure I would have said that a month ago.)



Novalee with her Aunt Emily doing "Girlfriend" time.



Inside the cave.






I realize this post is already ricidously long but I have to post this picture. Seriously, what is she doing? She says karate...



More cave.






(Wes' elbow is breaking the rules. NO TOUCHING.)

After the caves we decided to go to Saguaro National Park for lunch.

All was well until...

Grandpa Crockett somehow stepped on a Cholla cactus. OUCH!



And while we were focused on that, all of a sudden I felt like I was getting stung and so I started running away from the pavilion that we were eating at. Sure enough...




The culprit. Jared banging on one of the pipes that holds up the pavilion with a stick and these buggers.

Yellow Paper Wasps. They definitely hurt worse than a honeybee sting.




And believe it or not, The End.

Newborn Screening

Today, I got up, got Jared ready for school, gave Novalee a bath. The boys left, I cleaned a little, took care of Sadie and even worked on Novalee's Halloween costume.

But at about 10:00am we had NOTHING to do. Or at least there wasn't anything I wanted to do.

So I decided today was as good a day as any to take Sadie to get her newborn screening done.

She must have sensed we were going to do something unpleasant because right before we left, I fed her, only to pick her up and have her spit up a ton, down the back of my shirt, all over the bed and elsewhere.

When we arrived, I no sooner checked us in, when she started crying. (Wait, let it be noted that I JUST fed her, so she shouldn't be crying for like another hour, at least).

Anyways, I picked her up to sooth her since she was crying, only to have her immediately unload in her diaper (everyone knows what that means right?)

So I asked the office person if I could go to my car to change her, which he said I had time to do.

So out at the car...

I get her to the back part of our SUV and lay her down. Only to discover that this is a serious blow out diaper. So of course I have to change the onsie but I'm an experienced mom and luckily thought to bring an extra onsie.

However while trying to change her diaper quickly, she spit up all over her blanket. (GREAT, this "just fed" thing is really paying off.)

But I thought I could handle it until while observing the spit up and thinking about how to keep her warm in the freezing waiting room, I forgot to pay attention to the diaper area and she peed all over the blanket too. Well we're definitely not going to be able to use that blanket now, even if it did cross my mind to have her still use it with spit up on it. I'm definitely not going to with pee on it too.

So two used diapers later, we head back to the waiting room. Where it is seriously freezing. Only to wait another 20-30 minutes with a hungry, crying baby and a three year toddler (who I forgot to bring toys for and while the Smithsonian might be an interesting magazine for adults it just wasn't cutting it for my three year old), who while on her better behavior was still another person to manage.

And while there are Ads for newborn screening that look like this...




It's a lie. It's more like this...



And you leave with blood on your baby's heel, legs, car seat, your hands, arms, and jeans.

Just so you know.

One Week

Today Sadie is one week old. So I thought I would share a few thoughts and pictures of the last week.

Going home.

We kept commenting to each other at the hospital how small she looked. But it didn't really strike me that much until we put her in the car seat and I had something to compare her with.




First day home



We always thought Novalee looked so small until she held Sadie. Now we keep saying we can't believe Novalee has gotten so big. :) It's funny how perspectives change.



One thing is for sure. Sadie definitely had her nights and days mixed up. For the first three or four nights she was awake most of the night and then would sleep most of the day. Great if it is your first child and you can sleep during the day with her but when you have two kids awake during the day, you get tired really quick.

While being as tired as I am I should look forward to the nights, I actually dread them. I never know if she is going to sleep or if I am going to have to muster all my energy to pull through another (almost) all nighter.

Here she is finally sleeping. Wes looks a little tired. :)


On Sunday we took Sadie to church. I didn't even think about it until we were there and people would ask how old she was. I would reply, "Three days." Only to have people reply with a little shock that they were surprised that we were at church already. Then I realized that perhaps it wasn't the smartest thing ever...mainly since I was exposing her to all sorts of germs. Oh well, live and learn...

Later that day we went for our first walk.



Here are just some cute photos of her. For the family that lives far far away...






Jared and Novalee had some firsts this week too.

Jared got stuck in a Wash. We were all (Jared included) having fun seeing if he could get out. Here he is pretending to be sad.



He also showed me the other day that he could jump out of a swing while it was swinging. Yay for peer influences...(sarcasm).



Our dear Novalee also learned something really cool yesterday. It was really neat to watch her realize how to follow a pattern. It's always neat when you see your children have an "ah ha" moment. She did this all by herself.


Good Job Novalee! We are really proud of you.

And just this morning on Sadie's one week mark this picture was taken. I have such sweet girls.


(Now I realize that Sadie looks super freaked out here. But lets all just say it's due to lack of muscle control because she seriously loves Novalee giving her attention...for the most part.) :)