Three Months

The Boo Boo is three months old today! Look, she can barely fit into her 3-6 month onesie.  None of those tiny babies for us.

She is working really hard on rolling over.  I found her on her stomach in her crib a few nights ago, so I'm assuming that was her first roll over and not that we weren't just sleep deprived and put her down that way.

She loves to smile and jibber jabber more than any other baby I've seen.  Sometimes she sleeps through the night, and she is starting to drool a bunch, so I'm thinking teeth are on their way.  Ingrid Anderson told me when I was pregnant with Lila that the first three months are the hardest.  She is totally right. Adios least fun part of Olive's life!

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

We came away from our home fellowship group on Friday with a new Cinderella dress for Lila.  She wore it all day yesterday, asking that I sing the Cinderella song while she danced...which was really more like tai chi mixed with karate than dancing.  She also wore it to bed last night and thus wore it while she was eating her cereal this morning.  She ended up spilling milk all over it, so she had to switch into a different dress up dress that looked very similar.

After switching dresses, she decided to go outside, and this is where I found her.

Yes that is a foot shaped teething toy partially buried next to her.

Cedar Ridge Coffee House

I've always thought to myself, I should start a coffee shop that has a play place attached for kids so that moms can come and drink coffee while their kids play.  Well, lucky for Johnny, I don't need to start this business because it already exists! "What?" you say.  "How could I have not known about this?" I know! That's how I felt.

Just south of 87th and Lackman, there's a church called Cedar Ridge Christian Church.  They have a coffee house on the east end of their building that has this great indoor play area attached to it full of fun Ikea play equipment.  There's also a rock wall and a gym that you can bring your own bikes and trikes into.  And best of all...it's free! I mean the coffee isn't free, but it's a church so it's not super expensive or anything.

Lila and Olive and I went there yesterday when it was raining.  It was definitely a little crowded.  There is a sign on the play area door that says "5 and under." Now there were at least four or five kids in there who were definitely over five.  Their moms were in there too, but the kids were running around, trampling Lila at one point.  Anyone have suggestions for how to deal with this?  I had a few ideas:

1. Passive aggressively go get the old ladies at the coffee shop outside and make them deal with it.

2. Go over to one of the moms and pretend I don't know the kids are theirs and complain to them really loudly about the kind of moms who let their big kids into a little kid play area.

3. Run into their kids after they run into my kid.

4. Shout "Fire!" and then lock the door after everyone leaves so that Lila can have the whole place to herself.

5. Politely ask the moms if they wouldn't mind having their older kids go to the gym (Haha yeah right! That would be too easy.)

Anywho, if you're interested in going to Cedar Ridge, here's the hours:

Monday  CLOSED

Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday - 8am - 8pm

Friday - 8am - 4pm

Saturday & Sunday - 9am - Noon

Dining Room Chair Redo

If you have eaten a meal at our house recently, you most likely have noticed how disgusting our dining room chairs have become.

White seats + three little kids = bad idea.

So I decided that I wanted to reupholster the seats.  The various directions that I looked at online made it seem pretty easy, so I popped those puppies off of the chairs and started pulling out staples.

Underneath was a lovely pink number.

Johnny and I both agreed that we wanted plaid on the chairs, and I knew we needed something dark to combat Lila at dinner time, so I started looking around Etsy.  I found this great seller who had lots of choices, and I ended up ordering a couple yards of this red plaid.

So I was not aware, but recovering chairs is extremely easy and it only requires about two yards of fabric, so it's also a super cheap redo.  All you have to do is cut the fabric around the seat and staple it to the back.

Ta da! This seriously took less than two hours. Go do it right now.

Now I need to go buy some Scotch Guard like asap (Get it? Scotch Guard for the plaid seats? Ha. Get it?).

DIY Painted Bentwood Chairs

When Johnny and I got married, I had the good fortune of getting seven hand-me-down Bentwood chairs from my parents.  They were originally my grandmother's, and I asked her about them yesterday.  She said that she bought them from a pool hall in Oklahoma City for $2.50 a piece forever ago.  She brought them home and painted them apple green and put blue and white seats on them, tied in the back with big bows.  She said it was a "jolt" when you looked at them.  Nana couldn't remember the other colors that she had them painted, but there is evidence of that apple green, a Tiffany blue, and a bright red.  When my parents got them, my mom had them stripped down to their original wood, and we used them as kitchen chairs until I was in middle school.

Now for the present.  I noticed in a Crate and Barrel catalog awhile ago that they were selling painted Bentwood chairs for over $100 a pop.  A bright red one caught my eye, so I decided to repaint our chairs Ladybug Red by Martha Stewart.

First I sanded them down.  This really didn't take as long as I thought it would.

Then I primed them.  There are two issues here.  One: My grandpa said I should have used some kind of wood sealer before painting them to help the paint cover everything better.  Oops.  Two: I should have been less sloppy with my primer and actually tried to cover all the wood.  Oops.  You'll notice that one seat isn't painted.  It splintered awhile ago, so I'm waiting for my grandpa to cut me a new circle and attach it.

Now, I wouldn't normally use a Martha Stewart color, and I certainly wouldn't use Behr paint from Home Depot.  We're a Sherwin Williams family, you see.  But Sherwin Williams doesn't have shopping carts that you can strap very independent "I walk by myself!" kids into, so we had to go to Home Depot.  This picture is after one coat...and I stopped taking pictures after that because I did something like five coats.  Honestly, they still need one or two more coats, but I got bored.  

And here's the somewhat finished product!  

The cushions were grey cushions that I bought awhile ago at Ikea (circular cushions are very difficult to find).  I got some fabric from Hobby Lobby for 40% off and recovered the cushions the same way you would cover a pillow.

While I was sewing the cushion covers together, I stuck in some apple green ribbon to tie the cushions to the chairs.

I severely underestimated the amount of ribbon I would need for each chair, and now I have to go back to Hobby Lobby to get enough for the last three.  "Story of my life," said Nana when I told her.

Anyway, I'm really happy with them.  Overall I spent less then $100 on supplies, so that's seven chairs for the price of one!  And here's a little known fact about Bentwood chairs: My sister said that they were the first mass produced chair in the United States.  So there you go.

Happy Easter!

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

And don't worry, Lila already ate all of her Easter candy...and probably some of Chloey's.

Florida's Reigning Crochet Queen

So Johnny's Aunt Louann is super talented and crocheted the girls these gorgeous dresses.

We've had a ridiculously cold spring, so I knew they would be able to wear them before it got too hot. Lila, however, chose the only day where it got over 80 to demand that she and the "beautiful baby" wear their "pretty dresses."

Not only did Aunt Louann make those adorable dresses, but in her free time, she also made the girls a little monkey and a little giraffe.  Lila LOVES them.

Thank you Aunt Louann!

Das Boot

One of the fun presents that we got for being in Aunt Suzanne's wedding was a Das Boot beer glass for Johnny.  He's thoroughly enjoyed drinking his home brew from this stylish vessel.  Apparently he's not the only one to find it so appealing because while he was drinking out of it the other day, Lila brought one of her rain boots over to him and asked, "I have some?"

Nobody Shouts or Talks Too Loud

Thanks to the Broadway Kids! CD that my mom got Lila, and my own love for all things Les Mis, Lila has memorized all the words to her favorite song, "Cassa on a Cowd."  I had no idea that she was so serious about taking on the roll of Young Cosette until she appeared in full make-up yesterday.

If being Young Cosette on Broadway doesn't work out for her, we have "Yiddle Peepuh Know When Yiddle Peepuh Fight" to fall back on.

Baby Boy Chevron Quilt

It seems like everyone is having a baby these days, and not just a baby, a boy baby.  My friend Megan is one of these people, so my mom commissioned me to make her baby boy a super cute quilt.  I saw this quilt on Etsy, and thought I would copy it using the same pattern as this quilt I made awhile back for Baby Chloey.

I'm usually not too huge of a fan of Jo-Ann's, but I thought this owl fabric was perfect for a little boy.

We can't wait to meet you, Baby Levi!

Compliments and Reprimands from Lila

Lila: Mama you supposed to do laundry?

Rachel: Yeah I'm folding laundry because that's what mommies do. It's not very fun.

Lila: You my mommy.

Rachel: Yes I am. I love being your mommy.

Lila: You good at being mommy.

_______

Rachel: Lila you need to be nice to Olive. We love Olive.

Lila: No no no! We not!

Rachel: Yes we do. She's our friend.

Lila: No no no! She not our friend!

_______

Rachel: I'm sorry that I yelled, but you were behaving very badly. We need to behave better ok?

Lila: No it not ok. It mean!

Aunt Suzanne's Wedding

We just got back from a fabulous weekend celebrating Johnny's sister, Suzanne, getting married.  Suzanne wanted family to be very central to the wedding so the reception was at their cousins' house and the ceremony was at the adorable church across the street.  My pictures are far from comprehensive, but I wanted to share some of the gems that were captured by the various people who stole my camera.

Suzanne sent all of us bridesmaids a paint chip with four shades of poppy and allowed us all to pick out our own dresses.  For living hundreds of miles away from each other, I'd say we did a pretty good job.

Suzanne was totally calm, cool, and collected the day of the wedding.  She even took time out from getting ready to read to Lila distract Lila so she wouldn't wander off and fall in the pool.

Suzanne and her mommy were super generous and let us all get out hair and make up done.  Suzanne also got us those cute robes.

While all the girls were getting ready, the boys were finishing up a few jobs around the house...like holding Olive and wiping her spit up with a dish towel from the kitchen.  Sorry about that one, Chrissy.

Uncle Ike did a fabulous job of hanging lanterns.

Suzanne found such a good girl to do all of our hair.

Her finished product.

Super cute.

Aunt "Worwen" getting all dolled up.

Lila and Olive got to be flower girls in the wedding.  Suzanne found these dresses on Pinterest and had me make them for the two girls.  They were super easy, so I might add a little tutorial later in the week.

Olive only had to change her shirt once after puking all over my poor father who was holding her during the ceremony.

Lila actually kept the dress on for multiple hours without trying to rip it off.

This is my favorite picture of the whole day.  Suzanne asked her daddy to pray with her before walking down the aisle, and Lila plopped down right in front of them to watch.

We refrained from taking pictures during the ceremony, but I will proudly say that Lila walked down that aisle all by herself and threw flowers petals on the floor like a pro.  Tonight when I asked her what we should pray for she said, "Aunt Suzanne's wedding." I said, "Sure we can thank God for Aunt Suzanne's wedding.  What else should we thank Him for?" She responded, "That I fro flowers."  Amen to that.  I'm just glad she waited to melt down until the pictures afterward.  Post meltdown, Lila sat on the floor and re-threw the petals, asking the ring bearers to pick them up while she supervised.

There was a large military presence at the wedding since Suzanne and her now husband are both in the Navy, so Johnny got to wear his uniform and participate in the sword arch after the ceremony.

I was too busy wooping it up to take too many pictures of the reception, but I did happen to catch a shot of cousin Joe after he caught the Gaters garter.  He's single ladies!

Alex and Suzanne! We love you both! Thank you for including us in such a beautiful weekend!

PS. I don't have any pictures of Aunt Louann and cousin Shana, but they worked their butts off in the kitchen all weekend making AMAZING desserts for the reception.  I wanted to give them a little shout out...I suppose I could have drawn a picture of it.  

"Gummies Make My Finger All Bedder"

 Well we had our first urgent trip to urgent care on Monday night.

Lila was standing on a chair in our dining room while Johnny and I were getting dinner on the table, and the next thing we knew she had tipped the chair backwards, falling face first into the chair rail on the wall (notice the diagonal stripe across her face ie. chair rail).  When it happened, our first fear was her teeth because she was bleeding from her mouth, but Johnny checked her out and she seemed ok.  Then I noticed that her right index finger was huge and bruised.  I think she had been holding onto the chair and that finger got caught between the chair and the wall.  She couldn't move it very well, and she was crying and crying, so Johnny called our pediatrician who was still open, and they said to bring her in.  At the time of the accident, Lila had been trying on her flower girl dress for Aunt Suzanne's wedding on Saturday.  Luckily I had just taken it off of her and had yet to put new clothes on her, so no wedding clothes were harmed in the making of this accident.  The only problem was that Lila was so upset that she refused to put on clothes before we went to the doctor, so we just brought her to the doctor sans clothing.  The only way I even got her in the car was to give her Trader Joe's penguin gummies.  As she was eating them, she kept saying, "Gummies make my finger all bedder."

She did a great job at the doctor and was very brave.  They don't think the finger is broken, but we are supposed to keep an eye on it.  She does have some lovely scratches on her face which will be perfect for the aforementioned wedding.

Lila has been very humbled by the whole experience, telling everyone she meets about how she got hurt and that she won't stand on a chair again.  Yesterday morning I was giving her a hug, and I said, "I'm sorry that you got hurt." She responded, "I sorry Mama.  It my fault."  I started laughing, and Johnny responded, "Well, yes it was."  I think she gets her humility from me.