Body Pillow

I'm sure this is an incredibly boring post but it's all you get.

As I get more and more pregnant, my sleeping has become worse and worse.  I wake up just about every morning exhausted and my pillow count recently climbed to four.  I was relying heavily on my body pillow when I actually took the time to look at it the other day.

This is a pillow I bought when I was pregnant with Catie three years ago and I was cheap then too so I bought the most inexpensive one I could find.  It was finally time to get a new one and I can hardly believe the difference, check it out.

My old one is super saggy and flat in the centre and the new one is puffy and awesome.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #74

Last week I didn't take a single photo, this week wasn't a whole lot better, sorry.  Hopefully the cute video will make up for it.

I was finally sick of Catie's hair always looking terrible so I gave her a haircut.  It's only the third she's ever had and each time I've done the same thing, trimmed off the scraggely long bits from the back.  This time I trimmed some  "bangs" as well.  I thought she looked really cute in the cape and she was thrilled with the sucker.

She was helping me clean up by sweeping the patio.

We went to the zoo and this is where the girls sat to eat lunch.  They got a really funny scare when a peacock loudly turned up right behind them.

Catie's favourite game with a very awesome and willing Daddy, spraying him with a water bottle.  She thinks it's the best game.

And the aforementioned video, Catie riding her tricycle the best she's done yet.  It may have been short lived but it's such progress that we're thrilled.

Dress Alterations

So I have this maternity dress that I like a lot but it was always just a little bit short so yesterday I showed you the slip I made to extend the dress a little.  I've also always hated the sleeves, they are really fluttery and showed a lot of armpit so I always felt like I needed to wear a t-shirt underneath which made it bulky and uncomfortable.

Here's a finished photo with the slip and then we'll talk about the sleeves.

Notice how tight those shoes are?  They also really didn't match at all, I ended up wearing different ones when I went out.

Now for the sleeves.  I took in about two inches under the armpit and then added some tucks to the sleeves.  They're not the most beautiful and I'm sure there was a much better way to fix them but it worked.

The before (which it turns out is incredibly difficult to take the photo myself, this is the best I could do).

And the altered sleeve.

And a really flattering armpit shot, sorry I didn't take a before.  Now I can wear the dress with a light tank and it's far more comfortable.

Slips

I have a dress that I like a lot but when I walk it bunches up between my legs and is irritating and not very flattering so I decided it was time to get a slip.  I also have two other dresses that I like but they're just a little shorter than I wanted so I've been contemplating an extender slip.  A half slip is just what I needed but last time I went to buy one I ended up discouraged, they were are ridiculously short (mid thigh) and really tight.  It should have come to me sooner, I know how to sew and a slip is not a difficult project.  I picked up supplies at Fabricland and even measured how much material I thought I needed, someone how I came home with enough to make a full dress which ended up being a good thing.

I'd bought this really skinny lace that I liked but skinny lace is no way to extend a dress.  Plus it's really tough to measure lengths on yourself so somehow my slip ended up being long enough for the first dress but not long enough to lengthen the others.  This is where it comes in handy that I bought too much fabric, all I needed to make a second was some different lace and a little more elastic.

Here's the first slip, simple, basic will never been seen but will do the job beautifully (nice background hey?  It was too windy to take photos outside).

And the second, slip extender.  This one is a little less full and longer.  The lace hangs down about an inch and half once I'm wearing the dress.

I did some alterations on the dress I want to wear it with that I'll show you tomorrow so for now here's a waist down shot of the slip in action.

Boy those shoes are tight... thanks pregnancy swelling.  I ended up wearing something else with them since they turned out to not match either.

Bakery Size Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have a problem, it's a cookie problem and it's all thanks to these babies.

I just ate the last one (yes, I ate a peanut butter cookie at 9 am) and I'm already dreaming of the next batch.

Now the charm of these cookies is the giant size, let me give you a reference photo so you can see just how big we're talking.  The size alone makes them impressive but the taste carries them to the next level.

That's right, they're almost as big as my hand.  Each cookie is 1/3 cup of batter.  I thought the method of making giant cookies was genius so I've tried it with a few other recipes but they never turn out as magical, it's something about this particular dough that lends itself to huge cookies.

I recently found this recipe on Sew Dang Cute Crafts and I made the cookies just as she directed except for two small changes.  1 cup of mini chocolate chips?  It seemed immediately clear from her photo that would not be enough for me so I added 2 cups of regular chips and I thought they were perfect (I may have thrown in an extra handful after the two cups).  She also says to bake them for 19-21 minutes which I did the first time I made them but then I was disappointed that they turned out crunchy.  Even at 19 minutes when I took them off the pan right away they were still crunchy.  I'm a soft cookie person so the second time I baked them for 17 minutes ignoring the fact that they were clearly not done baking when I took them out of the oven.  I left them on the pan to cool and I can't tell you how perfectly they turned out.

So go bake some cookies, or better yet, don't bake these cookies so when I bring them somewhere you're super impressed with my skills.

I tried to give you the recipe but I couldn't get it to download properly so you'll just have to visit Sew Dang Cute Crafts to make these lovelies.

What Catie Wore #73

I just could not get up the effort to put this post together yesterday so it'll have to be a day late.  I actually have a ton of photos this week because we went to Calaway Park.  We bought memberships this year so this will be the first of many pictures to come.

We also spent some time at Grandma's house.  We told her it was lunch time and this is how she showed up to the table.

Then she discovered cousin Riley's baseball helmet.

Just about every Sunday this is how Catie and Daddy eat breakfast.  For some reason she never wants to share Mommy's cereal, only Daddy's.

It's far more difficult than it looks but how can you resist when she says, "I help you!"  It's usually not long after that she declares she needs her own spoon and runs over to the drawer to get one.

I went to get her after her nap the other day and she looked like this.  "I got bunny ears!"
(We've been watching a lot of Max & Ruby).

Then the next morning she wanted to go out on the balcony but it was cold so she put together some "warm" clothes.  Mommy's flip flops, Daddy's gloves and her "bunny ears"

Allright, here come the Calaway Park goodies.

They started on a spinny balloon ride, after it was over Bryn declared, "I didn't have a good time".  She held Brad's hand and had little tears during the entire ride but warmed up to the rest of the rides nicely.

Waiting for the carousel.

This was easily Gwen's favourite ride and I foresee a lot of carousel rides in our summer.

Piloting a plane.  I love that she's tall enough this year to ride a bunch of rides by herself.  She loved to pull the lever and go up and down.

I was excited for them to go on this swinging ride, I thought they'd love it but it turned out to be super boring.  Catie said, "Go fast!" but it really never did.   I think we'll be skipping this one in the future.  She looks really unimpressed hey?  Oh wait, she was crying because she had to stop eating popcorn long enough to ride a ride.

Riding an egg with Daddy.

Altered T

I've really been wanting a new T-shirt so when I found one at Old Navy for $10 I knew it was perfect.  I wanted something summery and light and I love the bright colour.  There was one slight catch though, I didn't love the way it fit.

Like lots of maternity t's this shirt has ruching down the side but for some reason they stopped the ruching 3-4 inches from the bottom.  This made the bottom sit funny and made the shirt look a little strangely long.  

I also discovered that my arms really weren't long enough to take a proper photo so if the difference doesn't look very big then go ahead and blame the angle of the photos.

She the little flare there right at the bottom?  It just wasn't very cute.  

This next photo shows it better.

To fix it I simply turned the shirt inside out and added a little thin elastic to the part that didn't have any, stretching as I went along.  It only took a couple minutes and made all the difference.

Here's the after but again, it hardly looks any different here because of the angle.

Here's a side by side to show you just how much of a difference it made.

The shirt is still just a little baggy but I think a turn through the dryer will make it just right. 

What Catie Wore Wednesday #77

Gwen came for a visit and we set the girls up outside to eat their lunch.  They loved eating out there by them selves.

We went to the zoo (again) and while it was a beautiful day Catie said she was cold.  We'd forgotten to bring her a sweater so instead she gave Daddy a really big hug.

Playing outside on a beautiful day.

She looked like such a rock star that I had to stop and take a photo.

And a bonus today, a video.  She loves to watch Backyardigans and we recently discovered an episode about spooky ghosts.  She can't get enough of this episode and we watch it at least once daily.  All sorts of things are spooky now, penguins and toys and just about everything.



In case you need some translating she says, "Scared me, ghosts!"
Often when we go in a store she'll hurry around a corner so she can jump back and exclaim, "BOO!" and tell me what a spooky ghost she is.

A Mother's Day Re-Cap

I try not to boast too much on here about just how awesome my husband is because I think it's not fair to the rest of you but I'm going to take this opportunity to brag a little.

I really do think I married the nicest, most considerate man on Earth.  He's always so thoughtful of me and my feelings that I honestly feel like I don't need a special day where he's extra nice, because he's always extra nice.  In our house Mother's Day and Father's Day are low key, we give each other gifts but nothing big or expensive.  Last year Brad gave me some new pink pins to sew with and it was such a thoughtful, inexpensive gift that I thought I'd get the same this year, boy did he outdo himself.

Being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we don't shop on Sunday so on Saturday night he came home with the most beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses and a huge bottle of tums (I've reached the phase where just about everything gives me heartburn).  I figured he'd add some pins on Sunday and I'd be one lucky lady.  Sunday morning though he said he needed to run down to the car to get my gift and that it was awkward to wrap so I shouldn't expect any wrapping.  Pins are real easy to wrap so I was intrigued.

Now let's back up a bit and I'll give you some back story.  About two years ago I went to Great Falls with my Mom and on my list of shopping items to pick up was a new large purse that could act as a diaper bag.  Catie wasn't very old yet and our current diaper bag was not even a little bit stylish.  I found this awesome yellow purse that was exactly the right size and just what I wanted and even better it was 70% off.  I used the purse for a while and loved it every time until one of the grommets from the handle fell off and I looked down one day and one of the straps was hanging on by a couple of threads.  I stopped using it always meaning to get it fixed but two years later it was still smashed in a bag with other things waiting to be repaired I and I was back to using a too small purse or a really ugly diaper bag.

Imagine my surprise when Brad walked in with my perfect yellow purse, fixed!  The best part is he told me it only cost $10 to fix, perfect for our financial situation.  My favourite part of this gift is that every time I use it I'll think of just how thoughtful he is.

To top off the day I got flowers at church and Catie coloured me the cutest construction paper flower with a sucker stuck in the centre.  She was so excited to give it to me but I particularly liked later in the day when she asked me to open the sucker so she could eat it :)  

After church we headed over to the park and then had easy left overs for dinner.  I think it was the perfect day, I'm so blessed to have the perfect family for me.

A Blanket for Mr. Brown

It's been a while since I've talked about him here so let me tell you about Mr. Brown.  He shows up in lots of our pictures because he's very important to us.

When Catie was much, much younger she had this bear that she loved and would take to bed but he was cheap and gross and his hair fell out and I hated him so before she was too attached we took her to the store to replace it.  Brad and I really wanted her to choose and interesting animal and we found her an adorable pink pig that we thought was perfect.  We handed it to her and she didn't care one little bit about it.  She instead chose a brown bear, that while cute is kind of ordinary.  We bought the pig too hoping one day she'd love it and I don't think she's ever looked at it twice.

Mr. Brown and her were immediate best friends.  When we're coming home after being out he's the first thing she looks for and I wouldn't even bother attempting bed time without him.  She talks to him and laughs with him and he kisses owies better.  She gives him cookies and she sets a place at the table for him at dinner time.  She loves him more than I can describe.

One day she started carrying around a "blanket" for Brown and carefully covering him and it was adorable but so sad at the same time.  The blanket she chose to use was a tiny blue glasses cleaning cloth that would maybe cover his torso.  She used it for months and one day I just couldn't stand to let her use that pathetic blanket any longer so I made him his very own little Faux Chennile blanket.  I know, it sounds crazy to put so much effort into a blanket for a bear but I had leftover flannel from the pink chenille blanket that I made for her baby sister and Catie loved that blanket while I was making it, I figured she'd love to have her own.  It really didn't take long and I only used scraps so it was free.  I used two layers of flannel, one layer of brown and the purple fabric on top.  The binding may not match the best but since it's for a bear I figured he'd be okay with it.

So now the photos.

And let me give you a size comparison between the pathetic cloth she used to use and what she has now.

And here's Mr. Brown all wrapped up and cozy, modelling his new blanket.

See those giant tears threatening to spill?  She was not happy when I took Brown to take some photos.  This blanket has been finished for a while now but I've been putting off photographing it for that very reason.  I decided why fight it and just let her hold him.