What the Girls Wore #94

Lets take a moment to enjoy some super cute ladies...

We went down to visit my parents and Eden crawled up on this box and hung out there, pleasantly stuck for quite some time.

A friend brought over some puppies... they were a huge hit!  Catie couldn't stop talking about the black puppies.

Licking her, she loved every minute of them.

Love when these ladies play together, they both love when Daddy helps them play horsey.

We ate chocolate fondue for Family Home Evening one night and it was a really big hit!  Just after I took this photo Catie asked how her lipstick looked :)

She's growing up so quick.  Gotta love that fluffy hair hey?

This girl loves to stand, will pull herself up on anything she can find.

Catie went to a princess birthday party, she was all dressed up and ready to go and I couldn't believe how grown up she was.

My two girls

Eden has this silly habit.  She crawls around on the floor and finds something to put in her mouth, in this case a piece of ribbon.  She puts it in her mouth and then continues crawling while it hangs out, I think it's adorable so I tend to leave things around for her to find, like this piece of ribbon.

We went to the grocery store and were having such a pleasant time, I was struck by how things have really turned around and we've entered this really good phase.

I put Eden in the cart like usual, using the seatbelt, you can see the evidence of that in the above photo, so I have no idea how she managed to end up in this position.

She was very proud of herself.

And this lady looked so perfect that a picture was mandatory.

I've been pretty vocal about the fact that I don't love this baby phase.  People say all the time that their babies are growing up too quickly but for me it's the opposite, I wish she'd grow up a little quicker.  I've had a few people ask me when it changes for me, when I do enjoy things and I've decided it's now.  Eden is almost 9 months and I think she's delightful.  She can look at me from across the room and instead of whine she crawls so determinedly over.  She's sleeping well, she eats real food and she occupies herself some of her time.

8 Month Eden Update

This last month marked an especially cranky period for Eden.  She spent all of her wake time trying to climb on me which doesn't satisfy her at all once she's there.  I figured she was just a cranky lady until Sunday when I discovered that she has three new teeth on the top.  I would be cranky too if I was working on three teeth.  That gives her four on the bottom and three on the top.

In her 8 months of life she's mastered crawling, pulls herself up to standing on anything she can and can almost always get herself down once she's up there.  She loves food, especially freeze dried yogurt drops.  She can't stand apple sauce and really loves macaroni and cheese.

It's an amazing thing to me to see her sitting, which is a position she can get into on her own.  Catie didn't ever have an interest in sitting, why sit when you can move around, I love watching Eden sit and play.

Lastly let's marvel again at just how different my two girls look.  On the left is Eden, Catie at 8 months on the right.  Both cute but in such different ways.

What the Girls Wore #93

I had no idea it's been so long since I posted photos of the girls.  Since I Instagram photos it felt like it was just the other day that I did one of these posts, to Grandma and Grandpops I apologize.  Hopefully this massive amount of photos will make up for it.

I love when both girls end up in the same picture.  These first photos are pretty old, we don't use a sleep sack for Eden anymore.

We went to Ikea and at this point Eden was just barely starting to sit up.  I strapped her in tight and she rode in the cart all by herself for the first time.

But then Catie was tired and wanted to sit in the cart, only there wasn't any room.  I hadn't been planning on Eden sitting so her huge bucket car seat was in the bottom of the cart... I improvised and Catie climbed into the car seat :)  She thought it was funny.

As Eden gets older Catie loves her more and more.

We played What Time is it Mr. Wolf one night and Eden was not a fan!  Everytime dinner time came around the wolf growled and ran for Catie who screamed and screamed which set Edon off sobbing.  I would get her calmed down just in time for dinner time and the whole cycle started over again.  We eventually went to the other room but it wasn't far enough.  It's now a game we play after Eden goes to bed :)

Again, older picture, we no longer need the bumbo anymore.  I went to buy her a new t-shirt and they had options of strawberries or cherries but the lemon seemed to be a much better representation of her character :)

Eating french fries for the first time.  She loved them.

We've been working on potty training with Catie (we don't need to go into details about that) and she gets sticker rewards for using the potty.  Once she fills up the chart she gets a bigger prize and this My Little Pony train was her first prize.

She was trying her best to crawl here but just wasn't quite ready.  It's a skill she's since mastered.

Sitting up, see the pillow behind for protection from falling?  This protection is no longer necessary.  She sits like a champ and can even get herself into a sitting position all by herself.

If you're every having a bad day all you need to do is look at the next two photos for a pick me up.  She had just started to be able to pick up cheerios all by herself and still needed some work on her aim.

My favourite photo every.

We finished a round of gymnastics and started a new one.  She LOVES gymnastics, it's her favourite activity of the week.

This is the long trampoline.  They jump down in different position and walk back on the red mats.

Such an adorable girls.

We had a nice day so we expectantly headed to the park.  I put Eden in the swing for the very first time and she could have cared less.  She was very unimpressed and didn't last very long.

We dyed Easter Eggs, had an Easter Egg hunt and ate lots of Chocolate to celebrate Easter.

Chocolate fondue for family home evening, it was a big hit.

We had an especially poopy day and just before this photo a clothing change was necessary.  Shortly after this photo I added a shirt, but removed the now soiled pants... it was a mostly naked day.

She spends her entire day pulling herself up on anything she possibly can.  She can mostly get down but there are a few exceptions where she gets stuck and cries for help.

Catie went to her cousins princess birthday party and looked so grown up that I needed to take some photos.

This day also marked her very first ponytail.

These girls just love each other.  They are so happy to see each other and they laugh better for each other than they ever do for me.

My Little Pony Q-Tip Painting

You've probably all seen this pin, templates for Q-Tip painting.  I had pinned it ages ago but hadn't ever looked at it.  Today was the perfect day for an activity for Catie so I headed over to Therapy Fun Zone.

I loved her templates but was sadly disappointed when there were only two.

It didn't take long to realize that there really isn't anything tricky to these.  While slightly monotonous it was also addicting and I just couldn't seem to stop pasting circles.  I kept saying I'll just finish this one and yet somehow I was starting another one.  I thought I'd share these in case someone else is as addicted to My Little Pony as we are.

So if you have someone little that likes My Little Pony and painting, download away.

A Saddle for Freckles

For Gwen's birthday we picked up this adorable white, stuffed horse for her (she's addicted to horses) and it turned out to be a huge hit.  She loves this horse that was lovingly named Sparkles.  We thought it was so cute we picked up a brown version for Catie and named it Freckles.  The horses came with these removable saddles and bridles and I figured Freckles and Sparkles would like a change of clothes.

Here's what the ponies came with

This is Freckles new and improved saddle.

And here's Sparkles

Definitely an improvement that was completely unnecessary but fun for me.

Change is Good

Sometimes we get stuck in these ruts and we do things because its what we know, not because it's the best. I may have over reacted a bit yesterday about Google Reader going away. I figured that as soon as I heard the news it was time to find a new reader so I read a couple reviews and pretty quickly downloaded Feedly. It took about three minutes for me to proclaim, "So long Google Reader". I'm totally hooked on Feedly.

To start, it uses your existing Google account so I didn't have to re-add my feeds (When Reader goes away Feedly is prepared to smoothly transition my account). It has an app for your mobile devices, both Apple and Android, (there is also a desktop version) which is the only place I ever read my feeds these days. My favourite part though is how great it looks. It makes every post look so extra professional, check out these screen shots I took.

To mark items as read you just give a little swipe.

Any your categories show up on the left when you want them.

For more details watch their video, it will make the Google Reader blow far more bearable.

So download the app, get rid of Google, this seems to be better and the change is inevitable, better sooner rather than later.

Chocolate Pants, Vinyl Detail

Catie's Pants out of Pants turned out so well that I decided I wanted to make another pair.

Once upon a time I decided to make a maxi skirt for myself.  I headed to to fabric store with my Mom and grabbed some brown jersey, my Mom asked if I was sure I wanted to use that fabric, I assured her it was perfect.  Surprise surprise, she was right and it wasn't awesome fabric, plus the skirt was a total fail.  Meaning I have had brown jersey hanging around so I cut up my awesome skirt to make these pants.

These pants are so close to perfect I'm incredible pleased with myself (pardon my self flattery).  Everything went so well and they fit great and she loves them, win, win win.

Catie had some old brown pants that no longer fit and they had this little pink hard on the hip and she loved that silly heart so I figured she'd like some white, heat flocked added.  I picked the scripty heart and I think it was a good choice.

The heart had a little heart cutout so I added that to the back, I'm pretty sure that's her favourite part.

So the pants fit well, they're super comfy and I'm resisting the urge to make her three more pairs of brown stretchy pants... a girl only needs so many brown pants.

Google Reader

Have you heard the news yet? Are you as devastated as I am? Has your world been rocked? Google is getting rid of Google Reader, what are we going to do now?

"We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months."

Perhaps the uproar it's created will change their minds... we can only hope.

My Little Pony T-Shirt

I saw this idea today and instantly loved it.  I like that it's a character t-shirt but subtle and not knock you over the head.  I knew I'd make one as soon as I saw it only at this house we have no interest in Star Wars.  We do happen to have a thing for My Little Pony.

I went online and found some photos of Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy and then using the Silhouette software I traced around the images.  This gave me the nice silhouettes.  I was going to cut out their cutie marks too but they were so tiny that I decided to pass.  I cut the image onto the pink, heat flocked vinyl and ironed it onto a plain white $4 shirt I recently bought at Walmart.

I just ordered this vinyl and when it came I didn't think I liked the colour, I was a little disappointed but once I ironed it and peeled off the plastic it turned out I love it.  Especially since the shirt already had that hot pink trim on the neck.

I think my favourite part are the delicate, adorable eyelashes that turned out so well.

Now Catie just needs to wake from her nap so I can show it to her, she's going to be thrilled.