I've gone international

...even more international, that is. (Thanks Jay and Jill!) If you happen to sneak a peak at my world map counter on the top right of the blog, you'll see I have more dots than ever. How exciting! Now, you new readers....please check in and leave a comment...inquiring minds (my dad) are dying to know where you are and how you found this. Okay, and I'm pretty curious, too.

On a side note, it is really amazing what kind of neat blogs you can find just by following the links on blogs you know. For example, I followed the link "Amazing Trips" on my friend Jay's blog. What an amazing (no pun intended) family. I'm floored by this woman's honesty and sense of humor. I love sneak peeks into other people's lives. Makes my day just a little more interesting - not that having a 17-month old working on getting her molars (for the last 2 months!)isn't interesting enough.

I was bag-tagged!

Yikes! I was bag-tagged by Amy. The rules are:

1. Show a picture of your bag

2. Show a picture of the contents (no cleaning it out, first!)

3. Bag-tag 5 more people.

Okay, here goes. I'm a little embarassed....

This is my pink John Deere diaper bag. It's actually quite similar to the one I made for Jessica, except that this on I bought on ebay when Mallory was little(r). I love it because it can just be thrown in the wash.

And this is the pile of cra....stuff I dumped out. Needless to say, this hasn't been done for a while. Again - no judging, please.

Let's see...what's all in there....

stuffed owl, 2 diapers, 1 diaper wipe case, 1 "feminine product" case, chapstick case, board book, toy cow, 2 baby bottles, 1 bib (dirty), 2 travel packs kleenex, 1 small felt purse with crayons and chalk, 2 plastic toy dogs, string of beads, tube of hand sanitizer, 2 cinnamon mints, pack of fruit snacks, church newsletter, receipt of church offerings for taxes, 2 used kleenex, random Kix, 3 barrettes (Mallory's) and one pencil.

Okay, I'm going to go clean it out now....

Soo....Kasey, Tessa, Anna, Chrissy, and Ariel (oh, I know you have your own bag!) you're up!

More sewing projects....

I think I just made the world's largest diaper bag! Really....apparently what I pictured in my head didn't exactly match the real world math. hee hee Oh well, I never had enough room in my diaper bag anyway, you can always use more space, right?

This is a gift for my friend Jessica. I asked her what sort of fabric she liked and she said no bright colors. Hmph, how fun is that? Anyway, her hubby is from South Africa, so I found a really cool African themed print for the inside, and then a neat waterprint-batik style fabric for the outside. I hope she likes it (and has a lot of stuff to go inside)!

And this is the inside...

I also made a car seat cover out of a cute safari flannel and cream fleece. I wish I had a infant car seat here to test it out on, because it seems kind of small.

Now Kasey, don't worry. I have something for you, too. But it wouldn't be much fun if it wasn't a secret anymore, now would it? Guess you'll have to wait until that baby decides to come out....

Anyone want....

....an overtired 17-month old that won't nap? No takers??? Hmmm....go figure.


Anyway, while I sit here listening to her cry and HOPING she'll fall asleep, I thought I'd finally get around to posting the pictures of my "custom" (thanks Jay!) Valentine's Day jeans.


Note to self...when doing applique for the first time rounded letters are NOT the way to go! Oh well, live and learn. Don't look too closely at the stitiching, 'kay?

This is the back. I'm kind of bummed there weren't back pockets....I had a cute idea for that.


And the front. Yikes, looks like I forgot to clip a thread. Please don't judge me.

Score: overtired 17 month old: 1 Mommy: 0

Is it Valentine's Day yet?

I really want to share a picture of the Valentine's jeans that I made for Mallory! Well, I didn't actually make the jeans, I just made them prettier. I haven't had munchkin model them yet...hopefully Wednesday. I wonder how many times I can have her wear them before it's just weird.

Mallory's got another cold. I never knew a little kid could make that much snot! Seriously. Unfortunately, this one came with a bit of a fever. So she's all drugged up for the night, and hopefully will sleep well.

She's got a couple new wods, too. She's figured out "hot" and uses it if the water is too warm when washing her hands, when I open the oven, and when she has hot food. I'm trying to teach her to blow on her food....that's pretty funny. She's also started saying "ow". I'm not sure that she uses that one exactly in context. Tonight, she was sitting with Matt, who kept rubbing her head. She'd say "ow" every time! Goofball.

Now my exciting news.....we may be having an addition in our house. A dishwasher! (One without two arms and hands...) It's mostly just a matter of figuring out how it's going to fit and get rigged up in our kitchen. I can't wait!

She's growing up too fast!

I know everyone says that babies grow too fast, but I have proof! When I picked Mallory up from daycare today, Jojo said that Mallory peed in the potty chair twice today. She went the first time in the morning when all the kids had their morning potty break. Then, she woke up from her nap with a dry diaper, so Jojo asked if she needed to go potty. Off she runs into the bathroom, and goes again! Jo assured me that she's not pushing her to be trained, but Mallory really likes to sit on the potty like the big kids, so she takes off her diaper to see if she'll use the potty.

She went twice in the potty this evening, too. The first time after we got to Grandma Deb's from town, then again before we came home. I don't think I'm ready for this. Do they make panties for 18 month olds?

Again, we're totally not pushing her to be trained yet, but I agree - if she wants to sit on the potty, she might as well have the chance to use it. I really like that that is Jo's philosophy, too.

As promised....pictures!!

Figured I'd better get these posted before I completely forget about them.

My little multi-tasker:

Queen of the .... laundry basket??

This is the reversible top that I made...my first project with my new serger. And I used my new sewing machine for the buttonholes - it worked SOOOO slick!

Reversed....

I'm such a weenie!

Mallory finally gave me her cold. Poor kid had a yucky nose and crusty eyes for almost a week, but still was up ready to play at 7:00 every morning. In fact, besides needing a bit of ibuprofen to sleep at night and going through a ton of kleenex, you'd hardly know she was sick.

Me, on the other hand, not so much. I feel like I've been hit by a truck. Today was so bad that I was up for about 10 minutes this morning with Mallory and had to go wake Matt up to take over. Fortunately, Grandma Deb came to the rescue and took Mallory for the day so I could stay in bed. I'm nice and drugged up now and feeling a touch better, but Mallory puts me to shame.

Tough kid.

Sadness

I was going to finally share some more new pictures last night. But instead, I learned of a horrible tragedy. As a lot of you know, I'm part of a internet mommy board with a bunch of great girls that have babies born in August of 2006. One of our friends, Teresa, has been dealing with a tough marital situation. Around Christmas, she got up the courage to leave her husband and was doing great. She sounded so happy! She has two girls of her own and is step-mom to another. She also found out she was expecting again. I logged on to the board last night to find a message saying that she'd been murdered by her husband. This is the news story. I know we lived across the country from each other and have never actually met, but I've still lost a friend.

Please pray for her children. They are now left without a mommy and their daddy is in jail. How awful.