2 Year Milestones

Evidently, in the hustle and bustle of my little man's 2nd birthday I forgot to post his 2 year stats!! I mostly do this for my own documentation/scrapbooking, but it's also nice to see how one child develops compared to others. They are all so different!

^Feeding him blueberries to bribe him to stand still....didn't work.

at 2 years old you:

• wear a size 5 shoe
• wear 2T clothes
• wear a size 4 diaper
• still have 16 teeth
• can drink from a straw and kind of from a cup
• can say lots of new words including "baby, peepee, two, puppy, yummy, hot, cookie" and several others
• can follow many 2-step commands
• are very happy and easy-going
• are very gentle with animals and babies--you pet them both
• sleep 12-14 hours at night
• take a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon
• still eat a whole banana, cheerios, and chocolate milk every morning
• haven't used your highchair in a few months--you sit at the table with us!
• act shy when you first meet someone, then you warm up
• still have never been sick! But you do have outdoor allergies
• get a haircut every 2-3 months
• love to swim and be outside
• absolutely love blueberries, kiwi, grapes, and strawberries
• say "mmm, nummy!" when you eat something you like
• do well when we drop you off at your hourly daycare
  

That is all I can think of for now! Let's hope I can get this all scrapbooked before his 2 1/2 year post, HA!

My Little Birthday Boy

My baby turned 2 today!!! I don't know if he understood it was his special day, but we spoiled the crap outta him! I usually take his milestone pic standing up, but he wasn't cooperating much...

He slept in late this morning, then I made turkey bacon and scrambled eggs for our brunch. He went down for his nap at 1 and I kicked it into high gear to get everything done while he was asleep before his party at 5!

On the menu was PB&J sandwiches, tortilla rollups, veggie tray, fruit bowl, cupcakes, and punch. I wanted to keep it all finger food so that people wouldn't need silverware. For the sandwiches I put white bread on one side and whole wheat on the the other, then cut them into quarters and alternated white/brown in the rows. The punch was orange Hawaiian Punch and ginger ale with red koolaid star-shaped ice cubes.

A lot of my friends with young kids were working so there weren't as many people today as there were for his 1st birthday. But the family and friends that WERE here are very close and dear to my heart and I appreciated their presence!

^Brad with his uncle Eric

^Our good friends Rachel, James, and Jet

^My brother Eric and sis-in-law Teri

^My mom and sis-in-law Sarah

^My mother/father-in-law

My dad was also there, but I seem to have missed capturing him in a picture. We all ate snacks, then it was time for us to sing Happy Birthday to Brad and let him eat his own little cake. For the cake, I knew I wanted to make another one from scratch again like last year, but I didn't know what kind. I decided on an Applesauce Cake recipe from the 1950s out of my vintage Betty Crocker cookbook! It was kind of like a spice applesauce cake with raisins. Everyone loved it, and there were no cupcakes left at the end!

I made a special little star-shaped cake for Brad:

After that, daddy helped him open presents and read his cards from everyone. He got some good stuff and we are all very thankful for the gifts!

We saved the BEST gift for last though....

His very own Radio Flyer tricycle!!!! He didn't know what to think at first until we set him on it...then he didn't want to get off! I think he will catch on to the pedaling pretty quick, and we can't wait to take him outside tomorrow to play on it!

And of course we had to finish off the party with some swimming! Yes our pool is FINALLY blue, clear, and ready for action! Our new filter is 200% better than our last one and we can't wait to beat the heat in it for the next couple of months.

After our parents and family left, our friends Rachel and James stayed for awhile to hang out and chat with us. We got into the goody bags to see what the kiddoes could play with...and my little boy now has this....

He didn't even notice it was on there at first, then when he did he kept acting scared of it! But after a few seconds he got distracted and forgot it was there again. He's my tough little man!

All in all, I think the party went great and that my precious little boy had a wonderful birthday. I look back 5 years ago at how different things were--how different life in general was--and I count my blessings everyday for what God has given to me since then. I longed so much to be a mother and God helped me take a leap of faith to make it happen! My heart is full ♥

What I've Been Sewing Lately

Not 'sew' much sewing as I've been embroidering, but you get the idea! I have been able to squeeze some craftiness into my crazy life. This one is a vinyl apron that I shortened and embroidered a name onto:

My mom's best friend Cheryl is a hairdresser. One day Brad and I went with my mom up there to see her. Brad was wearing some shorts I made him and long story short--she asked if I could shorten her apron. When I got done doing that I decided to surprise her and embroider her nickname on it in her favorite color! She loved it!

This next one you may have seen on my Father's Day post previously. I appliqued a '1' on each shirt then embroidered 'Dad' on top. For my two favorite dads!

You may have also noticed an abundance of things embroidered with the name "Tinley". That is because my good friend Rachel is expecting a little girl next month and I love sewing for little babies! This kimono 0-3m shirt was an experiment with some techniques I hadn't tried before. I embroidered her name on the fabric, then appliqued it onto the kimono with matching lace tucked under the edges.

These burp cloths are pretty popular right now with the fabric appliqued on them, but I couldn't resist the combination of the bright colors and adorable fabric prints! Slap an embroidered baby's name on there and you have the cutest gift ever. I know I needed a million burp cloths when Brad was a newborn, so I hope she gets a lot of use out of these. (Also for sale in my shop)

I have also shortened several of Brad's pants into shorts for the summer, but I probably won't be taking pictures of them. They turned out well though, and I have more to do so that he has a full supply of shorts to dirty up!

I recently ordered another batch of prints for me to scrapbook. Hopefully I can get caught up on that soon and then get back to more sewing!

PS. We decided on where our next big trip will be, and I'm booking it today! More about that later on...

My Two Favorite Dads and a Recipe

I hope everyone had a good weekend and you took the time to show that special father in your life how much you appreciate him! My hubby (or 'baby daddy' as I jokingly call him) and my dad were treated to a delicious dinner of grilled steaks, baked potato, pasta, and cherry cheese danish for dessert!

Whenever I fire up the grill, I like to go ahead and grill up a bunch of yummy meat to eat throughout the week, and to freeze for future meals. This time, I cooked 4 BBQ chicken breasts, then burgers/hot dogs, then the steaks for our dinner!

The steaks turned out great--you just can't beat that charcoal-grilled taste!! See my two happy boys??

Now back to the cherry cheese danish--it's pretty much the best thing you've ever tasted. So easy to make too! I'll put the recipe at the end....

And here are the dads with their special shirts I made them!

And just because he is so cute...here is my little one playing in our suitcase after we got back from our trip last week:

Cherry Cheese Danish

2 tubes of crescent rolls (I use lowfat)
8oz block SOFT cream cheese (I use lowfat)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c sugar
1 can cherry pie filling

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in bowl. Spread one tube of crescent rolls to cover bottom of 9x13 pan (don't separate the triangles). Spread cream cheese mixture on top, then pour cherry pie filling over. Spread remaining crescents on top then bake for 30 min! YUM.

Family Vacation 2011

We are home! Our family of three spent 4 days and 3 nights in a cabin along the Illinois River with our friends Rachel, James, and their 1yr old girl Jet. We packed and brought everything we could possibly need to keep 4 adults and 2 toddlers happy and well fed. Our cabin was adorable and we turned it into our home while we were there!

^The loft where Nick and I slept

We decided the best thing would be to put the babies in the bedroom at night so that the adults could stay up late and not disturb them. Rachel and James slept on the pullout bed in the living area and we slept in the loft.

We had an amazing view of the river and lots of shade to keep us cool while we grilled out dinner every night.

I think our favorite part was the screened-in back porch where we ate all of our meals and played board games past midnight!

The babies (and the parents) got along good and seemed to have a good time.

Everyday we went down to the river bank so that the kids could put their toes in the water and play.

We also went to the pool everyday to beat the heat! One of the times there was a tiny baby bunny that we found and let the babies pet.

We all had such a good time eating good food, watching scary movies, playing games, and learning about how much we all have in common.

We even talked about doing it again next year, but that would be even more interesting because we would have three kids aged 1, 2, and 3 to bring along! We parted with hugs this afternoon and were sad to end the vacation, but I'm sure we are all happy to be back in our own beds!

I have been working on embroidered goodies for Rachel's new baby Tinley who will be here next month. I will post about that and Father's Day next time. Have a great weekend!