Easter Basket Makeover Tutorial

Yes I realize Easter is a month away. I also realize Cambry probably won't even understand what to do with an Easter basket and is definitely too young to care what it looks like. But I needed an excuse to get crafty, and I have been looking forward to doing this for weeks. And who knows, she might like just carrying it around. The girl does love purses and bags.

Growing up, my sister and I loved our Easter baskets. My mom is craft queen and made us (well embellished) the cutest Easter baskets. We didn't have a new one each year or anything, but probably had a couple different ones over the years. So of course I have to carry on the tradition of making a cutesie Easter basket.

I started off with an $8 basket from Michaels. Then I used some left over ribbon I had on hand and made ruffles.

I don't know how to sew so I just threaded it by hand, scrunched it up to create a ruffle effect, and tied it off at the ends.

Then I hot glued one layer at a time.

Nothing extravagant but I like how it turned out. I still feel like it is missing something so I may add more later just because I am crazy like that :)

Small Spaces

Cambry has been so funny lately getting in all these small spaces. She loves sitting on any low surface. As soon as we open the refrigerator she is trying to sit on the little ledge.

She also found that the bathroom cabinet make a great place to sit.

The other day she was hiding behind the pantry cabinet and would laugh when I would say "where's Cambry?" and fling open the door.

This morning she found another little hiding spot between the front door and storm door.

Love this silly girl!

14 Months

Our little one is 14 months! She has been hamming it up lately. She has been so funny and silly and we have just been enjoying her so much.

Skills: Walking all over the place. She can get going pretty fast too. Although she still falls ALL THE TIME. She definitely takes no notice of anything on the ground that might be in her way. She also loves to walk around carrying things (baby dolls mainly, and multiple) so that causes falls too. She usually doesn't get hurt, but will let out a quick cry. She loves using the "more" sign. Still loves giving kisses, especially the open mouth kind. I don't think there are really any other new skills this month, just improving on current skills.

Likes: Pointing, reading books, sitting on any low surface/small box/ledge, her baby dolls - goodness she walks around all day holding them or moving them from one location to the next. Sometimes she holds all 3 at once. She also likes finding clothes laying around the house and putting them on (around her neck/shoulders). She also loves purses or any small bag to carry around. MILK. The girl loves her milk now. She drinks a sippy cup of milk when she first wakes up, a cup before her afternoon nap, and a cup before bed. Speaking of milk - she is completely weened. It was kind of sad for me that that stage of her life is now over. We were down to just the morning feeding and she was barely getting anything anyway, so we just do whole milk now. She still will sometimes pull at my shirt and whimper which breaks my heart a little.

Struggles: Still struggling with vegetables. Recently she ate a tiny amount of mixed vegetables. I spoon fed her them though. If they are just on her tray she will refuse to pick them up. However she liked eating salmon and italian orzo the other night. What in the world? Also, I am really trying to be more consistent and intentional about discipline and teaching her the word no. This is mostly in regards to throwing things off her high chair and touching things she is not supposed to - um, oven knobs!! Also trying to teach her not to whine. Not sure she gets it yet but I constantly remind her that "whining is complaining with the tone of your voice" and the Lord says "do everything without complaining or arguing", and remember that "love is patient". I am sure she totally gets it :) One day she will though. I am reading the book Don't Make Me Count to Three which is really great and really stresses the importance of using scripture in disciple and getting to the heart issues not just outward behavior. I will have to do a separate post about that.

Schedule: She has been much more consistent lately with her wake up time. It is usually around 6AM. Sometimes she will start creeping it up - like 5:30 or 5:15 for a couple days. Unacceptable Cambry. Momma is not a morning person. When she does that I just let her fuss in her crib til 6AM and then she will usually revert back to her normal 6AM wake up time. She goes down for her morning nap between 8:30 and 9 AM, and her afternoon nap between 1:30 and 2. Usually each nap is at least an hour or more.

I don't know if I can keep track of her teeth anymore or even really see them all. I think she has about 11 right now.

Well, what else can I say that I don't say every single month? I love this age and love her! She is such a fun little toddler. Oh what joy.

Happy Valentine's Day

We had an interesting Valentines Day.

First of all, someone ran a red light and hit Greg while he was driving. We are so so thankful that he is ok (and the other driver too). Those things are always so scary and then there of are course lots of things to deal with afterward with car repairs, insurance, etc. But most importantly he is ok. So thankful for God's protection.

The day started off good though. Greg surprised me with homemade pancakes this morning. What a sweetheart. They were delicious.

Later in the morning I had a dentist appointment (happy valentines day to me!). But I do have the best dentist in the world so that makes it better. (Dr. Macaluso by the way, if you need one! Goes to our church too.) They even handed out roses today! And I love the hygienist that cleans my teeth. She has 2 little girls. Her youngest is very close to Cambry's age so we were pregnant at the same time. We always have lots to talk about. In fact, I think we are going to get together soon, ha!

My sweet friend Erin treated me to lunch today so that was fun. Roane slept through it but Cambry had fun eating with us.

Then we headed to Target. Cambry was being so funny! She was in the silliest mood so I just had to take pictures of her. She kept doing funny things and I would laugh and she would realize she was funny.

This cute little Valentine's outfit that she wore was from Greg's mom last year. It was huge on her last year so it actually still fit this year! (although a little tight on the belly).

Here is my little valentine last year. Aww.

I tried to take a picture of her in the same chair to compare but she could not be bothered by being still.

I am busy mom, I have books to read!

Busy carrying both babies at once.

This evening after all the mess with the car accident we went to dinner as a family for some fun. We went to Candelaris (pizza). It was perfect since there were so many other families with kids there.

Hope everyone had a good Valentines Day!

Closet Upgrade

Anyone living in an older home knows what it is like to have small closets. It is hard to fit much in there. Which is a good thing - it makes us get rid of stuff, and often.

We talked about doing this a long time ago but just never got around to it. Well one of our New Years goals is to get more organized. So Greg took down the single clothes rod in our closet and replaced it with two. We also bought a shoe tree from the Container Store so our shoes aren't all over the place. I love the results! Here are the before and after shots with the sliding doors removed.

Birthday Festivities

This past week was a bit adventurous. Greg was in Prague for work for a week. My nephew turned 1 this past week so it worked out well for me to go with my parents to Dallas to celebrate his birthday.

While in Dallas I got to take Cambry to a class at Kidville with my sister and her two boys. It was a lot of fun. I think Cambry was a little young for some of the activities (tried to eat play dough and crayons) but still had fun.

We had fun playing outside, watching videos of Hayes' first year, and eating yummy food and cake. It was a really fun trip...except for the night. It was mass chaos. I can't even really describe all that was going on but basically no one got much sleep. 3 toddlers, 2 dogs, and 5 adults in a 3 bedroom house turned out to be nuts. Poor Kyler was sick with fever too. So we didn't end up staying a second night but drove home after dinner and it was such an easy drive home since it was Cambry's bedtime.

Then this weekend (Greg was back, yay!) we went to a 1 year birthday party. My friend Erin's little boy was born on the same day as my nephew. Roane had a really fun party. The kids had fun on wagon rides.

We also ran some errands this weekend. Camry is so funny she will just pick stuff up and walk around with it. I think she is going to be a girly girl. She loves purses - will carry them all around. Loves baby dolls. Will put on clothes and walk around the house. Will put on things like necklaces or bracelets. I love what a cute little girl she is.

We also finished organizing our closet this weekend so I will have to do a post on that soon. We have so much more storage. And it seems Cambry is doing so many funny things lately but I will have to do a separate post on that too. I have been getting behind on the blog!