Fun with bear hats

I've been having a lot of fun lately creating my newest hat! The pattern is 100% my own. It's really nothing to brag about though, as it is quite simple. :)










I'm going to be experimenting in all different colors. I got the idea after a customer requested a custom hat. She wanted it done in brown with a hot pink trim.






I know I said I was going to put my shop on a mini-vacation... and I did, but I couldn't help but reopen. Things have been pretty slow though. I haven't listed as many hats lately so it's still pretty much under control. I have to send a few hats off to be photographed. Once I get those back I should be able to stock my shop with a lot of more new and exciting things!

Emma is six months old now! She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. She's definitely mommy's little girl. Which is good, since Jacob is such a daddy's boy.


Emma on the day she turned 6 months!






Emma is doing all things a six month old should be doing. She's right on track with all of her milestones. She has even been trying to scoot lately!

She is still minus her teeth, but judging from her behavior this past couple of days I don't think it will be very long before a few make their appearance. (At least I hope not!)

Here are her 6 month stats:

Weight: 15 lbs 6.4 oz; 45%
Height: 24 1/4 inches; 10%
Head: 41 cm; 10%

She was wearing a cloth diaper when she was weighed and I normally bring a disposable with us so that her weight is more accurate. Cloth diapers tend to weigh more than a disposable, so her weight is probably a little off. Also, I don't think they got her height correct either. It looked like she was a little slanted on the table and I don't think her legs were pulled all they way straight. But at least we have an idea where she is at!




Doctor said everything is fine and she's following her curve. She told me that I need to introduce solids to Emma this month. Mike and I bought her some organic rice cereal while we were grocery shopping this past week. I'm waiting to give it to her once we get back from Florida. Yes, I'm traveling again ALONE. But this time it will just be me and Emma. I'm flying down to Florida for about a period of 24 hours. I'm going to see my Lindy graduate from USF! I'm so proud of you brown girl!

The whole family will be coming down December 19th. We'll be road tripping. Fun times.

I promise to have more pictures of Jakey next time. He's not so much into being photographed these days. Emma on the other hand has no choice. :)

Santa Claus

We took the kids to see Santa today at our local WalMart. Unfortunately we do not have any big malls around here with extravagant Santa's. This Santa worked out just fine. :)

Jacob arched his back and refused to sit on Santa's lap. He did, however, give santa a "low-5". We were going to get a photo of the kids each alone with Santa and one together, but Jacob wasn't having it.

Emma was smiling away and everyone was commenting on how happy she was. And she was very happy when we first gave her to Santa and looked at him in amazement. Then, she broke down. She didn't scream or anything, but she just started pouting and making some really sad faces. We captured both happy and sad moment. Then we all squeezed in for a family shot since Jacob refused to be near Santa without us.

Happy baby.

Sad baby.

Christmas 2009.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love Christmas time! The music, the decorations, the memories... I just hate the cold! It's this time of the year that I really miss good old sun shining Florida. Here is where Mike and I are complete opposites: I hate the cold, he loves it.
Weather aside, we started decorating the house for Christmas. We don't have many decorations yet, but the few we have are up. I'm hoping that we can get a few lights to decorate the outside of the house in.

Our fake Christmas tree is up. I'm anti-fake Christmas tree-- but for some reason, we bought one last year. It's a tiny 4 ft tree. I think we got it because we wanted a small enough tree to fit in our bay window, away from Jacob. Well, Jacob is bigger this year so we can't keep the tree away from him. It's still in the window, just minus the ornaments. I think we're going to forego hanging the ornaments this year and save the aggravation. I'm looking forward to the day we can have a nice, BIG, real Christmas tree (with ornaments)! Until then, our fake one in the window will do :)

Please excuse the messy house and the man in the purple sweater (I make fun of him wearing it all the time, but he still continues to wear it!). It was a lazy Sunday morning.

She can't always be sunshine & smiles.

OK, enought with the photos. She REALLY means business!

We'll be taking the kids' Christmas pictures as soon as the weather permits. We've had nasty winter rainy days without sunshine all week.

I can't wait to see Jacob's reaction to Santa Claus. Last year was fun times, but this year he's bigger and stronger. I'm sure we'll be lucky to snap a picture before he assaults Santa and runs off... Here's the photo from last year:

Christmas 2008

Emma is completely sitting up and playing unassisted on her own for long periods of time. I caught a rare moment of the two of them playing together. Jacob was building a tunnel out of his wooden blocks for his trains and cars to ride through. Emma was stealing the blocks and eating them.

I think I'll take one...

No matter how many times I tell him to back up, he always ends up here.

Ahh, the sweet smell of poop just walked by our office. Until next time!

Rainbow Bright

I had a little fun today photographing Emma on a homemade white backdrop. Out of the 50 pictures that I took, only a few actually came out good. Oh well, practice makes perfect!

Here is my Emma Lou at 5.5 months.

Here's a little collage of Jacob & Emma together. It's very rare to get a good picture of both of them, so instead I made a little collection.

New York

We just returned from our trip to NY. And by we, I'm referring to me, Jacob, and Emma. I flew by myself with them. Please remind me NEVER to do that again!! They were actually very well behaved on the airplane. It was the luggage, security, and making it to our gate that was the hard part. For some reason Nashville airport is no longer giving gate passes to non-flyers. So we were pretty much on our own. Thankfully both ways we ran into some very nice people who offered to help us.

It was very nice visiting family in NY. Jacob loved playing with his cousin, Brendyn! I'm just thankful to be home and back to our regular routine. Traveling with little ones requires a vacation from a vacation!

Here are some photos I snapped. Most of the pictures were taken when we went to the Hudson River and the park. There are a few taken at my grandpa's house and my aunt's house.



















































































Jacob has really been testing his limits lately. I know it comes with his age, but I can't help but wonder what happened to my sweet well behaved little boy!

Everything has become a struggle. His favorite phrases consist of: "No!" "Stop it!" "Get away!" and "Achooo!!" (he does a really loud sneeze type of sound when you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do. It's actually very hard not to laugh at him when he does this...)

He has been speaking very well lately. I've heard him say up to 5 word sentences. Each day he suprises me at some of the words that he says.

Emma has been sitting up unassisted. She'll sit up on her own for a few seconds until she gets excited or tries to reach for something too far away. She is still very happy, and VERY smiley. I swear, the smiles never stop with this girl.







She is still teething like crazy, but still no teeth! By this time Jacob had sprouted his two bottom teeth. I think she may have one or two coming very soon though.

Emma is also quite the little growler. I'll have to catch her doing it on video-- it is too funny. She has also figured out how to blow raspberries. That combined wuth her drool, you're sure in for a shower.

I think I've decided to take a little break from my Etsy shop. It has almost become a full time job, and I'd really like to spend some more time with the kids. My house has been messier and I'm just finding it really hard to keep up with every day life. I plan on just crocheting in my free time and getting some hats, headbands, and bows stocked for when I do plan to re-open.

While in New York my aunt and I stopped in a children's boutique. We talked about possibly selling some hats to them wholesale. I just need to come up with prices and send a few samples to them. Who knows, maybe it will work out!