Finally

I bought these awesome stockings on clearance last year from Pottery Barn Kids.  (I can only afford, scratch that, have enough sense to only shop in the clearance section.)  Since the stockings cost a whopping $9.99, I didn't splurge and have them embroider them for me.  Then they sat.  I was terrified I'd mess them up.  And I did.  Well one of them.  It involved an upside down K and a lot of seam ripping including some ripping of more than just threads.  I managed to fix it, but still it just further proves I should NOT answer my phone while in the sweat shop or be in the sweat shop after 10:30 pm.  I should create a sweat shop rules sign...
Anyway, all that rambling to say:
I have lots to catch up on, but right now I'm too proud of my stockings to post anything else.  :)  You'll just have to wait.

Close up of individual stocking:

Their stockings really are awesome.  You should stalk their sale section too.  But don't pay $7 to get it poorly embroidered.  If you read the reviews, lots of folks complain about their monogramming.

 Crap-tastic cell phone shot of mantel.

And all together now.

 Kinley and I started wrapping presents yesterday.  Of course she's old enough to actually help just in time for Sophie to sit crying at our feet while we work.  Not to worry, she switched to devilish giggles once we placed a few under the tree and she worked on destroying them.

Sleeping Beauty

It is such a rare occurrence.  I had to document it.  Kinley sleeping.  Not in her bed.  And not at nap or bed time.  This child has never before fallen asleep when there are other things going on.  This is the third time in the last 24 hours that she has passed out like this.  Yesterday after her nap she caught me digging through Christmas decorations frantically searching for "Cary" elf.  I need to make sure we don't stumble upon him while decorating with Kinley.  She's already asking a few too many questions about it.  But I digress, she started crying that her tummy hurt and asked to be held.  Sophie, who actually had slept the entire day away already, was asleep still, so I obliged.  She was asleep in a few seconds flat.  Andy came home to us piled up on the sofa and demanded a temperature check was in order.  102.7.  See the kid NEVER stops.  Even when she is sick.  It doesn't slow her down.  Apparently whatever she has this time is some serious business though because after some tylenol and The Lion King we thought she was better last night.  However this morning within an hour of waking up she had a fever again.  Then vomit.  Then passed out asleep with Sophie banging pots and pans and cartoons on full blast.
During her third nap I decided to snap a photo.  You can see she isn't alone, Tinkerbell, Green Baby, and Jessie are keeping her company with The Grinch and George close by.
Sophie has no fever but went straight to bed after waking up cranky yesterday morning.  I finally drug her out of bed at 12:30 because I'd promised Kinley a trip to the park.  Then they both napped when we got home.  I thought surely she wouldn't sleep last night but she did.  Until 8:30.  And is still sleeping now from her morning nap.  I keep going in her room to make sure she's still breathing.  Ha!

Good to know where you stand

Just in case you can't zoom in, here's how it reads:

Birds

Nana

Mommy

Daddy

Sophie

Granny

Papa

I don't mind coming in 2nd to Nana, but BIRDS!!!  Birds.  It's like some cosmic joke.  Kinley LOVES birds.  I HATE birds.  Or more accurately since hate isn't a word we're trying to remove from our vocabulary, I am TERRIFIED of birds. 

And yes, my child does have purple finger nails.  Purple is our favorite color after all.  We love all things purple.

Kinley in a nutshell

Kinley came home from school today with a progress report.  The summary at the bottom said: "Full of energy!  She participates in class well.  Very social.  Always smiling."  

That's our girl for sure!

Fall 2011 School photo:

At the zoo...Again

This time we went with The Turners.  Julie took her camera, so as soon as she gets the photos loaded I'll add them here.
In the mean time, here are a few of the younger girls while their siblings were in school on Friday.

Camy loves Sophie.  A Lot!

Some of you might remember these two in a similar photo:

May of 2009.  My how these two have grown.  And seriously my kids could be clones except for the difference in eye color.

Think I'm all caught up now

Check back through October.  I added a few more posts.  I know you guys don't want to miss any of my cuties.  :)  One more for the day.

Don't judge when you see Sophie sans socks.

Cause this is what she thinks of them.  Can't keep 'em on her to save my life.  And she screams bloody murder till she's successful at getting them off.

Happy Halloween

We'll start by introducing you to the cartoon Phineas and Ferb.  Because unless you know of the cartoon, you would never get the costumes.

Some of you may know that Kinley might be just a little head strong.  Andy wanted her to be Perry the Platypus, bottom right in above photo, last year.  She refused.  She wanted to be George.  There was no budging.  Well, I guess there was a little budging, since she ended up being a generic monkey, but if you asked her she was George.
She must have remembered all the discussions about it from last year because when we asked what she wanted to be for Halloween back in September, (a sewing mama has to get a head start) she immediately said Phineas.  Not Perry.  Phineas.  Bottom left in above photo.  For the record there are no Phineas and Ferb costumes for sale.  Good thing her mama sews.
Since Sophie's too little to choose, we decided she could be Perry.  And Daddy had to be Ferb and Mama was left with Candace.  According to Kinley.  If you ask Drew, she got it right on the characters.
Note: photo quality isn't the greatest on some of these.  Trying to get a super excited to trick or treat toddler and baby to stand still is impossible.  The ones that are good are from Erin's camera on Saturday night.  Thanks, Erin!

Here's Phineas:

And Perry:

Phineas and Perry being pulled by Papa:

The whole crew:

How Kinley wanted to pose for all the photos:

 What we got when we said no:

 Again do we have to keep taking pictures or can we go get candy?

Another in the wagon with Phineas as a purple pumpkin.

 Inspecting her loot.  And Perry booty.  The tail is my favorite part.

Costume details: I made a shirt from a baby pattern I have for Perry.  I added a hood with a billl and hand sewed (you read that right) the eyes on.  I used a footed pair of pants pattern I have for the bottom because Sophie does not like socks, added webbed feet that slip on over the pants and attached a tail to the back.  Phineas was a lot easier.  I bought a white tshirt and an orange one.  I cut strips off of the orange one and sewed them on top of the white shirt.  I used the extra orange fabric for Perry.  I used my trusty ruffle pants pattern and cut them off to be shorts with added cargo pockets for Phineas's shorts.  Then painted a pair of almost worn out shoes blue to match.   My red shirt and Andy's purple scrub pants came from Goodwill.  I made my skirt out of white fleece.  Andy's yellow shirt was a cheap find at Old Navy. 

I was surprised on Friday when we went to trick or treating in the square.  Only Sophie and Kinley were dressed up and people actually recognized them.  I was a little afraid people wouldn't get it.  Our neighborhood definitely did not.  That's okay though because Kinley surely didn't notice.  I am pretty proud. This is the first year that I've had the chance to make their costumes, and it was fun.