Jack's Very Own Stylists

Yes, Mom and I have taken on the much needed duty of providing Jack with his very own style. We get so sick and tired of the fact that when a little boy is out of baby clothes the only thing you can seem to find for them are horrid cargo pants and some sort of printed on tee (equally horrid!).

We put our ideas together with my ability to cut just about any type of icon (in this case fabric applique) one of my favorite things... the "Cricut". It is used for scrapbooking mostly but if you have one or ever check one out the projects you can do with this thing are both amazing and endless!

I got a few white short sleeve and a few long sleeve shirts.

Anyway, mom picked out some fabrics and I got them to the cricut as fast as I could figure out the best way to go about cutting fabric (whole different ball game compared to your typical scrapbooking paper.) I cut out and ironed on beautiful designs using one of the fabrics mom picked and matching it with a solid (to give the applique more dimension)

Mom, got the sweetest pattern for bubble pants and has made coinciding pants with the pattern fabric from the shirts. So we are working on about 5 sets of pants and each pair with have both a long and short sleeve matching shirt using the same fabric from the pants.

In case I have confused you here are pictures of our first complete creation, they are possibly the sweetest things I have ever seen. Especially once we tried them on him! (Also, mom stitched around the appliques I cut and ironed on the shirt to also give it even more dimension. I didn't think you could see that from the pictures.)


Here is our first completed set:



Of course we HAD to have personalized tags, just the icing on the cake!

As Promised!

Blurb.com made me a promise during the ordering process, the promise was that my blog book would be printed, shipped and at my door by September 17th! Boy did they really deliver! (I mean how many packages have you EVER recieved on the promised date? Not many here?

I received the much awaited call from Stuart yesterday that my blog book had arrived. I could not wait so shortly after letting him go, I called back and said "I cannot wait, I am sorry. You MUST open them and make sure they are as perfect as I know (or hoped) they are!"

I also demanded he take pictures of every process of the unavailing of my masterpiece!
I didn't want to miss a thing...



Perfect beautiful packaging, oh be still my heart...

The finished project! I feel like all of my work over the past year AND the past week preparing the book (as pain staking as it was) is finally done and in my hands and no amount of "the world wide web crashing and taking my blog with it" can take this moment or this book away from me.

I ran in after work and then saw how amazing it really was, I was concerned about some of the pictures being grainy and aside from ONE they were all so very perfect.

To get the sense of euphoria I myself felt at this moment when I returned home and held it in my hands, think of it as winning an Emmy... (everyone has at one point thought of all the people they would like to thank if put in that situation.) And I decided to use my draft (for my acceptance speech) in this very situation.

As I have said before, Blurb.com was a whole lot of work (maybe a weeks worth, depending on the pages and I had 178.) But I cannot ask for better quality. I cannot stop looking at it. It was a little pricey but, Oh so worth it! Thanks Blurb.com!

Oh and the most important thing was they arrived the EXACT day they told me it would! How is that for customer service? I never saw that one coming.

P.S. I tried to use Blog2book.com at first because it was a little quicker and it turned out I had issues that took their customer service THREE weeks to solve and get back to me (when they finally did 3 weeks later, turns out they had issues with ONE link in ONE post that it couldn't upload) . Seriously??!! It took you THREE weeks to figure this out!??! That sight is supposed to be a quicker set up and you don't have to go through each blog post and format everything, I had my whole 178 pages formated and ready for print AND in my hands before these people even got back to me!

I am so pleased with Blurb that I don't mind any of the extra work I had to do! 5 stars for Blurb.com

Shared photo book from Whitney

Click here to view this photo book larger

What Jack has learned...

Jack has been up to a lot lately he has learned so many new things, both of which I caught for you on video. First, Stuart has taught him to throw his hands up to do the touchdown sign whenever you yell "Touch Down!!"

Also, his Aunt Annie bought him a book about trains and he loves this book so much we often have to hide it from him. It names each of the names of the cars that are on a train. Jack's favorite is the "Green Cattle Car" so my mom has taught him to say "Cattle Car"... So his vocabulary now consists of "Hat" and "Cattle Car."

And So It Is Written In Stone (or Paper Rather)

I have been waiting for Jack's first birthday, only because I am overwhelmed with this constant fear that one day the world wide web will somehow crash and burn. In those very ashes will sit my blog, and all the work and memories poured into it.

As I have mentioned so many times before I am such a project quitter but this has somehow stuck with me. I wanted my blog to be something for our family to keep forever. So I did a little research and found a website called Blurb.com.

Blurb.com allowed me to download my blog to their software, format everything (all 168 pages, it took me 2 weeks to complete. UGH) But now it's finished. My very own hardback copy of "The Lamp Post Volume I" is on it's way to the printer, my order is placed and now all I have to do is wait...

My goal is to publish one every year, I just hope there are more available options as far as publishing goes later on. This was horribly time consuming and a little mind numbing at times. I think it's a wonderful idea and I was surprised at the lack of options.

The expected arrival date is September 17th, I will be sure to take pictures and post them ASAP!

Happy Birthday to Our Son

Happy Birthday big boy! You are walking and babbling. Your favorite things are books, your danger cart and the word "hat". I would have to say the thing you truely love the most is long walks in your danger cart, you could ride in that thing forever. Your comforts are your lovies, passy, and a certain blanket. And of course your sleep sheep.

You go to the doctor tomorrow so I do not have your stats yet but I will be sure to post them when I do. You also start your very first day of daycare tomorrow, we are so excited for you to make new friends.

Your first birthday party was held Sunday at your Grandmother and Papa's house. It was a circus theme and everyone came. You were very sleepy before the party and we were concerned you would be cranky. Once everyone arrived you were perfect! You played, posed for pictures, recieved tons of "sugar" and played some more.

When it came time to eat your cake, your hands went strait out as far from the cake as you could get them, in an attempt to keep them clean. You leaned in and took the most careful bite you could, you touched the cake once but only with one finger. 4 or 5 bites followed, when you were finished you had been so careful that we only had to clean one finger and your mouth. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

I hope you find your next year to be full of adventure, friends, family, and excitment. Most of all I hope your next year is twice as long as your first. Happy Birthday big boy, we love you!

*Update: you are 20lbs and 31 inches long.