Inspired by Pinning ~ Pinterest project # 1

Hi. My name is Jess, and I'm slightly in love with Pinning.

Pinterest is my new found obsession... I love all the creativity that is flowing around those boards, some super smart, some super creative, and some just so darn cute! A few weeks ago I decided that it was time to tackle one of the many crafty ideas I had pinned onto my bedroom board, New DIY headboards for our bedroom. Which go adorably with our new bed from here! So, I went out around Boise, in search of the perfect supplies for my project, wood, batting, and a beautiful fabric. We already had the staple gun and staples (Brent actually has 3 staple guns...) and I ended up having to go back to JoAnn Fabrics for hangers... but after 2 trips out for forgotten supplies, I was finally able to put these beautiful new pieces of art together. So, here's how it went...

Lay boards out along folded batting. I used a king size extra fluffy bag of batting, folded into 3rds, and then laid out my 4 24"x24" pieces of half inch thick plywood, being sure to space them a few inches apart, then cut and smooth batting.

Fold batting along edges and staple with gun, I used alternating staples, horizontally and vertically, just in case some decided to pull. 

Smooth the batting somewhat taught as you go along, so you don't leave creases or wrinkles on the front.

When your all done, you can trim the excess batting to make sure it's not too bulky. Also trim the corner folds so they are not too bulky either.

Finished batting covered boards!

lay your fabric (I used a twill style thicker upholstery fabric) print side down on the floor, you can iron if it is especially wrinkly, I didnt as you can see above... but it smooths out when you pull and staple it tightly. 

Be sure if you have a print that it is laid level along the print, I didn't on the first one and had to redo part of it... 

Fold fabric over batting, and staple at the edge of the batting, so there is a nice little tuft along the edge of the board. I put staples every inch to inch and a half apart, just to be sure it wouldn't tear or pull. 

Staples placed about an inch and a half apart. Continue folding fabric along each side, tucking corners in at the end. I forgot to take pictures of how I tucked the corners, i'll add those when I finish the last two boards this weekend.

Some of the finished boards!!!

I chose two contrasting colors, they look so great staggered on the wall!!

 I'll be hanging and finishing up this Pinterest project this coming weekend, Stay tuned and check back in a few days for the final reveal! :)

Fall in full swing

We've been thoroughly enjoying the arrival of fall around here, so much so that I've once again been neglecting the blog, my apologies (sorry mom). So i'm taking Stella's nap time, and my usual 'pick up the house and shower' time today to update and share some of what we've been doing around here.

Lots of puppy lovin'

I love this picture, Brent snapped these of Stella, trying to get Abby's attention through the door. If Abby is outside, Stella goes and stands at the door, slapping her hand constantly until Abby responds, haha. 

The Leaves were nice and crunchy this year, not yet spoiled by rain, still clean and somewhat bug free. Stell had a BLAST crunching through them, eating some, breaking some, and having a good 'ol time with her papa.

And now a little fun with dad in the leaves, I think dad got more of a kick out of all this than the little did...

Our little Pumpkin

 Pumpkin Picking at Linder Farms

 It's that time of year, there is a crisp in the air, the leaves are turning from bright greens to beautiful rust, garnet, amber and tan, and starting to drop. I love Fall. I love cozy sweaters, jeans, turning the heat up. I wish we had a fireplace. It's the one thing I had to give up when we were house searching that I regret, oh I really wanted a fireplace. Next time, our next house will have a fireplace. Maybe 2. We have a new tradition that were starting with Stell, the pumpkin patch!! Brent wasn't too thrilled with going to the pumpkin patch, but we went with some great friends, the York-Millers, and had such a fun time! This is Cora, their adorable little girl, with her daddy Clint, who is newly returned from Iraq (Welcome home Clint!!) Amy, Cora's mommy, and I met a few months ago at the Great Cloth Diaper Change when Stella was just 2 months old, and I'm so thankful to have her as a new friend! She's taught me a ton about baby wearing, and cloth diapers, and a ton of other awesome things this new mommy didn't have a clue about. But, back to our trip to the pumpkin patch. We got there pretty late in the evening, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but we still got some fun ones. 

Clint giving Cora a lift

Cora and a pumpkin, she's wearing carhart overalls, Love!

We found an already carved pumpkin in the field!!

Cora saying hello

Stella and I in the patch, Thats Amy hangin out behind us too

Stell sitting on her first pumpkin!!!

She really didnt care about the pictures

She wanted that pumpkin!

again, why is dad taking so many pictures!?!?

And then we found this......

A GIANT "cornbox", full of corn kernels. 

It was kinda a big hit with the littles

Stella loved it

Playing in the cornbox

daddy wasn't really watching for a second and Stell got some kernels, I still wonder how many she ate.

Linder farms has a growth chart to take pictures with littles by, so as you go back every year, you can get a new picture and see how much they have grown! So cute!

Cora and Clint taking a ride on the littles tractor!! Cora was SO excited!

We had such a great time, we stayed a bit too late probably, but we were dancing by the fire and enjoying the music way too much to think about bedtime. We got a couple of pumpkins that are begging to be carved by our front door. I cant wait for Stella to stick her little hands into the gooey seeds, and then to roast those yummy seeds :) Delish! I'll be sure to get those pictures up when I get them, they are going to be pretty fun!

Introducing new foods

We've been giving Stella real food for quite some time now. Not all the time, but once or twice a week she'll get some banana, or avocado or maybe beans. She is so great, and so excited every time we offer her something, she opens wide and shoves her face into our hand, trying to get whatever were offering. Lately I've been trying to give her more and more foods, She's 7 months now and is so interested in everything we eat, I feel kinda bad that I don't give her more food already, I usually just forget to not season whatever veggies were eating, and we haven't been to the market in a few weekends to pick up fresh produce. Well, today I decided to jump into this baby food thing full on. So, while at the store, I loaded up on a TON of fresh, organic fruits and veggies. Tonight for dinner were having baked sweet potatoes (my fall favorite!) and she just had a bite of raspberry before starting to rub her eyes and show me she was ready for a nap, the look on her face while chewing the slightly tart berry was priceless. I found this website a few months back, www.weelicious.com, a mommy food blog, it's full of great recipes for babies, toddlers, kids, and the whole family. She's got some great recipes, and they are SO simple. The only thing were skipping is the pureeing part, were doing the baby led weaning thing, and she's getting just diced or slightly mushed foods, so she can chew and not have an issue with choking later on, she'll learn how to chew from the start. But reading about food combinations that I would never have thought of before is so fun! I love her ideas, and that they are simple, easy to make, and take hardly any time.

Some of my favorite combo ideas so far? Banana Raspberry (mashed), apple oatmeal and molasses, Eat your greens mash: sweet potatoes, pees, carrots, green beans and broccoli all steamed and mashed together, celery root and potato mash, carrot and cauliflower mash, roast pear and banana, I could keep going but you get the idea. Paring fruits and veggie up should be fun, and I love that I can introduce Stella to new flavors so easily. I really want her to be an easy eater, not a picky one. I was super picky as a child, sorry mom, and didn't really indulge in culinary creativity until I met Brent. He introduced me to so many new things, and to this day I appreciate him being so pushy with food.

I am excited to begin this new journey in Stella's life, She's going to be a great little eater, hopefully :)

7 months and counting!!

Stella Jean,

You are 7 months old today!!! So many times have I pinched myself this week, I just cant believe how fast you are growing up! You've accomplished quite a lot this last month, further proof to us that you are a bit more advanced than you should be, and we love it. People keep asking us when your first birthday is... and are again shocked when I tell them you are barely 7 months old, you are just so bright and alert and interactive for a 7 month old. So, new things this last month include,

~ Your Crawling!!! You started the rocking thing and leg scooches over a month ago, and a few weeks ago you started the dramatic hand/arm movements, but crashed and burned repeatedly. This week however? You're becoming quite the pro!! Just last night (Oct. 11th) you followed your daddy down the hallway, half crawling on your knees, half using your feet, I don't think you really like the hardwood floors. I've taken several videos of your new technique, it's pretty adorable! You also love to follow us, if i'm in the kitchen for even a minute, I can peek around the corner to find you making your wobbly way towards me, I love it.

~ You growl! And you love it! It's the cutest thing, you copy my growl, your daddy's growl still kinda scares you (haha!), he's much more scary than mommy, but you still give him an unsure smile. You like to snarl your nose and furrow your brow, and let out this adorable WRRRRAAARRRHHH, almost in a hush at first, but it gets louder as we keep playing. We'll growl back and forth forever, sometimes the whole drive to the grocery store, I growl, you growl, and you love it.

~ You're a giggler! You have a full on laugh now! Before, your daddy made fun of you because you had the "Thomas" laugh, kinda a silent giggle, just like mommy's and aunties and grandma's. But lately? If we really get you going with tickles (which your sometimes not sure of, but mostly love) or doing something really funny, you let out some full on belly laughs! Just like your daddy, loud rolling laughter, it's hilarious!

~You're a pro at sitting! You've been sitting on your own for almost a month now, it started about a week into 6 months, you were pretty wobbly at first, so we'd surround you with rolled up towels and blanket, but pretty soon you would flip around and crawl over those soft bumpers, so we don't really prop you up anymore, you're just too mobile to be kept in check.  Although, while you were playing and I was making dinner last night, I heard a loud thump, and turned around to see you just starting to cry, you had been playing with a toy and laid back, apparently a little too enthusiastically, and it scared you, but you were just fine after a little snuggle and kiss, and went right back to playing again, my tough little cookie.

~ You camped for the first time! We met daddy and 'uncle' Jason up at Elk camp a few weekends ago, and you spent your first night in a tent! It was a canvas wall tent, with a wood stove, so it was pretty posh camping, but we still slept in sleeping bags (albeit on a cot) and had a dirt floor. You loved it. We took a hike, you napped on the way back in the wrap. We played with camp tools, and Jason shot an Elk, daddy did too, but the elk took off and got lost, and after a full day of searching, couldn't be found, daddy sure made some bears and wolves happy! We got a little overzealous with dressing you at bedtime, put you into your footie pj's and snuggled you into the sleeping bag with mommy, only for me to wake up several hours later to a sweaty, soaked baby girl... I guess it was a little warmer than we anticipated, so I stripped you down, pulled the top of the sleeping bag down, and we both slept much better the rest of the night. You woke up a super happy little camper, literally :)

~ You've become a great little traveler! We took another trip to Seattle a few weeks ago, and you did such a great job!!! You were better than Abby, who has become not a great traveler... We had to stop more for her than you, so next time, Abby gets to stay home. While there we bought a new car, and had plenty of lovin's from family and friends, you are always a big hit back home! The drive home was just as great, for you at least, not so much for Abby... I was debating leaving her in Yakima... (not really) but when she climbed over the seat and stood on you in your car seat... that was it. We stopped at Petco and bought a short lead, gate for the back, and organic holistic sleepy treats... which we gave her 10 of :) She slept from the Oregon boarder pretty much until home... making the ride much more pleasant. She had a freak out the next day while driving up to go camping also, not fun. So I made her drive home with daddy, where she did much better in the front seat.

~ You are becoming a better sleeper... Finally! Mommy had some rough nights this past month, you were very unhappily sleeping in your own crib in your nursery. So, Last week daddy took your crib down and moved it into our bedroom, snugged it up against our bed, and left the front rail off. It's now flush up against our mattress, and you sleep SO MUCH better! The first night we moved you there, you slept for 3 straight hours... which is very rare for you, Mommy was so happy!

~ You give kisses! We'll, they are a baby version of kisses, or face sucking, whatever you want to call it. You like to take my cheek/chin/eye/neck and completely devour it with your mouth, sometimes totally latching on and sucking. At first I thought this was your way of telling me you were hungry, and it just might be so, but I notice you do it when your really snuggly, and after a kiss I usually get a nuzzle into my shoulder, it's adorable, and makes my heart melt.

There are so many other things your now becoming quite a pro at,

~ keeping yourself occupied while I shower/do dishes/ switch laundry/ sweep/ etc...
~ chatting back with us like your having a conversation
~ looking at the cell phone when a voice you recognize is on speaker phone
~ pulling yourself up when holding our hands. This actually kinda scares me, because you do it in the bathtub with daddy, you grab the side of your little tub, and hoist yourself onto your feet.... We've been trying really hard not to let you and teach you that you only sit in the tub.
~ picking which toy you prefer to play with
~ looking around when we mention Abby or Lilly, you love your animals!
~ Interacting with other babies and children, big kids fascinate you and scare you... or overwhelm you, especially when they are very lovey on you. But you love your similar size friends!
~ eating. You've become a little eating champ, mostly. Were doing the self led weaning/eating thing, not that i'm weaning you from nursing, they just call it that for some reason, I actually plan to nurse you as long as possible, hopefully past 2 years. but we just chop up our fruits and veggies into tiny pieces and let you go at it. sometimes i'll give it a little squish if I feel it's too hard or too solid for you, but you've got the chewing thing down. yay!
~ your legs are SO long!! They now hang over the edge of your car seat, which means we'll have to upgrade to a convertible car seat very soon!
~ You're wearing 9 month onesie's, and 12 month pants! which just proves how much of a big girl you are, but, it was to be expected with how tall your mommy and daddy are.

Little Monkey, You are growing so big so quickly. Daddy and I cannot believe 7 months have flown by already. It's been an amazing journey so far, this parenting thing, and we truly couldn't imagine our lives without you.

We love you baby girl,
Love,
Mommy and Daddy