A new favorite shirt

I'm so excited to share this little project with you. It wasn't hard, or super original, but it made my little guy super happy! And that is enough satisfaction for me.

Addison has been ridiculously obsessed with the United States lately, and anything about geography, really. He learned the 50 states and their capitals from the Animaniacs song, (as well as the nations of the world!) The first thing he runs to when he gets up in the morning is one of his many states puzzles, where he comes up with all sorts of games to play with the states pieces, or makes them talk to each other or just sings the songs he knows.


















So, I made him a shirt I knew he would love.



















And he does!

I just traced the outline of the states from one of his books, cut it out, traced that onto some jersey fabric of his choice, cut it out, and sewed it on! Jersey is great because it won't fray when you wash it.

Its great because I can make shirts for him for whatever he's into at the time and its an instant favorite!

...because she sleeps. all. day.

We picked cherries this weekend in the orchards surrounding my dad's house in Hood River. When cherries are free, and you can pick them by the handful, its easy to come home with 10, 20, 30 pounds of cherries.



So, I did the smart thing and bought a cherry pitter (same one the chicken's got. You can see her cute girls using it on a video here.) and have spent the better part of the last 24 hours pitting and freezing cherries and making a cobbler.





After all, what else is a mother to do when the baby sleeps all day?

I did it!

Small and mighty, miss Drew Alexandria joined our family on Tuesday, June 23rd weighing in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces.



My labor was fast, and ended dramatically when she made a speedy entrance into the world, surprising all the nurses and causing my midwife to nearly miss the whole thing (this happened when Addison was born too).



We're home now and all is going swimmingly! She's a peaceful baby, and I'm so full of joy, I can hardly contain myself....

My mom's friend writes limericks for fun for such special occasions and I thought I'd share this one with you!

There once was a baby named Drew,
Who thought that her birth was past due.
So out she came, early,
More girly than burly,
And made all her peeps feel brand new!

xoxo

we made butter

We joined the ranks of bloggers who made homemade butter a couple weeks ago... This phenomenon seemed to sweep the blog world like wildfire!



here,
here, and
here... just to name a few.

updated: and here! and here! got any more for me?

I was eager to try this myself since it seemed so easy, and somehow, almost magical. How does it turn yellow all by itself? Amazing!

The butter was amazing, though sadly, turned out to be more than we could eat before it went bad. If I do this again I will probably make half as much, or be much more diligent about "washing" the butter so it lasts longer.

But it was quite fun. We used the old fashioned shake-it-up-in-a-mason-jar method, which left my husband's and my arms nicely tired. I think Addison was a little weirded out by the whole thing, but he gave it a good shake or two in the end.

I used the buttermilk to make blueberry muffins (I have been craving anything with hot, plump, juicy fruit in it for weeks now) which was the perfect place to place a dollop of creamy butter and devour.



If you still haven't tried this, I do recommend it.

enjoying the now

Thanks for the support about the child care situation, everyone. It was a rough day between awaiting news on the school (which hasn't been solidified yet, but is looking promising) and anxiously anticipating an ultrasound to see if our little baby girl is doing alright. I'm so happy and relieved to say, she looks perfect!

Because I can't help myself, here's a picture of her little lips, nose and chin. (look at it sideways)

I'm amazed at how much more detailed the ultrasounds are, even compared with those we had 3 1/2 years ago!

I'm really looking forward to meeting this new little one, but also enjoying now as much as I can. I realize that the days I have one-on-one with Addison are numbered precious. I expect as much as I will embrace the new family dynamic of there being four of us, I will miss the undivided attention I'm able to devote to Addison right now.

So, when I have the chance, I'm trying to pour my energy into our quality time. We took a trip to the library a few weeks ago, which is something we do frequently, but this time I wanted it to be a lesson in using the library to find out about anything you want to know about. Addison chose books on cars, clocks, and stop signs. And, he chose a cookbook dedicated to making all kinds of cookies. (of course!)

We checked out our books, chose a recipe for Chocolate Cat Cookies and went to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients we were missing at the house. We brought them home and got right to work.


I have to admit, they weren't the tastiest cookies I've ever had, but seemed to satiate our sweet tooths and went down easily with a cold glass of milk. Plus, they were just the right kind of cookies to make with a toddler that loves to help.







He loved making the ears, putting the chocolate candies on and using the fork tines to make whiskers. We snuck a couple of dogs, an owl and some other unnamed creatures in there too. :)

Oh, these good times...

treats for the day

I'm 29!

I managed to successfully complete the majority of the things on my list, while others will have to roll forward to a new list, which I'll post soon. :) And that's okay, because that's just how I roll these days.

Until then, here are some little treats from my birthday weekend:

I toasted my own coconut and made some delish cupcakes!






As you can probably imagine, they've all been devoured by now...



Yum!

And I was lucky enough to have a cute, fun birthday party with my favorite people. Here was my favorite part of the night:



You know you have good friends when the party lasts til 3am, even on a night when we lose an hour.

And now, I'm off to have a birthday lunch with my hubby and do some shopping! :)

My Valentine's Day part 1

Our Valentine's Day was one of the best days I've had in a long time.

It couldn't have started off any better, with Addison giving us an uninterrupted night of sleep AND sleeping in, so we all woke up rested and ready to start the day. Ben and I exchanged Valentine's while we were still in bed, and I had a couple for Addison too, so the day just felt special and we climbed out of bed with big smiles on our faces.

One of my gifts to Ben was this pot of succulents that I put together myself. It was as fun to make as it was to give since I had the great help of the salespeople at Pistils Nursery here in Portland. They helped me pick out plants for the pot I brought in, and they had all the necessary charcoal, soil and gravel I needed for proper drainage.



I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and now I want to make another!



The trip there was really fun since they have baby chicks hatching right now, and Addison got to see one still wet from the egg, eyes closed and stumbling around in the incubator, plus 4 other cute little fluffy ones beeboppin' around in their pen. Fun and educational!

Next, I had fun plans for our breakfast after getting this great idea over at suziebeezieland.
Piggy Pancakes!



These were pretty fun and tasty without being too decadent. Our pancakes had chocolate chips, pecans and bananas inside, and I used pear slices for the ears. Addison loved them, and asked for them again the next day. Luckily I had a few leftover!

Next up: a French bakery.. (ooh la la!)