Baby Proofing

My little 8 month old daughter is now a master crawler! Has been for a couple of weeks.

I've had to pay more attention to things on ground level. I also vacuum and mop more frequently than I used to. The living room, where she plays most of the time and where I sit and watch her has been mostly baby proof for awhile. But, now she follows us, everywhere! She's getting more familiar with the Kitchen, and explored the laundry room a couple of times.

I reorganized my laundry room awhile ago, mostly because it was just a mess. And in the process I considered making sure nothing harmful was down on Baby's level.

My Kitchen though, I have been putting off. And now, I can't put it off anymore.
I'm a little frustrated.
I want functional organization. But, the majority of my storage is cupboards below the counter top. Suddenly everything seems to have a blaring hazard sign all over it.
Where do I put my glass mixing bowls, blender, food processor, aluminum foil & saran wrap? None of these things seemed particularly harmful before. Now, as a mom, I'm realizing the kitchen is a very dangerous place.

I never took the whole "baby proof" your house thing very seriously. When I was growing up I never remember a baby gate, or outlet covers, or drawer/cupboard door locks. Your child grows up, explores, is curious about their world, and you watch them closely, tell them "no" to things they may not touch, and they learn. A few bumps and bruises never harmed anyone, that's how you learn, right?

I mean, I obviously keep extremely harmful things out of reach. We have a pellet stove and have put up a baby gate around it, because it can cause serious burns, we close doors, and keep a close watch on our baby.

But, maybe there is more to this baby proofing than I originally thought.


Maybe someday I'll find a kitchen set up that I like, works well and is safe.
In the meantime, I'll be at home watching my curious baby explore and be amazed at how she grows and learns.

Baby Girl!!

 Finally getting around to updating the Blog with the big news!

Baby Levi is a Girl!

 Meet little Esther Levi.
Born Friday, August 2, 2013 at 7:18 AM.  7 pounds 9 ounces, 20 3/4 inches tall.


For the past 11 days we've been busy loving on this sweet perfect bundle of joy. She's already getting too much attention and being spoiled! Gifts of pink, girly, frilly things have been pouring in - not to mention Mama had to do a little of her own shopping. So glad I saved up gift cards and cash gifts from baby showers to splurge on all the pretty girly things!

 We had a wonderful hospital birth experience. All natural and just the way we wanted. In the end things got a little rough. This little girl was a little too comfortable and birthing her into the world was no easy task. But in the end all are well and healthy and happy! Praise The Lord!

 One of the many Aunts had the opportunity to come a visit for awhile. She's been enjoying the little girl to and been a big help to everyone!

We've been so blessed by our church family. We had a little over a week of meals prepared for us. Families from the church brought over food and gifts each day of the week. Was such a blessing to get to relax, recover, and love on our little girl without concerning ourselves with preparing meals.
My man has been incredibly amazing from coaching me through labor to do almost all the housework. It's been so wonderful for him to have the ability to take a bit of time off work to stay home and help out and love on Baby!



I'll try to do better in the future about keeping this blog updated regularly!

Baby Hats

I took a break from quilting and sewing and have been knitting and crocheting.
Right now I'm working on a few different baby hats. Here are some I've made.
One for Girl and one for Boy! 

 

I'm really proud of myself for making the pink berry hat. Was my first time using double pointed needles. As well as changing color in knitting, I believe.
I think it turned out really good.

21 Weeks

Here is Baby at 21 weeks old!!

Ultrasound tech says Baby weighs 1 pound!!! That's crazy!!
What's even more crazy is, according to all the baby books out there. In the next 2-4 weeks Baby will weigh 2+ pounds! Takes 21 weeks to grow to a pound and only 2-4 weeks to double it's weight!

Pregnancy is fascinating to me!

And nobody knows Baby's gender. Not even the lady doing the ultrasound. We are really looking forward to being surprised!

Baby Quilts... lots of baby quilts

So, I've had fabric with patterns stashed away for awhile. And once I finished with all the holiday table runners I needed a break from quilting. Just so happens I got pregnant right in the middle of the holiday sewing frenzy, so then I got super tired and lazy for several weeks. Now that all the 1st trimester funk is over with I finally got around to the other projects so patiently waiting for me.

Here they are...

The first two are the same pattern. Made from a Layer Cake pre-cut.
The other also used a charm pack pre-cut and sashing.

This is what I've been staying busy with.
I have a few more that aren't quite finished yet that I'll post pictures of soon.

Gender-neutral Baby quilt

Last weekend we had a baby shower for our church's Pastor's wife who is due to have her 5th child in April. Her last child was born 6 years ago, and they have since gotten rid of almost all their baby stuff. So we decided to help them out and give a baby shower.

I was happy I found a set of coordinating prints that were very gender neutral since they are choosing to not find out what the baby is until it is born.

I liked this particular block, and it had the words centered on accident - was just how the fabric was cut and pieced together. :)

I used the matching fabric collection's fleece for the backing.

She really liked it! And I enjoyed making it!

Getting caught up... and unexpected joys

This past weekend I made the long, yet not too long trip to Idaho. There were several reason I chose to go. One being Zaycon Foods (www.zayconfoods.com) was having a Chicken Sales Event. I took orders for several people here in BM and planned to pick up 7, 40lb cases of fresh Chicken breasts!
Apart from that, I really wanted to get to see my family. It's been a few months since I saw them last, and since we don't plan to spend the holidays in Idaho. I wanted to see them again.

I had a splendid weekend. I drove myself up there Thursday morning. My Man wasn't able to come with this time. Due to work, P.T. appointments, and his brother and friend from Idaho coming to visit him for the weekend. Funny how that happened ;).
I arrived at my parents home Thursday afternoon. I had a wonderful talk with my mom before she went to work for the evening. I was such a blessing to catch up with her, hear about what God is doing in her life and the families. As well as hearing of answered prayers! At times it is difficult to "watch" or hear of the trials my family is going through. Though, at the same time, it is a blessing to see how God uses each and every situation and circumstance to strengthen their faith and grow them. They remain steadfast in their faith which is a blessing! I do pray God will deliever them from the various hard times and trials, and in a small way, God answered some of those prayers this weekend! I was so wonderful to be present to witness it, or rather, hear of it first hand!!
God is good! May Jesus Christ be Praised!!

After my mom left for work I took my sisters to do some errands and shopping I had to do. I really wanted to take advantage of Costco, since it around 300+ miles from my home. We conquered Costco, did some window shopping, and I picked up a few other odds and ends. We enjoyed our short little shopping trip.

We witnessed a beautiful sunset on the way back home.




Friday morning my mom and I went out for breakfast and got to catch up more. I then took her to where she needed to go and take care of a few things. In the meantime I called my very good friend to arrange when we would get together that evening which we had talked about earlier in the week.
(She was 37 weeks pregnant). Her husband answered and informed me they were at the birthing center because her water broke the night before!!

So I was able to go see her that afternoon at the hospital. Since they baby probably wouldn't be born for a few more hours. I decided to go to my mother-in-laws house and visit with her. Later that evening at 9:44pm my friend had her baby girl, Annriette Mae!

Annriette sleeping with the quilt I made for her. Had to give it to them at the hospital. I was planning to be at the Baby Shower, scheduled for the next morning, but for obvious reasons, it was postponed. Happy they liked it.

Saturday morning I picked up the Chicken, did a couple more errands, and headed home!
It was a wonderful trip! Probably the best part being I got to be with my best friend at the time of her first daughter's birth! (The ironic thing about this is, 5 years earlier, I was able to be with my friends younger sister at the birth of her first daughter, at the same birthing center, no less)!!