Holiday Hair bows, family visits, our first anniversary, and Christmas vacation...

Well Christmas is almost here, so I guess I should post pics of all the holiday/Christmas hairbows I have been working on for the past couple of months.



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A couple of weeks ago Dad and Mary came down for a visit. We had a nice time. Madeline had sooo much fun with Grandma and Grandpa!

and I got some beautiful sunset photos!


These were taken on David and my First anniversary (12-02-07)
Dad and Mary watched Madeline for a couple of hours and David and I went putt putt golfing. I beat David 50 strokes to 51. Neither of us did too well, lol.

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Only a few days and we will be in Montana for Christmas with Davids family. We are all getting excited. Madeline will get to see snow for the first time, and April and Mike, and Jeremy and Nicole will also be there.
We are going skiing while there. I have never been before, so I am still undecided as to whether or not I will actually ski, or just watch David and the others. I don't want to be going home with any broken limbs....

We leave for Montana on Friday (Dec 21) and arrive that afternoon in Helena. Then the folowing Saturday (Dec 29) we get back home.

When we get home my Mother, Jerry, and Gina will already be in Florida. They are driving down to spend a few days with us for the holidays!

We will see them on Sunday, and then they will stay till wednesday. (Jan 2) Gina has to be back to school thurday, but she is going to miss a day, so that they can spend a little bit of extra time with us.

The next several weeks are going to be BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!

The Potty Chair

A month or so ago, my father and step-mother purchased us a potty chair for Madeline.
At first she did not want anything to do with sitting on it, she just wanted to play with the parts. So I left it alone for awhile, and didn't try again for a couple of weeks. But since she almost always stays dry at night and during naps, last thursday, after her nap, I thought I would give it a try and put her on her potty as soon as she woke up.
She stayed on, and after about a minute she went!! I was so proud of her and praised her for it. Then friday I tried again after nap time, and again she went on her potty!
Saturday, I got up and got her on first thing in the morning and she went, then she never really napped and we were gone most of the day, so no naptime to try it at. But yesterday she went on her potty when she woke in the morning, and from her afternoon nap!!! Today she went first thing this morning, and when she was going she started clapping, because she knew I was proud of her, for going. When she has gone, I have gotten very excited and told her what a big girl she was and how proud I was of her. So this is day 5, that she has used her potty chair!
She is napping now, so we will try again as soon as she wakes. Then once we have that routine down, I will start putting her on every so often during the day.
So we still have a long ways to go, but we are on our way to becoming potty trained! YAY!!!

In thru the Dog door

So the weekend before this last one we were at some friends house, so that David could help him fix his pool.
They have a dog, and a doggie door as well. So do you see where this is going, lol!
Well, Madeline discovered the doggie door! She saw the dog go thru, and I suppose she thought hey that looks like fun, because down on the ground she was, and thru the door!
She had so much fun going in and out of that thing!
Here are a few photos of her adventure:

we had to go back the next day, and first thing she did when we got there was head to that doggie door.

Madelines first trick or treating adventure

So, we never ended up getting our pumkins carved. David had to work late, so when he got home, we basically just had time for dinner, and then off to the mall for trick or treating!!
Madeline had soooo much fun!!

here we are about to start our adventure:

Then we were off to start trick or treating!

Madeline had so much fun running around the mall, stopping to have people drop candy into her bucket! She loved seeing all of the other children there too!

here she is walking thru the mall with her bucket

and stopping to check out her loot!!

She did not want to give up that bucket when we got to the car!
So as soon as we got home I gave it back so I could get a few more photos!

going thru her bucket again:

and one more!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Well today is
HALLOWEEN
When David gets home from work, we will be carving our pumkins, and I will bake the seeds!
Then I think we will take Madeline to the mall for trick or treating.

I have just decided that I am going to make some sugar cookies, and decorate them. I have some new Halloween cookie cutters so I need to use them for the first time, altho one is missing already because somehow Madeline got ahold of it, and I didn't take it away from her, but that is another story.

So I am off to make sugar cookies, hopefully they turn out!!

Another month gone by.........

It has been over a month since my last post, but in my defense I have to say, that our computer was broken for 3 weeks, and we had to get a new hard drive, because our other one crashed. :(

So I spent that time working on some new crafty things, like a few pairs of Christmas hair bows, and some necklaces. I will have to start another post later with those pics in it.



Over the weekend we stayed at the SunTan Terrace Beach Resort, in Nokomis, FL. It is the same place where David and I got married, last December.
George's parents were down visiting from Illinois so they got a couple of rooms for us all to stay the weekend.
Unfortunately we couldn't swim on the beach tho, because there was sooo much seagrass that we would have had to climb over all of it to get to the water, and that idea wasn't very appealing to us.














I was sort of disappointed because I had wanted to search for sharks teeth along the beach. Last time we were there a couple of months ago, I found a ton of them!
But we still had a good time, even if we couldn't get into the water.

Last time we were in Illinois for my mothers birthday we visited George's parents and I had talked to his mom about how my sewing machine didn't work that great. Well, they bought me a brand new Singer Protege sewing machine, which they surprised me with when we arrived, so all weekend I couldn't wait to get home and try it out!! She said she got a real great deal on it, sew she just had to get it for me. It works great, so much better than my old garage sale one!

Hand made Paper out of Dryer Lint

So a few days ago I finally decided that I was gonna try to make some paper out of dryer lint.
I had been wanting to do it forever and had been saving my dryer lint for a long time, I just had never got around to actually using it though.

I have to say that it turned out pretty good for my first try!

You don't actually have to use lint to make it, but you can if you want to.
You also just use scrap paper, like junk mail ripped up into tiny pieces and I used some food coloring in mine to give it more color!

Here are a few pics of my dryer lint paper:

It has been awhile....

Well, It has been quite some time since my last blog posting.
Madeline is a year old now. My family came and went. Then we were off to Montana for a week and had a wonderful time there. It is absolutely beautiful out there.
THen I have just been busy, or I guess preoccupied is a better way to put it..

I have found a couple of new websites that have become addicting!!

THe first one is called Gather, and the other one is called Netwinner. If you want to check them out for a good way to waste some time, you will find links to both of them over to the left under the title Some of my other favorite sites.


I spend way to much time on each of them every day!

I have managed to get a few things done tho when not on these sites.
I will start a new post tho about that!

24 HOURS

till my family is here, that is!
They will arrive tomorrow, and be staying till tuesday July 31 (my 26th bday!)
I am busy, busy cleaning, so the house looks nice when they arrive.
As soon as we drop them off at the airport we are headed to Tampa to spend the rest of the day! Our flight to Montana leaves bright and early at 8am on Wednesday, so rather than have to get up by 4 and have to drive the 1 1/2-2 hr trip first thing in the morning to be there by 6-6:30 we are going to be staying at a hotel up there!
Then we spend a week in Montana and won't be home till Aug 7!
We will be having Maddie's Birthday party with my family on Sunday, then will be in Montana on her actual birthday, which is one week from tomorrow!!! Wow, I don't want to believe that my little girl is going to be one year old already!

pink patch skirt!

This post is gonna be short and sweet! Just had to share my newest completed sewing project!!

I decided to try making something new, and I think it turned out pretty good, for my first try, and not having a pattern or anything!!
It is lined on the inside, then I used elastic at the waist!!

I think I might make a couple of them to take and sell at the craft fair!

Here are some pics of 2 different views of it:





and Maddie modeling it for me :)

sick :(

So David caught some nasty cold from some kid, when he was helping put up a fence last week.
He started getting sick on Sunday some time, and well I was hoping since I rarely get sick, that I would be fine.
Boy was I ever wrong...
I woke up yesterday, which was Davids 26th Birthday, feeling like HELL. Headache, nasty cough, sore throat, stuffy nose, and lots of sneezing too.
My nose is so red and sore today, from blowing it sooo many times yesterday. I feel even worse today, but David is feeling a bit better today, so I am hoping this will pass by the weekend.
I am more concerned about Madeline getting sick tho. I am hoping she doesn't catch this aweful cold. She has been sneezing, and a few coughs here and there between today and yesterday, so I am starting to worry, that she may in fact come down with it. Being breastfed should help her fight this off tho, so I am hoping that her few coughs and sneezes will be all she gets of this.



On a happier note, ONLY 8 days till my family (except for my father) is here to visit!!! And my brother who recently moved out to Tucson will even be here!! Up till last week, he was not going to be able to come. They will all be here from the 27-31 (my birthday!) Then the following day (Aug 1) we will be headed off to Montana to visit!!!
That also means tho, that in only 15 days my sweet little girl will be 1 year old!!! I can hardly believe how this past year has flown by!!

What is it about the toilet???

so I meant to post about this in my earlier post, then somehow forgot.
But what is it about toilets that draws children to them??? I guess Maddie does like to splash in water, and the toilet is a big water bowl. But she likes to put things in it that don't belong!!
Like this morning for instance!
So, I had left my wallet on the coffee table and my wallet is one of her favorite things. Even when it is in the diaper bag, she will go thru the bag and find it, and start pulling stuff out of it.
Well, I scratched my leg this morning, by accident where I already had a scab, so I was bleeding and went to get a band-aid from the bathroom.
So do you see where this is going???
Anyways, I did not think that the seat might be up. I almost always put it back down when I am done, and that bathroom door is always closed unless one of us is using it.
Well, as I am busy putting my band-aid on, little miss Madeline comes walking in, and before I could even realize what she was doing I hear a big ole SPLASH!!
Yep, there goes my wallet- full of money, credit cards, pictures, coupons........ I think you get the picture, just full of the normal stuff you keep in a wallet, all SOAKED with toilet water!!
So then I got to fish it out while Maddie tried to "help" me!! Then I washed her hands up, because no matter how often I clean the toilets in this house, it is still a toilet and NO place for little hands that frequently visit a little mouth! Then I started emptying my wallet out and trying to salvage everything, and clean it off best I could without ruining it.
Everything ended up just fine thankfully, and it gave me a chance to leave out a few things that were long overdue to be removed in the first place!!

I guess I should just be happy she didn't flush!!!

Bows, Bows, and more Bows!!!

I have been busy, busy, busy, getting LOTS of stuff together for the craft fair. Since Halloween is the next BIG holiday I decided to make some bows in the spirit of Halloween!! So far I have 4 different ones, I am sure there will be more too!!
here are the pics of them!

CUPCAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who doesn't LOVE cupcakes, and what better way to celebrate the 4th than with cupcakes decorated in RED, WHITE, and Blue icing!!!
I made 1/2 a batch of chocolate, and 1/2 a batch of yellow of these yummy cupcakes and the icing from scratch for the 4th, and added food coloring to the icing to get the color I was looking for! They of course are long gone by now!!! But I took pics of a few of them!!!!





It was Maddie's 1st 4th of July, and she had so much fun!!
We went to the beach in the morning, and she got to go in the ocean with me for the first time!! Then we went to some friends house for the rest of the day, and swam in their pool, Maddie LOVES the water!!!
We also cooked hamburgers and hot dogs, and I made some yummy pasta salad, and we of course had cupcakes too!!!
It was a great day!!!

lots to sew

I've been busy lately sewing. Only a month left till we go to Montana to visit, and I am doing a craft fair while there. So I have to make sure I have plenty of stuff to sell!!
My latest project was this little blue dress:
I have 2 versions of it:




I already have 2 extra ones made up, and plan on doing 2 more, plus a few of each of my other patch shirts, and lots of bows and bandanas!
I really hope I do well.
I did sell 2 sets of my 4th of July shirts and bandanas, along with 2 pairs of hair bows! MIL actually sold them for me, to a couple of people she knows with little girls!


Tomorrow Maddie will be 11 months!! This last year has just gone by soooo fast.
She is walking so well now, and walks more than she crawls. She can easily go 30 steps or more with out falling! She also just got her 3rd tooth in last tuesday, and I think her 4th will be here soon too!

Wednesday is the 4th of July, and we are going to some friends house for part of the day. We are also, planning on going to the beach for a bit. That should be fun!! I am sure that Maddie will want to eat the sand and shells tho, lol! Hopefully it isn't too hot, so we can stay for awhile, I just really don't want to keep Maddie out in the sun for too long, even with sunscreen on.
I am gonna make cupcakes for the 4th too!! Red, White, and Blue!! Yummy!

yardwork.....

Well, we, or I should say my husband has been trying to get the yard all cleaned up the past week or so. It is starting to look pretty nice! He built a pergola and is going to pave a path to it, and lay some shell down and some stepping stones. I am glad that he is motivated to get it all done!!! The pergola still isn't completely done but it looks real nice and we just got a really cool purple passion flower vine to go up the trellace on it!
We also just got a pool! It is nothing big, it is an above ground one. It is 3ft tall, and 12x12, so it isn't like we'll be doing laps in it or anything, but it is perfect for relaxing and cooling off in this Florida heat!!!! Maddie LOVES it too!!! She has sooo much fun splashing around!!

I am a blogger now

So after hearing about this thing called blogging for sooo long, I finally decided why not try it. So here I am, starting my own blog :)
A little about me:
I am currently 25yrs old, I have a daughter who just turned 10months on Sunday, and who also JUST STARTED WALKING on Sunday as well!!!!!!!
I am a stay at home mother, and LOVE every minute of it. Ok, maybe not every minute, there are some stressful moments, when I feel like I am about to go INSANE. But hey, I think that if any person can say that they DON't have those moments, then they are full of it!!!

I love doing crafts and making things, and I am wanting to start my own business soon. I have started a webpage, but it is on myspace for now.
the address: www.myspace.com/abcbaby06 there are lots of different things like bows, and barretts and bandanas and shirts and neclaces, all handmade by me!!
I will be adding lots more to it soon as well!!!