He's Home!

Some of you know, some of you didn't know that Matt had been deployed to Iraq for 4+ months. Well, he finally came home just a few days ago! Yay! Syd and I did good while he was gone. Thanks to my parents who let us crash with them for 3 weeks. Thanks to family and friends who came to visit us. Thanks to my friends who would call and email to check up on me. And thanks to my friends who graciously watched Sydney so I could go to my doctor appts.

Since Matt's been back, we've been doing all sorts of things. Matt took Sydney to the beach the other day and I was alone in my house for a few hours! It was fantastic! What did I do? I crafted the whole time - uninterupted. : ) Matt has about a week and a half off now so we'll be doing all sorts of fun things. Today we went to our county fair. Matt totally spoiled Sydney with rides, games, and sugar. First up: the ferris wheel.

Cotton candy.

And for those of you who have been to Ohio, they had Ritters at our Florida fair! I couldn't believe it. I'm pregnant people, of course we had some. : )

The prizes from the games. I have no idea what drew her to the giant crayon.

Roller coaster. The same one from the Texas State Fair too.

Sydney just loves to ride on fair rides. Here's a version of the tea cups.

Have a good weekend.

Few More Halloween Pictures

On Saturday, we went with some of our friends to a couple festivals. It seems like every church was having a festival with Halloween being on Saturday. Fine by us. Lots of free things to do. Here is Sydney with a face painted heart on her cheek.

And here she is in action at a Trunk-or-Treat.

On Saturday night, we went around the neighborhood with our friends. Sydney knew exactly what to do. She really had a great time. On Sunday, she was asking when she could go again! haha. Thankfully, it's only once a year.

And one more closer-up picture of her costume so you can get full effect of the cupcake liner and ruffles.

Happy Halloween

Here's Sydney in her cupcake costume! : ) Inspired mainly by PBK's cupcake costume but also here and here. I wasn't about to spend $60 on a costume. This one was $5. I had all the fabric and interfacing - which was actually given to me by my sister-in-law. All I had to buy was the brown tights and headband. I'm very proud of my thriftiness turned into cuteness. Sydney saw the PBK picture and was adamant about a strawberry headband for herself. She was all about trick or treating this year. I don't blame her, who doesn't love candy?

Sydney's New Clothes

So this weekend I went on a sewing rampage and made Syd tons of new stuff. I made these peasant style shirt/dresses. No pattern just some cutting and elastic. Super easy with the serger. I love how versatile these can be. I can pair them with jeans, leggings, or tights. And all the different embellishments that can be sewn to them - like ruffles. Here's the variety that I made:

On Sunday afternoon, I made this coat for her. I used McCall Pattern 5697. It actually went together pretty easily - thanks again to the serger. Unfortunately, it's a bit big for her. I made the size 4 (which is what she usually wears) and I could have gotten away with a size 3. Oh well, hopefully it will fit through next fall too. You can't really tell from the pictures but it's a grey and white plaid with some teal in it. Maybe I'll have to add a teal flower pin of some sort to help bring it out.

Thanks for looking!

Halloween Decorations

Here's the extent of my Halloween decorations. I'm not a huge fan of Halloween but I am a huge fan of Sydney's costume this year! Oh man, I can't wait to spill the beans and show it to you. I finished it up weeks ago in anticipation. I made Martha's Witch Broom favors. They are super easy, I promise. Sydney and I have been collecting little pumpkins at the grocery store and pumpkin patches. We have quite a collection this year. Besides the cute-ness factor, I have no idea what else to do with them come November 1st. I guess I can incorporate them into Thanksgiving decor. If that's my biggest problem right now, I guess we're doing good! haha.

Birthday Party

We went to a super fun birthday party today for one of Sydney's friends. It was a mini golf, race track, and kid's fair type rides. It was perfect because only the kids could ride and they were totally age appropriate for 3-5 year olds. Here's Sydney in the ferris wheel. She's in the blue cart.

In the tea cups with the birthday girl.

The airplane ride. Waving to all her fans.

Now this was her favorite ride. I wasn't too sure how she would do at first but with all the peer pressure she hopped right on and loved it! It basically just takes them up and drops them a bit, over and over. She smiled the whole time. We did ride multiple times on this one.

And in the swings that take you around in a circle. They had a few other rides too. We are definitely going back!

So I haven't put up many craft pictures lately. It's not because I haven't been doing anything - far from it. I'm just a little slow on the uploading. Hopefully this week I'll show you some new stuff.

Monday Randomness

So we had another gourd pop up on our fence while we were at the wedding. This time I snagged it. I still have no idea what to do with it but I have it. haha. I feel bad though because my neighbors are obviously growing them for some reason and I have no reason to keep it. I made Sydney pose with it one morning this weekend so you could really see how big these things get. It's much larger than the first one.

And if you want to make someone's day, you decorate cookies. I told Sydney we could decorate the cookies after her nap...not a good idea. She woke up early and came out immediately asking for the cookies. : ) She knew what she wanted. I found these cupcake cookie cutters at Crate & Barrel. I thought they were too cute to pass up. Sydney is quite smitten with them too.

Seaside Stable Pumpkin Patch

I was pretty excited when I stumbled on this pumpkin patch at a local stable. Love that internet! : ) I have been trying to go to events that have pony rides but it never fails that the ponies never show up for one reason or another. It was an absolutely beautiful day with cool weather. Syd has been real sick all week so it was really nice to get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine.

They had lots of horses, ponies, goats, dogs, and a piglet. We were able to feed the horses. Syd was pretty scared of feeding the big horses so she stuck to feeding a pony.

Oh man, she was unbelievably excited to ride around the stable on the pony. She said it was her favorite part of the day.

She is such a big girl in this picture.

They had a few other things to do: bounce house, face painting, pumpkin painting. There wasn't a whole lot of people out and it was local so everything was so personable and low key.

They also had hay rides provided by these two horses. And here's me at 31 weeks prego.

Let's just hope this cooler weather stays!

Flower Girls

This past weekend, we went to my step-sister's wedding. Sydney and Karalyn were the little flowergirls for the ceremony. Would they do it? Stage-fright? Crying? You've seen all the America Funniest Video wedding clips. Maybe we would win the next 10 grand! The anticipation! Here's the girls on Friday's rehearsal. They did great at praticing.

The "forced" smiles and bribery in their hands. : )

On Saturday, we had some time to kill. The whole family rented out the bed & breakfast next to the ceremony/reception center. The bed & breakfast was absolutely wonderful. We did a little hiking around the grounds.

And swinging. I love her face. She did ask to go high!

Wedding time! Here's the girls all dressed up.

The girls and Kari, the beautiful bride.

Some of the fam.

Now, to the moment we've all been waiting for! Did they do it?

YES, they did!!!

Whew! Congrats to Kari and Uncle "New" Matt. You know, since there are now 2 Matts in the family.