What I should be doing vs. What I am doing

What I should be doing while Tessa is napping:
Getting the veggies ready for our Halloween party

Packing for our trip to Mom and Dad's

Cleaning up my craft stuff before Ryan gets home

Picking up Tessa's toys

Reading for my book club

Filling out my absentee ballot before I leave the county


What I really AM doing while Tessa is napping:

Making hair clips! Because we can do chores anytime, but a girl can never have too many hair clips!

Snapshots of Life

Over at eighteen25 they are hosting a new blog idea. We take a snapshot of whatever we are doing at a given time during the week. This week it was at 5:00 pm on Thursday. Tessa and I were at the one hour photo at my least favorite store (but I really like their one hour photo department, so I put up with the rest of the store. Plus it's close to home!).

What I'm Making Today/Baby Loves Disco

So, those of you who have known me for a long time are probably amazed at all the stuff I've been making lately. I've never been the crafty type, but the SAHM bug has bit me, and I love spending my evenings, once Tessa is in bed, looking up new tutorials and giving them a shot! Tonight I decided to make something for myself! One of the blogs I love, Samster Mommy, has some really great tutorials. She has an entire section of Naptime Crafts which are supposed to be doable during naptime. This necklace is one of her tutorials I tried out tonight!

I also started this pumpkin hairclip for Tessa for our Halloween party tomorrow, but my glue gun isn't heating up, so I'll have to finish it tomorrow.

In other news, Tessa and I went to Baby Loves Disco last night! We had so much fun dancing and spending time with friends! My mom made my silver go-go dress, and I made Tessa's dress and headband. Now, I haven't sewn anything (other than those baby legs I made a few weeks ago) since I was about 11 or 12 years old, so this dress was an adventure. I didn't do a fabulous job, but it definitely got me wanting to sew more! We'll see...
Here is a photo collage from Baby Loves Disco. Tessa and I are in our matching outfits! Next is a picture showing off Tessa's cute pants I got at Target on clearance. The bottom row is Yoshiko and her daughter, Robin; Marilyn, Majid, and their daughter, Mina. I wish you could see Mina's face! She is the cutest baby, second to Tessa, of course!

Seven Months!

Little Miss T, I can't believe you are already 7 months old! You are getting to be more and more spectacular every day. I often tell you that you can never know just how much I love you! I am the luckiest lady alive to have YOU as my daughter! Here's what you've been up to this month:
• You are eating really well! You love everything I’ve given you, with the exception of cottage cheese. You are good at dipping your veggie sticks in hummus for an extra treat! When you swallow, you look at me desperately, as if to say you are only doing this to make me happy! You have eaten banana, apple, grapes, yellow squash, butternut squash, sweet potato, zucchini, hummus, cream of wheat, one of those little puff treats from a friend, roasted red pepper, avocado, tortilla, pita with baba ganoush, a little carne asada, and a lick of peanut butter!

• You have started to scooch around. You are working on getting the knees up, but right now it’s more of an army crawl. You are really good at going backwards, too!
• You love to spend time with your baby friends. I think you honestly miss them when we are away from home!

• You have started taking a 2-3 hour nap during the day! This makes me very happy! After 6 months of “power” naps, you are finally napping for a good stretch of time! You are still a great sleeper at night, too. You sleep in “the position” exactly the same way I did when I was little!
• You have started to use a sippy cup and love it! I hope you are always a good water drinker!

• We took you on your first camping trip! You had such a great time being outdoors and playing with all your friends.

• You love animals, especially dogs! I am sure we’ll have to get a dog for you once you’re a little older!

• You are a shoe girl already! I’ve never had you wear shoes, other than to try them on, but you like to play with your shoes any chance you get!

• You love the mirror! I can’t blame you, what a beautiful reflection you have! Sometimes I’ll sit you in front of the mirror and you’ll play, talk to, and kiss your reflection!

• You started to pull yourself up onto things. You look at me so proudly when you are standing, and you never want to sit anymore!
• You got to go to the Pumpkin Patch with Nauni, cousin Scotland, Aunt Molli, and Aunt Susan. You really liked all the different things to see and you licked all the pumpkins you could!


The months are flying by! I know you are going to be a year old before I’m ready. For now, I just love to hug you and kiss you as much as I can!

Lil' Mover and Shaker

Tessa is really moving around so much these days! When I told her in September that my goal for her was to crawl by Halloween, I was joking, but she must have taken me seriously! Look at that baby girl move! She is getting really close to crawling! She also started pulling herself up yesterday! I would have taken a picture and/or video, but it completely freaked me out, so I ran to "rescue" her instead! First, she stood up in her co-sleeper...time to move her out of there! Then she stood up when I had her in the driver's seat of the car, holding onto the steering wheel. She hasn't found a safe place to pull herself up yet, but when she does, I'll do my best to capture the moment!

Birthday Boy!

Happy Birthday to my amazing and wonderful husband! Life is so fantastic when you are by my side! I love you more and more every day. I love how hard you work for our family. I love how silly you are with Tessa and me. I love that you are always telling me that we are together forever. You are the strongest, most loving, funniest, most clever person I know, which is why you are my favorite!

Laughter is good for the soul!

Tessa was playing on our bed today while I was folding laundry. She was scooting around and laughing her heart out! I captured almost 5 minutes of video on my web cam, but edited it down to 45 seconds of beautiful laughter. I just love this baby girl!

Craftastic Weekend!

This weekend Ryan went to San Francisco to cheer on the Padres, so Tessa and I went to my mom and dad’s for some crafting! I love seeing all the creative things people are doing around the web for Halloween, so I invited my sisters and mom to join me in a Halloween craft day. We took a couple of tutorials from eighteen25’s Spooktacular September posts. Our main craft was this Halloween wreath.

I love it! It was extremely easy, and I think it’s adorable! Cutting the burlap strips was fairly time consuming for me, the perfectionist. I was measuring 1 inch strips, pulling one fiber out, and cutting each strip to be very precise. When my sister, Sarah, finished her entire yard of burlap and I was only about 1/6 of the way done with mine (and I started before her!) I stopped the measuring and just eyeballed the cuts. It wasn’t easy at first. I cringed every time a strip was crooked. Then I took a peak at Sarah’s and saw how cute it looked with randomly cut burlap strips. I just started cutting away! I love the final result!


We also made candy corn jewelry out of paint chips. This was more of a side project and still isn’t quite complete, but they are looking pretty cute so far!

Another side project I made was a bow holder for Tessa's bows. I just quickly painted a wooden "T" and Mod Podged cute scrapbook paper onto the front. I then stapled a ribbon on the back and hammered in a wall hanger. That was it! Quick, easy, cute, and useful!

Last week I bought a couple pairs of knee high socks at the Target dollar spot. I wanted to try making leg warmers for Tessa. I brought them up this weekend and my mom helped me sew them into leg warmers. Now, I haven’t used a sewing machine since 7th grade, and that project was disastrous! I was pretty nervous to try using one again. Here I am trying to remember to breathe!

And the final product ~ not bad! Please ignore my makeup-less face.

Not great, but considering it’s been about 20 years, I’m content with the result! I’m actually inspired to try some of the great sewing projects out in blogland! At least the ones that don’t look too complex.

And since no post would be complete without pictures of my wonderful and amazing daughter, here’s a pictorial recap of her weekend:
Spent time with her cousins


Tried Cream of Wheat for the first time

Read with Robbie

Ate butternut squash

Practiced using the measuring tape

She also started getting up on her knees a little bit, preparing to crawl! I got a little of it on video. If I ever get around to editing it, I’ll post it (for the Grandmas!).

**Ryan flies home on Friday morning! Hooray!**

Project 5 White Onesies ~ Breast Cancer Aware

Last night, after Tessa went to bed, I intended to finish her Autumn onesie. Instead, when reading my e-mail, I learned that MOPS is having Breast Cancer Awareness Day on Tuesday. I changed my mind and made her this Breast Cancer Aware onesie. I used a pair of her old pajamas for the ribbon. I cut to just under the ruffle and appliquéd the underneath part so the ruffle is not flat on the onesie. I used the center of the ribbon to cut out the heart on the sleeve. I then decided to use some leftover pink polka dotted ribbon to make the bow. I think it turned out to be pretty cute! I still want to add a little something to it, but I’m not sure what. I brought my supplies up to my mom’s to see if she can help me figure out what else to do. Maybe something with the collar, or something on the back. We’ll see!


If you notice the arrow in the second picture, that photo is the first one I took of Ryan and me on our very first date September 8, 2001! He framed it way back then and has moved it to every new place he lived over the past 9 years. I think it is now stuck to the glass! I love the fact that we have a picture from our first date!