Happy New Year!

Once again, Kenton and I managed to make our last minute plans work out. Babysitter found spur of the moment, lucky reservation for dinner downtown at a nice restaurant, and the excitement of getting to just plain ol get out and do something fun- even if it's just for a couple of hours.

We went swimming this morning with Wrennie, and now her and Kenton nap. This leaves me time to paint my nails and have some personal quiet time to... blog :)

2011 was a great year- but we are looking forward to what's ahead!

Happy New Year!

22 Weeks along...

I had asked Kenton to quickly take a picture of me at 22 weeks. This would be the first one taken so far for this pregnancy and I kept forgetting to just do it already. 

As he took a couple, Wren walked in and stood next to me and held her tummy too. Very, very sweet. (She does that kind of thing when we go into a change room together when I try on clothing and she copies how I stand and look at myself in the mirror. Also pretty funny!)

I think it must be a little kid thing...when Amanda took this shot of me back when I was pregnant with Wrennie, Avelle was just as serious about taking part! Cute!

P.S. Current consistent craving: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Could be worse :)

Sewing in a Straight Line!

I got some nice gifts this year, and almost all of them hand made! (Thanks to Etsy of course.) One of my favourite gifts just has to be shared...

Sewing in a Straight Line by Brett Bara. She has so many amazingly easy patterns in this book and the kicker is that you will only ever sew a straight stitch. When I saw her little video tutorials not long ago when the book came out, I was so excited to give the patterns a try, but had totally forgotten about the book with the holidays on their way.

Naturally, I am starting with her baby quilt for little sweetie (seen here on the left). I chose golden yellows and seafoam as the main quilt colors. Not exactly the easiest quilt to buy fabrics for ( you have to buy many quarter yards of fabric for each totally over 16 different fabrics...try gathering all that and getting it to the cutting table at Fabricland!) but super pretty and unique. 

(Photo from www.brettbara.com)

This video tutorial on the One Hour Skirt blew my mind. She was featured on Martha Stewart's tv show this month for it!

Here is the finished skirt on the left:

 I would also love to make that belt...very Anthropologie :)

If you are a sewer, or want to give sewing a try, I would actually suggest buying Brett's book over any Amy Butler pattern books if you are at a more beginner level. The baby quilt is actually made to be uneven and imperfect, which is so much easier than cutting out a million perfectly straight pieces! These patterns are very simple, and once I have a real waistline again, I can't wait to get started on that one hour skirt! 

(Because I am going to have so much time on my hands...ha!)

Merry Christmas!

Christmas with a 2 year old is pretty fun I have to say. Wren likes getting presents, she gets that whole open-the-paper-and-something-fun-is-inside kind of thing. Here she is playing with the old-school Fisher Price Chatter Phone. In our world of cordless phones and cell phones, kids still understand how to use a rotary dial phone!

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents. One of Wren's gifts here was a Barbie car. It's surprising how fast a little girl understands what to do with a doll. :) Takes after her mom and aunty I guess!

This year Kenton and I decided it would be fun to do a cheese platter. We brought one to both our parents houses this year for Christmas. It was a hit! 

(I used this tutorial from a favourite blog of mine to put this together).

Names were drawn for Christmas gifts this year. Kenton made Cam a Jenga game from walnut in his shop. 

Not bad to look at, and also fun to play!

Christmas Day was spent at Kenton's parents where more presents and food were to be had!

Rachel and Dallas, the dress still fits, yay!

I drew Kyle's name, and Kenton sweetly made this Jenga set for me to give to him this year. Again, lots of fun!

Wren cooked up a storm and served a ton of  pretend coffee and tea with her kitchen set.

Family photo- please just pretend Wren is smiling...

Happy Holidays! Wren required everyone to put on their paper crown.

And finally, Wren helped roll dice in the game.

Snow and Ice!

21 weeks...

...and it's a GIRL!!!

So I actually ended up having to go for a second ultrasound. What you can see in this picture is a side profile of her head and her little arm and hand in front of her face. 

Cute!

We're Going to Have A...

BABY! 

Um, but we still don't know what it is! The baby was curled up so tight the whole ultrasound that we couldn't actually get a look at it's gender. Sigh! 

However, everything looks just fine and well, so are happy with that :)

Ultrasounds can be tricky to pick out what you see, but I hope you can find the head which is at the bottom of the picture, and it's all curled up with it's little knees almost in it's face!

This is a closer look at the knees-in-face action. Silly little thing!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we find out if Wren is going to have a little brother or a little sister. Maybe this is why I haven't been sleeping as well, I've been thinking about it too much! Everyone asks if you have a hunch on what you are having.

 I actually think it might be a boy purely because I keep seeing cute boy clothes, have great ideas for a boys room and so on. However, we have no preference this time around.

And of course, we will be sharing with everyone what it is. We do not have a name picked out for either gender this time, so you will just have to wait for that. :)

Birthday Girl! (and Dad)

Today we had a party for Wrennie...and it was also Kenton's birthday. I can't really say it was a party for him because it was all about her, which he didn't mind at all. Kenton turned 29 (whoa!) and Wren turned 2!

There were lots of treats...

And an Elmo cake!

She blew out the candles...

...and dug in!

We snuck in a family photo with my parents and Cam and Andrea. It only took 40 some shots to get Wren to sit still...you may notice my hand gripping her leg but we were actually tickling her so she would give us a smile :)

Two words: Sugar rush.

Fun day!

Indoor and Outdoor..

Indoors we play with play-doh..the Sesame Street version. It's pretty much dried out now because Wren asked to play with it 20 times a day. 

We make silly lips..

Once we had run all our errands for the month this weekend (not quite, but it felt like it), we went for a walk in the snow. It was the nicest day out today and we pretty much forced Wren to remember how much she loved being pulled in the sled last year. She kept wanting one of us to carry her instead. 

Twice I looked back and she was face down in the snow because I accidentally tipped her over, oops! She took it like a trooper and barely made a peep even though her face was full of snow. I wish she was that easy going when other things in life don't go as planned...such as not being allowed to eat every candy cane off the Christmas tree. As a result, half our Christmas tree is decorated. 

Tomorrow we are having a small party for Wren (and Kenton's) birthdays with a bit of family over. His birthday is actually tomorrow, Wren's was on Friday. If you need cheap Sesame Street decorations, Dollarama has it! I'll post more pics of the part tomorrow :)

Two!

 Happy 2nd Birthday Wrennie!

Expressions...