Nat...Little Sister...Baby Hannah

The pineapple of my eye.

Isn't this hat a hoot? Tutorial found here.

Natalie's getting a lot of nicknames around here. Reid insists on calling her Baby Hannah. We had a good friend whose baby was named Hannah; and to Reid, all baby girls must be named so.

It's been a week and things are well.

 It's hard to believe these were taken in the hospital just a few days ago.

I have been loving taking things slow and plan on continuing to do so for a while.

With each child I savor this quiet time more and more.

Their little newborn grunts.

Their bowed legs.

The funny faces they make.

How blissful it is to have them snuggle right up on your chest to take a nap.

Natalie is our smallest baby but our heartiest.

She came quickly...just shy of two hours after we checked into the hospital after midnight.

All 5 lbs. 13 ounces, and 19 inches long of her.

I gained (a lot) more weight with this pregnancy than the others so I was expecting her to be much chubbier. But no...tall and skinny. Just like her dad, who she is taking after quite a lot.

She came home in this Easy Baby Skirt which still kind of drowns her.

And remember those tiny newborn booties that fit inside Owen's little palms?

They fit her perfectly...now if she would just keep them on. As cute as they are, we have to stick with the socks they gave her in the hospital because they are the only things that stay on this wiggly girl.

Her skin is fair, her hair is light on top and dark in the back...her eyes are looking blue. If she follows Owen, then they'll be blue for a while and then turn hazel.

Even being so small, she nurses like a champ. She  maintains her body temperature and blood sugar just great and we have no Bilirubin issues at all...she's a fighter.

This was my attempt at a newborn photo-shoot. She is not one of those pose-able, sleepy infants.
She is as active as she was in the womb, especially when she is un-swaddled and undressed. Did I tell you that she rolled right over to her side when they went to weigh her after she was born?

 She has crazy neck control too.

I guess she's got to be strong with two rough and tumble brothers to keep up with.

And have a good sense of humor. I know babies can't intentionally smile this early, but I swear this girl does. It brings me back to her ultrasound picture. Maybe this smile wasn't a fluke?

 Whenever she has a full belly and is drifting off to sleep or hears my and or my husband's voice, she smiles. She just has a naturally joyful disposition I guess.

She's our little ray of sunshine.

One thing's for certain. We're sure happy she joined our family.

Thanks for making it to the end of the post! Whew. :)

I'll be back, but it might be a while.

Have a wonderful week.

Meet Natalie

Born Friday, March 9th in the wee hours of the morning.

More details to come...

Until then, we'll be loving this sweet sister.

Have a blessed day.

DIY Kids Feelings Book

"What are you feeling?"

"What are you feeling? Don't keep it bottled up inside...."

We love that Signing Time song. Especially Reid who loves to watch our collection of Signing Time DVD's from Grandma.

Our third bedroom was an office/craft room/huge giant junk drawer before we cleaned it out and made it into the nursery for the baby. While purging and going through everything I stumbled on an unfinished project from a couple of years ago.

It was just a collection of pictures labeled with different emotions that I planned to put together into a fun little book.

So I grabbed some $1 photo albums at Walmart and took five minutes to finish it up. Seriously what took me so long?  

I thought it would be really fun to take some new feelings pictures with the boys while I was at it...
 

I was right.

They had a BLAST!

Reid kept signing some of the emotions...

But I got a lot of good acting out of them too.

ha ha... I LOVE these pictures.

Now there are both the old pictures and the new ones tucked into these cute little books the boys can look at any time.

Want to make your own? They are a cinch...

- Set your kids up by a sunny window and have them act out as many feelings as they can think of. Let them go wild and do whatever they feel like. Bring up hypothetical scenarios that would evoke certain emotions and talk it out throughout the "photo shoot."

You can also use old family photos like I did with my older pictures.

- Add text to pictures in Picasa which you can download for free here. 

- Print them up. I hopped over to my local Sam's Club to print them up as 4x6 prints.


Their machines {and many other stores'} allow you to add text to your pictures, so that's an option too.

- Add them to a 4x6 photo album.

- As for the cover. I made a collage in Picasa as well, added text, printed it as a 4x6 and then taped and centered it onto the existing cover that came with the photo book (it's just flipped over to the white side).

Tips: 

- Make sure you take the auto enhance off your pictures when you print them at the store. Most machines automatically have that on and mess up any editing you may have already done at home. Ignore this bit of advice if you want the machine to "enhance" your pictures.

- I also manually edit each picture as a 4x6. The machine may crop them in ways you don't want when they print. The only way to be sure this doesn't happen is to edit them as 4x6 prints in the machine. 

I think emotional intelligence is an important skill to teach our children, and it can be fun!

This project provides a great opportunity to do that, from the creation process to looking back and enjoying it.

So...what are you feeling today?

Me?

Anxious/bored/nervous/grateful/crazy waiting for the baby to come!

I'm thinking I want to start the weekend early! We'll see.... :)

Oh and if you get a chance hop over to Family Ever After to check out the Sew-vivor Top Ten!

I got to help narrow it down to the top ten. Man oh man, was that tough. There were so many great entries!

38 and a half-ish

It's official.

I am totally and completely antsy. I have done a 180 from being totally great with her staying in there for as long as she wants, to going nuts waiting to meet her already.

I'm still glad I got ready when I did because I've been tired and even a little sick this past week.

By the end of the week though I had enough energy to work on some things and keep busy.

Like making Cheri's nursing strap.

I used fabric glue and trim instead.

I sewed it up first but didn't like how messy the stitches looked in this beautiful trim that Dana gave him for helping out at Alt...even when I lengthened my stitch. Fabric glue was the perfect solution.

I think I have a new love for it. Thanks to my friend Michelle for convincing me to try it.

To keep my hands busy I've also been learning to braid my hair. Sounds weird...but I am totally lame at this skill.

I love all the pretty hairstyles I see on pinterest but I just can't braid like that.

I figure it's like any skill though right? You just have to practice.

So, while I watch TV, while I wait for Reid to finish his lunch, anytime I get bored...which has been a lot lately...I braid. And my belly doesn't get in the way, which is a bonus. :)

Speaking of bellies getting in the way. Sewing can be quite a trick with this precious lump on my lap, but I've even done a bit of that lately...

While sewing up some Easter clothes and accessories, I came up with this tunic/top out of the left over fabric.

I'm going to tweak it a little more, and add a lot more color to it for a sequel series coming this June. Wink wink. Yeah...I'm pretty dang excited.

The bloomers are Dana's perfect diaper cover pattern, size 0-3 months, found here.

Well... enough blabbing. How about we top of this Monday with good news?

Winter who said, "I love it! And in white--looks so sleak! "

has won the 3D Image Viewer Reel giveaway. 

Congrats! Please email me back by Wednesday, March 7, 2012.

Have a good Monday!