Family Pictures (The Carpenter Side)

My brother has a nice camera and we took some pictures while we were in California.  This was mainly for my mom's benefit... She really wanted pictures of all three of her grandsons together. 

The whole family.

Another shot of the entire family.

Without the transplants... they running around after the three boys.

Our family together.

It took only one shot to get this awesome picture of the three boys.

Nana and her boys.

Nana and Poppa with the grandsons.

Poppa with his boys.

A whole lot of stuff rolled into one post

Highlight 1: Going home to California/Arizona for Christmas and New Year's.  
A 75 degree So Cal Christmas with the sun shining?  Yes, I'll take that.

All three of the boys together on Christmas morning.

Getting ready to open up gifts.

YAY!  new toy

Uncle Aaron preventing Evan from escaping.

Working on gingerbread houses Christmas Eve.

Evan supervising as I work on his house.

The finished product. 

With an alien gingerbread man!

Loved going outside to play in the dirt.

I love this picture.  That's my dirty boy.

Escaping while I was trying to change his diaper, ran outside to feed to dog dirt.

Christmas morning.  Evan and Rick both look Asian when waking up.

He loved that silly recorder.

Highlight 2:  Disneyland
It was way packed, but we had fun anyway.  Even though I couldn't go on any roller coasters or on the new Star Tours ride... At least I was able to rest on benches...

Evan and I at Tom Sawyer Island.  He LOVED running around there.

 

 

 

 

 

Highlight 3: Mexican Food in CA and Phoenix
We have a hard time finding real Mexican food here in Maryland (no, Chipotle and Cafe Rio don't count).   In California, we went to my favorite place with the best taquitos/guacamole:  Pepe's.  And in Phoenix, we went to Pedro's, La Parrilla Suiza, and Tortas el Rey.  Oh man, I made myself sick quite a bit, but it was totally worth it...

Highlight 4:  Getting to my third trimester

I am now 32 weeks pregnant, which means that I am losing all my energy, and I just want to lay on the couch all day.  I really hope that this baby comes before 40 weeks.  At least Evan is happy.


Highlight 5:  Throwing a baby shower for a good friend
I threw a baby shower for my friend Marta.  Thankfully I had some help...It was Dr. Seuss themed, and I think, a big success.  She got some great stuff, and I was so glad that we could celebrate the arrival of her first baby. 

The diaper motorcycle cake that I made.

Lots of presents...

The table set up... with books and balloons as decorations.

Clothes/Balloon line and game table.

Gift table..

Refreshments:  We had Deviled Green Eggs and Ham Sandwiches, cat and hat parfaits, and one fish, two fish jellos.

Another view of the clothes line

Close up of one of the tables.

Highlight 6:  Getting ready for the new little man
You would think that since this is my second one of the same gender, we'd have everything we need already.  And, we have everything we need.  There was just the whole going through the heaping piles of clothes and organizing everything... And moving Evan's room around to accommodate his bed and the new crib.  And me looking for baby gear that will actually fit in our tiny home, since our two bedroom apartment in Phoenix (where we had Evan when he was first born) was bigger than our home now.  So we've had to move some things around, and we've had to do some research on some baby items.  Evan didn't sleep well unless he was in someone's arms, and this baby can't do that, I've decided.  Especially since I'll have an active two year old running around.  So, hopefully we can work on that with an awesome swaddling blanket that one of my friends in the ward makes and rock n play sleeper that has raving reviews on all the websites that I've seen it on.

We found and put together the car seat.  Evan was ecstatic. 

So very excited, that he fell asleep in there!

The car seat cover that I made for our little man Logan.

It's so cute.  :)

Animal onesies and a t-shirt.  These are for pictures after the little guy comes.  I might be jinxing myself.

Recent Sewing Projects

Here are the most recent carseat canopies that I made.  I really like making them, and I have about 4 more to make for gifts.. then I'll move on to learning to make something else to give as baby gifts!

I think this one can really be considered a neutral cover.

I made this one in November for a friend expecting a little baby boy.  I don't know her that well, so it was hard to find cute fabrics that I thought she would like.

This is my very first girl carseat canopy.  I think it turned out so cute!  My friend didn't have a theme for the nursery at all, so I just decided on traditional pink and other pastel/girly colors.  

I have four more of these suckers to crank out before March.  Three of them will be neutral (if I can find cute neutral fabric), and one will be for a boy (MY little guy!)  I'm also looking forward to trying to make a diaper bag and a cute little diaper carrier (the little pouches that hold a couple of wipes and diapers). 

Evan and Santa

I failed with the 30 days of Thanks... not that I'm not thankful for everything in my life, I think I just got bored!  Last Thursday our playgroup went to Bass Pro Shops to get pictures taken with Santa.  Evan wasn't a big fan, but I at least got him to go up and sit on his lap! 

30 Days of Thanks--Day 21

Today I am thankful for exercise.  I am trying to get back into my old exercise routine of walking.  Today, after walking a mile, I feel so good!  I am so thankful for the wonderful feeling that I get after I exercise.

30 Days of Thanks- Day 20

Today I am thankful for nursery.  Most days, Evan is awesome during nursery.  But today was very different. Evan didn't have a very good day in nursery, and I had to tote him along part of the 2nd hour, fulfilling my secretary duties while he "helped".  Hopefully I can get released soon, so I will be able to actually sit with him if he is being naughty during nursery. 

Outnumbered...

I don't know if I put this on the blog, but on October 24 we had our big ultrasound.  Of course, even though we gave ourselves 40 minutes to drop Evan off with a gal from the ward, our GPS didn't work, and we got lost.  Rick had to call the missionaries because he figured that they knew where the street was the best (it was off base).  By the time that we dropped Evan off, we had 10 minutes to get to our appointment, and the center was easily about 20-30 minutes away.  SO, we just went ahead, and got there at 9:12 (they cancel the appointment at 9:15--15 minutes or more late). 

We had a nice, long ultrasound and got to see how big our little baby was getting.  AND, it was awesome, because were able to very obviously see that we're expecting another little boy.  Right now, we're calling him "baby" and "brother" around Evan, hoping that he'll pick up on the words for his little brother. 

I thought for sure that we were having a girl this time... With Evan, I totally knew that he was a boy.  This time, I wanted it to be a girl.... really, really bad!  I thought that I was going to be heartbroken if I was having another boy, but when I saw that we were expecting another little guy, I felt so much peace.  I can't wait to see Evan with a little brother.  I honestly think he's too rough for a little sister right now!  But, I am so excited for little brother, who we have tentatively decided to name Logan (from Wolverine's character in X-Men... I don't know why I let my husband have his way!)  I just can't help that I really like it, even though it's a pretty common name right now.  So, I am going to be outnumbered come end of February/March!