This Happened Today. . .

A (baby) tooth abscess.
An extraction. (No Foolin'!)
A much happier boy!

I think this deserves a bonus from the Tooth Fairy!

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9

This fun girl of ours turned 9 today!

We celebrated as a family and braved driving through the snow to go watch 

Oz the Great and Powerful. It was a fun movie and we all enjoyed it. We 

spent the rest of the day doing some shopping, baking cookies, and playing. I

know she'll have fond memories of this special day.

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I made her an appliquéd t-shirt and this is what I came up with for "9". 

I'm happy with it and she loved it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SWEET JULIA!

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1, 2, Threeeeeeee!

Our baby just turned three! 

Weeeeeeeeeee!

He's quite a character. The things that describe him best at this age are: 

-a love of music, he especially likes to play his guitar and sing (his favorites are songs by Ms. Anya from The Music Train)

-very ordered and simple play, he lines up his little toy characters side-by-side and has conversations with them. He can do this for hours.

-a gentle touch, he takes his time doing things and is very careful in handling things

-in-depth and amazing conversationalist, he has a big vocabulary and likes putting new words to use, usually in proper context!

I think he's going to be our musical orator--a musician that gives great speeches!

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I made him a special birthday shirt. It's "the usual" birthday shirt, the Kai Shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing book. The fabric is from the DS Quilts collection.

 

He was so excited to open his present and gave a loud gasp when he saw it.

I had planned on sewing a patch of Woody the Cowboy (character from Toy Story) on the pocket but somehow the patch went missing. The good thing is that it will be easy to sew on once we find it.

I choose to add snaps instead of buttons on the shirts I make for the boys. Snaps are easier to apply and much easier for the kids to work with. This time I chose to make one snap a different color just for fun (see the red one?).

Happy Birthday to my baby boy! May the year ahead be filled with fun, health, and happiness! God bless you! xoxo

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December 22 A Special day

Today is a special day. It is a day that every year finds me filled with emotion both bitter and sweet. A day that reminds me of true love, courage, and trust. A day that helps me to keep hope alive and strengthens my faith.

Today is the day that I first became a mother to a lovely little girl we named Viviana. She was born 14 years ago, chubby and sweet and beautiful, of course. Yet, in all her wonderfulness, she was faced with some challenges but none that would rob her of any joy for life. Her name, after all, means "life"!

Viviana was a light in my life who helped me to understand Love in ways I probably never would have without her. She showed me how to trust that putting it all in God's hands graces you with generous blessings. She taught me how to be courageous because peace and comfort soon follow when you trust. She allowed me to experience and know true Love--God and his awesomeness.

Today is a special day because it is a day we remember our sweet girl, Viviana.
She died very unexpectedly 7 years ago. My heart is filled with sadness for the loss of her life but it also rejoices in the blessing of her life!

It is a privilege to be the mother of Viviana. My sweet girl brought me lessons and love that have helped me to want to be trusting, courageous, and know God just like she did!

Happy Birthday, Viviana! I love you!

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Double Digits!

Yesterday we celebrated another birthday in our family! The big 10 for Miss M.

She has now entered the double digits! Does this make her a tween or has she been one? I don't know! This tween is a wonderful girl! I'm so blessed to be her mom!

I made her a special mom-made gift: a birthday t-shirt! Embellished for a superstar!

Happy Birthday to my sweet and loving girl!

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Embellishing a t-shirt isn't a new idea but here's a quick how-to just in case you want to make a special birthday tee for your kiddo. I've written a how-to about this before but in that one I used Heat'n Bond which is too thick. I've decided I'd rather use stitch witchery.

HOW-TO Embellish a T-shirt (written instructions):

You'll need: 

a t-shirt

scrap fabric

stitch witchery* (can be purchased by the yard or in a roll)

an iron

a pressing cloth (optional)

a sewing machine

1. From the scrap fabric cut out the design you want to put on the t-shirt.

2. From the stitch witchery cut out the same design.

3. Place the fabric design on the t-shirt with the stitch witchery sandwiched between the fabric design and the t-shirt.

4. With a hot iron (and a pressing cloth, if you choose) press over the fabric design. It will become fused to the t-shirt. Be careful not to have any stitch witchery exposed because it melts and it can ruin your iron.

5. Stitch around the edges of your design to keep it from peeling off of the t-shirt. You can use a straight stitch or a zigzag stitch.

That's all! 

*Stitch witchery is a fusible material that can bond two fabrics together when heat is applied. Over time, and after a few washings, the bond can break and the fabrics can become separated so it is suggested that you stitch around the fused fabric to keep it from peeling off. The t-shirt above was not stitched because I ran out of time but it will get done very soon.

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He turned 6 today

Oh what a blessing

To be the mom of John Paul

He is such a joy!

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY to my boy!

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So what about the birthday shirt? Well, the diamond fabric by Denyse Schmidt was the winner for JP's birthday shirt. I made it last night and gifted it to him this morning.

I like it and, more importantly, he likes it! He was happy to wear it for his birthday and didn't think twice about it. Last year he wasn't so sure about wearing his momma-made birthday shirt and my feelings were hurt. I'm glad I made another one for him this year.

Today was a very happy day and I'm thankful.

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The Yearly Birthday Shirt (your opinion needed!)

My oh-so-sweet boy will be turning 6 tomorrow! 

Tonight I'll be working on his 6 year old birthday shirt, but I need your help!

I just can't decide which fabric to use! I have, however, narrowed it down to one fabric designer! It was unintentional but the three fabrics I have to choose from are all designed by Denyse Schmidt.

Help me pick one!

What's your opinion?

•gray leaves

•blue dots

•green & blue diamonds

Please let me know soon because I'll start working on this by 8pm MST! 

THANKS!

-Indecisive Claudia

Here's a collection of birthday shirts:

(I can't find a 1st year photo. I'll add it later, if I find one.) :

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

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Milestones

Life is full of events--events we anticipate as special moments and others that just become special moments. Moments known as milestones. . .

This past week we experienced (another) major milestone in our home. Miles, our baby, went through the transition of sleeping in a crib to a toddler bed. We decided it was time for the switch since we had spent many days in June sleeping away from home and he got a lot of practice time sleeping in "big boy beds".

Daddy made the switch as Miles watched. He was unsure about the change--notice his stance in the picture above--but he didn't protest. As I took this picture, I thought it was so cute how he was standing there with his arms crossed. And it was cute, but it was also sad (for me).

Watching your child(ren) grow and learn is a gift. One that usually brings joy but can also bring frustration and sadness and sometimes pain. I pray that I can truly and mindfully cherish this time as a mother of young children before these days are behind me.

So, Miles has accepted the switch very well and we haven't had many challenges with the change. It's incredible how kids can adapt so easily--especially when parents can put aside our own anxieties! We should probably move on to potty-training but I'm not sure that I'm ready. I'm still working through this latest milestone remembering that every moment we have with our children is a precious moment!

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Love is stronger than death

Anyone who enters into love, and through love experiences the inextricable suffering and the fatality of death, enters into the history of the human God. In the suffering and death of Jesus we find the power to love in the midst of suffering because love is stronger than death. —The Humility of God: A Franciscan Perspective

Viviana's Garden 2012

Today, 7 years after Viviana left us, all I can say is that I still cry, I still smile, I still pray, and I still miss her so much! I have no other words to share so I'm using the words of others--words that bring me comfort today.

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Junior Baseball

This weekend JP played his first league baseball game ever!

The name of his team is the "Tornado Rockies" because there 

was a tornado in Denver on the first day of practice.

Dude! He's ready to go! 

Warming up.

Keeping cool.

My lefty at bat.

He hits it! (See it on the upper left of the photo.)

I'm really looking forward to baseball season!

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2 Kids, 2 Birthdays

Two of my kids have turned one year older over the past month.

Miles is 2!

Julia is 8!

Happy Birthday to my sweets!

xoxo

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The Baby is 2!

Today is my baby's birthday. He is 2! 

He makes his needs very clear. 

He speaks in full sentences (hard to understand sometimes), 

learns things instantly (that meansTrouble), and loves to play 

with his big brother and sisters (he's usually the boss).

He's quite independent and funny and cute, of course.

He really loves music!

We had lots of fun celebrating his special day.
The Terrible Two's are upon us but after experiencing this phase
a few times now, I hope we can smile right through it.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Miles! I love you!

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Halloween Costume Construction 2011

Well, it's almost Christmas and I'm finally getting around to writing about how this year's costumes were made. I wasn't going to write about it but I know that next year I'll be looking back at my posts about Halloween costumes and will surely find something from this post helpful.

We started with this:

And ended up with most of this:


Halloween 2011 was simple for me. I scored some great pieces at the thrift store and so I didn't have to do much sewing! Maria, our bookworm, read through the whole Harry Potter series over the summer so she was Hermione. Our family was really into Star Wars with the recent release of the Blu-ray set of all the movies so Julia and JP both wanted to be Star Wars characters. Julia was Princess Leia and JP was Obi-Wan Kenobi. Miles borrowed a costume from my nephew from the large pool of toddler costumes our families have gathered over the years; he was a skeleton.

HERMIONE: Maria purchased the Hermione cloak with her own money and made her own scarf. She had hoped to knit her own scarf but we decided to sew one instead. I cut the squares from two thrifted t-shirts (you can see them hanging on the clothes line above). . .

. . . and she sewed the squares together in an alternating pattern. She explained to me that my plan for Hermione's scarf was wrong because it was a Hogwarts scarf and Hermione wears a Gryffindor scarf. Since I didn't really know the difference, well, I told her it didn't matter. She was cool with that and was quite proud to say she had made her own scarf. That meant more to her than wearing the "right" scarf, I think.

PRINCESS LEIA: I found a perfect children's dress for Princess Leia, a golden elastic belt, and a white polyester woman's Size 18 skirt to complete the look. The skirt was altered by trimming it down and adding new elastic around the waist because the original elastic was bad. The coolest thing about this skirt was that it still had the original tags and had been purchased at The Denver. If you're from Denver, do you remember that store!?

Julia has short hair so I had to figure out how to make buns. I found this fun tutorial on how to make Princess Leia buns on instructables.com. I made them with scraps from a brown t-shirt that was used for JP's costume. The buns weren't attached to a cap as in the tutorial because I figured that was a better option for a baby; I used a headband instead. I stitched some loops using embroidery thread to the back of each bun and slipped the headband through the loops. After the buns were on the headband, I wrapped a rubberband on each end of the headband as "stoppers" to keep the buns from falling off. This worked very well! My crafting time ran out so I never covered the white headband. 

OBI-WAN KENOBI: For this costume I bought a tan t-shirt, khaki pants, a karate uniform jacket, a belt, and a two brown men's t-shirts. The only thing I sewed for this costume was the cloak. I cut one of the brown men's t-shirts open starting at the center of the neckline down to the hem. With the other brown-t-shirt, I made a hoodie and sewed it to the neckline of the first brown t-shirt. Simple.

I didn't make Miles' costume, but I couldn't leave him out of this post.

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On Costumes, 2011

(This is the "glowing orb" we put outside on Halloween Night. Idea found here.)

This was another fun year of costumes. This year was a little different, though. The girls ended up with two different costumes; one for school and one for trick-or-treating. 

The school costumes were based on saints:
                       St. Elizabeth (holding baby St. John) and St. Mary Magdalene.

The trick-or-treating costumes were based on the current interests of each of the kids:

Hermione, Princess Leia, Obi-Wan (or Obi-Juan, as we called him, since his name is John).

These costumes came together fairly quickly and with very little sewing. I plan on writing about that in another post.

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