Weekly Update - Tutu #2 and the Gate Debate!

Ok, as a warning, I have had almost nothing but sugar and Diet Coke today so I may be a little wired as I write this!

Tutu #2:  I had so much fun making my first tutu that I decided to make one for my girlfriend's daughter!  I had learned a bit from the first one I made for Little L so I think this one turned out even better!  One of these days I'm going to have to invest in a sewing machine though, so I can sew the tutus after I'm finished and make them last longer.  Here's what it looks like:

I have a couple more people and ideas for my next tutu projects so hopefully you don't get tired of me posting the pics!  :)

The Gate Debate:  Ok, so it wasn't much of a debate but it was definitely something that needed to be figured out!  We had been using our ottoman as a temporary "gate" to keep Little L out of certain areas of the house.  It had been working great until a few days ago when she figured out she could climb over it!  So we had to run out and pick up a real gate.  Unfortunately the hallway where we wanted to put it was to wide for most of the regular gates and we really didn't want to spend the $60 to get a gate we would have to mount into the wall.  Praise God there was an expandable gate at Toys R Us that was marked down almost 50% just because someone had opened the box! (and of course I had a 20% off coupon for Toys R Us!)  I got it home and at first, as we were trying to figure it out, we were starting to understand why someone might return the opened box!  But once we got it figured out it actually works perfect for us!  

Funny thing is that after we got it up we realized there was no way for our cat to get to his food and bathroom if the gate was closed!  This is where the real debate came in!  How to fix our dilemma without getting rid of the cat!  Thankfully we figured out a way to cut a whole in the plastic cover around our bannister, kind of like a kitty door.  Wow, writing that all out it sounds like the whole place is on lock down with our gates and plastic!  But it works for us!  (at least for now!)

On to the family updates:

The hubby has been keeping his days very full!  He finished his Krav training and then had just a few days off before jumping into two full days of filming for "In Harm's Way"!  He is definitely looking forward to some family time and rest coming up this week!

Little L is getting bigger every day and turning into a toddler before our very eyes!  Her latest has been tickling everyone and everything!  It is hilarious!  She even tries to tickle herself!  Tonight while she was tickling me she actually started blowing raspberries on my belly!  I guess I should say she tried to blow raspberries...it was so cute!  She is talking more and more and able to do so much!  Although her ever expanding abilities are fun they sure do keep us on our toes!  (For example, I now have to go buy those door knob covers since she can open the doors in our house!)

Here is a picture from last night!  This dress is actually from my aunt in England and the hair clip was made by my aunt in North Dakota!  Isn't it great how they match perfectly!

I've been keeping my time filled with mostly the same old stuff but I have been SUPER blessed to be able to be a part of a women's Bible study that meets every other Monday this summer.  We are going through a study on the book of Ruth that was written by Kelly Minter.  I am so loving this book that I will most definitely be writing a post when we are done to share my thoughts!  We meet again tomorrow night and I just can't wait!  I really love the girls in our group and I love having the time to discuss what we're reading.

My cousin is getting married in northern MN this coming weekend so my mom is flying up on Friday and then we are all piling in the car to head up and join in the festivities!  It should be a fun time of catching up with some family and then we'll head home to have my mom stay with us for a full week!  It will be nice to have another set of hands to help keep Little L entertained and out of stuff!  :)

And now I am sure the sugar/caffeine crash is on the way!  The hubby is home from his long day of filming so we are going to veg and catch up on some of our TV shows!  (I love the internet and the fact that I can watch our shows whenever we want!)

Have a blessed week full of peace!

Weekly Update - Victory!

First up!  Good news about the hubby!  He just passed the first half of his Krav Maga instructor's course today!  Victory!

For those of you that don't know, my hubby has been taking a VERY intensive training course for the past 10 days straight to become a Krav Maga instructor.  He has been getting up early every day to spend time with God and then he took off for about 9 hours of training (in a building without air conditioning - and it has been a HOT week here!).  After the full day of hard work he came home, ate dinner, spent some quality time with Little L and me, studied, and then went to sleep!  Lather, rinse, repeat - for 10 days!  It has been a hard week physically and mentally for him but the grace of God got him though!

While the hubby has been "playing", Little L and I have been spending lots of quality time together!  It has been different to not have him around to help out but it has been a fun time of really focusing on my relationship with Little L!  I took one day off of work and then on the one day I did work my mother-in-law came and stayed with her.  Thankfully Little L is so easy going that I think they had a fun time of playing together too!

We kept busy in the hot weather by going swimming and playing in our new wading pool in the backyard and at night I spent some time making my very first tutu!  You can read more about that here.

My dad was in town for 2 weeks over the 4th of July and we had such a blast with him!  Unfortunately, Little L ended up with croup the first full day he was here but we still had fun even though we had to improvise our plans.  Then my dad headed up to his lake cabin near Bemidji and the hubby, Little L and I followed a few days later.  We stayed Friday-Tuesday and had a great time playing in the lake, catching up with family, and lighting fireworks.  I know I mentioned this in another post but I promise to put up a post dedicated to the 4th real soon!  The pictures are SUPER cute so I know it will be worth the wait!  ;)

On a more serious note, I found out yesterday that a good friend of mine (she was one of our bridesmaids) was in the hospital after complications from a semi-rountine surgery.  Another girlfriend of mine (also a bridesmaid), her hubby, Little L and myself, all drove an hour to go and see her and pray for her.  It is very serious (she was on a ventilator when we went) but we know that she is healed by the Power of Jesus!  She is already doing better and I know those good reports will keep on pouring in!  Victory is hers through Jesus!  Please lift her up in prayer if you think about it.  I know she will really appreciate it!  

After going to visit her Little L and I went to church and it was one of those services that I felt God designed and planned just for me!  The song we were singing when I walked in is what inspired the title of this post.  The words are "We've got the victory!  Everything will be alright cause we're on the winning side!"  Those words couldn't have been more perfect for how I was feeling about my girlfriend!  It just confirmed that she will overcome!  The rest of the service was just as amazing!  If you are interested in hearing it check out the podcast here, it should be up in a week or so and will be called "Practicing His Presence Part 2" by Jim Hammond.  Trust me, it will be well worth the listen!  Oh, and don't be suprised if I start talking about Joseph Prince's new book "Unmerited Favor" because I am going to buy that book soon and I know it will change my life in huge ways even if it is only half as good as his book "Destined to Reign"!

All right, sorry for the long post with no pictures!  I just wanted to update you all on the happenings in our very full lives!

Remember...you've got the VICTORY!

And the winner is....

Coleen!

Random.org choose #29 so Colleen won with this comment...

Colleen said...

Favorite by far is the custom ice cream set, but I love them all!

colleenstafford(at)gmail(dot)com

JULY 14, 2010 11:30 AM 

I sent you an email so make sure you respond within 48 hours so I don't have to redraw!  I am sure you will absolutely LOVE whatever clips you choose!

Thanks to everyone who entered and stay tuned since I have another small giveaway coming soon!

Tutus, Swimming and a Sweet Moment

I have to warn you before you read any further that this post is a bit of a mashup of events that have occurred over the last few days.  I'm planning on posting a weekly update in the next day or two and then once I get all my pictures together from the 4th I'll put them up too!

Let's start with tutus!  A little while ago I got totally suckered into buying a tutu making dvd (thankfully it was only a couple bucks!)  I just couldn't resist since I have always loved tutus but some of them are just so darned expensive!  So I figured that I could be domestic and make them myself!  I hit up Hancock fabrics and paid full price (gasp!) for some tulle.  (I'll be going to JoAnn's and using coupons or going to some of the fabric outlets in the future but Hancock's is closer and I just wanted to get the stuff!)  Then last night while watching "Straight Talk" on Netflix (I love this movie! I used to rent it on VHS all the time!) I made my very first tutu!  It only took me about three hours which I figured is pretty good for my first time and I know I will be SO much faster now that I know what I am doing.  One thing I did learn though, is I need a heavier elastic for the waist band since the stuff I used this time kept bending too easily when I tried to tighten the tulle.  On to the pictures of my masterpiece!

I have to say I am pretty happy with my first attempt and totally excited to make more! So if you have a little girl you better watch out because I see tulle in your future!  

Onto swimming!  Little L LOVES the water!  She had a blast swimming at the lake a few weekends ago so Grandpa K decided she needed her own little pool in the backyard!  Here are some pictures of her trying it out.

 

Then today Little L and I met up with a girlfriend of mine and her little girl and we went to a zero depth pool.  OH.MY.WHAT.FUN!  Little L had so much fun I can't even hardly describe it!  When we first got there I didn't have my suit on since I wasn't sure if I would need it or not.  Boy did I need it!  As soon as Little L was in her suit and I put her down she took off for the water!  She just ran right in and kept going!  My girlfriend had to go grab her out of the water and hold onto her until I got my suit on.  Once I was ready to go I just followed her around as she went to the deep side, under the waterfalls, over by the shooting water, back to the shallow side, then back to the deep side all the while playing with a little beach ball my girlfriend had brought and any other toy she found that she thought looked like fun (no matter who it belonged to!)  The water was a little chilly, so even though it was a nice warm day she still had blue lips and was shivering by the time we got out but she didn't seem to mind at all!  I, being such a good mommy, remembered to bring my camera but never got to take a single picture of her since I was in the water with her the whole time!

After we dried off we had a little picnic over by one of the playgrounds and we saw this SWEET MOMENT:  (I knew there was a reason I brought that camera!  The picture just doesn't do the moment justice!)  We have no idea what their story is but it just doesn't get any sweeter than that!  It brought such joy to my day to see these two people taking the time to have some simple fun on the swings together!  

May your weekend be filled with simple joys!  

(whether it's tutus, swimming, swinging, or whatever brings YOU joy, make sure you take sometime to do it as soon as you can!)

Como Zoo Pictures (Finally!)

I know it has been 3 weeks *cough cough* since we actually visited Como Zoo but here are some long awaited photos!  We had lots of fun despite the fact that everyone else with a child under the age of 10 had the exact same idea as us...that was the first nice day after a week or so of rain so I think EVERY.ONE. decided they wanted to enjoy the zoo with us!  :)

Daddy and Little L when we first arrived

Checking out the tigers

I love how she is totally waving to the tiger!

So happy to be at the zoo!

Looking at some of the only monkeys that were out that day

This is "Don" or at least a statue of him...I was passing time taking pictures of stuff while the hubby took Little L into the monkey exhibit.  It was so crazy busy that day that you couldn't get the stroller into the exhibit buildings without a LOT of hassle!

Little L at the new polar bear exhibit...it is definitely nicer than the old one was but I really wasn't as impressed as I was hoping to be... at least the little polar bear sculpture is super cute!

Daddy and Little L in front of the sloth.  This is a new exhibit from last year that is really cool!  It is a tropical exhibit and is mostly just plants but it is so fun to walk through!  And the sloth is such a slow mover they don't even put him in a cage!  I think he was in the exact same tree on the same branch when we visited last summer!  :)

You might have noticed that I am absent from all of the pictures...we were going to take one with Little L and me in front of the giraffe statues like we had done last year but there were so many kids it just wasn't worth it.  Hopefully we'll make it back before the fall and get the picture then.  

What I think about...Princess Couture Designs- Giveaway!

I know it has been forever since I have posted anything but hopefully having a giveaway will redeem myself in y'alls eyes!  :)


A little while back I was super blessed to win $15 dollars to Princess Couture Designs from Mommy's Memorandum!  I was so excited to pick out some hair clips for Little L!  Michellene was SO great to work with and after much debating I choose a 4th of July set she had already made and then had her custom design a monogramed clip and a set of 3 clips.  

Here's the Miss America Set I choose!

For the monogramed clip I just told her I wanted the letter L with hearts and that she could pick the color scheme.  I'm so glad I just let Michellene be creative because look at how cute this turned out!

It is AMAZING how many outfits this matches!

I think I was most impressed with Michellene when it came to designing my set of 3 clips.  I had seen this Rock Star Bow and was in love with the colors but I knew Little L would NOT be interested in keeping a headband on!  

I was also head over heals for this set so I asked Michellene to make me something like this set in the Rock Star colors and here is what she sent me:

 Seriously this set is just TOO CUTE and exactly what I had imagined!  I was just so blown away by Michellene's ability to create exactly what I asked for!

The workmanship on the bows is something else I was really impressed with.  Everything is lined up perfectly and feels very solid.  I know these are bows Little L will be wearing for years!  Also, they all have no slip grip on them which really helps keep them in place in Little L's fine hair.

So what do I really think about Princess Couture Designs?  I think they're FABULOUS!  I loved them so much I emailed Michellene and asked her if she would sponsor a giveaway so I can share with you how great I think her products are!

Michellene said yes and has allowed me to do a giveaway so one of you can win your choice of a customized monogrammed clip or a set of three clips similar to what I got!

This giveaway will close on July 16th at 10pm CST.  I will use random.org to pick the winner on July 17th.  The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email I send before I select a different winner!  Make sure to include your email in at least one of your comments so I can be sure to contact you!

So here's how you can win:

Mandatory Entry (this must be done first for the other entries to count)

Head on over to Princess Couture Designs and tell me something she's got that you would love to have or what you would have her design for you if you win!

Extra Entries (Do any or all of these but please leave a separate comment for each so they all count!)

1. Publicly follow Princess Couture Designs on Google Friend Connect

2. Like Princess Couture Designs on Facebook and tell her I sent you!

3. Publicly follow me on Google Friend connect (2 entries - make sure you leave 2 separate comments)

4. Follow me on Twitter

5. Blog about this giveaway and make sure to link back to this page (3 entries - make sure you leave 3 separate comments)

6. Tweet about this giveaway and then leave a comment with the link to your tweet!  Make sure you use @mommyericae and include a link back to this post.  You can use the tweet below if you want.  (Tweet once each day for extra entries)

Win a handmade bow for your little one from Princess Couture Designs and @mommyericae! Enter here http://bit.ly/9RJw0w #giveaway ends 7/16 

Happy winnings to you all!  :)

I was awarded all products reviewed as a prize from a blog giveaway.  All opinions stated are my own and were in no way influenced by anyone!