The Latest Happenings...

Last weekend we had dinner at my aunt and uncle's house to celebrate my cousin's birthday. Christy's daughter, Sadie, is 9 months older than Lailey. In fact, two days after Sadie was born, we found out we were prego with "Baby Akin." Seems so long ago already. Anyway, now that the girlies are getting a little older, they are interacting more. They were saying "hi" and Sadie said "Lailey." I love hearing her say it.

Sadie was having fun playing "mommy" with the "baby," as she kept calling Lailey. She would hold the sippy cup to Lailey's mouth, and she would go for it then Sadie would take it away, whether in excitement or distraction, I don't know. But we were cracking up because Lailey would get this confused and disappointed look on her face like "hey, I didn't get any!" She never really got upset, just determined to get some water!

{Finally Jason helped and Lailey got a real drink. Thanks Sadie!}

{Hugs!}

{Daddy in love}

The last few days Lailey has been acting sleepy and ready for bed a little earlier than usual. I wonder if it's all the crawling and moving she's been doing that is wearing her out. So tonight I started our little bedtime routine early to avoid any fussiness when she gets overtired. It usually goes like this: getting changed and into jammies (actually she wore them all day today while at home with Davey, so scratch that. Pajama days rock.) then reading, nursing, getting tucked in and bedtime prayers. Well, she fell asleep nursing tonight for the second or third time this week, so the rest was finished with her asleep already. Davey wanted to put her in bed, and when he picked her up, instead of waking up a little before we lay her down, she snuggled right into his shoulder and stayed there. She typically leans back even when sleepy, but she wanted to cuddle tonight. It was a very sweet moment.

Projects...

Well, no sewing this week. I've been trying to finish re-upholstering my dining room chairs. I can do some of it while Lailey's asleep, but the staple gun is sort of loud, so I didn't want to wake her since her room isn't that far from where I'm working. Little unknown random fact about moi: I really enjoy power tools, even non-power staple guns. Guess I like the power factor or something. It gives the feeling of actually having some real muscles. Muahahahahaha. Anyway, back to the chairs.

This project has taken longer than I thought it would for a couple of reasons. The first being that when you have a crawling kid, there are no moments except when they're sound asleep that you can take your eyes of them. Then with the staple gun thing...well you get the point. With Davey home he can keep his eye on her while I play with tools. Second reason: the weekend I started it (sadly, several weekends ago), I discovered to my irritation that the screws had some oddly shaped hole in them. Say goodbye to Mr. Flathead and Mr. Phillips - no can do. Had to drag dining room chair to Ace Hardware, where the extremely helpful and kind guy found the drill bit in 8. 7 seconds all the while carrying my dining room chair all over the store and then back out to my car. It made me believe there are still people in customer service that actually know their jobs and can - gasp! - be helpful AND nice too! Yikes, apparently the sarcasm comes out the closer I get to midnight. Back to Ace: I believe it was the cheapest shopping trip in my life, coming to a total of .85 cents. That's my kind of buy.

Then I started on the chairs and, I won't lie, it takes a little elbow grease for me to pry the old material off and then remove the staples. But I was a big girl and didn't ask for help - except for Davey to lend me his multi-tool. So, I've completed 3 out of the 4 chairs, and I'm proud. Hopefully the other one will be finished tomorrow.

{close up of the pattern - it matches the kitchen and dining room}

{before} {after}

{new placemats with existing plate and accent plate}

I only brought 9 (nine!) fabric samples home from the store to compare them in my dining room, and when I got out my flower plates, which I love, and put them on this fabric, it sealed the deal. In fact, those flower are the entire reason I registered for the whole set when we got married. So, it makes sense to match my chairs to them. I'm definitely not a great decorator, but I think it ties it together nicely. They actually look better in real life than in the picture. But you get the idea.

Wow, that was kind of long. Thanks for making it this far reading my rambling!