She's Here!

 

 

Introducing...

 

Violet ilyanna  

 

She came into our lives as a surprise and entered the world the same way.

 

October 17, 2013

Birth story to come...

 

 

Snow White's Tutu: review & tutorial

When I had a daughter in 2010, I was excited for all things girly! Which is actually pretty shocking because I am so not girly, but imagining my daughter in hairbows and tutus was a dream!  Turns out she's a perfect mix of girly and rough and tumble. :)  I am not one to spend a ton of money on boutique clothes

I've always been one to buy at the end of a season for the next season when it comes to kids clothes in particular.  The same holds true for costumes.  So last year, I was on the hunt for costumes for a potential Halloween option this year as well as dress up clothes.

I was lucky enough to find a lot of princess dresses on clearance last year.  When it came time to choose a costume for this year, I wanted something that both {how crazy is that to say!} my daughters will be able to wear even though one of them will be a newborn.  The lucky thing is even if Lily chooses something different to go trick-or-treating in, we have other events to wear them to.

Here comes Snow White and her apple. 

Lily has been blessed with long legs, so I wanted to add a tutu to her existing costume to make it a little more unique and of course, longer. 

I do not sew. 

I'd love to learn, but I currently do not.

Making a no-sew tutu is easy peasy though, so I was excited to be able to do this courtesy of The HairBow Company ! 

I don't enjoy complicated, so the easier the better. I hope you find my no-sew tutu instructions simple!

Materials:

• ribbon  {for waist}
• tulle {3 rolls if using rolls or roughly 4-6 yards off a bolt for toddler/preschooler}
• scissors
• tape measure/measuring stick

For this tutu I was using 3 colors and I wanted the tutu to be full and big!

~Measure your child's waist using the ribbon. I do this simply by wrapping the ribbon around her waist and marking where my fingers meet with a Sharpie.  Make sure to leave lots at the ends to tie around her waist~ you can shorten it later!
~Tie knots where the marks are.  The space between the knots will be where your tulle gets tied to create your tutu.

Although I used rolls of tulle for this tutu, I provided the instructions if you use a "sheet" of tulle, as well.

I measured out a yard {36 inches} in length of the tulle to start my tutu.  I guessed I'd need roughly 15 pieces of each of the 3 colors to fill the tutu for my daughter.  This also depends on how tight/close you place the tulle together between the knots.  I wanted the tutu to be really full, so ended up using the entire rolls of tulle.

After you have the individual pieces of tulle, fold them in half and loop around your ribbon between the knots.  I patterned yellow, blue, red.  Repeat folding the tulle in half, looping around the ribbon until you reach the other knot. 

 As I said, I like longer, fuller tutus which is why I used the full yard I'd cut.  If you like shorter, cut the tulle in half before then folding in half and looping. I've seen those too and they're really cute!

Continue your pattern, pulling the tulle tight around the ribbon until you reach the other knot.

She LOVES it!  And she's super excited for her new baby sister to be her apple complete with her very own red tutu.

Instructions are if you're using a large "sheet" of tulle fabric:
~Lay your tulle out in a single sheet--one yard increments--and begin folding the tulle up flat. Mine generally is about 3 inches wide, but I just eyeball it, not measure it.
~Next, cut off the ends of the "flat tube" of tulle to make it even.
~Measure about 3-4 inches in along the tube with your tape measure and cut.  Continue cutting in the same size increments until you have the "tube" all cut.
~Open the cut piece of tulle completely and fold it in half and then cut there.

The best part is, the measurements are not crucial. You can choose wider or not depending on how you want your tutu.  Once you commit to a size though, stick with it!

Thank you to The Hairbow Company for providing me with the materials for this tutu and the red hairbow for Snow White.

40 weeks ~ baby i2

Date:  October 17, 2013~~ Yeah, my due date.  **This post was written after midnight on 10/17/13...little did I know how the day would turn out. :)

How far along:40 weeks. WHAT?!?!

Total Weight Gained:  No gain this week for total:  9lbs.

How big is baby? What the hell is a jackfruit?  Baby is the size of a baby! haha
"Your baby's the size of a jackfruit!

In month nine, the average fetus is about 6.2 to 9.2 pounds and measures about 18.9 to 20.19 inches (wow!)." 

Simple Saturday

Well here we are 39weeks, 2 days pregnant...Yep. Still pregnant.

Fortunately, I'm not miserable.  Somewhere in the late 2nd and early 3rd trimester, I was pretty miserable physically.   Baby girl has been mostly kind these last few weeks, thank God.   I've had a handful {like 4 over 5 days} of contractions and nothing else really going on.  Each day I wake up and know this could be the last day home with just 2.

This morning I woke up at 6:00am due to the bear my husband's snoring next to me. I tried to go back to sleep, but after having him roll over and still snoring for 15 minutes, I was up.  Off to the couch I went, but there was no going back to sleep.  Lily was up around 7:00am and thus the day had begun. 

She decided she was hungry pretty early and asked for pancakes.  So pancakes it was going to be. I don't make box mix pancakes.  Never have. It's easy enough to make them from scratch and she was excited to help!

You know when you tell your kids, "This isn't a restaurant. You get what I fix." ?  Apparently, this IS, in fact, a restaurant when making pancakes.  Lily likes sprinkles in hers, Andrew likes chocolate chips, and George and I like blueberries.  I did make a few extras to freeze for Lily  since she's the only one who eats breakfast with me at home during the week.

 

 Breakfast was yummy and Lily was happy.  Made for a good morning with my girl. ♥

While Lily watched a little bit of tv, I worked on a print for the baby in her room and a little banner to hang on the bassinet at the hospital. Mind you, the guys were still asleep all this time. Must. be. nice.

 

I can't find my 2 inch circle punch to finish the banner, so that's driving me crazy. I used it for Lily's birthday party and I have no idea what I did with it.  Hopefully I'll be able to find it.  Ugh!

 

The kids and I are going for ice cream this evening since we have a rare evening home with nothing to do. Lily keeps asking Andrew and I  what kind we're going to get and making sure we're getting her daddy some too.  :)  I love that she's sweet and considerate.  I'm getting Snappy Turtle, by the way.

 

Saturdays will soon be filled with the early days of a newborn baby, so today I'm enjoying the peacefulness with my first two babies doing simple things that are happy things.  

39 weeks~ baby i2

Date:  October 10, 2013

How far along: 39 weeks--5 days longer than I have ever been pregnant!
And officially at the point where people ask me if it's time when I call...

Total Weight Gained:  One more gained for a total of 9lbs.

How big is baby? "Your baby's the size of a watermelon!

Baby keeps growing, despite being so crowded in there. He probably weighs around 6.2 to 9.2 pounds and measures about 18.9 to 20.9 inches.

Steph Snippets

Some random things that have been going on aside from pregnancy updates:

~Andrew got his cast off this week!  He's got 2 more weeks until he goes back to the doc and hopefully will be completely released back to normal life!  It was super stinky and filthy!  He'll be in a brace until we go back, but he's happy with that.  What a trooper!

 

 

~When we went to the doctor that day, we had an interesting encounter with some random lady.  She stopped to turn left into the parking lot in a place where the concrete is angled for right turners only and a big "Do Not Enter" sign is posted.  She suddenly stopped to turn. No signal and obviously the wrong way. I honked at her and continued on to the place to turn in to the parking lot.  I ended up in a spot before she did and she pulled up behind my car and yelled out her window, "Who are YOU to beep at me like that?! You are NOT the police!"  I just said, "You were going the wrong way and I nearly hit you." 

Her {still screaming}: "How do you know that one of my kids (3 and 5 in back seat with window down) didn't have an emergency!?!"
Me: "Well, then you wouldn't have been turning into the medical building parking lot, but going up to the emergency room where you're supposed to turn."
Her {still screaming}:  "YOU'RE A BITCH!"
Me: "Way to teach your kids class."
Her {still screaming} "YEAH! YOUR KID IS RIGHT THERE!"
Then screamed at Andrew: "YOUR MOM IS A BITCH!!"

I laughed, said "Wow," and into the office we went. 

Good thing she didn't catch me last week when I was totally pregnant hormonally raging! ;)

~I have a lot to catch up on with Lily... preschool and new glasses.  That will happen soon enough!

~I've got a tutorial post coming up about Lily's Halloween costume {and the baby's too} that I'm excited about as well as a couple giveaways to get posted!

~Marching band has been in full force this fall and Andrew is loving it! I feel like a taxi most days.

~Hockey season has begun for the Penguins, the Pirates are in the playoffs for the 1st time in 21 years {that's since my husband graduated from high school}, and there's a 40ft rubber duck on the river in downtown Pittsburgh. 

~George has finally taken his hunting desire seriously after a couple years of talking about it. I love a man's man.  So, he's been peacefully enjoying the woods and learning about his new craft.

~Lily and Daddy had a fishing date recently and it ended with sitting around a fire at home roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.  She loves her time with him and has been enjoying one-on-one time with each of us before the baby arrives.   She cracks us up every single day. So glad she's us and ours.

~Andrew's dad crocheted the CA-UTEST gift for Lily from Daniel Tiger's neighborhood and a sweet little pumpkin hat for the baby...although I think the hat will be too teeny, I love it!  I also truly and genuinely appreciate the relationship we have. I hope Andrew does too. He and his wife just celebrated their 1st anniversary.  They're truly a good match. I'm glad he's happy.

~I haven't seen my friends and their kids in like a month.  Life got crazy for all of us when school started.  I miss them. 

~I'm loving this new season of tv shows!  Currently watching/recording some newbies: Hostages, The Blacklist, The Goldbergs, The Michael J. Fox Show.  And some oldies: Chicago Fire, Revenge, Parenthood, The Voice, Law & Order SVU, Nashville, 2 Broke Girls, and The Good Wife.   We have to remedy something about Homeland to get that without paying for Showtime because that's one of our faves, but so far we haven't watched this season.    So far we are loving The Michael J. Fox Show and The Goldbergs! I love the others, but I watch them on my own.

That's all for now!  Lots to do and lots to catch up on here!  ... p.s. I still need to pack my hospital bag.

38 weeks~ baby i2

Date:  October 3, 2013

How far along: 38 weeks ~

Total Weight Gained:  One more gained for a total of 8lbs.

How big is baby? "Your baby's the size of a pumpkin!

Baby is about 18.9 to 20.9 inches long and weighs about 6.2 to 9.2 pounds. Her head is now about the same circumference as her abdomen."