Jocey and Vivian

Jocey is going to be 5 in December. Where did the time go? She is our sweet soft spoken girl.

School:

Jocelynn started school at the end of August. She goes 2 days a week and absolutely loves it. Her teacher is really good at always doing a craft and has a very interactive learning style. Jocey love's love's love's it. She can write several words from memory including her and her sisters names. Her handwriting is very good for her age. We always knew she was smart and it is really nice to see her progress and for her to have such a good outlet for her creativity.

Personality:

Jocey is fun loving, crazy, one of the kindness people you will ever meet and very "wise beyond her years." We can have long conversations with her, snuggle her, play pretend or even just listen to her sweetly deal with her little sister. She is extremely friendly to all children and enjoys playing for hours with anyone, whether they are her age or not. If you're willing to play, she is happy. We are so blessed to have her as our oldest child.

Favorites: 

Frozen, playing pretend, helping mom clean, COOKING AND BAKING, having her arm and back tickled, snuggling, drawing on white boards, putting on "make up", skirts and going to school.

Vivian will be 2 next month. She is our rambunctious, wild and crazy child.

Home:

Vivian loves her one on one time with mommy ( and sometimes daddy ) when sissy is at school. Vivian loves getting into everything and dumping all toys everywhere.  She is very hands on. 

Personality:

Vivian screams a lot and uses very loud pitched voices. It's just her personality. She is a cheese ball, the funnier the smile the better. She loves to feel like she is being taken into consideration and heard. She talks quite a bit, but chooses not to when a lot of people are around because she knows sissy will talk for her. She is head strong and refuses to get punished for anything, unless you say no to her in a deep scary voice. She can be one of the craziest kids and also one of the sweetest. She is always up for kisses but not always snuggles. And she loves saying "I love you."

Favorites:

Frozen (even more so than Jocey), being sung to, rocking in a rocking chair, pizza, mexican food, any kind of soda, wrapping babies, kissing babies and CANDY!!!!!

Jocelynn and Vivian love each other so much, but can get on each others nerves very quickly. They like to pretend they are having babies together. If one of them gets one thing the other has to have something similar so they can be twins. All. The. Time. It's adorable. We love them so very much.

Princess Aprons!

These are the cutest little dress ups that are super practical and your kids wont grow out of them in six months. I also liked these particular ones because kids don't have to take their clothes off to wear them.

The first step is to cut out a doubled piece of fabric that is 20 inches wide and 16 inches tall. Like shown above. 

Then you want to surge (optional) and sew (as close to the surge line as possible) 3 (2 long sides and 1 short side)  of the 4 edges of both pieces of fabric put together. It will feel like you're sewing a pillow case.

 Then flip all the fabric right side out to look like the picture above. Iron and put to side.

For the top part of the apron you need to cut out a doubled piece of fabric again, this time 10 inches wide and 7 inches tall.

If you want a non rectangle shape for the top draw a little sweetheart neck and cut out. It should still be the same measurement as the rectangle top, just shaped differently. For the rectangle surge and sew the 3 sides, this time 2 short sides and 1 long side. For the sweetheart neck line, surge and sew the 2 sort sides and on sweetheart sew about 1/4 of an inch in while following the shape. As shown above.

Flip right side out, iron and set aside.

For the Aurora piece I cut out a doubled piece of fabric, like the one above and sewed all the sides other than the top long side ( which should be the same 10 inches wide, to fit with top piece of apron). Flip right side out and iron.

Lay both raw open edges of the top piece and triangle piece on top of each other.

Pick up your skirt and surge the top part that was left open for a finished look and to prevent fraying. Use a LONG straight stitch and sew right under the surge line. Once you reach the end of your fabric leave long strings on the end of fabric so you can pull them and ruffle the bottom skirt.

Once you have ruffled your fabric to the length of of the top piece of the apron ( about 10 inches) pin it to the top piece and triangle piece that you laid on top of each other earlier. All raw/surged edges should be pinned together. Sew on top of ruffled edge about 1/4 inch down. Make sure all fabric is flat under the ruffles and you're not snagging anything.

Once you have secured you stitching flip over and you should have this! 

This is the back of one of them, just so you can see what it looks like. I took the seam on the back side and surged the excess off so it was 1 clean line instead of 3 different fabrics sticking out. Then I sewed what I surged, down flat. But I am OCD like that so its optional.

Add a 16 - 18 inch piece of ribbon for the neck ( burn edges of ribbon so there is no fraying ) and add at least a 46 inch piece of ribbon to evenly go across the top of skirt ( over the seam line ) and over the back edges, leave an even amount to tie. You can also add 2, at least 10 inch pieces, of ribbon for the neck on each side to tie, rather than having a neck loop so it's more adjustable.

Here is the comparison to SimplyRoyalDress on Etsy.

Busy Hands

I made the girls Elsa and Anna dresses for dress up and for Halloween. I seriously cannot be more proud of how these turned out! I ALMOST made a tutorial for the two dresses, but I like to make things up as I go and It was time consuming enough, that by the end of these projects I was thinking I just want to enjoy what I made uniquely for my girls.

Finding the right materials was honestly the most annoying part, and then the right colors. After that I literally took whatever shirts the girls fit into right now and used that as a "base pattern" for all my ideas. That's how I could make the costumes fit them so perfectly.

Its funny to talk with people, and for everyone to ask, how I do this stuff without a pattern? My answer is always that my brain simply cannot handle a pattern. It is SO confusing to me and all the times I have used one I usually find a quicker easier way to do it, without sitting there the whole first day carefully cutting out my pieces (holy crap that takes forever to me). I kind of want to start something where I make the most simple patterns ever that have practically no explaining on how to put the project together. I think that would be super cool. I do mess up occasionally the first time around, because I rush or I do not think through all my ideas. Which is good because then I log away in brain what doesn't and what does look good/right/good enough.

I really appreciate all the nice things people have said to me about my sewing either on here or through other social networks. It makes me want to open up a shop one day (If I can ever find out what I like to sew all the time!)

Anyways here are their dresses and the comparisons to the actual dresses on Frozen:

Here's the thing...

Andrew and I are starting a healthier life process. We have decided to be better about portioning our meals and all that jazz. We really could never stick to dieting, so we are just slightly adjusting things. Last year we decided we were spending way too much money on take out so we have been cooking in 4-5 days a week  (no fast food ever unless we are on a trip or its a special occasion) only eating out on Friday's and Saturday's.  I also stopped drinking any soda on the weekdays and have been doing that for 4 months now, Andrew is just starting on this one. Although this has saved us a ton of money, and I mean shload, we have decided it is now time to start cutting down on portions during our at home eating.

We went to the store and bought fresh broccoli, summer squash, lettuce, grapes, apples, potatoes and whole bunch of fresh stuff. I cut the broccoli and summer squash up, blanched and portioned them into freezer bags. We also buy fresh meat, pound it all out, portion it and freeze it so we are not over eating. Another HUGE weakness we have is bread.... So I am only making enough for 4 people or just 1 roll each. Also, NO BAKING DURING THE WEEK DAYS.

     || We  are  making  sure  we  exercise  at  least  3  days  a  week ||

These are all things we can do and are not over bearing to accomplish. Little changes here and there really do make a difference in our pockets and how we feel as a family. But lets be honest Friday's and Saturday's are still fair game to whatever Like I said, we don't diet. 

twenty fourteen

2014 Thus far has been a pretty good year other than a few hiccups along the way. We have had quite a few changes around here in this family (mostly growing up changes with the kiddies) . We have been doing our best to be better parents and better people in general. On a side note ALL my "projects" pictures disappeared on here and I have been mad about it for a few months now. And also the blog is under construction. Anna needs to help me make it all cool again. 

Jocey: She is seriously the smartest child. So inquisitive, grammatically correct, and can hold a conversation with you for hours if you'd let her. She absolutely LOVES Vivian and is always trying to get huggies and kissies from her. Jocey helps around the house 24/7. Even when she was sick about a month ago, she was throwing up at the toilet and accidentally got some on the floor on her way in and she started crying, asked for a rag so she could clean it up. We had to explain to her several times that it was OK and mommy and daddy would clean it up for her. She is just really sweet and is sooooo ready to start pre-school in the fall.

Vivian: OH my goodness.... This baby is quite the little handful. She is very curious/mischief as I have said many times before. She is absolutely convinced that if she hits, bites or does anything off color that she can make it all better immediately by giving you a kiss. It's a super awesome way to say sorry but, Viv you're old enough to get some time out for these things, all though your offer is pretty tempting. She is extremely mobile and active. She could stay outside all day if she had anything to do with it. She loves Jocey, but is usually the one starting the drama. Vivian is also 18 months and is in nursery now which is awesome! Speaking of 18 months Vivi stopped nursing 2 weeks before she turned 18 months and she is doing great. she still only weighs 18 pounds, but she is a petite little gal. 

Valentines Day with daddy's flowers

They love rocking each other on this chair

Selfies, as always from Jocey. Photo credit: Jocelynn Whittle (while taking a million more with moms phone)

Discovery Park weekends with a little Purple Turtle snack on the way home

Watching cartoons with daddy in the morning

No more nursing's first meal!

Easter

Earlier before the basket hunt on Easter. No big deal.

Happy boo boo at Ginny's house on the swing

Sorry most my posts about these two happen on Instagram these days. We hardly get on Facebook anymore!