Fun, Fun, Fun and Eeee!

Last Week:

• My first solo flight with Annie!  (They overbooked the flight, Comic Con crowds in the security line, no boarding pass, but we made it on and Annie was a champ! A champ who wanted to put everything on the plane in her mouth, but a champ nonetheless!)
• Big Sister's super fun birthday party!  2 kids, 1 toddler, 3 babies, 3 dogs, 8 grown ups, beach day, balloons, ice cream cake, crowns, sparkley sunglasses, glow sticks, fireworks, lots of giggles and love, and a well earned good night's sleep (for some much more than for the poor, tired, birthday Mama).  

I did use my skills to make the crown, but had very little to do
with this amazing cake!

• Cuddles and crawling in bed with Nanny and Grampy.
• Annie learned how delicious sand can be.

• Beach day with 4 babies, 2 toddlers, 2 kids, 5 grown ups.  No one was taking pictures this day!  But I got to see Jack body surfing, watch sweet Shelby and Norah nap, see Bella and Charlie run, play and swim, see how big Blake has gotten and meet little Eden!
• Annie's first half birthday!  Celebrated with a swing and a big bowl of avocado!

• A bubble blowing and giggle filled hike in the woods with Nanny.

Thanks Auntie Em for letting us borrow the backpack!

• A visit to Auntie Cheeky's awesome new apartment and a fabric hoarder's dream (aka visit to Hart's fabric.)

• Beach Dinner and bonfire, filled with jumping, running, laughing, good food, Charlie's special s'mores, socks keeping hands warm, cuddles, birds and lots of cousin love!

• Flight home to Dad.  Happy and Sad and much less eventful than the flight North.  

Next Week:

• Figure out how to file and pay my state sales tax.  This is the Eeeeee! I am scared.  This business/accounting/bookkeeping part of this business is the part that scares me the most and which I am absolutely least prepared to deal with.  I have gotten some great reassurance and offer of assistance from a friend we love (who happens to be a CPA, thank goodness for that!)  I have quickbooks (notice I don't say use regularly,) a big envelope of receipts, handwritten records of cash sales and online records of online sales.  Time to get down to business.  

********UPDATE!*******

I did it!!  

     Thanks to some serious prodding from Kyle to "just get it done" and promises that I "will feel much better after" and a pretty excellent baby girl nap on Dad in the glider, the taxes are started, finished and paid!  More on all of this in another post, I just want to say I am feeling quite proud of myself today!

More Next Week (Now that that's out of the way!):

• Bloomers to match Annie's new embroidered dress!
• Kid aprons coming soon to the shop!
• Some new baby love presents heading out the door
• Stroller Strides? hmmm... we will see...

Credit where credit is definitely due:  All photos taken by and stolen from Nanny (one of our most excellent personal photographers!)  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mama for everything this week and for getting such excellent pictures of all of the fun!

Teeth!

She has two!

     Writing this post has suddenly made me realize how long it has been since I have written because the first tooth made its much awaited appearance during a 4th of July BBQ, and tooth number two came only two days after that.  And now here we are, July 15th and I am just writing about them now!

    I have been trying to get a picture of their tiny adorableness (for this post, and Facebook and Instagram and to text to everyone I know and to always remember how cute they are) but the only time they can actually be seen is when she is screaming and I would feel like an enormous jerk trying to take a picture of her teeth while she is screaming.  So for now you will just have to trust me, they are really cute, and really tiny, and pretty much perfect.  Oh, and pretty sharp (in terms most of my friends will understand, they are puppy teeth, sharp!)

     I can't believe how much she is growing and changing every day.  Holding the feet is old news now.  Still working on the inch worm crawl.  She is about one day away from sitting on her own.  She is chowing down on rice cereal and bananas every night.  She can grab toys or teethers (or my hair or water bottle or Lacey's hair or tail or leaves or anything in the kitchen that seems remotely fun and dangerous) and get them into her mouth and hold them there.  She giggles non-stop at the dog park or when I stick her toes in the waves.  And it seems like suddenly she grew about a million times bigger.

    Some of the fun we have been up to lately.

Supervising Mom's fabric cutting.
We got the dress on a trip down the Baja coast when I was pregnant-
and was told by the woman who sold it to me that I was carrying
Annie in my butt.  Thank you, lady.  

Taking a break from our exhausting workout!

Helping Mama change the sheets!

We love mushroom!

     Annie has also been helping me work on lots of projects these last few weeks.  Finished these blankets!  Better pictures and shop listings coming soon!

Working on a dress and bloomers for Annie!

Three onesies embroidered this weekend.  One custom order and two secret presents soon to go out to college friends waiting for their babies to decide it is a good day to be born!

Twin nursing pillows make for great, full belly naps!

Also working on a secret and very exciting project for a certain Big Sister's birthday next week. 

And getting ready for our trip to be there to celebrate with her!!!!!

Clutches!

     Every so often I finish a project that ends up being so cute I don't really want anyone to buy it.  Well, obviously I want someone to buy it, because, come on, I am trying to run a business here, but I kinda want to keep it for myself, and after the initial excitement at making a sale I have a little twinge of sadness that it is going to leave my house.

     This is how I feel about the summer linen clutches I just finished a few days ago.  They are gorgeous!  Four of them are made out of Anna Maria Horner's beautiful Field Study Linen.  The colors are bright, the patterns are bold; feathers, flowers, amazing!  The fifth is made of Echino turquoise Birds and Berries - Brightly colored, yet simple bird silhouettes are perched delicately on berry filled branches. The clutches are simple and elegant.  Small enough to carry around easily (and not get filled up with junk!) big enough to keep everything you need safe and easy to find.  I can't get enough of them!  I am clearly not at a place in my life where I am leaving the house with nothing but a clutch, but as soon as I can choose a favorite I am going to use it to keep my phone, wallet and chapstick all easy to find inside my diaper bag full of toys, swaddles, wipes, extra outfits and various diaper options!

Here they are!

I want one!

Wait, maybe I want this one

Oooh, this one's pretty too

Why is it so hard to choose?

I guess I can't make a wrong choice

     Really, the best part of these clutches may be the excellent work of my tiny assistant.

Oh, and I have a feeling I am going to feel this same sad twinge (mixed with serious excitement) over the Nani Iro swaddle blankets coming soon!  

5 Months!

     I am late with these.  Exactly one week late.  And to be honest, I even took the pictures one day late.  But the exact 5 month birthday was a pretty grumpy day.  An up four times in the night, teeth hurting (teeth, which I am now convinced, are never going to come out, just hang out in there, on the edge, torturing us,) drooling, sad, tired, grumpy day.  But the day after!  The day after was a lovely, smiling, giggling, staring at flowers, watching planes, chewing on toes, loving on Lacey, learning to crawl, reading books, playing with toys day.  A day on which my very favorite yoga teacher's reminder to cherish the moment you are in was most definitely not needed.

And in honor of all she has learned over these five months, she wanted to share her very own, step by step tutorial with all of you.

How to Learn to Crawl

Supplies:

• A soft, hand knit with love blanket
• A toy you would really like to stick in your mouth
• A mean Mom who keeps sticking you on your tummy on the far end of the blanket

Steps:

1.  Look up at Mom and your amazing toy, smile adorably, hoping Mom will just hand it to you, and maybe just flip you over while she's at it.

2.  Realize that is not going to happen and prepare yourself for some serious hard work.

3.  Stick your adorable, big bum way up in the air.

4. Smoosh your face into the blanket and pull for all you are worth.

5.  Be shocked at how far you made it!

6.  Repeat as necessary to get all the way across that blanket!

7.  Flip over, relax with your bestie, Chicken Little, enjoy the beautiful plants, and get some good quality chewing time in with that tempting and elusive toy.

Oh, and don't forget to have really cute feet, they really help a lot! 

I have no idea how 5 months have passed already and how she got to be so big.  Despite the occasional tired and grumpy day, she really is amazing and sweet and funny and beautiful and strong and so incredibly smart.  This is pretty seriously fun!