Monday, April 30, 2012

daisies.

I found some more pics just sittin in iphoto just begging to be posted. who am I to disagree?
Just making some cookies with my little helper! She seriously has a coronary if I ever try to bake anything without letting her dump in the ingredients. 



Ash is a beater monster. she knows if she waits semi-patiently she gets to lick it clean. she will sit and squeal at me the entire time we are baking. "pease!! PEASE!!" 



This was too cute. Chloe found the flashlight and they were finding all their "treasures" under the couch. aka all the junk that gets lost under there for weeks at at time. 

Ash is obsessed with zippers. I have found her sleeping half naked a few times. she wasn't impressed with the flash. ha ha 



Chloe was ecstatic when she looked out the window the other day and their were "flowers" in our yard. "mom I am so happy the rain made daisies grow in our grass!" 



I got them to hold still for a few seconds before church the other day. hooray for new spring dresses! check out Chloe's purse that is "just like grandmas!!"  She had to call my mom today to tell her she used the green sippy cup that is gramma dixies favorite color. It was hilarious she talked my moms ear off for a half an hour! 

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Ash's Car mat

So My baby Ash is turning 2. Can you believe it? not me! I really like making my kids presents if you haven't noticed. I had a tough time deciding what to make Ash, Chloe got THIS for her last birthday, so I couldn't just make her another doll or something. I know I know how am I going to top the felt playhouse?? but I am seriously in LOVE with this one! 
Ash is pretty girly, not nearly as girly as Chloe, but who is??  The boys that I babysit have a little car caddy in their bag that Ash pulls out every day and plays with, and she LOVES cars and trains and anything that moves. So I thought maybe I would make her one of those, but then I saw THIS on one of my favorite blogs. and I knew thats what I wanted to make her! I had been really busy and before I started I thought, 'oh I won't make it as detailed as hers so it will be easier" But who am I kidding when have I ever done anything halfway??



So I present to you MY piece de resistance! Ash's Car playmat:
















To Say that this playmat was a lot of work is an understatement. It was an insane amount of work, every building took me at least an hour and that is just the small ones. My math isn't that great but if I had to guess I would say it took me approximately a million hours. Well it comes pretty close to that I am sure of it. I have been working on it during naps and when they are in bed for a month and i am SO happy to finally have it finished!!

I totally admit to completey copying homemade by Jill's playmat almost exactly. When I went to draw out mine, I was REALLY tired. so I ended up just using hers as a pattern, it was so easy cause everything she makes is SO cute! Chloe's playhouse was made patterned after her playhouse too. What can I say I am a huge copy cat, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery right?? But seriously I am in love with her blog, everything she makes is AMAZING!


It has all of our favorite places to go, Nana and Papa Holt's house:


Gramma Dixie and Papa Steve's house:
(complete with hill in the backyard)




It really was so much fun to make. But those roads. OH those stinking roads. I dont know if any of you have done alot of the "satin stitch" but it is the SLOWEST stitch. it took me more than 4 hours to stitch around those damn roads. my sewing machine thanked me when I was finished. 


On Jill's playmat she has the beach, I think they live in California or somwhere by the ocean obviously. but we have wally's beach....still cool right? 


Tina insisted we have a ballet studio, and I am very glad, cause I love it! and so does Chloe she has been DYING to play with it. since she doesn't nap anymore she was my sewing helper.




The train station, we dont actually have one of these. well we probably do but I dont  know where it is or what it looks like so I just copied hers! 


 This has been called the 3 hour train track, cause it took me yes 3 painstaking hours to stitch. totally worth it! 

For our 2 Papa's who are on the Raymond Fire Dept. one of who is the fire chief, We had to have a fire station:


And probably MY favorite is the school, complete with playground of course :) 



And cross walks, so the kids can get home safe! 

Of course our little drivers need to eat, they can get all their grocery needs at Safeway, or go get a delicious treat from Crazy cakes:




The other thing was that the fabric I had chosen as the background had a little too much stretch to it so when I sewing one direction it went all bubbly, you can see it on the road. REALLY frustrating. i tried to interface the back, but I didn't have any heavy duty stuff and was way too lazy to go buy some. oh well. they will still like it! 


Or they can go through the drive through for a Happy Meal:


We have our church:


And Gas station, with car wash:


The Back has this cute car fabric on the back we got at Joannes. 


And of course we had to have Toys R US. and I have no idea how to turn this picture. sorry about that. aaaand looks like I didn't clean off all the extra threads did I. oops. 

Oh and just the "residential" area of the mat: 

Anyway I am pretty happy that it is done and really proud of it! I am hoping they will play for it for a LONG time and someday appreciate all the work that went into it. 

Happy Birthday to my Smash! 



Threeaster

The kids were spoiled rotten this year with THREE easters. On Easter Sunday we went to Regan's parent's house and had a delicious dinner and then a humongous easter egg hunt outside. The kids were bouncing off the walls excited!


Ash was hilarious for her first egg hunt where she knew what was kinda going on. 

Chloe was a pro.

Some of the eggs were FULL of candy (and i mean almost exploding) and some were full of money. They got to use their money to buy toys at the "Easter Store." needless to say we came home with a whole lot of goodies from Nana's house!

Ash took a tumble. it was pretty funny. ha ha

She had so much fun finding all the eggs. some of the eggs had puzzle pieces in them so they didn't rattle when they picked them up. Ash would just leave those ones on the ground. she knows where the goods are. 


AND WE HAVE A SMILE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! It's a miracle!

I would say Easter Egg hunt #1 was a success!

We dyed easter eggs too one day. the kids loved it! 

Chloe still asks if we can dye eggs almost every day. I tell her next Easter and she goes into major drama mode. "but WHEN is it gonna be easter again mom?? not for forever!!!" 

Ash was there too. she colored a few eggs. we kept her away from the dye, maybe thats mean but I didn't want to have to clean it up after she spilled it like last year!

 After the Easter overload at Nana's house we decided to hold off on the Easter bunny coming for a few days so he came to our house the next friday. They didn't care when he came right? gotta love little kids!

They had some fun little toys in their baskets and the eggs had mostly little toys from the dollar store. They had plenty of candy already. Chloe also got some princess and the frog figurines which she LOVES! Ash got a minnie the mouse bunny that i didn't take a picture of. but its adorable and smells like chocolate so thats pretty fantastic!

Ash was berry excited. 

You like chloes jammies? She wanted a hello kitty t-shirt and the mean mom I am wouldn't buy her one.  I just really dont like characters on their clothes so I compromised and let her buy the biggest size and wear it to bed. See i'm not THAT bad. 


They also had a chocolate bunny to find, We always got a chocolate bunny growing up. and chloe has eaten one bite of hers and they have been sitting in the same place on the counter since then, untouched. I dont know how that happened! 



And down to Easter #3 we had at my parents house. Another delicious meal and a super fun egg hunt! The kids all got these water cute water bottles, among other things, cars, candy, little toy guns. Chloe did not know how to shoot a gun?? ha ha who knew? she had to use her thumb cause her trigger finger wasn't strong enough. it was hilarious. 

Candy all over the land.

Time for a new coat Ash??

Cutest little Baker man. Him and Ashley were so cute playing together all day.


Everyone got a chocolate bunny here too, even the adults! 


Van and Chloe are best buds. well she loves to follow him around and he tolerates her. 

And a chocolate princess egg with a prize inside! lucky girl! 

Ash and Baker eating all the candy. 


I wasn't going to buy the girls Easter dresses this year but then we saw our little cousin Ali had the most adorable pink dress. She is from Utah so we didn't think we could get them. But then gramma Dix pulled through and went to Great falls right before Easter! YAY! gotta love Target!!


And just to show I was there too! I love my babies. who aren't babies anymore :(
And how stinking cute is this kid?? I can't get enough of her.