Memory Walk

It's the Alzheimer's Memory Walk time again! My Mom, Sis and I (and Chloe Jo in the womb) participated in this walk last year. We walk for my Grand Pappy who is afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. This is a horrible disease and seeing my Grand Pappy the last couple of weeks is fresh on my mind. He gets very confused at times and it is heartwrenching to realize that he isn't sure of where he is or who you are. Please help my team raise money for Alzheimer's research and awareness by clicking here. Every donation helps!This is a onesie I made for Chloe Jo to wear on the walk on Saturday.

Mr. Owl...

Another Project Finished

I am slowly finishing my project list. I still have two more big projects to do, but I am so glad that I finished this jacket and hat for Chloe Jo for the fall and winter. It's even starting to cool off so she will be able to start wearing it soon.

If you enjoy crocheting and want to make this set, I found the instructions here. You may have to sign up and log in to get to it.

Bow Holder

Yesterday I had a friend over with her baby girl to make bow holders. Her little girl is just 7 weeks younger than Chloe Jo and we love to dress them up and put bows in their hair. We decided we wanted to make these adorable princess dress bow holders for our girls. They turned out cute, but we may redo them and do some things differently so they will turn out a little more like we wanted them to.
I think I need to put a couple more ribbons on the next one. This one doesn't have much room left after I got all Chloe Jo's bows and flowers on it!

After we finished our bow holders, we went to the mall. Here is a picture of Chloe Jo in her new outfit. I spent way too much money last night!

Deals

I went deal shopping today. I am a dismal couponer, but I am learning and am starting to see some good savings. At my first stop I bought 2 boxes of cereal at $1.50 each (isn't the best deal, but I didn't have the coupons that would have made it spectacular) and 2 packages of string cheese that were FREE. Woo-hoo! My first couponing free item. I celebrated by having one of them for supper tonight. They didn't have the other items that I was going to get, but I did buy a box of Slim Fast with a $1.00 off coupon. Slim Fast never goes on sale (that I'm aware of) so this wasn't a great deal, but it did save me a buck. Then I had to stop by the baby section and what did I find? Summer items clearanced up to 75% off! YAY! I ended up buying $15.19 worth of clothing that had it not been clearanced it would have cost $48.98. I was pretty happy with that!

This one wasn't on sale. I just thought Chloe Jo would look super cute in it during October!
Seriously..."Ghouls just wanna have fun"...could it be any cuter?

I also stopped by another store where I ended up spending $3.63 out of pocket after a savings of $13.98 with coupons and store sales. Not too bad.

Tutu Cute! (Instructions)

Chloe Jo is going to be six months in a couple of weeks! We are going to have her pictures taken for this 1/2 year milestone and I wanted to do something special for her pictures. I decided to make her a onesie and a tutu for her pictures.

First, Daddy gave us some money to go to the local craft store to pick up the supplies. I had 4 40% off coupons so everything was very inexpensive!

We then came home and Chloe Jo went down for a nap while Momma made her onesie. I bought iron on rinestone-like letters, a rinestone-like princess crown and a plain white onesie. I then just followed the directions to adhere the letters and crown and WA-LA: an adorable onesie fit for any princess! The directions on the iron-ons said that it could be washed and dried as usual. I went ahead and put it in the washer inside out. A few of the rinestones did come off, but I saved the ones I could find and I'm going to put them back on with fabric glue. Hopefully it will last a little while after her pictures!

Next, I brought out the supplies to make the tutu:

4 yards total of tulle (I bought 2 in white and 2 in pink)

1/2 inch elastic

Needle and thread

Ruler

Scissors

I measured the elastic to fit Chloe Jo's waist.

I made a circle and overlapped the end about an inch and sewed it together.

I set the waistband aside and brought out my tulle. The tulle I bought was 54 inches wide.

I cut 12 6 inch pieces from each color.

I cut the pieces to twice the length I wanted the tutu to be.

I then had 48 pieces of tulle for my tutu.

I then brought back the waistband. To tie the tulle, I took a strip and folded it in half. Then I took the looped side and brought that through the middle of the waistband.

I folded the loop over the waistband and brought the ends of the tulle up through the loop.

I tightened the knot and slid the strips together as I went along.

I did that all the way around the waistband.

To finish the tutu off, I took satin ribbon to cover the waistband.

I pulled the ribbon up between each piece of tulle.

Then folded it over the knot and pulled in between the next pieces of tulle.

When the waistband was covered completely around, I pulled the end through the first loop of ribbon.

And tied the ribbon into a bow and sewed the bow together.

Chloe Jo seemed to think it was just as great as I did!

Tutu cute!

Busy

Chloe Jo and I have been busy around here for the last few days. My Granny Tiger and Pappy are staying with my parents so we have been going out there to visit with them while they are here. Granny Tiger taught me how to make apple dumplings yesterday and we had a great time. I put Chloe Jo in the Baby K'Tan and she just watched everything we did. She is worn out from all of our goings, though so we are staying home today until bible class this evening. I found a few patterns to crochet hats on the internet and have also been working on those. Here are the results:

I messed up my camera settings apparently. The last few pictures I've taken with it have come out blurry. Boo.

This one is going to be a Christmas present for one of my neices (not the one that has access to this blog!).

Anyway, I thought they turned out well and Chloe Jo and I have had a wonderful time with my grandparents. We are going to go back out there tomorrow and Russ will hopefully be able to go with us.

He didn't get the job that we were hoping for. We have to give notice for our apartment on the 27th so it looks like we are going to have to sign for another 3 months. I hate that he can't find a preaching job. This is what he really wants to do and it seems like everything is in his way. Wish we could catch a break. Our savings is depleted, our credit card balance is higher than I would like it to be and we just aren't going to be able to live like this very much longer. His car keeps acting up and we spent $1000 on it in two months. Ouch! If it breaks down again we have decided to just share my car for now. It stinks, but there isn't much else we can do. I just hope some kind of preaching position opens up and he gets it. We need to move and get back on our feet. I never dreamed it would take this long. People just aren't willing to hire a guy that isn't as eloquent as they would like. Just call him Moses. Except he doesn't have an Aaron to speak for him.

5 Months

My sweet girl is 5 months old today. Time sure has flown since I became pregnant. It seems like the pregnancy went fast and the last 5 months even faster. She is getting so big now!

She can still wear some of her 0-3 clothes, but is mostly in 3-6. She is getting too long for her 3-6 sleepers and is fitting in her 6-9 sleepers now. She is long and skinny. The 0-3 pants fit her the best, but they are too short now so she has to wear the 3-6.

She is still in size 2 diapers and will be for a while. My sister came this weekend and brought me some coupons and gave me some tips on couponing so I can cut down my grocery bill. I'm really trying to do good with coupons, but I don't seem to get the great deals some of you other gals do. I did buy 3 packages of jumbo Huggies diapers for $5.50 each and couple of Luvs for $6.99 each. The Luvs wasn't a great deal, but the Huggies was! I'm getting spoiled with the Huggies. They are so soft and nice for her bum. Russ said I can buy Pampers or Huggies after he gets a full time preaching position and I may take him up on that offer.

Chloe Jo is doing very well with eating solids. I can't believe she's been on solids for a month already! We did a week of one bowl of cereal a day and then two weeks of two bowls a day before we introduced veggies. I gave her peas first and she loves them. We are now working on sweet potatoes and she likes them, too. I'm going to try green beans next. I give her half rice or oatmeal cereal and half veggie when she eats. I am also going to alternate the color of veggie she gets. Green veggies have different nutrients than the orange and I want her to have all the nutrients she can get out of her food. I will start that after we get through trying all the different veggies. Once that is done, I will also introduce breakfast. Once she is on a schedule with three meals I will then start introducing fruits. I want her to get used to veggies first so that she doesn't scoff at them once I start her on fruits. That's my plan anyway. We'll see how it goes.

She isn't cutting any teeth yet that I can feel. My mom said that my siblings and I didn't cut our first teeth until around 10 months so she may not for a while yet. I don't know when Russ cut his teeth. Dad did let her gnaw on a pizza crust last night. I was nervous the whole time and when she finally dropped it I sarcastically said "ah, that's too bad." I really try not to be that mother who won't let her baby have anything not made for a baby, but I am not ready to let her have pizza crusts or french fries. I do let her have ice cream (just a little so she doesn't get a tummy ache) and I have given her pudding off the salad bar once. She really loves ice cream, though!

I have lots of things to do today. Mainly grocery shopping so I need to get off of here. Poor Chloe Jo was worn out this weekend. We had three days in a row of not being home and she was passed around by family. Tuesday she woke up at 7:45, nursed and then we curled up together on the couch and slept till 11:30. Then she took four more naps and slept all night. Yesterday she slept late and took 2 naps (she usually only takes one). She went to sleep around 9:30 last night and she woke up at 6:15 for her paci and went back to sleep and is still sleeping. It's almost 11:00. I'm going to have to go wake her up!

Thanks, as always, for reading blogger buddies!

Wordless Wednesday

Progress Report

Chloe Jo is growing up so quickly! She's not even 5 months yet, but time has flown since she was born. I can't believe it's already fall out and that the year is almost over. Is it just me or does time seem to go faster and faster the older you get?

Anyway, on to Chloe Jo's progress. By my scale, she weighs 13.5 pounds, but that is probably not accurate because my scale only weighs in 1/2 pounds increments. I did try to measure her and came up with 25 1/2 inches, but it's really hard to measure a wiggly baby so who know if her pediatricians office would agree with that. I do know she has had quite a growth spurt because her 3-6 month sleepers are just fitting. In a few more weeks she will probably outgrow them in length. She is still as skinny as ever. It seems like there's not a bit of fat on her little body. Well....maybe on her thighs!

Here is a picture of the latest thing Chloe Jo has learned to do. Sorry about it not being centered. I had to act fast to get the picture before she toppled over!

"Look at me and my bad self. I am so awesome sitting up all by myself!"

I started giving her peas on Sunday. She wasn't sure about them the first time, but I tried them again at supper time and she loved them! I give her half of a Gerber container and a little bit of oatmeal or rice. Her pediatrician recommended only doing one veggie at a time in case she has a reaction so I have one more day of peas for her and then we are going to move on to a different veggie. I'll probably give her squash or sweet potatoes next. I do think I made the right choice starting her on solids at 4 months. First, it was what her pediatrician recommended. Second, it seems to settle her stomach. She doesn't spit up nearly as much which is always nice for Momma! Another upside to that is that her outfit doesn't have to be changed 5 times a day.

She has made it through Wednesday evening bible class two weeks in a row now. I'm so happy about that. I want her to enjoy bible class and I want to be able to stay in the 3 yeard old class. For a while I thought I was going to have to give up helping teach, but maybe I won't. She has been going to bible class since she was 5 days old. She actually stayed with me in the 2's and 3's until 6 weeks when I decided to let her go into the cradle roll class by herself. Anyway, progress in that area makes me happy. Plus, her teachers said she was happy the whole time!

That's it for now. As always, thanks for reading blogger buddies!

P.S. My followers went from 20 last week to 26 this week. Wow! That excites me anyway...yes, I'm easily excitable.

Wordless Wednesday