I CAN SEW!!!

So about a month ago I bought a sewing machine. I had never sewn anything, but wanted to... So (hahaha) I called up Laura to set up a craft date! She is my sewing/knitting educated friend (she comes from a very talented mother!). I can't believe we didn't take any pics of ourselves...must have been too busy with the wine! Anyway, I think she came over overly optimistic, not knowing my true rookie status. She brought her sewing machine so we could work on stuff at the same time....um, no, I was going to need all of her time for help!!!. So we set up the machine and I learned all kinds of new words like bobbin, foot, and right side (which does NOT mean the right "leg" of the pants...ha). We made pants...from a pattern!!! It was crazy. I also did a few things that required some troubleshooting, which was nice to have happen while she was there! My goal was to be able to make pants for me, Joey and Juliette to wear on Christmas morning. Juliette's are done, and I finished mine (even though they are huge...but now I know how to fix it!). My next project will be a dress :-) Here are some pics of what we did:

Juliette checking out my work...

My FIRST EVER project on the sewing machine...pants for my baby!
the ribbon make the pants!

Juliettes Christmas pants that I made all on my own Sunday night!Juliette modeling her new pants (over her pj's!)

So there it is, my new hobby! Can't wait to make more things!

Happy Thanksgiving

It's pretty obvious what I am thankful for this year, so I am not going to go on and on with a list, but let's just say life is pretty good. Today was a busy day...first we stopped by the Fastner house to see all of them and get the babies together, then we went to my parents for a delicious turkey dinner and entertainment provided Juliette, and then we stopped by the Davern Thanksgiving for dessert (which Juliette slept through since it was a bit off schedule from what we thought). We got pretty camera happy today, but got some good pics! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! (also, a shout out to my second grade teacher, Ms. Quam, who celebrated her b-day today!)

stopping by to visit cousin Owen!

i got $50- what a great day!she was confusing 21 weeks with 21 years...

self portrait

Cute family, huh?

gramma and Juliette
party trick...fist in mouth

more smiles with gramma

daddy, you are crazy!

this is the hat my mom wore all day, so i thought i'd try it on...it belonged to my great great grandma grace, she is the one who my middle name is after. she would've like me trying the wine in the picture from above! ;-)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

21 weeks

21 week photoshoot on Thanksgiving...enjoy!

all smiles gotta stretch out my full tummy
what? no more turkey?!?! that's ok, i am stuffed (sorry about the rotate issues again)

first night away...

Joey and I went to the St Paul Hotel to celebrate our anniversary (it's our tradition)....so Gramma Jule had her first overnight with Juliette. Grampa Steve-O would've been there too, but he was sick :-( Our package at the hotel included wine and cheese/fruit upon arrival, coffee/cocoa in the morning, and unlimited movies. We checked in around 4:30, walked to Cosetta's for dinner (Joey has never been there...yeah...), then came back and settled in for the night! Nothing caps off a romantic anniversary celebration like pulling out a breast pump! Anyway, Gramma Jule and Juliette has a fabulous time while we were gone...best told in pictures:

3rd year= leather, so leather jackets!

thought I should get the ring in the pic
getting ready to leave gramma with Juliette
Her new friend, the froggy

gramma and Juliette's surprise...chocolate chip cookies! she has all the ingredients
helping by putting in the chips...

have to get them ALL in...
licking the spoon (don't worry...she didn't get any real batter!)

reading a book with gramma

here is the book, but Juliette likes to look at the camera :-)

That's the end of the pics. We did not take a pic of gramma crying when she had to leave :-) They had so much fun she didn't want to go. This is fine with us, as we will be taking full advantage of the Gramma Jule babysitting services!!

20 weeks

Here you go...20 weeks, and some bonus shots!

hugging the lamb...who I just realized we have yet to name kisses stretching it out a quick snooze in the swing yum, rice ceral sucking my middle two fingers (like my mommy)

visitor

Laura and Danielle came over to visit us today for lunch. Laura and I have been friends since fifth grade and our lives have been about a month apart on everything...her birthday is October, mine is November. She got enganged November '05, I was December. She got married Oct '06, I got married November. She has a kid in June '09, I had a kid in July. It's actually kinda funny. Anyway, we had a nice visit and have also decided to start the girls in swimming lesson together!

Here is a pic from when they first met, back in August:

...and here are a few pics from yesterday:

20 week pictures coming soon...

cheater

I have been working on getting Juliette into more of a routine (if you can even do that with a 4-month old). At night we usually eat at about 5:30-6 and then at 8:30 for bed. She'll usually go down for about half an hour in between. Yesterday she had a really long afternoon nap so after her 3pm feeding she didn't sleep. After the 6pm feeding she was toast! She was falling asleep on my chest when I was walking around. Joey said, "wow, that hasn't happend for a while, I bet you miss it". I did, but since I've been working on getting her to nap in the crib, I put her in...she cried for about half an hour (while Joey was trying to go to sleep). I could've let her go a little longer, but Joey is a wimp! So I took her out and rocked with her. We were in the chair for about 15 minutes and when she was really knocked out I decided to go into the tv room and sleep with her like I used to do (this is my cheating part!), thinking she would take her half hour nap and then wake up and eat and go to bed. Nope. She slept with me until 10:45! And although I know it screwed up "the schedule", I didn't care... I love my baby sleeping on me!

Happy 3 years to us!

For the better part of 2009, Joey and I have been doing "Taco Tuesday"...yeah, it's as simple as it sounds, we eat tacos on Tuesdays. Since our anniversary fell on a Tuesday, it was easy to pick our meal! (note: we are doing our st. paul hotel anniversary celebration on Saturday! We do like a nice night out!). Since we only have about a 2 hour window of time during the week b/c Joey needs to get to bed, my mom offered to come over and cook dinner and watch Juliette while we ate. Deal. Joey also go me some roses, and we got out our wedding candlesticks and had tacos by candlelight! It was a really nice meal...the fanciest tacos we've ever had (mom also made some rice and got us some cake!). We had a nice dinner and each named 3 things that we liked about our marriage...once we got past the joking, it was really nice. I am VERY lucky to have found Joey and couldn't imagine my life any other way. Here are some pics...

Three years ago:

me and my hubby

smooches

one of my favs

cheers!
Today (just a BIT different):

the table setting...all the fixins for tacos, roses, and candles!

Wearing the shirts from our honeymoon- you can tell who wears their's all the time!clinking our wedding toasting glasses!

HAPPY 3 YEARS TO MY WONDERFUL HUBBY!

Two cool things

Cool thing number one: my friend Julie sent me flowers for my 30th...welcoming me to the club:

Cool thing number two: the cool art project I did this weekend. I always seem to be leaving my necklaces around everywhere... putting them in my jewelry box makes them not as easily accessible. So I bought some wood frames, painted them, and added hooks (I wanted nicer ones, but I was being impatient, so I just got picture hanging hooks). It still turned out cool!

the finished project:

close up:

Random Juliette :-)

This weekend we tried to put Juliette in the little activity center thing that we have for her. She is still too small (as you can tell b/c her feet don't touch the ground!). I think she was interested in some of the things, but a bit freaked out that she was "floating". Trying to eat her fist :-)