Rose Festival Junior Parade

This is my childhood home. It brought back many memories as we parked the car in front of the house to walk the two blocks to the parade route. I loved growing up in this neighborhood. Every year I went to the parade. Some years I was in the parade; my friends and I decorating our bikes or wagons to match the yearly theme. Neighborhood schools let out early each year on the Wednesday in June of the world's largest children's parade.

When my children were growing up I would often take them to the parade. Our most memorable year was when Emilia was about 4 years old and got lost. We were with a large group and by the time I realized she was missing the parade was over and we were on our way back to the car. It was terrifying! I truly thought I would never see her again. But even at the age of 4 she kept calm, found another mom and told her she had lost her mom and aunt Gretchen. This mom took her to a police officer. And when I hysterically flagged down another police officer we were quickly reunited.

This year I introduced the parade to my grandchildren. All five of the kids were able to make it, along with my dear friends Monica, Cindy, Macey and Jean. The kids Cindy babysits and the girl Emilia babysits, Avalon. Tanner marched in the parade with the Alder Creek Band.

The girls: Maddie, McKayla, Avalon, Cleo

I'm pretty sure this is the only time Cleo and Koen sat in their chairs.

Leo LOVED the parade and danced and waved the whole time.

My babies: Mila, Leo and Ryker

These boys! I love them so!

Emilia keeping Koen and the kids cool. It was a HOT day.

Ryker looks hot!

Mi familia!

Happy Valentine's Day

A few weeks ago, Emilia and I took Leo for a walk.

While sipping our tea at Starbucks I mentioned that I wanted to do this photo shoot that I had seen on Pinterest.  Very wise Emilia said, let's call Cindy and see if she can do it right now!

We walked to Cindy's and laughed because we had no idea what kind of diaper Leo was wearing or if it would be clean! We had nothing with us to keep him happy besides us and the Ergo.

I'm pretty happy with the results!

The crazy part was after the photo shoot when we realized we would need to remove the lipstick!

And red lipstick is not easy to remove.

And Savannah is the type of mom who notices every mark on her kid.

And she doesn't use any crappy lotion on him either.

Oh boy, that was funny!

In our favor, Savannah and Spencer were sick while we did this 

and I guess too sick to notice some faded lipstick on Leo.

(Because this was all a secret valentine for them!)

Mila Renee Alba has arrived

Mila made a quick and dramatic entry into the world on Friday morning, February 8, 2012, at 2:55 am. She weighed 7 pounds, 8 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. Big sister, Cleo is in love! (As we all are).

Here's a little video I got of her sucking her thumb yesterday.

Wool Longies

I have yet to tackle knitting some wool longies. I just don't feel that I'm that good of a knitter. But the next best thing is repurposing a wool sweater into wool pants or diaper covers. The wool is a natural fiber that breaths and it also repels moisture (aka: pee).

The good news:

I have a shelf full of wool sweaters!

I've been collecting wool sweaters for a couple of years with the intention of making a wool sweater quilt. I've found the sweaters at Red, White and Blue, Goodwill bins and garage sales.

Using the sweaters now give me something to be on the hunt for in the upcoming garage sale season.

YAY!

Today's sewing project was easy and quick. I cut the arms off the wool sweater, making sure they were the same length, cut the seam a little and sew them together. The first pair were a tad short waisted so I decided not to make a casing for the elastic. I got some 2" wide elastic and sewed that to the top as a finished waistband. The second pair were a little longer waisted so I made a casing for the elastic. I love both of them! The dark pair are thinner and soft and the light pair are thick and cozy. I also made Leo another wool diaper cover.

So without further ado....

here is my handsome model showing off the comfy wool longies 

I made him today.

This light gray pair is much roomier for Leo's diaper butt:

It's difficult to see, but I added one of these adorable "made with love by grandma" tags.

Saturday

We got to babysit Ryker today!Which gave us many photo ops!

 He has one tooth now and eats baby food!

 Grandpa Mario can always get the babies to sleep.

 Leoben and Ryker

Lots of fun times ahead for these boys!

 

 

 Leo in his new exersaucer.

 Ryker looking pretty tired after our walk.

 Cleo came to visit too.

Love this crazy hair picture!

He seriously has a big butt!

Leo's Stats

One week from being a big 4 month old

and

He weighs 19.5 pounds

Has two teeth

found his voice

(aka...screams)

grabs my face

and

loves to chew on Sophie

A granddaughter on the way.

 The adorable Cleo breaking in my newly painted chalkboard door.

She's going to be a big sister in just a few weeks.

I can't wait to meet our new granddaughter!

I started working on a quilt for her...

 I use the floor of my sewing room to figure out which quilt pattern I want to use.

Ava thinks the fabric is there for her.

I left it there overnight and what a mess I found the next morning.

 The first square done.
 

The first row done.

I got on a roll and finished the quilt top tonight.

Since this is my first quilt I wanted to use a simple pattern
 so I settled on squares and rectangles.

Now I've got to find my knitting bag and get finished

with her other blanket

before she decides to make her big appearance!