An outing to Cabela's

I took Isaac and Finley to Cabela's today for a little outing. We had fun looking at the fish--there was even a diver in there cleaning the rocks! Isaac was a little startled when he saw him.

We also enjoyed looking at the taxidermed animals. (yeah, I made that word up.)

The kids tried on the Davy Crockett hats and looked ready for a wild west adventure.

And of course, Isaac's favorite part, the "shooter guns."

Sareny was a little put out that we went somewhere cool without her, so I told her we could go back next week after school one day. She wanted us to load up and go back "right now!" but fortunately, she got over it really fast.

I'm a Big Kid Now

Seriously, Finley thinks she is, like, 5 years old or something. The kids were all outside playing this evening, and Sareny yelled for me to come outside. This is what I saw:

And then the whole thing started all over again.

I love this one--you can see how tightly she's holding on.

Seriously, why do babies have to grow up so darn fast?

Another skirt

I got to test out another pattern for my friend Beth. This cute skirt is reversible!

I am really liking the excuse to pull out my sewing machine and finish a project. I already had this fabric in my stash and wasn't sure what to make with it, so this was perfect!

Finley all ready for church on Sunday. It's kind of nice--just throw some clothes on her and she's ready. Don't even have to comb her hair.

I've been busy

My friend Beth has a really cute etsy shop here: http://loveseptember.etsy.com/. Recently she asked for testers to sew a pattern she was selling called The Favorite Skirt. I signed up and made this skirt for myself.

I thought it turned out really cute. It uses elastic thread, something I had never even heard of before, but that I instantly really liked. I made matching dresses for Finley and Sareny using the same concept as the skirt.

Sareny is at school, so she isn't here to model hers. Maybe I'll add a picture of her later. Finley seemed to really enjoy modeling her new little dress.

Sareny's New Room

With Sareny starting school, we decided she needed some space of her own. We have a four bedroom house, but to this point have had all three children sharing a room. It was getting a little crowded in there, and I was worried about how Sareny could keep her school stuff from getting destoyed by the little kids.
Here is what our guest room, or "Grammy Jo's room", looked like before our remodel.

Sareny picked out purple and pink for her new room. Keith suggested a simple paint scheme; unfortunately I had something a little more complicated pictured.

We did purple, pink, and white stripes on the bottom and a lighter pink on the top with a white chair rail inbetween. After spending many hours touching up the stripes, I had to give Keith's idea of a "simple paint" scheme some credit. We'll be doing Isaac's room next, and unfortunately for him, I daresay we'll be going with Keith's plan.

We got her a new desk to keep her school supplies in and to do her homework at.

My friend Debra G made these pegs for Sareny when she was one, and they fit in perfectly with her new decor.

We also got a new dresser and new bedding and painted the old headboard white to complete the look.

I am really happy with how it turned out, and more importantly, Sareny loves it and "it makes her heart happy."

Learning to Swim

I'm a little behind on posting, so these pictures are from a few weeks ago when we were still in swimming lessons. Keith was able to come with us one time, and the kids loved it!
Finley actually seemed a lot happier when Keith had her in the pool. Could it be he's more fun?

Isaac's progress was the most remarkable this year. He started out the summer sitting on the side of the pool crying, refusing to get in. And this is how he ended the year.

Doing headbobs by himself.

It was nice to see him gain confidence and have fun. He even jumped off the diving board all by himself by the end of the summer!

Sareny is really becoming a good swimmer. She can swim across the width of the pool on her own. And I realize her suit looks like a bikini in the below picture, but it is actually a tankini that floated up...oops.

We had so much fun at swimming lessons this year!

Sareny's first day of Kindergarten!

Sareny started school today! She was very excited and not really nervous at all.
Here she is with her new teacher Mrs. Jones, and her friend Adam.

The class lined up to go to Assembly.

Coming back from Assembly.

Her classroom is really cute and well-organized.
Listening to her teacher.

Blowing me a kiss goodbye!

I don't know how this day snuck up on us so fast! It seems like I just brought her home from the hospital, and now I'm sending her off into the world. She is so grown up and I know she is going to do great.

Diaper Pouches

A few weeks ago, my friend Misty came over and we sewed some cute diaper pouches. It was a lot of fun to work on projects together, and I think they turned out really cute! I really love how Hobby Lobby's fabric coordinates so well together--it makes projects like these come together really well.