Just in the Nick of Time

Murray is leaving for Boston tomorrow morning and I have big plans to pass my time while he is away!  All my fabric is washed, my pants pattern is perfected and I have 3 nights to sew, sew, sew.  I won't quite make the deadline of National Sewing Month, but I will definitely be ending with a bang!  Of course, I have way too many projects lined up that I would love to finish.  My realistic goal is to finish all of Miller's pants.  Sadly, I just realized that got 1/4 yard too short of one of the cutest fabrics, but I think I have about 6 pairs of pants to make (3 lined).  An added bonus would be if I could make some t-shirts for him and get started on something for Sara Wells.  We will see.  I am going to try to make the most of every second that the kids are asleep!

Fabric ready to go!

I have not found a pants pattern that I love, so it usually takes a couple of tries to get my pattern perfected.  This time I took two pairs of pants that I liked the way parts of them fit Miller and made my pattern based off of that.  I had this Alabama fabric left over from Ella and Miller's Alabama outfits last year.  I thought it would be perfect to be my test run on since I did not really pay for it (at least not in this season's budget).  I discovered that my pattern needed a little tweaking, but the pants turned out pretty cute.  Miller, however, did not like them at all.  Actually he said he was scared of them.  Our neighbor down the street has an Alabama flag on their house and the elephant is not the happy Big Al that Miller loves, but the fighting elephant.  Miller thinks that the elephant on the flag looks "not nice."  He gets very stuck on things being 'not nice.'  He actually started screaming and crying when I tried to get him to try these pants on.  Murray is really going to have to work on that!  We are going to have to start teaching him that elephants say Roll Tide and maybe he will love his pants.

 If you remember this post, in the spring I had a little trouble getting the pocket the right size.  On two or three pairs of Miller's shorts, he could barely get his hands in.  You will be glad to know I got it right on the first try!

 Pattern perfected on this pair!  I am ready to go.  Hopefully I will have some good progress to report by the end of the weekend.

Just for smiles... This is how Miller and Ella dressed themselves the other day to go to the store.  We got a lot of laughs and "I remember those days."  

 And I just love this picture!  Look at how Sara Wells is looking at Ella.  It does not get any sweeter than that!  They both love each other!!!

Paintings

Let me tell you a story about Murray's sister.  Thanksgiving weekend 2 years ago, Stephen (Wellon's husband) decided that he would try to paint.  Being a good wife and tapping into her "artistic" nature, Wellon decided to try her hand at painting too.  It turned out that Stephen was terrible and Wellon discovered that she had some pretty incredible natural ability (sorry Stephen, I never saw proof but I did hear that Wellon used your canvas to add "depth" to her next painting).  Since that weekend Wellon has become a true artist!  Her artwork is amazing.  Looking at any of her paintings, it is so hard to believe that she has only been painting for two years.  Wellon has an incredible way weaving the gospel into every painting.   These paintings were Murray's birthday present last year. What a present!

Wellon's reputation as an artist has started to grow and she has gotten some really neat commissions.  This is her most recent commission.  Riverwood Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa just built a new building and commissioned these paintings.  I cannot even begin to guess how big they are, they just look huge!  This picture was taken this past Sunday at the dedication to the new building.  You can see more of her artwork at Wellon Art .  Oh and by the way, she did these paintings with 4 month old twins!!!

Memory Lane

Does this house look familiar to anyone?  Murray and I took a trip down memory lane this weekend.  We left Thursday afternoon for St. Louis.  This was my first time to be back in St. Louis since we moved almost 5 years ago.  Our first stop after we landed was our first house.  I cannot believe that it has been five years since we lived here.  It is always sad to see your old house not loved and taken care of.  It was very weird to see someone else's furniture in the yard and not be able to pull down into our driveway.  However, I cannot imagine living in this house with 3 kids!  It was so fun driving through our old neighborhood reminiscing of all the wonderful times we had there.  St. Louis will always hold a special place in our heart.  

Murray had a meeting at the seminary, but for me the weekend was pretty much an eat-fest (and I did get in a trip to H&M).  We tried to go to all of our favorite restaurants.  We even had time to squeeze in a new fantastic restaurant.  Our good friends John and Elizabeth introduced us to The Crossing.  For those of you in St. Louis or those who may be traveling there, it is in downtown Clayton (one of my favorite place in STL).  It is sooo good!  The Chef's name is Jimmy and he serves the Lord through his cooking!  The only place that we did not get to go that I really wanted to go was Ted Drew's.  It is almost a cardinal sin to go to St. Louis and not go to Ted Drew's.  Ted Drew's is the home of Frozen Custard, a huge midwest tradition.  It will be our first stop on our next trip!

Murray and I did not leave until Thursday, but my mom came Monday evening so that she could learn the ins and outs of carpool.  She did not get in to Birmingham until the kids had gone to bed Monday evening.  When the kids woke up (very early) Tuesday morning ready for Camp Granna.  My mom brought several different things for Camp Granna over the weekend, but she failed to hid all the stuff.  So, they did the majority of Camp Granna Tuesday morning.

 You can tell how early they got started by how tired Miller's eyes look.  Just in case you were looking for another art project to do with your kids, Magic Mold (i think that is what it is called) is very cool!  Each kit comes with the specific colors of modeling clay to make a certain animal.  Then it has this tool that makes dots out of the clay.  It is pretty much mess free and you end up with a really cute animal. The clay is so easy to work with, I am actually thinking of getting it to use the clay to make Christmas presents.  The possibilities are limitless!  Miller made a frog and Ella made a puppy dog.  Although they were very easy to make, they did not last.  Miller did not quite get that you had to wait to let the clay harden before he could play with his frog.  He destroyed his frog, then Ella's dog.

  
As we all know, Miller is obsessed with anything related to Toy Story.  Murray's mom got Ella and Miller a Mr. and Mrs. Potato head at the lake at the beginning of the summer and they played with them for about 2 minutes and that was it.  Well, now that Miller has seen Toy Story, he thinks Mr. Potato Head is the coolest.  The last time my mom was here she took Miller to the toy store and out of the entire toy store, he picked out Mr. Potato Head.  He now loves his Mr. Potato Head (I don't because the pieces end up everywhere!).  The other night he came running out of his room dressed up like Mr. Potato Head.  I thought it was pretty hilarious!

 This picture is for Murray.  We hope the rest of the games are no where near as close!

Easy Project!

I have been holding out on this post because I was really hoping by this point I would have a lot more sewing to share as I am fully embracing (at least in my mind) National Sewing Month.  My days seem to be going by so fast and there seems to be less and less time each day for me to sit down and do something (not just sew).  I had big hopes of at least one more t-shirt for Miller and a few pairs of pants.  But the reality is I have only gotten around to making 2 pairs of socks.  I am sharing this with you because when I found this tutorial months ago I was thrilled!  This is another one of those projects that I bought all the supplies months ago, but am just now getting around to it (that is why in this picture the socks look a little worn).  I love eyelet lace socks, but I am so cheap that it kills me to pay $8 for one pair of socks.  And every nice pair that I have bought her some how ends up lost (don't worry though we have every single pair of Wal-Mart socks!).  This is the reason I don't buy nice sunglasses either.  Anyways, that is way off the point.  When I found this on Fly Through Our Window I was thrilled!  I am here to tell you these socks are super easy!  Maybe 10 minutes a pair.  I would have made more, but of course I did not buy enough eyelet.

Tips: When sewing the eyelet to the socks, the zig-zag stitch does not need to be tight.  On my machine I set it on 2 (I use zero for button hole stitch).

What a Day

Well, today was a way more emotional day than I prepared myself for when I left the house this morning.  I started the morning out dropping off Miller in the carpool line for the first time.  I was not prepared to be emotional at all, but as Ella helped Miller get out of the car, put his school bag on his shoulder and walk him to the door, I definitely felt tears welling up.  Then I went to get bows for Sara Wells.  That definitely should not be emotional, but my little baby is growing up!  Then Murray and I had a kindergarten tour for Ella.  I was extremely close to crying three times today!  It took everything in me to hold back my tears (probably 4 times) in the meeting with the elementary school counselor.  

Since I can handle no more introspection of my babies growing up, I will share the sewing projects I have been working on.  National Sewing Month has inspired me to finally get back in the sewing room and I definitely feel like I am getting back in the groove.  For the first time since Sara Wells was born, I finally started smocking again!  Hopefully the girls will have a few matching bishops (that will probably be all they have to match).  I will post pictures of those as I finish.  

This week I have been working on t-shirts.  I saw this post on Lil Blue Blue of templates for robots.  I thought they were cute and tucked them away in the back of my mind for ideas for the fall.  A few weeks ago Miller and Ella started walking around the house saying, "I-am-a-robot.  I-am-a-robot" with motions like a robot.  I don't know where it came from but they think it is hilarious.  Remembering the robots I had seen, I asked them if they would like robot t-shirts.  They were thrilled.  Miller has not stopped asking about his robot t-shirt since I mentioned it.  

(Ella has really gotten into posing)

     

Robot Dance

Today I made this cute little cupcake t-shirt for Ella.  Honestly, I have been planning on making it all summer.    This spring Target had these really cute knit skirts that I knew Ella would love.  Of course she did because she loves anything knit, but I did not have a cute t-shirt to put with it.  Four months later I finally made her t-shirt to go with her favorite pink skirt.  

Joining the Ranks

One thing that is true about the Lee Children is that they love to watch TV.   Miller loves to watch TV so much that he will sit in front of the TV and just wait for the television to be turned on (he will sit for 20 or 30 minutes just waiting).  I really do try to limit how much they watch, but sometimes it is just necessary, like when I am cooking or taking a shower.  Usually I try to take a shower while Sara Wells is asleep, but Sunday afternoon I had to take a quick shower before we headed out for our small group.  I had no other choice than to put a movie on to put keep Sara Wells occupied.  It was her first Baby Einstein movie experience and she loved it (of course, she is a Lee).  More than she loved watching the movie, she loved that she could pull herself up on the bench and assume the TV watching position with her brother and sister.  (Yes, her hair is a little out of control.  One day she is not going to be very happy with me for this picture.  She really needs a bow, I just am having to prepare myself emotionally for that.  Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to go and get her a few.  Putting the bow in is such a huge step!  We all know that I love bows, Ella's are huge and I love it!  But putting that bow in is just one more way that she is growing faster than I am ready for.)

Sara Wells is proving that she is a Lee in her love for TV and in her love for the kitchen.  It is probably that this is just the perfect height for her to pull herself up, but I like to think she loves standing here because she is developing an early love for cooking :)

I love this picture because you can see the drool dripping off her chin.  Does it get any cuter?

On the Move

Look who is 8 months old!  I tried to get some pictures of her new moves, but she would not stay still and she would not keep things out of her mouth

Sara Wells can now pull up and she loves it!  She is so proud of herself.  She is going to be running laps around us before long.

Back to School

School started back yesterday!  I cannot believe that the summer is already over!  Where did the time go???  I have to admit that yesterday morning as I got ready, my eyes welled up with tears.  I usually do not get emotional about these kinds of things, but I think the reason it was so emotional for me is because 1.  this is Ella's last year of preschool.  I cannot stop thinking about her starting kindergarten next year!  2.  Miller started preschool.  How in the world is he old enough to go to preschool.  I pulled myself together after about 2 or 3 minutes, really because we did not have any time to waste on me being emotional.  We have been having very lazy mornings this summer, so I had to be a drill sergeant getting everybody ready in time to get out the door by 8:30.

Of course nothing goes as smoothly as I have planned, especially on the first day of school!  I really wanted to get a good picture of the kids, but this is what our "photo shoot" looked like.  I finally just gave up and had to be satisfied not having that perfect, sweet shot of both kids smiling together, holding their school bags, so excited about their first day.

This is more of our reality anyways!  

Side Note:  Notice Miller's brand new school schoes.  They are SIZE 11!!!  He now wears the same size as Ella!  He looks like he is 4 instead of 2 1/2.  I have visions of all the tennis shoes we are going to be buying every other month.  Miller's nickname is "The Big Boy" and he is definitely going to be that!

And what was Sara Wells doing during our photo shoot?

Well, I left her here...

And here is where I found her!  She did not want to be left out of the fun.

If you notice, we have a sunken living room.  I can usually count on having about a month of the kids being contained in the living room after they learn to crawl before they figure out how to climb up the step.  I felt pretty safe leaving Sara Wells for the 2 minutes we were outside since she has only been really moving for about a week.  After I gave up taking pictures I heard what sounded like scratching on the front door and I thought, surely that is not Sara Wells.  As I slowly opened the door, I realized it was!  Oh my goodness, we have a mover on our hands!  She does not want to miss anything.  Thank goodness she headed towards the door because opposite way is the hardwood stairs that go straight downstairs.  The first thing I had Murray do when he got home last night was put up the gate!

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In honor of sewing month, I took the kids to Hancocks today (yes, all three.  I know I am crazy).  I have not sewn for the kids all summer and I have got to get started if anything is going to be ready by the time it starts to cool off.  I felt motivated by National Sewing Month and thought now is as good as time as ever.  When I told the kids it was time to go, this is what they had on.  We definitely got some good looks at the store!  Believe it or not I actually got some cute fabric to start sewing for Sara Wells and Ella.  Murray just told me there was a big football game on tonight, so hopefully I will start sewing!