New Milestones

Every week this month I have been reminded how much I adore 6 months. These girls are just learning at a pace faster than I my heart is ready for. Regardless they are so fun!! 

They have been sitting for a couple weeks. Annalise is much better at it than Daphne, but she is getting there. I had the perfect opportunity to document it last night. September light will always be my favorite!

Within days of the sitting up this nonsense milestone began. 

Daphne started it in our bed and her crib and it went right down to the floor. Within days of her rocking, Annalise was up on her hands and knees rocking too. The good news is they are entertaining themselves. The bad news is they are into a lot. I predict Daphne will be full on crawling within two weeks. She just barely started rolling all over less than a month ago! Annalise will be content to sit and watch everybody. She likes to just watch everybody. My only hope is nobody begins pulling up to things when the crawling begins! 

DIY Babywearing-Self Portraits of Motherhood

If you follow me on Instagram or even see much on Facebook you know for the last month I have been working on this project.

Some background. I love to sew. I always have. Two years ago I bought a new sewing machine and it kind of has taken over some of my photography time. Many weeks my camera has set neglected and forlorn, but my sewing machine has been humming. Some weeks I feel bad about that, but the truth is I still have been doing both and consequently have been creating things I love. The kids gain the most from my sewing. We have also learned to wear clothes to their last threads because I patch pants, shirts, add fabric to dresses etc. It has saved us money in some aspects. Instead of buying underwear for Lilliana I whipped up an entire weeks worth for her out of scraps. Their fall wardrobe will consist of many homemade pieces as I have fabric or up cycled clothes to cut into new things. If you don't find me editing in the evening you find me at my sewing machine or cutting out patterns or maybe even selfish sewing like quilting. 

I also have relied heavily on baby carriers to get through the months of baby/toddler hood. Anthony being gone a lot when the other kids were babies made it very imperative I had a carrier for when I was making dinner or errands. Ari lived in my Ergo for months even until he was 2. When I found out we were expecting two I really worried I would not be able to wear them as much. I did at first wear them a lot together. That got to be too much. I discovered quickly woven wraps are just not for me with two. So patiently I have waited until they were sitting up so I could wear one on my back in a soft structured carrier almost like a back pack. I was planning to invest in a specific twin carrier for this. It was made by a twin mom and it is pure genius. Unfortunately no matter how I tried even buying used it just isn't in the budget. Anthony said I could get it knowing how much it would be used, but truly I couldn't do it. We are working towards some things for him and I felt selfish doing it. A great resource introduced me to a homemade option though. I will forever be grateful!! I am also thankful to others who have done this before and come up with a pattern for a tandem carrier. So away I went making a tandem carrier. It probably has been the hardest sewing project to date. I triple stitched everything. I also was meticulous in my work more so probably than I ever am, but it was so gratifying. Anthony actually helped me pick out the fabric. The best part is this converts to two carriers if we choose so Anthony can wear one baby and I wear the other. He was perfectly fine with wearing floral too. I offered to make him a special one, but he was fine with this. He really is such a keeper. The kids loved helping me do it too. Many nap times Eli and I would sit and talk and he would help hand me things or measure. Ari loves sitting by my machine and telling me how it works. So I let him take the pictures. Here is a basic before and after. Ari technically took the photo. I set it up and edited.

I had a much different plan for this photo of the finished project in action. I still may do it. Instead I was outside taking pictures of something and Lilliana asked to borrow my camera to take a picture of me. I told her yes figuring she would chop my head or something. Nope, the girl took one of my most favorite photos of myself. I may have no make up and not done hair, but I love it. She told me where to stand and took the photo. She did pretty good if you ask me. As I was pulling it off my memory card she came running in the computer room and told Ari, "I did that!" She is pretty proud of herself with good reason. Technically it isn't a self portrait, but I am present so we will take it!:) 

I added some fun features to this carrier which made it a little more time consuming. It has a big pocket on the front carrier for my wallet, phone, keys. The back carrier has a pocket for the hood or Anthony's things, but it is hidden. It also has an adjustable sternum strap. It is sooo comfortable and I do not even mind wearing 40 pounds. I also saved myself $140! If you are interested in the pattern it can be found HERE.  The owner of this store is amazing too. She accidentally messed up on my buckle order and she sent me the missed products and refunded me for them. I will always do business with her. If I didn't need more carriers I might be tempted to make some more. Right now though I don't need anymore! FYI  I can not make you a carrier for you. There are strict regulations in the US regarding this. You can definitely make your own though:) It is much easier than it looks! 

The Last of the Summer Days

I would be lying if I said I wasn't more than ready for fall! I do love summer do not get me wrong. I love it a lot. In fact I begin looking forward to it again in November. That being said this summer was hard. Trying to juggle two babies outside doing things with the older kids many days overwhelming. I managed and had fun, but I can't say it was my favorite summer for all things summer. That being said I did try to slow down and enjoy these last few summer days. Bring on Fall though! I think an Indian Summer would be perfect for this fall. 

Things we have been enjoying.........

Summer Storms, the kids usually grab their rain gear and yell we are headed to play in the rain. 

Summer Dresses for the babies....

 Yummy Baby Toes, lots of Toes

Sleeping Baby Cheeks

Popsicles, Lots of Popsicles

Paint Peeling, I mean Ari is enjoying paint peeling. We just painted and he didn't like the color so as you can see he decided to fix it. 

Babies in high chairs while I cook. 

Sibling Love 

My personal favorite...watching the sun go down in the evenings on the front porch while the kids ride their bikes. 

My favorite time of year is coming for lots of wonderful fall light. September is my favorite and hopefully beginning next week I will be out in the evenings taking advantage of it. Summer you have been good to us. Now bring on the apple cider, sweatshirts, crisp evenings, and fall colors!!

7 years of dreams

When we moved into our house almost 7 years ago we could not wait to work on it and do so many projects. We had hoped to update it and fill it with children. Well, we have the filling it with children part down. We also have done a lot. The first couple of years needed a furnace, fence, and other things that were not cosmetic. Then of course we had the epic upstairs gut. Like I said before being over 100 years old it is in a constant state of needing repairs. Thankfully it has good bones.


For 7 years we had wanted to replace the downstairs carpet. We would get ready to do it and life would happen. Ari was one of those. For years I joked he was my new floors. Then it became needing to finish the upstairs gut. Well, finally we couldn't take it anymore. If you had visited my house you knew that the carpet was on it's very last legs. I am not just saying that. It literally had 3 areas that basically seams had ripped apart. Besides the fact even with carpet cleaning the carpet was yuck. Also there was carpet in the dining room. Who does that?!? I had already been through 3 babies learning to eat with carpet in there, I was not doing it with two babies at one time. So we have taken all summer to get this project done. We are a bit crazy I think. It really still is not complete, but for now it is much more functional and we are enjoying it. Eventually the new flooring will go up the stairs replacing the lovely rainbow carpet and through the hallway connecting to the home school room. It all matches. The stairs need some work first though and Anthony and I need a break from house projects! 

This is the before. 

Dining Room 

Living room looking into dining room 

Dining room looking into Living Room

Working on the project. We still have some painting to do and trim. I know backwards, but we really needed to get the floor in when Anthony could use the saw outside. We can paint all winter. The carpet had also been ripped out of the dining room at this point.

At one point I came down to banging. I figured it was Anthony. Nope, it was Ari. He wants a kid mallet, and kid saw. Basically he wants to be just like Anthony. It was cute.

We had to work in stages each weekend. So it was half done at this point. Lilliana loves to sweep everyday. I let her. I wonder when it will wear off. 

This was last week. The house still had everything all over, but the floor was completely in. Like I said, still some painting to do. I have to pick out curtains and a rug. We also have to get all the kickboard in. Progress is good though! Thankfully the house is somewhat back together also because I might lose  my mind if it were out of order for much longer. 

Now I can finally begin decorating and we can begin purchasing furniture for our house. We have avoided that until we were done. The sad part is, I am decorating challenged so it may sit like this for several months until I can figure out what I want. Either way another house project is almost complete thanks to my wonderful husband!