These are a few of my favorite things...

Sweet boy smiles:


Snuggling and knitting by the fire:


CHRISTmas Decorations:


And snow:


What a beautiful Birthday! I was born the best time of the year!

Life in the baby lane

I love him. I love being a mom. It's just hard to get much done sometimes. He's the sweetest little boy though. Currently he's sitting on my lap enjoying life, kicking his feet and waving his hands. It's really hard to believe that he's already almost 2 months! Where does the time go? They grow so very fast.

Baby baby !

We welcomed Jacob into our family and home on Sunday August 30th at 12:25 PM. He came just MINUTES after arriving at the hospital! He was a healthy 10 lbs. 7 oz. and all of his brothers and sisters are so glad to have him and fawn over him. They often will ask to hold him and get disappointed when I tell them no that he's eating or sleeping. I promise he won't always eat or sleep... :)

It's been almost 2 weeks and for the most part I feel like I've healed really well. We didn't have any pain medication during the birth. For that matter I didn't even get an IV. There just wasn't time. I gave birth in my tee shirt instead of a gown! Unfortunately for my wonderful husband neither of us realized I was that close to giving birth and he didn't make it into the room until I was cutting Jake's cord. I think he was slightly disappointed to have missed it but he's totally loving snuggling Jake.

I found my camera this morning so hopefully I can get some updated pictures of him. For now here is the one we took of him in his car seat on the day we came home.

Another long little while

It's been a while again. I have to admit I'm a lazy blogger. LOL! The past month I've spent in front of my sewing machine making all kinds of fun stuff. I have a few things that I totally adore.

Baby Jacob now has a full 2 dozen diapers for pooping and peeing in. :) I love using my cloth diapers. These will be no exception! They came out totally cool!

We also have matching wetbag sets for the diaper bag and wipes that should last us a while. He has matching clothing sets and I even managed to squeeze in a few things for the older kids. Will got lots of things this time because he just didn't have much. He's grown so much from last summer and didn't have shorts or shirts that really fit him anymore.

I'm sure I haven't seen the end of my sewing for a while. There is still so much to be done! My kids need PJ's and I could use a few shirts... Abby could also use a few more pairs of shorts! But at least I can take a short breath and know that I don't have to worry about getting stuff done for the baby.

We also had family photos done just before Memorial day. The turned out beautiful! I'm so very happy with them. Without making this post super super long and posting all of my favorites I'll leave it with just the one family picture that I adore. :)

Knitting...

I've been doing lots of this lately. LOTS. I've been crafting in general a lot really.

Preparing for a baby is always something that has been a little fun for me. Since I've learned how to knit it's become even more fun. I really enjoy knitting. It's a productive hobby. I love how the fabric grows under my hands. I love the yarn and watching how the colors unfold into a project. It's almost always a surprise. :)

The longies I just finished for Jacob are by far one of my favorite pairs that I have ever knit. EVER! The cabled owls were a ton of fun to do. I could count down to how many I had left. It really keeps me going.

This can also be a bad thing. LOL! My poor, poor house was neglected since Friday. I have some "make up" work to do for sure!

Well they were worth it! I can't wait until Baby Jake gets to wear them. Though it will probably be way into fall/winter and we are barely into spring. :-/

Lots more to do. I have more sewing to get done for him. Lots of diapers to make! I think I might start on that tomorrow AFTER my house is clean. :)

Blogity blog update

Ok, so it's been a while. We moved mid February into a house better suited for my growing family. We finally have a yard that the kids can play in where I won't have to worry about them... much at least. :)

I've had an ultrasound. I'm currently 22 weeks and 2 days. Definitely having a baby boy. He didn't leave much of a guess. LOL! We found that I have an anterior placenta which explains why I'm just now beginning to feel my active baby move around.

I've got loads of sewing and knitting to do and some already done. I promise to come back and update my blog when I get more of it done. I have about 36ish diapers to make for this kiddlet so I guess I'd better get started soon. I don't want to have too much to do in the heat of the summer. :P

Hang in there... I'll be back hopefully in the next few days.

Sour mood...

I'm just in a foul mood. I've had a child with an "unexplained" headache all week and another that woke up at 3 with a fever. I'm still in the middle of a move and I can't do jack because of my sick kids. Problem is... we have people from church coming over on Saturday morning to help move the rest of our stuff. What to do... if said kid was old enough I would leave his butt at home to deal with it on his own in his bed but he's not.

Hubby is working such long hours and it makes it even harder to get ANYTHING done. That's all... just in a sour mood. :P

Ugh!

It's really hard when pregnancy hormones get the best of me. I'm especially tired today too so that's not helping. :-P I have so much work to get done. I have lots at the old house still to prepare and pack. Not to mention all of the cleaning to do. It definitely doesn't help that it's grey outside. It totally had dampened my mood.

I'm totally loving my new house though. It would be so nice just to get rid of the rest of our stuff and become the minimalist. LOL!

I finally have a doctors appointment on Thursday. It will be my first one. The kids will all get to go with me and we are also having an ultrasound. I'm secretly (well ok not "secretly") hoping that we will be able to find out the gender. That would make my knitting and sewing so much easier. :)

'til later. :)

Binding a diaper cover

I posted this to my Cloth diaper group but I'm putting it here too for others to see.

I did this cover using the Very Baby Side Snapping cover pattern. (I guess they have discontinued it so you could easily substitute the New Conceptions Quick Snap Cover.) You could do this on any cover but I've found it easiest on covers with straight edges vs. the round corners of the Very Baby Snug Wrap or New Conceptions Quick Wrap.

I've straightened the edges of the cover pattern to accommodate this type of binding.



I cut two pieces of PUL for the inside and outside of the cover.



Carefully stitching close to the edge (no wider than 1/4") stitch all the way around the cover so it doesn't shift.



Mark your elastic anchor points for reference.



Using a three step zig zag and 1/4" elastic, stitch your elastic on from anchor point to anchor point.



Do this at each elastic anchor section all the way around the cover making sure to put it right on the edge so it's easy to bind.



(I forgot to take a picture of this part but you will cut your PUL binding strips 2" wide across the 60" width of the PUL. You will need two of the strips for the size L cover.)

Next you will fold your "bias" into the binder foot and load it. My binder foot is a snap on making it much easier to snap on and off. I find it easiest to snap off and on each time I load it.



Starting with the front or back of the cover, slip your cover in between the slot in the bias foot sandwiching it between the top and bottom of the binding in the foot. (We are going to be stitching the front back and leg areas first.)



Sewing with a straight stitch, stitch to the elastic. Once to the elastic you can stop and take a break for a second. You will want to stretch your PUL binding slightly and stretch your cover so the elastic isn't gathering it and continue sewing.



Make sure to get the elastic all the way into the middle of the binding so it won't stitch the elastic again when you are stitching the binding on.



Stitch to the end and then you can stop and take it off of your foot.



Clip the edge of the binding all the way to your diaper cut so that it's flush.



Continue doing the legs and back or front clipping right next to the diaper cut after you finish.



Next we bind the sides. You will want to leave the end pieces of your binding long enough to fold over to the back when we finish the cover. A little tip: If you already have your binding stitching perfectly don't stop after each side. Just simply slip the next side in and keep stitching. This is one less "load of the binding" that you have to do.



All finished binding. Now you can see the tails on the side. Don't worry we are going to take care of those. :)



Turn them to the back side and carefully stitch it down and clip it close to the stitching.



All that's left is to mark and add your snaps.





Here is what our finished product looks like on.


These are very similar to the Mother Ease Air flow covers and I LOVE them. :)

If you made it through the whole tutorial and have questions please let me know. I bought my bias foot on Ebay for $14.

Diapers! Diapers!

I got 4 dozen BRAND NEW regular size prefold diapers for a STEAL! Thanks so much Monique! *MUAH* I also got 3 dozen infant diapers for the bean as well.

Alas, the prefolds in all their washed up fluffy glory...