Disney Appliques

I am always of fan of Disney shirts while in Disneyland. I love all things Disney. I was able to find Ace a Cars shirt, his was easy enough to find there is always a plethora of Cars, Toy Story, and other Pixar gear out and about - however finding something for Mae proved more challenging. Plus there were two different days we were going to be inside the park... they can't *gasp* wear plain-ol clothes to Disneyland on Day Two... and in spite of the lack of options, those options they have are kind of pricey... especially for Mae who doesn't fit into anything for very long... and so I found on Pinterest via Carrie a cute applique pattern.

On the final day I was home, I gathered my supplies and got to cutting, ironing, and sewing on the appliques onto the tshirts. The entire project for BOTH shirts was $6. Can't beat that for sure and the kids looked pretty darn cute in them. :)

It took about 15-20 minutes per shirt to cut, iron, and sew everything together. Ace's mickey is larger and I simply didn't include the bow. :) Plus I used fabric that I already had to make his making the project even less expensive.





Mae's I used a zebra print handkerchief that I found at Walmart, as I was obtaining these supplies after all fabric stores were closed. I needed something that would work and it turned out a lot cuter than I had envisioned. The material for the bow I already had at home from a previous project.

I washed them up and they held together nicely. They're far from perfect on the applique stitching, but I'll get the technique down with more practice. As it worked out the kids looked super cute in them and they've already worn them twice and Ace has kept his clean both times!

ARRGG!

My boy the pirate!

Friends, Family, and Fun!

I always love when I get to go home. It isn't often that I get to go, but when I do it is fill with so much fun and so many people to visit and it is always exciting to show off my newest addition to the family: Mae! Ace is ever changing too so it's always new and exciting for people to see him too. :) I love my family and friends in California and love that I am blessed with them and the ability to go and visit them all.

We ventured to LAX from NOLA on Sunday, July 10th after a very successful airplane ride, wahoo! Shelley picked us up from the airport and we headed home to enjoy some Bakers! WOOHOO! (Why can't that food make it out of So Cal???) Ace was SO excited to get to Grammie's house to play. He had his own itinerary of "1. Play, 2. Go to Grammies, 3. Eat" and he stuck to that schedule. :) He had a blast. Becky came over and I got to rub her baby belly and talk to my soon to be nephew! It was nice to spend time with friends and family. After a while at home we ventured over to my other parent's house and showed off the kids there while Shelley and I played with camera settings. :)

We headed home after that and met up with Derek, Jennifer, and Ace's cousin, Kaylee! Where they gave him his birthday present in person, a pirate hat and an eye patch! He was in love.

 Ace and Kaylee played together a little bit, at first Kaylee wasn't too interested in sharing, which was amusingly caught on film...

But later she came around and wanted to read to Ace. Ace is a year and 2 weeks older than Kaylee, but they are just about the same height. It's adorable to see the two of them together. Playing and reading together. Ace after 20 hours of being awake with the exception of a 20 minute nap finally went to bed.

I was really glad it worked out to see my brother. Originally with his work schedule being shifted around it was iffy if I would see him at all. Thankfully, they made it work - even if my brother was a bit more sleep deprived because of it.
Monday was pretty low key. Ace received his birthday present from Grammie and he enjoyed playing with that: bug hunting gear! We spent some time just relaxing, running errands, actually having 'nap time' for Ace and just not doing much. :) It worked out nicely. Ace was so excited all day that 'Aunt Shelley' was coming back, he kept saying that he missed Aunt Shelley - even got super excited when he saw the back of the neighbor saying "Aunt Shelley's here!!" (sadly she was still a few hours away from her visit.) It was so cute how excited he was to see Aunt Shelley.


Tuesday and Wednesday were Disneyland Days! Oh boy! Lots of fun was had on those days. :) Look for separate posts upcoming for those.

Thursday was another low key day after the craziness of Disneyland the two prior. Derek and Jen brought Kaylee back over, along with some toys to entertain Mae and all the cousins played together for a while. It was cute to see them interacting together. Derek had to head to work and so was only able to stay for a short while, but he and his niece got some good bonding time. :)




Friday was another low key day and then in the evening we went over to Becky and Dave's place with Shelley and Kelley. It was nice to all be together and hang out. Ace of course was super excited to spend time with Abby and Isaiah. He's really starting to enjoy playing with other kids and he LOVES Abby. :)


Saturday was the much anticipated baby shower (a separate post to come!) followed by a birthday party for my brother whose birthday happened to fall on the week that I was in town. It was nice to all be together to celebrate. Ace had yet another late night of going to bed after playing with his cousin and playing 'the leader' as they ran around the front yard playing with glow in the dark chalk that Derek had bought and put together. Shelley and Kelley stopped by and hung out for a bit and we obtained the grandma shot with all three of the kids. :) Derek and Jen finally left around 11:30pm and I finished packing up the suitcase and my mom and I went to bed.


Sunday morning once again we were off early during the underwhelming 'Carmageddon' and heading to the airport to say goodbye to a great visit to California. Until next time!

Mae's First Flight!

When Ace was days away from turning 5 months old, we hopped on a plane and jetted off to California to introduce him to a whole host of folks that were just waiting to see him in person. Ace did great on the plane and in fact, continues to be a wonderful traveler both in a plane and by car. Last Sunday we boarded a plane, just me and the two kids! YIKES! To say I wasn't a tad trepidatious would be an understatement, but I had faith that we would survive. Honestly all I was praying for was no poop. I'm not kidding. Barf, wailing, tantrums... I'd take all of that over poop on a plane.

As it turned out - my prayers were answered! No poop! In fact, I had two amazingly well behaved kids. Ace enjoyed his dvd player and Mae enjoyed a few cat naps throughout the flight. Ace did well to drink his water during take off and landing to help pop his ears and Mae nursed and neither had any major issues with their ears. It was a great flight to California!

New Orleans

We have now lived in Mississippi for three months and so it was high time that we took the relatively short drive down to New Orleans as a family. As it worked out the flights out of the NOLA airport were much less expensive than flying out of Biloxi, and so we arranged for an overnight stay in NOLA and a short adventure in New Orleans with the family.

We checked into our hotel and set out walking around New Orleans. We walked down Bourbon Street and I enjoyed myself a drink - one more item to cross off my Bucket List - and we continued to walk around and just take in the culture and excitement. A few times Ace wanted to go into the bars because he wanted to hear the music, etc.. we snickered and continued walking, explaining he could hear it just fine from outside of the bar. :)



The churches were gorgeous and it was nice to duck inside those for a few minutes just to escape the heat. Mae in the Ergo carrier was happy to have that relief as well. We finished off our evening at Bubba Gump's which was nice, we've eaten at one before - but it was way more expensive than when we had in Maui! Sheesh! We walked back to the hotel and all went to bed by 8pm. Seriously... because we had to wake up at 4:30am the next morning for the kids and I to head off to California! It was a nice visit to NOLA!

Six Months Old

Happy Half Birthday, Mae!!
I can't believe my baby is six months old! When did a half a year go by?! She's so sweet, so smiley, and so happy! I love her!

New firsts for her sixth month of life: her first trip to a fair and carnival, first 4th of July, officially sitting, ooching (almost crawling!), her first signed word 'milk', saying 'dada', laughing, first trip on the airplane and to California!

Mae has had a great month overall. She is still teething and working on that first tooth/teeth to pop through and so she has moments of fussiness usually related to that or needing to sleep, but other than that she is so happy. She smiles all the time and loves to chat now. Yes, I am willing to admit she is now also saying 'dada' in addition to 'mama' - it's pretty cute. We now need to get her to say 'baba' or something that is associated for 'brother' :) She likes to babble a lot and talk with you. She will chat to keep herself awake and her giggle now is just plain adorable. Mae also signed her first word this month: "milk" and she seems to do it quite regularly when she wants milk. Her verbal and communication skills are doing great!

Sleep seems to have been lacking luster for us... or certainly the zzzzs. Sometime this past month she gave up the 5-7hr stretches that we were all enjoying and instead reverted back to the every 2-3 hour wakings for food, snuggles, comfort. I suspect her teeth have a lot to do with this and six months is a big growth spurt for babies, so I'm not giving up hope that we can't work back up to those longer stretches.

Food wise we really haven't given her much other than milk. There are so many conflicting reports regarding solid food before six months and since she is getting plenty of nutrients from the breastmilk, she only got some puree jar food a handful of times in her sixth month of life. This up coming month we'll be upping the solid food with more regularity.

Mobility wise, she's somewhat mobile. She can get herself up on her knees, she can even do the rocking motion, but she lets her legs fall out from under her and she ooches where she wants to go. She doesn't move very fast and it isn't an army crawl either, but somehow she can get to what she wants... so anything tiny, chokeable sized items need to officially be retired or hidden. Crawling is only a matter of days or weeks away for this family!

Mae had a great 4th of July and was so happy to just sit on the beach blanket and watch the fireworks. The noise didn't bother her and she was so content to just sit and look at all the pretty colors in the sky. In general on all of our outings this past month she's just been great. She's just so easy going and willing to be toted where ever. She sits very well in the Ergo carrier and happily looks around at her new surroundings.

We haven't officially gotten her six month stats just yet, but on her Grammie's scale on her sixth month birthday she weighed 14.5lbs. :)

It's been such a wonderful first six months with this little girl. She is so happy, agreeable, and loving - we just can't get enough of her. I can't wait to see what the next six months holds for her as she explores her world more and more!

The Friendship Oak

While we're in Mississippi, I'm try to occupy our time and see all the local attractions that there are to be had. We've certainly taken our time combing through local eateries, buffets, and anything related to food - but to date we haven't taken much time to explore to sites and events that are available. My friend Brianne for Christmas got me the book Mississippi: Off the Beaten Path and I've Last weekend we set out to explore one in the items in the book: The Friendship Oak.

The Friendship Oak is a 500+ year old tree on an abandoned tattered campus of the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast. It's actually really amazing to see the tree still standing, growing and thriving, amid the aftermath Hurricane Katrina left to the buildings it is surrounded by. The college campus while abandoned is still actively seeking funding to restore the historic buildings that once housed it collegiate classes - but until that comes the Friendship Oak continues to grow as it has since 1487. It's such a poetic juxtaposition. The tree is beautiful.

Prior to Katrina there was a platform and a staircase that allowed you to get into the tree without any issue and to look out and around the surroundings. People got married there, classes were held there, I'm sure it was beautiful. Now all of that has been removed and the tree continues to grow. Last measurements that I can find are that the tree is 50-foot height; diameter of the trunk is 5 feet 9 inches; circumference of the trunk is 18 feet 7 inches; spread of foliage is 156 feet. The average length of the main lateral limbs is 60-66 feet from the trunk; average circumference of the limbs at the trunk is 7 1/2 feet; the tree forms almost 16,000 feet of shelter; and lateral roots go out 150 feet.


We were a bit shocked when we arrived to see the campus in such a state that it was, questionable if we were even allowed to be there... but with several other tourists stopping by and the several drive-bys done by the local police we assumed it was allowed.

Ace was really excited to see such a big tree. He and his dad went straight to climbing and later had fun chasing each other around the giant branches and finding acorns that were all over the ground. Mae just kept staring around at her surroundings, unsure where we had toted her to this time. :)


It was a fun outing that was free an interesting to see a part of history. I mean it's not every day you get to see a 500+ year old tree that has survived and is surrounded still by so much devastation. Nature is quite an amazing thing sometimes.