Shabby Apple...Not so shabby!

I found this new company Shabby Apple on the internet and discovered some beautiful creations from some of my favorite fabrics. They are also having a Picture Princess Contest! One can enter to show off the cuteness of their child to win a photo shoot and a wardrobe of Shabby Baby clothing! I am in!

Ella is a great candidate as she is beginning to love to model off her mommy's creations (I sew) and she loves to get dressed up when in the mood. She is my little princess! Ella is all ready learning to accessorize and loves going to the fabric store and find fabrics to put together for new creations. I am having a hard time keeping up with her requests!

"Peach Cobbler"- from Shabby Baby is my fav for Ella!
It also happens to match (exactly) a cami shirt I have been making from Amy Butler fabrics for myself) LOVE IT!

Ella dressed up for a wedding and striking a pose. Pink from head to toe tonight! I think she wore these pink sparkle tights for almost a week solid she loved the combination of pink and sparkles too much!

Showing off in her actual flower girl dress.

Fourth of July smile- almost 4 here!

On a plus side, I loved the adult clothing on this site as well. If you take short body 3 question survey, they will hand pick garments designed to flatter your body type. Mine was very accurate! Check it out! This is how mine turned out:

First Day Kleinscheule

Change is a good thing, so I need to remind myself but it is pretty easy when your kids love change and in fact seem to relish with it. Lars began this week at Kleinschule, in Amana at my school, also where Ella goes for her preschool this year.

This week Lars has:

• gone pee in the potty at school
• napped everyday with NO problems (in fact they are brave enough to do underwear. I told them that I think we can wait a couple of weeks.)
• climbed and licked the radiator
• drank all of his chocolate milk (Friday only)
  
• successfully ate only chicken nuggets for lunch one day- but a lot of em
• plays with others- and he is learning how to work it out
• sings and sings
• hugs all his teachers without prompting (Such sweetness!)
• maintains a positive yet separate relationship with his sis
  
• gone potty 3 time before we leave for school
• attempted to go potty at school on his own- took down his pants and pull up himself- only to find a runny surprise- yuk! but the good news was, I did not have to clean it up!
  
• sits for reading time & listens
• loves to join in the older kids and count
• and he loves to talk and talk and talk.....in fact they teachers were happy that he could express himself so well!
  

Amanda asked me on one of the first days if Lars responded better to something other than his own name because he did not seem to be listening very well. I laughed whole heartedly at this because Lars uses his selective hearing majority of the time as he is 2 1/2. I wished her good luck!

Here is is when I picked him up afterschool. He was playing amongst a group of kids and singing quietly to himself. Note the hips swaying as he was also dancing a bit. He did not notice me for about 1 minutes so I was able to get this sweet pic. Then he yelled, "Mommy!" and proceeded to run to me and give me a big hug. Love and kisses!

New Years Resolutions

I have never really been big on making New Year's Resolutions but I have a few goals for myself this year. In short I want to demonstrate financial and physical fitness.

I always intend each year to be more financially responsible than the year before. I really am going to stick to that this year. I want to be able to make a budget and stick to it. I am going to track my spending in hopes of working towards this.

In the other realm, Bret helped me get started with a membership to North Dodge. I am working on just getting back into the routine of working out then really stepping it up. I also want to watch the food intake- ho many cookies did I really eat this holiday anyway?

Lastly, I want to spend quality time with my family having fun. We have a pass to the museum but I think the kids are getting older that I may be able to explore some new things to do with them. I will need to brainstorm a list of things to do for kids ages 2-5 in the area, especially new ones we have not yet done.

I hope this new year has lots of firsts, laughter and new discoveries for our family!

Holiday Cards

So , in case you missed the Hackathorn hoilday card, here is a version of it. It is missing the text of looking forwards to "January 19th and Hope! " which greatly annoyed many friends and family as they weren't immediately sure of what we were referencing. Below are several of my "contenders" but they just did not make the cut....check them out.



In case you did not know what we were referencing with our Jan 19th statement, think Obama and inauguration. Coming soon!!

Jublin at Woot

This is another of my new favorte things to do everyday. I go check out Woot. If you have not been to Woot yet, I suggest you try it out. There is a WineWoot, ShirtWoot and regular Woot. Everyday there is something new for sale. Just one item though and if it sells out - that is it for the day. Items go on sale at midnight. WineWoot obviously sells wine, ShirtWoot sells shirts but Woot sells electronic stuff. You never know what will come up and it is always at a discounted price. You can comment on the Woot and track sales across the country or by the hour. I particularly like to Shirt Woot because there is a contest as well. You can see a bunch of cool designs and then go see what other things those artists have designed. I ran into this designer, Jublin, at shirt woot. I like this drawing of his a lot. Check his website out here.

Santa 2008

Ella and Lars really wanted to see Santa but I just was not all that keen on standing in line and paying $25 for a picture. I also checked out the Santa at Coralridge and it was not the one from years past. he was much shorted and I must say he looked slightly ill as if he may pass out at any time. A certain cheery smile and twinkle in his eye seemed to be missing- infact I thought he looked in pain each time I saw him. I then remembered someone telling me that Sycamore Mall had a Santa so we decided to check him out.

Lars and ella waited through 2-3 kids in front of us and did such a great job. Then we went up. Lars went righ tup and told Santa he wanted a remote helicopter and cars. He just stared and looked at Santa for some time. Ella was hanging out checking him out- she is very wary of bearded strangers (always has been) then she went onto his lap and proceeded to tell him all she wanted was a purple dog with a heart on his bottom. This unfortunately was the last toy I told her she could not have from Stuff. As she is asking for it I am groaning in pain! Bret's mom went to look for it but looking for a stuffed animal at Stuff is like a needle in a haystack.

I think they liked seeing Santa but Ella wil figure out the charade soon. She is very weary of the "fakes". She did tell me that this one had a real beard. I also enjoyed when she told him how we put out reindeer food the year before in Africa Santa gave me a look as if he was not sure to believe them. I laughed and reminded Ella how we had to let Santa know where we were.

I need to remember to really keep things a better secret next year. I alsmost spilled the beans a few times. Also separate wrapping paper!!! I did do that, but I think I can be more mysterious next year. I think now that Christmas is over we can rest Santa until next year.

Tis the Season