Another diaper bag

A friend of mine is expecting a baby in October so I decided to make her a diaper bag and try out a new pattern.

It was so much fun to make this one, it took me longer though than the bag I made for my sister. I love all the pockets this bag has, my favorite diaper bag I made so far :)

Here's the link for the tutorial:

http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/2008/12/free-diaper-bag-tutorial.html

diaper bag

I just finished a diaper bag for my sister. She was complaining that hers wasn't big enough, I found this pattern and I think it turned out really cute! http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/diaper-bag-pattern.html
The pattern is free and really adaptable, I love it, I think I'm gonna make another one for myself soon. It would make a great gift for a baby shower too...

Baby in the house :)

My sister and her baby are here to visit, yay!
It's so nice to have a new baby in the house, I really enjoy it. Anika reminds me so much of Leeann when she was that age and they really look alike. I can't believe Leeann is turning 5 this fall, seems like yesterday when she was such a tiny thing.
Tyler is starting to talk a lot more now, he is building his first little sentences, he's getting so big. When I was little I hated it when people told me how fast time passes, it seemed to take forever to grow up and now I know exactly what they meant, as soon as you have kids yourself time flies.
Jan and I are still making plans for our Germany visit in June, maybe we'll be able to book the flights later tonight. I am really excited, feels like we haven't seen our families in a long time and it has been 2 years for me and the kids and 3 years for Jan. That really is a long time.
I want to make the best out of every moment, we don't know when Jan has to deploy again, times like that really help you enjoy the time you have together a lot more.
I really want to go to Sea World with Jan and the kids, they still have the military special this year and you can get in with your family for free. Now the kids are old enough to really enjoy pretty much everything they have. And maybe this time we can spend an extra day in San Diego so we can go to the zoo or the beach.
For now I just want to enjoy Ute and Anika spending time with us though :)

Miss Anika II

So, Anika finally officially joined our family yesterday! She was born at 2.41 pm and she is beautiful, healthy and as perfect as a newborn can be :).
They induced my sister on April 14th but for some reason she wouldn't progress at all, so she had a c-section on the 15th.
Today is Jan's birthday but he is still sick, so we'll see if we can still go out like I was planning on, he went to work today so that's a good sign. I'll bring him over some chicken soup for lunch later, I don't think he has eaten at all since yesterday morning. I'm not even sure if he did eat yesterday morning.
I hope we'll be able to book our flights to Baltimore soon, we'll be trying to fly space A from Baltimore airport but I really want to book the flight to Baltimore asap so we can make plans for our Germany visit :)

ABC's and 123's :)

I just thought about how easy it was for Leeann to learn her numbers, letters, shapes and colors. Tyler is doing pretty good with number recognition and I know it's not because of anything I taught them, at least not knowingly. There is just so much great preschool stuff out there that makes learning really fun. I'm a big fan of the preschool prep series: http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/i/index.php that's how Tyler learned his numbers, they also have DVDs for learning letters, colors, shapes and sight words. It really drives the parents crazy but my kids love it :).
Leeann learned her letters with the leapfrog "Letter Factory" DVD: http://www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Factory-Roy-Allen-Smith/dp/B001TKUXUC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1271205303&sr=8-1 Even I like to watch this one, it has a really cute story kids can relate to.
Oh, and then we have all kinds of Usborne books and flashcards: http://usborne.com/
OK, I just thought I'd share, I always appreciate other Moms sharing that kind of information with me :).
The weather is beautiful again and I think I'll take the kids for a walk now!

back home and the earthquake

So we made it back home to Arizona safely. The drive back from Mountain Home to Surprise was a lot easier since Jan was with us. I'm not gonna do another 15 h drive with the kids by myself if I don't really have to. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but it was sure exhausting.
I enjoyed the time with my sister although the baby obviously changed her mind as soon as we got there and decided to stay in a little longer. I'm glad to be back home now, I missed my friends and my routine, I'm a creature of habit I guess :). I wish I could have been there for Anika's birth but I'm perfectly content as long as I know my sister doesn't have to do it by herself, her hubby is gonna be with her.
Our church had the big Easter Party at the Goodyear Park today, it was a lot of fun like every year. I love celebrating Easter for what it is: Our Savior's victory over death.
Jan and I had another date night last night, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for cheesecake and cocktails to celebrate my birthday. No, actually I was the only one having cocktails, Jan was the designated driver, haha.
Oh, and we had an earthquake today, just a very light one here but it was 7.2 in Baja, California. I didn't realize it was an earthquake, I was at the grocery store with Leeann and I thought I had balance issues and I felt a little sick. When I came home Jan told me that he actually saw the walls of our house move. We turned on the news and found out that it was a lot worse in California and Mexico but it seems like nothing really happened besides a few tourists getting stuck in an elevator at a Disneyland hotel for a few hours, at least that was the only thing they reported in the news.
Anyway, here I am back home, watching Dirty Jobs with hubby :)

Miss Anika

I'm in Mountain Home, Idaho with my sister right now.
Her Baby is due on April 17th but for a little while it seemed like she was planning on coming out early so I packed my kids in the car and headed towards Idaho. Well actually I first headed towards Las Vegas, we spent the night there in a hotel and then the next day I drove the remaining 10 hours to Mountain Home.
The drive wasn't as stressful as I thought it would be, the kids did pretty good. Mainly because we had the little DVD player with us in the car so they were entertained most of the time. Thank Heaven for portable DVD players :)
Anika (my sister's baby) seems to take her time now and I'm almost sure that she won't come the next few days, that means I probably won't be there when she's born :(.
We really have to head back, we just have too much going on at home we can't be gone for more than two weeks.
I'm gonna pick up Jan from the airport here on Wednesday, I'm so glad he's gonna drive back with us. Like I said, the drive is not that bad but you're going through the Mojave Desert for hours and hours without seeing a single house, car, animal or human being, it's beautiful but you get very tired after a few miles of nothing. It's gonna be a lot easier on the way back when Jan is with me and we can take turns and I have someone to chat with.
Tomorrow is my birthday and for some reason I am really excited. We're thinking about going to Boise and eat at the Cheescake Factory tomorrow unless Ute goes into labor of course, that would be absolutely fine with me too :)
I'm soo excited to have a new baby in the family soon and this time I'm not the one who has to go through labor, hehe. As soon as Miss Anika decides to come out I'll let you know and post some pictures!
There is one more thing: I made some washable nursing pads for my sister, they are such an easy and fast sewing project, really inexpensive and they work at least as good as the expensive ones you can buy at the store! Here's the link: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2009/04/homemade-nursing-pads.html