Isabella's Blessing

Izzy was blessed last Sunday. Phil did a great job. The blessing was very sweet. He was not quite as nervous as he was with Jessie. :) Anyway, I could not find Jessie's blessing dress any where, so on Thursday my mother in law and I started this dress. It came out beautifully, and I was so glad that she was here to help me....well I think really I helped her...she definately did the majority of it! Anyway, here are a few pictures of Izzy's big day. We sure love her!

As you can see here she is such a happy baby. She just needs to hear Phil's voice and she is all smiles. She coo's a ton and loves when Jessie pays attention to her. She is a great little eater. At her 2 month appointment she was 11 lbs. 5 oz ( in the 56%) and 23 1/2 inches long (in the 95%). Tall and thin just like her daddy. She has an increadibly loud cry....seriously it is loud, other people have even commented on it, so I know it is not just me. Luckily we do not hear it too often because she is always so content.

Our Christmas Card...coming soon

So the holidays here have been a little crazy for me and not everything got done that I wanted to do. The main thing is our Christmas card. I wanted to wait till Isabella came before we took the picture...then once she came, Phil was gone pretty much the entire time until December 24th...he was around for a couple days here and there, but he had a lot of work on Oahu. Anway...we just did not get it done...but it is finally done and now I just need to get it printed and sent...so hopefully I can get that done soon! :) So here is a little sneak peak....we decided to go with a theme this year...REDNECK..:)

I just love this picture of Jessie...she was so over taking pictures!

Isabella Ka'iulani

This is the day before I had Izzy...40 weeks 3 days...I do not think I was quite this big with Jessie.

After 10 hours of labor, Isabella finally arrived on November 22 at 7:05 am. She was 8 lbs 3 oz. and 20 inches long. She is a great baby and is already starting to coo! We love her so much...Jessie is a great big sister. She loves Izzy and is a little overwhelming to Izzy at times, but her singing and kisses make up for it. This first picture was taked right after she was born. The nurses were still wiping her down. She was really purple becuase she had the cord wrapped around her neck and tangled around her body. Her color came pretty fast though, so it was not too scary. They layed her on my chest and she stayed there for 2.5 hours. They did not weigh her or anything...it was some nice bonding time, but it got a little long to be honest because Phil left to go pick up Jessie and my mom and I still had the stuff in my back from the epidural, so I was getting a little sore....(apparently right after I gave birth a girl came in who was only 30 weeks pregnant, so all the nurses where in helping with her. Luckily she had a healthy (for 10 weeks premature) baby boy, who was wisked to Oahu for better medical care.) Anyway, the whole experience was great, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE this hospital here in Waimea...my nurse was awesome!!!

Phil and I were both born with very, very light hair, so I am not sure where the dark hair came from. I was surprised when Jessie was born with red hair, but even more surprised when Izzy was born with such dark hair....I love it though....Jessie said that she looks like mommy and Izzy looks like daddy...(based on hair color of course!) Her skin tone is much darker than mine...I hope she still gets a few freckles though...I just love freckles on little girls! :)

Sewing Projects

My new favorite website is sew4home.com. They have great tutorials on easy, and some not so easy, projects. I found it when I was looking for cute material for crib bedding. It also had a tutorial on how to make the crib bedding. So, I am making crib bedding. So far I have finished the bed skirt. I still have the crib bumpers and I am going to tie a quilt. I think the bed skirt would be cuter if my crib was white and I am thinking about painting it, Except that I have a lot to do in the next 5 weeks. :) Maybe I will talk Phil into doing that for me!

In my quilting class, we learned how to make pillow cases...yes I know nothing to do with quilting, but the ladies thought it would be a good skill for me to have since I have little kids...the ladies in the classs are so awesome. So I made this cute pillow case in an hour. I could not believe how easy and cute it turned out. Jessie picked out the Hello Kitty material and was really excited to sleep with it last night.

Again I found this cute trick-or-treat bag on sew4home.com. It was surprisingly easy. It cost me $10 for the material and supplies, but I have enough material to make at least 3 more...so i thought it was a pretty good deal. Plus it was really fun to make. I am really surprised at how much I am enjoying sewing.
Isn't Jessie the cutest little model?!?
So next on my list is a cover and pillow for the Chase we bought at the thrift store, crib bumpers, tied quilt, and hooded towels for craft show(we are making 40, but I have help from a friend) And only 5 weeks to get it done....:)

Apartment Finished

So we have been in our house for 1 year, and we just finished the apartment. I had to bribe Phil to get it done. He got a new shot gun out of the whole thing. :) It has been nice that it was unfinished because we were able to use it for visiting family and friends, but we are glad it is done and rented out. It really helps pay the mortgage! :) So here are the pictures of the finished project. Phil really did a great job on everything!

Here is the front room/kitchen area.

Bathroom
bedroom
Other side of the bedroom
Kitchen

Best Friend Ever!

Tonight as I was putting Jessie to bed we were talking about what we had done today. We talked about shopping in town and watching Dora and playing outside and reading books and taking daddy to the airport so he can go work. This last one is getting pretty common unfortunately, but it is so cute to hear Jessie tell her dad, see ya in a couple of days! Anyway, as we were talking about taking daddy to the airport, Jessie says, "Daddy best friend ever!" It just warmed my heart, and if you see the way he plays with her you can see why she would say that! He is so patient and kind! He teaches her so much that I would never have thought to teach her...like to love little critters (skinks, bugs, worms, gecko's, frogs, etc.) and he talks about what animals we eat and do not eat. He teaches her about the things that he loves. The other day she was off playing by herself and she comes up to Phil and I and says, " my cow, i shoot him with my gun." Phil has been hunting a bit lately and brought home a pig that he shot, and he of course talked to Jessie about hunting. I am so lucky to have such a great man, and Jessie is so lucky to have such a great daddy!

My latest projects

So call it nesting if you want, but I have been driven by projects lately! I think it is because Phil has been spending a little more time on Oahu again and I am just trying to keep myself busy so I do not get depressed about being alone! :) I have taken up a Hawaiian Quilting class. They have a non profit organization here in Waimea called Tutu's house (grandma's house) where they offer different classes to the community, all of which are absolutely free. They have yoga, guitar, knitting, Hawaiian quilting, tumbling for little kids, ukulele, etc. Anyway, I decided to go to the HAwaiian quilting class, which meets once a week for a few hours. I am the youngest there by about 40 years or so, and I love it. I really enjoy listening to the girls talk and tell stories . Most of them come from different parts of the U.S. and have some really neat experiences. Anyway, I am learning slowly but surely how to quilt HAwaiian style and boy does it take patience! :)

I also decided that I need to knit Izzy(our not yet born baby:) a blanket since I did one for Jessie...so I am working on that. I also thought that becasue we own our own home now, I really should make Jessie and Izzy's room the cutest possible, so i thought I would make some crib bedding for Izzy. I wanted to make it gender neutral since we are hoping to have a boy someday, so I spent days on the computer looking for just the right fabric...I ordered it and am waiting for it to come in the mail. I will post pictures of it when it comes. Along with pictures of the process. I am sure it will be interesting...I am not sure what made me think that I am capable of such a task, but I have a seam ripper, so I can always try again...as long as I cut it out correctly. :) Anyway, Phil says that I need to be careful not to get too many projects goiing at once, but I think it may be a little late for that.

There are quite a few girls in our ward that are pregnant right now and so lots of showers to go to. :) I decided that I wanted to do something a little diferent as gifts, so I decided to make hooded towels. I made a lady bug hooded towel with my sister MaryBeth before Jessie was born...actually she made it while i watched and contributed here and there. Anyway, I still have a few to make but I am pretty pleased how they turned out. I am thinking about making a bunch and selling them at the Holiday craft fair in December...I have a few other ideas for different characters. We will see how it goes. :)

This Hello Kitty towel is one of my favorites. Jessie loved it and was sad that we had to give it away. :)