School!!!

The first day of school was Tuesday and boy were we ready!!
Bud is starting 3rd grade. Here he is at his desk.

This year he doesn't have one of his best buds in class. Hopefully he branches out and makes some new friends. We are super happy with the teacher he got. Here he is with Mrs Switzer:

Emma started Kindergarten and we are both super excited!! She also got the teacher we really wanted for here. Here she is in the classroom on the first day:

Mo needed to get in on the action. He's having the hardest time with all of this. He misses his big brother and sister. There were even tears when we dropped Emma off today, but is always up for smiling for the camera!

I'm hoping for a successful school year filled with friends, laughing, learning & growing!

Daddy & Henry's photo shoot

N8 was in need of a new facebook profile picture. The one he had was taken with Emma when she was probably 3 1/2! This was my best shot at getting a good picture of N8 with Henry. We're still working on keeping eyes open!

At least I was able to get a solo shot of his with his eyes!

and a silly grin

Craft: Homemade Storage Cubbies

I ventured out to a few garage sales on Friday and picked up a few tray jigsaw puzzles. Our kids love to do puzzles, but storing them is kind of a pain! I recently came upon a simple no/low cost solution to our problem~Homemade storage cubbies!!

I first came upon the the idea at Smart Bottom Enterprises and then it took me to Family Fun. I had all of the supplies, the kids were watching African Screams and Henry was snoozing in his swing.

I started with:
~3 medium size priority shipping boxes
~12x12 coordinating scrapbook paper
~black duct tape

First I cut the flaps off one end of the boxes. Then cut the paper down so it would slide into the box. The paper isn't quite long enough, but unless you're peering with a flashlight down inside the cubby, you can't see the back.

Next stack the boxes on top of each other and carefully duct tape the front edge of two boxes, plus the paper, together. It might be easier to tape the boxes together first and then tape the paper in, but I was pretty low on duct tape and was trying to conserve!

Next cut paper to fit down the insides (I had 3 boxes, so 6 sides) and carefully duct tape.

Then I cut paper to fit the 2 outsides and the top and tapes again.

That was it!

It literally took me about 15 minutes. These would be great for school papers, mail slots or with slightly bigger boxes- scrapbook paper.

I'm blue....

Well actually Henry was yellow and they made him stay under some blue lights! On Friday my sister Karen took off in the morning and that afternoon I was called and told to go in at 4pm for another bilirubin check. We decided to give Henry his first sponge bath before I had to go. His hair makes a fun little mow-hawk!

It turns out that Henry was pretty jaundice which meant he was admitted to the hospital and put under these:

He had to stay under the lights with only a diaper and those cool little foam shades to cover his eyes. I could pick him up every two hours when I could feed him. He really tolerated it well and only had to be under for a little over 24 hours. We came home on Saturday night totally exhausted, but happy to be home. We still have had to do blood checks for Sunday and today. Hopefully his numbers are where they need to be and we can be done taking him in. They poke his little heal each time and it's to the point that they don't really have anywhere else to poke!

But he's been a real trooper through it all. Emma was able to get his picture of him earlier today!!

Henry is here!!

Our new little man, Henry Fielding Kimbler made it here at 3:47pm on 8-9-10. He was 8 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long and absolutely perfect!

I went into the hospital at 7am to be induced and was started on pitocen at about 9:45am. Six hours later we became a family of 6!

We had an awesome friend as our labor and delivery nurse, Paula:

and my sister Karen was able to be there for the delivery as well:

Here we are ready to head home from the hospital:

and a few more shots, just because he's cute!

The numbers....

On Sunday N8 & I spent
hours at the hospital. I had steady contractions 2-3 minutes apart the majority of that time, but no baby yet.

It got me thinking about the numbers.

We havedays until my wonderful sister comes to stay with us to help out when the new man makes his arrival.

We havedays until baby boy is here (unless it happens sooner! But I'm being induced on the 9th, so no later than that!).

And we havedays until school starts!!

With everything creeping up quickly, I've been trying to get the random things done around the house while trying to stay somewhat cool. I've been able to finish a few more unfinished projects.

I started a car mat as part of the monthly craft group I go to. It was a good project to work on while watching Food Network & HGTV!

I also had file folder games from our group. I now have 6 colored and 3 totally completed. I decided to do them slightly differently and cut my file folders in 1/2. I did them on the front and back. This way I could laminate them at home with my own laminater and not spend the $$ to do it somewhere else.

I've also been eying different nursing covers and found on I wanted to try and make. This one is from Scraps N' Strings. I'm happy with how it turned out. The only challenge will be remembering to bring it with my places. The other 3 kids never would put up with being covered up. We'll see if this one will!

There was also one last blanket I wanted to make. I had found this fabric while I was in Phoenix. I love the colors and am happy with how it turned out.

Now I'm trying to stay up on things around the house, not let the kids drive each other crazy and stay cool!

It's hard to tell, but this picture was taken during the one random monsoon"ish" storm we've had. It is actually raining on N8 and the kids!

Using up my scraps...

With all of my sewing project I always end up with scraps. My sister passed on a link to a tutorial that i thought would be a great use for some of my scraps. Over at Make It and Love It there is a tutorial for a diaper & wipes case/cover. I gave it a shot, and here are my results.

Here is the first diaper case I made (I followed the given size and decided it was HUGE for a newborn. Mo's big diapers have tons of room).


So, I decided to make another smaller version that fits a newborn size diaper (and a size 1) just right. I also matched the wipes case to this cover:

Instead of Velcro I opted for snaps.

While I was checking out other links on this site I came across a Toddler Bag handle and gave it a try too. I didn't use any fusible web, I just tucked a piece of felt in the handle end. Hopefully this will help Mo stay with me when I can't hold his hand.


Lastly, I had a few strips of coordinating fabric and decided to put together another simple blanket for the little guy. While in Phoenix I had picked up the coordinating backing fabric.


I still have tons of scraps. I could make a few dozen more toddler bag handles and diapers and wipes covers but I'll probably stop where I'm at!