I'm smitten

Yep, I'm in love. With my 8 day old nephew.

The only problem is that his Mama loves him at least twice as much and wouldn't let me bring him home with me. I'm kind of impatient to meet my own little bundle of love, especially after snuggling this cutie. Only 16 more weeks until my due date.

Sporting the little turkey hat I made him.

Caetlin liked holding her new cousin.

Miss Mina's also smitten.

Update- in picture form, with a few words,

I'm exhausted today. And for once not because I'm growing a baby. Today I removed 2 eye sores someone considered "shelves." There were so many "WTF were you people thinking?" moments. I'm pretty sure half of their project budget was spent on nails. They wanted these things to be permanent. Too bad for them I'm super awesome at demolition.

Before I took my hammer & pry bar to the shelves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After. Soooo much better.

 

It was hard work but worth it. I spent about 1 1/2 hours tearing them out & 40 minutes cleaning up.

My other project recently has been working on the backyard. This is a shot of the back when we were in escrow.

After we bought the house and removed what felt like 2 tons of river rock, a stump & tried (unsucessfully) to plant some hydrangea.

 This is it today. The broken up sidewalk path had to go. The edges of the chunks were uneven and the girls were constantly tripping over them. I got really pissed at it after Caetlin busted her face on it twice in an hour and started digging up chunks as soon as she stopped crying the second time.

 

We are going to put in a brick walkway like this one.

 

(image source)

 

Speaking of Caetlin, she has decided she is going to start dressing herself.

 

Some days are better than others.

Let's call this day "epic failure" shall we?

And I've learned how to crochet! I had to make myself a little something to wear on Sundays. Go Niners!

 And a little something for my cousin's baby.

 We had a fun Halloween.(Wow, I'm behind.) Did I mention lately that I'm kinda awesome?

 My little Ponyo.

 And Miss Strawberry Shortcake.

Also I've been trying to keep the house looking like this.

 But more often than not, it's like this. Just keepin' it real.

My turn at his work shirt to her school dress

I made each of the girls a new dress this morning from some of their Papa's old dress shirts. Stef, of Girl. Inspired., posted her mini tutorial a while ago and I LOVED it! But my hubby doesn't wear dress shirts & I wasn't going to sacrifice any of the (very) few he had so I thought my girls would just have to live without these cute dresses. And then yesterday my MIL offered these shirts to me.  I knew exactly how I was going to use them the second I saw them!

Ta-da! The girls call these their "Papa" dresses. I opted for long sleeves since the weather is supposed to be getting cooler but otherwise followed Stef's directions.

Some of the worst modelling ever.

 Thanks for the great idea Stef!