American Girl Doll Dress

I actually have something crafty to show today.  I made a birthday present for one of Harper's friends a couple of weeks ago.  She requested a dress made with lace.

I thought it was sweet that her friend wanted me to make her doll a dress.  The best part of it though was I did not spend a dime making it.  I used material I had on hand.  Gotta love that.

I used Simplicity 4786 as a starting point.

The back is velcro so it should be easy to get on and off.  I didn't get to see her open it, but Harper said she liked it.  

This Makes Me Happy

Isn't it great how just the smallest things can really brighten your day?  A couple of weeks ago I actually pulled out the sewing machine and made these pillows.

I found the flower print at Joann's and already had the chevron and yellow prints.  I really feel like the pillows really tie everything together.  The splash of color is still making me happy two weeks later.

Now I just need to put up some artwork, which is the story of my life right now.  

We have been working on Harper's room the last few weekends.  Her grandfather built her a loft bed. So we painted her room and the loft bed. Once we have it all put back together I will take some photos.  She is very excited about her new room.  

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

The kids wanted to make photo valentines again this year.  I showed them several ideas, but they were stuck on the "Rock On" theme with pop rocks attached.

This is very much like Harper's valentine last year. She really wanted to do another one this year, so that's what we did.  She processed hers using picmonkey.  Miller lost interest after the photo shoot, so I processed his for him.  He didn't want any funky colors.

We have been battling the funk at our house this week.  Miller had strep throat over the weekend.  Then Harper starting feeling bad on Monday.  Instead of strep she has the flu.  Ugh.  She had the flu back in December too.  I mean what are the odds of her getting strain A and B?  We all got the flu shot after our bout with the flu in December, but I guess it didn't really help Harper.  Poor thing.  Hopefully the rest of us will dodge this round.

I hope everyone has a healthy Valentine's Day!!!

Sledding

The kids were out of school on Friday because we got a dusting of snow.  I seriously think the school system just wanted to use a snow day because the roads were completely clear.  The snow was gone by mid morning so the kids didn't get to play in it too much.  Then we woke up Saturday to another dusting of snow.  This time we took advantage of it and did some sledding.

The snow was gone again by lunch time, but at least we got to have a little bit of snow fun.  

Fun at the Circus

We went to the Circus a few weeks ago.  Here are some of the photo highlights.

Cousin love....

The elephants never disappoint.

That guy is blindfolded. Crazy, huh?

Ouch!!!

Can you tell we had a great seats?  

Brown Belt

Harper tested for her Brown Belt on Saturday.  She was supposed to test back in December, but she had the flu on the day of the testing.  She was heartbroken that she wasn't able to test. So needless to say, she was ready and well prepared this time around.

It is so fun to watch her.  Sometimes it amazes me how far she has come since she was a white belt. She broke both of these boards on the first try.

There were 19 kids that tested and she was the only one to get an outstanding testing award. I might be a little biased, but she definitely earned it.

I am so proud of you Harper!!

Close Enough

We have slowly put the house back together again.  There are still pictures to be hung and a few random projects we want to do, but for the most part we are done remodeling for awhile.  The goal now is to save up as much money as we can so that we can finish off our garage into a bonus room for the kids.  

So the rooms don't look exactly like we want them to yet, but they are close enough to show you some pictures.

The first thing Mitch worked on over Christmas Break was a new media console.  He mounted the TV on the wall so he wanted something smaller and more modern for this space.  I love how it turned out.

So the next thing we did was painted the piece of furniture that was there and moved it to the playroom.  We had to remove the old entertainment center first, which was quite the chore.  Let's just say I am glad that is behind us.  The room feels so much more open now.

We moved the table to where the computer was and moved the computer into the left hand corner.  As you can tell the table is being primarily used for Lego construction right now.   I told you we still need to hang some pictures.

Here you can see the computer.  Mitch wants to build a desk, but for now this is working.

The bench that was in the laundry room got moved to the foyer.  We discovered that we did not really use all the bins when they were out in the laundry room.  I am hoping they get utilized more now.  I just cleaned up the bookshelf on the left.

Here's another look at the other side of the media console. We would like to get a big comfy chair to put in the corner. 

It feels so good to have our house back together again.  Hopefully I am done moving furniture around for a few weeks.