Ready or Not...

Today: My last day of being 29 on the 29th.
Tomorrow: My first day of being 30 on the 30th.

Some days I feel it. Some days I don't.

I used to HATE having my birthday 5 days after Christmas. But now...I love it because I get to spend it with the people I love the most, my family.

We're enjoying our last night at the river. It sure is relaxing. Wish I didn't have to leave. Darn Disneyland...for making me show up in person to get my discounted pass on my birthday. I know...rough, huh? The problem is we can't enjoy a little trip there since my husband and kids passes are blocked out for the holidays!

Alexis' 6th Birthday

Another big week. This time for Alexis.

Her actual birthday was filled with school, a trip to Disneyland and cake and ice cream with just the 5 of us. We got her a "look I can swim doll" which she loves.

In an effort to save I made the two other gifts. They turned out quite nicely.

First up, a sleeping bag since she is always trying to carry her baby bassinet everywhere.

Next, a baby doll baby bjorn.

Last Saturday we had a party for her. We put on:


You walked through this: (Idea from "Blue Cricket Design")


and into this:


The workshop tables:


As the kids got settled my friend, Jillonnie, decorated their faces with a little bit of face paint.

For the first activity the kids had to pick 3 Jolly Rancher candies from the center of the table. Unwrap them and line them up. We baked them for 6 minutes and they turned into these...JOLLY POPS! So cute and yummy. Recipe and idea from "The Decorated Cookie."

Then the kids used permanent marker to draw their names on Shrinky Dink Plastic. I haven't done those since I was a kid. So fun. I had pre-cut rectangles and hole punched them so they could make key chains or necklaces. Fun to watch them shrink up in the oven.
Then one table came to the kitchen and made their rainbow cupcakes. We made two batches of yellow cake mix and separated it into 6 containers. Then added food coloring. My mom wrote their name on the bottom of the cupcake liners. They picked the colors and order they wanted as my parents spooned it in their cupcake liner.
Meanwhile, the other table made their own bubbles with Chad. The secret ingredient for successful bubbles: Karo Syrup. Recipe from "Homemaking Fun." We added food coloring. I pre-cut "monogrammed" initials for them to glue to the top of their bubble container.
Alexis opened presents and they came back to the table to make their own lip gloss. Recipe from "Not so idle hands." Just cool-aide, water and petrolium jelly.

Wal-mart sells face paints for less than $3. 12 of these little flip lid containers come attached together. We cleaned them out after we used the face paint and cut the plastic bar that joined them all. I'm still putting it on. It taste so yummy. Just don't use sugar free Kool-aide. Buy the Kool-aide with the sugar already in it...not the little packets.
Then the kids frosted their own cupcakes. While Alexis was opening her presents I threw some pink lemonade into the ice cream maker. They gobbled down their swirly rainbow cupcakes along with pink lemonade slushies. The pink lemonade was made from a frozen concentrate and made according to packaged directions. Found that out from "The Idea Room."
Then the kids finalized all their projects. Added a string to their shrinky dink. Put a wrapper on their jolly pops and collected all their goodies in their cup and went home.
The whole party was super cheap. The entry drapes and the sign were made out of wal-mart plastic table clothes. Tinkerbell was cut from a box from the dollar store and taped to the sign. The cups were just flowers cut out of cardstock and slipped onto a paper party cup. They stayed without glue.

The kids kept busy and I think they had a ton of fun. It required a lot of help. I definitely couldn't have done this alone. There was a lot of cooking that needed to happen all while the kids wanted to move onto the next thing.

FYI: I saved the sign and drapes anyone is welcome to use them.

When are your Christmas cards coming?

For now...they aren't coming. So sad. My sister broke her leg a few weeks ago making it necessary for me to work for her. That unexpected extra day of work each week along with trying to make my kids Christmas gifts made me need to give up something. So maybe New Years cards or a family birth announcement. Who knows? For now...just know I love you all and didn't forget about you. I just needed a break.

Cleaning one of many PILES in my house...

...and I came across these gems:

A school worksheet I pulled out of Alexis' backpack after school.
The instructions:
-for 1, 2, and 3 read the sentences and write words to complete them.
-for 4, draw a picture to show how the story might end.

Well, she followed directions and put that story to an END!

Next, Carter's awesome spiky haired dude. He's getting pretty good at drawing.


Alexis' "special words" during the 1st Presidency Christmas Broadcast. We read a story in the friend earlier this year about a little boy trying to spell all the special words he heard at church to help him pay attention better. We've loved the idea and Alexis has really caught on. Who knew kids would be so excited to draw on plates instead of paper.

Some of my favorites:
savyeyr=savior anjllse=angels boorin=born profis=prophets jooey=joy keeing=king jeeses=jesus glloorey=glory pess=peace

She didn't ask for help. Not even once.

After getting in trouble one day...she drew this. Yes, we miss Alissa. Apparently, enough to cry a thousand tears when we are in trouble.

And...can you tell Alexis LOVES Owen. She writes about him at school. And when she's not holding him at home she writes notes to him all day long.

Owen's Big Week

Last week, Owen had his first outing with me. (Besides Grandma's houses.)

We went to Alexis' OCMCO rehearsal at Segerstrom Hall. We sat clear in the back by ourselves. About half way through Chad's Aunt Tara came by looking for a blanket to borrow. She was practicing her part as "Mary" in the Nativity scene during some of the songs. They needed a blanket because they forgot the baby doll they would be using in the concert to play baby Jesus.

She was walking away with the blanket when she turned back to me and looked at Owen. I asked her if she wanted to hold Owen. She asked if I cared if she took him on stage and practiced with him. I said, "sure." It was Chad's Aunt after all and she is basically a baby whisperer. Plus she wasn't coming very close to all the people and kids.

Anyhow, while they were rehearsing my brother-in-law, the director, looked over and saw Owen moving his arms and looking around the concert hall as Tara held him by the manger scene. He announced to the hundreds of people rehearsing...he would pay for that real baby to be in it because it made it so much more touching. As he walked over to Tara he asked her who the baby was.

Her response, "Uh, it's your nephew!"

(FYI: Brett is on my side of the family and Tara is on Chad's)

I was going back to work the next day so we had to make necessary arrangements. Switch around some babysitting situations. Thanks to Chad's mom and our friends, Natalie and Tyler, things worked out great.

After work I booked it down the freeway and got there in time to see his first performance. I tried to schedule out his feeding so he'd be awake and fed for when he was on stage. But the first show started late so he slept through the whole thing. People knew he was real but couldn't believe he slept through 10 minutes of an orchestra and hundreds of people singing right next to him. He did awesome. Brett was kind enough to let us stay in the directors room away from all the participants.

Chad and I got to watch the second show. I knew he would be getting tired right about the time he'd come out. They came in the back doors on the main level and walked through all the people till they got to the stage. When they walked in the concert hall Owen let out a little cry. Enough to say..."HELLO...look at me." Then the spotlight went on him and as Tara said, "A true Pitt." He turned on his charmed and stopped his cry and looked around for the rest of the time.
It brought tears to my eyes to see my baby playing baby Jesus in front of thousands of people and participating in a concert my brother-in-law works so hard on.

Then, on Sunday, we blessed Owen at church. There were tons of family and friends...just like we like it. Then we had a brunch at Chad's parents house and a dinner at my parent's house. (Our families are way too big to try and combine. There's at least 30 people at each house.)

When I found out I was having a boy one of the projects I was determined to sew were baby blessing shoes. I have never found boy one's I've liked so I've never bought any. I used this pattern to get the size right. Inspired by these shoes...but there was no pattern available. So I drew the top myself and went for it knowing I would likely fail the first time. I shocked myself...I kept the first attempt. And they are even cuter on. They are made out of linen with a cotton lining. I used buttons from an old shirt of Chad's brother.

(More pictures of Owen to come...we didn't get many of him that day...I plan to take more but Owen came down with a horrible case of baby ACNE and illness struck me fast and hard yesterday. Grrr.)

Just a bonus picture that Chad took before Thanksgiving. I never like pictures of me these days...but look how cute my sweet baby is. I love his bright blue eyes that might just change to a dark brown like Carter's did.

O Christmas Tree

I wish I said "NO" less often. I normally wouldn't let my kids ride on the bottom of a cart. But tonight I didn't care one bit. As Chad was wheeling them with our Christmas tree I had one of those moments where I had this overwhelming feeling of love for them! Glad I had my camera in my pocket to remember it forever.

Decorating the tree.

Owen is not smiling on demand but he will smile randomly. Today, Alexis was holding him and singing her school songs to him and he smiled a couple of times. It seemed coincidental since I still can't get him to smile at me. As we were decorating the tree I was trying to get him to smile for a while to get a picture. NOTHING. I had been trying for a few minutes when Alexis walks over and IMMEDIATELY when she starts talking to him he does this...
You can tell by the way he turns to look at Alexis and Carter when ever he hears their voices that he loves being around them. And now this. Maybe he'll smile at me one day.

A 5 year old trying to repent.

Have you ever heard it? Sure, I've heard her say she's sorry. But, tonight, she took her repentance process to the next level without telling us.

We put the kids to bed at Chad's mom's so we could all watch a movie in their family room. The kids were told if they get out of bed the door to the room they were sleeping in would get closed. Simple concept. One we work on constantly.

Carter got out twice in the first 10 minutes.

"A bad dream" he says. HA!

Alexis didn't come out for at least 30 minutes.

"I need a drink" she says.

So Chad responds, "Alexis get a drink then close your door. You knew the rules."

Alexis does as told. A few minutes later Chad's sister, Alissa goes to get something from one of the back rooms. She hears Alexis crying in her room. But she is also talking. Alissa listens at the door wondering who she is talking to and this is what she hears.

"I just wanted a drink of water. I'm trying so hard to be good.
I'm sorry. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

We were dying laughing to say the least. So, although, she still doesn't know we heard her prayer...Chad intervened with another drink of water and let her have the door open "just because."

Happy Thanksgiving

I am so thankful and feel blessed to be surrounded by this cute company every single day!
Today we had a relaxing morning watching the parade and getting ready for our day. Then we were off to my parents for a Thanksgiving feast with 2 of my sister's families, my brother's family, my cousin's family, my parents and my Grandparents. It was quite relaxing even with all the little munchkin's running around. We spent the entire time at my families because last minute Chad's family went to Big Bear to have Thanksgiving with his Grandma.

We don't get to see my Grandparents that often so we took another picture with them before we left.
Mmm. He is SOOO sweet. I love this little boy!
Yeah, pretty much the coolest place to hang out.
The feast is over. The kids are in bed. Chad's playing x-box. And I'm searching ads hoping to find sales on the few items we need for Christmas presents. We are keeping the spending to a MINIMUM this year. So the fabric store is going to be my main stop tomorrow to make some homemade gifts I know the kids will love.

Thanksgiving Advent Calendar

My project this month was trying to make the pottery barn advent calendar myself. It ended up being a HUGE undertaking. I'm pretty good at copying things exactly. It turned out super cute but don't look too close...there are definitely things that aren't straight! The question I get asked most often is if I use my cricut to cut out the felt numbers, etc. And my answer is NO. I haven't forked over the money for the cricut brand felt/fabric yet. To be honest I haven't looked into it much. I do know there aren't all the options in colors I need though. I use my cricut to cut the cardstock and then pin that to the felt and hand cut everything. Now I know why Pottery Barn charges $55! It cost me less than $10 and a ton of time.

Inside each pocket are these little thankful cards. They have circulated all over the blog world. You can print them here. Most people put them in jars. But I just love a cute advent calendar.

Photo Shoot with the kids

I realized that I didn't have any pictures with all three kids yet, so we piled them together and took a few quick pics.

Newborn Gowns

Owen's friend was born on Saturday. (aka Natalie's little boy) We've spent so much time together during our pregnancy they are bound to already know each other. When Natalie asked to pay me to make her a newborn gown...I laughed. Pay me! Yah right! Natalie does anything and everything for me. She even took my kids in the middle of the night when Chad's Grandma was sick. She's awesome...so these gowns were the least I could do.
PS: They are her husbands old t-shirts.

Some good laughs...

This is only funny to me now that I am through the worst part. One of my favorite blogs posted these and I was cracking up so hard I had to share.

Halloween

Yes, I love candy. Why do you ask?

The prettiest "Hershey Kiss" I've ever seen.

We re-used Alexis costume from her 4th of July parade. I honestly wrapped two pieces of fabric around a $2 pool floaty from Wal-mart and sewed it together. I used ribbon to cinch the top closed. It deflates flat to store.

As if he needed the title "Big Hunk"...he's always one in my eyes.

I post-poned making his costume thinking I would have my baby earlier. So I had to whip it together on Saturday afternoon. Good thing it was super easy.

Our SWEET little "Candy Corn." I just love the sweet smell of newborns. And I can help but LOVE every second with this little boy. Everything about him makes my heart melt.

After I finished Carter's costume I figured I might as well cut out a few pieces of felt and make a candy corn for Owen's shirt. He needed to join in on the candy fun. I tried taking pictures of him but I think he hated the over-sized felt piece. He tried eating it and then resorted to his fingers instead.

I was happy to not be in the hospital for Halloween. It's bad enough not being able to walk from house to house with them watching the excitement on their face. Owen and I had a relaxing evening...and the kids got me lots of "Snickers" as promised.

Having the kids be candy for Halloween turned out to be IRONIC. That's the same night Owen let me know of my need to give up chocolate completely or else we would be up all night every night because of his tummy aches. Oh well, maybe it will help me slim down a little quicker.

To welcome November...we carved some pumpkins Sunday afternoon. Better late than never. Between Alexis' soccer game and rehearsals for the stake play...we had no time on Saturday.
The kids loved drawing their own faces on these little pumpkins Grandma Pitt picked up for them.

Owen is Home

Since hospitals right now are not allowing anyone 14 and under into the hospital, Alexis and Carter have been waiting anxiously to see their new baby brother. We brought Owen home today and they finally got to meet him. They were all smiles and could not get enough kisses and hugs in. My Mom told me that she had printed a picture of Owen for them to see last night and Carter had been carrying it around all day with him telling everyone that his new brother Owen came out of his Mommy's belly!



This is the outfit that Amber made for Owen to come home in.

Owen Douglas Pitt is Here!

We are super excited to share with you some pictures of the latest addition to our family.

Owen Douglas Pitt
Born on October 28, 2009 at 8:17 a.m.
6 lbs. and 12 oz.
20 inches long

He has brought smiles to our faces from the minute he was born and we adore him.

By the way, this is Amber's husband (Chad) posting this. I'm sure Amber will probably re-post this and make this information much more exciting than I have, but in the meantime we wanted to share some of the early pics of Owen. Enjoy!