Stan and the Zinns

Hello. This is Stan. He went to live with the Zinn family this past Sunday. Who are the Zinns, you say? Dixie Zinn was my Mia Maid instructor/advisor (?) for me when I was in Young Women. She was an awesome leader, and a wonderful friend to me. She listened to me, laughed with me, and is a great example of a mother and wife. I remember calling her when I got engaged, I was so excited to tell her all about Rory and our plans. Sadly, they were moving to Texas right before the wedding! Darn...after that we lost touch, you know how it is.

A few weeks ago, I got a message on facebook from Dixie "Could this be Jessica Lance?" I replied" YES YES it is!" I was so excited to hear from her and even more excited to hear they had moved back to the Bay Area about a year ago. So, we got invited to dinner Sunday night. Back to Stan, Dixie is having a baby boy in May! So obviously I had to make her some stuff! Hence Stan was born. Of course, you can name him anything you'd like. :-D

Anyways, we had a delicious dinner, and a great time catching up! Their kids were still so little when they lived here, so it was strange but cool to see how much they'd grown up! Rory and David seemed to get along great! They talked shop for awhile and they're planning on a tour of Rory's Dad's shop soon! Dixie and Sadie had a great time hanging out, and Sadie actually fell asleep on her lap later on in the evening. So she really liked you Dixie! She doesn't do that with just anyone! I wish I'd brought my camera for a picture of us, but oh well. We hope it's the beginning of many fun evenings...next up, a Wii competition at our house. Game on!

Oh SOOO cute!!

So my uncle Scott is an awesome photographer/artist. He's been doing it for years and is oh so talented! He's also always given me pointers when I was really into photography, and been supportive and encouraging in whatever creative things I do! Anyways, I stopped by his studio randomly last week and he offered to take some pictures of Sadie, and here are some of the best, although for real, it was SOO dang hard to narrow them down. He did a great job with a not so great baby. haha. She was just in a mood...and it's hard to get her to smile on command. Aren't these just ADORABLE? The top one he's going to print on canvas (cool!), and the other two are going to be 8x10's.

Awwww...pondering the meaning of life....or the status of her diaper?

That little smirk is so cute!

So, if any of you in the Bay Area would like to get some awesome pictures, let me know and I'll tell my uncle!

hehe!

We're so proud!



She figured this out this morning...what a silly girl!

If you can't tell, she's making bubbles with her lips (and drool), of course.

(pause the music at the bottom to hear)

cake from a pan

She was quite hesitant about her first taste of pancake this morning...

...but she tried it anyway! Good girl!


For the record she didn't like it much...we're working on it. What kid doesn't love pancakes? Well, they weren't drenched in syrup or sugar, so that's one clue. haha.

Also I don't know why this is all underlined and I don't know how to make it stop.

Homeschooling...is cool!

Today the kids came over to do school at my house since my mom is off galavanting in New York City for the weekend. No biggie. Back to that later. We did play some educational games (Friday is their "fun" day, wish I had a fun day back in the schooling days), and did some baking and sewing on top of that! How funnnn! Our sewing project was a stuffed animal or "softie", as they are called in the blogging and softie-mania world. They decided the animals they wanted to do and drew them out themselves! (Joshie with a little help from me.) Julia made a tiger and Josh made a whale.
















They even sewed them up themselves! Patiently I might add.





After Sadie woke up from her nap we made a picnic lunch and enjoyed it at the park. It was soo nice. I almost fell asleep in the warm sun before I remembered my baby and the two kids I was in charge of. haha.
















They stuffed them up and even hand stitched them closed! Nice work guys!



Then of course I had to whip one up for Sadie, another whale! We named Sadie's Willy the Whale, and Josh's was Wonka the Whale. Get it? haha we're clever.

How cute are they? It was so fun having them over today!

P.S. So my mom and the twins are in New York this weekend for a Chamber choir trip. (not jealous, not jealous), and they've been sending me pictures on my phone from everywhere they went today! The stock exchange, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, and having some New York pizza. Yep, and now they're watching the Phantom and Lion King on Broadway. Nope, not jealous at all.

I hopped into my Photobooth today...

...Photobooth on my Mac. It takes pictures from my built in picture taker web cam thingymajig built into the monitor. Awesome huh?

My pop art-Andy Warhol style.

Sadie woke up and had to join in the fun. Here is Super Mom-in cartoon mode!

And my favorite, color pencil mode.

There was also "X-ray" and "Bulge" mode, but I won't subject you to those pictures. haha.

Wave baby wave!

Sadie can wave now!



It's so cute it almost makes up for the horrid night we had last night. She has a slight cold and/or allergies, so she's got a runny nose. Makes for hard nose breathing, which makes for 2.5 hours sitting up with her waiting for her to stop crying and go to sleep. Which makes for not falling asleep for the night until 5 in the morning. Argh! I hope she feels better soon, poor thing!

That's Janae's voice for most of the video BTW.

Mish Mash

Picture #1: Plants and etc for the front yard. Star Jasmine, Boxwood plants, rosemary, gardenias, rock, iberis, grass, and two other plants I don't remember. Most of these are chosen for looks. I don't know a thing about gardening! I did buy some pink gardening tools the other week though. So cute! haha.

Picture #2: A new dress for Sadie...with professional machine sewn button holes. My mom came over yesterday to show me how. (yeah you didn't really think I did them on my own, huh?) I tried, but it wouldn't work..seriously. My mom scared it into working. This was a quick and easy dress, so expect to see more of this pattern. hehe

Picture #3: Cutie McChickadee in her little girl PJ's! Oh so cute. I just want to gobble her up!

Picture #4: Happy Birthday to Stephanie! Today is her real birthday, but while she was here last week we had some cupcakes to celebrate. Hope your day is oh so fun! Check out her blog...she got an awesome gift from my brother!

Life

We've had a few busy days! Friday Sadie and I went to the park with Aimee and Kim (and some others), and had some fun! It was the perfect day, nice and warm with a cool breeze. Pardon Payton please, she's quite perplexed about something in this picture. hehe! Gage too for that matter. Sadie's recently had her first Cheerio...she's had those cereal puffs, but she likes Cheerios too! She DOES not like peas or avocados. Gags when she eats them. Maybe it's the color...


....back to business! Friday night we went to Johnny Carino's (Italian), and Sadie was so good. Very well behaved and ate her mushed food like a champ, even while watching our delicious bread and pasta get devoured. Later that night we watched Eagle Eye. I liked it a lot. People were warning us it had a bad ending or was lame or whatever, but I was jumping off my couch at the end, which I NEVER do. That's Joshie and Jordan's thing. haha. Anyways, very good. Rory and I are big Shia Labeouf fans. (I googled his name...that's a crazy last name.) I remember him from Even Stevens days. He was so funny on that show!

Saturday was spent at the nursery (flower nursery), and OSH, checking out plants and sprinklers. We did get most of what we need for the sprinklers, our next step is to roto til and then put the sprinklers in! (front yard only) For now. We'll tackle the back when the front of our house looks goo-od. Per my specs. I will post some pics of the plants we like.
Saturday night was the St. Patty's Day party/dance for our wards here in Gilroy. It was not very well attended but super fun for us. We were the life of the party! We got to shake our booties and dance too. There was yummy food (including fondue), and Sadie had so much fun dancing. She loves Lady Gaga. Really. So next time, you should come people!

She even got a slow song with Daddy!

Janae and I did a bunch of line dances (way back from my days attending Youth dances and EFY). I miss dances! They're so fun. I don't even care if I look stupid. (Which I'm sure everyone there agrees, I did) I told Rory we're chaperoning the next dance nearby! (if we can get a baby sitter, ours goes to the dances right now)

Today we had a nice morning. I got to sleep in an extra 2 1/2 hours! I've been under the weather, so Rory let me. It felt soo good. Baby has been sleeping all the way through the night the past few nights. Like, 8pm to 7am. Wow! Back to this morning. I was feeling so good I decided to make Sadie a dress! It's so cute, but is still too big. One of these days I'll make her a dress she can wear right away. I'm so paranoid about her growing out of clothes too fast so I make everything one size larger! After church we headed up to Morgan Hill for dinner with Rory's parents. It was delicious as usual! The dessert especially, blondies-with-a-tan, and blackberry peach cobbler. (that was my fav!) We enjoyed picking Nora's brain about gardening after dinner and visiting with her and Ryan. Also, Sadie. ALMOST. crawled. (moved) She gets soo close to getting on her hands and knees from sitting! She just has to figure out how to get her legs in the right place. No hurry, but still, so exciting!

I can't believe it's almost the last week of March, I've been thinking it's still near the beginning cause I haven't crossed any days off my calendar. Are you a crosser offer? Or a blank calendar person? With that question...I'm off to find pictures of plants we like!

Crafting for babies...

Now, obviously Sadie cannot do crafts yet, so the title refers to me crafting for her. haha. dur. Anyways, here are some things I've been up to lately...

Gathered some cross stitching hoops on the cheap and made this fabric art for Sadie's wall!

Close up, cute huh? Soo easy too.

New pillow for the rocking chair, and it looks so much better than my other non-zipper, folded back pillow attempt. I will make a tutorial someday and you will see how easy it is. Unless you already knew, and then just please don't flaunt your super intelligence in front of me.

Well, this isn't crafty, but it's new! Mini prints, from this store.

And, today, as Sadie took her second nap of the day, at noon time no less, I made these fun cute little hair clippies. No sweat, they're so easy-peasy.

Our day

The weather today was soo nice! We just had to get out for a long walk on the levee. Sadie even left her hat on. (most of the time) We enjoyed the sunshine and cool breeze, and saw lots of squirrel and quails. There was lots of rustling in the brush that my overactive imagination was a bit wary of. haha.

I remembered to put sunscreen on!

Both of us!

The sky was gorgeous blue, and Sadie looked up when she heard an airplane, for the first time. Can you see it?

Of course, we made a stop on the way home at the park for some swings. What else?

Actually we were going to go on the slides, but SOMEONE wet their pants. Not me.

Later Sadie watched me change the art in her room...more on that later.

She even offered Bear for support/and or construction work. How sweet!

How was your day?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From my little green girl!

Seven Months old...

Seven months old! Wow. Sadie is growing all the time and changing in front of our eyes! She sits up so well (she has been for awhile though so nothing new there), she's been rocking forward while sitting so we think she'll start crawling from that position. She still loves her solids, although peas make her gag. lol. She can feed herself her yogurt melts and cereal, and holds her sippy cup great! Even without handles! She loves to babble. She said mama the other day, although it was followed by mamamamama...so we're not sure she know what anything means yet. haha. She has her days, though, when she's teething...yikes! Watch out! Like today. Anyone want to baby sit? lol. Just kidding! We love our sweet pea. Still only one tooth. Can't wait for the rest to show up.

Look at that scrinchy grin!

"riding" her Christmas pony! (do not worry, my hand was on her leg and she was planted quite firmly on top of the horsie)

There's that scrinchy grin again!

Today she had a blast banging on our sliding door and looking at the backyard! Ah, the things that amuse a baby!

Happy kitchen day, Stephanie!

Yesterday we threw a bridal shower here in Gilroy for Stephanie! (my brother's fiance, for those of you not on the up and up on my life) lol. It went really well! We had a great turnout and had fun showering her with kitchen stuff! Don't worry, no one actually threw knives or anything. The big present was a compilation recipe book for Stephanie that a lot of people have contributed to! Thanks to all who did! It turned out great, and lots of people there wanted one. Including me...

Here's my mom gearing up to present the recipe book-complete with pictures of family members cooking, and/or of the food. yum!

They loved it! (of course, who wouldn't?)

That's Janae in the front, she was rushing around getting ready for her Junior prom all while we were setting up. Stephanie did her hair, and my mom made her dress...I didn't get a picture of it...maybe I will steal one from her, it was soo pretty!

Yummm cupcakes. I made about 150 mini cupcakes that afternoon and frosted most of them myself. (thanks for the help, Joanna haha.) It was soothing actually and the control freak in me didn't want to let anyone else help. haha. We had chocolate peanut butter cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, red velvet with cream cheese frosting, and vanilla with chocolate. The PB ones were a hit!

Sorry about the horrible quality of the pictures...I have a love/hate relationship with my flash on my camera, and yesterday it was hate. haha

Hall bathroom...

I had so much fun doing Miekka's mood board I thought I would whip up one for our hall bathroom. Now, we haven't even started working on it, but I have some ideas. I really want white subway tiles in the tub/shower area, and numbered hooks and that awesome wash behind your ears print. So let me know what you think...also if anyone else wants to make a board for our bathroom, go at it! I am open to suggestions!

Basically I would like a kid and guest friendly bathroom, no small task!

latest sewing project...

Here's what I've been working on the past few nights! My mom came over last night and helped me figure out the zipper...man is that some crazy sewing. I also pinned down every. single. gather. on that skirt. I've been hoarding a growing stash of fabric for dresses for Sadie, so I figured I should break it out and get sewing. I have more patterns, so I may start another one soon. This one is supposed to be a 9-12 month size, but it's much larger than her other 9-12 mo dresses, so we'll see when she actually fits into it!

Pretty trim, huh?

Stephanie and I picked out those super cute buttons the other day at Joann's.

Next I am working on putting this bad boy together. :-D

A little bit of sunshine...

Today was sunny...but pretty cold! There was a chilly wind a blowin'. Still, when Sadie woke up from her afternoon nap screaming I knew I had to distract her with any means necessary. So we headed to the park, which seemed to do the trick! She decided that leaning forward and giving herself a front diaper wedgie seemed like the most fun, and hey, it was way cute!


She started getting cold so we went for a nice warm walk in the sunshine and scoped out other people's landscaping ideas. I have a rough idea of what I would like in the front yard, but I am no gardener so those poor plants will be at my mercy.


Earlier in the day, I dropped the baby off at Grandma's and Stephanie and I went to do some more shopping! It was supposed to be grocery shopping after a trip to Ross, but that went long, and then we had to stop at Old Navy again, so we never got around to going to Wally world. Oh well, tomorrow! It was a pretty good haul, and pretty good deals, so we were both happy. It felt weird going places without Sadie! I'm so used to my little sidekick. It was so fun to spend some time with Stephanie (minus Jarom, although I do like him) and talk clothes, weddings, boys, etc. You know, girl talk! So, good day all in all!

Over the past few days...

We have:

-worked on the front yard and front of the house in preparation for landscaping and...we get to paint the house! Thanks, government, for giving us back our money.

-tried out four different paint colors, all of which we're not sure about.

-dealt with poor little teething Sadie. The backed up issue has, er, resolved itself, but poor thing is still in pain from gas and teething.

-We have gotten up about 15-20 times (just last night) to console her.

-froze her teether twice

-Rory bought an XBox. Yes, we now have an Xbox, Playstation 3, and a Wii. AND Rory's super fast computer system. He is SUCH a gaming nerd. I love him still.

-I went shopping (because of said Xbox purchase) and was able to find seven shirts I LOVE, for about $80. What a deal!

-had these crazy girls over for dinner and some chick flick action. Joanna found these Twilight hearts. Although they tasted gross, I'm told, they're pretty hilarious!

-Also finished up the quilt top. Now I just need batting and a back and we're in business. BTW, I am not hand sewing the binding this time. I had enough of that last time!


-found these cute tiny flowers growing in our backyard, proof that life can flourish amidst nothingness. haha