Happy Halloween

Annie was Rapunzel from Tangled this year.  I don't think she's ever even seen the movie but I had the pattern and most of the supplies so I decided to make it.  She didn't mind wearing the dress but she hated wearing the hair/wig.  We took 117 pictures and were only able to capture a few with her wearing the hair.  The rest of the time was spent running around trying to get her to put it on.  It was a big game to her.  

 She was doing a princess sway.  

We debated whether to go trick or treating or not reasoning that she was barely 2 years old and won't remember.  Plus James was super tired.  But, we later decided to just try one or two houses.  Annie didn't know what we were up to but she knew she didn't have to go to bed and we were going outside with her pink pumpkin bucket and that was enough to delight her.  

We walked to a neighborhood just 5 minutes away, and it was super quiet.  At first we were hesitant to knock on any doors because we didn't see or hear other trick or treaters, but James suggested we only go to homes with Halloween decorations and a porch light so that's what we did.  This is Annie walking up to her first house.  

 Almost every home we knocked on greeted us with the friendliest people trying to give Annie more candy than she needed.  A few of the people told us that hardly any kids had come to their homes so I think we almost felt an obligation to knock on as many of the porch lit doors as we could on the road we were on.  It only took about an hour but Annie really got the hang of trick or treating.  I must admit that all the praises on how cute she looked was our personal treat.

By the time we made it back home she had pulled the suckers out of her pumpkin and that was all she wanted.  She loves suckers.  

We love the rain

I know not everyone appreciates the many inches of Florida rain as much as I do, but I absolutely love it!  I spent my last 3 years in dry climate so the rain here is so refreshing.  They're usually accompanied by loud thunderstorms, which I also love.  I don't remember appreciating the rain as much when I lived in Boston but that's probably because I was always forced to walk in it and couldn't seem to keep dry.  Now I get to enjoy it from my 2nd floor condo that overlooks a small lake.  It's a dream.  Annie loves it as well and always wants to be held so she can reach out and touch the rain.  I definitely count the rainfall and our beautiful view of it as a major blessing in our lives.   

A Day at the Beach

I've lived near the beach for 5 months now and am surprised by how few beach trips we've taken since then.  But by the end when Annie was covered from head to toe in sand, I remembered why we didn't go more often.  She sure does love it, though.  

Someone told me that baby powder gets sand off and it's the beset advice ever!  Annie looked like a little snowman on the drive home.

Interesting walk at Turkey Creek

We are fortunate to live in a beautiful city with some fun recreational places to visit.  One of them is called Turkey Creek.  It is a free park with an almost 2 mile long boardwalk following a creek.  There are a lot of benches along the way for the weary to rest and several swimming spots for people to jump in the creek and cool off.  If you bring your own flotation devices then you can actually float the creek from one end to the other.  We haven't tried that yet but I would love to.  I also appreciated the signs along the way explaining the trees and other plant life.  

Annie loves pushing her own stroller. 

There was also plenty of bugs and insects to see.  Thankfully Annie doesn't like them either so I don't have to worry about her touching them and grossing me out.

A little rest in the shade from the walk.  You can see the sweat on her forehead.  The humidity and heat sort of slow us down.  

I'm grateful for these nice little spots that are free to visit so we can enjoy the outdoors.

My love of sewing....and my little model

Since becoming a stay-at-home mom, I've found a love for sewing.  My history with sewing isn't very long at all.  As a graduation gift to myself in 2010 I bought a sewing machine.  Oddly, I can't recall for sure why I wanted one so badly but I'm grateful that I bought one.  I don't think I even took it out of the box for 6 months after it arrived because of how crazy my life was with getting married, moving out from my apartment, James' going to the field for a month, moving to California, sending James off to Afghanistan, moving back to Boston, and then finally moving to Watertown from Brighton.  In my Watertown apartment I had a roommate that was an amazing seamstress and she showed me how to work my sewing machine. (Far left girl)

 Since I was married I attended a different ward than my roommates, and I made a friend in that ward who also was a great seamstress.  She offered to get together with me and teach me some sewing skills.  I loved it!  I felt it was one of the blessings the Lord gave me for enduring my crazy life. :) 

After moving to California for the final time I was really busy with my new job and new marriage so I still didn't sew very much, just some Christmas decorations.  When Annie was born I couldn't find a reasonably priced blessing dress that I liked so I sort of developed the wild idea that I could just sew one myself.  I looked around for ideas and then bought a pattern and fabric.  I knew at the time it probably wouldn't look that great but I worked really hard on it and tried my best to follow the directions perfectly.  Now that I've learned so much more about sewing I can easily see how home-made it looks but at the time I was so proud that I had sewed it all by myself. Since that time a love and interest in sewing really grew.

I mostly sewed clothing for Annie but a few months ago I decided to sew clothes for myself.  I'm still not that great but I greatly enjoy the process of taking a big piece of fabric and slowly constructing it into something wearable.  I'll occasionally get up from my sewing machine and try my clothes on to see how the fit looks.  I guess Annie thinks it looks fun and she always wants a turn to wear whatever it is I'm trying on.  I'm such a lucky girl to have a tiny model to try my clothes on. :)

So here we are today, very early September and I've just had the itch to get started on Annie's Halloween costume.  I've been sitting on some costume patterns and fabric for a while now and just got the urge to get started.  I really liked the Tangled costume pattern so I think that's what she will be for Halloween.  Because the patterns don't usually fit her body well I always have to do some muslin fittings first.  Instead of muslin, though, I used cheap bed sheet materials to cut and baste together the bodice and check the fit on her.  Using the pattern pieces exactly for her size produced a lower cut than I would prefer and I thought the bodice seemed a bit short for her torso, especially considering that this fitting already looked short including the seam allowance.
  

Since I didn't like the pattern fit I altered the pattern a bit to raise the neckline and extend the bodice down.  I think this works much better.  When I sewed Annie's costume last year I had to readjust the pattern 4 times before I found a fit that worked for her.  I'm glad Annie enjoys trying my projects on. 

I'm still not really good at sewing and have tremendous amounts to learn but I just love the process so much.  Sewing is also a huge blessing to me since I'm no longer in school or working, I really need an activity to keep me learning and challenging myself.  I only wish sewing were a cheaper hobby. :) 

Annie needed a shave

Annie loves her dad.....a LOT!  Look up the definition for the term "daddy's girl" and you will see a picture of Annie and her dad.  James was shaving the other morning and Annie wanted to copy.  James obliged and she walked over to me so proud that she also had cream on her face looking just like her dad.  :)  

She still tries to use his toothbrush and deodorant.  She can never quite remember where the deodorant goes but she will lift up her shirt and tap the deodorant on her tummy, or her arm, or her leg.  It's so funny to watch.  I'm grateful that James is the type of father that loves to teach and play with his kid(s).  Annie is a lucky girl to have a Dad that cares so much for her. :)

Best Ward EVER!!

I've been pretty busy this week with ward related activities but I've loved every second of it.
This past Saturday was a Spaghetti Dinner and ward Talent Show.  We sat at a table with a family that was awesome!  The husband completed EOD school 6 years prior so his knowledge and experience was nice.  It's always encouraging to interact with soldiers that completed the program.  His wife, Dana, was so sweet.  Her and I chatted the entire activity and I left feeling like there was so much more to discuss.  You would be hard pressed to find a kinder and more open individual.

On Tuesday evening I went visiting teaching to a girl named Meg.  She's amazing!!  She speaks 4 languages, is an officer in the Air Force, has 3 degrees, can sew her own clothes, is training for a marathon, is about to achieve her goal of reading 100 books in a year, has lived in other countries, and she just returned from a 9 month deployment in Afghanistan.  The thing I love best about her, though, is that she is someone you can get right down to the nitty gritty with in a conversation.  Despite all her talents and world achievements, she is humble and a fantastic listener.  She can really read people and understand or at least empathize with people to a degree that I find rare.  I think she should be a counselor.  I was over there for 3 hours and I only left because it was 10:30 pm and she had to work in the morning; otherwise, I could have easily burned another 3 hours away talking to her.  Just a funny point, her and Dana (my new friend from the ward activity) are also good friends.  It just made sense to me that those two incredible girls would be friends with one another.  Before I left, her and her husband gave me their jogging stroller and a hiking carrier (I think that's what it's called) since their son has outgrown them.  Not only was I inspired by her example and entertained with her stories, I got two fantastic items out of the visit.  Now I need to find a place to go hiking so I can carry Annie.

On Wednesday evening we had a class mutual activity and I had a blast.  My little Beehives are such incredibly enthusiastic and engaged girls.  They get excited with everything we present and it makes it so fun.  Another thing truly unique about this group of 10-14 girls is that there aren't any cliques.  Every single one of them gets along really well and overall they are very inclusive.  I don't think I've ever seen unity to this degree in any ward before, let along Young Womens.  I've often suspected whether that is because most of them are military and understand what it's like to move around and have to start over.  I don't know....I just know it's unique, and it makes being their leader so easy and fun.  I was nominated for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge but was considering just not doing it.  I mentioned it to the girls and they got so excited to do it for me and wouldn't let me back out of it.  In fact, by the time the activity was over they were ready with a pot full of ice water ready to dump on me, and all of them came outside to watch.  I just love my girls.  I think my maturity drops by about 2 decades when I hang out with them but that's probably why I have so much fun.

Then this morning I was blessed to have my visiting teachers come over and visit me.  Both are super awesome girls!!  Each are parents of girls of their own so I got a lot of good stories and advice about raising a daughter.  Also, one of them is a personal trainer that loves lifting weights like I do so I had fun talking to her.  It's just such a huge blessing to have people around me that are so fun, talented, friendly and amazing examples.  It buoys me up so much to interact with them when life feels heavy, which is certainly has felt a lot in the past year.  I've just been feeling so grateful for these all of these people in my life right now.  

PS....I think I've used the words "love", "fun", "blessing", and "feel" a lot in this post but I was just letting the thoughts come out unfiltered. :)

Activities to keep a Toddler entertained....

Since James is so busy with school and our finances are a bit tight right now, I'm spending a lot of time with Annie at home trying to find ways to stay busy and entertained during this time.  Thank goodness for Pinterest and friends with toddlers of their own to give me great ideas for keeping Annie occupied and hopefully learning.  Here are a couple of the activities we've done this past week.

A couple of years ago I purchased some water beads that enlarge when soaked in water overnight.  I put purple food coloring in the water to tint the water beads and make them a little more fun.  Annie loves them!!  They're a little messy when squished and they bounce all over the place so I only let her play with them out on our balcony.  This morning I caught her purposely bouncing them over the balcony so I had to put a stop to that.  :)

This next activity used our almost expired plain greek yogurt we had in the back of the fridge (that I'm sure I purchased a while ago for a recipe but have long forgotten which recipe I intended to make).  I divided it up, added some food coloring and then taped up some paper on the balcony for Annie to "paint" with.  Like most toddler's would do in this situation, Annie eventually ditched the paintbrush and used her fingers to finger paint.  :)

It got pretty messy after a while, and I didn't want her to step into the house so I carried her straight to the bathtub and let her continue her fun for a while longer.  Thanks to Jeanette for that great idea!  I saw on her blog that she let her daughter "paint" in their tub/shower with colored shaving cream.  Annie enjoyed that as well.  And the cleanup was easy for us and fun for her.  Once the yogurt was rinsed I filled the tub with clean water and washed her clean. Everyone was happy! :)

The beaches of the Emerald Coast

We currently live along what they call the Emerald Coast which is famous for white sand and warm water.  It's absolutely beautiful and the beaches are so clean.  We don't visit the water often but when we do we love it.  

Enjoying our neighborhood

One of the things we like to do on a very regular basis is go for a walk along our main road.  It's this beautiful road that is a runner/biker/walkers' dream with canopied trees and water at many spots along the way.  I've recently taken up jogging, and when I'm done I like to end by letting Annie stand on one of the fences and look out at the turtles and fish are in the water.  She loves it.  This place is just right next to our condos so we are blessed to look out over it from our balcony off of our living room.  

A friend of mine from the ward lives in our neighborhood and showed us this bridge where they feed the turtles.  I was shocked at how many turtles showed up just minutes after we arrived on the bridge.  I think they must spot people from a distance and start swimming towards us immediately.  You could see their little turtle heads swimming our direction.  Annie loves them.  

 

Loving our time in Florida

Our little family currently lives in Niceville, FL and we absolutely love it.  This is our 4th home in 13 months but definitely our favorite.  Well, I should say that it is Annie's and my favorite (correct grammar?).  James is currently in the middle of an extremely stressful and high-pressure military school so I think he's having a different experience than Annie and I are, unfortunately, but he does loves this area.  In less than 24 hours I knew I would be happy here and it has only exceeded the expectations I had already set for us.  If all goes well and James graduates, we will be here until January 2015.  If it doesn't go well then we will leave earlier.  I'm hoping and praying, for many reasons, that we are here until January.  When that time comes I know my heart will break to leave this amazing place and the amazing people.  There has been a lot of change and a great deal of adjustment and stress, but I'd be so ungrateful if I didn't recognize all the blessings we are given constantly.  I take a lot of pictures, undertake a lot of projects and try to get out and have some little adventures in this beautiful area so I thought I'd start a little online journal documenting what we are doing.  I think the focus on our opportunities and blessings helps us to shoulder the stresses and burdens a little better.