Baby Kayak

A couple of weeks ago, Grant took Kendall out on the kayak with him. I somehow managed to forget the camera to document the event, but she really enjoyed it!

On Saturday, we took the kayaks down to Long Beach, and this time, he took Cami. All I can say is I'm glad I bought those life vests for our Lake Powell trip back in June. At the time, I didn't think we'd get much use out of them, but turns out, we are!





Cami did not like putting her life vest on, but once she was in the kayak, Grant said she was really calm and still. Thankfully, I had the camera with me this time, but Kendall didn't want to go out. She was having too much fun in the dirt...I mean, sand and water.

I Scream, You Scream

We've been invited to a birthday party for two girls tomorrow, and since I'm so into sewing right now, I figured I'd make them something. They're turning 4 and 5, so I thought of making aprons for both of them.

I found this tutorial, and went to work!

First was getting the fabric. As if I needed an excuse to go to The Cotton Shop, that's where me and the girls went on Monday. After looking and looking and more looking, I finally decided on this brown polka dot print, and either a cupcake or ice cream print. I was really drawn to the ice cream print, but couldn't really decide, so I went to my decision maker, Kendall, and she chose the ice cream print.




The aprons are reversible, so the pictures show what the front and the back looks for both aprons. I stayed with the tutorial for the most part, but I changed the pocket. The tutorial only has a pocket on one side, and I wanted a pocket on both sides. I also changed the style of the pocket, using the same style that was used on the apron I made for myself.

I'm so happy with how these turned out!

Gloria Patri, Take 2

About a month ago, I posted a video where Kendall and I were kind of singing the "Gloria Patri." Here's another go at it. This time, with a lot less laughing. By the way, my favorite part is when she says, "Eber shall be."

Gloria Patri from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Cami Can Play That Game, Too!

I talked about Kendall's hair accessories, but Cami has enough hair to wear the itty bitty clips, so I tried it out today. Pretty cute!

Climbing!

Chair Climber from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Homemade Bow Holder

I made this a while ago, with the intent to post about it, but I never did.

It's simply a picture frame, with the glass taken out, and ribbon put in.

This is the before,



And this is after.



Which makes me realize that Kendall has WAY too many accessories for her hair! And she's recently decided that if she's going to wear anything (that in itself is hard to get her to do), it will most certainly NOT be a bow! She prefers barrettes right now, the little clippy kind.

This is also not my original idea. I was planning to buy one, but after looking at several pictures, I realized I could just make one. My first idea was to get an old antiquey kind of frame and spruce it up a bit, but then I saw this one at Joann's, which was the perfect shade of green already, so I used my 40% off coupon to buy it. It's a great way to keep all of these little things in one place!

Sweetness

It's about 12:20 right now. Cami has been taking a super-long morning nap. I was going to get her up, and this is what I found.



I've never been the kind of mom that goes in and checks on her sleeping babies. Because I want them to stay sleeping. And I'm always afraid I'll wake them up. But apparently, I'm missing out on some serious cuteness!

She must be tired, because her door is squeaky, I used the flash on the camera, and the shutter is loud when it takes a picture...but she's still sleeping.

Big Mistake(s)

I went to the commissary today with the girls. I had to. I hadn't been since...well, I don't remember when the last time was. For those that don't know, shopping at the commissary saves quite a bit of money, especially if you're stocking up. So I do my here-and-there shopping at the closest grocery store, but when I really want to have stuff at the house, then I go to the commissary. Typically, I like to go every 2 weeks. This trip was way overdue.

This morning, I got my coupons and grocery list and headed out the door.

At least I thought so. Somehow I managed to forget my list and my coupons. But I didn't realize this until I got to the commissary. Did I mention it's over 20 miles away?

That was my first mistake.

Next was that I got in the doors, and realized that I forgot to bring any sort of baby carrier. So instead of going back out to the car (because I thought that would be a hassle), I decided to put both girls in the rocket ship/grocery cart.





In case you're keeping score, that was mistakes 2 and 3. Because I thought they would be okay together, and that's why I took these pictures with my phone. I mean, how cute are they? I knew Cami was a little small (ha!) to put in such a grown up seat, but I tightened the strap and thought it would be fine. Well, Kendall couldn't leave Cami alone. After about 10 minutes of screaming and crying by both girls, I ended up taking Cami out and carrying her the rest of the way.

By the way, she's heavy.

I guess you could say mistake number 4 was getting that stupid rocket ship. It doesn't hold nearly as much as a regular shopping cart does, and so towards the end of my trip, stuff was falling out left and right. I should've taken a picture of how cram-packed it was.

Number 5 was realizing AT THE REGISTER that I had left my military ID in the car.

Number 6 was going to a cashier that didn't speak English, so I ended up explaining my situation many, many times. I decided that I would get everything on the belt, then run out to the car (with both girls in tow), get my ID card, and run back in before she was done ringing me up. Try explaining that to someone who doesn't speak English, while barely holding onto a screaming baby. It's difficult.

So I ran out to the car, dropped off the huge diaper bag, got the baby carrier, got my ID card, ran back in before she was done and showed her my card. So I guess my one non-mistake was picking a cashier that was slow.

That was my morning. How was yours?

Ange and Caleb's Wedding

Let me give some background here...

Back at college, I was friends with Jenny. Then, her younger sister Kellie came to college. I was close friends with both of them. I always heard about their younger sister, Angela. I visited them a few times in Michigan, met Ange, but she was just their high school sister. Over the years, as I spent more time with their family, I was kind of adopted into their family, and I got to know Ange better. She started to become "my friend" instead of "my friend's sister." Then she moved out here to Orange County, and we got together regularly.

Well, she got married this last weekend, and thankfully, chose to get married out here instead of in Michigan, where she's from. So I got to see my best friends! It was a fun few days. Kellie had her first baby back in February (speaking of, I blogged about a really cute gift I made for her, but guess what...it got lost in the mail! So she never got it! How sucky is that?), so it was cool to finally meet baby Warren, and also for Jenny and Kellie to meet Cami (they had met Kendall before). Little Matthew has some serious competition for Cami's future husband!




And have I mentioned how Kendall is totally into a baby phase right now? She loves babies, and would rather play with them than kids her own age. So she was a little obsessed with baby Warren, and talked about holding him. Alot.



Anyways, a cool idea that Ange had was to do her own flowers. So on Thursday we all went to the LA Flower Market and picked up the flowers that were needed. They turned out so nice! It was a great way to save some money. I was hoping to help with putting the flowers together, but realized pretty quickly that with a toddler and a crawling, getting-into-everything baby in a small hotel room with flowers everywhere, we would just be in the way.



The wedding was on Friday, and it was awesome. It was on a boat in Newport Harbor, one of our favorite places! The setting was beautiful, the food was delicious, and the dancing was fun! All in all, it was one of the most memorable weddings I've ever been to. The girls were troopers, despite being on the boat until about 10 pm. Kendall loved dancing, but we kept her pretty far away from the dance floor, because some of the people were getting a little crazy.







Saturday, we all went to Laguna Beach for the day. I didn't get one picture the whole day, but Kendall was having so much fun! She hung out down by the water most of the time, and whenever the water would go out, she would stand up and yell, "Come on, ocean!" And when the waves would start to come in, she would run away really fast and say, "Oh...that was close!" She did this for hours. When it was time for us to leave, she was not very happy, but quickly fell asleep in the car.

Sunday was a site-seeing day for the family, so they came up this way to visit the tide pools by our house. Then they spent the rest of the day in LA. They really had fun, and even saw an octopus! It's kind of a random place to come when you're only in LA for a day, but it's one of Ange's favorite spots (it's where Caleb proposed to her), and they all loved it. I guess when you live in the Midwest, a place like this is pretty unique. I only got one picture from tide pools, and this random little girl made it into the shot. Oh well.



So that was it! The girls and I spent so many hours in the car over the last few days, but it was all worth it.

I Breastfeed Because...

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