More Projects!

I've been really busy craft-wise the last few weeks. I have some small things I want to post but I can't put them up here until I mail them to Michelle and and the imminently arriving Baby Rosalie. Which SHOULD be by the end of the week, hopefully sooner!

In the meantime, I CAN show you my mother-daughter aprons!!


Pardon the rough makeup--we took these pictures after my classes last Wednesday and they were just too good not to use. Anyway, the pattern is from Pretty Ditty and I looove it. I made the reversible versions so both of our aprons have a yellow side and a black side. The black fabric is Dandy Damask from Michael Miller (if anyone is interested).


The yellow fabric is from Heather Bailey's Pop Garden and the trim is Clover Dots by Patty Young. You might recognize that one from Autumn's kimono dress.


There's a couple of things I'll do differently next time but the only major problem is that the waist ties aren't as long as I might like. I'm pretty sure I did them correctly, especially since they are too short on both aprons. I guess I could have made the same mistake twice but I'm going to hope not, haha. Anyway, I'll just fiddle with that next time.


Autumn was really into the whole "cooking" thing. I gave her some flour and water, a whisk, and my homemade popcorn salt that's in a "shaker," also known as a sippy cup that Autumn never used. I took out the valve. haha. Yay for repurposing.


Of course, now she gets a bowl out every time I'm in the kitchen and pulls on the step stool saying, "stir? stir?" I have let her play cook before and she pretty much always has some bowls out when I am cooking dinner but for whatever reason, this is the setup she liked the best.


And, here's a short not really edited or fixed up video. Enjoy!


I'm keeping my eye out for a good boys' apron now. Gotta be fair and do some mother-son or father-whichever child aprons!

Little Colleys!

I have more Little Colley cuteness! We went to Birmingham this past Saturday for a patented Colley Family Birthday Weekend™ (our birthdays seem to happen in clusters). Nanny and Ryan had birthdays the weekend before and mine was yesterday (and it was an awesome day). But, of course, the main event was getting to see Autumn and Tyler playing together. This time, with a teeny dog!


How much more cute can get smushed into one frame? Two cute kids and a dog, all in Alabama outfits. Okay, okay, no "put them in [insert team here] outfits instead."


We discovered that Autumn loves a rocking horse. So, guess what showed up at Mama Lainey and Papa D's house this week for the little Colleys to play with? :P


Here's Mr. Tyler doing his funny staring at me thing. We haven't quite figured out what about me is so interesting or horrifyingly mesmerizing.


These two are soooo cute together. Here's Autumn, "Tyla! Camera!"


And Autumn has inducted him into the tummy club. Can you tell she's trying to put her feet on his tummy?


The cool thing was that they really were great about sharing and taking turns. Tyler was sweet to share his horse and Autumn shared her markers.


I love Tyler's upside down paci. Whenever Autumn sees him without his pacifier, Autumn is all, "where sassy? where sassy?" And then she looks for it.


Ok, last one. This is from Sunday. Those of you who like Autumn's Technology Baby pics will like this:


:)

Coming soon: videos! snuggles! birthdays! cooking! aprons! and more!

Guess Who's A Big Girl!

This month, Miss Autumn started a new class room at her Parents' Day Out! When she promoted, Autumn went up 2 rooms instead of one--something about her birthday and having started out in a slightly younger room because she was a late walker--and Autumn absolutely loves it. These days, Autumn barely sheds a tear when we pull in and, most of the time, she toddles right into the building on her own power, holding mama's hand and chattering away.


Also, Autumn is tooootally into the backpack that Penny gave her. She pretty much carries all her gear on her own not only to school but just about everywhere else, too!


The first day she wore the backpack to school, Autumn walked into the room, looked up at her teacher, and very seriously said, "backpack." Then, she just turned around and wandered into the classroom. :)


ALSO, Autumn is only one of a couple of kids in her class who is potty trained! Yay! It's actually very cool--Autumn is totally in big girl undies and doesn't wear pullups except at night or at naptime. We weren't really going to do night training but she's been doing that on her own, oddly enough. She's pottied twice tonight already and gone right back to bed.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure...it was a long, long journey. It took Autumn about a week to get the idea of pottying in the potty all the time. And about 4 weeks to really get it down. I'm pretty sure I spent some time doubting whether or not I had done the right thing with the potty training at least once a week during that time. And then another month or so passed before I got brave enough to stop putting her in pullups when we ran errands. Autumn was probably ready for it sooner, but I think after Vegas was when I completely cut out pullups. Now, my friends, don't tell me about your kids who were completely potty trained in 1 to 3 days at 18 months with hardly any accidents or regressions. I love you and I don't want to know. But for those of you who want some encouragement that the 14 accidents in 1 day on day 3 of going cold turkey is worth it...we made it through. And it is worth it. :P

The Evolution of a Tinkermonkey

Tinkermonkey wasn't very happy with her new outfit. She made funny faces when her mama and Lula put it on her.


So her mama decided to let Tinkermonkey go at her own pace. First, it was a crown and shoes.


Then it was a very foofy crown and a magic wand!


Tinkermonkey got so used to her crown that she wore it (along with her backpack) to her mama's chiropractor appointment. She also brought her Easter egg.


Eventually, Tinkermonkey donned her dress, her shoes, AND her wand! She was almost a real Tink. A very tired Tink. Because Tinkering is very tiring work.


So she decided to spend some time lounging in her Tinkerchair.


After a couple more days, Tinkermonkey would request her Tinkerdress on her own and do all kinds of fun things in it. Like, having snack...


Playing on the computer...


And even playing in the towel basket!


The Tinkermama still doesn't have any photos of Tinkermonkey in her full Tinkeruniform but believes the Tinkermonkey will be fully transformed by Halloween! Much to the delight of Mama Lainey, official costumer of the Colley clan of fairies. :)

For now, Miss Autumn says, "I'm done, mama."

Last set of vegas pics!

One hard thing about vacation is getting of our schedules. I'm a little bit of a creature of habit so a week of weird bedtimes, touring, and waking up late one day and really early another...whew. You can see here that Mike and I are looking a little worn, haha!


If you ask Autumn to "smile for the camera," this is sometimes what you get.


I love this picture of Tyler; I wish it wasn't so blurry when made larger.


"Autumn! Smile! Say, 'cheese!'"


I think the Venetian might have been our favorite casino. It was at least the one we photographed the most. Autumn seemed to like it, too.


ok. This might be the awesomest/most horrible pic of the trip. I swear and Mike swears that this guy, who was dancing Stevie Wonder-style, was NOT looking down my dress.......but it sure looks like he was, doesn't it?


On to something less hilarious and embarrassing...this was the best coffee I have ever had in. my. life. MY LIFE. Seriously, I will sometimes sit and think about this drink and wish I knew of some place in Memphis where I could find it. It's called a marocchino and I got it at an Illy Cafe. Incidentally, this is also possibly one of the best photos I have ever taken.


That night, we got back to the hotel to a sleeping monkeypants...how cute is that little brown-headed burrito?


And this one is from our last day. Like Autumn's suitcase? Papa D got that for her. It's so cute! Leaving Vegas was as adventurous as getting there! We ended up sitting on the plane for an hour because it needed the longer runway. When we finally did take off...I gotta admit I have never been so scared on a plane as I was the first 20 minutes of that flight! I've heard that sometimes with heat and a heavy plane, getting over those mountains can be a little ugly. Yeahhh. Anyway, hello kitty suitcase!

Vacation, continued

I think I only have one more day of vacation pics to post after this. And then some fun stuff!

Mike and I are the only ones who went to the Hoover Dam. it was a nice break from the buildings although it was driving through brown desert from one hunk of concrete to another, haha. Anyway, this is one of the signs at the overlook. The top isn't very clear but it says: "caution rail may be hot" which really was an understatement considering it gets to like 135 degrees up there. :P


The bridge they are building:


It is over the Colorado River. It was weird because in the power plant we could totally feel the water rushing. I can get a little claustrophobic sometimes so it was disconcerting for me.


I tend to try to only post good pictures of people, including Mike, Autumn, and myself. But I made an exception for this since we look exceptionally fuzzy and I thought my hair was extra funny. We got ready in the dark at like 7am so we wouldn't wake up Miss Autumn when we left.


Later that night, we all looked much better. Here's Autumn with Aunt Lauren (Laawan!) who was nice enough to stay with Autumn while we went to Hoover Dam. I don't know why but the expression on the face of the lady to the right tickles me.


And with Aunt Lindsay (Zinzze! in Autumn-speak).


And here's Mike looking smothered. Haha. Autumn's hair was very perky that night. She looked like a muppet.


This is at the Mandalay Bay Aquarium. Autumn and Tyler had some fun there and it was all Papa D's idea. It was funny because Mama Lainey and I were wanting to go look at the shops. Papa D kept saying, "they are this way," but it was increasingly obvious that there were, in fact, no shops in that direction. When we stopped and conferred, Papa D said he thought we were asking about the sharks. Hahahaha.


Here's one of them swimming over us in one of the glass tunnels.


And this is Autumn going, "ohhh, whoa!"


That was our night to babysit so we took the kids back to the hotel. They played for a bit before we put them to bed. Tyler tried to grin his way out of bedtime. :) You can see Autumn fading out.


The next morning, Autumn was well rested and ready for the day...


I love that picture. Technology baby checking her emails.