Handmade Gifts

I have a crazy idea in my head that I would like to make one handmade gift for Caroline (and hopefully subsequent children) for Christmas and birthdays each year.  There is something so special and unique about handmade gifts and I hope that I can at least pass an appreciation for all things handmade on to my children.  I realize that this is a lofty goal, especially as we have more kids, so I've decided I'm not going to feel guilty if I can't make it happen every year.  But this year I prevailed!

I thought I'd share this with anyone who might be interested, because both of these projects are very do-able if you like to craft.

For Christmas I made Caroline a personalized board book with the pictures and names of everyone in our family.  Since we live far far away from both of our families in the cold (but great!) land of Boston I wanted to make her this book so she could look at (and hopefully remember) the people in her family.  I used a company called Pint Size Productions to print the book.  It was really easy.  They sent me the template for the pages, I designed the pages in Illustrator (see Dad, I am using my graphic design degree), and then submitted a high quality PDF of all the pages on their website.  In about 10 days my book came in the mail and it was everything I hoped it would be.  And the best part is...Caroline loves it!   She could be sitting in the middle of all of her toys and she will grab this book first, which obviously fills me with joy.  :)

For her birthday present I cheated a little bit.  I started making these quilted stacking/nesting blocks for my niece's 1st birthday (she is now almost 3...oops!).  I decided I was going to finally finish the project.   I'll be honest - this project takes a lot of time.  But if you give yourself enough time the sewing is relatively painless and the directions are really easy to follow.  Overall I'm happy with how they look.  Caroline plays with them (which was the ultimate goal, right?) and they are cute.  Maybe if I get ambitious I will make a couple more.

Just a side note:  if I were to make these again I wouldn't do the patchwork quilting on all five sides of each block.  It looks too busy.  I would also pick about 4-5 coordinating fabrics and use those for all the blocks.  I used too many different colors and it became confusing to coordinate them all.  Also, at the end of the pattern she recommends hand sewing (using a blind stitch) the lining to the outside of the blocks.  I'm sure that makes these blocks look awesome, but honestly I didn't have time for all that hand sewing.   I just used my machine and sewed around the top, close to the edge.  I think they look great! :)

Caroline's 1st Birthday!

Our sweet Caroline turned on on Monday, January 20th.  I realize it's cliche to say that this year went by fast, but it really did!  To say that this past year with this girl has been rich would be an understatement.  She is so happy, joyful, hilarious, and a good sleeper to boot!  What more could we ask for?

We celebrated her special day by going out to lunch with a few sweet friends.  Caroline had her first cupcake and loved it.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes, cards, and gifts.  She's a very well-loved little baby.   She's still a baby, right!?

Penny and Mason helped the birthday girl blow out her candles

First cupcake!

Birthday presents!

9, 10, and 11 months with Caroline!

I haven't taken down one single Christmas decoration.  Our tree is still standing and decorated in all it's glory.  But by golly, I'm going to get these monthly posts up before Caroline turns one (on MONDAY....how did that happen??).

Without further ado.....here you go!

Baby's First Halloween

Here's our little strawberry on her first Halloween!

 How many pictures are you gonna take, mom?

Eight Months with Caroline and a video!

Teeth!

 The next two are blurry...but I couldn't help but post them. So much happiness!

In case you're wondering...this is how I get her to laugh for pictures ;)

eightmonths from Catherine Kenney on Vimeo.

Happy Eight Months sweet baby!

I love these pictures of you.  They capture your joy so perfectly.  You love to flash that sweet smile to strangers and you use it to make them fall completely in love with you...even if they are just checking us out at the grocery store.  There is something special about you, girl.  Your joy is contagious and I can't wait to see how you use this to make this world a brighter, happier place just by being you.

Seven Months with Caroline

Welp, it happened.  I got behind on the blog again.  School started and I have fallen into a black hole of lesson plans, newsletters, e-mails, and Pinterest.  My apologies.

And now that Caroline is already 8 months, I think it is fitting that I now post her 7-month post....more to come soon!

I'm bored, mom.

Caroline - 

I'm sorry that I'm falling behind on your month-to-month posts, but in all honesty it's probably good for you.  Hopefully your dad and I will have more kids and then we will be lucky if we can snap your first day of school picture before we hurry you onto the bus while your younger siblings are throwing temper tantrums about who knows what...  I say all this to tell you that you won't always be the center of our world and that's okay.  My hope for you every day is that Jesus would be at the center of your world and that you would be so secure in His love and the love that your dad and I have for you that you won't mind when you aren't the center of attention.  You are so loved and such a joy.  Thank you!

Love, 

Mama