mason's first haircut!!

my little monster got his first haircut today! he did such a great job sitting in the chair by himself.  the only time he cried when when i took the sucker away from him for a moment so we could clean his face! :) 

he is growing up so fast! it seems like only yesterday when we brought him home from the hospital and now i am starting to plan his first birthday! oh how time goes by! i wish he would slow down a little bit, i almost can't keep up.

here are some pictures from his haircut!

he would not drop that paci! :) 

 he wanted to know what she was doing back there. :)

he got a sucker when it was all over! :)

smiling with his certificate! :) :)

his certificate that goes in his baby book :)

i'm so proud of how well he did! i love this monster!

printables

here are some printables that i made. we use them in our home daily to help keep organized. :)

click here to open and download my weekly menu planner

click here to download my weekly cleaning schedule

click here to download my family budget planner



pillow case dress

i was thinking about what i wanted to do for my next project...i decided to make a pillow case dress.  on top of that....i decided to create a tutorial so i can show everyone how i made it. :)

i found a tutorial on pinterest (where else would i find one, right) and decided to follow it.  i did a couple of things different, including the size.  she made a 2T while i was trying to make a bigger one...size 6.     i love a lot of melissa's ideas on her blog.  click here to see her tutorial.

first thing you do is get your fabric.  i found three fabrics at the store today all 30% off!!! (side note: did you know you could use a michael's coupon at jo-ann's?  i didn't until today!  they accept competitors coupons. :)

i chose to start with the brown fabric first.

i then cut of the little white piece on the edge of the fabric...i am sure this has a technical name, but i don't know what it is. :)

then you put the edges together and iron all of the wrinkles out of the fabric.

then cut along the fold.

the next step doesn't have many pictures with it...so don't get lost, just follow the directions. :)

fold each of the two sides of the dress over about 1/2 an inch and iron down.

then sew them down.

now it is time to do the top casting part for the ribbon to go through. i made mine 1 1/2 inches long because i had 7/8 inch ribbon.  all you have to do is make sure you make it wide enough to fit the ribbon you are using. :)

fold down the top of the dress 1 1/2 inch and iron down.  then repeat and fold it again.

do the same thing to the other piece.

then sew at the bottom of the fabric.

now it is time to sew the two pieces together. :) :)

you need to determine how long the arm holes need to be.  with the size 6 that i made, i measured down 8 inches and pinned it in place.

now you need to sew the two pieces together right inside the other stitch.  i pinned the bottom of the dress as well to help me keep it together and straight.

oh...here is my new sewing machine! my old one broke :( but i LOVE this one! it is even martha stewart recommended...ha ha. ;)

then you need to open up where you just sewed and iron down both sides.  this helps the dress lay and hang right.

now i only sewed one side together at first and then did the bottom hem.  i went back after i hemmed the bottom and sewed the other side of the dress together.

to hem the bottom, fold it up one inch and iron.

then fold again and iron.

then sew at the top of the fabric all the way across.

(this is the time i went back and sewed up the other side of the dress. it is easier to do the hem with only one side sewed) :)

we are almost done...

time to cut the ribbon.  i cut each piece of ribbon double the width of the dress.

you need to have two pieces the same size.

now it is time to feed it through the top. 

i, cari, did not have a safety pin in this whole house nor in any of the craft stuff that i have.  so i had to come up with the next best thing to feed the ribbon through....a clothes pin! :)

it worked great!

feed one piece of ribbon through each of the top castings, tie your bows and violla!!

you have made a pillow case dress!

let me know how it works out for you! :)

spring break baby

i love spring break!!! it is supposed to be a time to relax and enjoy yourself...but i love filling it with different things to do and make.

mason and i just got back from taking pam (my mother in law) to nashville to meet with my father in law.  she came and stayed with us for a week and watched mason while we worked. we drove up sunday morning and met at the opry land mall. :)

did i mention i HATE car rides? i forgot my camera on this trip but i had my phone! :)

heading to nashville

Mason pretending he doesn't care he is in a pink stroller.

i also HATE traffic

this is how fast we were going on i-65

we are back to KENTUCKY!

after we got back to nana and papaw's house, the next day we left for cincinnati! 



we went to the hotel first and then went out to eat. after that we went back to the hotel to swim in the pool!

my papaw loves maps...i prefer gps!

the air conditioner became a babysitter...

he loved the air blowing on him.

Nana and Papaw!

he hated being in the pool...

but loved watching from the side. :)

chelsey with the macaw on her shoulder

mommy and the monster in front of the elephants

i love this picture of mackenzie

enjoying a train ride at the zoo

ending the day with a giant hamburger!

we had a great time at the zoo! i think next time we will take a shorter trip to the louisville zoo to see the animals.  cincinnati zoo was great but there was a lot of walking for the few animals we did see.  the girls and mason both had fun and to me that is what matters.