Homemade Easter Dress

 

Did you notice Olive's Easter dress? Well, we were so caught up in taking Easter photo's in the morning, that I didn't get a chance to take some good photos of her dress. So here are some pictures of her dress. Even though they aren't great, I think you can still see it.

 

I found the pattern online and thought it looked so festive and perfect for Easter. 

  

My favorite part of the dress was her sash. Things seem fancier with a sash. Olive agreed and felt very fancy in her Easter dress.

 

I also made her a quick headband from some felt. I think overall everything turned out so cute. It is so bright and spring-y and perfect for Easter. I only wish my pictures were a little better.

When I went to find fabric for her dress I also fell in love with some other fabric than what I had already picked out. So I decided, I am already doing all the work, I might as well do 2 dresses at once. That is exactly what I did. And, since she wore this dress the week before we actually had time before church to go take some real pictures in it.

 Our little fashion model.

 I had been wanting to make this cute ruffled bolero I saw on a friends blog for awhile and when I found this red fabric I thought it would be perfect for this dress.

 Olive really liked her shoes that she wore with this dress. They were new....

 but the best part is that they were sparkley.

 As a side note, this is how I did Olive's hair that day. She loved it and called it princess hair.

 My favorite part of this dress, besides the cute bolero, is the fabric buttons. I love fabric buttons.

 Well, there you have it, BOTH of Olive's homemade Easter dresses.  I will say, she had one fashionable Easter!

As Promised

 Here I am at 38 weeks on Easter Sunday:

Now you've seen it. Let's not talk about it.

Easter Overload!

 

We had so much fun celebrating Easter this year! Here is a highlight of the festivities (when I say highlight, I mean be prepared for an onslaught of pictures). 

Our neighborhood does a really fun egg hunt for all the kids. Everyone divides up by age and gets to search in each other's front yards. It is kinda awesome. Here we are on our way bright and early Saturday morning.

 It was suppose to be sunny originally. Then the night before the weather said rain/snow. We were thrilled when we could just wear our jackets out to enjoy the hunt. Do you remember last year in the frosted lawns and freezing cold? This was much better.

 Everyone gathered around getting our instructions.

 Olive knew what an egg hunt was this year and she was all business.

 Except when she got distracted by smelling the flowers.

I thought it was so funny when she said "Mommy, this Jesus holding an egg!".

 Showing off the goods. This year, Olive also understood that there were treats inside the eggs and wanted to eat all of her treats....

 But we convinced her to eat some breakfast too.

 Fortunately, Sunday was a beautiful day. Before church we had our own egg/hidden presents hunt (most were not so hidden because I was lazy and pregnant).

 

 Arms full and it's hard to carry!

 

 By having so many chances to have egg hunts, that also means the potential, and probable, overload on candy which is one reason we have some little, inexpensive gifts to find as well as eggs.

 She got some coloring books as well as some yard toys. Her main gift, because I am probably a lame, boring mom, were some church books and activities that I have been wanting for awhile.

 

 Here she is scarfing her yummy treats in her new butterfly headband.

 

Then after church it was off to Grandma and Grandpa's for an exciting hunt with all the cousins. Olive was pretty good at finding hidden eggs and liked putting eggs in other people's baskets when she was finished. 

I will spare you the tons and tons of cousins pictures I took. Suffice it to say, it was a blast. Plus we got to have delicious Easter dinner all together. Olive got to sit at the big girl's table and that just tickled her pink. She also spent an hour jumping on the tramp with her "fwend" and cousin Tommy. There is nothing like celebrating with family! We are so lucky!

I hope your Easters were as great as ours!
P.S. Stay tuned, pregnant pictures coming on Wednesday.

Sling and Car Seat Canopy

 Another reason that I consider myself ready for the baby to come is that I recently finished some projects for Mr. Milo. I am so happy with how they turned out and thought I would share them.

 

First is a bag sling for when he is really little. I think I will have to be a little more hands free this time around so I felt like I really need some good carrying options for him. This sling was so stinkin' easy!

  It maybe looks a little crazy because, well, it doesn't fit exactly right with a big pregnant belly. It also needs a baby inside to hold it in place. You get the idea though right?

 Next I made a car seat canopy.  I love that these are so popular these days. Everyone has one and Milo couldn't be left out! They weren 't as popular even a few years ago when Olive was born, but I think they are pure genius.  I would have a blanket over Olive's car seat and people would still lift it and wake her up. But with the canopy, it seems so intrusive to look inside the car seat.

It was (almost) as easy to make as the sling.  I made it a little more complicated by adding the extra detailing. But if you made it with only one fabric it would take no time at all! The thing I love most is that they coordinate!

 I made it reversible with stripes on one side and smaller polka dots on the other side.

  Then, I was so excited when I had enough material from all three fabrics so make something else. With the left overs I made a stroller blanket. It is just light weight and small. Perfect for keeping in the diaper bag or car seat.

 I also made a larger, mitered corner quilt blanket for when it gets chillier in the fall.

I am really happy with how everything turned out. It was all so easy and yet,  pretty rewarding project(s).  I don't know why but it tickles me so much that they all match. I just think they are so cute. Now to just get a baby and put them all to use!

Patience is a Virtue but I'm learning the hard way.

I took pictures of me with my pregnant belly today and then decided that they were horrible pictures and that I would regret posting them. Sorry. I am sure you are all anxious to gawk at my humungous belly. Sadly you will have to wait to see my shocking hugeness. I do want to document how rotund my belly is because it is so shocking to me. I am still surprised everytime I look down and see such a large belly hanging there. I am thinking that, maybe just maybe, on Easter Sunday while we are taking a flood of pictures I might have Scott snap a few of me.  Maybe.

My due date is 2 weeks from Saturday. At my appointment yesterday, my midwife was chastizing me because I was saying that I would be fine if Milo came any time after Easter. She said I should just plan on going to my due date. According to her, mothers and babies that go into labor on their own close to or past their due date have fast labors with strong babies. She said that is best case scenario. That is not what I want to hear. I keep planning that this baby is coming in April. Thus, I am having a hard time being patient. I have to keep reminding myself that my body is in charge and it will do what is right, when it is right.

Not surprisingly, I am all ready to have to the baby. I packed my hospital bag this week. I packed a bag for Olive. I ordered everything online that I was still needing. I was thrown a wonderful baby shower where we recieved so many great gifts. It was almost all clothing which was perfect! I checked off all the "things I might need" the first week so we are loaded up with all the things I wished we had the first week with Olive.  I organized everything. I deep cleaned our whole house in case I don't get a chance to do it again. I wrote out our birthing preferences for the hospital. I am all done with Easter, all the eggs are stuffed and everything is ready to go.

See, it's time for this baby!

Olive's Long Hair

Olive loves having long hair. She likes to have it styled every day. The funny thing is that when I ask her how we should do her hair that day she usually says "I get a hair cut!"  I am definitely not ready to get her hair cut. I am loving how long it is. So, I thought I would document some of her recent hairdo's. 

  

Olive really likes buns because they are like ballerinas and we all know how she feels about ballerinas.

      Side pony tail!

 We do lots (and lots and lots) of variations of pig tails.

As well as lots of variations of braids.

  And then there are braided pig tails!

She is even, occasionally, willing to sit while I French braid it.

She also loves her crimped hair the next day too.

More than just the style, Olive loves wearing hair accessories, so she has an overflowing box of headbands. She will wear them even when they are not a perfect fit, as you can see above.

Her bangs are growing out and I have decided not to get them re-cut. So most days we are trying to figure out how to manage them. At least now she will leave in whatever we put there. In fact, if her clip or pony tail starts coming out she comes running to me very distressed. She does know however, like to take her hair clips out for nap time and never lets me forget her clip. The funny thing is she doesn't like taking her hair out at night time which sometimes means we have very snarly pony tails in the morning that we have to battle.

I am not sure where Olive gets her good hair genes. I was bald, until age 3 basically. But, I am loving Olive's long hair and trying to come up with a way to style it every day. I am not as talented as some mom's out there, but I do like trying. My favorite though, is days that she has a bath. I love to just let it air dry and be long and curly. The only sad part is that it makes her seem so grown up!