A baby's best friend

 Aslan and Kendall are a perfect match!

 She loves to "pet" him (read: pull & poke)

 He loves the extra attention and doesn't mind how "affectionate" Kendall is.

 She couldn't be happier about Aslan coming to visit her!

Tipsy decided to check things out a few minutes later, but quickly escaped before Kendall could love on her, too (which was a good decision for both of them!).

Older, wiser, and faster!

 Our little one is officially 7 months old!!! I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that she continues to be the BEST baby in the world :) We are so not biased! She cracks us up with her funny little personality, great sense of humor, and we are pretty sure she knows how to tease us, too (did we mention she's a child genius?)! Her most recent trick is rolling with ease (and frequency) in all directions. Our weekend project is to clean up and baby proof because we look away for a second and she's 5 feet from where we put her down! She is eating all sorts of yummy vegetables and fruit, but seems to prefer orange colored ones best. Our very precise calculations tell us she is about 14 pounds now. Kendall enjoys grabbing her feet and rubbing her toes across her gums, screaming out DADADADA, hitting and throwing toys aggressively, and finding the tags on all of her toys to chew on. As active as she is becoming she still loves to snuggle and quietly look at books too. She is taking two great day time naps, and an occasional evening cat nap. Then she usually goes down around 8pm and wakes up between 7 and 8am. Unfortunately for us, she usually wakes up at least once in the middle of the night---long gone are our glory days of having a baby who always sleeps well! Sometimes it's to eat and sometimes it seems that her gums are bothering her. We are hoping it's just a phase! But we love her none the less :) Happy 7 month birthday Kendall! You are amazing and we can't believe you're still really ours (well, God's, but He's letting us raise you and that is pretty incredible!)

Here she is sporting her Valentine's Day attire:

 Playing with her balloon from Suzette---such a fun new toy!

 Demonstrating her rolling abilities

 Capturing the dolly picture is getting harder as she wants to play with her (or find her tag to eat!).

Reading her Micky Mouse colors book

Feeling a little crafty

As a mostly stay at home mom I'm busy and bored at the same time! Sounds impossible, but it's true. I totally love that I'm able to stay home right now; I wouldn't miss a second of my time with Kendall, but I do find myself occasionally longing for the kind of busyness I had before Kendall. I've certainly learned a lot about myself with the additional down time, and one of those is  I really need to have things to do (besides changing diapers and cleaning the house) to keep me from going crazy or just vegging out. Especially on rainy/snowy winter days, when it is less than appealing to go outside.

 Therefore, I have become a little obsessed with craft blogs. I have several on my Blog List and every time a new craft pops up on the screen I feel the urge to try it! Some of these crafts were on my list of things to make for Christmas! As it turns out, Christmas is a very hectic time of year to try and also go crazy with crafts. So the next logical holiday is none other than Valentine's Day! I've never really been a big Valentine's Day hype kinda girl, but these crafts may have converted me. I also found all sorts of fun family traditions that I want to start when Kendall is a little older. So here are a few of the crafts I've been working on....

My friend Emilie coined the term "Crafternoon," and boy did we have one! I found the project idea at OurBestBites.com. Initially I thought it was a more involved project than I wanted to take on, but with the help of premade pie crust, my trusty Cricut, and Emilie, it was totally do-able! Emilie had the genius idea to add photo Valentine's cards of our cute kiddos.

 This little headband clip was inspired after we LOST the cute heart ribbon bow one of Keith's students gave to Kendall :( She obviously needed to have a cute Valentine headband!

A little heart garland was one of the crafts I wanted to do at Christmas time (I might still make one with Christmas paper and save it for next year---when I'll be too busy!). I got this idea from Linda McDonald---she had a cute one up for Fall and ever since I saw it I needed to make one.

 Back in the Fall I bought an adorable bow from "Bitchin' Bows" at the Shadle Craft Fair and knew that I could figure out how to make a few more for Kendall. It just never happened until recently. I found a tutorial at Little Birdie Secrets and made a few headband clips, then putting the extra flowers into the mini milk jugs was a tip from OurBestBites (or perhaps TipJunkie? I forget!).

The final Valentine craft I made was this LOVE garland hanging in our living room. I made it using my Cricut (thanks Keith, that was a perfect Christmas gift!).

In addition to these holiday crafts I also whipped up several  burp clothes recently in anticipation of several new babies on their way (some of which are already here!), a couple nursing covers, and a snuggley blanket and mini tag blanket for little Ian. I don't have pictures of all of these projects but if you check out the Hoogland or Tbyrd blogs you may get a glimpse :). Here is a picture of my remaining burp clothes and some felt headband clips I made. 

 Now it's time for me to start my next "Crafternoon" project :)