Introducing Our Newest Family Member!

Family & Friends,

If you haven’t heard by now, I’m pregnant (well, was), and the baby is here! We aren’t kidding…no joking! We have a new addition to the family and we are bursting at the seams to let everyone know!

You might be wondering, why the secrecy? Truthfully, we started intentionally not telling, because we were heartbroken over our miscarriage last year and did not want to experience a public miscarriage again. We decided to wait until after we found out the sex, to tell even the closest of family and friends. Once we reached that point, it kind of started to become kind of fun to keep it a secret. Of course, I had to admit it to a lot of friends I encountered over the year since with a third pregnancy you do start to show earlier and bigger. I must admit, telling people I was pregnant, each time, was heartbreaking for me because I think of the last time I told people, and the baby we never got to hold, but I was excited and ready to be able to tell people I had an actual baby in my arms. Thus, why we decided to tweet out the news as soon as we could.

With that said, we want to introduce to you our sweet baby girl, Emma Jovie. We found out at 22 weeks that we were having a girl and a really long time after that (it seemed to me) we decided on a name. We will be calling her MJ as her nickname. She has been crazy to carry around for 9 months. She has moved probably 100 times more than Wyatt ever did. We can’t wait to get to know her.

Wyatt at his Big Brother Class

Speaking of Wyatt, he is a very proud big brother. He attended and passed with flying colors his “Big Brother Class”. The biggest thing he took out of the class is that you need to wash your hands around the baby. He also learned how to swaddle a baby, which he now does to his practice babies all the time. He has said over and over that he will be the greatest big brother ever and that MJ will be the best little sister ever. He has high expectations obviously, but he’s always been a big helper so we think he’ll continue that when it comes to helping with the baby.

Keeping the baby a secret has been hard, but not sharing all my projects I’ve made for her has been REALLY hard! Lol I’ve had so much fun making her things, just like I did for Wyatt. Here are a few things I’ve made:

Diaper Changing Pad/Case

Burp Cloth

Onesie and Tutu I made, Mom made the hat

Car Seat Blanket Cover

Owl Pillow Slipcover

'Fanny', MJ's Fred

One last thing….A big thank you for all of those that we did confide in and that helped us keep the secret. Thank you for respecting our decision. We are so happy and thankful that God has blessed us with this child and so happy so share the news with EVERYONE!

Love,

Megan, Jason, and Wyatt

Beach Towel Lounge Chair Cover

My sister was up visiting and with her upcoming wedding, she was browsing the web searching for ideas for Bridesmaids gifts. I suggested she check out the Swoozies website. They have very cute, personalized gifts. She stumbled upon the Terry Lounge Chair Cover, and then admitted how much she actually wanted one. I took one look and thought how easy it would be to make these. They sell them all over the web from $30 to $50 and that is unpersonalized. Here's how I made my own, personalized one, for around $7 bucks.

What you'll need: 2 beach towels, scissors, and a sewing machine. (embroidery is optional) Terry cloth is very thick so make sure you have good scissors. I hit up Target while they were having beach towels on sale for $3 each. Check out end of the season sales to get great deals on towels, and then you can have them ready for gifts around Christmas in peak Resort season time!

Step 1: If you want any kind of applique or embroidery on the front towel, do that first.

Monogram before you sew

Cut trying to save hemmed edges, and you'll save time

Step 2: Measure and cut around 13" (keeping width the same...most towels are 30")from spare towel. This will be the part that holds the towel onto the chair. I tried to use the hemmed sides as much as possible...because it's just less sewing you have to do.


Step 3: Do any embroidering you'd like on the extra fabric (back of chair). Pin this piece to the top of the main towel (right sides together), and sew. If you kept the hemmed side on your spare towel you're done. If you need to hem, do that before you sew it to the main towel. Turn right side out and you're done with the top part.

Pin right sides together to sew pocket at top that holds the towel to the chair

My pockets were 9" in length

Step 4: Measure how big you'd like your pockets. I used the design on the the towel to dictate how big they were. Think about what you'll use them for: sunblock, keys, magazines, etc. Measure out to identical pieces, keeping the width (30"). Mine were about 10". You'll want to measure how much your chair sits off the ground. Mine was about 10" from the floor to the chair, so I made my pockets 9" in length. So I folder my pockets up, right sides together, 9" and sewed around edges. Flip right side out. Voila! A pocket!

Step 5: Hem up the sides of the towel that are now hanging strangely because you made the pocket. Fold the top of the pocket down, back to back and sew all the way around. I left 2 inches between the top of the pocket this top part.

Hem sides of the top part of the pocket

Step 6: Fold top of pocket down and sew down. I used presser foot width. Now your pocket has a flap! There are many ways to make a pocket for this chair. I did it this way to minimize cutting and hemming.

Step 7: Make the other pocket using Steps 4 through 6.

Step 8: Sew the pockets onto the main towel. I measured the width of the chair, length of chair to floor, but my pockets were longer than 9" based on my little design there so when I sewed them on, they touched the floor the little. :-( You also need to make sure that they are measure lengthwise on the chair. I put my pockets between 28" and 48" from the top of the chair. My advice, don't even bother with measuring. Just go pin them on while your towel is on the chair. Then they'll be perfect.  Use the line you sewed in Step 6 as a guideline to sew the pocket on the towel.

Sew the pockets to the main towel

Fabric I had left after my pockets

Step 9 (optional): You'll have about 1/3 of your spare towel left at this point. It's fine to stop here, but if you'd like to extend your towel, so you'll feet can rest on a towel, use your extra fabric to extend it on out. I put my almost finished towel on my chair, and measured how much more fabric I needed to cover the chair. Cut your spare towel based on those measurements, pin right sides together at bottom of main towel, and sew. I took my hemmed edge from the main towel and layed it over the unhemmed edge of the extra towel, and sewed it down, so the towel will lay flay when on the chair. You're done!

Back of extra piece, sew so it'll lay flat

Front of extra piece

It's still completely washable, and it folds up easily into the back pocket (that folds over the chair).

Baby Bump Cake

This was my first attempt at a Baby Bump Cake.  For some reason, in the pictures, the boobs look way bigger than they actually were.  I wish I could make this happen in real life!  Ha!  I made this for a friend who was hosting a baby shower. She told me that the guys ended up attending the shower and they really had fun with this cake! lol  I think it went something like..."who's going to get the boobs?"

Golf Cake

For my husband's birthday I made this golf cake. It was my first time working with fondant.  Hopefully I'll get a little better with practice.  It was fun though! I used two 9 inch round cake pans and the wilton ball pan. 

Kung Fu Panda Cupcakes

Found a new cupcake to try!  These are Kung Fu Panda Cupcakes....well okay, they are just Panda Cupcakes, but I have a two year old that sees a panda and just assumes that they are also into Kung Fu...so there you go.
They are also milk free (for my Mom)!   Thanks to Duncan Heinz for not putting milk in your cake mixes and frosting.  There is milk in the two tiny eye dots but that's it.  Ears and eyes are made with mini Oreos. Noses are made with butterscotch chips and those tiny dots on the eyes are mini chocolate chips.

Free Fun Saturday

Deanna Rose Farmstead

A few Saturday's ago, I planned a fun filled Saturday full of FREE stuff to do for my Family.
We started off at the Crown Center to get tickets for FREE to the Coterie Theatre thanks to Target! While we were there we stopped by to see Clifford at the the Crown Center. He'll be there through September.
Then we headed out to FREE Saturday at the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park. We had never been before and ended up really enjoying it. It was a little hot for this outdoor adventure but we will definitely be coming back.

Clifford At the Crown Center

Then we made our way to the Coterie Theatre to see "Lucky Duck", an American Idol meets Ugly Duckling tale.
The only money we spent was on lunch and a souvenir "Lucky Duck" hat. So for around $10 we had a really fun day!
This Saturday also happened to be the FREE Family Fun Day at the Power & Light District but we just couldn't fit it in. Maybe next time (August 21st)!

Westie and Lhaso Apso Dog Cupcakes

Westie Cupcakes

Lately I've been really into making cupcakes.   So for my son's 2nd birthday I made Westie Cupcakes to look like our dog.  Wilton Buttercream icing (no need for dye! when you have a white dog), small brown m&m's for eyes, raisinet for nose, and strawberry starburst for tongue (smash with a rolling pin, cut into 4s, then mold each piece into a tongue).

Lhaso Apso Cupcakes

My Mom has a Lhaso Apso and is allergic to milk.  So for Mother's day I made milk free Lhaso Apso cupcakes! All the same toppings, but brown icing (and of course all made milk free).

I'm looking for new inspiration and think I might try a new cupcake this weekend. Stay tuned!