Mamatography Week 6

February 14, 2013 By Amy 6 Comments

I literally stayed in my bed for five minutes after the kids asked to go downstairs and THIS is what happened.

That’s ok. They redeemed themselves beautifully by sharing while making daddy a new painting!

This past week was dominated by sewing for my Silly Bear Handmade Shop diaper stocking.

This Robots Hybrid Fitted is my favorite!

Like I said . . . dominated by sewing diapers! LOL

This sweet diaper was a custom order from a friend, neighbor and loyal Silly Bear Handmade customer for one of her pastors at church, whose wife just gave birth to beautiful baby girl!

If you can’t read it because of the angle, it’s James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift comes from above”

Joseph is always super happy when I let him join me at the sewing desk and press the embroidery “go” button.

He sure loves “beep beeps”

This week we welcomed daddy home from his 65 day patrol!

Joseph was eager to help him empty his seabag.

Another fluffy photo. I love fluff.

Joe being silly, sitting and playing with his Coast Guard bear on the elliptical in our bedroom.

That was OUR week. How was YOURS?!

That was OUR week. How was YOURS?

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Filed Under: 2013, children, family, mamatography, photography, silly bear handmade

Mamatography Week 5

February 7, 2013 By Amy 2 Comments

Lively Garden and SS WM

I have been sewing like mad this week. These fun and vibrant fleece pocket diapers (with snap down rise to make them one-size, fitting NB to Toddler!) have been, like, my life recently. I’m either cutting, sewing, or embroidering them this week. I’m stocking my Silly Bear Handmade shop with fleece pocket diapers and Hybrid Fitteds this Friday!

Shark Diaper WM

For the first 24 hours after I stock the shop, ALL diapers are $10 (Yep! you heard me right! $10). . . so, head on over on Friday and grab a diaper for more than 50% off!!!! You won’t regret it!

Joe at Desk WM

Joseph has been very focused lately, furthering his fine motor skills.

Sewing WM

And like I said, I’ve been sewing like a madwoman this week. But I haven’t JUST been sewing diapers. . .

Snow White Sewing WM

Abbey requested a Snow White dress for her dress up collection, and her wish became a reality this week!

Multitasking WM

I snapped this pic of me multitasking in order to finish her dress before I picked her up from preschool.

Snow White Dress WM

She was super pleased!

Abbey WM

We had a fun week here, although we’re all hoping that it will warm up just a FEW degrees so we can enjoy playing at the park again soon! It’s been wavering between 22′ and 29′ this week. . . with a crazy wind chill.

Abbey and Joe Smily Faces WM

That was OUR week. How was YOURS?

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Filed Under: 2013, Abbey, children, creating for the family, Joseph, Learning, mamatography, natural learning, Photography Projects, Sewing, sewing diapers, sewing projects, silly bear handmade

Mamatography Week 4

February 2, 2013 By Amy 4 Comments

Our week began with Joseph being totally uninterested in posing for pictures.

Apparently, he is wishing on Spring by wearing his golashes EVERYWHERE.

Jo Jo was VERY interested in poking holes in a plastic bag full of too-small-for Abbey clothing

And the next day, he was very interested in the drum cushions that I made for the kids’ reading area.

This week, we welcomed some of our friends back from their winter vacation. We had a playdate at our house, and then the next day, playdate and dinner at theirs!

Mmmmmmm popcicles for dessert!

I have had no lack of cooking helpers in my kitchen this week! Joseph enjoyed helping me make home made mac and cheese. . .

And Abbey and Joe also made cookies with me. . .

And helped make chicken gnocchi soup, too.

Three days, three different awesome experiences of kids in the kitchen! I love the opportunities for natural learning that are so plentiful in the kitchen!

I mean, really, who can resist being in the kitchen when cooking is so cool!?

Speaking of cooking, Gretchen from That Mama Gretchen and I have developed a blog hop called The Plentiful Pantry, and we want YOU to join in! Won’t you join us? I posted yesterday with a call for participation. Check it out, and link up on the 15th!

Oh, and we got a few more inches of snow this week before it all started to melt off.

Will it be spring soon? Who knows up here in New England!

That was OUR week. How was YOURS?

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Filed Under: 2013, children, cooking, family, Learning, mamatography, natural learning, photography, Plentiful Pantry Blog Hop

Mamatography Week 3

January 24, 2013 By Amy 2 Comments

This week, Joseph has loved playing with this. What are these toys called anyway? (LOL) They’re great!

We have also been interested in the froggy potty. Potty learning is still months and months away, but as he continues to shows interest, I’ll encourage him!

Joseph is also really interested in anything and everything that makes a “beep!” noise. This includes my embroidery machine.

So, I have been teaching him that he may help me press the “go” button when I’m doing embroidery.

He’s always pointing things out that make a “beep!” noise. He calls them beep beeps.

One morning, mommy made smoothies and they were a BIG hit! We didn’t have any straws though . . . so we ate the smoothies with spoons. Yum!

I also tried an idea I found on Pinterest, using egg roll wraps and cheese sticks to make healthier Mozzarella sticks that are baked, not fried. Another big hit. They were delicious!

Abbey made a fantastic mess of dress up clothes in the living room (so much FUN!) while I was painting an old dresser bright green for her room.

. . .she was very grumpy when I told her I’d have to finish the topcoat of paint on her dresser before I could play the Queen in her game.

But soon became happy, prissy, adventurous princess once more. . .

And the dresser turned out GREAT. I’m so glad I rescued it from being thrown out by our neighbors. . . it looks awesome painted green!

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Filed Under: 2012, children, family, Imaginative play, mamatography, photography, Photography Projects

Mamatography Week 2

January 18, 2013 By Amy 6 Comments

This post is part of the Mamatography 2013 Project with Diary of a First Child and Momma Jorje.

We are taking (at least) a photo a day to keep a record of our year. Join us at any point during the year and start sharing your own daily photos!

Joseph, passed out not even a minute after grocery shopping at the beginning of the week.

Redecorating the dining room. . . making slight changes to the house. The mirror (that used to be opposite the window in the living room area) brings so much more light to our “cavelike” dining space!

Diaper change- complete.

Rockin some new stylish hand-me-downs from a neighbor!

Bye, mom! I’m ready to go play in the SNOW!

YAY for fresh snow!!!! On Wednesday morning

“Hey, girl. . . I’ll shovel the drive for you.” LOL

Looks just like daddy in this picture!!!! LOVE!

Walking in a winter wonderland!

Sledding on Thursday. Look, mom. No hands!

The snow also makes Raven happy!

Picked up Abbey from preschool early so she could sled with us before the sun went down!

hanging out with my little snow-boy!

Sledding!

I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!

No, really. . . I’m gonna need some help here.

Nervous at first, these adorable sledding buddies really got into riding down the hill after a while.

And that was OUR week!

How was YOURS!?

***

Without further ado, here are the Mama/Papatography 2013 participants!

Diary of a First Child
Momma Jorje
Earth Mamas World
Baking Momma of Two
Emma’s Little World
Quacks and Waddles
Three Counties Mum
Seaside Chelle
gentlemum
The Cutie and The Beauty
Charming Gardener
Pineapples & Artichokes
Jessica’s Casserole
Dad of The Monkeys
A Nature Mom
Mommy and Little I
too tired to blog
The Family Patch
The Princess Poet’s Life Adventures
harley famdamily
Mama Unfurling
the mommy metamorphosis
Mothers Know Best
Quest For Life’s Passion
Frugal Brit Witch
Me, Mothering, and Making it All Work

Filed Under: 2013, Abbey, family, Joseph, Learning, mamatography, outdoors, photography, Photography Projects, two children

Mamatography 2013 Week 1!

January 4, 2013 By Amy 5 Comments

Last year, I participated in Mamatography 2012 with Luschka of Diary of a First Child and many other dedicated and talented mama-photographers!

This year, I’m at it again!

The first few weeks of 2013 will definitely be iPhone shots and Instagram photos, as we are in Houston visiting my mom and dad for the holidays, but I promise I’ll be back to my experimental manual photography soon enough (you know, when the Maine weather cooperates, or I can finally figure out how to configure my camera perfectly for indoor shots on manual!)

If you are a blogger and interested in participating in Mamatography 2013, check out Luschka and Mama Jorje’s blogs, Diary of a First Child and Mama

Jorje for more details and to join the list of participants.

. . . and on to the photos of our first week of 2013!

We have been having a lovely time at my mom and dad’s. Abbey loves to cuddle with grandma. . .

And the Silly Bears are so proud of the Christmas tree that they helped pick out AND decorate!

We enjoyed riding the Galveston Ferry this past Sunday & look forward to a Houston ZOO Trip!

Joseph is missing daddy pretty badly, but we have been appeasing him by explaining that daddy’s on the boat working and then quickly making a game out of the subject.

Pretending to call daddy on the phone is his favorite distraction game, but blowing kisses and playing with “daddy’s boat” in the bath tub are good ones, too.

Joseph is growing so quickly – learning new words and mannerisms every day!

rings

I also got my engagement ring fixed this week. . . seriously, how does PLATINUM break?

And we’ll conclude with an adorable pic of Joe “calling daddy” on grandpa’s old flip phone.

That was our first week of 2013. How was YOURS?

Filed Under: 2013, Abbey, children, deployment, family, Joseph, mamatography, photography, Photography Projects, two children, USCG Life

Mamatography Week 49

December 16, 2012 By Amy Leave a Comment

It’s Week 49! Almost there! January is creeping up on us, and then we’ll start a New Year of fun, family, craziness, and I promise to photograph ALL of it!

Joseph and Abbey LOVE playing in the snow. Here they are catching snowflakes on their tongues! Yummy!

I have been hastily replacing Joseph’s older diapers (those that I sewed at the very beginning of my cloth-diaper sewing journey) with new ones.

While I’ve put the SBH Etsy Shop on Vacation for our Holiday get-away to Texas, I had a bit of extra time to whip up some new and adorable dipes for Joe Joe. The robot PUL print is one of my faves. Too bad I only had a small amount!

We’re saying “so long!” to the snow for a few weeks, as we travel to Texas to spend Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and my brother, sis-in-law, and family.

Weeks 50-52 will come to you courtesy of my iPhone and Instagram, since we’ll be in Texas vacationing. . . and they actually may post AFTER the New Year.

But, what a fun journey it’s been, documenting the WHOLE year in photos!

Thanks to Luschka at Diary of a First Child for inspiring me to join in the Mamatography fun! And also to all of the other participants, and Courtney of Courtney Kirkland Designs, for inspiring teachings on photography and using my SLR camera!

Filed Under: 2012, Abbey, children, christmas, creating for the family, Holidays, Joseph, mamatography, photography, Sewing, sewing diapers, SLR Photography, two children

Mamatography: The Start of Winter

December 9, 2012 By Amy Leave a Comment

It’s winter time, and I’m finally catching up on my Mamatography posts. Finish strong! Only have a few weeks left to go!

It’s gotten COLD, so our afternoons (post 3:30) are spent playing together and sharing arts and crafts projects.

LOVE watching this little bundled boy play at the park with his friends. Total ham. So photogenic!

Jed and I were both awestruck by Abbey’s progress in shaping letters, and her growth this fall!

She brought this home from preschool before Thanksgiving and I practically cried.

Joseph and Abbey both helped me make Buns for Thanksgiving with our friends.

Joe did more poking of the bread than helping to make it. Abbey loved punching down the dough.

Abbey and I have been enjoying warming our bellies with hot cocoa after playing in the cold.

This week we got our first play-able snow! How exciting!

Filed Under: 2012, Abbey, children, family, Imaginative play, Joseph, Learning, mamatography, natural learning, outdoors, photography, Photography Projects, two children

Mamatography: Fall Catch Up

December 2, 2012 By Amy Leave a Comment

I have gotten SO behind in my Mamatography posts. So, here’s a catch up of what we’ve been up to for the past few weeks – the end of Fall, 2012.

At the tail end of the Fall season up here in Maine, we had a photo shoot with a friend and fellow Coast Guard wife, Kim Howell. You can follow her on Twitter @KimHowellPhotog

She captured some really fantastic photographs of the family, and we enjoyed the shoot a lot!

Abbey even got to clicking. . . capturing this iPhone photo of our feet as we posed for some pics sans kids.

Ah, the token nursing pic. Thank you, Kim, for snapping this one! So sweet!

After this beautiful (warm) fall day, it started getting windy and cold! On into the Winter season for us transplanted Mainers!

That was our last week of fall. How have your weeks been lately?

Filed Under: 2012, Abbey, Breastfeeding, children, family, friends, full-term breastfeeding, hubs, Joseph, Maine, mamatography, natural learning, outdoors, photography, toddler nursing, two children, USCG Life

Mamatography 2012- September Week 1

September 8, 2012 By Amy Leave a Comment

This week started out with a “last hurrah” of sorts. We broke out the inflatable water slide that we inherited from friends of ours for one last summertime extravaganza with friends over Labor Day Weekend. Here’s Joseph manning one of the squirt guns, and a friend of ours in the background striking a not-so-flattering pose as Hubs jokingly aimed a football at him. Ah, fun times!

Abbey and her friend Abbi warmed up in towels between playing on the water slide and at the park.

After our labor day fun, I got back to work, sewing a custom order of ReUsable Sandwich Bags for a friend.

I really enjoyed making them, and I she was impressed with my workmanship and my lovely woven labels that came in over the weekend! “So professional!” she beamed.

Well, I hardly would call myself a professional because I have a lot of work ahead of me if I’m actually going to succeed at having a Handmade Store, but if I’m going to do Silly Bear Handmade, I’m going to do it right. And labeling goods meant for children appropriately is a must!

Then on Tuesday, I got a super awful allergy attack. Headaches, drainage, red, leaky eyes – the works!

Yay for a change of season! (said no allergy sufferer ever).

Everybody in the family then caught a cold. So, it’s been a lot of sniffling, sneezing, coughing, and nose-blowing around here.

But, I still had a baby shower BBQ to plan and prepare for for our friends this week. So, I got to work cutting out a zillion (ok, maybe just under a hundred) tiny paper onesies and embellishing them with nautical themed embroideries (I made them embroidering directly onto water soluble stabilizer and then glued them onto the paper). I was not feeling well (still feeling crappy as I write this!) but when you’re a busy mama, the show must go on!

I made a couple lines of pennants in orange blue and white (Coast Guard colors) and went with a loose interpretation of my friends’ Nautical baby theme for the party prep.

I think the Pirate Baby “Ne’er Say Baby” game was a HIT and a fun touch.

But my favorite creation by far was the “Wishes for Baby” cards that I made. They turned out super cute, and I think the idea is so sweet. Everyone at the party filled one out and I hope that my friends (who are expecting their second baby, a little boy) really enjoyed reading them.

And last but certainly not least this week are the nautical jello cups that I made for the party.

The kids LOVED them, and I have to say, they came out pretty cute! This was another Pinterest Success! (I also found the idea for the “Wishes For Baby” cards on Pinterest and pinned them to my boards).

Other happenings for this past week included Abbey’s second week of full time preschool at the CDC, watching President Obama’s Nomination Acceptance speech at the DNC with the Hubs, and chatting with my parents not once but twice over the phone (I think I may miss them a little, huh?)

Next week, I celebrate my 25th birthday, am attending the Ombudsman Appreciation Dinner on base, and will have to say goodbye to Hubs as he prepares to go Underway again soon.

But more about next week – next week. This week, let’s relish in the amazing-ness that is JELLO.