Alexa – 9 Months

April 24, 2015

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You, miss Alexa, are a little flower blossoming right inside our home and family! You learn so much every day!

Your most recent trick is saying “woof woof!” It is seriously adorable!

You’re really good at imitating in general. You like to imitate me when I blow kisses, buzz my lips, sing, etc.

Some of your other tricks include clapping your hands and sometimes even saying “yay” (really!), bouncing up and down with the music, waving your hand and saying “hi” (you really do say it, but it’s more like a “hah”), and patting yourself on the head when we ask, “Where is Alexa?”

IMG_1334 edit01^^month stickers c/o Alexa Z Design^^ 

It’s hard to keep any hair accessories on your head due to the lack of hair and your bare-head preferences.

You REALLY don’t like laying down for anything, especially diaper changes, but if I cover your face with a blanket and play peek-a-boo with you, you will, without fail, kick your legs, giggle, and pull the blanket off your face so we can start over again! Your legs kicking make it harder to change your diaper, but I’ll take a little inconvenience for some smiles and giggles!

At your doc appointment a few days ago, we learned that you are healthy, but little! You’re a lightweight.

That may have to do some with your mobility! You’ve been crawling since last month, but you’re getting braver about pulling yourself up to a standing position and staying there for a while.

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We’ve been trying to get you used to formula since you’ll be spending four days with Grammy and Opa in the next little while. You have days when you’ll take it, and days when you’ll just push it away. I think it’s because you know there’s something much better VERY close by. Daddy always has more success than I do.

You’re still breastfeeding, but you’ve recently developed a habit of biting me! Neither of us enjoy that too much, me because it hurts, you because you feel bad for hurting me, I think…

You’re really good at signing “more” when you’re eating.

You’ve really been enjoying graham crackers lately, and Chelsea is always very accommodating if it means she can have some too!

We bought you a couple of sippy cups the other day, but it appears that you’re taking after your big sister and preferring a regular cup early on!

You have four teeth on the bottom, one canine poking through and THREE other teeth coming down on top. You poor thing.

You like to join me when I’m singing and it is the sweetest thing ever.

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You are still my little snuggle bug.

You still love it when Mommy dances with you and tosses you gently in the air (most of the time).

You’re not waking up in the night really anymore and EVERYONE is grateful for that!

You’re taking two naps a day, but unfortunately we have a hard time being consistent. We’ll work on that.

You’re still very attached to Mommy, but yesterday and the day before you weren’t nearly as clingy. You crawled around and played by yourself for most of the day and it was so much fun to see you explore!

We have stairs in our house but, luckily, you haven’t really ventured upon that frontier. You avoid it unless Mommy has gone downstairs and doesn’t come back up quickly enough.

You still smile and giggle with Chelsea more than anyone else. She also teases you more than anyone else! One of her favorite games to play with you is fetch, but you never actually get the ball or whatever it is before Chelsea runs and scoops it up just before you can get it! She’s a tease and you have a strong resilience for it. You hardly ever complain.

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Still gotta thing for that binki and that super soft blankie!

Your eyes and your smile still melt me.

We still all love to make you smile and laugh, and you still hold all of our hearts in your tiny hands.

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We love you Alexa, dear!

 

More months:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
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Life Lately

April 22, 2015

It’s been pretty quiet on the blog recently, but I assure you, the same can NOT be said about things around the Stange residence!

Photo Mar 27, 1 12 36 PM

Chelsea has been a DREAM for the last week or so. Seriously. She has been so happy and compliant and just a sweet little girl! I’m really hoping that this isn’t just a phase because we have ALL loved it around here.

One of my favorite moments of Chelsea this week was when we went to the doc yesterday for Alexa’s 9-month checkup. Can you believe that she is 9 months old? I can’t. Anyway, I asked my doctor to have the nurse bring Chelsea a sucker when she came back to give Alexa a shot. After receiving her sucker and just before the nurse left, Chelsea said, “Thank you for bringing me the sucker!” Totally unprompted. Hashtag soproud.

My other favorite moment from Chelsea was this morning when she said, “Mommy, look!” then she climbed on top of the arm of the couch and belly flopped on the deceivingly soft, cushy-looking blanket strategically placed on the floor. Luckily she was uninjured, but the way she paused in silence right after the flop and before the tears, I could just hear in her mind, “I don’t understand what went wrong!”

 

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Alexa has been… clingy. Haha! She is quite attached to her mama and has been teething. I’m pretty sure that four teeth are starting to come in on the top all at the same time. Poor baby! But she still manages to smile for me!

One of my favorite moments of Alexa this week was also today while at my piano accompanist’s home (I’m singing for a church function Friday night) practicing and Alexa joined in the singing, too!

My other favorite moment was yesterday when I decided to teach Alexa how to blow kisses. So I blew her a  couple of kisses to show her how it’s done and she put her hand up and started suctioning and breaking the suction of her lips to make a *pop* sound. That little girl is so smart!

 

Photo Apr 22, 10 36 57 PM ^^best recent pic I have. sorry hun.^^

Andrew is getting really excited for the summer! We’ve got a lot of fun things planned and we are both getting super excited!

My favorite moment with Andrew this week was probably this morning when I heard him laughing with Chelsea as the two of them struggled to get out of the blanket burritos they had made for themselves.

 

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I am getting really excited for this summer, too! I’ve been busy getting outfits together for our first exciting trip, A CRUISE! This year marks mine and Andrew’s five-year anniversary so we decided to celebrate by going on our first cruise ever! I’ve been writing a few seasoned cruisers that I know and have a rough idea of what to expect, but for the most part, I’m clueless! All I know is that it will be a wonderful reprieve for me and my hunny! I’ll for sure write a post about what I’m wearing/packing! As soon as I know. I hope I don’t over pack too much…

Other than that, we are simply soaking up this spring-time weather! Going for walks often, playing outside, riding bikes (Chelsea is TOTALLY ready for a “for-reals” one), laughing, and just enjoying our family and our life! Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with all my projects soon and get on the ball with this blog stuff! Until then, friends, keep it real.

 

Oh! And PS I’ve added a new print to my Etsy shop! Take a look:

IMG_1219 edit01 ^^click here to visit my etsy shop!^^

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Nature Reclaiming – Amanda Conley Photography

April 19, 2015
I have been looking forward to the arrival of these photos from the moment the shutter opened and shut. Well, more like from the moment I read on facebook that I had won Amanda Conley’s Fine Art Photo Shoot Giveaway. I expected nothing less than extraordinary and that’s definitely what I got, but looking through these photos, I got something even more that I wasn’t expecting, but that solidified that Amanda did her job and that she did it well.


It's really fun to get made-over and dressed up to look absolutely stunning, but I gotta say, the ones that really take my breath away and bring tears to my eyes are the ones of the moments that she captured of me and my girls.


I could be dressed in the most amazing of clothing, made-up by the most talented make-up artist, photographed by the best photographer in the world, and posing just perfectly, and I still wouldn't feel as beautiful as I do in these photos of me with my daughters. Being a mother is my calling. and I love it more than anything else.


My experience with Amanda in and of itself was so positive that it’s nothing short of magical. She was prepared for everything an anything, and she knew exactly what to do to make me and my girls comfortable, happy, look beautiful, and feel beautiful. Thank you for making and documenting these memories for us, Amanda.


If you're looking for a photographer, look for this one.


Amanda Conley Photography

Photographer: Amanda Conley
Make-up Artist: Amanda Conley
Headdress: Amanda Conley
Dress: Susan Stange
Model: Susan Stange
Children's vests and additional costuming: Susan Stange
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Lost in Wonderland – Mariasha Rowland Photography

April 8, 2015
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“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”
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“Curiouser and curiouser!”
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“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.”
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
For more photos from this shoot, click here.
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Tutorial: Fabric Bow

April 6, 2015
This weekend was full of candy, uplifting messages, egg-hunting, family, and most of all, Christ. I love Easter Sunday for all of these reasons, but it’s especially special when General Conference and Easter land on the same day (wasn’t Elder Holland’s talk just amazing?) I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ who is the hands that lift us up to safety when we know for certain that we will fall.

Making Chelsea and Alexa’s dresses this year was especially fun because it was the first year I had two little girls to coordinate! Although it is REALLY fun to do matchy-matchy dresses, I decided not to go that route this year. Instead, I went with a floral theme because of two absolutely beautiful dresses I fell in love with on Pinterest.


I love how both dresses turned out! Chelsea’s dress was a little trickier, but Alexa’s dress was pretty straightforward. The one thing I was nervous about was the big yellow bow on the front. It turned out to be pretty easy to make, which is good news for EVERYONE.
So, you ready to learn how to make it?


You will need:
1/3 yard fabric
Needle and corresponding thread
Sewing machine, etc.

Dimensions:
12x10”
1.5x5”
**The dimensions of the bow on Chelsea’s dress in this post are 12x14” and 1.5x5”


Step 1: cut and iron
Cut your fabric into two pieces in the dimensions listed above. Iron both pieces.



Step 2: sew the bow – seam 1
Bring the two long sides of the fabric together (right sides together) and sew a straight stitch with 1/2” seam allowance. Press the seam open with your iron and turn the “tube” right-side-out. Lie the tube out on your ironing board with the seam face-up in the center. Press the long sides for firm creases.



seam 2
Bring the shorter ends of the bow fabric with right sides together (the side without the seam), and sew a straight stitch. Press the seam open, then turn to the inside and iron the fabric down for firm creases, with the seam in the center.



pinch
Pinch the center of your bow, experimenting with the layers until you’re satisfied with how it looks, and use your needle and thread to sew through all the layers. Set bow aside.



Step 3: sew the tie
Sewing the tie is very similar to sewing the bow. Repeat the first part of step 2, but with 1/4” seam allowance instead of 1/2”. Use a safety pin to turn the tube right-side-out more easily.



Step 4: bow + tie – method 1
Wrap your tie around the center of the bow, pulling it as tight or as loose as you like. Use a needle and thread to sew the tie to itself (wrong sides together) and cut off any excess.

method 2
Measure how much of the tie you need to go around the center of the bow and add 1/2”. Bring the two short ends together and sew with a 1/4” seam allowance **. Press seam open, turn right-side-out (or don’t **), then slide onto bow with seam on the underside.

**Whether you sew with right sides together or wrong sides together is up to you! I chose to sew mine with wrong sides together so that I could sew the bow to the dress more easily by sewing through the dress and 1/4” of the excess from the tie.

If you’re worried about the tie slipping, simply sew it in place to the bow from underneath.

Now you’re done! and you can look at all the pictures of the finished product that just so happen to have the most perfect, adorable, little baby girl you've ever seen in them, too. ;)

^^for more easter dress pics, click here^^
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Tutorial: How to butter toast + a giveaway!

April 1, 2015
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Haha! April Fools! I won’t actually write a tutorial for buttering toast, but there IS a giveaway! It’s hosted by Salt Project on their website which is a GREAT place to get ideas of fun activities for you and your family in the Utah Area, like visiting the Treehouse in Ogden! Haven’t been there yet myself, but it looks pretty great! Be sure to stop by their blog to enter to win passes to the Treehouse, A Gift Card to Thai Curry Kitchen, and a Car Seat Protector from yours truly! This one:

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All you have to do to enter is to sign up for The Salt Project Newsletter (they never send spam, they mainly just want to give things away), comment on any of my blog posts, and visit the Treehouse and Thai Curry Kitchen Facebook Pages! Giveaway ends tomorrow night at 11:59. Utah Residents only please.

PLUS! Right now, enter SALTANDSUE at checkout for one of my car seat protectors and receive 25% off your order, good for one week! And that’s no joke.


Oh, and by-the-way, look what new print is coming to my shop!


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