the sewing room & childhood memories

It's been a few months since the sewing room has been finished - but I've just recently gotten some things on the wall.  And now I can't find the 'before' pictures - so just picture a room with absolutely nothing on the walls, mismatched furniture, and a neutral walls.  So here's the 'after'. 

Lauren and I did it in one weekend.  I love it! We painted the walls and some of the furniture.  I had a lot of miss-matched IKEA stuff so we just painted it orange.  The curtains are actually paint dropcloths from Lowes that we taped off and painted stripes on.  

 All the furniture we had - so this whole project only cost as much as two cans of paint, three dropcloths, and a curtain rod/clips.  Even the shelves, baskets, giant safety pin, lamps, and wall art I made from things I already had.  The TV we got as a wedding gift.  You know I can't sew without the Kardashians.  BTW - I think Kanye is a total a-hole.  Anyone else??

I also recovered my ironing board with some fabric leftover from some pillows my mom made.  I am thrifty.  Although Nick would probably suggest otherwise. 

Aaaannnnd I got a new sewing machine.  I've had the super basic model for the past 4 years, and it's been making some super weird clunking sounds and breaking needles and just ticking me off.  I brought it into get fixed and they said it would cost a HUNDRED dollars.  Insane -- that's how much it cost four years ago.  So Nick said since it's almost my birthday and because I'm so pretty *sarcasm* that I could upgrade.  

Hello Beautiful.  

And then I made this bubble skirt during naptime.  

I'm also going to start tackling those sewing projects on my Pinterest board.  I'll keep you posted on those. 

Tonight for dinner I re-created a childhood memory:  jell-o with fruit in it.  In this case I used a can of pears with strawberry jell-o because it was all I had, but I distinctly remember one of our favorites being green jell-o with pineapple.

Yum?

grand haven

I realized it's the end of the summer and we had not once been out to Grand Haven this year.  It's the cutest little town a little north from us on Lake Michigan.  Last night we headed out with some Subway and met Nick's mom and dad for some ice cream and a walk on the pier.  

Papa is so funny...

There's a bell that you can ring by the Coast Guard memorials.  It's really loud and scared her a little but she thought it was so fun.

random elise update

Little Miss Elise is up to lots of new things. 

My cheeks hurt from smiling at this kid all day. 

 She says tons of new words - sometimes making little sentences.   Tonight I came in after mowing the yard and she says "mommy all done mowing".

When she woke up from her nap today I hear her say "happy happy happy...mommy happy...daddy happy...mommy?? out??"  

I also taught her that when I am "pretend sleeping" she has to kiss me to wake me up.  Kind of like Sleeping Beauty.  She also can say "Belle" when she sees her.  Thank you Disney Cruise.

We've started reading potty books.  She sits on the potty but gets bored of it pretty quickly.  We're moving super slow on this one.

When I ask her what we should do today she either says "Ama's house" or "meow" (this means PetSmart). 

Big news -- I busted out the hair dryer for the first time in almost a year!  Also, Elise afraid of it.  She closed the door to the bathroom and went and hid under the covers.  She's also afraid of the dust buster. and vacuum.  and blender.  and food processor.  I really want to make her a smoothie but I'm pretty sure she'll flip her lid.  As soon as she sees any of these things she runs as fast as she can into the playroom and closes the doors.

Today for lunch I gave her some noodles and sauce, broccoli, blueberries, and pretzels.  She only ate broccoli and blueberries.  And she doesn't care for chocolate pudding. 

 Where does she come from??

Enough random information about a 2 year old for you? No? 

 Okay here's a video.   Oh yeah - another favorite word is "no!"

Disney Cruise!

There are an obscene amount of pictures in this post. And although I took about a million pictures I failed to get any of our families together...not a single one! I realized this on the way home from the airport and it made me a little sad...I guess we'll just have to go back and do it all again. Okay guys??

This cruise was amazing.  The boat was beautiful, the food was delicious, everyone was super super nice.  They made really good martinis. There were characters everywhere - Elise loved it.  She still wouldn't touch them but she got SO excited and giggly.  One of the best weeks ever.

We booked this cruise September 1 of last year - before I had even started chemo.  Almost a year later and we are doing so much better!  And the weirdest thing ever -- my oncologist was on the boat.  We ran into him at breakfast one morning and we were a little freaked out by this crazy coincidence.  He was there with his wife and little daughter about Elise's age.  And then we kept seeing him everywhere and I told him that even though I was obviously his favorite patient he really needs to stop stalking me...

We met Pluto the first night!  Elise was actually pretty excited...

The portholes all around the ship were perfect for her.

We met Minnie!  See hilarious video below this picture.  She was so excited she was shaking...

Daisy is her favorite...and she was waiting for us when we got off the boat at Castaway Cay.  They give you a paper every night that tells you everything about the next day - even where all the characters will be at what time. 

The snorkeling at Castaway Cay was so good!  They had sunken submarines and ships and even a Mickey statue in the water by all the fish.

Princess night.  All the staff on the boat called her 'princess' all week. 

We brought her favorite thing - duplos - to dinner every night where she would build a house.  And then give it to Grandpa Goote to take apart and give back to her so she could do it again. 

Not really into dancing with all the other kids...

We had one day at Nassau where we went to Atlantis.  That place is amazing - Elise loved the aquarium.  They had some super cool lazy rivers and zero-entry pools that were perfect for a two year old.  Elise was getting pretty brave in the water.

More duplos and crayons.

We had a different towel animal every night...

We spent two days at Castaway Cay.  Beautiful.

They had this little freshwater splah pad on the island that we loved.

And this is the luckiest girl in the world...

Was that enough pictures for you?

We had so much fun.  Thanks so much everyone for going on this awesome trip.  It was the best way to end the crazy year we've had!

what a big girl!

We have moved the high chair - the last of the baby stuff - to the basement!  We got a booster seat (this one - it's awesome) and she loves it.  She thinks she is big stuff.  It was a rainy boring day for us.  We didn't go anywhere and wore soft clothes all day.  We busted out our play tent and put all the animals in there for a snuggle party. 

Lunch today was leftover Panera Mac & Cheese, grapes, and bananas.  

I'm also trying to infiltrate her mind with all things Disney - since we are leaving for our Disney Cruise on Saturday.  I had on some Cinderella clips on YouTube and she kept saying "All done. All done. Elmo!".   Unfortunately Elmo doesn't make too many appearances on the Disney Dream...   We're huge fans of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but she has no interest in Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, or Snow White.   This should be interesting.  :-)

Last week I was making dinner or something and I hear Elise cracking up on the couch - she was doing this: