Project: Organization

I'm not really big on New Years Resolutions, never really have been. There isn't usually a time of year that's especially motivating to me to make major life changes. But this year, I've decided that I want 2011 to be the year to get myself, especially my house, in order. The biggest annoyance in the house are the kids toys - they're everywhere! I've tried a few different storage solutions, which mostly equated to large bins just piled with toys, and it seemed to make the mess just grow because the kids would dump everything out just trying to find the one toy they wanted to play with. So now I'm trying something new with smaller bins so the kids can actually see what toys they have and want to play with, then can easily see where everything goes when it's time to clean up.

I started working in Isaac's room, and after a bit of work yesterday, here is how it turned out:
Small bins for his small toys, and shelves for his bigger trucks.
I was surprised how many toys were hiding under his bed! No more, now everything has a place. Even his closet is clean! The girls' room will be a bit more challenging since I don't have as much space to work with, but so far we've got the stuffed animals quarantined in a hammock,
and the small toys are finding homes in bins of their own. Emilie is having a harder time with the concept of putting things back in their place after play time, and it make take some time for it to sink in, but I think that now that things have homes, it will make it easier in the long run.Next in line, the laundry/craft room and the PANTRY. I'm scared.

The Many Faces of Audrey Hatch

I realized the other day that I haven't been taking as many pictures of Audrey lately, and I know how quickly babies change in the first few months. Audrey is also starting to smile and coo and do the cute baby things that make you fall in love with them daily. So after she was fed and happy last night, I posed her on her boppy and started shooting. I present you with The Many Faces of Audrey Hatch:
Sure love this sweet little baby girl!!!

Merry Christmas!

Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours! A few quick highlights:

Audrey cooing at DaddyIsaac and Santa (just a little bit happy, don't you think?) Waiting at the top of the stairs to come down Christmas morning. I think mine were the only kids on earth who didn't wake up until 9am to open presents! But by then, I already had breakfast ready, so they had to eat first. What a mean mom I am!Emmie opening a present, I just love that smile on her face!And Isaac getting excited about his new truck . Imagine that. Since I'm the one usually taking pictures, I don't end up in too many of them, but I found one! Merry Christmas!

Cristmas Crafts

I love getting ready for Christmas and all the planning and decorating (even though I'm not very good at it!). I had planned for a few months to make some new Christmas stockings, since we wouldn't have enough for everyone with the new addition to our little family. Before Audrey was born, I bought the fabric I needed and had a plan in my mind of how I wanted them to look, and some how I was able to squeeze in enough time to get them all done! Granted, it took me until about a week before Christmas, but at least they are finished! Here is how they turned out:
Jarom had fun rearranging the stockings to read: MEDIA, M.IDEA, A.DIME, etc. Who knew our initials would be so versatile?

And as much fun as they are to look at, they were even more fun to look inside Christmas morning!The other quick little sewing project I did was a gift card cozy. I got the idea here and used the left over fabric from my stockings. It turned out so cute, I don't know if I will ever be able to give another gift card without a cozy ever again!

Before & After

The other day, Isaac decided to try his hand at hair styling with scissors and Emilie was his target. And being the distracted mom that I am, I didn't even notice it had happened for a couple hours after it happened! Emilie was quick to point out that Isaac was the one that did it, but when I confronted him, he tried to pass it off onto Emilie at first, but finally confessed. Here is his handiwork:
While it's not the worst hack-job ever, it was short enough in places that I didn't trust myself to fix it. So while Isaac was at school the next day, I took Emilie to Fantastic Sams for a hair cut. Here is her after shot: The bangs are quite a bit shorter over all, but I think they look cute and are blended nicely so they'll grow out just fine. While she was there, I had the girl trim all her hair and she now has a cute little a-line cut.

I'm just glad it wasn't shorter - it could have been so much worse!

2010 Scrapbook pages

In my ideal world, I would scrapbook all the time and all my pages would be beautiful and perfect, but until that time, my yearly pages for the family exchange will have to do! Here is how this year's pages turned out:

Getting along

Any time a new baby is born, the family dynamics change to accommodate the new member. I remember when Isaac came home and how much Gabby (the cat) investigated the new noisy little one. When Emilie was born, I worried how Isaac would handle not being the only child any more, and we had our fair share of tantrums and episodes. I was likewise concerned about how both kids would react to Audrey, especially once we brought her home from the hospital. I worried about Emilie the most, since she's very tender-hearted and emotional about "her" things, but the transition so far has been much better than I anticipated! In fact, the kids seem to crowd around Audrey almost too much! Here they are playing with her on the bed:Isaac holding her on the couch. He always asks to hold her. The other day, he actually took her out of her bassinet and took her to Jarom because she was crying. I'm just glad that I didn't see it happen! He just loves to help take care of his baby sister. Emilie has taken upon herself the role of second mother. She gets upset if she doesn't hold the baby at least once a day. She loves to help replace fallen pacifiers (although her insertion methods could still use some improvement). When Audrey cries, she sometimes sings to her to help soothe her. And of course, what baby forehead is complete without its daily bathing in toddler kisses? I'm so glad she loves her new baby sister!But on the off moment when she doesn't have big brother and sister around to help mother, she always has this trusty friend for comfort:I think all our kids are destined to be thumb suckers. Granted,she hasn't really found her thumb since yesterday, but it's probably just a sign of what's to come.

Audrey had her two week check-up today and did great! She was 8 lbs. 2 oz. at birth, and in the hospital had dropped to 7 lbs. 6 oz. She went to the doctor at 5 days old and was up to 7 lbs. 13 oz. When we went in today, they wanted to see her at least back up to her birth weight, but this little girl has been busy - she weighed in at 8 lbs. 14 oz.! She gained a whole pound this last week! She also grew an inch, wow! I'm so proud of my gorgeous little girl!