Christmas

Christmas was super exciting for me this year. Mostly because Bryce is old enough to get excited about opening presents and all the pretty decorations and lights. Some of my favorite memories from Christmastime this year include watching Bryce play with our nativity scene and hiding baby Jesus all over the house, him putting ornaments on the tree by shoving them up into the limbs until he perfectly balanced it and it stayed put, and his fascination with "Ho-Ho".

Christmas morning was special because we spent it at home just the 3 of us. I videoed Bryce running into the living room. He ran straight for his bike. He tried to push himself around the living room on it. He is not a fan of using the pedals yet, but he will get there. He loved opening all his presents and he was perfectly content with playing with each toy for 20 mins until we would get impatient and convince him he needed to open another.

After we opened all our presents we headed over to Scott's parents house for more Christmas. We did Christmas with my family the next day, but I forgot to take pictures! He was so incredibly excited about opening presents at my parents. He had the routine down. He opened a pair of house shoes and screamed "socks! momma socks! socks! a socks!" Like someone gave him a winning lottery ticket.

He sat right here for like 30 mins. He was putting the animals from his nativity set into the top part of the truck, but 3 wouldn't fit and 2 was too loose. He sat there and tried and tried and tried to make 3 animals fit. He kept taking them out, rearranging, and moving them around. I am constantly surprised by his problem solving skills.

Branson

Every year for their anniversary, my in-laws go to Branson. This year they invited us to go along. How romantic!

It was a very interesting trip. We got there Friday afternoon and hit Branson Landing for some shopping. All I could think about was a peppermint hot chocolate from Starbucks because my throat was on fire. Me, being the diva that I am, drug the whole family to Starbucks just so I could fulfill my soar throat fantasy.  Friday night the first stop was the urgent care at the hospital. Diagnosis Bronchitis. After an inhaler, antibiotic, some cough syrup that would make Courtney Love feel a little trippy, and the best night of sleep I've had since Bryce was born, I felt much better and up for a trip to Silver Dollar City on Saturday.

some of the crazy fabric at the fabric store.
Taylor Lautner?

Saturday we got up, took our time getting ready, went fabric shopping (like I need more fabric for projects around here), and then off to Silver Dollar City. Bryce was about 1/2 inch too short to ride most of the rides. Scott rode a few rides with him! OMG it was so funny! Bryce threw a major tantrum when the ride stopped! He wanted it to keep going. And he most certainly did not want to get off to let other people on. We had to drag him out kicking and screaming. And then when we got in line at the next ride he did not want to wait! More screaming. Tears like the Nile River. We got so close to the front of the line and then the elf lady shut the gate right in front of him and OMG did we really see a show then! He tried to squeeze his big 99% head through the gate while screaming "No-no!" All the other moms looked so pathetic for him. Or for me, I couldn't tell.

Sunday we slept in and then hit the outlet mall. We found some major deals on clothes for Bryce. It was crazy slammed because it was the start of the holiday season. Then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

 

 

 

 

 

His presh curls!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trick or Treat!

This Halloween I made a homemade costume (2 of them actually). I know Im stupid crazy. This costume I literally just cut out the fabric and hot glued/sewed it together. There was no pattern. If you are really that interested in how I made it, just email/msg me.

Scott had to work (no surprise there) so I wasn't even planning on taking Bryce trick or treating because he isn't going to even remember it and he doesn't eat candy. But my parents literally scoffed out loud when I said it was "too much trouble" to take him trick or treating and then they scooped him up and started off down the street.

This was the best picture I could get. There was more to his costume but he wouldn't put it on. We were lucky he put this much of it on. Oh by the way, he is a wolf. Its is favorite animal at the moment.

So this was actually our 2nd house to visit. At the first house, I was busy deleting everything on my phone because my memory was full. Again. At the first house, he ran up to the house like he had been trick or treating his whole life. So when we go to the 2nd house, he thought someone should answer the door! He didn't understand the whole bucket on the porch thing!

This was the 3rd and final house, my parents neighbors.



The neighbors have a little girl named Faith. She was more than happy to share her wagon with Bryce.
 

Then off to Chick Fil A to see Daddy! He was excited for all the treats in his bucket. That bucket my dad dug out of the attic. Its from a McDonalds happy meal circa 1999.

We had so much fun! I can't wait until next year!

first hair cut

When I was pregnant, I had a very vivid dream that I gave birth to a curly haired little boy. Well, I did have a little boy, but he didn't have much hair and it definitely wasn't curly. Not that it mattered because all of it fell out with cradle cap and never grew back.

This is the best picture I could find to show the craziness
that was his hair before the haircut. And that is chocolate
all over his face.

Fast forward 1 year. My bald headed baby started growing hair!

Fast forward 6 months. My baby has long flowing locks of curly hair! Oh the precious curls! I was in love! They just curled up in the back like he slept in some perm rods. I never wanted to cut them off. EVER.

Well he was starting to get called a girl by complete strangers even though he was clearly dressed in all boy clothing. My only explanation for this had to be the fact that his hair was hippy long. I definitely didn't want my kid to be that kid. So I new a hair cut was in our immediate future.

I took him to Pig Tails and Crew Cuts here in Little Rock because they really cater to small children and specialize in children's hair cuts.

When we showed up the place was packed. There was 3 boys getting their hair cut and all 3 of them were screaming like Freddy Kruger was the one cutting their hair. Bryce just stared. I don't think he too much minded the screaming, he was too focused on getting in one of the cool cars. When it was finally his turn he did so great! He wasn't scared at all! He sat very still and was very cooperative. He was not a fan of the electric clippers she used on his sideburns, but even then he did very good considering.

I told her to the leave it long and I wanted to keep the curls in the back. She told me he would still look like a baby and not a big boy. I said I don't care, I'm fine with him looking like a baby (because he still is a baby) I just want it trimmed and shaped up a bit. She asked me more questions like if I wanted it completely off his ears and if I wanted the bangs straight across and before I knew it, she had chopped off his curls in the back!!!! I was so mad! I didn't stay too mad too long though, its just hair and will grow back. She gave me a lock of curls in a baggie. He did look completely different! He really did look like a big boy with his hair cut!

People have asked me if I liked going there. I really don't think I'll be going back. They were so busy and I really felt like we were rushed. The whole haircut from start to finish probably took 5 mins. And obviously there was a miscommunication at some point about whether the curls in the back should be cut or not. And it was kinda pricey for a kids cut. So if you know of any awesome places that do kids cuts for an affordable price, let me know!

 

 

 

Stop, colloborate, and listen

So I know Im way behind on my posting.

For Halloween Bryce was Vanilla Bryce! It was a huge hit!

Many people have asked where we came up with the idea. Well I have to give all the credit to Scott. He calls Bryce all sorts of nick names like Bryce-a-roni, Bryce-krispy, Vanilla Bryce. So I made up my mind I was going to make some hammer pants and I never looked back. I have gotten a lot of question on how in the world I made the hammer pants. I didn't use any sort of pattern, so I will try to do my very best explaining it to you.

Bryce already had a pair of hammer-ish looking pants. They are pajama bottoms made by Carters. They have an elastic waste, baggy through the but and thigh, then taper tightly around the ankle area with a band of elastic around the bottom. I decided I would use these pants as my template.

 I bought some awesome gold fabric at Hobby Lobby. (I should really get an endorsement from Hobby Lobby). I layed the pajama pants on the gold fabic. I eye balled it. Yes, that's how I do things around this place. Who has time to add and subtract quarter inches and measure a squirming toddler? Not me. So I traced the outline of the pajama pants with a sharpie. When I traced the pants, I stayed at least an inch away from the pants to allow for a seam allowance and to create extra bagginess. I also purposely made the crotch about 2 inches lower than the pajama pants because this is what makes hammer pants hammer pants. When I say I stayed an inch away, again I was eye balling so it was by no means perfect. I cut out 2 of the outlined pajama pants.

I placed the 2 pieces right sides together and stitched up the outside and inside length of the leg. I did not hem them at all. Again, I don't have time for that. Also, he is wearing these pants once and never again, so it really is a waste of time. If you are washing and wearing these pants regularly, you should hem them.

I bought some elastic at Hobby Lobby (I think it was 1/4 inch but it really doesn't matter) to use for the waist and bottom of the legs. Now I use a really janky method to sew in elastic. I basically taught myself to sew in a era when there was no such thing as a you tube tutorial so I actually do a lot of weird things when I sew. What I did was put the elastic around Bryce's waist to see how long of piece I needed. You want it to be tight (but not too tight) I cut the elastic to the correct length and then sewed the ends together. Now you have a circle of elastic ready to be "installed" into the pants. I think the correct term is "sew a casing", but who are we trying to impress?

So I places the circle of elastic in the pants and folded the fabric over the elastic. I stitched the fabric down. This was not perfect at all. It puckered up in places, and the slick gold fabric slid all the over the place. No one is going to notice anyways. His shirt covered up the waste of the pants anyways. Again, he was only going to wear it once, so no need for perfection. I did this same process around the bottom of the legs.

It took 1 hour and about $10 to make.

Around lunch, he sat down and busted the seam in the crotch. This fabric was super stretchy and I probably didn't use a close enough stitch to really hold it. But again, not a big deal at all, it was a one time thing.

I added a gold chain and a t-shirt with gold lettering to the outfit. I simply cut out the letters myself and used fusible Pellon to iron the letters on the shirt.

I actually had a bunch of pictures on my phone at one point to use a demo but I had to delete them because I was out of memory. Story of my life. sigh.