Go Hat

My sister Sharon http://sharon-c-thats-me.blogspot.com/ is going to be having her third baby any time now (if she wants my opinion, I think she should have him on December 29th...) I wanted to make Baby Boy Carpenter a hat to keep his little head warm in the cold Idaho winter. I came across this one on ravelry and thought it was so cute. I didn't buy the pattern, "Go Hat". Instead I just figured it out. I thought it turned out pretty well. I can't wait to make on for Samuel too. It might be a smidge too big on him initially, but then again, Sharon will feed him well so he will quickly fit into it ;)

Congratulations (soon) Sharon!

Random Samuel pictures

Ah, my sweet little boy. I love this picture, but I wish his ear wasn't bent... I just want to fix it everytime I see it!

All dressed up for church. He looks so handsome in his church clothes!

He has recently discovered his thumb and the joys of sucking on it. I adore seeing him suck on it, but am trying to make myself make him stop. I have seen how difficult it can be when they are older to get them to stop so I'm trying to forget the cuteness and be more disciplined in stopping it and encouraging the pacifier. It's been hard. Last night we put socks on his hands, besides swaddle them tight by his sides and he managed to loose his arms, and get that sock off. I found him contentedly sucking away on his thumb in the morning. Little Houndini!

I just love how alert and engaging he is in this picture.

Christmas Stockings

After 6 Christmas's together, I finally made us some matching stockings. There were many different types I thought about doing, like crosstitch, felt, sewn, knitted and lots of variations within them. I asked Derek what he wanted. I really tried to impress upon him that this was going to be what we'd have for THE REST OF OUR LIVES, and that our kids would hold fond memories of them, and want to take them with them when they got married, etc. He didn't seem to be as invested in it as I was. "I don't know Babe, what do you want to do?" was his frequent reply. And, with Sam here the pressure intesnsified to have it done. I wanted to have matching stockings from the very beginning with him. As you can imagine, it was a big decision. ;)

I really thought about making some knitted ones, but just couldn't decide how I wanted them, and in the end, the sewed ones just were easier. SO, here they are:

I really liked how they turned out and think it will be fun to pick out new patterns and Christmas fabric as our family grows. I will probably add our names at some point. I asked Derek if he thought we should have the same stocking every year, or put our names on them and have assinged stockings. He initially said to keep them unassigned and we could choose each year.... I'm not sure I'm a fan of that, but we'll see for now. Mine is the middle one :) I'm happy with them and now we have coordinating stockings!

Christmas crafts

Today, Sam took a 3 hour nap. So I picked up some stuff around the apartment and made these two onesies. The hat I finished a few weeks ago.
I put little Christmas lights that I found in the button aisle on for the decorations. I was so excited when I found them!

The gift onesie I saw at a craft fair and thought I could reporduce it. The Christmas tree I made, mainly to use up the little pom poms that I had originally gotten for the hat.

Poor Sam was pretty patient throughout the photo shoot! Hopefully we'll be able to get our tree put up today. I love Christmas time and love December!