Head Band Give A Way!

Evelynn in a BOWdacious Bow head band!

BOWdacious Bows is doing a give away!

Check them out on Facebook or at their Etsy shop for your chance to win!

Easter 2011

Beautiful Krystin

Happy Evelynn

Handsome Raedin

Sweet Afton

{Out fit by me}

Adorable Éowyn.

{Outfit by me}

And just for fun:

Afton has an entire Peep in her mouth!

Our "dinosaur" Easter eggs, shells off! Cool eh?

Baby Leg Warmers and Ankle Socks.

The easiest baby leg warmers!
They are super soft, stretchy and oh so cute.
I made mine for $2.00
{Target has some fabulously cute woman's knee highs for only $2 a pair.}

Simply cut the foot of the sock off about 1.5 inches above the heel.

Serge or overlock the edge, turn under 1 inch, and sew your seem 5/8 inch from the edge.
Repeat with the foot part of the sock and you now have a pair of soft ankle socks!

For older girls or adults, use thigh high or over-the-knee socks ($5-8 @ Target)

I {heart} couscous. And you should too.

I have become obsessed with using couscous recently! I made this {above photo} chicken last night to go with it and had to share, it was SO GOOD! (I almost always eyeball when I make stuff up, so...no measurements on this one!)

Chicken breast or tenders (I use tenders due to so many small munchkins)
Bread crumbs 1/2 cup
Fresh thyme, fresh rosemary, and fresh parsley (I got mine from my garden!)
Red bell pepper-diced
Feta cheese (crumbled)
Minced garlic (I used the jar kind)
Near East Couscous-roasted pine nut

Pre-heat oven 375 and spray cookie sheet with PAM
Mix bread crumbs and fresh thyme and rosemary {finely diced}, roll chicken in mixture and place on sheet. Carefully spray chicken with PAM so all bread crumbs are slightly moist.
Cook for 15 min (tenders) or 25 (breasts)
Sprinkle chicken with bell pepper, feta, and parsley. {Start your couscous, it only takes 5 minutes.} Cook chicken 5 more minutes. Serve over couscous.

Here are some updated pictures of my mini-garden:

10 tomatoes! Woot woot!

My snapdragons are HUGE!

My thyme is taking over!

1 hour dress

Using an old Shade(tm) cap sleeve top and a ripped tank, I made this cute little dress for Miss Squeaker.

Back to Back Birthday Bash!

Friday was Raedin's big day and we did a little party at the park.
We went to Organ Stop Pizza for dinner and it was fantastic!
I made him his cute little Thomas cake and daddy bought him a new bike.

Evie had a "Glam Party" which included a trip to the nail salon:

Glitter Tattoos

And vintage-style makeovers by me, no I am NOT a hairdresser.

Taylor looking rather lovely.

The birthday girl herself looking adorable in victory rolls.

Audrey Hepburn and pink cake!

And one more of Taylor because she is just so stinking cute!

E-V-E-L-Y-N-N

Evelynn Grace Hall
April 2, 2004
6 lbs 10 oz, 21.5 inches

Evelynn's labor was pretty boring. I was a scheduled induction (did NOT want a repeat of Taylor) and went in to the hospital at 2 pm. They started labor using pitocin which was hell. BUT I did it all without an epidural! All 7 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing! No tearing, no major complications.
It was a very, very emotional day for me. For those who don't know, when I was 7 months pregnant, Stuart (my ex-husband) and I separated. I was a wreck, a complete an total mess of a person who felt rejected and unloved. Stuart was by my side when Evelynn arrived and I had such mixed feelings about him being present that it was hard to find joy in such a happy occasion. Once they put sweet Evie on me, all the negative thoughts and feelings vanished momentarily.

I will talk about her name.

Evelynn-My great-grandma's middle birth name, Julia Evelyn O'Connell. Now I say birth name as she was adopted when she was 9 and the English family that adopted her didn't want too much embarrassment from having an Irish brat. {Sorry, no other word seemed fitting.} They changed her name completely, but she always knew who she really was and thought of herself as Julia Evelyn.

Grace-Being "dumped" by my husband was awful. It made me feel like a worthless person and then made me think I must have done something wrong and that I deserved to be dumped. Without going into too much detail, I was depressed. The only thing that kept me a float was 2 year old Taylor and the squirmy munchkin on the way. Evelynn was my saving grace. Shopping, decorating, and preparing for her arrival kept my mind in a good place and got me through the darkest days.

Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl!