Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are out of town visiting all our family for the holiday which I don't think we have done in about 6 years, so it was much needed! I'm excited for Roweyn to be able to experience our giant family during the holiday and really hope she has fun! I'm so thankful to have such a big, loving family and even though we're in the same state, about 6 hours away, we don't get to see them hardly enough, so I'm very thankful for the times we do get together!


Last year we went over to our family friends house and had a wonderful time there. Here we are before heading over.

Love this photo of her just cracking up!

I hope you all are able to enjoy this time with family and friends!

DIY No Sew Owl Costume

Last year I could not figure out for the life of me what I wanted to dress Roweyn up as for Halloween. It finally hit me about 2 weeks before...an Owl...duh!! Roweyn and I kinda have an obsession with owls...okay maybe it's just me but I make her have one too. ;) I searched all over the internet trying to find one not only in her size, but actually cute! I found super cute ideas on etsy, but didn't want to pay so much and they wouldn't have it done in time. So after some persuasion and help from my super crafty best friend who was making her daughters costume, I decided I would attempt to make Roweyn her owl costume.


I had a few ideas in my head of how I was going to go about this, since 1. I don't sew. I could but I don't really know my way around a sewing machine without some help and that was more than I really wanted to attempt. And 2. I don't knit or crochet.
Anyways back to the ideas....I wanted a hat knitted of basically an Owl face. My best friend was awesome enough to offer up her services for me and whipped out a hat in like a day! The next idea was to basically take a onesie and some felt  and create an owl body. I had bought some leg warmers right before starting this project and they were perfect for her costume, so I used the colors of those to figure out the rest of the costume.


Fair Warning: This is my very first DIY post of any kind, so please bear with me as I go through everything. Also the photos are not great quality, I think I took them around 10 at night as I was making the costume.


What You Need:
Onesie
Felt or patterned fabric in 2 or 3 colors. I used Purple, Teal and Brown Felt.
Fabric Glue
Scissors
Scrap cardstock, paper, or anything you can use to draw out your pattern
Legwarmers and tights


So here's what I did for my No Sew DIY Owl Costume:

Start by drawing your pattern on cardstock or something similar and then cut out your pattern  to determine the size of your feathers.

I went with the larger size.

 Use the feather pattern to cut out all your feathers.

Mine aren't all the exact same size, I feel it gives it more character when they're all a little different.

Put your extra carstock inside the onsie in case your glue seeps through the fabric. 
Starting at the bottom of the onsie determine how you want your colors. 
I tried to make it so none of the colors would be right next to each other or on top of each other.
Glue only at the top of the feathers right along the straight edge. That way your feathers won't be stiff and can have some movement. I overlapped the feathers just slightly and as you can see none of them are really centered right over the other.

Keep gluing...

And gluing...

And gluing...until you get all the way to the top!

Below you can see I also made little tiny feathers to go around the entire collar of the onesie.

And the costume couldn't be complete until it had a tail! I took the rest of the brown felt and cut out a giant tail that I folded in half and cut little scallops out of each end. Then I took the remaining  purple and blue feathers, folded the brown tail in half and glued the feathers inside of it and glued it to the booty of the onesie!

So here is the result!!

Movie Monday: Week Fifteen

November was a busy month for us. I was getting situated in a new salon, and my Mom was extremely sick all month. So I guess I didn't pull out the video camera much. But I did get a couple videos in, a few days before Thanksgiving, which puts Roweyn at almost 11 Months!


Up first is Roweyn having some fun with a tennis ball.

And in this one Roweyn shows off her drumming, crawling, listening and talking skills. Towards the end she really starts talking.

Give Thanks

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had two Thanksgivings, one at our friends house on Thursday and another one at my Mom's Uncles Ranch on Friday. This was Roweyn's First Thanksgiving! It wasn't like our usual Thanksgiving, this year neither of my brothers were here but Kadin hasn't had a Thanksgiving with us for a while. I can't remember the last time I had a Thanksgiving without Trevor though, so I was bummed that Roweyn didn't have her Uncles here to celebrate with.


We usually spend the day in the kitchen cooking, okay well my parents and Trevor do and I help when needed. Ha! I'm not much of a cook, but with direction, I can help out. :) This year we only spent a little bit of time cooking whatever we took over to our friends house, so for me it wasn't that exciting of a day. But since Roweyn won't remember it anyway, I don't really mind.


With how crazy of a year it's been I'm so thankful for my family, for everything they've done for me. They supported me through my pregnancy, got me through school and stateboard and through the first year of Roweyn's life. I couldn't have done it with out their help, it would have been impossible. And for that, I am eternally thankful. I'm thankful for getting through school and stateboard and having a career that I'm always learning from. I'm thankful for my beautiful, amazing baby girl, for everything about her. And for the new friends I've met from becoming a mommy and all the new opportunities I have. 


Here are some photos from the past couple days. :)

Happy 10 Months Roweyn! (A Little Late)

Dear Roweyn,

Today you are 10 Months old! I can't believe that you are just two months shy of turning a year old! You are so darling. Your personality is shining bright! 

You are so happy to play quietly by yourself, but you squeal and laugh when we all play with you, including Cyder. You have no problem letting us know when you want something, especially when it's something you're not allowed to have. Nana says you get that from me. :) I believe it too. 

You are pulling yourself up on anything you can and cruising around all the furniture. You are so curious about everything and you want to know how it all works. You love playing with the buckles in your carseat and highchair, always trying to clip them together. You have already mastered climbing up stairs but you haven't quite learned how to get back down them. I have no doubt you will figure it out soon. You love the vacuum. Yesterday you followed me around in your walker as I vacuumed the kitchen. You would get right up next to me so you could see how it works. It was so funny. We will definitely have to keep an eye on you at all times when the vacuum is out, so you don't do what your Uncle Kadin did when he was little.

You are constantly saying new words. You say Mama, Nana, Dog, and so many other words all the time now and now you are saying Cyder! It sounds like Yder but when you said it, your Nana and I knew right away what you had said! One night when you were all done eating in your highchair, you looked at me and said "All Done" in the cutest little voice I ever heard! We even caught it on video.

You love to play Peek a Boo. You take a blanket, hide your face and I say "Where's Roweyn?" and you pull the blanket down and I say "There you are! I found you!" and you laugh and squeal and then hide behind the blanket again. You love to share, always giving us your food to eat and your toys to play with. When one of your stuffed animals falls over off a chair, you get so sad. You pick it up, hug it and give it loves to make sure it's okay. I have no doubt in my mind, you will be such a caring little girl! You already are! You've just rediscovered clapping and you totally understand when to clap. What's even better is you clap like a golfer. Everything about you is so soft, little and sweet! How could I think your clapping could be any different?

You love your family so much and are always so excited to see everyone. When someone picks you up, you get so excited. You give us pats on our chests and heads, sometimes even our faces. You also love animals, always wanting to play with them. You say "Meow meow" when we say cat or when you see one.

You are getting so good at eating solid foods. Your favorites right now are chunks of avocado, cheese and baked potato. You can eat a whole mini avocado in one sitting if I let you! Your Uncle Kadin loved avocado when he was your age, but me, not so much. :)

You are definitely not much of a nap taker. Only two to three naps a day, sometimes even less! Not to mention those naps are only 20 mins! You're getting better about sleeping at night, but you still spend half the night sleeping in bed with me. You just love to snuggle. And I must say I do enjoy the many ways you wake me up in the morning. Whether it be you trying to climb over my face and the pillows to grab onto the headboard to stand up, patting my face, trying to grab my lip, nose or ear piercings or better yet when you stick your finger up my nose!

Thank you for being such a joy in my life! I look forward to each and every day I have with you, to watch you learn and grow. I love you SO much!

Love with all my heart,

Your Mama