And the Stockings Were Hung...

I decided to get some creative juices flowing this Christmas since I have a little more free time than last year when I had a newborn. And I also got a shiny new sewing machine a while back that I'm really excited to use. So for my first project I decided to attempt stockings!

My friend Emily has an brand new embroidery sewing machine, so I called her up and asked if I could be her first "guinea pig" and try it out on my stockings. It took us 3 HOURS to embroider 3 names and the only damage done was 2 broken needles, and a couple of "rough drafts" on the fabric.

I thought they turned out pretty good!

And I'm so glad they're done in time for Christmas!

You're probably wondering what I'm going to do when I have more children. Well, I need to rush over to JoAnns where I bought the fabric and buy some more before they're gone. And I'm counting on Emily to never move away so I can use her again for my next ones!

O Christmas Tree

Every other year we spend Thanksgiving in Wyoming with Mike's family. When we do, we have the privilege of cutting down our own tree for Christmas!

It starts with bundling up...

because some hiking is required to find the perfect tree...

Here is the one we picked...in all its 'woodsy' glory...

Mike takes a saw and begins to cut...

And carry it to the car...

And here it is...in all its festive glory.

We love it!

Here's some pics of the rest of the fam:

We got 1 good shot, but as time went on, Mike got a little carried away with the camera's remote... And the picture quality went quickly downhill. :)

Party like its 2009

Last weekend we had a birthday party for Emmett. I had good intentions for Emmett's party, I really did. I know he's only 1 but planning it is all part of the fun for me. One of my "good intentions" was I wanted to do a cute cupcakey cake like this caterpillar below:

pic by google

I had made cupcakes and a small round cake the night before, and bought everything I needed for the frosting. Well, I thought 1 hour before the party started would be enough time to frost quickly and line them up accordingly. But I was wrong. This is what the frosting looked like when I put it on the cupcake.

You may think that looks fine, but really it isn't. Not when its supposed to look like this:

pic by google.

I don't know what happened or why the frosting decided to basically melt down the cupcake. So that led to my own meltdown and I drove to the grocery store and bought some cupcakes instead. (if anybody out there knows why...please feel free to enlighten me. Maybe I needed to refrigerate it for awhile?)

Boring store bought cupcakes.

For his birthday banner I printed a picture for each month of age he was. Starting with the first week, all the way to 12 months.

Opening presents.

I got his cake from Albertsons. I justified ordering this cake because Albertsons does free birthday cakes for 1 year olds! It was super cute.

But unfortunately right before we were ready to sing, there was an accident and it dropped on the floor.

All the gasping and commotion from the cake falling startled Emmett and he started to cry a little. We decided to substitute with a cupcake and by the time we were singing Happy Birthday he was in full blown hysteria from 20 people around him screaming, I mean singing loudly.

In his 1 year of life I rarely have seen him cry this hard. He was so freaked out. I thought there was no way he was going to touch that cupcake, but after letting him suck on his binky for a couple minutes to calm his nerves and after getting a taste of that delicious frosting it wasn't too long after he was chowing down happily.

And he finished the whole thing.

I've added a short video showing how upset he was while we sang to him. It all makes for good memories down the road and we had a great time! (Even Emmett!)

1 year

1 year ago today, this little guy was born.

Mike and I had to wait what seemed like forever to finally have a baby. I had gone through 3 miscarriages over a period of 2 years with no answers, and had finally reached a point where I had to accept the fact that I might never be able to carry a healthy baby.

But finally, what seemed like thousands of prayers later, we were blessed with Emmett. My due date was November 4 and I was SURE I was going to go overdue because the Winterton family gene tended to swing that way. But to my surprise I ended up going into to labor on November 2 and had him 26 hours later on November 3.

While all babies are gifts, I like to consider Emmett my own special gift from God, considering all I had gone through, given to me on my birthday.

Its been a wonderful year and I'm so glad we get to share this day together for the rest of our lives.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. We dressed Emmett up as a little tiger. I pulled out an old "Rasta" wig I had bought a couple years ago and went as a...Jamaican, or a Rasta-fari Princess, Bob Marley's sidekick, or however you want to look at it. It was a last minute decision and I can't say I'm too proud of myself for not giving it ANY effort. Mike was a used car salesman, or pedophile, or watch salesman, also along the lines of however you want to look at it. We got all of the above comments. Maybe next year we'll try to do something a little more creative!

These were taken at my Aunt Kris' "Spooky Dinner" party.









Emmett with some of his 2nd cousins. Hadlee, Chloee and Brynlee are my cousin Heather's kids, and the little baby boy Jack, is my cousin Tim's baby boy. (who went as a Jack-in-the-box).



These pics were taken at our ward trunk or treat.

Mike wanted to see how Emmett would look with my wig on.

We thought it was pretty funny.


This tiger was beat after a fun night.

A Little Pumpkin Baby Shower

This weekend I got to throw a baby shower for one of my closest friends, Katie. We met each other back in our newlywed ward when Mike and I lived in some apartments in Bountiful. I was assigned to be her visiting teacher. We became friends, soon after Mike and I bought our home and we moved away (a whole 2 miles away). Then shortly after that Katie's work had an opening at the U in the Housing Office and I wanted a new job so she told me about it, I was hired, and we worked together for 8 months until she left for another job herself. We spent many, many hours together not only at work, but carpooling for 8 months back and forth to Salt Lake. Our husbands are good friends, both been married 5 years, and now will soon both have little boys. She threw me a shower last year when I was pregnant, and she did such a wonderful job I knew I had a lot to live up to.

I decided to do a "Little Pumpkin" theme since it was the week before Halloween.

I made this little advice book. I bought a blank chipboard book at Roberts for $2.99 then decorated it with ribbon, paper and put some rub-on stickers on the pages inside.

Banner:

I made this with my moms Cricut machine, then just bought some baby socks and put them all up with some mini-clothespins and ribbon.

My mom sent me the idea for these pumpkins. Super easy to make. You can find it here.

I also made some Martha Stewart pom poms to go above the food table. You can make these here.

For food I made 7-layer bean dip, caramel apple dip, clam dip, veggie tray, Oreo truffles, and Pumpkin Pie Bites.

I was in the kitchen the day before the party making and baking. Its true what they say: things made from scratch taste better, but its also true that its a lot of work.

I think the most work was these Pumpkin Pie Bites. I got the idea here from Bakerella. Forming the dough in the muffin pan was very time consuming and took me 1 hour to make 1 batch. However, it was well worth the time because they turned out delicious.

For favors I made these, (also done on the Cricut) I put candy-corn and candy corn pumpkins inside.

Out of all the pictures I took, I was a dork and didn't take ONE of the mother-to-be. (However she can be found on my previous post Mike's Big Hurrah if you look closely for a very pregnant woman).

Overall I had a ton of fun planning and preparing this party over the last few weeks. What fun it would be to get paid to be a party planner. Maybe in my next life! I have had lots of ideas rolling around in my head for Emmett's 1st birthday coming up, however after these last 2 parties, he might not get what I've envisioned because his mother is pooped!