Jovi's First Pictures

I just recently got around to downloading the pictures from Jovi's camera. There were over 200 shots, all indoors in fairly low lighting, MANY of them were pure black. As you can see this camera works best in lots of natural sunlight. We will have to hope the rainy weather goes away soon so that we can try taking some outside. Anyway, here are a few of her best first shots. My favorite is her self portrait (Emma, you taught her well), there were MANY shots to choose from. Jovi is definitely of the opinion that pushing the shutter button more is better.

The Herd Natural Science Museum

I am very behind in my posts, hopefully I'll be able to catch up this week so look for several posts within the next week. Two weeks ago we went to the Herd Natural Scinece Museum in McKinney. It was my first time going and I'm sure it won't be my last. It's a small museum, but has lots of hands on stuff and there is an outdoor zoo component and...a butterfly garden which Jovi and Corbin just loved. Jovi kept trying to get one to land on her finger, but it didn't happen. She did get to pet a butterfly that had landed on a flower and was sitting surprisingly still. Corbin thought the butterflys were really cool and kept pointing "look" as the flew around him. He also found a huge mud puddle which he promptly stomped in. Here are some pictures:













Butterflys are such camera hogs!

My 4 year old

Jovi turned 4 yesterday! The night before I stayed up and made her a birthday dress out of fabric she picked out (pattern found here I highly reccomend it). In the morning it was deemed the "perfect birthday dress". Here are some pictures:


Jovi is showing she is 4 (four fingers) in this photo:

We went and got doughnuts for breakfast and then my sister, Eden picked her up and took her to Build-A-Bear for her birthday present where she got a pink unicorn with its own ruffle dress, panties and bow for her unicorn horn, her name is Ella and Jovi loves her. That afternoon I spent most of my time making Jovi's birthday cake. She has wanted a Barbie rainbow cake for months now, ever since she saw one at Kroger. On Wednesday I went to order one and found out the were $40!?!!?!?! Wow, I mean, sure you get a Barbie as part of the cake, but $40 just wasn't happening and I thought, how hard can it be to make my own? So, I went to Walmart, picked up a $6 Barbie, 2 white cake mixes and a dozen eggs and made my own for less than $15 (including the stuff I had at the house). It wasn't perfet or anything, but the cake inside got to be purlple at Jovi's request and she got to decorate the dress with sprinkles herself. It did take both cake mixes though. We have SO much left over cake, anyone want some? Here are some pictures:
Jovi, Ella, and the cake

The purple inside

Corbin has be very sick this week with asthma (the drs won't call it that yet, but it is). He is on steroids right now which weaken his immune system. We were planning on going to Chuck E. Cheese, but my mom ended up staying home with Corbin and Jovi, Juan, my dad, Laura and I went to Gatti town for dinner and games and then went back to the house for cake and presents. Here are some present pictures:

Jovi opening Emma's gift (she loved it)


Her gift from Grandpa Thompson

My parents gave Corbin a gift so he didn't feel left out:


Jovi really enjoyed all of it and loved her present from Ganna and Grandpa best of at, a Vteck digital camera.

She has been taking pictures all day today.

We are hoping to have a friend party in a few weeks, since things just didn't come together in time for a friend party this week. Happy birthday Jovi, we are so glad you are part of our family!

My Ballerina

Jovi started dance last week, a ballet and tap combo class. She was SO excited, she kept telling strangers we'd see at stores that she was starting ballet. She would practice "balleting" at home asking for me to put on ballet (classical) music for her. Here are some pictures just before we left for class:


Jovi has 4 other little girls in her class. Corbin was so sad that he didn't get to go to class too. We spent a lot of her class time watching her in the tiny one way mirror that they have for parents. It was so cute watching her follow her teacher and adding the occasional spontaneous twirl. She came out of the class just as excited as she went in and wanted to go home and practice what she had learned.

I made a dance bag for Jovi and she has dubbed it "the best dance bag ever". It really makes the work worthwhile when she so obviously likes what I make her. I didn't have a pattern, just kind of winged it and ended up having to put tucks in at the bottom because the body of the bag was too big for the sides. I took the plung and put in my second zipper ever and I have to say it is much better than my first zipper (sorry Alice). My secret was wash away Wonder tape, a double sided tape that washes away with water. I put the zipper on with the tape and then was able to sew it without having to worry about it moving around. Now for the pictures:

Corbin Update

My baby is getting so old. He'll be 19 months old on Thursday and is SUCH a toddler. He gets into EVERYTHING and anything on the edge of a counter will get grabbed. Even if it is not on an edge it may get grabbed. I heard a scraping sound coming from the kitchen the other day and this is what I found.




The second picture was after he saw me with the camera out. As soon as he sees a camera now he runs in front of it smiling his biggest smile and yelling cheese (as seen in the first photo). For breakfast we often share a bagel with cream cheese. The cream cheese is Corbin's favorite part and he usually licks it off before eating the bagel. A couple of morning's ago I left the kitchen for a few moments and this is what I found when I came back...





He isn't allowed to sit on the table and usually gets a time out, but I decided to forgo constancy and get the camera instead. He was just too cute up there. As you can see, he is insanely messy, I've never met a messier child. He loves to spill his drinks and splash in them and tear paper into little tiny pieces. He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. He pours out any bags/baggies of food he gets his hands on. But he is so much fun to play with.

Corbin loves anything that growls. According to him, dinosaurs, dragons, lions and sharks growl. He loves to play chase and hide and seek, but the giggling usually gives away his hiding place. He is obsessed with bugs. He watches them and tries to catch them and brings me dead ones when he finds them. We found a cricket in my bathtub the other day and Corbin thought it was the coolest thing ever. He kept putting toys in there for the bug. He is talking in two and three word sentences now, his favorite being I want... He knows lots of food and food related words along with his favorites, mine, bug, outside and everybody's name. Sometimes during the day he will ask "Daddy?" and I'll tell him "Daddy's at work." to which he will respond with a very knowing "Ohhhh". Corbin just adores Jovi and wants to do and have everything that she does and has. It is so cute to see them play together. He still doesn't sleep through the night which sometimes drives me crazy, but I love him so much and am so glad he is part of our family!

Three dresses for Jovi

Jovi grows more and more from one day to the next and I recently had to switch her from size 4 to size 5. I try to stock up on clearance clothes when I can and so she has a decent wardrobe except she didn't have any play dresses in size 5. A chance to sew!!!

One of the things I love about our new house is that I have a dedicated sewing/ crafting room. It is wonderful. I can have a project in the works with pieces all over the room and not feel bad about leaving the mess from one day to the next. I know as we have more children I may have to give up my space so I'm enjoying it while I can. These past two weeks during Corbin's nap we would go into my sewing room where Jovi would make collages out of fabric scraps and I would sew till he would wake up. Here are the results:



This is a dress I promised to make Jovi before we moved. She picked the fabric from the Wal-Mart clearance section. It is NOT great quality fabric, but she really loves it. She wore it for three days straight after I made it for her. It definitely makes sewing worth while when I get to see appreciation like that. The pattern is Claire from Portabellopixie. This is the first time I've used it and I really like how it turns out. I would rate it as a beginner/intermediate pattern. I probably wouldn't suggest it as a first time pattern, but it's pretty easy to follow, MUCH easier than the big 3 patterns that you get from Joanns or Walmart. I will definitely be making more dresses using this pattern.



This is the second dress I made and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in it. It is way too big for Jovi which I guess means that she will get to wear it for a while. I tried to hem it, but Jovi insisted that she likes long dresses so I guess it is staying as is. I will not be using this pattern again though.


This is the last dress I made and my personal favorite. It's Jovi's least favorite of course. Why does it always seem to work out that way? This is the second time I've made this pattern, the first time was a top and this time I lengthened it into a dress. I love this pattern, it is an e-pattern you download and print off you computer, you can find it here. I think it would be an awesome beginner pattern, it involves some slightly advanced techniques, but the directions are extremely clear and the final product comes out looking extremely professional.

I have a skirt and three more dresses I'm planning on making for Jovi (two of them being requested specifically by her)so look for more to come.

A Family Weekend

Juan's nephew came home with us after the 4th of July and spent a week at our house. I'm not so sure how much fun he had since our air conditioning was out most of the time he was with us, but hopefully it wasn't too bad. The kids just loved him. That weekend Juan's sister came down from Minnesota to pick him up and so his mom, little sister and brother came over to our house too to spend some quality time together. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and visiting. On Saturday we took the kids to our local park which also has a splash area. The big kids weren't too impressed, but the little ones loved it. We took everyone to the pool afterwards which made both big and little kids happy.