4 months old!!

Leif was 4-months-old on Thursday!!


It is hard to believe that it has already been 4 months, but at the same time it seems like Leif has always been here. Jeff and I have so much fun with him! He has a really sweet and mellow personality; he smiles and giggles a lot. Every day Leif becomes more and more curious of his surroundings. He tries to climb out of our arms to grab toys that are on the ground and grabs at our food when we are eating. (Twice he has gotten a big handful of spicy food that I had to quickly clean up before he rubbed it on his face.)

Playing with his chain is one of his favorite activities.

His newest game that he likes to play is peek-a-boo; Leif will be on our bed and then Jeff ducks down out of sight, Leif looks around the room, then Jeff pops up and Leif belly laughs. He will also laugh when I blow zrbtts on his belly and when we play Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes. (During the "eyes, ears, mouth, nose" part, Leif puts his hand into his mouth and it never makes it to his nose.)

Leif also is recently obsessed with towels and burp clothes; he loves pulling them to his face and chewing on them. (This is a handy talent when he pukes or drools, since he can wipe his own mouth.)

Leif fell asleep cuddling a wash cloth.

He also loves seeing Jeff play music and we recently noticed that he will stomp his foot.....must be genetic.


We took Leif in for his 4 month check-up. He is really healthy and is growing really well! He weighed 18 pounds (more than twice his birth weight) and was 26 inches long. If you aren't familiar with baby sizes, lets just say he is a very tall and chunky baby. His hair is still strawberry blonde and is about an inch long now.

Waiting for the doctor. (He definitely has the Brown smile.)

Leif was smiling and giggling with the nurse and doctor.....until he had to get three shots.

This is a funny series of pictures that sort of captures what Leif is like these days. Everything goes straight to his mouth.






This Friday we are taking Leif on his first big trip to Mayne Island in BC to visit Laura and Corey. We are looking forward to a week of doing nothing and just hanging out. Many photos will be taken of his first international trip!

Leif's 3-Month Photo Shoot

On July 16, we took Leif to Sear's Portrait Studio to take some 3-month photos. I waited to change Leif into his picture clothes until the last minute, then he puked all over them. :) Luckily, I anticipated this and had another outfit ready to go. Leif did a great job in this unfamiliar environment! We took a break half way through to feed Leif and finished with a few more poses. I think these photos turned out great!

Long Break

Hi Everyone! Sorry it has taken me awhile to update this blog. With a 3.5 month old, it is hard to find the time to write a post. I will work on updating some new photos soon. :)

Leif Charles is here!!

It has taken me a month to post this.....I've been a little busy.

Leif Charles was born on April 5, 2010 at 4:36pm.
He was 8 pounds 5 ounces and 20.5 inches long.

He was absolutely perfect at birth! Jeff and I are enjoying parenthood and having so much fun with our little boy!

Sunrise on the morning of Leif's birthday.
I took this picture shortly after checking into our hospital room.

After spending some time with us, he got his routine newborn tests.

One of our first pictures together.


Leif meeting his dad for the first time.


Sleeping after the excitement of being born.


Jeff got to stay at the hospital with us.


All dressed for the trip home. Wednesday April 7.


Big yawn!!


Just before checking out of the hospital and heading home!

Hoping to meet our Little Dude soon!!

With our due date in less than a week, I thought I should post some ultrasound pictures of our baby. We have been very busy preparing the house and getting ready for his arrival. I've been amazed at the amount of work that Jeff has been putting into our house...painting, carpeting, repairing, etc. (I'll post pictures of all of our baby related projects soon.)

These pictures were all taken on November 17, when I was 20 weeks pregnant.

The classic baby profile picture.

Here he is waving at us.

We got to see his feet too, but they didn't give us a copy of that picture. I thought his feet looked exactly like Jeff's hobbit feet. I guess we'll get to see them in person soon!

Sucking his thumb.

Here's my favorite. He's looking at us!

The whole ultrasound session was really cool! It was like an anatomy lesson. We got to see all four chambers of the heart pumping and saw both hemisphere's of the brain. The technician kept pointing out other organs too, but they were hard for me to tell what they were. They just looked like different blobs of grey. I'm looking forward to seeing what he looks like in the outside world. Just a few more days!!

Upcycling 1950's Curtains

This was one of the first projects Jeff and I wanted to tackle in our 1946 house. The living room and dining room had these 1950's style curtains that reminded me of my Granny. They were very high quality, well insulating and very meticulously maintained for decades. They even had the fancy theater style pull cord that makes them open and close. The problem is, they look like something a Granny would have in their house. We didn't want to get rid of them since they were still in really good shape and helped insulate our old windows, but we were on a mission to rid the house of the old lady style. These curtains just didn't really match with the feel we were going for in this house.


So, the solution was giving them a little make-over. I took them down and took all the shiny brass pieces and laid them out on newspaper.


I spray painted everything with a paint that mimics dark pewter. It also dries in a way that gives it a distressed aged look. The paint was designed for going over metal and had a high quality finish to it. It took about 3 coats of spray paint before the brass was covered. Then I rehung the rods and curtains.

Then I went to JoAnn's and found a remnant of some sheer sage green fabric in the clearance area. I just draped the fabric over the curtain rods to try to conceal the 1950's pleats in the curtains.



I thought this make-over brought the curtains into the new century. And the whole project cost less than $20!


Now we just need to do something about that recliner!

Felt Color Book

This is a project that I came up with for my sister-in-law's baby shower. I wanted to do something crafty that could be a gift for the baby. I made the cover ahead of time to give people an idea of what style the book would be.


I had blank tan pieces of felt to be the background for each page. The women at the shower teamed up and chose a color from the rainbow. Then I had lots of colors of felt to use for decorating the pages. I just had them glue the felt since I didn't want the craft to take too long at the baby shower.




One of the ladies was a retired elementary school teacher, so naturally she made a page that was educational. It's a counting page of leaves and berries. Everybody who contributed to the book signed the last page.


Later on at home, I worked on sewing the pages so they would be more durable. This was a bit time consuming, but the finished product was worth putting in the extra effort.



I whip stitched the pages together with multicolored embroidery floss. Then I bound everything together with a more heavy duty thread and the book was ready for the baby!