Life with Mina (LOTS of pictures!)

Sometimes it is hard to believe that Mina is almost seven months old. She is such a challenging joy and I have learned so much as I take care of her. Our days are usually filled with reading books, eating, sleeping, jumping (LOTS of jumping!) and other kinds of play.  This week we rode the Frontrunner twice, I painted our toe nails and I made Mina's Easter dress. It was a really nice week!

Mina is making progress to standing up in her crib.  Luckily she is a ways away because she can't pull herself into a sitting position. Yet.

Giving it a try!

We got out and enjoyed the sunshine on a short walk.

I painted our toenails and then promptly covered them with sock because it's cold.

Mina has started to wear 6 month onesies, they fit so well in the sleeve.  Not so much in the body.

Mina on the train, she loved looking at all the people!

I was making our bed and I set Mina on the ground, surrounded by pillows.  Then this happened:

She slid under the pillows until all I could see was her little eye!  She was fine.  I promise.

Some sketchy ideas for Mina's Easter dress and cardigan. Mina took a long nap this week and I was able to get a really good start on her dress.

Stitching the bodice

An Instagram-ified picture of her almost finished dress.  We had a fitting earlier, I had some issues with the sleeves and the shoulders and the skirt.  It looked a little like a Seventies Pioneer baby!  NOT the look I was going for!

We established that skirt was too long and needed a grow tuck or two.  I love her little dress!

I love taking pictures of us in the bathroom mirror, Mina LOVES looking at herself!  This is also a good documentation that I really do put some effort into my appearance sometimes.

We were wishing for warm weather, Mina has some really cute outfits! The ruffled shorts are ridiculously cute!

And one last picture, Mina stuck both of her legs through the slats.  She thought it was really funny. 

Blessing day

I put my design/patterning/sewing skills to good use this past week and made a dress.  A blessing dress.  I knew that I wanted to make a simple but beautiful dress for Mina.  After I sketched the basic design of the dress I went on the hunt for the fabric.  Ideally I would have used something really beautiful like silk dupioni but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on a subpar piece of silk.  There just aren't a whole lot of places in Davis County to buy beautiful fabric.  (Does anyone know of any?  I love hearing about great sources for fabric.)  James, the best husband in the world, braved a trip to JoAnn's and we picked up a yard and a half of a really pretty embroidered and appliquéd cotton.

The fabric, totally wrinkled but you get the idea of the embroidery

After that I made the pattern for Mina's dress.  Before you get too excited I will say that I had a basic dress pattern that I found here.  I modified it according to my design and Mina's measurements.  It was a little tricky trying to draft such a small sleeve but I managed.  

After that I cut out the pieces and sewed them together.  I WISH it had been that quick and easy.

The finished dress

We had Mina's blessing in the Relief Society room at my parents church.  We had wanted to bless her in the Providence ward but we moved.  The following pictures are courtesy of my Mom (thanks Mom!)

Grandma Arbuckle, Grandma Keller, Mandy and Brandon Callahan

Grandpa Arbuckle, Trish, Cole, Travis and Carson Thorpe

Jed and Missy Bradley, Randy Bradley, Missy, Lucas and Jonathan Bradley

Candice, Perrin and Hutch Jorgensen, Liz and Waylon Gomez, Rob and Jake Brimhall and Jolene Bradley

Bishop White, James, Me and Mina; introducing everyone

More family!

There was a HUGE circle for Mina's blessing:

Jamie Bradley, Brent Beardall, Rob Brimhall, Hutch Jorgensen, Randy Bradley, Alex Jacobsen, Brian Bradley, Bishop White, James, Jed Bradley, Jordan Keller, Brad Keller, Grandpa Arbuckle, Chad Glover, Jeremy Deetz, Brandon Callahan and Travis Thorpe

 James did a wonderful job and gave our daughter a beautiful blessing. I was so proud of him and I love him so much!

There were a lot of cameras taking pictures, which explains that we aren't looking at the camera

Adorable shoes and a surprise

I spent almost all of last week working on "The Marvelous Wonderettes" for the Midvale Arts Council.  It was so HOT but worth it because the show is really cute.  You can find more information here.  The show runs tonight and all next week.  If you are in the area you should check it out!  Steph, the producer, surprised me and Janzell (the music director) with these for our unborn babies. 

She joked that Janzell's baby would be able to wear the onesie immediately and Mina would have to wait a year.

While I was gone a package arrived from The Pitter Patter Shop on Etsy.  I was the lucky random winner on a blog give away.  I chose this adorable pair but the decision was SO HARD!  Check out Lauren's shop and you'll see why.  

Today I started washing Mina's clothes and blankets.  It's kind of overwhelming how generous everyone has been.  She is going to be one well dressed baby!  I can't believe that I am less than five weeks from my due date. The time has gone by so fast, especially the past month and a half!  How is almost the middle of July?  

Hopefully we'll be ready when our little lady makes her arrival!