JAMSquared

Category Archives: Family & Friends

Flashback

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Today is release day for a new scrapping digi-kit by Amy’s Designs called Flashback. It has a bunch of music related elements and a black and pink color scheme.

The layout I made with it is our sweet Janette’s first scrapbook page.

Little Miss Escape Artist

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – Flashback
Template: Keystone Scraps – SNP Dec
Fonts Used: Euphorigenic (title), Domestic Manners (journaling)

Journaling reads: I set Janette in her bouncer so we could we eat dinner. While we ate, she snoozed and while she snoozed, she somehow pulled her right arm out of her sleeve. It was so cute.

Check out what the rest of the creative team came up with here.

Decorating the Tree

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I mentioned that I would have another layout using The Wonder of Christmas to share soon. Well, here it is.

Decorating the Tree

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – The Wonder of Christmas
Fonts Used: Apple Boy BTN (title), Pea Little-Ducky (journaling)

Journaling reads: At the beginning of December, I like to put on Christmas carols and decorate the the Christmas tree. This year, Jessica was old enough to help. She started off placing ornaments on the tree, but then she decided it would be more fun to help Daddy take the ornaments out of boxes, while I hung them. Janette slept the entire time.

The Wonder of Christmas

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Today is release day for a new scrapping digi-kit by Amy’s Designs. It is called The Wonder of Christmas and it is 50% off this weekend. The colors are softer versions of the traditional Christmas colors and there are some really cute elements along with some awesome embossed papers.

I only have one layout to share. Hopefully, I can finish up the layout about decorating our Christmas tree and share that soon.

Gingerbread House Layout

Digikit: Amy’s Designs – The Wonder of Christmas
Fonts Used: Apple Boy BTN (title), Santa’s Sleigh (journaling)

Journaling reads: In what I hope becomes a yearly tradition, James took Jessica to the church to decorate a gingerbread house. James ended up doing most of the construction, but Jessica did help decorate. When they brought their house home, I asked Jessica if she had fun and she replied “um hmm.”

Check out what the rest of the creative team came up with here.

One Month Old

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Since Janette was born on October 31st and November only has 30 days, I’m not sure if you consider yesterday or today one month old. Regardless, it seems crazy that she has already been part of our lives for that long.

Janette with Daddy, 11/8/11

Janette is quite the sleeper. Outside of when she is nursing, it seems like she barely has any awake time, although that is slowing changing. I find this quite different from Jessica at this age as I remember a lot more awake time, but I guess I need to consider that Jessica had almost four extra weeks in the womb to sleep. Janette sleeps well at night. We definitely do not have any set schedule, but depending on what time she nurses before I go to bed (and if don’t stay up too late), I typically only have to feed her once, maybe twice, in the night. One night, she even slept for 6 hours in a stretch.

Janette Snoozing on an Afternoon Walk, 11/8/11

Janette Decorated in Stickers While Sleeping, 11/13/11

"I'm Trying to Take Off My Shirt," 11/17/11

When is awake, she has fairly good neck control and seems to enjoy tummy time.

Janette Enjoying Tummy Time, 11/21/11

She can definitely get her grub on. At birth, Janette weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces. At her 2-week well-check, she weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces. And on Thanksgiving (three weeks), we estimated her weight at 9 pounds (James + Janette – James), which is probably on the high side (our scale only measures to the nearest half-pound). Even so, you can easily tell she is not starving as she is starting to get the cutest chunky monkey thighs.

Janette is definitely a laid back baby. She doesn’t cry much and is generally a pretty happy baby.

Janette in the Bath, 11/10/11

Jessica is fairly enamored with Janette. She loves to give kisses and hugs and pat her head. The biggest issue is telling Jessica to be careful or gentle, but she hasn’t really shown any signs of jealousy. Of course it helps that she is getting lots of Daddy time.

Jessica Hugging Janette, 11/9/11

Jessica Talking to Janette, 11/26/11

Jessica enjoys helping with Janette, be it bringing her the toy monkey she gave to Janette or helping at bath time or even helping change her diaper (really just putting the velco in place).

Jessica Helping Bathe Janette, 11/10/11

I feel so blessed to have Janette in our lives.

Mommy Holding Janette, 11/28/11

Curious George Birthday – Party Outfit

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This year, I decided I would sew Jessica’s birthday outfit myself. I did a bunch of web browsing for ideas and decided I wanted to make pants out of a Curious George fabric and a solid top with a Curious George applique. I spent quite a bit of time searching for Curious George fabric that was cotton. It seemed that all the options I found were flannel, which is more suited for pajamas, but I finally found some. The applique didn’t require quite as much searching. I ended up purchasing it from The Sew Princess. Technically, she doesn’t list just the appliques in her store, but she had the best George applique on her custom outfits and I asked if she would sell just the applique and she worked with me.

Since I had never sewn a garment before, I decided to test out my skills using a green floral fabric. It went much smoother than I anticipated, even with adding sleeves to the sleeveless pattern I decided to use. Thanks to my MIL Olivia for explaining how to read/follow a pattern and to Jillan for sleeve help. I had intended to have Jessica wear the green outfit so I could ensure I had proper sizing, but Jessica can be quite adamant when it comes to clothing and I could never get her to wear it. I went ahead with the party outfit and it did end up being too large, but better too big than too small. I ended up running out of time on the shirt, so Jessica just wore the pants with her party favor shirt at the party. The shirt gave me a lot of frustration. I don’t know if it was the fabric or what, but I ended up having to rip out the stitches for gathering the sleeves like three times on each sleeve. It was quite annoying. I did end up finishing it in time for Jessica’s two year portraits taken the Monday after her party. Overall, I was quite happy with how it turned out and I’ve already started my next sewing project.

Jessica in Her Birthday Outfit

Party Outfit with Alternative Favor Shirt

Go here for the post regarding the invitations and here for the post about the party favors. Stay tuned for more posts. I still need to share photos from the actual party.