Do they look alike??

It's so hard for me to tell if they look alike......

Here's Park-man at about 2 months old...

Here's baby PayPay just a few days ago (at about 9 weeks old)...

What do you think??

P.S. I can't believe I am looking back at Parker's baby pictures... time sure does fly.

"Baby Legs"

Have you ever heard of or used (for your little ones) "Baby Legs"? They are basically leg warmers for babies, and they are awesome! They make diaper changing a little quicker since you don't have to pull pants down and put them back on. And for little girls, they work well in place of tights! From what I hear, they can be a little expensive... so why not make your own?! (This is not my original idea. I have seen a bunch of different way to make them, and I've combined the methods I liked best!)

So here's my favorite way to make Baby Legs!

What you need:

Long/knee high socks

scissors

sewing machine

thread

First, cut off the heel and the toe of your sock.

You will just need the leg and the foot part... you can tell I got impatient and wanted to just sew the striped pair because I just stopped taking pictures!

Take the foot part of the sock and fold it in half (wrong sides together) so the cut/raw ends are matched up.

Now, insert the leg part of the sock in the middle of the folded foot tube you just made. You will be sewing through 3 layers of material. At this point you can pin the pieces in place OR if you're impatient, you can just skip the pinning. You can tell the path I chose...

Onto the machine! Use the zigzag stitch since you're sewing stretchy knit fabric OR if you have a serger (I wish!), that would be even better!

I could pretend that I used a contrasting colored thread to show you what I did... but the truth is I was once again impatient and didn't want to switch out the thread... do you see a trend here??

Flip the folded part up, and guess what! That's it!

You can literally make a pair 5 minutes or less. It's probably the easiest sewing project ever. And these will fit baby girl for quite awhile! Right now she wears them scrunched up so she has plenty of length to grow!

PayPay modeling her "Baby Legs"! Oh, and her skirt? You can find it here at Delia Creates. Another VERY easy sewing project! It's made from an old T-shirt! I'm a HUGE fan of refashioning/upcycling clothes!

That's all for today! Happy Wednesday!

A Dress for Payton!

Making clothes for baby girls is so much fun! Here's the first "dress" I made for her:

I found this old tunic-type shirt in my closet (which I had previously tried to turn into drapey-cardigan type thing... fail.), and the material was still in great shape! It's a very light, knit material with a satin sash that I knew I could put to good use! All I did was use the bottom section of the shirt and sewed it into a wide tube. I folded down the top (keeping the bottom hem), made a small tube around the waist, and put in a piece of elastic that I measured around her waist. Once I sewed the elastic in, all I had to do was combine the two pieces of the sash and tie it aroung the waist of the skirt. I paired it with a plain long-sleeved onesie to make it look like a dress, and that's it! I may eventually add something fun to her onesie, but for now here's the finished product:

My happy girl! She's so sweet to let me dress her up! I made two little rosettes and attached them to a little piece of elastic for her headband and cut off the foot portion of two of my knee-high socks for her baby legs. How about a free outfit?? :) I love shopping in my closet!

A close-up of her sweet chunky face. Love it!

My babies! Parker was so, so sweet to sit with his sissy.. these moments are very rare!

Payton and Parker.

Looking forward to more sewing adventures for my little girl!

Baby Payton is here!

You probably already knew that... but we are proud, proud parents to Payton Dawn Routh!! She arrived 12/6/11 at 12:07 pm, weighing in at 7 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 20 in. Here's my favorite picture of our baby girl (so far!):

Our birth experience with Payton was mostly a very easy one. We arrived at the hospital at 5 am (after waking up at 4 to shower and make sure we had everything we needed!), and I was settled by 7 am. Although being asked 10, 000 questions and having to be stuck THREE times for my IV kinda sucked (I still have the nasty bruises to prove it...), Kyle and I were comfortable enough to play a couple games of Backgammon (weird, I know) and watch The Office. The contractions started coming on a little stronger and was given half a dose of pain medicine until my doctor would approve my epidural. I ended up having to ask for the second half pretty soon after... my contractions started coming on SO strong and SO fast that I couldn't think of any else but "EPIDURAL. NOW." I don't even remember if 5 minutes passed or an hour and half passed before the pain subsided... I'm so, so grateful for our anesthesiologist! We actually know him from our time in Memphis, and were so excited that he was the one at the hospital that day!! It made getting stuck with a huge needle a little easier to handle since we knew our doctor! We got to hang out for maybe an hour and a half before it was time to push... I was so glad to have a little bit of time to chill before the action began. I think it only took about 15 minutes of pushing (compared to about 2 1/2 hours with Park-man!) before we welcomed Payton into the world!! We spent one night in the hospital and woke up to a beautiful snowy day... what a special memory! We couldn't stop thinking about going home so we did just that. I couldn't wait to have my little family all together so my doctor and Payton's doctor agreed to let us go!

This is the closest thing we have to a family picture right now.. Park-man is still a little unsure of his baby sister! He's given her numerous gentle little kisses, but holding her seems a little scary to him right now.

He's the cutest Big Bro that I know!

My baby girl.

She already loves her Daddy... and let me take a second to brag on my sweet husband. I can't even begin to tell how helpful, loving, and supportive Kyle's been... changing Payton AND Parker's poopy diapers, making dinner, setting up train tracks, MAKING a ramp for Parker's trains and cars, letting me sleep in, making me coffee, and the list keeps going... thanks Babe!

I look forward to doing a newborn picture comparison post of Parker and Payton. As many differences as their little faces have, we can definitely see similarites, too!

Thanks to all for prayers and kind words for us the past week and a half. We feel so, so blessed by everyone of them!