Emskyrooney

Beyond "back to school" and the switch from hot muggy summer to crisp, cool autumn, fall has historically been a time of change for Paul and I.  We were married in October, bought our first house together the following October, and had LP in November the year after that.   This year we're adding another big autumnal change to our family archives- a move across the country to Las Vegas! Over the past few years Paul's work situation has become more and more stressful and we were feeling as though we had less and less good quality family time as he went to work before the children were up in the morning, came home at dinner time, and was exhausted on the weekends.   His parents used to live nearby but retired out to Las Vegas almost two years ago, leaving us with no family closer than a six hour drive.   Although we've loved living in Massachusetts, we decided to start looking to relocate to be closer to either my parents in Pennsylvania or Paul's parents in Ne...

It seems like just yesterday that we were counting down the days until the arrival of "Baby Sister." The scheduled c-section was on the calendar more than a month ahead of time unless she decided to make an early appearance, giving us the chance to do a final countdown as our family of three became a family of four. We were anxious and nervous, thrilled that Paul would finally be a big brother and so excited to have a baby girl in the house. While we thought we knew what to expect since we weren't first time parents, we really had no clue how much this little one would change our lives.   Right from the start Paul and Eliza have had an indescribable bond that makes us so happy to see. They love each other completely and totally, even when tussling over a favorite toy.  LP is always watching out for Eliza- telling her he's the big brother and will take care of her forever. He even told me that one day he's going to marry her... When I told him he could...

I haven’t blogged in more than a month which is just terrible.  Our June ended up being a little crazier than expected.   Right after LP finished school we headed to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania for a week-long trip.  LP was going to attend Vacation Bible School for a week and I was headed to NYC with some friends for the weekend.   Our trip was extended due to a death in the family and we didn't get back home until July 3.   We’re leaving again this Friday for a vacation (Disney!) and so have been trying to recover from travelling and prepare for the next round! Seems like lately I've mostly been posting sewing photos on this blog, and I definitely have more to post but want to do a little LP update as I missed doing his 5.5 update (and I owe one for Eliza’s 22 month!). Paul finished up his year of pre-K and will be an official kindergartner in the fall! Here's LP on his very last day of school! Of course, there was a "graduat...

ETA- Congrats to comment # 6, Laura who wins her choice of pattern from E+M Patterns!  I'll be in touch! Recently I was chosen to test out a boy’s shirt pattern by a new to me designer, E+M Patterns .  Well folks, I have to say that this pattern is fantastic!  The Boy’s No. 7 Shirt is designed for woven fabrics.  It has fabulous details like a boat neck style neckline, button closures at the shoulder seams, side seam hip vents at the hem, a simple pocket to hold treasures and the option of full-length sleeves or 3/4-length sleeves.  I was asked to test the shirt in a size 6 with long sleeves for LP which ended up being a perfect fit for my tall and skinny guy. For fabric I finally broke into my hoarded stash of Sarah Jane Designs fabrics and pulled out a fat quarter of the “A Pirates Life” from her Out to Sea line.  Sarah Jane is my all time favorite children’s illustrator and I adore all of her fabrics… This seemed like the perfect shirt to really sh...

Wow, I’m a terrible blogger lately.   It’s been a month since my last post, and I can’t even say it’s because we’ve been super busy- it’s really just because I’ve been lazy.  That and I just haven’t had anything terribly exciting to post about- sure, I could write about “life as a stay at home mom” but who wants to hear about how I got a little crazy at lunch time and cut the sandwiches into squares instead of triangles, risking the wrath of the little minions waiting for their sandwiches?  That’s about as exciting as it gets around here… But, Eliza is very quickly coming up on the two year mark, and I don’t want to neglect the last few monthly “Things to Remember” posts.   So here’s Month 21. Over the past month Eliza has taken things from “red pepper” to “habanero” on the spicy scale.  It seems like every day she gets more demanding, more dramatic, more bossy, and more feisty.   I imagine that all of these personality traits wil...

Time is moving too quickly around here and I totally missed Eliza’s 19 month “Things to Remember.”  Oh well, I’m the first to admit that I’m not perfect! While LP and Eliza have been on pretty much the same exact track developmentally (here’s LP’s 20 month Things to Remember for comparison) they do have very different personalities.   LP has always been a pretty easy going kid; he’s not terribly fussy about things and when he gets mad or upset he gets over it pretty quickly.   At his 20 month pediatrician checkup he was nice and calm the whole time.   We had Eliza’s checkup this morning and it was polar opposites!   She’s very fussy lately about not having clothes on and got mad at me when I undressed her.  She yelled at the nurse, wouldn’t look at or talk to the doctor, and screamed bloody murder when they did her shots.   As soon as we put her clothes back on she was all smiles.   The good news is that she’s gaini...