Happy 4th of July!

It's strange to have a holiday in the middle of the week.  You can't do too much when you have to be at work the next morning (although that didn't seem to stop the fireworks in our neighborhood which started at 4am on the 4th and continued off & on for the next 36 hours).  So, we took it pretty easy.

We took the bus down to South Lake Union for the Wooden Boats Festival.  Parker was pretty excited to ride the bus, not to mention all the bikers we saw.

They had a little pool with all sorts of little sail boats, Keith was pretty enamored with it.

This was one of Keith's favorite boats:

 

It's a Chris Craft, just like his.

Only, presumably, this one actually runs when you put it in the water.

It is finished!

As I've mentioned before, we hate our diaper bag, and I've been wanting to make a new one FOREVER.  I've realized that I started planning this in March a year & a half ago, and made my prototype back in November (in my defense, I probably finished it a few days to a week before I got pregnant, so I've been busy "making" something else).  Anyway, I finally got around to making the new diaper bag this weekend:

And, amazingly enough, I actually made the entire thing in one day.  My super-duper hubby watched Parker all afternoon, and I might have stayed up a little past my bed-time on Sunday, but it was done in one day.

I sure hope I like it!  There are a few things that I don't love about it, right off the bat:

I spent way too long in the fabric store picking out which fusible I wanted to use to stiffen up the body.  One was not-quite-stiff-enough and the other was way-too-stiff, I wish I'd gone with the way-too-stiff option, since the bag is a little more "floppy" than I would have liked.

Oh, and I put the ends on backwards (so the pocket for my keys is at my back, rather than by my hands when I'm wearing the bag). 

That, and it's ginormous.  I think I could probably fit baby sister AND all her stuff inside.  I'm a little embarrassed to see how big it is, but with two little ones still in diapers, it's entirely possible that I'll need all the space.

 But, all that aside, I think it turned out pretty well.

There are six pockets on the outside

And seven pockets on the inside.

...including a small zippered-pocket on the inside for small-stuff.  I originally started out taking pictures of all the steps, just in-case I ever wanted to make an actual pattern and/or tutorial for the bag.  Once I got to setting the zipper, I gave up on the photos, I had NO idea what I was doing, and it's pretty apparent if you look very closely (so don't look, okay?).

I even made a tag so I don't have to keep putting stickers on it every time I drop Parker off at the nursery at church.  (And I made one for after baby sister comes, but you'll have to wait & see that tag after she's born)

The outside zipper turned out much better than the inside one.

So, a year & a half later, it's finished!  This was one of the things on my "make before the baby comes" list, but I was pretty sure it was going to be pushed off to my "make before the baby goes to college" list, so I'm pretty excited to use it out. 

Playground Friends

Parker & I met up with some friends Monday morning to play on the playground and take some photos.

Right before we left, he & I had a little "discussion" about when we do & do not need binky.  So he looked like this for about half the time:

At least the girls enjoyed the slides.

Parker seems to enjoy standing at the top of the slide, but not so much going down.  The only time he went down was when I was sliding down beside him (as a side note, I am too old and too pregnant to be going down bendy slides).

For the most part, he was pretty content to stand and observe.

Family Photo Time!

As a general rule, Keith hates photographers.  I think it comes from a childhood of comments like: "Hey, are you two twins?!?" and "Now, turn your head 1/4" that way".  Anyway, it can make finding a photographer we like a bit of a challenge.  So, when the son of a friend of ours offered to take some photos of our family, we jumped at the chance.

John has been doing weddings for years, but now he's looking to do more with kids & families.  Since we are a family with kid(s), we seemed a good match. 

John came over last Friday to take a few photos of our family as it is now.  He'll also be back to take some newborn photos of baby girl once she's here.  I am SO excited about this part, since I learned quickly after Parker was born that taking photos of newborns is a special skill (one I do not currently posess).

We had a great time with John and I think the photos turned out great.

Now I just have to pick out which ones I like the best.  I currently have 39 photos in my "favorites" list, and unless I plan to literally wallpaper the house with Parker's cute mug, I think I'll have to weed out a few.

If you'd like to see ALL the photos, check-out John's website here.

We're also featured on John's blog here.

If you're looking for some family photos, I'd highly recommend checking John out at: www.crozierphotography.com

His prices are reasonable and when you consider how much you end up spending once you buy the packages at the mall places, this is a great alternative with a much more personal experience.

We went to the Shoreview Park to take these photos.  Parker & I have been there to play on the playground before, but we'd never been on the trails, it's a great place.  Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long because it started POURING.  We were soaked just from walking from one end of the parking lot to the other.

Notice Daddy on his cellphone in the background here?  Keith "took the day off" to take these photos, which means he only ended up working something like 7 1/2 hours on Friday (some sort of engineering-emergency came up, you know how it is).

A HUGE thanks to John for taking our great photos!  We look forward to doing it again.