Home Stretch

We made it to New York and back, had the babies down for a few days and now are just tying up loose ends, waiting on Bonus to make his/her entrance. 

New York was a hit. We had a great time and I can't wait to take Reid back. He even said the other day that he wanted to go back to New York and ride more subways. I'm not one to brag about my grand kids *wink* but he was incredibly well behaved. He probably asked a thousand questions...a day...and ate about every hour or 2, but was not a bit of trouble. I won't bore you with a day-by-day account, but I will share a few pics.

I've had just a few things to finish up and then the sweet baby can come. While I was in NYC, I bought some knit fabric that you just can't find here. I'll add here that if you were not convinced that my husband is the best in the world, My fabric quest will prove it. Not only did he watch both boys so I could shop (we had a friend with us and we were watching her son while she saw a show), but then had to carry all the fabric home in a suitcase for me. About 10 yards of knit, I couldn't believe how heavy it was, a few yards of velvet, lots of cottons just about filled the suitcase. I found a place that only sells knit called Spandex House. Doesn't that sound like heaven, for so many reasons? And cheap, I paid $6/yard for all but one. Lucky all the girls in the fam are short. It only took a yard for each skirt. Anyway, most skirts are made, so I can cross that off my list. I needed to finish up a few more matching outfits and that's almost done, too. I have a few pairs of panties cut out for Helena, but that's on the punch list to finish tomorrow.

The most important things I wanted to make were Big Brother/Big Sister shirts for the bigs. Meg had seen an embroidery pattern she liked, so I incorporated it into the shirts. I was very happy with the way they turned out. I wanted them to coordinate, but also wanted them to be gender specific. Not knowing if the baby is a boy or girl made it a little hard, but I used a gender neutral for that one. I did the same fabric for the first layer and then a different one for second. I did the embroidery on some canvas and then stitched them all on shirts. I made the gown for the baby, using one of Kenny's old tees, because I couldn't find one that was plain white. I had already purchased lots of tees for the others kids so I have plenty on hand for them.  The fabric was out of my stash so all I had to purchase was the pdf for the embroidery pattern, a whopping $3.

I also wanted Fourth of July shirts for the kids, and I was lucky enough to already have some red, white and blue striped fabric. I cut it into rectangles, just eyeballing it, and then cut a small rectangle of chambray. I used white buttons to use as "stars" and outlined the whole thing with a quick stitch. It took about 20 minutes.

With any luck, my next post will be to introduce the newest member of our family. Stay tuned!