Tagged: baby

Mar 09

Special baby. Special gifts.


I never thought I’d say that I was happy to see my baby get bigger. But I am (just a little bit). Owen is finally fitting into this adorable personalized appliqué outfit that he was given at birth.

He was given some really sweet handmade gifts that I have to share with you. The first one was made my my sister-in-law, Micah. She is extraordinarily talented with both felt appliqué and chain stitching (among MANY other things). It’s amazing and beautiful and I absolutely ADORE the pieces she has created for my children. (See more here and here.)

Another sister-in-law, Casi, is super talented with needle and thread as well. She made Owen this stripe blanket that I think is extremely sweet. I love the raw edges – I am a sucker for the texture and dimension that they add to a handmade item.

My friend, Mandy, made him an “O is for octopus” onesie that is pretty darn cute as well. Get one (in the letter of your choice) here!

And lastly, below are the other two onesis that Micah made. See what I mean about the chain stitching?!?!? Crazy patience.

I just love all the crafty, inspiring people in my life!

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Posted in craft

Jan 10

A baby.


Owen Lee Rott, born December 6. Weighed in at 7lbs, 11oz.

A lot has happened since I last updated. We had a baby. We had Thanksgiving. We had Christmas. And we had New Years. And another Christmas with my husband’s family. It’s been busy, to say the least.

Things are finally beginning to slow down. School is back in session and our new little guy is beginning to find a routine. Life as a family of five is good and we couldn’t be happier. Okay, maybe a full night of sleep would make us just a little happier, but other than that…

Since Owen was born, we have been fortunate enough to have two photographers take his pictures. Both turned out awesome and I cannot wait to share them here!

The first photo shoot was just of Owen. He was only a couple weeks old and was still in the really sleepy stage. These pictures were taken by my friend, Sarah Kaiser. She hasn’t been a taking photos professionally for very long, but I think she is doing an amazing job. You can check out more of her work (and her adorable sons) on her blog.

The second photo shoot was of all three kids. Brady’s cousin, Mollie Wetta, took the shots. These were all taken in our bedroom. Mollie did an amazing job – I can’t imagine being tasked with shooting these three. What chaos. She was a trooper and got some really great shots. You can see more of her work (and her adorable daughters) on her blog.

As you can see, the two older kids cannot keep their hands off the little guy.

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Posted in family, photography

Aug 08

Babies on the brain.


Our world has been revolving around babies lately. With the arrival of our niece, Ela Sue, a couple weeks ago and with the beginning phases of preparation for our newest (due in December). Phase I = name research, moving Lilah to a room downstairs, mental preparation for being outnumbered by children.

Also, I have been making baby gifts out the wazoo lately. Nothing new and different – just more baby books, burp clothes, blankets, etc. But I thought I’d share a couple of my favorites. Both of these were made custom for the colors that the baby’s rooms were going to be decorated in.

The first was for Brady’s cousin’s daughter. Her name is going to be Sylvie (cute, right?) Her room is going to be decorated in turquoise with accents of hot pink. It is actually a vintage bird theme, but I never could find any bird fabric with those colors. :(

The second was for an old friend from high school is adopting a baby boy. His room is getting decorated in blues and grays. How cute is that? I LOVED the gray with the blue. Made it so much more modern.

Makes me wanna get to work on our baby’s book. First step – convince Brady to learn the gender at next week’s sono. I won’t hold my breath.

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Posted in craft

Jul 21

Pink or blue?


My brother and his wife are having a baby today! As I write, Jenny is being induced. They have kept the gender and the name a surprise, so I am super anxious for this baby to get here! Wishing I had something I could do to speed the process up, I decided to make cookies for him/her. Okay, so their mostly for the baby’s visitors.

My prediction is that I will be taking the blue cookies to the hospital. But knowing my family, I am guessing they will all get eaten either way :)

Can’t wait to meet you, little one!

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Posted in family

Apr 28

Who knew?

I’ve never considered myself much of a seamstress. Sure, I can sew a straight line. But other than that, I get real intimidated behind the wheel of my sewing machine.

One thing that I have always wanted to do, but always was too scared, is to sew clothes for my kids. I’m not sure what it is that makes me nervous – maybe just the really small pattern pieces and curved seams. Just seemed like a project that would keep me and my seam ripper busy for days.

Anyways, I finally got up the courage to try it. I used a new pattern by Jackie Clark and it was super easy. Took me less than an hour and I didn’t even have to use my seam ripper once!

I went digging for fabric and ran across an old hand-embroidered/crocheted linen that I picked up at a yard sale long ago. Pre-embellished and perfect! This happened to be a table runner, but you could also use a table cloth or pillowcase. Seems like I run across lots of those at sales and thrift stores, but always walk away not knowing what to do with them!

This little top is a gift for our neice, Chloe, who is being baptized this weekend. I sure hope it fits!

My favorite part is the crochet edging around the bottom. I am dying to learn how to do this. Hoping to take a class on it or find a tutor someday. Anybody?

Pretty, right? Now, this makes me what to go to yard sales to round up some more vintage linens!

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Posted in craft

Nov 11

For a good cause.

craftfair1This weekend is my church’s craft fair. So my mom and I got together and stitched up these fabric balls to donate. Pretty cute, huh? I kinda don’t want to give them away! Graham has been loving playing with all of them. He thinks it’s hilarious to get hit in the head with them. Such a boy.

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We used a tutorial – try it yourself! We also stuffed them with jingle bells and rice-filled easter eggs so they would jingle or rattle when played with. I thought the pattern was very easy to follow and we had everything on hand. A perfect craft.

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We are going to try to sell the set of two for $9. What do you think of that price? Always so hard to know. Always seems like you never get anything out of handmade products. Good thing they are so fun to make!

The craft fair is this Saturday at:
West Heights United Methodist Church

745 Westlink
Wichita, KS

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Posted in craft

Nov 10

Lilah’s room.

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This is where Lilah sleeps. And plays dolls. And sits in timeout. And gets dressed. And dances to the Mickey Mouse song on the table. And just about anything her little imaginative mind can think of.

She’s been in this room for about a year – we moved her out of her “nursery” shortly before Graham was scheduled to arrive.

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We didn’t paint the room or spend much money on it. Almost everything in there we already had – the only real purchase for it was a dresser. Which I’m hoping will hold all her clothes for many years. The little table with bins was a gift (came from Target) and we are borrowing the crib from her cousins in KC. We haven’t made the leap from the crib to the big-girl bed yet. Mostly because we’re scared. No, scratch that – terrified. Of what will happen when she realizes that she doesn’t have to stay in her bed after we shut the door at night. So far, she has never tried to climb out on her own (knock on wood) – only with help from her cousin when he spends the night. I am secretly hoping that she’ll never realize that she could climb out on her own and we can keep her in there until she’s 18. Sure would help her daddy sleep better at night, I bet!

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My favorite part of the room are these two letterpress prints. I think they are super cool without being extremely girly or childish. I actually bought them before I even had kids cause I loved them so much. They came from Land of Nod – which has lots of art and décor that fits that same description. When she first started sleeping in this room, we had several incidents with her knocking these off the wall. But, Daddy fixed the broken frames, attached them more firmly and now they stay put.

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And this is the kind of mess that is generally going on in there. Except all over the floor, too. And all over the house, really. Which reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

“Cleaning when children are small is like shoveling snow in a snowstorm.”

So, so true.

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Posted in home

Nov 05

Grahambino.

I love nick names. And this kid has many.
grahambino9Graham-sey.
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Graham-bino.

grahambino2Graham-ser.

graham1Grahams.grahambino5
And Graham-y.

grahambino1It’s funny because one of my big stipulations when choosing a name has always been that I wanted a good nickname available too. (i.e. Elijah and Eli) But with both of our kids, we fell in love with names that really didn’t have that. Or so we thought. Apparently, Lilah is an endless dictionary of nicknames. She coined many of these herself and very rarely calls him by just “Graham”. He actually seems to have that many personalities, so it fits him. Not sure he’s gonna love it when he’s older, so I’ll enjoy it while I can.

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Posted in family

Sep 30

Baby Chloe.

chloe1Welcome to the world, Baby Chloe!

Brady’s brother, Joey, and his wife, Casi, had their first child last Wednesday. Chloe Wren Rott. And with such a sweet name she’s bound to be adorable, right? Last weekend, we traveled to Clay Center to meet her and kiss her and hug her and love her. Totally worth the drive.

And with sweet little babies comes sweet little gifts:

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A little shirt hand-embroidered by Auntie Micah. She’s so talented. Remember these?

And I got to give her the quilt that I have been working on for her. This is my first quilt-as-a-gift project, and it felt really good. Chloe and I talked and she promised not to look too closely at the messy stitching :) Aunt Kylie is NOT a perfectionist.
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Look at these adorable collages that Chloe’s mama made for her. Each piece is cut separately from different papers. Unlike me, Casi IS a perfectionist. In a good way, of course.
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I really wish I had a few photos of the nursery that Casi prepared for her. So sweet. Maybe I’ll get my hands on some photos to share. Who doesn’t love a sweet baby room to oogle over?

So, with Chloe around, that brings the total cousins on that side of the family to EIGHT! That’s a lot of kids in one house for family get-togethers! All of Brady’s family was in Clay Center this weekend to see the new baby, celebrate, etc. Add in Brady’s grandparents, and that is a total of 21 people hanging out! Talk about a full house. The highlight of the weekend was a parade. This was a first for my kids. Lilah was super pumped about the sucker that was thrown to her (she is her mother’s daughter, after all.) She was pretty wide-eyed about all the floats, noise, etc and even covered her ears as the marching band went by. chloe6

Here’s the other vultures, I mean kids, waiting for more candy to be thrown.
chloe7 From left, that’s Carly, Jonas, Reece, Corinne and Silas. Silas is the oldest (7) and did pretty well with letting the little girls have a chance at the candy. Such a gentleman.

And this shot is of Brady’s parents and ALL the grandkids. Even baby Chloe. With all that chaos, she’s probably thinking, “put me back in there!!!”
chloe9 And yes, you can see up Lilah’s skirt. That’s my girl.

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Posted in family

Apr 28

Talented hands.

Since Graham was born, he has received many wonderful gifts. Of course, we love and appreciate them all, but the ones that will always hold a special place in my heart are the handmade ones. I love to make and give handmade gifts and am even more delighted to receive them! We have some really talented friends and family that you can always count on to bring a little handmade something to Christmas and birthdays, etc. Totally unique and usually custom or personalized, the handcrafted gifts my kiddos receive almost always end up in their keepsake boxes after they outgrown them, etc. I still have some of my handmade quilts and blankies from when I was a child and Lilah even sleeps with an old quilt my Grandma made for me.

Below are some of the highlights:

This “G” onesie was made by my husband’s Aunt Mary Kay. She actually made him several monogrammed items, including a super-soft blanket and a couple burp clothes. She made similar gifts for Lilah and we still use the blanket every day, two years later.





The above four images are of a set of onesies that my sister-in-law, Micah, made for Graham. A fellow designer, like me, she has talent coming out of her ears! These personalized onesies are some of my favorite clothes Graham has! Each one is painstakingly hand-stitched. (She has made Lilah a few personalized shirts as well that you may remember.)


Not the best photo of it, but this is a quilt that was made by my mom, my SIL Jenny and my Great Aunt Nonie. They all worked together to make this for Graham and my favorite part is that it is signed on the back by all three. When Jenny was pregnant with Eva, we decided to start a tradition of all working together to make each baby a quilt. (This is Eva’s.)


This quilt was made by my very talented BFF, Michelle. She just learned to quilt in the last six months or so (with me as her fearless leader, so she deserves a lot of credit) and surprised us with this beautiful KSU quilt. She has become a quilt-making fool these days, which works out perfect since we have so many friends having babies lately!


This sweet blanket was crocheted by another sister-in-law of mine, Casi. This is the second blanket that she has made for us, the first was for Lilah (see below). Casi is another on the list of my über-talented family. She also made Lilah this great pillow that we keep in front of the big TV for her to snuggle up with. Casi is pregnant right now with her first child (a girl!) and I am looking forward to making the little sweetie something as well…

This shot shows the other blanket Casi made (for Lilah), plus the adorable hat that I bought off Etsy. Not familiar with Etsy? You should be!! A perfect place to get handmade gifts if you are not so-inclined.


And this shows a simple little pillow that I stitched for Graham before he was born.



The two shots above actually show the blanket that I made Graham. It’s a super-simple pattern by Jackie Clark – perfect for anybody just getting started in quilting.


And what would be a blog post without this chick? I am counting down my maternity-leave days that I have left with her and Graham. Next week marks 12 weeks and I am back in the office.

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