Baby Cakes and Blankets

There have been quite a few babies born in my circle of family and friends lately. It's hard to keep up with giving gifts to all of them, but I try. I just wanted to share a few of the gifts I've made recently that I'm particularly pleased with.

So, my brother, Mike, and his wife, Chelsie, were blessed with twin boys right before the new year. I was really busy in December with trying to get Primary ready for the new year, so I was unable to get them their Christmas present on time. Once I had a chance to catch my breath, I dove right into making gifts for my nephews in Oregon. Mike already has one two year-old boy, so now he's got his hands full with three.

I made the babies coordinating knitted striped hats (with their initials, so you can tell who is who when they're out and about) and crocheted blankets. I had a ton of yarn leftover, so I made Liam, the big brother, an awesome striped scarf that coordinates with the twins hats. The following pictures were taken by Chelsie's phone and texted to us and posted on Facebook. I have texted consent from her to publish them here on my blog.

I also sent them diapers, which I'm sure lasted them about a day or two, but it's the thought that counts, right? I would have sent them a Costco box, but they don't sell NB size and I bet the postage would have been astronomical.

Liam, sporting his new scarf.

I know this one is Lucas, because of the "L." Oh, so snuggly!

Jude wants to take me to "eat food." You know. The code.

So, I'm totally excited for Mike and Chelsie and I can't wait to meet the twins someday. They're already a month old and they've both gained almost 3 lbs. each! Ahhh! They're growing too fast!

The next gift I made for our Primary president, who just had her fourth baby boy. Her due date and Chelsie's were actually about three days from each other, but Chelsie had to schedule her birth early and then my friend went over on her due date by a few days.

I didn't have much time to crochet her boy an entire blanket, but I was able to knit a hat in a few hours. Then, the other counselor and I got together and we made her a diaper cake.

I am really pleased with how this cake turned out, mostly because I decided to use the hat as the topper. We stuffed this one with lots of pacifiers (because they always magically disappear), butt cream, pain reliever and Orajel, you know, stuff she will need, since, after three boys, our friend already has baby boy clothing and toys galore. For an extra special treat, though, we also ringed the hat with Lindt truffles, just for her, because every mom needs a chocolate break.

Here in Weckerland we're gearing up for our arrival. Another friend of mine just gave us her crib for free! I was having no luck perusing craigslist in my quest to find one. 

We haven't had a crib since Akiko. Our crib went into storage when we moved to Maui. Then Joseph's brother used it for his little guy and we just let them keep it when their twins were born (yep, we now have twins on both sides of the family). They so needed it more than we did.

Moses and Asher both slept (NOT!) in our playpen. They hated it. I can't blame them. It doesn't seem terribly comfortable. We moved Moses out of it, and onto the bottom bunk when he was about 13 or 14 months old and he suddenly stopped crying himself to sleep and started sleeping through the night. Asher got into a toddler bed [another free score from yet another friend (I have awesome friends)] a couple months ago and is sleeping much better. He still ends up in bed with us every once in a while, but it's becoming less frequent and Joseph and I have gotten a few all nighters of blissful sleep.

So, there are about three months left. I kind of want to get things ready a little earlier for this little man. I feel like I just barely put all the tiny newborn clothes, the infant car seat, the swing, and the baby tub away. Now I have to dig them all out of the garage again. 

And with this being our third boy, in a row, I have a feeling I'm going to get really confused when laundry rolls around. I'm already having trouble just sorting Asher's vs. Moses' clothes because of the hand-me-downs. With Asher and the baby being a lot closer in age, I'm probably going to have to check tags to make sure each boy is getting the correct size. Not looking forward to their teenage years. I'll have no idea what belongs to whom then. Thank heavens Akiko's clothes look so different. 

I just got a splendid idea! I'll just teach them to do their own laundry when they're older! I'm so brilliant!!