Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Timmreck family! I wanted to post about our first Halloween with little Ella!  This year we decided to do a group family costume. Ella was Yoda, Me Leia of course and Chad is a (young) Obi-wan.  I know we are nerds.

I searched all over pinterest and the internet to find costumes. I came to the conclusion that store bought costumes are completely lame and ridiculously over priced. I also came to realize that there are not cute baby yoda patterns. So I had to get creative, and I figured I would share my ideas for anyone in the future.

Lets talk about halloween store costumes. I looked for a baby yoda costume and it cost 40 dollars! Seen Here for a little cheaper. But the costume wasn't even as cute as I wanted it to me.  After scouring some pretty boring patterns on the internet and Pinterest I decided I need to 'Make it work'.  So I went to JoAnns and found a cow costume which was a 99 cent simplicity pattern #2068. With the help of my sewing guru mother in law I modified the cow ears to the shape of yodas ears and made it out of a bright green fleece with a starwars printed flannel lining (I couldnt resist!)

I then used some brown onsie and pants I already had and took an old 2t jacket I was given and cut it down for a little robe. I left the edges raw to keep the weathered look. Fabric costing under 8 bucks with a 50% off fleece sale and the flannel with a 40% off joanns coupon. Bringing the total for Ella's homemade yoda costume to about 10 dollars!

For Chad Jedi costume I didn't even bother looking for a store bought costume because I knew that a Jedi robe is a glorified bath robe. So I went looking at thrift stores for bathrobes.  I found A dark grey one (close enough to brown for me) for 4.99. I then bought some grey matching fleece and made a hood, and used a jedi under robe pattern I saw online with some heavyweight felt for 2.99 on sale.  Bringing Chad's homemade Jedi costume to about 9 dollars!

For My Princess Leia costume I first looked online and found that most of the Leia costumes were SEXY Leia costumes which I was definitely not going for! I then found a Regular Princess Leia costume at the halloween store for 70 dollars (cheaper online)!! We are talking a onesize fits all crappy piece of polyester  with 2 or 3 seams! It not only was totally expensive but completely lame and wouldnt even fit me. I was set on making my own costume from a simple choir robe pattern but I lucked out and found a graduation robe at the thrift store for 4.99 I just turned it backwards and viola!  

The Belt and wig were a little more tricky! I decided that my hair was not quite long enough to pull off some convincing cinnamon buns so I started looking for wigs. I saw a pretty whatevs wig at the halloween store for 25 dollars (Cheaper online) to my amusement the sales guy tried shameless flirting with me to get me to buy! LOL The wig was OK but I kept looking. I then found a cute Leia bun headband for 8.99 and free shipping! I was able to use my own hair and the headband to achieve the final look. 

The Belt...oh the belt. This gave me a bit of grief. This is i think the reason that most people buy the costume, because I could not find a spare belt ANYWHERE. I did however find some very expensive one of a kind leather leia belts on ebay! Cool but, no way. I went back to the trusty internet and studied other belts people had made. I thought about buying a white or silver belt and just wearing it, but then I would have been stuck with a random and likely 20 dollar belt I would never wear. I then decided to get creative. I found at joanns in the curtain department some wide binding for 1.99 a yard. I bought some sticky felt for 1.99 and a some silver fabric for 2.99. I pressed the silver fabric on the sticky felt and cut them in shapes of the medallions. I then glued and sewed them onto the belt.  I took some old metal band buttons I had and hot glued silver fabric over them and then onto the medallions. Over all my whole Leia costume ended up costing me about 23 dollars.

Finally, no Jedi would be complete without some light sabers! We used inflatable ones given to Chad for his birthday (Thanks Julie) which can be found at party city for 2.99. I found a light up one at Target in the party favor section! In the end we all had awesome homemade costumes for just under 50 dollars for the whole family. Not only did everyone love our costumes, but when Ella grows up she knows that homemade costumes are a labor of LOVE!

Gib/Dox family reunion 2012

After much drama and rainstorms, thanks to family cooperation, a tripod and a remote, we FINALLY got a good shot (that and I had to photoshop and head swap a bit! but not as much as the last family picture!)

This was my personal fav, I hope it makes it to the 40x60 on mom's wall!

Photobooth test run!

Our ward is in charge of the stake dance on saturday (yes it is a STAKE dance). So we set up a little photobooth for young womens to practice the one for the dance. please note that this is only a test run so I know the backdrop and exposures aren't amazing! but its fun still the same!

ENJOY! 

  

Happy 7 months Ella!

These pics are a little grumpy but mainly just mellow and growing teeth.

Ella has been eating solid foods like a champ. She loves pears and carrots and likes bananas, avocado, rice and oatmeal cereal and some squash. As for homemade butternut squash... she hates it and hilariously spits it out/gags on it!

This has been 7 of the best and also most challenging months of my life! I feel so lucky to have a great husband (who also happens to be an outstanding father) and such a sweet Eleanor Bean.

I received a request from someone to update my blog with pictures of Ella. Since I heavily spam facebook and instagram with her mug, I thought I would update my Blog with a recent pic of my little bean and some fun facts for those who cant be here to watch her grow.

Eleanor Jeanne aka Ella Bean

Is almost 7 months old! She sits up really well, she rolls over a lot and is semi close to crawling, she hasn't figured out the coordination yet, but she can scoot a few inches.  She is eating solids and has two, yes two little nubby teeth! She is starting to show her personality. She is pretty mellow on a whole (from chad I suspect) but can get kinda silly and giddy at times (from me).  She loves to wiggle and sing when we play music and loves to be the center of attention.  She is pretty social, although sometimes she gets shy or scared when meeting new people (she is totally an ageist!) She doesn't seem to like older people.

She wakes up every morning babbling and with a huge smile!

She likes: eating everything in sight, being held/cuddled all the time, being outside, walks, playing on her own and play dates with friends, music (loves the Beatles), lights, grabbing peoples faces, earrings, or beards. She especially loves bath time and swimming. She loves to talk/sing.

She dislikes: sirens, diapers, being startled by sneezes or loud sounds, old people, her car seat, Nickelback and the Doors, sitting with bear legs on the grass. She hates shots, medicine or anyone touching her teeth.

Ella is such a joy to have in our lives and its amazing to watch her grown and see her personality begin to show up.  Hopefully I will be updated my blog more often than every 7 months so stay tuned!

love, Emily and Chad

Oh Baby! I have a blog?

 

I just opened up my blog to realize that I have not blogged since July! and that post in July was from a trip in May! Yes it has almost been a year since I have blogged. Well, as many of you may know, my life has changed in so many amazing ways! The best of all being I have the most perfect, sassy, and beautiful baby! She is such a character and can be quite a bit of a hot head at times! She has the most kissable cheeks and the sweetest red hair! She has a smile that can melt any heart.  I like to think that my dad picked out her hair to match his up in heaven! 

I will post more photos of her growth and progress, but most people have facebook and see all the photos I have been posting there for the last few months!  If you want a copy of the birth announcement just post your address in the comments or email me and I will send you one!  

The beautiful photos were shot of Ella when she was 3 week old by Lori and Chris at Lori Dorman Photography (which also happens to be where I work!) If you want to see more pictures from the session go Here.