The Toys Must Die

Once upon a time (January-ish), Ariel discovered D.I. sold a lot of big toys for really cheap. And little toys too. That were awesome. So she fell in love, and went there once a week, and collected way more toys than she realized.

Then, tragically, her daughter lost interest in ALL OF THEM, and only wanted to watch movies all the time. And Ariel thought this was super-lame. Something had to be done.

She'd been interested in toy rotation for a while, but didn't know if she had enough to really make it work. Then, all the toys were gathered into the front room, and it looked like this:

actually it looked a lot more hectic, this was after it had already been divided. But you get the point! 

So, toys were put toys into three different groups, categorized by all sorts of things (like toys you build with, big toys, Little People habitats, games etc.), with a little of each in each group. 

Here's proof: 

Sideways proof, anyway. 

So here are the groups! 

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

There are also a select few toys/items, that are always available. These:

Basically art supplies, a few balls, and a handful of favorite little people. They get to stay out all the time. 

As for the rest! Two of the groups are in a tiny closet under the stairs...I'll have to figure out a better arrangement because they are all just squished for now, but out of sight out of mind! And one group (3, if you're curious) is in our toy armoire downstairs, or in Jori's room. 

Ta-da!!!!

Ariel will hopefully live happily ever after.

I'm so 'crafty'...

Back in October, I finally did something that I'd looked up online a while ago but hadn't dared try out till then: I made Jori a baby carrier. I didn't dare because I was afraid of wasting the money, but after I told my sis-in-law Chantale I could make one for her as well, I realized that meant I had to order the fabric for it. So I did! And it was super easy, and I made 4!! Because all I had to do is cut it. :) I'm not going to show the process because...hello, I didn't take pictures. But I took pics of Jori in it for the first time, so feast your eyes:

What a cutie. :)

Nursery, plus maternity photos

I know everyone would rather see pics of our little lady, but if I don't load one of these I never will! Here's the pictures of the nursery-I finished putting it together Wednesday morning, when my contractions were just getting started. Talk about cutting it close!

The ottoman and the dresser were kind of little projects for Sam and I: Sam painted the glider and ottoman a really pretty cream, and I sewed the cover for them. Sewed!! Look at me! :) And Sam painted the dresser-it was a kind gift from my parents, but they didn't give it for it's beauty-it used to be a lightish green...anyway it needed some work, so we went with a brown and cream. Sam may not be happy with how it turned out but I think it looks great!
As you can see, we do plan to use cloth diapers-eventually. I had no idea how many diapers newborns go through-she always needs to be changed!

We have a lot of baby girl clothes, from all sorts of sources-some I got from ksl, some from the baby shower and a whole ton just on Monday of last week (three days before Jori's arrival) this woman in the ward gave me an entire lawn and leaf bag full. Tons! So that's pretty fun. I'll have to wait until she's big enough to dress her in most of them, though-she's a petite little lady, let me tell ya!

Also, I found this lady on craigslist who said she'd do maternity photos for me for free. We finally got those taken, but turns out she'll only let us keep 5. Still, here's the link to those: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.203905369641693.28417.188379107860986 if that doesn't work type in 'Ashley Shaw Photography' in facebook and it'll come up. Which should we ask to keep?