Elmo Pumpkin

Last year we started the tradition of taking Maddox to the pumpkin patch and eating at a local Mexican restaurant with our family.  (I guess I can start calling it a tradition since we have done it two years in a row!)

Here is this year's pumpkin...

(Before)

(After!)

We decided to go with the Elmo pumpkin since Maddox has taken a liking to Sesame Street.  "Melmo" was actually one of his first ten words.  He seems to be on a Super Grover kick right now (or "Bober" as he calls him), but we decided to go with Elmo since it is easier to recognize.

I started the process with an easy Pinterest search which led me to Pin this website: Zombie Pumpkin.

I printed out the Elmo template, but I wasn't sure how I was going to use it until I actually started working.  The first thing we did was cut off the top.  I remembered seeing this Pin about a better way to cut the lid off a pumpkin.  You can see from this picture that instead of cutting a perfect circle we also cut an additional flap in the back.

This made it easier to empty the pumpkin.  (And it eventually made it easier to place and light the candle.)

I enlisted help from Maddox to clean out our pumpkin, but you can see from these next few pictures that he was absolutely disgusted and his total participation lasted about 20 seconds.

Once it was cleaned out and Maddox was happily playing (far away from the icky pumpkin) with Grandma I figured out how I was going to use the template.  I taped it on and then used a pair of scissors to mark the outline of the template.

I did not cut all of the way through the pumpkin.  I was just marking the template.  You can vaguely see the outline of the face in this next picture.

After the template was marked I went in with my sharpest knife and cut out the pieces.

Konrad got a picture of us all working on the pumpkins.  My brother and his girlfriend did a pumpkin with an owl on a branch.  You can tell from the picture that Maddox has recently taken up climbing.

Here I am making my final cuts.  That last eye was tricky since the area between the eyes and nose got very thin.

I think it turned out pretty good!  In fact, this morning when  I put Maddox in his high chair to eat his breakfast he spotted the pumpkin, pointed to it, and shouted out "Melmo!"

Documenting Baby: Part 2

Sorry for the delay on this Part 2!  Our camera got fogged up on a recent trip to Florida and still isn't working.  The good news is we now have a new Nikon D5100 :)  So, I can now take much better pictures for the blog and I can "document baby" even better!

My last post highlighted the photo books that I have made for Maddox.  If you read that post and were wondering I did make a decision about what to do for photo books in the future.  I plan to make a family yearbook starting each year on Maddox's birthday.  That means we are already four months into this "year" so I better hurry and start our 2012-2013 book!

Post #2 is pretty simple stuff that most people already do in some way, shape, or form.  I would consider myself the opposite of a hoarder and I like to keep a minimum amount of unnecessary stuff.  If you are like me this post will hopefully give you some ideas of how to cherish memories without excessive clutter!

In June we had a wonderful birthday party for Maddox.  So many people showed up and he got a ton of wonderful gifts.  With those gifts came a ton of adorable cards.  I didn't want to throw them away, but I thought if I just threw them into his baby box it would be a mess.  Then I remembered a Pin that I saw about how to store Christmas Cards.  I did not actually pin that Pin and can't find it today, but it was just a simple idea about punching a whole through each of the cards and then hanging them on an index card ring.

I added a few other things that I thought would make for a good birthday keepsake.  You will see that the top card is actually the invitation from his birthday and I added a little curling ribbon from his party supplies.

 

I also printed some of the pictures from his first birthday shoot and the actual party.

 

Then a TON of birthday cards from loving friends and family!!

Now I can't really credit this second idea to Pinterest.  I actually have to credit it to one of the Guided reading books in the leveled library at my old school.  I remember reading it with a group of kids the year I was pregnant with Maddox.  I don't remember the title, but it was basically a book about a kid going through a keepsake box from his childhood.  I know that keeping things in a box is not a new idea, but I am trying my best to carefully select what I put in this box so that I can keep as much as possible without overdoing it.

Here's a look into Maddox's closet.  The bottom box is for clothes and shoes he outgrows (this is the third box! the other two are in another closet).  The top box is the keepsake box and the book on top of it is his baby book that I mentioned in Part 1.  I used to keep the baby book inside of the keepsake box, but at the rate his teeth are popping in I just needed it out for easy access :)

Here is a look inside the keepsake box. 

The box is getting really full thanks to the newspapers that Uncle Michael picked up the day Maddox was born and on his first birthday.  Eventually I will have to only save the front pages of each paper, but for now they all fit so I will keep them all!

The above picture is the outfit that Maddox wore on his way home from the hospital.  The below picture is the shirt that Konrad was wearing on the day that Maddox was born.  We put it on Maddox and took some pictures on his first birthday and plan to do the same thing every year as he gets older.  

I have only kept a few articles of clothing.  His first sunglasses from Grandma Laura, his first 4th onesie from Grandma Donna, and his adorable old man sandals that he wore his first summer.

I also saved his first Texans jersey.  (I bought it the day before they announced Matt Schaub wouldn't play for the rest of the season.  This year he has his own personalized jersey!)

Konrad's company also gave us a really cute Baker Hughes onesie when Maddox was born.

There is also a stack of documents that I think are worth hanging onto.  (Not pictured: Baby Dedication certificate from church.)

I also bundled up his hospital blanket, shirt, and hat.  I'm not really sure if we were supposed to take them, but how could I resist taking the first things he ever wore!  I also kept all of the hospital bracelets that we all wore.  Konrad was really sad when he had to take his off :(

So those are the basic things that I have done to "document baby".   Hopefully this will help someone who has a little one!  If you have any good ideas for the future let me know!