Still struggling with the mac.  I originally uploaded some of the pix for this post Oct 4th, but today is actually the 11th.  I don't know how to make the date change on the post.  

No baby yet, so I have time for an update.  We went apple picking last weekend and picked a ton.  We've already made an apple pie (see above) and two batches of applesauce.  Al also made an (unrelated) challah (see above).  How gorgeous is that.

Below is Penelope with her new doll.  Her name is Posy.  I actually really made her for me to play with but Penelope has taken her over.  She is made from the 'Kit Chloe and Louise" pattern from www.weewonderfuls.com.  She was a breeze to make and she's a nice size for playing with.  Not too sure about the blonde hair, but otherwise I'm happy with her.

Anyone who has spoken to me recently knows that we had a washer and dryer installed on the bedroom floor of our house.  This has continued to be the best renovation decision ever.  Behold my new laundry room:
This works so well for us.  I fold laundry while the kids are in the bath tub.  I start laundry first thing in the morning, at night, whenever I find myself in the bathroom (which is all the time, now that I am 17 months pregnant).  I even thought about switching a load at 2 in the morning the other night when I couldn't sleep.  Decided that might be excessive.  

Below is the baby's changing table which we have also set up in the bathroom/laundry room.  I mad the cover for the changing table from a pattern in Amy Butler's new book "Little Stitches for Little Ones."  I love this book and also made the monkey laundry bag below from the same book.  For the changing table pad, I didn't follow the pattern exactly, because we already had a changing table and pad that were different dimensions than specified in the book.  



Below is a  close-up of one of the squares on the baby's huge quilt.  I also just finished a 'normal' sized quilt for the baby--just sewing the binding on.  
Holly and I collaborated on another oversized baby project--a bird mobile inspired by the one that had been on display at our local fabric store (www.spoolsewing.com).  The birds were really fun to sew and I just kept sewing and sewing them.  Unfortunately when Holly put the mobile together, it was way too big to hang where I had intended it--over the co-sleeper in our room.  In fact, even without the co-sleeper set up it was too big.  We couldn't get out of the bed on that side.   It has since been turned into three smaller mobiles and I have an excuse to make a few more birds--to fill out the smaller mobiles a bit.  More pictures to follow of the smaller baby quilt and mobiles.  I hope all these huge baby projects don't reflect any kind of maternal intuition about the size of the actual baby...especially since I'm apparently going to be pregnant forever.

Finally, belatedly a picture of the kids with my beautiful niece Dylan.  She was here with her doting parents in mid-September and we all enjoyed soaking up her delicious fatness and incredible thatch of hair.