Weighted Blanket

My aunt was telling me how she made me cousin a weighted blanket (I think he's 6) and how it has helped him sleep better and help calm him down. They often use weighted blankets to help calm autistic kids down because it helps their sensory overload and kind of shuts it down. Well Owen isn't a good sleeper and is a busy body so I thought I'd try to make one and that it could help him calm down before bed.

I got 3/4 of a yard of a cotton fabric and a fleece. I even let Owen pick out his fleece. I also got 2 lbs of rice. My aunt said to use 10% to 15% of their body weight. Owen almost weights 20 pounds so that was easy enough math. This only took me about a hour but as you know, sewing isn't my strong suit. I'm sure my mom could do it in half the time it took me.

This is the fleece Owen picked out

I measured out 16 different rectangles so the weight would be evenly distributed.

Then I sewed down length wise. I filled each column with a little more than 1/4 cup of rice. 

My aunt used poly beads but 1. walmart didn't have them and 2. they were more expensive.

Then I sewed the row shut. I did that 3 more times. 

This is the finished insert. 

Then I cut the fleece just a little bit bigger than the insert and made a folded over top so that way I can take it off and wash it. 

Tada! 

It really wasn't too bad. Maybe I kind of like sewing... 

or this was easy enough I couldn't mess it up

 

Owen Cheesin It Up

Owen has gotten pretty good at smiling for the camera. Here are some extra cute pictures.

Playing Catch Up

This is likely to be picture overload but Owen is in most of them so that makes it ok!

Last minute we decided to go to Nevada for Thanksgiving. We told my mom but surprised everyone else. It was fun to see everyone and play games and eat lots and lots of food.

Owen loves to climb. 

We didn't think Owen could get the lid off the glitter. We were wrong and he tried to eat it. 

Christmas Crafts

Its hard to keep Owen out of things

I chopped off 10 inches and added some low lights

Before

After

Owen got a car seat for Christmas. This helped (for the most part) with the 38 hours in the car with all of our holiday traveling. 

We went to Nevada for Christmas. 

Owen got a wiggle wagon for Christmas. I think everyone else liked it more than he did. 

He'll grow into and love it!

Took family photos

Then we went to California for New Years. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures. We went to the zoo and visited friends and family. One day we will be closer and can visit more often.

Went to the Utah Stanford game in stanford,

Owen loved his new car seat. It took some getting used to but he got used to it pretty quick. 

Give his some Cheetos and he's good to go.

Davis came back with us and spent a few days. He even put him to sleep one morning while babysitting.

We took him to the airport and went to a Jazz game. We sat in a suite and Andrew was in HEAVEN!

Giving Nucks

Brrrrrr

I'm a little worried about this winter because Owen loves to be outside and I'm not sure what we will do when its icy and 5 degrees outside. But on Wednesday it was 30 degrees and so we took Owen outside. It had rain/snowed earlier in the day but he didn't care that the rocks were wet. He had a lot of fun playing in the rocks and wandering around the sidewalk. After 15 minutes we brought him inside because we were too cold. Go ahead and call us babies. He then screamed at the door but luckily we were able to distract him and we played with blocks.

An Afternoon with Owen

Owen likes to have my phone in the camera mode. He will make funny faces and sometimes take 80 selfies. Here are a few and I even joined in a few!

Preschool Halloween Party

I was Captain Alphabet. It was a lot of fun to make up my own super hero. It was even more fun when the kids would find the letters in their name.
I made the cape out of an old t-shirt of Andrews (I've never seen him wear it the whole time we've been married), and my mask out of a piece of felt that I had. So simple but fun. On my shirt I just put every letter in the primary colors and a silver glitter. Tada!  Captain Alphabet was discovered. It was so easy and it was fun being crafty.