So, back in January I thought I'd like to try my hand at quilting.  I had made a patchwork tied quilt for Dave for our first Christmas.  It was made out of a pair of my old overalls, one of his Kinko's shirts, a pair of his old khaki's, a Brookstone apron, and some fabric from the first couch we had (thrice handed down.)   

It still gets used.  (Notice the Kinko's pocket?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time I wanted something a little fancier.  Here it is in all it's glory.  Dave is holding it up.  It's almost queen size.

Close up of my mad loop-de-loop skills.

And a closer look at my handi-work.  

As I was trying to get the sandwich of back, batting, and top to line up and pinned I told Dave, "I'm not at the point where I understand why people do this all the time.  It's so frustrating."  To which he responded, "Well, you did start off big.  Maybe a throw pillow would have been better?"  No way!  I probably would have realized how time consuming and aggravating the whole thing would be, and never want to do a full size quilt.  But now that it is completely done, I am in love with this quilt!  And I will actually do another one!  I have an idea in my head right now for one for Abby...  So, stay tuned.  In another 4 months, there may be another quilt up here.  Oh, and I am thankful for my friend Dedra who helped me from picking fabrics at the beginning to mitering the corners at the end. 

Snowman Army

Every once in a while, I do something that makes me think my time as a stay-at-home mom has been ultra-productive. I don't really count laundry or keeping the house clean, because those things would need to get done even if I worked outside of the home. And since Abby and Caleb are in school most of the day, a lot of the day I am alone. So, when I do something like make this army of snowmen for Caleb's class party, I feel ultra-cool. Wouldn't you?

Happy 6th!

Today is my little girls birthday. While going through our digital photos, I found this series of pictures that I'm going to share in honor of Abby's special day. Enjoy.Her messes aren't quite so messy anymore, but she is still as inquisitive, imaginative and I love her more than she loves her dolls!

10-year old wishes

The reason our 10 year old wants a laptop? So he can "have a facebook page, and start a blog."
At least it is for productive reasons. We are very interested to know what a 10 year old would write in a blog!
Oh, and I love that this year we get to make cinnamon rolls for Santa. Much better than regular ol' cookies, if you ask me!

A decade

A decade ago, November 22 fell on Thanksgiving Day. After much drama and delay, Caleb was born. I missed the Thanksgiving feast for this bundle of joy:
He truly spent most of the first 6 months of his life looking like this. (I have tons more where these came from!)But, he was also often known to look like this:So, that made up for the crying, and yelling, and wailing, and screaming. Really. It did. Since his birthday is so close to Thanksgiving, this year we decided to have his birthday party this past Saturday. We went to a local place, Shankz. The kids played blacklight mini golf. It's a good thing we planned an indoor activity since it snowed that morning, and rained for the rest of the day. Caleb requested a Harry Potter cake, so I did my best.

He loved his presents, and even got to put his hand print on the wall of the party room. Happy Birthday to our wonderful boy!

Halloween

In years past, there has been no dressing up of any kind for Halloween in the school. However, this year they cleverly allowed it disguised as Storybook Character dress up day. So, Caleb decided to dress up as Harry Potter.
Abby was a beautiful, (and modest) Jasmine.
Here is Caleb and his friend Zane as Harry and Ron Weasley. A duo to be reckoned with, to be sure.
And these are our pumpkins. Caleb really stuck to the HP theme. Abby expressed her love of cats, and I am responsible for the goovy pumpkin. Also, I think it odd that on Nov. 1 (when I took this picture), I have dahlia's blooming. Beautiful, just a bit out of season.

Random catch up

In September, for a friend's birthday party, we went here:(Great Wolf Lodge)

I was trying to be cool (my first mistake), jammed my toe on a kiddie slide (within the first 5 minutes of arriving), and did this:What you may or may not be able to see is a chip above the second joint of my second toe. Yes, it hurts. No, it will never fully heal. Yes, it is still purple and swollen. No, I never want to go back to Great Wolf Lodge.
A few weeks later, Dave came home from work with this beauty he found on the floor of his shop:Now that I have taken a picture of it, and documented its' place in our family history, I can finally get it off of the kitchen counter, and throw it away.