Last Present Update

I thought I'd show my last batch of gifts. These towels were for my parents. I got the pattern for the tea towels from posie gets cozy. So here they are:


Not all of the photos turned out as nice as I would of liked but now I can't go back and take new pics. They have been sent and received. Merry Christmas.

Another Present

I thought I'd start posting the photos of presents I made for family. There really isn't a lot but still it made me excited to make the presents.


When thinking of gifts for Krissie and David I just kept thinking of all these different ideas. Around the last minute I finally decided on place mats. The dishes and stuff are mine but it sure was fun setting the table like there could be a romantic dinner involved, really though it's usually just spilled milk. Here is a close up photo of the place mats.

Christmas Miracle

I spent all day yesterday but I finished it. I was beginning to wonder if Chas would get a stocking but he did.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. I've been discovered by the little one - must go.

Didn't know

Apparently many of my family members went out to eat Mexican across the United States last night. I didn't know but somehow I must have gotten the message. We had Mexican food at our house last night and I think in honor of Calvin I was able to eat my second black bean burrito (I rarely have room for a second burrito).

Calvin would of been 14 yesterday and many times throughout the day I thought of him. In face I didn't sleep much at all last night as memories of him kept flooding my brain. So I thought I'd share a photo of my dear sweet nephew. We miss you so much.


This photo is from roughly two years ago. Donna's family and my family were down in Las Vegas visiting our parents. Bonnie was playing right there and Calvin was chucking huge rocks over her head. Eventually he stopped (I can't ever seem to spell this word correctly) and no one was hurt - but I think we all wondered what might happen while he was chucking rocks.

Finished

I finally finished all the Christmas things I had to get done. All I really have to do is make Chas a stocking but if that doesn't happen I know he won't be too mad. It's only his first Christmas and I don't think Bonnie had one her first Christmas.

The one thing I'm super happy about is finishing Bonnie's Christmas dress. We took some snap shots today and of course she was goofy - I long for the days of her cute smile in photos.



Since she was being such a goof I opted to take her head out of the photo. I was really happy with how the dress turned out. I bought the pattern from Sugar City Journal and finally got around to making it. I was really nervous about making the dress but once I got going and read the instructions a million times I felt ok. It was so nice last night to see the whole thing come together - I finally feel like I can do more than make dolls and quilt. This is exciting.

Christmas Photo

Last year I took some cute photos of Bonnie in front of our Christmas tree. I think it was my only attempt to do something related to Christmas - I was 9 months pregnant at the time. I thought I would share Jay's & my favorite photo from the photo set.

The Runnaway

On Monday I was getting ready to run a few errands with the kids. I was doing little odds and ends all morning to just get some stuff done around the house and then around 11 am we were finally ready to leave. Bonnie is hitting the age that she doesn't want to go places anymore so as I was putting Chas in the car she sat inside the doorway just looking at me. I kept telling her to get in the car and instead she let the dog out. Normally Scooter just hangs out in the front yard but this time he kept inching away.

Finally I had both kids in the car and I yelled for Scooter. He took a look at the parking lot next to our house (we live at a dead end street and on the other side of the dead end street is a church with a huge parking lot - we live on the parking lot side). I see Scooter making a run for it. So I ran inside told Jay I had to go chase the dog and grabbed the dog's leash.

Out the garage I run trying to catch up with Scooter but I come to realize the entire church parking lot is covered in ice. I see the dog at the back of the church and I call for him. He looks at me and runs the other way. I'm cutting across the lawn trying to catch up with him. I finally get to the back of the church and I see him taking a dump on the church's front yard. This morning was shaping up to be so shameful for me - dog runs away and poops on church's front yard!

Past the church is a pretty busy street that Jay's parents live on. Scooter knows this route well because we walk over there for Saturday breakfast every week. Amazingly he gets across the street without being hit.

At this point all I could think was he was going to run after a car - he likes to try to do this when he is on a leash. I see a car driving closer to Scooter and I held my breathe. The dog looked at the car and thought otherwise and kept running forward.

He made it to Jay's parents carport unscathed. At this point he lets me catch up to him and I leash him and bring him home.

That day and everyday since Scooter has spent his time outside while we are gone from the house. I actually think he doesn't mind it so much.

More Christmas

I finished my In-law's present on Saturday. I was really excited to tackle this present and and little nervous. I had thought it out in my head over and over again. My idea came from Pink Chalk Studio. I saw her quilt block and thought this would make a really cute wall hanging for Christmas.

My cute little girl is holding up the wall hanging. Now that I've made one I think I could tackle another. I now know ALL my mistakes and think I could do a really awesome job on the next one.

If I make another one it would be for Bonnie. She really liked the tree and wanted it for her own. A cute little pillow for her bed would work.

After Christmas I will have a few more presents to post but not too many. I'm winding down to enjoy the holidays. I've got one present left to finish. Other than that I am half way done with Bonnie's Christmas dress and I'd love to make myself a new skirt for Christmas but we shall see.

I would also like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on the robot doll. I was a little nervous it wouldn't turn out right but once I put everything together I decided it looked good.

Robot

This robot is headed off to Indiana today. I made this robot for my friend's son and I really hope they like him. I had fun making this guy. Plus I'd been wanting to make this Wee Wonderful pattern for a long time but just had never gotten around to it.

Snow

I don't have a lot of photos to post at the moment as most of them are gifts for my family and they all read this blog. But since yesterday my sewing machine basically hasn't slowed down excep for the short nap I took yesterday afternoon to re-energize.

Yesterday we were expecting to wake up to snow and the whole family was disappointed when it just didn't happen. As we were all waking up from out nap (except daddy - he had watched an old war movie on hulu) I was looking out the back window and all the sudden a gaggle of ducks landed in our back yard. All couples too. I told Bonnie to look outside and for a few minutes we just sat there and watched them waddle along. It was really fun. Then once the ducks realized there was no cracked corn in our backyard to eat they flew on to someone else's yard.

Thankfully, this morning we woke up to beautiful snow and it hasn't quit. We are really enjoying just looking outside during our morning routines and seeing the beautiful snow.

Really Wonderful Things

I read my sister's blog this morning. I think everyone should head over there and read it. It is such a wonderful story.

http://donnandkids.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Tax Season & Our Family

I stumbled upon this huge group of photos labeled "Tax Season and our Family." If anyone wasn't aware of it yet, Jay and I are accountants and work like dogs for 4 months of the year. Yes we work the rest of the year too but it's just not as intense as tax season. Here are some of the photos I found today.


This one is Jay holding baby Chas. Chas was less than three months old in this photo and I am sure it was probably after 8 pm when this photo was taken.


Bonnie loved holding baby Chas and it was really cute for us to watch.


Bonnie's coloring phase hit pretty hard during tax season. Jay would get down on the floor with her and color when he needed a break. I just thought it was so cute.

I think he was the best part about tax season. Chas arrived right at the beginning of tax season and he was such a joy to have around.

Thanksgiving and so much more

I can't even explain the sheer fun we had over Thanksgiving holiday. The kids even cooperated and slept through the night every night.

We headed down to Utah to spend the weekend with my sister and her family. My other sister and her kids joined us too. It was so much fun.

On Thanksgiving day we got a babysitter and went to the new James Bond movie - it was the best.

Then on Friday we got up really early. My big sister tells the story best. We were home before most of the people woke up. Of course my little ones were running around our bedroom. I stayed up for another hour and then crashed when Chas fell asleep for his first nap.

Later that afternoon we sent the boys out shooting - they had a great time. Jay shot a soda can in mid-air (he is so hot) and then shot it again when it fell to the ground - had to make sure it was dead. I am so proud of him. The girls and I sat at home and watched Hancock. We all really liked it.

Then we had Bonnie's third birthday party and it was pretty fun. She was totally excited about all her presents. We also had Lexi's 8th birthday party at the same time - she enjoyed the lip gloss I bought her.

Well Saturday found us driving back to Boise. I was sad to leave but couldn't wait to sleep in my bed on Saturday night. I hope everyone else had a great weekend.