Quilting Kitty

Over the past few weeks, there has been a flurry of sewing activity around here! We have had two sewing machines set up in the homeschool room (thanks Linda!!) Eme, Abby, and myself have all been quilting up some special projects. I am so proud of my girls - they are making some cool things for Christmas!


I made a quilt top for my MIL back when Abby was a baby (8 years ago!) I gave it to her for Christmas - just the top - and promised her I'd finish it soon! She took it and used just the top for awhile and gave it back to me this past year. So this Christmas, she received it again, this time, finished! Unfortuntely I was so excited to see her open it that I forgot to take a photo!! (much like another quilt that I made and gifted this year! - I've got to get better about that!)

As I was quilting it, I had a surprise visitor!That's Eme's hand - I started taking photos :)

Can you see her curled up next to the sewing machine on the table? She snuggled right up to it all the while I was sewing - even putting her paw on my hand as I guided the fabric through - too cute!!

Mount Everest

Down the road a little ways is a development, err , an almost-development. I'm not sure what happened, but there are only 2 houses in this development, and then a long windy road, a mulch hill, lots of trees, wheat and nature-beauty. And it's a great place to take the kids and the dog and go. So we have been.

The kids ride their bikes, Daniel rides in his stroller, and Rocky pulls us along. (just kidding - he's getting better at walking beside us!) The kids (and Garr and I too!) are loving the mulch pile. The girls have nicknamed it "Mount Everest." And it is rather fun to climb and race up. Until you can't breathe anymore ... lol. Then we walk/ride around the circle while Rocky is let loose to run through the woods and chase whatever moves. We finish the walk out by checking on our vultures. Yes it even has a Disney-es tree with 3 vultures (quite fitting because we just finished learning about "decomposers" in school last week!) So we make it a point to wave and show them we are very much alive on our way out of their development.

A good time, I tell you! Here are some photos as proof! (And please excuse my messy hair and sweats - we roll our of bed and take these walks you know!) (And those of you who really know me know that's how I look all day haha!)

Wordless Wednesday

Daniel turns 2!

Daniel's 2nd birthday was on Mon, Nov 30. We had a great day. Garr was home with us and we spent the day hanging out as a family. We took the kids for a walk in the morning and climbed a mulch hill. The rest of the day was spent hanging out and I had to run a couple errands.

Daniel surprised us by climbing out of his crib at naptime. I walked by his door to hear him calling "Mama!" I realized he sounded a lot closer to the door than he should and opened the door to have him walk out "Mama!" Garr was able to get him back down a little while later. We had a repeat performance the next morning - Daniel knocking on his bedroom door for someone to let him out. Then again at naptime, he got the door open on his own and just came waltzing out. What a funny kid! We've since moved the changing table (which he was climbing onto and then onto Eme's bed and down) so I'm hoping that will discourage future break-outs!

We had a family party for Daniel that evening. It was a lot of fun. I made ziti, Italian bread, and salad. We had chocolate cake and ice cream too! I bought root beer for Daniel - he loves it! He totally hammed it up at his party and had lots of fun opening gifts! I'm sure he had no idea why he was getting so spoiled, but he's a good sport and went along with it! LOL! All day long, he showed everyone his new sneakers - we gave them to him in the morning before our walk (Rocky chewed up his other pair!) When it was time to get changed later, I asked him what he wanted to wear and he picked up his sneaker and said "this! this!" Too cute.

He had his 2 yr well visit yesterday. He's doing great physically! 30 lbs and 33 inches. They are referring him to a speech therapist for analysis. He isn't saying more than 10-15 words (most are expressions "Whoa! Wow! Oooh! Yay!" etc. He says "Mama, Daddy, Abby, No, Bye, Go, Hi, Mine, Ow" and a few other words that I can't think of now. Even though his speech is limited, he has no trouble communicating! He uses sign language, gestures, and certain noises so we can understand him. And he understands everything we say to him. The dr said it's a difficult case because his communication is so good despite his speech. So the question is if he just doesn't want to talk and isn't or if he is really having trouble making the words in his head into the correct sounds. I'm partial to the idea that he just doesn't feel like it! lol But we'll see!

Here are some photos from his day!

Our 2 year old boy!

The mobile on the ceiling is all Thomas the Train! Mom found it for us.

Getting ready for dinner
Showing everyone Thomas on the mobile!

How old are you Daniel? ummm, not quite, bud!

"WOW" play food for the kitchen

Thomas trains - a favorite!

Love reading Thomas books

Justin and Liv in their conductor hats

The big kids :)

Blowing out the candles

Awww is he not the cutest thing ever???

House Update

Since my "readers" have been requesting a house update - here it is! LOL

(Yes, that's you, Jenn!)

These pictures were taken in our homeschool room. It has been rearranged a little since then because of the wood stove, but it's pretty close. This is Daniel's little play area where I can keep an eye on him while the girls work. Garr's mom gave us the rack and bins and it has been great for keeping Daniel's toys organized and close at hand. We really like it. Below that are Daniel and Olivia working on patterns at the homeschool table. Too cute!

We tore out that disgusting green carpet and replaced it with this Brazillian Cherry hardwood. We love it! It is a bit tough to keep swept up between the kids, the animals, and the wood from the stoves, but it is way easier than carpet! These photos were taken back in Sept. before we arranged the living room. The flooring runs the whole length of the living and dining rooms - about 44'x20'. Garr installed it - he did a great job! I'm so blessed to have such a handy husband!

Here is our living room fireplace before we got the insert. I haven't really done any decorating yet in these photos. Everything on the mantle was just stuck there for lack of a place to put it. Garr and I aren't thrilled with the colors in the living room and will probably repaint - the wall color just looks like mud to me (it's supposed to be "Linen") and I want something warmer - maybe "Cocoa-ish." The next two photos are our dining room (still nothing on the walls yet.) It's our favorite room of the house though! And the last two photos are our "game/puzzle/folding laundry" table in the living room! I've always wanted a table set up for games and now I have it!

The kids have enjoyed making smores in the living room fireplace!!

Our house has only a fireplace for heat. And our house is too big to heat with one fireplace. There is also baseboard heat, but the people before us took the fuel tank. And there are cracks in the baseboard (it's solid steel) so that has been tricky to fix. Add to that the price of fuel oil, and the fact that we have been offered a TON of free wood (that Garr has to chop and bring home, but still!) So we decided to heat with wood. We bought this wood stove and Garr installed it in the homeschool room. The kids were helping to carry wood in these pictures. I wish I could have gotten a better one of Daniel - he looked so cute carrying his little log into the house!

Garr cleaned out our fireplace chimney and installed an insert (more efficient and better heat.) This is him afterwards, finally sitting down. We joked about him looking like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins!! lol Poor guy! I made him smile for the first picture, but the second photo is how he really felt. lol What a great husband I have!!