Proof That I Still Sew...

I've been working away, but some things are gifts that I just can't share yet and one was a gift that I forgot to get a picture of (I hate it when that happens!) BUT, I have been working on a flying geese quilt. I love these fabrics and got them at JoAnn. I don't usually buy entire collections of anything, but when these went 60% off, I could not resist. So I bought them all. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.
Isn't Layla just so silly?

My Baby Girl is Two!!!!

Layla turned two today :) We had a WONDERFUL day. We let her open her gifts from our immediate family after our pancake breakfast this morning and then after church we went to Cici's Pizza for a Tinkerbell party, where LOTS of friends and family came to help us celebrate. I confiscated this picture of her and Casey from my mom's blog. Isn't is just so sweet? The crown is what my sister made for her, isn't it so cute?

Here's a great one of Natalie and her best buddy Cloe chowing down on their cupcakes.
And this was not today, but I just think it's funny ;)

Happy Birthday, my sweet Layla girl, I love you so much! xoxoxo

Happy New Year!

This is the best picture they would let me get :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful transition into 2009! I know many people don't like the idea of making New Year's Resolutions, but I have been making them for several years and find them fun and rewarding. SO, this year's resolutions are:

1. Keep in better touch with my Grandpa. He is now my only living grandparent and I love him so much, so it will be easy to drop him an email every now and then or send him some pictures of the kiddos in the mail.
   
2. Get my 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day. I've made several small changes toward better health in the past year and this is just the next step. I like lots of veggies now that I didn't used to like, so this has been surprisingly easy so far (although it's only been 2 days ;) Plus, I fix lots of fruit for the girls anyway, so it's always around.
   
3. Get down on the floor with my kids. This may seem weird, but I think the best way to give my kids my undivided attention for awhile is to get on the floor with them.

That's all of them for now, so I'll let you know how it all goes :) 2009 is a year of huge change for our family. After Casey graduates college in May, he'll be leaving for Officer Training School until October. Then we'll be returning to active duty army and moving on from Colorado. We are so excited about the next chapter, but it's all a little unnerving at the same time!

And, totally off the subject, does anyone know anything about flax seed??? I've been having the most horrible and constant hot flashes since Kelby was born and was recently told about Black Kohosh Root as a natural treatment. However, most sources say not to take that while breastfeeding. While I was researching that, though, I came across some information that a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed every day can help with hot flashes! For some reason that I can't remember now, I had a big package of it in the pantry so I opened it up, mixed some into my spaghetti sauce and some into my V8 juice. We'll see how it goes. Any information you all can help my with about hot flashes and what helps would be great. Man, it's so annoying!

I've been wanting to blog this...

This is a quilt I made my dear friend Jen for Christmas. She really loves it and I'm so happy about that.
The back is a vintage sheet I thrifted months ago and just happened to match perfectly. Love it when that happens :)
This is my favorite block. I added some quirks to several blocks to make it interesting and it worked, it's very fun to look at :)

And, totally unrelated, this is a video of Kelby rolling over for the first time! Casey's narration makes it kinda funny :) My sister-in-law made all the kids these HUGE fleece blankets for Christmas and this is Kelby's that he's laying on. They all love them, thanks Aunt Cindy!

A Lovey

I made my little guy a blankie for Christmas.
I think he likes it :)
Aw, he's so precious.

We're Ready

We have been in a wonderful flurry of Christmas projects around here. Casey put together the girls' play kitchen the other night and it's soooo cute, we cannot wait to give it them. They are going to love it so much!!!!! (Yep, those are the instructions he's holding up and yes, he did use them!)
I've been having some fun doing Christmas projects with the girls. It's fun now that they are getting old enough to enjoy things like this. We made these little reindeer ornaments today out of their hand prints and they both thought it was pretty fun. Natalie went on to play with her scissors, scraps of paper and a glue stick. While cleaning up the scraps later, guess what I found? Yep, some lovely locks of her hair. Stinker. Thankfully, she didn't do too much obvious damage.

Here's a fuzzy one of my happy boy, just for fun :)
This was our craft last week--paper- bag-gingerbread-men-garland. I cut one for each of the girls and they colored them and then I taped them together and hung them on our kitchen island-thing.


Then I showed Natalie how to make a paper bag puppet and she named her Poppy and thought it was the funniest thing ever!

There's a short update for you! After Christmas, I will try not to be such an absentee blogger!

A Good Day

Yesterday we woke up to lots of snow and 1 degree temperature outside :) so we did not venture out to church. We stayed home and had such a lovely day. Natalie made cookies with me while the littles took naps. I picked Peanut Butter Blossoms because there is plenty for her to help with. She unwrapped all the kisses (after she found out that's what they were called, she gave each one a kiss after unwrapping it) and she rolled the dough balls in the sugar. Then she helped put the kisses on after baking. She also dipped a wet finger in the sugar a few more times than I probably realized :) Good thing we don't care about family cooties.


There was some dress-up.

and some Christmas Spirit (or pouting, where Layla was concerned.) This one's for you, Granny and Papa.

I think I'm in love

I've been working on this birthday present for Layla for a few weeks now. (She turns two on Jan. 4th.) I finally finished yesterday and I could not be happier with how it turned out! It is way cuter than I ever expected it to be and I've been dying to share it here. My sister bought this pattern at least a decade ago, so it needed some updating. I quilted my own fabric and made my own bias tape. And, I embroidered the faces on instead of transferring them. The little pocket on the front of the carrying case holds the little dresses. A few things made this project really special for me. First, I made all the clothes out of the girls' baby onesies, dresses and receiving blankets. Second, Natalie was glued to my side throughout the entire process and every day for the last week, she has woken up asking when we were going to work on Layla's special surprise. It was so sweet. I think Layla is going to LOVE this and that makes the labor-intensiveness of it so worth it. An added bonus--I didn't buy any of the materials new, it was all stuff I had on hand. I got the main fabrics at a garage sale last summer for $1!