oh, so girly...

I made my girls some new nighties. Just for fun :) My friend Jenn sent me the light pink kitty fabric and I got Layla's at a garage sale last summer. They loooove them. I bought some fun corduroys yesterday to make them some Fall skirts and jumpers next. I have lots of posts up my sleeve, so I'll be back tomorrow night with some pics of the kiddos at the Downtown Aquarium!

backing up a little...

Before I left to visit Casey, I managed to finish this beauty. It's been quilted, bound, washed and gifted! My Aunt Teddi loved it. I knew she would :) Giving away quilts is sooo much fun. On to the next surprise! I won't be blogging about the next gifty quilt because it would totally give it away. Don't worry, though, I've been itching to start some Christmas things, with the weather cooling off and a Starbucks pumpkin spice latte in my hand ;) so I still have plenty of things to show you!

Here's the back. Pieced together with what I had. Actually this stripe that my friend Jenn sent me is what started the whole color combo in the first place.

I spent the weekend...

...with this handsome dude :) I left the kiddos with both Grandmas and flew out to Richmond on Thursday to spend the weekend with my hubby. We drove up to Washington D.C. on Friday (my first time!) and saw the sites. We stayed in a super nice hotel and Casey walked my feet clean off. We got a chance to practice our mad photography skills while we were there ;) I was SO glad I carried on my whiz-bang camera!!

Casey took this one of the window washers. Not a job I would want--ever! but someone has to do it.

Here's Casey at the WWII memorial. We both had Grandpas who fought in WWII so we were proud.

LOVE this one of Casey at the Lincoln Memorial. My favorite part, I think.

I was continually amazed at the sheer size of every building and monument that we saw. Amazing.

Our first time doing this too! Pretty fun. It's a shame every big city does not have something like this!!

The rest of the weekend was spent, relaxing, chatting, eating and shopping :) I was NOT ready to part with Casey for another 6 weeks (finally, the home stretch!) but I was very ready to be back here with my little ones.

i've been makin' stuff

Goodness! I have lots of stuff to post about today! I've started trying to catch up on my scrapbooking :) This is my now two-and-a-half year old, so that tells you just how behind I am. I at least want each kiddo to have their first year in an album. After that, I will scrapbook without obligation :)

Natalie and I made some cookies today. I mentioned last week that we seriously limit the refined sugar around here, but since I don't want my poor kids to be totally deprived of sweet treats and baked goods, I bought some Agave syrup and found this awesome recipe online. These taste GREAT and they are super healthy. They even have ground almonds (you can buy almond meal, but I just stuck some raw almonds in my food processor) and coconut flakes for some healthy fat! Try it, you'll love it.

I finished Natalie's hat! I put a pom-pom on this one. Super cute. I bought some yarn to make Kelby one too. Yay, boy colors! :)

ANNNNDDD, I finished quilting this baby!!! My free-motion is improving, I didn't have to do any unsewing on this one, since I was extra careful in making the quilt sandwich. The binding just needs sewn down. Hopefully, I'll get to that tonight, in between going into the girls' room to tell them to be quite, get in their beds and go to sleep. Bedtime has NOT been fun since Layla got a big-girl bed! Oh, and isn't the striped green monster on the quilt a cutie?? He blends right in :)

the parentals

These are my parents! I've mentioned before that they live overseas in Mongolia, but my mom has been here since Casey left to help me out and keep me company. The last three weeks, my dad has also been here to visit and it really was a great time. I love this photo of the three of us.

So, my mom and I have really been going through the junk in our house, trying to weed out, since we'll be moving out and they will have their house all to themselves when they're here. Let me tell ya, two households in 2000 square feet can realllly accumulate the junk :) Anyway, I scored these little owl guys and froggie that were my mom's when she was young. I LOVE them.

Then, since she knows I'm a sucker for vintage books and such, she gave me this little cutie that was my Aunt Carol's when she was young, so from the 40's maybe? She said it was in perfect condition before the fire we had in our basement when I was 11. The water damaged it. But I still love it. Thanks, Mom! Mom says everyone needs a good fire, since it really weeded out the junk FOR her from that house :)

And, I absolutely love this one of my parents. I love that they're both laughing and I'm glad I snapped this one at just the right moment.

Speaking of parenting, I picked up an excellent book called Don't Make Me Count to Three and I highly recommend it! A very biblical approach and encouraging as well. Lots of practical application and advice on how to use Scripture to train your children.

More of the Birthday!

Photo Credit: Thanks SO much Angela, they are all great, I can't wait to get them printed :)

Progress...

I think "hour by hour" would be an acceptable name for this quilt, because not only is it made of 80 double hourglass squares, those squares took HOURS to make. I made them until I could make no more and, thrilled that I had enough for 20 blocks, I sewed those suckers together and made it work :) And I really think it's beautiful. I can't wait to bat, back and bind this baby!

As a side note, if you want to read something seriously funny about FreeCycle, click here. Actually, most of her blog is seriously funny, so plan to stay awhile.

the birthday boy

Here he is! My baby boy turned one on Friday. We let him open some family gifts here at home after breakfast and then had a party at the park for him in the late afternoon. I think he enjoyed himself :) Angela took all the pictures at the park, so after I get them from her, I'll have more to post. With Angela behind the camera, they're sure to be stellar!! :)

So, I made him these monster cupcakes and since we seriously limit the refined sugar around here (the kids and I are pretty sugar-sensitive), I wanted to make something tasty that would not hype all these poor little ones up. SO, I found this banana bunt cake recipe in an old Martha Stewart kids magazine. They are sweetened with pure maple syrup and have cream cheese frosting (sweetened the same way). I thought they were great and everyone else seemed to think so too. The kids thought they were having a cupcake, but there were NO sugar crashes!!! :) Here's the recipe, altered slightly ;)

Banana Bundt Cake
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 Tbl salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup canola oil (actually a tiny bit less)
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbl pure vanilla extract
2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4)

1. Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk oil, yolks, syrup, and vanilla in medium bowl. Stir in bananas until smooth. Stir into flour mixture.
   
2. Spoon batter into 24 cupcake molds (with papers) just over halfway. Bake on 350 until toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. (If you cook both pans together, you'll want to turn them half-way through cooking.
   
3. Cool on wire rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting (8oz. softened cream cheese, blended with 2 Tbl pure maple syrup.)