Christmas was Great!

so here are my 2 homemade gifts this year. I am super proud of them, and was so excited to give them away. The first is photo coaster, I made a few sets of these, each set of 4 costing me $1.20. Funds were super tight this year, but I love this gift! The second is this heritage quilt that I made with 2 of my sister in laws for my in laws. The effort was not lost on them, and all of the work that went into it was so worth it because they really loved the gift.

This year we decided to lessen the running between houses. Both of our parents live minutes from each other, so in years past we have opened gifts with both families Christmas day, and then stayed with on for Christmas dinner. This year we spent Christmas eve with Jordan's family, and Christmas Day with mine. It was nice not to feel like we had to get somewhere soon. Christmas eve Skyler sang a song for the talent show, and then made a vary handsome shepherd. Ethan would have nothing to do with either. We made dessert, and decided to make a cakeball tree with chocolate 'ornaments' It really was a fun day.

Christmas morning we opened stockings at home and then took off to my parents place. It was so fun. Skyler really understood what was going on and Ethan loved unwrapping gift but about 2 hours in the boys had lost interest. We were very spoiled, and feel very blessed to have so much wonderful family so close. I love the Christmas season!

oh, and for Christmas Jordan published my blog for me!

Christmas can come now.

I have been seriously stressed out with a few Christmas projects this year, and today I finished the last one on my to do list, so Christmas can come, and I can fully enjoy the festivities. A couple of them you will have to wait to see until after they are opened in the next couple of days.

I made pj pants for all of my kids, and think I might try to find some plain t-shirts to applique initials, or monkeys on. The boys thought I was so weird sewing their clothes inside out, and Jordan made fun of me when I told him that I used their pants to make myself a pattern, but I love how they turned out.

(Ryley totally looks like a boy here, maybe a headband is required as well :)

I also made stockings since I now have 2 kids that didn't have one, but I was super intimidated by this project, because the 3 members of my family that did have stocking had about the ugliest stocking known to man made by yours truly, and since I did such a bad job last time I was scared I would fail again. I finally got them done today, and while they are not prefect, I am pleased with the result, adn they look way better than my attempt a few years back.
I am super excited to spend the next few days with family, and to give the gifts that we have worked so hard on. I love Christmas and have worked so hard with my boys to help them to remember why we celebrate Christmas, it seems like a daily lesson, but one I am happy to repeat. Merry Christmas!

Traditions

Every year since I was a little girl (probably close to Skylers age) My mom and I would go to my aunts house and make homemade chocolates before Christmas. It was a girls weekend, and I have some great memories. I remember being frozen, and told to hurry up, I remember having way too many bosses, I remember the drives with my mom, the tummy aches from too many samples, I even remember sleeping with my aunt Sandy (she had a water bed) and having her flop into bed and shoot me out the other side. I don't have pictures of us girls working but I have pictures of new memories. My grandma sang Ryley to sleep while I was busy dipping chocolates, and Grandpa, who had just had surgery 3 days before helped as well.I don't have a bunch of sisters, or any for that matter, but really hope to continue on the tradition, and make memories for Ryley of our weekends together.

Joy

I Love being a mom, and I love my kids. Skyler is giving me a hard time right now, being rude, acting out, peeing the bed (he has been potty trained for 2 1/2 years) but there really are those moment of pure joy that make all of the trials a tough days worth it.

Ryley is smiling and cooing, and I of course think it is soo cute, but with 3 kids and my limited hands we are getting far fewer pictures than I would like, and I don't have a good one of her chubby little smile.

Ethan hates having his picture taken period! If he sees me with the camera he yells, and runs away. He would not sit still and look at the camera for family pictures, so at this time, we really don't have many good pictures of hime either.

Busy Crafting...

So a few weeks ago, I pulled out some craft stuff, and started working on a bunch of projects, I have a few pictures of SOME of what I made, what I don't have is a picture of the mess that I made on my main floor. The good thing that came out of it though was my husband agreeing to make a craft room for me in the basement, and it is almost done!!! I am so excited. Walls are painted, and sub floor is finished, so now all that is left is the hardwood and trim. I will be sure to post pictures when it is done. That project has kept me pretty busy in the evening though,


I made another apron and chef hat as a birthday gift. I have made so many of these now that I think I could make them in my sleep.
I made a hair bow holder (actually 3) this one I gave away as a birthday gift as well, 2 are in Ryley's room, and I still have plans to make a 4th different kind, which is totally necessary to help accomodate my new obsession with hair bows and flowers.
I LOVE making the korker bows. These are a few that I made, but I have also managed to accumulate about 30 flowers for her hair now as well. She also has a box made up to hold her bracelets, which she has quite a few of now, and I love it!
I made some pretty, and girly soother clips so that I don't lose her soother, especially when I am driving.

A cute wipes case finally got made for me. I have made a few of these for shower gifts, and am soo happy to have one for me now.

There has actually been more crafting done, including a painted crate for headbands, many baby bracelets, tutus and an advent calender (thanks to super saturday :) and I have plans to do much much more, and take total advantage of my new craft room!

Baby Pictures.

We did a little photo shoot of Ryley in my Sister in Law's studio, and it was so fun. Ryley wasn't cooperating at all, and my baby that is never grouchy - was grouchy! But it was fun dressing her up to get some cute pictures.









Don't you just love the overabundance of chins? I love how soft and kissable babies are.

Family Photos 2009

We managed to get outside a few weeks ago when the weather had warmed up a bit form some family photos. Again my amazingly talented sister in law agreed to follow us around the city as we found something that would work. We wanted to stay close to Jordan's office since he was taking an extended lunch for the pictures. (It is way too dark to anything after work now, so sad!)

I really wanted to try some more Urban type pictures, and specifically wanted some good graffiti in the background, we saw the foot bridge in Fish Creek park, and set off in search of the graffiti cement, but much to my dismay this foot bridge was totally clean, no mess to be seen. Sad as I was Nature is a beautiful backdrop as well, and I do think our pictures turned out great, or as good as I ever could have hoped for with 3 kids to get to cooperate.

Halloween 2009

We went to the YMCA yesterday for a halloween party, and the kids loved it. It was really well done, and included a potions station (slurpees), ghost bowling, pumpkin golf, a batty craft, and a bunch more.

We came home, ate dinner, and then got ready to head out Trick or Treating. We b-lined it to my mom and dad's, hitting way less houses than last year, but coming home with tons more candy.

Today we did up their candy portioning calenders, with a slight improvement on last year - they are up on the wall, and out of reach. Next year I might plan ahead, and get slightly bigger cups, but since I had dixie cups on hand, that is what we used. I also played with a few other ideas of how to deal with the candy overload, but Jordan was too excited to claim all of the left over candy.Isn't my little 'pumpkin' soo cute? I am sure she loved her first halloween.

Family Halloween Party

On Monday night for Family Home Evening (Grandma and Grandpa Darker came to join in the fun) we carved a couple of pumpkins, made some caramel apples, and decorated Sugar cookies. We had a quick discussion on service before hand, and then went and dropped off some goodies to a few people. It was super funny to watch Ethan decorate. It started off with him licking the icing as he went, and then he kind of got the hang of it, but unlike most kids who load on the icing he got really conservative. Both boys love to hold their sister, and have finally figured out how to do it without me having to hold her.

Like Father, Like Son

I love seeing my boys doing things that Jordan did as a little boy. I think that Jordan is a pretty amazing guy, and he is brilliant, but very analytical in his thinking, and that could be seen at a really early age. He used to love writing out numbers, and was forever lining up cars, and moving one from the end and moving it to the front. Now I find Ethan in Ryley's room, taking out all of the cars, and doing that exact same thing.Ethan has also brought that analytical thinking to the magnets on the fridge. Sometimes it is the letters, and sometimes it is the David and Goliath magnets, but it is all the same - one long line.