Christmas Quilts

After making my first little quilt for Hannah, I decided to try and make my niece and two nephews quilts for Christmas. I started several months ago planning and buying the material, but I was sewing up until the last minute. Not necessarily because they are too terribly time consuming (although they did take a while), I just kept procrastinating.

But after lots of cutting, pinning, pressing, machine quilting, and even a little hand sewing, I had them finished. It felt so good when I sewed the last stitch. I got the pattern here. She calls it the Road Trip Quilt and it's great for beginners.

This Sock Monkey quilt was for our nephew, Liam. He just turned one and I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it.

Sam (3) and Betsy's (1) quilts:

I made Sam's a little bigger since he's not really a baby anymore. My sister sent this picture...I think he liked it!

Celebrating Christmas and the New Year with the Fling's

Last weekend Mom, Amber, and her two kids, Sam and Betsy came up to wrap up our Christmas celebrations and help us bring in the New Year. Despite ALL three of the kids getting sick, it was a great visit.

They got here late Thursday night (Hannah was already in the bed) and Mom brought all the gifts in the house. Her car looked like Santa's sleigh! Since Hannah wasn't feeling that great, she woke up coughing around 3:00am and couldn't go back to sleep. The events that followed were pretty funny and not surprising at all because of the size of our house. Soon after Hannah woke up, Amber came in the living room saying she couldn't sleep. Then in a few minutes, here comes Betsy toddling down the hall with Mom behind her saying Betsy wasn't feeling good and couldn't sleep either. Within about 30 minutes, Sam woke up because Amber wasn't in the bed anymore and then around 4:00am Scott comes dragging in (he said he couldn't sleep because he just kept thinking about our sewer problems...this was before he fixed it).

So there we were...all the adults worn out and all the kids (even though they didn't feel good) wound up because they were so excited to see each other. Around 5ish, we decided to go ahead and open Christmas presents since it was clear no one was going back to bed anytime soon.

Scott got some pretty cool snake boots for his hunting excursions. Maybe now he won't come back with poison ivy everytime.

One of Hannah's favorite gifts was this vacuum. It has really come in handy when I need to do housework.

Another winner was this little kitty from Sam and Betsy. She loves it! I know we're going to have to get her a cat one day but this will do for now (and all the cats she gets to see when she visits Aunt Anne). She holds it real close and pets it all the way from its head to the tip of it's tail. Then she looks at it and commandingly says, "Walk....Walk!"

Amber and Betsy in the wee morning hours.

We all tried to get some sleep the next day, but that's not really possible with three toddlers in the house. It's amazing...they can just run on fumes!! But later that day (while poor Scott was working on the sewer) we did manage to go cheer Amber on as she ran a 5K down at the park along the river. Here is a shot of her crossing the finish line. She's in super good shape (I'm having lots of sister jealousy right now as I sit and type this post while balancing peanut M&M's on my big pregnant belly).

Afterwards, we crossed the street and ate some great Mexican food at Chuy's and then went to look at the Christmas lights downtown. By the time we got back, Scott had the sewer fixed and we could finally use our own bathroom and take showers....YEAH Hubby!!

After another almost sleepless night (Betsy was getting worse and Hannah still didn't feel good), we tried to make the best of it again. Amber and I took Hannah and Sam to the museum while Nan and Betsy took a nap. Then Scott let Mom, Amber, and I have a break from the kiddos and let us go to the movies while he took a turn. We put them all down for a nap and headed out to Movie Tavern. It was my first time to go and it was really fun! The three of us NEVER get to go hang out by ourselves, so this was a very special time for me. Good mother/daughter/sister bonding time!

After the movie, I was getting a little worried about Scott handling all three of the kids when I received this text: Snacktime!

He had it all under control. It's amazing how good kids are when they're away from their mothers!

We rang in the New Year that night at around 9:00 and I think we were all in the bed by 9:30pm! We were exhausted and figured a sick kid would be up at some point in the middle of the night. Sure enough....it was Betsy. Poor thing....she is so sweet even when she's sick.

All in all, we got through it and had a great time. I love watching Hannah play with her cousins. She tries to imitate everything Sam does and bosses Betsy around like crazy. I think she will be a pretty good big sister OR I might have my hands full....one of the two!

Thanks Mom and Amber for dragging the little ones up here. We love you very much (and we missed you, Pop)!

One more shot of Nan playing with her grand-babies.

Stickers

Hannah has been going through a phase where her FAVORITE thing to do is "stickers." I'm not sure what got it started but it's a really big deal around here lately. She wakes up saying, "stit-ters...stit-ters" and goes straight to her table. It's kind of nice because it is about the only thing that will keep her in the same spot for more than five minutes!

We still have to help her get the stickers off of the sheet but then she puts them in her notebook by herself. Here are some pictures of her enjoying her favorite pastime and a couple of shots of her handiwork.





As you can see, we go through a lot of "stit-ters" around here. So if any of you have any of these jewels lying around your house and you don't think you'll ever use them....send them our way! I promise we will put them to good use!

Sewer Repair

Happy New Year from Fort Worth!

I spent the last 3 days repairing my sewer line in the front yard.  This is the type of project that makes me appreciate my desk job.  We have had a slow drain recently, and all my efforts of snaking the line were not successful.  We had the City come look at it and they located a damaged portion after running a camera down the line.  I called a plumber and they gave me 2 options: clean the line with a high pressure jet of water for $500 (temporary fix) or repair the damaged joint for $3200 (semi-permanent fix, this would require a permit from the city and would lead to other improvements to make everything meet current code which drove up the cost). 

I decided to do it myself.  It cost me about 20 hours of labor and $50 for parts.  As you might expect, it included several trips to the hardware store, including one on New Year's Eve after Home Depot had already closed (I knocked on the door and they ended up "donating" the parts I needed because their computers were already turned off).  Special thanks to Jeremy (digging the hole) and Craig (plumbing/pipe fitting) for their help.  I wouldn't have been able to do this without them.  I'm still praying that my work sticks.  Below are some pictures.

This is the damaged joint.  I was expecting a bend but found a wye.  This was when I learned that I had 2 service lines coming from my house.

This was the scene in my front yard for most of the project.

Here is the repaired joint.

This is the hole filled in.

Merry Christmas from Fort Worth!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We had a good celebration at home by ourselves for the first time this year. Jennifer was a little nervous and emotional (as stated in her previous post) at first about being here for the holidays with only the three of us, but it turned out to be one of our most memorable Christmas' yet. Here are some pictures.

Christmas morning PJ's (courtesy of Mama Jo).
Look how much Hannah has grown since last year.
We started the weekend off right by making coffee cake on Christmas Eve morning.

Jennifer in the kitchen cooking away.

Jennifer made Hannah some play-dough for Christmas, and she loved it! Here is where she found the recipe.

Hannah opening her mop and broom. Now she is equipped to help clean the house.

We put an orange in her stocking. "I think this is how you eat it, right?"

We also got her a new winter coat. Look at our little model. I think she likes the camera :)

Here is the spread that Jennifer made for lunch. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash casserole, glazed carrots, rolls, and double chocolate cake with white chocolate icing. Yikes! We were so stuffed that we promptly passed out right after lunch! And, yes, that is our nice china and Pyrex on the same table...don't laugh.

I think it was the cake that put us over the edge.

A final parting shot from Hannah......Cheese!!!

Merry Christmas everyone! We hope you had a blessed day celebrating Jesus' birthday!

"La Posada" (The Inn)

I looked and looked for a live nativity in the area to take Hannah to this Christmas and finally found a great one last Monday night not too far from our house. They had it set up where a crowd gathered at a church one mile from the actual nativity scene and we walked behind "Mary and Joseph" to remember their pilgrimage to Bethlehem.

And I have to say, it was pretty emotional for me. When your 8 months pregnant, you cry at just about anything (this has been true of my pregnancies anyway). I cry pretty much on a regular basis now. I cried one night when Scott was reading to Hannah because I thought it was such a sweet moment, I cry pretty much every Sunday in church, I started crying the other day when I was making our holiday grocery list, and I cried today when I saw a lost dog sign because I started thinking about Blue and Sarah. So the scene of Joseph leading Mary on a donkey to bring our Savior into the world sent me over the edge. I was trying to hold back a river of tears because there were so many people around. I didn't want them to think I was going into labor.

But I couldn't help but think of how Mary felt. I mean I only walked a mile and by the end I wanted to push the fake Mary off the donkey and ride it myself. I was uncomfortable and tired. I kept thinking if I do go into labor right now (for some reason) I could go to a clean hospital with wonderful physicians to have my baby. Mary was walking toward uncertainty...toward a dirty stable and barnyard animals. Yet she trusted God. She trusted His plan and brought Jesus into the world. What a wonderful way to usher in the Christmas season! Remembering the baby. Remembering Him. Our perfect Savior with the perfect plan.

Here are some pictures from that night:

Hannah kept wanting to eat the candle at the church.

She made the pilgrimage in her back-pack.

Mary and Joseph. We kept telling Hannah that a donkey says "he-haw," but she insisted that it sounded something like "brrrrr" and proceeded to make that noise the WHOLE mile.

The angels appeared to the shepherds in the field.

The wise men came to worship the Baby King! (This was a really cool to watch).

They also had a petting zoo set up nearby, so after the story was told, we let Hannah go see all the other animals.

We had such a great time and I hope to make this one of our annual Christmas traditions.

Christmas with Nana and Pappy

Since I'm almost 8 months pregnant, we decided not to travel for Christmas this year. However, our families have been very gracious and decided to come see us instead. Last weekend the Canyon crew made the trek to Cowtown and we celebrated with them and Mama Jo.

We started with a wonderful meal at Mama Jo's (sorry Mama Jo....I didn't get any pictures). But you should have seen the spread. She had a beautiful table set and filled our plates with beef tenderloin, salad, homemade macaroni, broccoli, and pecan pie for dessert....it was delicious!! She gave us all sock monkey pj's (I'll post a picture of those later). Thanks Mama Jo!

Then we came back to our house and opened presents with Nana, Pappy, Aunt Anne, and Uncle Wiwi (William). Here are a few highlights...

Hannah got us started by opening hers first. She loves to open presents. She says, "Oh wow!" over and over.

Later in the day after Dad and Pappy put it together. It's called a Kid Active (which is perfect for my active kid) and she loves it. She jumps and jumps all her energy out!

Uncle Wiwi (the tennis player) got Hannah her very own racket and tennis balls.

Hubby scored big time and got some Cotton Bowl tickets (I get to go too)!!!

Hannah also got a tent and sleeping bag...she got a little static electricity while playing in it.
Thanks everyone for coming to see us this year. Christmas wouldn't have been the same without your visit!