Treasure Chests

Thursday...More Snow Days...We'll now be hanging out together till Monday!  The boys played outside again today, more laundry, more cute pictures! : )

On some snow..guess how much?

Would you believe we had this much snow?

He was feeling very photogenic-can you tell? : )

The kids got to watch some movies online with Netflix.  It worked for the most part.  Every 20-30 minutes it would tell me there was a problem with our internet, and it would stop (and I would hear my name!).  We finally got Ches in the house (after shoveling the entire driveway of its two feet of snow!), and then he added the app on the iPad, and Mary Claire was in business! (unlimited movies-she was thrilled!)

Ches was really going to bat for me, bless his heart.  I missed my hair appointment on Wednesday, due to snow, and I was SAD.  I have to wait five whole weeks, when I used to go every four...and five is torture!  So, today they were finally back in business, and they called me at the same time I was calling them.  I tried to reschedule, but the next available date (since they only work Tuesday-Friday) is next Friday, the 18th.  Umm..hello?  That's waayy too long!  I'm a blonde, remember?  So, they penciled me in for 2pm this afternoon, and Ches worked on the driveway.  We tried to get our POA to clear the neighborhood, especially since we have the money, but not everyone wants to pay the bulldozer man $2500, when it will melt off this weekend (probably).  So, bad hair.  For another whole week. : (

Friday...Sorry, I got so sleepy and never posted!  Today we (drum roll please..) Got Dressed!  We've been lounging around, watching television, and not keeping to a real routine other than meals.  But, today!  We got the kids bathed, dressed, and O-U-T!  Ches took the kids to Chick-Fil-A, I cleaned up the house, put in a turkey for dinner, and headed out myself.

The roads were not quite what I thought they'd be.  I slipped and slid around our neighborhood, but the city streets were much better.  I did wonderfully on the dry main roads (and had a bit of jealousy for all those trucks I saw with those fancy scoopers on the front..I want one!).  I picked up Mary Claire at CFA, and we found a bump of snow to park on at Wal-Mart.  They'd cleared the parking lot, left 8-10 foot piles of snow, and there were random areas of snow left.  We got one of those lucky spots. : )  We gathered groceries and stuff to make dinner for a friend.  We are so excited-we are making them pink cupcakes tomorrow!

We got home, unloaded the van, and found this adorable dragon in our house:

I've heard that you should never wake a sleeping dragon.

I started on some dressing and dinner, and continued work on the kids' Valentine boxes.  I don't know what possesses me sometimes.  Why do I love to make things?  It's just plain fun.  We used these basic boring supplies:

We couldn't use anything bigger than a shoebox, and we didn't have any of those!  We've recycled them all.  So..here are some things to use.  The gears started working...

Clay wanted a rounded US Mailbox, so we added toilet paper rolls to the top of the graham cracker box.  We left the opening at the bottom, so he could get his valentines out if the front opening wasn't big enough.

I hate to tell you I don't have a final picture, but I'll get one tomorrow!  We decoupaged them all with scrapbook papers.  Clay's is blue with a US Mail eagle, Ethan's is green with Toy Story stickers, and Mary Claire's is the round beef jerky tube that's covered in baking scrapbook paper, pom pom fringe, and ribbon.  So cute. (not fancy, very homemade.) (maybe that's why I wasn't so motivated to run get a picture?)

I also fit in time to make a little burp cloth for a sweet friend.  I have had the cloth diaper on my embroidery machine for almost two weeks..I have been debating on colors.  It's for a precious new baby girl, so of course pink, but I wanted another color too.  That's the hard part.  I decided on a preppy green gingham-very spring.  I am tired of winter, and ready to welcome bright colors (and flip-flops!).

During and after dinner, we played our (now routine) games of cards.  It's just become what we do with dinner, and the kids talk, think, and dinner goes slower.  It's so nice!  We count our points, but no one keeps a tally.  We just want them to know that when you hold on to an Ace, it can backfire when you have to subtract it off your final points!  We want them thinking.  Especially when a couple of us are down to one card. : )  It used to be Apples to Apples, but now we've moved on.  I like that we have routine, but it changes.

After cards, we worked on Clay's Paravuli Dei (it's a whole book, BTW!).  He had made us all paper treasure chests, and we passed them clockwise slowly around our circle (table).  As we had each person's chest, we wrote on the back what skills or talents God had blessed that person with.  Ethan was on my lap, and I wrote his for him.  It was one of the best things we've ever done.  We learned about ourselves, and Clay had to write in his book which talents were a surprise to him, and how often he tells others of the gifts he can see in them.  A great exercise, and we have these little treasure chests of our gifts. : )

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

1 Corinthians 12: 4-12

Contest Continues!

Christmas was wonderful-family, games (we played a great game of Monopoly!), good food, playing with new toys, sewing, heehee.  What a day!  What did you do?

I have to review whenever I finally upload pictures from my camera-I remember what we've been up to!  I forgot to post our finished gingerbread cookies-we only found red squeezy frosting at Wal-Mart, so we used it, plus some white we made with confectioners sugar and milk (2.5 cups sugar to 3 T. milk)-it set up stiff too!

Yes, I see the spotty brown bananas up there too-I was going to make banana bread.. Ok, so we had tons of white frosting, and the kids had lost interest, so I did the last couple of cookies with big smears & zigzags of white frosting, don't look at those.

I have to say, they ate the smears of white frosting first-they were so thick with frosting!

On Christmas Eve, we went to the Children's Mass at church.  There was a year where I was making dinner for everyone, and it got crazy and stressful, and I couldn't figure out how we were going to make it to church plus get dinner on the table for guests (and we were trying to get pregnant I might add-with Ethan-and it didn't go well that month!), and it was the worst Christmas-Ches was MaD we didn't make it to church, and we vowed to never miss church on Christmas again.  We changed our plans up, we make Christmas DAY dinner, or we have pizza on Christmas Eve.  It has realigned our priorities, and I'm glad he put his foot down (he very rarely does this, so I listened!).  I think when your kids are young, you are still figuring out how to make it all work.  By the time they are older, you have a plan, and small things get easier.
We made it to Children's Mass, and the kids chose to not be shepherds and angels this year.  They are getting so big!  It was fine with me, I'm sure they'll join in next year again.
Here they are after Mass, our annual picture:

Mary Claire sat up so nicely, and Clay always wants to be right with Ethan, so it makes her look older!  Something else to work on for next year!  Last year we got a family picture, but we can skip one year. : )

We saw some friends after church (with grown kids), and the mom told me that I hadn't changed a bit since she met me (she just needs new glasses, I'm sure), and then her husband told me that you wouldn't even know I'd had three kids, and then she said, "4" to him, and I corrected and said, "3", and she said four again.  I can't decide what to make of that.  She got our Christmas picture card (with three kids), but Ches thinks maybe she means he's the fourth kid.  Of course to me it's cryptic, and means one of my babies in Heaven.  I could've added them all up and corrected again, but I didn't.  Some times you have to shut up and let go.  (Life Lesson 18)

One of our "make life easier on Christmas Eve" resolutions this year was to make dinner reservations-out.  We all went to PF Chang's for dinner (it was crowded! so I think other people have our idea? or we just caught on to theirs?), and it was wonderful!  Ethan was kinda walking/climbing around our booth-he was so hyper and excited for Christmas!  We couldn't get super mad-it was Christmas Eve!
Then we came back, and had ice cream cake for Ches' birthday.  Since we'd spent the day out alone on his actual birthday, we hadn't celebrated with the kids yet.  We like to do both for them.  Even on their birthday, we let them pick somewhere to eat, and that's usually separate from their parties.
Here's our birthday man:

Ethan couldn't take time to take off his coat-there was a cake on the counter!

Speaking of birthdays, Ethan's is on Monday!  He got his first card in the mail from his great-great aunt and uncle-they NeVeR forget my kids' birthdays, and we take pictures of them opening their cards and mail them pictures and thank you notes!  We love them soo much! : )

Big Four-Year-Old! (on Monday!)

And then, they stayed up late watching A Christmas Story (we knew they wouldn't sleep in their beds early anyway-they'd just play that rubber ball game of getting up fifteen times, so we let them stay up till almost ten!)


And Christmas!  They woke up around 2am, Ches sent them back to bed, then they got up around 6:30-good enough for me.  We got Ches up, and he video'd, and I took a couple pictures.  It's so much more fun to put down the camera, open, untie, add batteries, unscrew, add batteries, put together, add batteries, cut tape, pull things from stiff plastic, and add batteries!  Seriously, I went to Sam's on Thursday just to buy batteries-a big package of AA, and a mixed set of all sizes (including AA).  Guess what we don't have enough of?  Yep, AA.  We have to get more to make sure everyone's things work at once!  We were "sharing" to let everyone get a turn with their toys!

Ethan playing with Criss-Cross-Crash, his M&M's and opening his gum!

Did a pink bomb explode?  That little heart tin is my gift card from Brighton! : )  Can you see my new pans over to the right?

Thanks for taking a minute to smile!

And then yesterday morning, I remembered that my sister-in-law had asked for some towels..and I hadn't made them yet!  I got out my embroidery machine and hauled it up to my desk.  In transit, I accidentally hit the USB jump drive, bent it, and the little USB part (pretty integral to it communicating the designs with my sewing machine), broke off!  I was sad.  All those designs, fonts, etc. were gone.  I couldn't access the drive with the plug-thing broken off!  So, I sat and did two new designs for her: a lower case T (from my new baby alphabet!) in a double-frame, and the Love design (redone, so not exactly the same).  Then I started sewing in between making dressing, taking pictures, and getting ready!  The little T kept giving me trouble-the stitches were so tight and close together, the bobbin thread kept stressing out and breaking-good thing I didn't. : )  They are fine, and done! : )  She didn't look at them on Christmas, but I hope she likes them anyway-they took me almost four hours!  Maybe I need more practice.

Oh, I forgot-Ches and Mary Claire got their eyes checked on Friday (Mary Claire has to get her eyes dilated every year to have the blood vessels checked), and Ches needs driving glasses, I think he's farsighted?  He reads fine, but has trouble seeing far away.  I told him to wait so I could pick out his glasses! : )  I want cute rectangle ones-he'll be adorable in them!

Speaking of her yucky diabetes, she's been high!  I know, I know, it's the food.  But, I changed her site this morning, and she's still high.  It's so hard to get it right-especially on holidays!  She got lots of non-candy in her stocking: gum packs, chocolate-covered pretzels, juice, fruit snacks, Ken clothes, a movie, Build-a-Bear panties and purse, chapstick, new toothbrush head (she has a special toothbrush for her braces!), and yes, one "candy": an M&M tube.  I really think it's all the desserts and extras.  I'm praying we'll pull it together in the next day-she's high and irritable! (and it's contagious!)

**Don't forget to leave a comment to win our contest for a monogrammed acrylic tumbler to be given away on December 31st!  I have found a site that will randomize a winner based on an uploaded list.  It generates a drawing (or winner) for me, so it's fair!  All you have to do is leave a comment with your name, the color cup you want and what it should say (name, letter, quote, etc.).  How easy is that? : )

Green Amour

Hey ya'll!  Little busy 'round here! : )  My tiny boy thought he'd help his daddy jump in rake leaves, and try out those leaf bags for size! heehee

While they were having fun, I had some work to do.  I debated on fabrics, and got some towels-Clay's teacher has a birthday on Wednesday, and we are going to have a party tomorrow!

Mrs. Lee likes green, polka dots, and stripes!

This is the first one: Love, Joy, & Peace (I switched them around this time!)

Then I tried a new applique font for her last name!

Here are the two together-I coordinated them, just in case she's ever using both at the same time. : )

Then, when it only took me two hours, I decided to keep going!  I made a few cards to add to her little package. : )  I knew I wanted them to kinda match the towels, so I got out some green ink, and pondered over cards.  I picked ecru, so I knew my theme: jute string, french stamps, an *L* for Lee, and a little green ribbon:

I added little crown stamps to the backs of the envelopes-I was very impressed with the stamps-they inked beautifully!  (I hadn't used all of them before)

I inked the backs too: Eiffel Towers, keys, and some Amour!

Yes, I've done plenty more in the past couple days, but do you really want to hear about it? No! : ) hahaha
I've just been up late shopping for applique designs online (got some free too!), helped my sweet Ethan recover from his tummy bug, and discovered laundry mating and multiplying behind my back!

We're going to go ahead and have another Real Thanksgiving this week, and make another turkey.  Not going to be a huge deal, but we do enjoy good food! : )  I usually make a yummy pumpkin pie with a crunchy pecan topping, but not this year-I bought a frozen pie!  (shhh-don't tell anyone!)  I guess there won't be any pictures of that one.
We can't wait for the kids to get out!  Tuesday is their last day, and Ethan's last day was today.  Tuesday afternoon Ches is planning to take Clay to see the new Harry Potter movie (I'm grossed out by it-so the rest of us will stay home), and Wednesday we are going to see the newest Disney movie, Tangled!  It looks so good, so I can't wait.  I'd love to shop on Friday-this will be a fun week! : )  What are you thankful for?

Finished

I finally finished my new work of art: applique and all!  This one goes to The Mom, our contest winner! : )

Here's how you do it:

First, it stitches a line where the letter will go.

Next, you lay spray adhesive and lay fabric over the line.

Then it stitches the line again, and you cut around it.

Finally, it makes pretty "vintage" stitches all around the letter! (Repeat for each letter!)

It's done! : )  I meant to put joy & peace, but I think it comes across the same. : )