Advent wreaths

Remember the play dough in the last post?  Well, this is what it was used for...

making advent wreaths during Sunday school today!  We had enough for Timothy to make one too, although he has to wait until the play dough hardens to light it.  And yes, we made them on Thanksgiving plates.  :)

Then I was trying to get a nice photo of our advent wreath and mr. photobomb decided to get in the action...

and teach his son how it's done.  Just what I need.

Happy 2nd week of Advent!

Advent, week 1

St. Nicholas came!

making play dough and yogurt

today it is play dough, tomorrow in Sunday school it will be advent wreaths

staying busy...

Mary is pregnant (thanks for the idea Laura!)

Jared is under the weather

tree is up and decorated

advent calendar is up and tracking

busy days...

Mommy's helper...

Quilt top done!

(I have been following this sew along)

Christmas Card Done!

Stationery Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Projects in Process

Advent Calendar Quilt...embroidering the numbers onto the pocket fronts

Next quilt is cut and ready!

Saurkraut, homemade and canned...yum...

Timothy's turkey!  He helped cut some of the tissue paper and press them onto the contact paper.  He also got to help glue it all up.  He was one happy camper.  :)

And the dishes are next on the list...

winter quilt with winter weather

I have been looking forward to the end of craft show sewing for awhile now and have wasted no time in getting myself wrapped up in several projects simultaneously.  Ha!  (By the way, I have sold most of what I made, woohoo!)

The first of which is a project I started in August and sent off to my friend Nancy to long-arm quilt and it just came home this past weekend.  Sewing the binding onto a finished quilt and then curling underneath it while watching tv is an excellent kickoff to holiday sewing!  Merry Christmas to me!  (I mean us...)  :)

Winters Lane Quilt 

(made with Winters Lane layer cake by Moda)

approx. 57" x 66"

saw this pattern here

Normally I would have quilted something this size on my machine at home, but I wanted a minky backing.  This stuff is so wonderfully soft, but stretches in one direction and not the other and has a good pile, so I decided to pass the project off on someone else so I didn't throw my sewing machine through a window.  Plus, she worked snowflakes into the quilting.  :)

And because my husband has completely claimed the quilt above as his own, I have another one in the works.  I am a complete sucker for sew-alongs and when I saw this going on, I needed to join in.  Here are my fabrics that just arrived in the mail (some may spend their monthly "allowance" on shoes or clothes, I just choose to invest mine in fabric):

It was an excellent day to start cutting into a fresh pile of fabric because we got our first snowfall!  Nothing crazy, just enough to cover the grass, but that didn't damper Timothy's spirits and we of course had to go out and play!

Halloween Fun

Timothy has been so excited for Halloween.  I think he is getting old enough to really understand some of what is going on and enjoyed the anticipation (aka asking us 8-12 times per day if Halloween has come for the past 2 weeks).  So much so that he is all ready to do it over again.  He was a little disappointed when I told him not until next year.  :)

He and daddy carved the big pumpkin on Wednesday night...

And then he painted the little pumpkin today.  You can also tell that I taught piano lessons by the sticker on Timothy's face.   Stickers are Timothy's favorite part of my lessons.

Super Timmy!  My awesome friend Gina made the cape a few weeks ago for Timothy and I whipped up a mask this week.  At first he didn't want to wear it, but we told him that he needed to wear his mask or people wouldn't put candy in his bucket.  He happily wore it for the rest of the night.  Ha!

Happy Halloween!

Almost 3

It is hard to believe that our little helper is almost 3.  But he is!

We had a beautiful Friday and Timothy was a great help when it came to destroying his father's leaf pile.  :)

He followed that up with helping with the dishes...and washing half of the kitchen, too!

We had our latest feeding clinic appointment in Sioux Falls this past week.  Timothy is now 28 lbs, 11 oz, and 34.5 inches, which the team was pleased with and everything else looked great, too.   We are going to keep pushing the eating and dairy products specifically to see how he does with them between now and his next appointment in January.  (My hope is to get off of the medical food formula he is on now and switch to something a little easier to obtain).

I made it through my first craft show, thanks to my mother in law for helping man the booth and the many friends that stopped by and purchased something.  I sold quite a few things, but I have a LOT left over.  I have most of it listed on Facebook right now and things are starting to sell.  Yay for a big trip to the post office on Monday!  :)  

No news on our adoption, just waiting.  The combination of seeing a newborn at church this morning and singing one of the hymns from Evelyn's funeral proved to be too much.  I shed a few tears, doubtful that people really knew why.  But our organist must have seen me and came up after church and said that hymn makes her cry since the funeral, too.  I cried some more...

October Thus Far

This month is moving way too fast...here are the highlights, or at least things I have gotten a picture of. :)

Football with popcorn and daddy while the weather is crummy...

and some special pictures too.  :)  Jared has his iphone setup where I get all of his pictures on our photostream.  And I find special treats like the following...

Craft time with tissue paper and contact paper...

Superhero in training...
and with no pants on because he is also potty training...

We have been doing lots of baking which Timothy helps whenever I dare to bake when he is awake :)

Anyone see a mini Jared in this one?

It is nice to see Jared back at work too...

My first craft show is coming up next weekend, so I'll post some pics as I finish up my stockpile.  I am keeping my fingers cross that I get some of it sold...the profits are going towards the adoption fund.  We have another $6,000 to go before everything is paid for.  No news on the adoption yet, but the time is okay right now as we continue to stash what we can away.  Our goal is to pay for it without borrowing, and we have done it so far.  It is amazing to know that we have just 1/3 of the cost left!