Christmas to New Year's

The week between Christmas and New Year's is such a deliciously different week.  I feel like there is so much prep and anticipation for Christmas.  Then it ARRIVES, and everyone is allowed to take a bit of a breath, relax, and enjoy.  There was a lot of sickness for us, but we made it through.  In some ways it forced us to slow down even more.  We did a lot of reading, crafting (Hello, Rainbow Loom!!  Where have you been all my life?), and board game playing.  New Year's Day is our anniversary.  It was a simple day- recovering from staying up too late the night before. ;0)  But we got to mass, took the kids out for a special lunch, and made some yummy Cornish game hens for dinner.  We will have a more elaborate celebration next week, I think.  2013 was a challenging year.  However, I am becoming more aware that challenges are not necessarily bad.  That through the difficulties one can change and grow in ways you never thought you could through the grace of God.  The God part is essential though.  I see Him working on me- on all of us- and I see hope, and I hold on ever tighter. 

I am not ready for this Christmas break to be over.  I could use one more week.  Only a couple more days until the routine and school and everything else starts all over again.  So, I am going to go sew while my kids play with neighbor kids outside and enjoy and dream  about all the blessings I have been given.

   

-last week-

Finishing up some school work.  Ah...math.

Jesse Tree Ornaments (from this etsy shop). I purchased the multi color set, and they are so lovely!

Ornament crafting.  I found this cute little ornament craft at Target for $3. My kids loved it, and we attached them to our cookie gifts for neighbors.

Lots and lots of cookie baking.  I think I gained three pounds over the past three days.  Shouldn't Christmas baking be calorie free? *sigh*

Special Christmas toy playing.

This has inevitably all led up to the annual Christmas sickies.  We all have horrible coughs.  Pooh.

-spring-

A birthday, Easter, and a First Communion.  Life is good and busy. And no, I didn't make anything for her First Communion.  I feel a little bad about that, but I just didn't have the energy.  However, she is wearing my wedding veil, and I gave her the same necklace my mom gave me on my First Communion.   She had a wonderful day, and we are so proud of our big girl.  Juliana made her first quilt (top) for Samantha for her birthday.  It is for Samantha's doll.  They were both pleased.  Also, it is so hard getting a picture of all four kids together.

-first birthday outfit-

My sweet Samantha turns one next week.  Talk about a year going by fast.  She is the tiniest little thing you have ever seen.  People are often surprised how old she is.  She just now is starting to fit into nine month clothes.  She may be tiny, but she is surprisingly independent.  She already yells at us to do things for her and knows how to push her big brother's buttons just right.  She doesn't seem to have any interest in walking just yet, but she crawls everywhere and gets into plenty of mischief.  

For her outfit I knit her the "In Threes Cardigan".  This was my first little sweater, and it was so much fun and went together fast since it uses a worsted weight.  I already have another one planned for another baby.  The yarn is Knit Picks Swish worsted in Wonderland Heather.  The dress is the Molly Peasant Dress.  I have made this pattern lots of times, and it is a great basic little dress that you can change up and personalize.  For the diaper cover I used Dana's free diaper cover pattern.  Super quick and comes in a variety of sizes!

Now to go finish that quilt I started her a year ago...! ;0)

-2012-

I am a little late in writing my end of the year post, but hey...that goes for everything in my life right now. ;0)  This is the best picture we got of our kiddies on Christmas Eve.  So hard to get all four kids looking and smiling!  I made the two older girls' dresses using Oliver + S Playdate Dress pattern.  I have had this pattern in my stash for years, and I was glad I finally took the plunge!  I love how they turned out.  They are Christmas-y without being super fancy.  My kids are hard on their clothes, and it was nice to have washable dresses.  The hardest part of this pattern was the yoke...tricky!  Once I got past this part though, the pattern is pretty easy.

My favorite picture...my oldest and youngest.  I love these girls.

Here are some of my favorite projects from 2012.  What a strange year.  My sewing/crafting went through a lot of dry spells this year.  However, cross stitching and knitting saved me at the end of the year!  I was in desperate need to have more portable and put downable projects.  I loved learning how to knit.  I have wanted to learn for years, and I am having so much fun.  I will come back later this week to show more of what I have been knitting lately!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!  Here is to a wonderful 2013!

xoxo,

Meg

-little bits-

My Felicity turned five this week.  She has been waiting for this day ever since her big sister's birthday, and finally it came!  She was so happy and pleased as punch with all her gifts.

  One of the best things about having a number of kids is getting to see how different they all are.  She is a very sweet and easy going child (most of the time).  This is so nice since *cough* I have two other children who are not so easy going.  Klutz is her middle name though.  She trips and falls all the time.  She has broken one of our kitchen chairs trying to smell muffins.  The band aid box is needed weekly if not daily.  However, she has such a kind, gentle heart, and I am so proud of my big girl.

She received the coveted American Girl doll who looks like her.  She named her Isabella.

I am also starting to plan for my Christmas crafting.  I bought some Cherry Christmas and some red polka dots to make some Christmas dresses for the girls.

I have also started my first knitting project!  I am making Millwater (per Angela's recommendation!).  I am having so much fun making it! It is guaranteed that this time of year I start craving some yarn projects, but this time I am learning to knit!  This has opened up all sorts of possibilities, and I have become obsessed with Ravelry!  If you knit or crochet, come be friends with me over there!!

Also, I finished my Winterwoods Sampler!  I love it!  I want to get it framed before sharing it with you all first though!

-seven-

She turned seven last week!  Sometimes it really does catch me by surprise that she isn't my little toddler anymore.  She is growing up to be such a sweet, lovely girl.  I just want to hold on tight and bottle up her eagerness and zest for life.

I made her the bento box carrier in "Little Things to Sew".  She loves pouring over that book and has been asking me to make her this for months.  I used a Japanese fabric with Princess and the Frog that I got over the summer at Super Buzzy.

I think the reason she loved it so much was because of the inside.  She loved the little appliqued plate and utensils.  So, of course, I made sure to include that.  

This is definitely a project I would never have picked one my own.  However, it really wasn't hard, and I got it done over a few nights.  It was my first time making cut out handles, and they are easy!  Now I want to make more things with cut out handles. ;0) I love when you discover that something that looks intimidating really isn't.  Plus, when she opened it she was delighted and thanked me over and over.  So. worth. it.

We took the two older girls to Disneyland to celebrate, and they had a wonderful time!  It was their first time, and I think they were the perfect age.

They loved the rides and other attractions, but all they really cared about was meeting the characters from their favorite movies.  We got all their autographs and pictures with each one, and we have plans to assemble a little book.

My favorite picture of the whole trip.  

We were waiting in line to see Minnie,  and Felicity saw this little girl.  She went over, and they started discussing and comparing which princesses they had met.  

The face!  The crossed legs!  Gah!  I can't help but giggle.  Clearly, this was quite a serious venture we were on.

Happy birthday to my dear, dear girl!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

{pretty}

My friend, Jen, recently came over and brought me this beautiful dresden pillow!  It is so lovely.  I love all the neutrals.  It goes perfectly on my red couch, which is so hard to make pillows for.  Not many things go with a red couch.  I am blessed in my friendship with Jen.  It was one of those friendships that God provided at just the right time, and she is just so much fun to hang out and laugh with.   

{happy}

Juliana had her first day of enrichment classes at the charter school we are enrolled in for homeschoolers.  She gets to go to school one day a week and is taking a farm animal class and a camping class.  She *loved* the whole thing.  I was told she learned about animal poop (manure), constellations, and that the boys were not very good at listening.

{funny}

Josiah set up all his dinosaurs under his crib.  He excitedly showed them to me.  When I called the kids downstairs for lunch, we found him fast asleep.  Hard work admiring your perfectly lined up dinosaurs.

{real}

Josiah's interest in books has really peaked lately.  He asked for a cup of water, placed it on the table, ran for a book, and sat down to enjoy.  Guess he has been watching the rest of us.  So sweet.

However, this is how I found him "reading" this morning after we were finished with school. *sigh*  At least he left one book on the bookshelf.

-smashing-

Something I started this summer was a Smash book!  I admit that I am terrible about documenting things about our family.  I was first introduced to the Smash book idea through Gwen when she was giving one away for her birthday.  I totally fell in love with the idea of just writing and pasting all the little bits of our life.

So, I bought the pink one to use for the family. I am doing it Project Life-ish style.- except monthly instead of weekly.  There is no way I could keep up if I tried to do it weekly!  I add little thoughts about the kids and all the things we have done throughout the month.  It is fun to have a place to write down all the funny things they say and a place to paste the sweet little things they are always drawing and making.

I like to use PicMonkey for the pictures.  I upload pictures from my iPhone and camera and make little collages. You can either keep them as one or cut them out for little Polaroid style pictures.  It makes it much easier to fit everything in, and then I don't have to print tons of pictures.  I have been having so much fun with this one for our family I also bought one for me to use more as personal journal for me.  I went with the orange one since it was a little simpler in style and had more pages for writing.

In an effort to get my act together even more in the photo department I also made Felicity and Josiah's baby books using Shutterfly.  It was so easy!  Besides uploading the pictures it didn't take much effort to put them together.  I am definitely going this route again for Samantha.  I also love how flat they are in comparison to how bulky regular photo albums can be.

From Josiah's...

From Felicity's...  

Now I don't have to feel guilty about the kids only being able to pull out Juliana's baby book to admire and ooohh over!

-rainbows and more-

So, I am trying to finish off some of my unfinished small projects because I just ordered some pretty yarn, but before I use it I told myself I would finish all those pesky small things I still have lying around. Why is it so much fun to start a new project even when you have so many others just waiting to be finished?  This iPhone case was the first thing cross stitched off the list! ;0)  Rainbow chevrons! Fun and bright!  I bought this one from Amazon.  It isn't the greatest quality but it looks cute on!  One thing to be aware of though is that the grid is rather large so if you want to do a more intricate pattern I would probably choose a case like this.

We started back to school a couple of weeks ago.  Our year is going well so far.  I really put a lot of thought and effort into our curriculum this year because I learned a lot from last year and got a better idea of exactly where Juliana struggles and what she is interested in.  I also keep it simple.  Learning is supposed to be fun, and it is clear to me that at this age that the most important thing is for the kids to  love to learn.  Our resource teacher at the charter school tested Juliana on what she should know by the end of the year,  and she did awesome.  In fact, she did more than awesome.  *whew*  I am not a failure. ;0)  I keep seeing all these first day of school pictures, and I admit I didn't get one of the girls.  Their hair was messy, and their outfits were mismatched.   We had a great first day though!  One of the things we are learning about are the Works of Mercy.  Juliana and I were thinking of ways for her to help clothe the naked and came up with the idea for her to sew a dress for a little girl who needs one.  She loved sewing it and did most of the work except the binding.  We will be sending this little pillow case dress off to Little Dresses for Africa.

Soccer season has also started up again!

Juliana came up with the name for her team "Star Girls", and the girls all voted for hers.  She originally came up with the "Green Jelly Beans", which I think we were secretly disappointed didn't get picked. ;0)

-cherishing-

I didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging.  Life just seemed to happen.  Things like hand, foot, mouth disease(yes, we the parents got this even though supposedly this is a childhood disease.  My feet were SO itchy!), surgery, vacation, home projects, homeschool planning, and this sinus infection that I am still fighting.  Sewing has been very hit and miss over the past six weeks.  I did become obsessed with Anna's Wide Mouthed Zipper Pouches though.  Love this tutorial, and that she has three different sizes.  The top one is the small, and the two on the bottom are the medium. 

My husband and I ran a Color Me Rad 5K at the end of June.  It was a lot of fun even if it was stinking hot at 8:30 in the morning.  At different points during the race they would throw or spray a color at you.  The kids' eyes almost bugged out of their heads when we came home.  My next goal is a 10K by Thanksgiving! 

This girl lost her first two teeth.  Here she is trying to pull out the first one with a hairband?  It turned out to be a rather traumatic affair with a visit to the dentist, her fainting, and dropping the two teeth when she fainted. However, a visit from the Tooth Fairy made it all grand, and the first thing she shows any other kid is the big hole she has at the bottom of her mouth. 

 We spent a week at the beach.  It was a much needed and lovely time.

We spent a day at the Santa Barbara Zoo, which a really lovely little zoo- complete with cardboard sliding hill, train, and dinosaur show. 

I also got to meet up with Chicken Julie.  We have had each other as partners in different swaps.  I made her this mug rug, and she made me this awesome makeup pouch.

We met up at Super Buzzy, which really is super- full of all sorts of Japanese crafty goodness.  So hard to shop in a store when you just want to take the whole store home with you. 

The girls had swim lessons and Vacation Bible School.

Here is a month of Sammy.  Having a little baby around has made me reflect again on how fast it all goes by.  She is already four months!  She is grabbing her feet, trying to roll, and smiles at all the ceiling fans. 

Having a baby also means I have been struggling with getting my "to do" list done, and I have often been grumpy and out of sorts.  I keep thinking that I need to catch up, and I start to feel like I am drowning. 

So, I take a breath.  Say a prayer.

I look at the sweet faces before me.

Play the Game of Life with them. 

(My girls love this game.  They love getting a job, a husband, a house, and filling their cars up with kids.)

I took this girl and her sister swimming last night.  Felicity has been struggling with her confidence in the pool.  We were practicing swimming very short distances.  Her little face started glowing with happiness as she realized she was swimming. 

I told her how proud I was of her. 

She turned to me and asked, "You are just so glad you have a daughter like me?" 

Heart. stop.

These four children of mine are my heart and my life- the best gift I have ever received.  I want them to know that and to feel it as well. 

So, I ignore my list of sewing projects I would like to get done (and all the other "to dos" floating in my head) and focus on the essentials.

I will find the time to sew again soon.