Visitors!

This girl  is at my house right now!

And this family is in town.

And my favorite event-The Tumbleweed Festival- was this weekend.

So I'm too busy having fun!  More Jimmy soon.  :)

Crochet Shawl

I actually made something for myself!

I found this pattern last fall-maybe in an email from Lion Brand?  Simple Crochet Shrug



I bought the yarn for it and slooowwly, at night and at the cabin and in those days before Threesie when I was trying to sit still, I finished it!  It was super simple.

Mine is, of course, longer than the one in the picture because I crochet so loosely.  I followed the measurement guidelines and I think it'll work just fine, but it is bigger.  I used my favorite yarn, Lion Brand Homespun, in Barley.  

It's very soft and snuggly and Anna already wants to steal it.

A reason to look forward to Fall!

Katie's favorite shirt and grin

If Katie spies this little blue shirt in the drawer, or, more likely, in the clean clothes to be put away, she immediately tugs on her own shirt to take it off and switch it for this one.  It is awfully cute.  

What you get if you ask Katie to "smile!".  

Back to School Skirt

I wanted to make a Back to School Skirt with Anna, but I really didn't know if we would get to it.  One morning she came down to pick out fabric and found a piece of an apron I had goofed up and asked if we could make a skirt out of it.  It was brilliant-because three sides were already finished, so all we had to do was sew it together and put in a casing for elastic.  

I let her run the machine all by myself-which was very hard.  I tried not to be hover-y, and she did a fantastic job.  She went nice and slow and did a wonderful job sewing in a straight line.  I could not figure out how to explain moving the elastic through the casing-she kept doing it backwards.   We'll have to work on that some more.  

Here she is, proud in her new skirt.

She's very excited to wear it to school.  Today!!

Jimmy's first photo shoot

Remember when I took these pictures of Anna and Katie in their matching froggy pj's from Auntie Sus?

This summer at Goodwill I spotted another pair-in 18 months!  So Katie could wear those and Jimmy could wear the newborn outfit and Anna still fit into hers.  More matching clothes pictures!  I love matching.  

Jimmy is already worried about this.  

I somehow caught this beautiful one of Katie. 

Jimmy calmed down a lot once his sisters were on the scene.  He just didn't want to be the only one in froggy jammies, I guess.  

This one is MJL's favorite.  Katie doesn't LOOK malicious.  

See, most of the time she really loves him.  

And we even got some with three kids looking nice.  Thanks kiddos!

Jimmy's Journal

MJL wrote the "story" of how Jimmy got here, which I'm thankful for, because people love to read birth stories and there's something weird and non-girl in me that just does NOT want to do that.  My story would read something like "Yeah, I went to the hospital and had a baby-what of it?"  in a bored/confrontational tone.  I don't know why.

But here is a lovely post about how Jimmy got here.

We Had a Baby and It Was OK

The post title alludes to this funny comic strip we read in college.

The only thing I would add is that the first thing I did when I woke up and thought we were finally going to have a baby was run downstairs and finish Chelsea's quilt top!  Woo hoo!  

Jimmy's first day home

We woke up on the first morning as a family of five in our own house, and Daddy had to go to work.  :(  Luckily we had time for some breakfast together first.

Then we all got to work.  Anna helped unload the dishwasher.

Katie went around sitting in things that Jimmy was using and re-claiming them as her own.

Jimmy took naps and was cute.

I was super thankful for my pregnancy splurges-soft sweatpants and new flip flops (with arch support!) and pretty toes.

Jimmy did more important work.  

Katie kept an eye on things.

It took her less than one hour to think to go get her stool so she could see better.
  

Jimmy was worn out from all of that cuteness and eating.

So he slept.  My goal was to try and be realistic about what I could accomplish.  I was probably too tired at the end of the day, but there were things left undone on my list, so I count that as a victory.

Anna's Macaroni and Cheese

Anna was excited to learn to make Mac 'n' Cheese.  

She measured the milk and butter VERY carefully.  I explained that the nice thing about Macaroni and Cheese is that nothing has to be precise.  She may have believed me.  

Using the stove was very exciting, and she also liked that there were a few minutes during the cooking of the noodles where she could go read.  I tried to explain that wasn't the best idea while cooking. 

She was very proud to serve Daddy and Poppa Marion their lunch.  

Fusible applique flower

Chelsea's wedding quilt involves some fusible applique, and it occurred to me that I ought to try it out on something smaller rather than begin with a queen size quilt for my oldest friend's wedding.  

So I made this little flower using the leaf shapes from the quilt pattern.  

It was REALLY fun and easy.  You just draw shapes and cut them out and pick little bits of fabric and make a picture and iron them on and then sew around them-so much potential.  Here's a tutorial I found-I didn't use it or anything-but in case you're curious.  

So much fun to learn new things!  

Sugar Cookies

**I know, you want Jimmy pictures!  We'll get there.  In the meantime, I have posts scheduled for a week or two.  (I had to find things to do while I was waiting!)

 

On Election Day Anna and I made some Sugar Cookies.  

Mrs. Hope's recipe in Mom's handwriting, a card chock full of happy associations.  I've got to add "scan all of Mom's recipes" to my list sometime.  Susan and Abby need to have these too.  

Katie happily measured ice and scooped it from one container to the next while Anna and I were baking.  

You can see we're not totally used to the glasses yet-I think she was up for a couple of hours before we noticed.  She's getting the hang of leveling flour, and definitely loves using the mixer.  

 I didn't roll them out, we just made a log and cut circles.  I was thankful Anna was up for that.  I think having this cake plate out is great inspiration!  We've been keeping it mostly full of tasty treats.  

Peaches!

One of the things I look forward to all year is getting a box of peaches.  

 A local church drives to Colorado and brings back a truckload and sells them for a fundraiser.  Mom and I used to split a box, I'm so thankful that Dixie called me the August after she died and asked if I wanted one.  

They're heavenly delicious.  

I start the morning with two peaches and vanilla yogurt.

And often eat one over the sink sometime during the day.

And have two more with ice cream just before bed. 

It's probably gluttonous-but it's just once a year.  :) 

Paper Crafts Day

 Last Friday Anna and I had a ball in the afternoon working on paper crafts.  She made cards for Abby and Madelyn.

 I finally got to play with the calendar Susan gave me in 2011-each month had instructions on the back to turn the paper into folders and boxes and notecards.

 Here's the bounty-all from that one calendar that I enjoyed for a full year.  I love using things more than once.

And I had a stack of other post-consumer waste that I wanted to turn into things-notebooks and bookmarks.

It was a really fun afternoon.

Fun Pod

I have been coveting a fun pod since Anna was a toddler.  But they're ridiculous!  Kids can stand on chairs!

With all this baking, Katie kept wanting to help and kept falling out of chairs.  Matthew, having heard me talk about these learning towers and kitchen helpers and fun pods for five years, kept telling me to get one already!

I finally just did.  And we love it.  Katie's contained and happy and helping and safe and CONTAINED!  I'm a lucky Mama.  Now I just have to NOT go to Sonic the next 100 times I want to and it'll be paid for.  4 so far!  :/