I Love Sundays

Sundays are great. Yes, Satan does try and attack when you are going to worship, but overall at the end of the day, everything is just right. We made it to Sunday school and church this morning, got our Christmas tree after church, came home and Craig and the kids slept, I got to attempt a new baking thing, called my mom-in-law to wish her a happy birthday and she got to see the kids thanks to Skype (we now use this and really like it instead of Live Messenger) and went to dinner at my parents. All in all, a nice day. Another reason I like Sundays, is that I get to dress my kids up in cute clothes. Something new I tried today is making fondant using marshmallows and powdered sugar - very easy. I recently had it at our friend's son 1st birthday and it was delicious. I like the way fondant looks, but it usually is disgusting tasting. I used basic cake mix and vanilla frosting and prepared a cake a how I normally would. I then melted the marshmallows and put in a LOT of powered sugar to mold it into a ball. Eventually, it turned into the fondant I was looking for. The only thing, is I need to work on how to get the color better. I was looking for a deep red and it was more pink. Anyway, it was my first try ever and took some trial and error on the rolling out part, but it turned out decent and tasted great. I am thinking for kids birthdays, this would be fun. I also kept the leftover fondant to let Jack use as molding clay because he can eat it. Craig said that he would then eat Plato. He has done that before too. Thankfully it is non-toxic. Here are some pictures from our day...

The Season Begins!

Today was Jack's 3rd Thanksgiving and Kate's 1st. We had a great day. Jack actually spent the night with Papa and Gigi (and Blake) and Craig and I got some quality time with Kate last night at dinner and this morning. I did some cooking this morning and actually did a little shopping today. I headed to Old Navy at noon and got some great deals on jeans and stuff. I returned to find my sweet little girl had a major explosion and ruined her cute Thanksgiving turkey shirt. I was disappointed, but she couldn't help it. Ah, the joys of cute, little babies. We then went to my parents and had a tasty dinner. Today was pretty low-key (minus the 5 kids under 2 being toddlers and babies) and we enjoyed our day just eating and being together. I also was able to get some additional projects done the past few nights. I made 2 shirts for Paige and Claire using the backstitch and sewing some grosgain ribbon on the bottoms. I then painted a piggy bank for Kate. When I was little, I collected pigs and not that I necessarily want her to collect them too, but it is nice memory for me and she is my "little piggy". Tomorrow, we are planning on doing some shopping! Again, I am so wonderfully thankful and blessed with my children, husband, health, family and friends. God has given us more than we deserve. Thanks be to Him!

So Many Ideas...So Little Time

I have so many creative ideas running around in my head including sewing and stitching and painting and I want to do them, but things have been nuts around here. My last day of work is Wednesday (sad face) and Thanksgiving is Thursday. This week is pretty much shot, so when things return to somewhat normal routine, in a few days, I will blog more and post about some of my ideas and show you what I am working on. Until then, have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving. Praise be to God for all He has given us. I am so thankful.

Backstitch - Part Two

I decided to add some flair to the backstitch, by adding an applique in the middle. The first one is a shirt for Kate for our Harvest Party this weekend and the second is just a shirt for Jack - he may be a tad obsessed with tractors. I used No-Sew Heat N Bond to put the appliques on then used the backstitch around the edge. It was relatively easy and looks pretty good. I have more ideas running around in my head and I want to work on them. We went to a local festival this weekend with a lot of crafts and I got some great ideas for future projects. I also did a holiday pacifier keeper for Kate last week. I will probably do that often as it was easy and cute. I love having a girl to dress up!

First of Many

Yesterday was Kate's 2 month appointment and she did great, even with 3 shots. We are good, or so I thought. I picked up the kids and we came home. Kate had a major blow-out and she needed a full makeover. I laid her down on the floor and got her all cleaned up. Jack came into her room and saw the hand sanitizer. Jack is notorious for clean hands (yeah, right). He loves washing them and sanitizing. He grabbed the bottle on the back of the changing station. With the grab the entire station fell down and Kate was just about to be smashed underneath it. I was right there and managed to stop the station from falling on her, but her humidifier (the coy pig below) fell on her and hit her in the head. She cried, Jack was calling "sissy", I was thinking my child has a concussion. I called Craig and then we called Urgent Care. She was fine. She was smiling and cooing at me after she stopped crying and has been fine since. It was a little swollen, but I was so worried with a head injury. That pig's bottom weighs a lot. I think Jack felt bad and has been kissing her all day. I am sure this is the first of many bumps and bruises Kate will have; hopefully too many won't be inflicted by her big brother.

The Injured

The Injurer

Just When You Think...

As my earlier post stated, I had a rough day yesterday, but was encouraged and renewed today by God and his faithfulness. Today was much better and my evening got EVEN better when my mom came by tonight with an early Christmas present from them....a SEWING MACHINE! I was SO excited and in shock. I was hoping I would get one in a few months, but to get it now is great. I set it up tonight and played around with it to see what I could do with it. It says it has "54 stitch functions". Now, do I think I will use them all, probably not but who knows. I can't wait to do more stuff on it and need to be inspired!

Every Morning

You ever have one of those days? Yesterday was that day for me. The two bright spots were that Craig survived his prop plane flight (I always get nervous when he goes in that 4-seater plane) and my pump on my breast pump broke and Learning Curve is replacing the whole thing for free. Sweet! Other than that, it was not a good day. In fact, after we put the kids to bed, I fell asleep at 8:30. I felt bad for Craig too. As soon as he walked in, I unloaded about my day. He listened, but was a little scared to say anything to me. I don't blame him. Number 76 reason God made husbands. Thankfully, I can remember this verse for today and try to recover...

Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him". - Lamentations 3: 22-24 (NIV)

We went outside this morning and Jack played with his friend Kayleigh. Besides him attempting to run her over with various toys and hit her with them too, they had fun and it was nice to get out and relax.

My perspective must be that I don't have it that bad and God is good - every morning.