Merry Christmas!

how cute!

I snapped this while trying to take our Christmas card picture .... if only the other 4 would have cooperated.

Missing the kids

Things have been a little crazy around here, lately. My husband had surgery to fix two ruptured discs in his neck, so my Mom has all the kids. I'm really starting to miss the little boogers. Especially the little one - she gives some of the best hugs. I'm supposed to pick them up tomorrow night, but I'm thinking I might go in the morning.

recital

I didn't get a single good picture, but we did get a GREAT video of my boys at their first ever piano recital. Two did Jingle Bells and one played Deck the Halls. All three were WONDERFUL! They got to play in the concert hall at the college on a 9-ft. Steinway grand piano, which I think, made it more special.

Hostess Apron

It's time to send out a fancy apron for the Holiday Hostess Swap. I used the skirt from the dress above (one of the girl's dresses last year) to make the apron, and the black material I took from my Mom's stash. I wish I could have kept the rhinestones around the bow, but half of them had fallen out, so I just used black cord. The lovely Chuck agreed to model the finished product below.

You wouldn't believe the goodies

I got a great package in the mail yesterday! I was part of a scrap swap where I sent 3 people my scraps. Here is what Dianah made for me with my scraps. Above, a coffee collar ... check out the steaming cup of coffee! Love it.



Here are two dishtowels, remember that cowgirl material I made the apron out of? Now I have a matching towel! How fun is that?

This is my favorite towel with the Eiffel Tower!

A bookmark, again with the cute cowgirl!

The coffee collar again on a coaster ... the picture I took of the coaster didn't turn out very well; so just know that there is a really cute coaster under that cup. She also sent some tea and chocolate covered peppermint sticks in the cup! Thank you, Dianah.

Total outfit

I couldn't get a good picture of her, but here is the completed outfit I started a year and a half ago. You might remember this dress I made for little bit last summer - well I think it looks just as cute as a top over pants. What about you? And I LOVE the black ribbon in the beret.

oops, I think she did it again

3 days after John cut her hair, little bit decided he didn't get the bangs enough - and cut some more off herself. I think I really should change the name of my blog; maybe "Hair Happenings", "Frolicking Follicles", or "Tame the Mane".

But look! It is easily remedied ... a cute hat. I started making this beret for her last winter and never finished. It has eyelets around the band to put a ribbon around it; and I can't decide what color to use. I found the pattern here and I love the way it turned out.

Ornament swap

I got my ornaments in the mail earlier this week from my swap partner, Andrea. She certainly outdid herself with not 1 but 3 ornaments! I love them and we really can't wait to put our tree up this year. The kids are begging to go ahead and decorate now so we can enjoy them longer. Hey, they're only young once, right? So I might just go ahead and get the tree down this weekend.

Thanks, JoAnne for putting this FUN swap together.

Isnt' this stitch marker beautiful? I got a set of 12 from an Etsy shop for a steal - I see that she doesn't have anything for sell anymore, so I'm not sure if she went out of business. So let me tell you what the stitch marker is on. I cast on for a poncho for little bit (who cut the rest of her bangs off - but that is another post) and it's moving pretty fast. Hopefully I'll have a finished picture by next week. My only regret is that I didn't think to choose a red yarn - because what would be cuter than a red poncho with a red hood? I'll tell you - NOTHING.

Princess crown

I made a princess crown for little bit to wear on Halloween. I got the pattern from Interweave and it was really quick, and seemed to stay on; unlike store bought tiaras. My only regret is that I didn't add beads and sequins as I was knitting. But since I waited until 2 hours before time to go trick or treating - I didn't have the time. I tried gluing some sequins on, but it didn't work. Oh well, I can always sew some jewels on later.

bruised nose, day 4

I do believe this past Wednesday was a bad day for my Red. First, one brother cuts her hair off, then another brother accidentally does this to her nose. In case any are wondering, I did take her to the doctor and it is NOT broken. Aren't her eyes beautiful??

More pics

All we decided to do to fix Anna's hair was cut her bangs a little shorter to help hide the gap. I will HAVE to put a barette in her hair everyday, because just know she has no hair under the beautiful comb over job I did. It's not so noticable if she keeps it in.

Here's Molly's nose after church tonight. I think I'll take her to the doctor tomorrow to make sure it's not broke. It looks crooked to me, but I think it might just be because only one side is swelling. hmmmmmm, the reminds me of last year, when John cut all her hair off and she had a bright red nose that wouldn't heal. Won't I ever learn? I'm off to buy some chains and lock all the scissors, markers, crayons, candy, and chocolate syrup up. Or maybe I'll just lock the kids up instead!

I'll take a side of swollen nose to go with that hair

A goofamungus big brother was swinging a golf club around when we got home from her haircut and hit the poor thing in the nose. I really can't wait to go to bed tonight.

Lamentations

I just thought I'd post the above picture to remind you all of how cute my kids were yesterday. We went to the zoo and had the greatest time. Here they are in a huge bird's nest that was in the bird sanctuary type place. Okay, so now that you've had a good look at them yesterday; take a look at what I found this morning after my shower. Since this happened almost a year ago, I'm pretty careful with my scissors. After much screaming, crying, and flinging my arms wildly around - I asked to bring me the scissors. John brought down my super duper sharp Gingher fabric scissors. How in the world did they find those and what were they doing upstairs?????? I will tell you who he blamed. His exact words were, "The Freeman's took them up there." This from the boy who last night after continually getting out of bed said, "I didn't do it on purpose." You wouldn't believe how much I cried and screamed this morning, I think I'm finally over it and actually laughing a little.

So without further ado, I bring you pictures of the new haircuts in our house.

Another swap

Remember when I said I was about swapped out for awhile? Well I had forgotten that I signed up for an ornament swap a long time ago. In fact, I have 3 more swaps to do before Thanksgiving. Then I'll really, really lay off of them ... at least for a couple of weeks. So here is the ornament I made for my partner. It the first beadwork I've done in my knitting - and I like how it turned out, do you?



I got this pattern from a booklet called 12 Exquisite Beaded Ornaments to Knit . It was super quick and easy, but I did leave bars where my double pointed needles joined.

I can't wait to see what kind of ornament I'm getting!

Rainy Day Fun

See all those little legs hiding from under a tent we made? Take a look inside it .... how sweet is that?

She's Electric

Why I had kids

Awwww, his first time cutting the grass. He was proud; and the grass looks good! I would look out the window every once in a while to check on him, and spied him singing. He reminded me of ME! Singing on the lawn mower is better than in the shower any day in my book.

Tag, I'm it

Can you believe how much this little one has grown? Does everyone remember how thin her hair was on top? It finally started coming in good and thick; and her older brother decided to cut her hair! Do you remember the Tinkerbelle cut? Oh the fun we have with hair around here.




Nikki tagged me with a really fun game! What you do is this: go to your pictures, click on the 4th folder, then the 4th picture, post about it on your blog, then TAG 4 people.

I am tagging ...
FeFe
Nicole
Nancy
TJ (do you and Nicole use different computers?)
And I'm adding one more for good measure, KT

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

People, you won't even believe the dress she is giving away this week! You HAVE to go check it out!

Thank the Lord for my Mommy!

I know ... I would be crying too if I had my hair cut like that. Actually, she LOVED her haircut, but alas, I, her Mommy did not. She wanted to get her hair cut like "Carlie's" - her favorite brother. The lady cut her some bangs and they were so precious, until she rounded it and added layers. Here she reminds me David Cassidy during his Partridge Family years.




My Mom took a 30 minute drive over to save the day. Of course, little bit wouldn't cooperate since it was 8:30 and she hadn't even had a nap all day yesterday.



In the end, I love this haircut so much more - it fits a little girl a little more. Can you believe how much rounder her face is? I could really just eat it up! What do you all think of it? I'll try to post better pics later.

We the People Swap 2

I made this little bucket organizer thing for my swap partner in the We The People Swap. it's got lots of pockets all around the outside, so hopefully she can puts lots of good sewing stuff in it. It's a Simplicity pattern and frankly, no fun to sew. I'm not sure I'll ever make another.



I messed up, but didn't even fix it. Can you tell a difference between the above and below photo? Well, one of the pieces of vinyl is on the wrong way. The black trim going down the middle of the pocket in the one below is on the inside instead of out. I didn't think it was worth undoing all my work.



And here is my organizer that the lovely Sarah made for me. Isn't in neat? It sets across the seat of a chair and has two rows of pockets on both sides.


I love the fabric combo she used, here's a close up:

Thank you, Sarah - I love it!

pizza

We have made a month long committment to NO EATING OUT this month. You know, I don't even think we've gone a whole week in our marriage without eating out. It's sad, yes? We could probably have our morgtage paid off with all the money we've wasted paying for someone else to cook our food and do our dishes. We've (Derek and I, not the kids) have actually enjoyed eating at home; and I'm hoping to lose a little weight. Saturday night we had pizzas and we let the kids make their own. I just had to post a picture of the girl's creations. They were stuffing more cheese and pepperoni in their mouths than on their pizzas. It was cute. (Notice the bite out of Red's pizza crust in the above picture? She also opted for a sauceless pizza - yuck.)

Ornaments!

The kids are out of school today for Columbus Day so we decided to do something crafty. We made these snazzy beaded ornaments. Mine is the pink one in the background, Nate's is the colorful one, and Matt's is the green one. Here is John's ....




Not quite a star but he was proud nonetheless. I think he was purposefully making a "Y" for yippee - Christmas time!