Gymnastics!

Here are a few pictures of the kids at gymnastics. Some of the pictures are really dark, sorry.

Starting a cartwheel

On the beam

Parallel bars

Push-ups!

Valentines!

 This is the Valentines outfit I made for Ellie this year! The MADE circle skirt is so easy I can make one in less than an hour! She may end up with a skirt for every holiday!!!

I also made a table runner. It was going to be the full lenght of the table but I got too frustrated:(

I put a Dollar Tree balloon holder on to add a little flair (I couldn't find any valentine's decorations I liked)

playing with our feline cousin

Ellie has been begging for a kitten lately. Pete and I aren't quite ready for a new cat yet...so we spent a couple hours at aunt Shannon's playing with Chole.

The toys are catnip fish I made for Chole

Best Friends

Ellie and Michael have been the best of friends lately. They are still (5 days later) sleeping in the same bed!

The kitchen

Apparently I haven't used an onion in awhile (or even looked at the onions).

This caught my eye yesterday, finally, and I thought it looked very "springy"!

Also my new tea canister is quickly becoming my favorite kitchen decoration. It just so cute! And it was only $3 at T.J.Maxx!!

Looking back it seems I spent most of my weekend ironing; getting caught up on laundry, ironing down hems on new sewing projects and ironing out fabric for my valentines table runner. Hopefully I can spend the week sewing all the projects I prepared over the weekend.

Another outfit and more sleeping kids

Pete and I went out to dinner last night. When we came home my sister said the kids were sleeping in the same bed. They had plotted this for weeks but every night would "chicken out". I guess they just needed their cool aunt for courage! I sneeked in to check on them and this is what I saw...

Aren't they adorable!

Also here is an outfit I made for my niece Anna and her American Girl Doll

I used the same circle skirt I used for Ellie' outfit and appliqued a store bought shirt.

New quote

I LOVE THIS BOY!

This is a photo from our trip to South Dakota this summer. Michael will probably provide me with almost all of my quotes of the week, he says the funniest stuff. This weeks quote is probably only funny to Pete and I. "Really huge big one" age one. When Michael was one everything was a "really huge big one", he would say it atleast once a day. We loved it of course and would laugh, which probably encouraged him to say it even more!

Handmade Gifts

I made both kids outfits for Christmas this year. Ellie was super excited when she opened hers on Christmas morning.

I used this circle skirt tutorial from the MADE blog to make the skirt.  The material is a light weight corduroy, very comfortable with lots of spin to it. I also made a set for her doll.

I made the doll sized shirt from Simplicity pattern #2296, it was pretty easy to put together. I did the skirt the same as Ellie's only on a smaller scale. Here's Ellie playing her new guitar in her new outfit. (sorry the picture is really grainy)

 

For Michael I made pants from a flannel army print and a shirt with a helicopter applique. He wasn't nearly as excited but has worn the outfit a ton already.

To make the pants I just traced a pair of pants he already had, it's a super easy way to make basic pants.

I made a few differnt little pouches as gifts. This one was a gift for Ellie's friend Karstyn, with a little toy inside. I used this tutorial on Noodlehead, I also made a bunch of these gathered clutches also on the Noodlehead blog.

These are two of the many I made, the back one I ended up keeping because it turned out a bit askew.

Homemade Christmas Part 2

Our new advent calendar! This was a huge project inspired by http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2010/11/would-you-like-to-sew-along-with-me.html

I spent a lot of time on this project, but it was well worth it. Next year I hope to make something similar but with a nativity theme.

Finished with the ornaments in the pockets



December 24th, all the ornaments on the tree



Homemade Christmas Part 1

My dad built this bunkbed for Ellie's dolls and I made the bedding. She was so excited when she opened it Christmas morning!

Ellie as greeter

First grade hosted school mass this week. Ellie was a greeter, I was greeted with "Good morning, go away!", hopefully she was a little nicer to everyone else. The first graders did all the readings and with help of a few older kids led the singing. They did a great job and were so cute!

The Beginning!

Alright I'm going to try this blog thing out. Mostly pictures as I'm not really a writer. I'll shoot for a new picture everyday plus a quote of the week (kids say the darndest things). Here goes.....
It snowed over night so we are back to snowpants and boots. In the spirit of trying to stay warm here's a picture of Michael enjoying the zoo on one of the last nice days of 2010.