did you have a merry little Christmas?

 We did!  Britton and Barrett said good-bye to school on December 19th and hello to Memaw and PawPaw on December 21st, and we spent the next week or so in Christmas bliss!  There were moments fueled only by candy and sweets, tons of good meals made special by Memaw, and shopping trips galore.  We were ready for Christmas, ready for the break from work and school, and ready to celebrate!

Nella is only nice to Britton - she merely tolerates the rest of us.  We learned of her kryptonite on Christmas morning.  Nella is an awesome cat, snuggly and sweet, so long as she is high off of catnip!

Memaw and PawPaw drove in from Ohio, and the kids (and the hubs and I) were thrilled to see them.  Their arrival made it feel like Christmas was really here!

We peppered in Christmas activities with the kids - decorating a gingerbread house, and then Memaw, Britton, and I went on our annual girls' jaunt to the Houston Ballet's Nutcracker.  

After four years of cold and sometimes snowy Christmases, which I love and do miss, I have to admit - warm beautiful sunshine at Christmas was a welcome change.  If only because we could get outdoors!  Britton has been struggling with riding her bike, or more accurately, she's afraid of not being able to stop/falling off her bike.  So she doesn't want to ride.  She told me that PawPaw would teach her to ride her bike, and he did - in 1 day!  Now she rides her bike while I cart Barrett in the buggy!  We've explored the entire neighborhood.

And then, Christmas morning!  We wouldn't get up earlier than 6:30 am, so at 6:30 am exactly, Britton was waking us up!  The kids were ecstatic to get downstairs and see what Santa had brought them.  Barrett got a train table and bike, while Britton got the MaryEllen American Girl doll, and the American Girl doll pop up camper.

Barrett wanted to put on all his new clothes - this was one of four outfits Christmas day

The perspective - a sea of wrapping paper and gifts and Barrett wanting everything out of boxes and Britton handing out gifts from under the tree.

My mom got Britton a microscope, because on her last visit I mentioned how much I loved hers when I was little.  Britton got right into checking out onion skins!

Aunt Jessica got Britton a mermaid tail blanket, a favorite gift which is still being used multiple times per day.  

Memaw got robes for both kids, but this is Barrett's first robe.  He would put it on, stroke his arms, and say, "That's cozy, Memaw!  COZY!"

The scene for most of the day - Britton at the table getting into her various gifts (craft sets and experiment sets), and Barrett moving from one gift to the other with PawPaw in tow.  Below he's putting together a plane while his new puppy sits at his crate!

We never got dressed on Christmas, even for dinner.  That's the way it should be - pots of coffee for the adults, unlimited exploring of new gifts by the kids.  Our first Christmas in our new house was a success!

the josie quilt

I've been friends with Jen since we were neighbors in Lee Hall, our freshman year at Virginia Tech.  She and I both had roommates with our same name, and it turned out we both were from Virginia Beach.  Like that, a friendship was born!  She now lives in the same town as Jessica, and just had her third baby (and first girl!), Josie.  I've made Jen a couple of family lap quilts, so a baby quilt was definitely in order.  I asked Jen for some guidance, and she sent a Pinterest board in my direction - navy, coral/salmon, gold, and arrows.  I started with my backing fabric (from Spoonflower), and made up the rest as I went along!

The backing is peeking through the white background of the front!

The arrows are random selections of various Kona fabrics - Navy, Pewter, Ice Frappe, Ice Peach, Peach, and a gold floral fabric from Cloud9 from Joanns.  I found a tutorial online on making arrows, and I just kept making them until it looked like I had enough.  To give it interest, I switched up the direction of each arrow.

I could have done two rows of arrows - I seriously considered it - but in the end, I was intrigued about the white negative space created above the arrows.  I didn't want to leave it empty, and I've been doing a lot of embroidery lately.  We're fans of Kacey Musgraves over here, and her song lyrics popped into my head, so on the quilt they went!  I added a little heart at the end.

For quilting I went with a grid, about 1 inch apart, leaving a box around the embroidery.  I didn't want to stitch over the embroidery, and I liked the "frame" the box created.

Welcome to the world, Josie!  Congrats to Jen and Rusty on the arrival of their little girl!   

some Christmas sewing

I've been doing non-stop Christmas sewing since the end of October.  I'm sharing some today, in this photo-heavy post!

A table topper for Memaw!  Memaw wanted a topper for her kitchen table, and I came up with this "row" type quilt.  Each row is a different theme, with ornaments, houses, trees, presents, and holly.  I used my Christmas fabric scraps, and backed it in a candy cane flannel.

I made a custom quilt for my Etsy shop!  The lady picked the colors, and the quilt came together quickly - triangles means no pieced blocks!

Jessica asked if I could make a table runner for her in-laws.  They live in Maryland, so Jessica wanted me to use a crab fabric.  I found this one (from Timeless Treasures) and made up the pattern based on a photo Jessica sent me.

I then embroidered their name in the center panel, using my favorite Sacramento font.  

Teacher gifts!  I love making these lined zipper pouches, and I had an idea to use 2.5" squares for the fronts.  Then I added a 2.5" strip of white, on which I embroidered the teacher's name.  I added complimentary stitching above and below the name, the length of the white strip.  The backings are quilted as well, and all of the squares come from various Bonnie and Camille fabrics.

Barrett's preschool teachers

Jessica requested these for Jason's teachers

Britton's teachers

Whew!  You think I'd learn to start earlier, but somehow I never get going until the fire is lit under me.  No doubt I'll be starting new projects over Christmas break!

barrett: 43 months old

Photo overload, for a monthly post, but Barrett was so excited about me taking his pictures!  And they all turned out so well I had to share them.  Barrett had school today (thus, the uniform) and it occurred to me that we're going to have to order him so long sleeved shirts for school.  The weather is finally turning a little cooler in Texas, and shorts aren't going to cut it much longer!

Barrett has started holding his own when it comes to playing with Britton.  He loves to jump on her, sit exactly where she wants to sit, and in general not just go along with whatever Britton wants to do. You know, a typical three-year-old!  He's expressing his preferences, and asks me to do specific things - get him a crown and dress up shoes, play tag, snuggle on the couch to read Paw Patrol books, you name it.  

Updated stats:  Barrett is wearing size 5 clothes, size 10 shoes, he's doing well with potty training when he wants to be, though he sometimes just refuses to get on the potty, he's over 42 inches tall and about 42 pounds.  He can count up to 20 and sings the alphabet.  

Likes:  singing "On Top of Spaghetti" with me before bed; snuggling with his stuffed puppies, Snoopy (that Snoopy in the chair with him took up most of his crib for a week!), cheese, french vanilla ice cream, making the Elsa ornament sing "Let it Go"

Dislikes:  sharing the recliner with Britton (yes, we remind them multiple times daily that we have an entire sectional sofa!), giving up the remote control for the Christmas tree lights, chocolate ice cream

88 months old

Britton is in that hard time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when you're a little tired of school and homework and just want Memaw and PawPaw to stay and play and celebrate!  I feel it at work myself - simultaneously trying to get a ton done before the end of the year, and also not caring too much and thinking anything beyond six hours of work is too much.  Sometimes I daydream about Google nap pods, you know?  Well, Britton is almost to her last Robotics Club meeting, and while she as really grown and learned to enjoy it (not so much when she started, but we reminded her she committed to it), she's ready for it to be over.  Next week, that's the case!  And her final spelling assessment and sight word test are the same week - everything is starting to wind down. 

Britton no doubt wants the break, but Barrett won't let her have any peace at home!  Barrett wants to do and say everything Britton does and says, and he only wants the seat she is already in, the toy she already has, you get the drift.  It's that point in their sibling relationship where they are learning to navigate each other.  Britton likes being in charge and Barrett likes getting his way, so we'll see how that turns out!

Likes:  gymnastics, piano lessons, reading (she's reading chapter books every night now)

Dislikes:  pasta, forgetting to turn in her homework

giving thanks

How was your Thanksgiving?  Ours was fantastic!  Memaw and PawPaw came to visit, which we all desperately needed.  We used to see them almost every weekend, and not having that accessibility has been hard on all of us.  We loved having Memaw and PawPaw for an entire week, and the hubs and I took advantage by sleeping in and being lazy.  

Luckily, Memaw is a great cook, so she got right down to work in the kitchen.  Barrett wanted to help her make cinnamon rolls, so he rolled out his own dough.

These two - it took them a good day to settle down from the excitement of having Memaw and PawPaw visit!  

We did two turkeys - one traditional turkey in the oven and a Cajun turkey in the deep fryer in the driveway.  Both turned out delicious, and of course I made a turkey pot pie the next day.

Do we all look a little sick?  We stuffed ourselves silly.  We had the turkeys, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli rice casserole, stuffing, cranberry relish, and Memaw's homemade bread.  Memaw made us pumpkin pie and pecan pie for dessert.

We're all still getting used to not having cold weather for the holidays - swimming after dinner was a first for us!  Granted, we had to put on the pool heater, but the kids and Memaw loved getting to swim.  PawPaw checked and saw it was 24 degrees with the wind chill back in Ohio - what a difference!

We decorated for Christmas after dinner, and got the trees up.  PawPaw distracted the kids while Memaw helped with the staircase garlands and I untangled lights outside.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

the nixon quilt

I met my friend April at work in Pennsylvania.  A year in, she moved to Houston, and I inherited her office.  Fast forward a maternity leave, I had to leave when we moved to the new office.  We've reunited in Houston, and April is pregnant with her first baby, a girl!  For the entire time I've known April, she's wanted to be a mom, and her future daughter would be named after her favorite president.  And this girl is hugely liberal and left-leaning, but she also knows what she likes and sticks with it.

I attended her baby shower on Friday, and is it any surprise she was getting a baby quilt?  April has decorated Nixon's room in greys and lavenders, definitely more purple than pink for this baby.  I don't always center a quilt around a nursery's decor - tastes change, people updated decor as the baby grows up - but I knew April would always favor lavender and grey.  The pattern is "Star Gazing" by Soft Day Quilt Patterns.  The colors are Kona Pewter and Kona Orchid.  I quilted in straight lines 1/4 inch on either side of the seams.  In the bottom most right white triangle, I hand-stitched the recipient's name in, no surprise, purple.  I'm only apt to personalize a quilt if I know for a fact that the parents won't change their minds!

The backing is Keepsake Calico's "Bird Floral Outline," a beautiful combination of purples, grey, coral, green and turquoise, with a touch of yellow.  With such a simple color combo for the front, I wanted to go more bold with the backing.  I binded the quilt in Pewter because I didn't have enough Orchid!

Showing the quilting:

Sample from Joanns (to better see the pattern):

Congrats to April and Tracy on the upcoming addition to their family!

barrett: 42 months old

That kid, his infectious smile, and that beautiful bowl cut!  Honestly, we're letting his hair grow back out because I miss those long curls and flips.  And it's finally cooling off (read: not 90 degrees every day) so longer hair won't send him into a sweat bomb.  Barrett is wearing his little school uniform, and he loves going to see his friends.  I'd love preschool too if I got to play all day and paint and sing and dance!  

Barrett is the sweetest thing.  He wants to do everything Britton does, which no doubt annoys her to no end, but I find it so endearing.  We checked out a new park on Sunday, and he was following her around.  Then we saw him climbing a ladder, and Britton helped him get to the top - a parent moment that melts your heart.  Siblings will bicker, no doubt, but I want them to grow up knowing they can count on each other.

Likes:  singing "On Top of Spaghetti" with me every night before bed, glow-in-the-dark ooze (he is currently obsessed with it), fish, putting the pillows on the floor and creating a "maze" from the couch to the ottoman

Dislikes:  when Britton won't play with him, Sadie barking, not getting to listen to Laurie Berkner in the car (the dinosaur song is his favorite)

87 months old

Seven year olds don't change all that much, month to month!  Instead of milestones (first step!  first word!  first potty use!) it's updates on school and skills, which are milestones in a different way.  Britton has been doing really well at school.  We had a parent-teacher conference, and her teachers are happy with her adjustment to her new school, as well as her participation in class.  Britton is keeping up on her homework and spelling words, and her handwriting is improving as long as she remembers to slow down.  Just like her momma, she always wants to be the one to finish first!  I've regaled her with stories of me rushing my schoolwork and losing points for careless errors, and I'm of course treated to eye rolls and heavy sighs.  

Britton is participating in Robotics Club at school, and they meet once per week.  She confessed this evening that she thought she would get to build her own robot, instead of the kits they provide.  We had a nice talk about finishing what you start - she signed up for the club until December, so she needs to give it a good try until then.  It's a good life lesson, and one best learned early.

Likes:  reading, writing in her new notebook, coming up with song lyrics, Halloween candy, iCarly, Bunked

Dislikes:  Barrett's 3-year-old mood swings, waiting for the holidays to get here (me too!)