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!)