Where Did She Go?

Have you wondered where I went this past week that I was not blogging? I have just not been very motivated lately. I think I have been a little blue this past week. Now I seem to be catching a cold!

I did not think to get more than a few Thanksgiving pictures. I was too lazy to round up the camera until the day was almost over. We had a very fun day,though. Jeff,Elena,Grant,and Alan did the cooking this year. I was able to sleep in and it was very nice! I did help with the table setting and clean up which I enjoy a little better than the actual cooking part.

Here are our only two pictures of Thanksgiving '09. Lily eating whipped cream from her hand. It is a sort of baby right of passage isn't it? Soon it will be followed with squirting the whipped cream right from the container into her mouth!




I took advantage of the extra few days of relaxing and finished up a few sewing projects.

Two baby blankets



I had enough extras from quilts that went to the cute baby girl twins that I was able to add those extras with other scraps I had around to make three more quilts.



Now this is a sneak peak for little Abigail Providence. I'm almost finished and soon little Abigail you will be able to cozy up under this with your many big siblings!It is not as perfect as you but it is being made with much love and prayers.



Now this is a MUST see video clip. I believe I have the youngest baby talker of our family. Could Lily be one of those baby Einsteins? I really think so...



Oh,and to support my Lily Einstein theory to make this video clip I was interrupting her while she was reading National Geographic. HM...could there be another archaeologist in the family?

Lily's Shining Moment

Baby when you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true
When you wished upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Your dreams come true

Santa and The Perfect Snack!

Thanks to Kayla Spielman for letting me post these pictures that she took today during Waseca's Christmas in the City.




While Jeff and the kids were having fun in town Lily and I were home enjoying the perfect snack!

Crackers with cheese and tuna



With a dash of hot sauce...



So good! Really it is.

Happy Birthday Nolan!!!

Happy 10th Birthday Nolan!!!!!!

Nolan has been counting down the days until his birthday and here it is already! The time moved very slow for Nolan but this past year went very quickly for me. Now I have six children in the double digits.

Nolan's birthday fun does not end tonight. Saturday he will go to a movie with his father. In a few weeks he will have a tenth birthday party with a few of his friends. The fun of turning ten!!

Fun Times

A night in front of the fire playing a card matching game with a young one is a night well spent.

The Last Of My Post Marathon

The highlight of Elena and Dad's (Jeff) weekend was attending Saturday's Awake and Alive Tour up at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Skillet, Decyfer Down, The Letter Black, and Elena's favorite Hawk Nelson, were in attendance.

The had a great time!

Elena with The Letter Black



Hawk Nelson performing



Elena with one of the members of Hawk Nelson.Sorry, Elena I forgot his name at the moment.




Here are a few short videos to appreciate the night.


Hawk Nelson



Skillet



*Note to my Zoo friend: I just can not imagine why you would ever have your kids turn the Skillet music down when you enter the room. Hehe. ;~)

I think I am caught up on my posts.

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY JOEL!!!

It is hard to believe Joel is already five! Don't tell him but I just do not want him to grow up. I always want him to stay four and be my little mamma's boy. Why do all of my sweet little boy's have to grow up? *sigh*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEL!!!!!!


I love you very much!




Umm...Lily...I do not want to make you cry or anything but these gifts you are looking at so longingly are actually Joel's.



The absence of Lily sitting next to Joel just might suggest that she did not take the news of the gifts not being hers very well.







My sweet proud five year old.

Happy birthday Joel!

No,no...I'm not crying I just have a speck dust in my eye.

So Much To Catch Up On

It is kind of odd for me to not blog for a whole week isn't it? I just have not been very motivated to post this past week but there sure has been blog-able stuff. Needless to say, I am writing this post Monday evening but back posting it as Saturday the 14th because I have some ground to cover. I will stick to picture highlights.

Are you ready?


A great big THANK YOU to my blog friend Sheila for this special gift she sent me! Isn't it just beautiful?! The kids and I will be having a lot of fun hot chocolate tea parties this winter.



Sheila also send some fun things for schooling the kids.

Sheila,your thoughtfulness meant so much to me. Thank you!!!




This has been a fruitful past few days in the quilting area.I completely finished six quilts. A few are on their way to their destination and the rest I listed in one of my Etsy shops.



Lily was hard at work this weekend training for her future kitchen zone chore.
She did not even complain about dish-pan hands!

Working Slowly

I have been slowly working on my baby girl quilt tops. There is a very sweet family who adopted twin baby girls. I thought it would be fun to make coordinating quilts for her babies. I'm pretty sure they do not read my blog so this post is not a surprise spoiler. This first quilt top I just finished this evening.



Here is the coordinating one I showed the other day.



I'm pleased with how they turned out. I wanted them to be the same size but the top quilt ended up to be a little smaller than the second quilt. I am considering whether or not I should add a border to the top quilt to make up for the size difference. But I am exited to get them all quilted up!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeff and the kids arrived home safe and sound Monday night. It sure was quiet around here with out them. Now things are loud and back to normal!

Being A Grandma...

at the same time as being a mom to a toddler mixed in with all the other children I find very exhausting!!!

What Tina's a grandma?!

Ok,not really a grandma but in Joel's mind I am.

Joel has been running around with his kid for the past few days. I think his name is 'baby' but I'm not sure. A grandmother who does not remember her first grandchild's name is sad,isn't it?

How is Joel doing as a dad,you ask? Well,he says "NO,I'm not the dad.I'm the mom!" At least he keeps 'baby' cozy in a little toddler sock so he does not get cold. Guess where 'baby' sleeps at night? Right on my pillow. At least my grandchild is a quiet sleeper.




So far Lily does not seem to mind sharing the attention with 'baby'.Do you think she realizes he is only a potato?

A Trip, A Quilt, and Trade

This morning after Jeff,Elena,Grant,Alan,and Josh finished their paper routes they left for Illinois to visit Jeff's family. It has been a quiet lonely day around here today. I think it is funny that I have no worries with Jeff leaving me behind with ten children for the weekend.I remember the days when we had four or five and I would just dread Jeff leaving me home for the weekend even if he would be taking a few children with him! Have I changed that much?

I have been working on three quilts for friends who either just had or will have babies soon.All three are girls so I wanted to do something scrappy with the extra fabric scraps I had left over from the girlish baby blankets I made recently.

I will not tell who they are for exactly to keep a little surprise but I could not not show off what I finished so far.

Here is a sneak peek at one of them. This is my artistic photo.



I just LOVE the white around the nine patches.




I just finished up another trade with Creations by Carleen last week and her beautiful items arrived a few days ago. Like always Carleen did a beautiful job!

Scrafty Paper Lady

I was SO exited when Scrafty Paper Lady asked to do a trade with one of my Etsy shops.

It was very hard to not want most everything in her Etsy store. Aren't these just so pretty?!