Christmas

The annual Christmas ornament picture.

We've had an ornament made with their picture every year since the year Nolan was born.

It's fun to get the ornaments out and see the differences from year to year.

Christmas photo with Grandma Knapp.

We spent Christmas Eve-eve in Mishawaka.

We had lasagna and played a new game.

Dwyane's new Cubs hat.

Christmas morning we started with some reading from Matthew.

After the important reminders of what Christmas is really about we divvied out the pile.

(Nolan's game system is not part of the pile... it just hasn't found it's new home yet.)

This is going to be a shock to everyone, but this is Connor's favorite gift this year.

Yes, it's a stuffed chicken.

And he loves it.

I'm not sure how the chicken ended up this way.

We really wish we had done this so Connor could have found it this way.

It's super funny because that's what our dear old Rosie did with a real chicken in the back yard.

All you could see were two feet sticking up out of the ground.

Yep, that's a stuffed worm.

It was full of  sour gummy worms.

Connor with his new machete.

Our writer received several books on writing this year... which he loved.

Funny story about this gift.

I was instructed to get any gift... so I reached into my stocking and pulled this out.

Oooo... BB's! That meant I was getting something that needed them...

which I hadn't opened yet. Oops.

So later when it was my turn again, I unwrapped something to go with my BB's.

Dwayne got one of these this last year and I've been wanting my own.

:)

Ironically, we got Dwayne targets and CO2 cartridges.

I'm sure he'll share with me.

We hope you had as good a Christmas as we had.

We made lots of food and snacks.

It was relaxing just eating and hanging out with family.

Christmas Tree Skirt Finish

A finished quilt!!!

It measures approximately 45 inches across.

It's machine pieced and hand quilted.

I think it took about a month to quilt.

This was a lot of fun to make.

I had originally planned on quilting free-hand as I went.

I quickly changed my mind due to the fact I can't stitch straight on my own.

Haha.

I also wanted each square to be different.

For the most part I stuck to that.

The exception came with the little triangles.

Each one of those has a star.

I used a wide variety of things to mark the quilt: old drafting templates,

bowls, french curves, cookie cutters, and even the quilting hoop.

When I couldn't come up with an idea to quilt I asked the boys for help.

They came up with some neat patterns to use.

I went with diamonds for the smaller border and clam shells for the larger border.

Wind is helpful when you're taking pictures...

I love the festive candy backing.

Some of the cookie cutter blocks.

One of our favorite cookie cutter shapes!

We really like the way it turned out.

In its new home.

Buckeyes

So winter has showed up.

This was from a week ago.

It snowed again this past weekend as well.

I didn't get any good pictures.

I didn't want to go out in it :).

I was enjoying some quilting and baking.

Pepper was running around like a wild banshee.

Labs love snow.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

It's been a while since I posted anything to do with "evidence of children".

This most certainly qualifies.

I found these pictures on my camera... and I didn't take them.

Then I remembered that Connor told me he took some pictures of his Lego gun.

This kid is always creating something.

It a break barrel gun.

So creative.

(Maybe he should put the Legos down long enough to find his camera...)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

And speaking of creative.

I've finished quilting the squares and the black border on the tree skirt.

Now I'm marking the final border.

I've decided to go with clam shells.

It will probably take longer but I think it will look cool when it's done.

When I learned drafting, it was all done on a drafting board with paper and pencil.

I even learned with wooden pencils and moved to mechanical ones later.

Yes, that makes me old.

I loved it.

Still do... which is why I still have all my templates, t-squares, and triangles.

Now I'm discovering new uses for them.

They're perfect for marking quilts!

(Maybe not with all the old templates... who wants plumbing fixtures on their quilt?)

__________________________________________________________________________

Last but not least, the buckeyes!

We made Sunbutter buckeyes.

They turned out awesome.

Sorry, I can't share.

They're almost gone.

But trust me, you wouldn't know they didn't have peanut butter in them.