Homemade Christmas

I was so excited to get to make some of the gifts this year for Christmas. It really felt like I was giving more from the heart instead of just spending money because of tradition. Now that all the gifts are handed out I want to share what I made with everyone.

First for Caitlin and Noah (my 6 yr old niece and nephew) I made them indoor fishing sets with two fishing rods and drawstring bag. The tutorial is found here and here. Now the applique fish idea was all mom! I loved the idea and with the fish I stuffed them with batting and then handstitched the hole closed. So cute:

For my niece Alaina (1 yr old) I made a bean bag alphabet set with homemade drawstring bag. Tutorials found here and here. Now the tutorial for the bean bag letters was a number tutorial. I just printed out letters to the size I wanted and used that as my template.

I also did the bean bag letter set for my nephews Eli (2 yrs old) and Carter (1 yr old)

I loved this tutorial as soon as I saw it and thought it was simple yet classic. I guess I like that kind of thing. I made a temple block for my sister in laws Kara and Ashley and Mother in law Marilyn. Tutorial found here. Now I altered mine from saying (I'm going there some day) to For Time and All Eternity with their temple sealing dates.

Alli and I also received some wonderful homemade gifts for Christmas as well. Aunt Brittney made Alli some homemade bean bags. One for each letter of her name. Brittney hand stitched the letters onto the fabric casing of the bean bag. She also stitched some decorative details beside the letters. She also gave Ben and I a nice framed 4 generation family tree. We drew names and although Aunt Ashley didn't have our family, while making cousin Michael's gift, Ashley also made Alli a set of magnetic Animal cards to go on the fridge for Alli to learn her animals. We have to keep our fridge clutter free due to the house being on the market so I wanted to come up with a way for Alli to still play with her animals. So this will be my next project: Fabric Magnet Board. This will be put in her room where she can play to her hearts content while keeping the house clutter free.

We enjoyed seeing all the family for Christmas and love all the wonderful gifts that were received. Ben and I hope that 2011 brings many wonderful opportunities and blessings to all our family and friends!

Santa Who?

December has flown by and I never once thought about taking Alli to see Santa. I guess it wasn't something that I felt like we "had" to let Alli experience. I got a text message from Shannon yesterday asking me if I'd taken Alli and if we hadn't, would we want to go with them. I thought, ya know....why not. I wasn't sure what Alli would think of a strange man all dressed up in red with a large beard. haha. So we planned to go and I thought we'd give it a shot and if she wasn't down with it then we would at least be there to keep Shannon and the girls company.

Alli missed her nap today because she fell asleep on me in the car on the way home from visiting Ben at work. I thought she'd transfer from the car into the crib without a problem but it woke her up completely and that was it. So I told Shannon what was up and we decided to give it a shot. We were excited to find the line wasn't that long when we got there....the line was deceiving though because we stood there for at least an hour. Alli made friends with a little boy named Keagan behind us and shared snacks with miss Alaina. Alli was so tired by the time we actually made it to Santa that I thought it would be a bust. Shannon went first with the girls. Caitlin told Santa what she wanted for Christmas and when she was finished, Shannon put Alaina on Santa's lap....Alaina took one look at Santa and started crying...poor thing..I don't blame her. haha. I thought Alli would be the exact same way. Santa's helper had already won Alli over by asking her for a high five. She then took Alli and sat her with Santa...

To my COMPLETE astonishment, Alli didn't cry. She was completely ok with sitting with this unknown man. I was so surprised. Now....although she was ok with Santa...she wan't real big on smiling for a good photo. They took three pictures and none of them were cute. It was as if Alli was just pacifying us. hah! I didn't even think Alli would sit on Santa's lap so I didn't bring my camera. Shannon had hers but said the lighting was terrible so she just bought their photo for her girls. So...although Alli sat on his lap...at the price of $15 for ONE photo...I did NOT purchase a picture of the event. I didn't feel it was a practical use of my $15. So sorry Alli...I'm sure you don't mind missing out on the photo :)

Oh well...at least it will go in your journal as an experience. The next few days are going to be very busy. Tomorrow we get to spend the whole day with the Smith family we Britt, Jay and Michael are in from Idaho and Don, Ashley and Carter will soon be leaving for Arizona. Then Christmas Eve and Christmas morning is with the Love clan! I can't wait for all the family being in town. I don't think the holidays mean anything to me if I can't be with all my family. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

#14

Alli is quickly closing in on 17 months!! Eek. We noticed last night that Alli has a tooth coming in on top and on bottom. This will make 14 teeth in her teeny tiny mouth! I can't believe she has so many but it makes it so much easier when feeding her because I can trust her to chew up bigger pieces.

Let's see what I can update everyone on...
Alli's words:
Puppy
Ball
Momma
Daddy
Bye Bye

We are still working on Grammy, Grandpa and Nana.

• When we say Bath - Alli will go to the bathroom and try to climb in the tub.
• When we say pet Mitzi - she'll find mitzi and pet her, and likewise with Pepper and Sammy. She knows the difference in all three dogs.
• When we say sit on your bottom - she will sit.
• Oh and she now also knows how to kiss. She has been giving us open mouth kisses for about a month or so but I wanted her to quit doing that because she would walk up to the dogs and do that....yuck! So I worked with her on it one night and now we can say give us kisses and she will lean forward with mouth closed and kiss us! We love it! The grandparents love it too.
• Alli LOVES the freedom of walking and running. She pushes her little shopping cart around the house and loads it up with whatever she can find. Usually it is books, toys and her puppy.
• Even though we are alone a lot and she doesn't have too much interaction with other kids her age, when she is around other kids at church or at family get togethers, Alli isn't shy and will try to play with the babies her age. This gives me a lot of hope for her come time for nursery. I don't think he problem will be going and playing with the kids, it will be knowing we left. So that will be the transition we have to work on. But when she is in a regular routine of seeing different people then she becomes comfortable. She is so used to going to the fire hall to see Ben, that she will frequently leave us to go harass the guys. I love how social she is!
• Alli also loves to go on walks around the block in the stroller. Now that the weather is turning colder...we have to be sure she is bundled up well...Sometimes we can get her to be happy wearing her hat below.
  

Well that's all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their December and the bitter cold reminder that Winter is here to stay. :)

Love Her!

We love to do family pictures every year. This year Shannon has given me a difficult task of choosing a favorite out of all the wonderful pictures she took. Enjoy.

I have no idea why we weren't centered on the road...Can you tell I'm anal to even notice that?!?

I included this one to show everyone Alli's true personality...wild and crazy and on the go ALL the time!

Love...
Love Love...Seriously. I almost cried when I saw this picture. She's beautiful and I thank God every day for her and her sweet spirit. Ben and I both are better because of her. Love her!

I included this one in here because it made me laugh. When I zoomed in, I realized that Ben was sticking his tongue out at Alli. She thinks that it is funny.

Yay for Christmas!!

Well I never got to update everyone on the showing we had this week. I was told that it went well. The people that looked at it were in the very early stages of looking at homes. They had scheduled showings from morning till night. Of all the homes they saw, ours ranked up near the top and will probably warrant a second showing. They really liked our Christmas light decorations outside...haha I guess it's the little things. The realtor said it showed well and had many if not all the things they were looking for in a home. So we'll see what happens.

I've been really excited about this Christmas. I've wanted to learn how to sew for a very long time, but I always felt it was out of reach for me. I'm still not sure I can do something complicated like a pattern for clothes....mainly because I don't know all the terminology and how to read the dumb patterns but...I've been building up my confidence on small projects like the bandana dresses, bibs and snuggle blankets. So I found quite a few cute kid projects over the last few months and I've been waiting for a time to be able to make them. I've decided on a couple for the kids Christmas presents. Mom has been so very kind to let me borrow hers....but these projects have taken a LOT of hours and I only have my nights to work on them after Alli goes to bed, so I've been biding my time to get my own machine.

This Black Friday didn't excite Ben or myself. I asked him if there was anything that we needed and should take the opportunity to get while sales were on. Ben and I agreed there wasn't anything pressing but then he looked at me and said, "why don't you go buy yourself a sewing machine?" Normally I would have said thanks but push it aside and say it wasn't a need and it could wait. But this time...I really felt like if I had my own machine I might start making more things on my own...so I gave in and began looking at the sale circulars. I found this beauty! **I LOVE BEN**I would have been very happy with a beginners machine but mom convinced me that with the sales, if we could afford it, it would be worth getting this upgraded machine so that it would last me much longer. I have to say, after working with mom's since I began, I LOVE the little upgraded features. Mom's machine was a great machine to get started...so I can't wait to see what this one can do.

I put it to use tonight to make an ADORABLE bag for Caitlin's gift!I'm so stoked about how CUTE it turned out. I was just going to make the bag but mom gave me an awesome idea to add the applique fish to the front...so it let's her know what's inside! ADORABLE! **For those of you who don't know what I'm making, its a fishing set so she can fish inside on rainy days** I can't wait to finish Noah, Eli, Alaina and Carter's gifts as well. I will probably eventually make all this same stuff for Alli but I wanted to make sure I finished the Christmas gifts first.

16 months

Alli went to the pediatrician this morning for her 15 month well visit. We went a little later than her 15 month seeing as how she just turned 16 months in the 14th..oh well. She only grew like a 1/4 inch. She is 29 1/2 inches tall and 22 lbs 3 oz. She grew a little over 2lbs in three months. Alli tends to have growth spurts every other check up...She stair steps in her growth. So maybe she will gain some height by her 18 month check up in January. She didn't care for the shots, but who does...Here are some recent pictures of Alli from around the house. I never have my real camera handy when she is doing these silly things, so my phone is the best I have.

Alli insisted on feeding herself yogurt this day. She did really well with the spoon until I walked away....at this point the yogurt ended up in her lap and the dogs followed her around licking it off of her.

Alli has been loving walking around with her push behind walker she got last Christmas. There is an area underneath the handles where she tends to place things and cart them around. We thought, well i guess she might enjoy a real cart where she can put things in and push around. I found one for her and here she is pushing her cow around the house. I guess beef is on the menu tonight. :)

Alli LOVES to brush her teeth (chew on our toothbrushes). She screams for them whenever I am in the bathroom. So here she is sitting in the sink while I get ready...you can see the toothbrush in her left hand.

And last but not least, this is one of my favorites...her smile just makes me melt.

Oct/Nov

I've fallen behind on getting updated pictures posted. Here are some pictures from the Trunk or Treat. Alli was a white tiger. Alaina is crawling away from the picture.
I loved this costume but it was really long on her. We had to make some adjustments. She might be able to wear it again next year.
Alli trying to figure out what Alaina is wearing.
Our kitties...
We had a request by Ben's aunts to take more pictures...I've been in a horrible picture funk for the last three months and have failed to get any recent pictures of Alli. So when we went to the farm I tried to grab a few. Alli was really clingy to Ben so the majority of the pictures are with Ben only.

Below she is super excited about the dogs and is pounding Ben's leg in excitement.

Umm...can we say daddy's girl?!?
Ignore her funky rolled up jeans...I can't help my baby is short. ;)
This was the best I got. Alli was not happy about posing for a picture with mommy.
Alli got to play with cousin Carter for a while yesterday. She enjoyed playing with the magnets on the wall with Carter.

yumm pretzels!