Christmas time 2009

I haven't blogged since the middle of December, so this is a picture catch up post.

S. with her cello, Wayne


J.


K., J. and S.


Wayne works outside a considerable amount. Wayne's parents bought him this mask so he can be warmer. They did tell him not to wear it inside a bank though!


J. putting his feet behind his head. How's that for flexibility?

The morning we had our Christmas (as opposed to Christmas morning, which we spent at my parents' house).

The quilt that I made for J. It finally is finished and is now on his bed.

Mom and Claire

Sledding K., Jocelyn and S.

Sledding on a later date. J., S., Jocelyn and K.

The second pic is J., Wendy and Jocelyn.


Sandy taught K. how to make pumpkin roll. They had a great time making it and I had a great time eating it!

My mom bought a gingerbread house for my kids to decorate. The awesome thing is this one came assembled! That means they could immediately decorate.

One night Dad made a fire and he and S. sat and watched it for a while. I thought it was very sweet.

Megan and S.

Dad smiling!

A sweet Claire face and a funny Claire face.

Chris, Sandy, Claire, Dad, Mom and Grandma and Grandpa

S. Wayne, me, Dad, Mom, K., J. and Grandma and Grandpa.

One morning while at my Mom and Dad's house, we woke up to find beautiful designs on the car. To me it looks like the Tree of Life. Beautiful!

Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles

Tonight we were driving home from celebrating Christmas with the Aldrich side of the family. We were traveling at 55 mph when we saw four deer standing in the road two car lengths in front of us. Wayne slammed on the brakes and headed for a six foot opening between two of the deer. At 40 mph our mirror connected with one of the deer (which I hope is ok), but we sustained no damage to the car. The cupcakes that were on my lap became casualties, and I jammed my hands into the glove box trying to stop their flying departure from my lap. I jammed about 3 fingers on one hand and bent back 1/2 of one fingernail.

We feel that this is a Christmas miracle of which we are still in awe. Heavenly Father totally blessed us. I have no idea how we fit between the deer. So many things could have happened differently and this story could have had an unhappy ending.

So here is a list in no particular order of some of the ways we were blessed:

1. No damage to the car.
2. No repair bills.
3. No physical damage to us.
4. We're alive (as Wayne says, there was river close by and if we had hit them at 55 and the airbags deployed with a lot of force...)
5. We feel more gratitude for our Father in Heaven.

The Recent Past and the Near Future

Well, since school has started we have gone through 2 rounds of sickness. In between those times I have been traveling to my sister's home to quilt. I do have a sewing machine, but it was pulling the batting through. K. has one and that was scrunching the material. So I made the trip as often as I could (about 2 times per week - it's about 1/2 hour drive one way).

I am in the final stages of finishing J.'s quilt! Finally! This project has taken several years, but it is just gorgeous and I am very well pleased with it. I am so excited for him to see it! He knows nothing about it and will be very surprised...I hope!

Previously I had done tie quilts. I still like them, but WOW I have totally discovered that quilting can make such a huge impact to the overall appearance of the quilt afterwards.

I will post pics of the completed project when I am done. I'm very excited to share the pics with all of you!

My next quilt (for me) will probably be a jean rag quilt. Wendy made K. one and it is deliciously heavy. Wendy will have to walk me through the process of that one as it is very different than what I am used to doing!

I do believe that K. and I will be doing some sewing though this week as she is working on her quilt, which looks totally awesome.

On the days when I'm not at Wendy's, and the children are healthy, I am usually taking the cello into school (it's not allowed on the bus), doing laundry, going VT, running errands, cleaning etc. The days go by so quickly!

Pretty soon I hope to work on addressing Christmas cards (which I haven't done in several years). I have been procrastinating as I recently lost many of my addresses. They're probably somewhere in the house, but where?

I also need to work on Christmas shopping. I have barely scratched the surface of this one!

Now you know what I've been doing and what I will be doing in the near future.

Summer Fun

In the summer there were so many things to blog about. Taking K. to the temple for the first time, spending time with family, going to pageant, birthdays, swimming, haircuts and then school started.

These pics don't even begin to show the many things we did. It's just a tiny sampling. :)

Roasting Marshmallows

At the Visitor's Center in Palmyra.

The Cousins.

Lori, K, S, J and Grandma

A very large puzzle of Australia that we put together.

K. on haircut day

S. on haircut day.

J. on the first day of school this year.

Sick kiddos

I wanted my first post to be a sum up of the summer months. However, that's not happening now. It is late, I am tired and I want to post without having to worry about writing something long (which it almost certainly would be if I covered the summer months).

Since school began all three kids have been sick. S. missed a lot in September and all of last week. J. missed a bunch in September and K. has missed last Wednesday and all of this week so far. I do believe she will be going to school tomorrow though.

I feel really bad for them when they are sick. It is certainly no fun. I am glad that they are all doing better and are healthy again.

I would end with something witty, but that would take too much thinking on my part. (Can I say tired?)

Night.

Ch-ch-ch-changes are coming!

Well the layout has changed and soon I will be updating my posts.

I believe that blogging is similar to journaling and the further I get behind, the harder it is to start up again because there is just so much to say and so little time. (At least that's the way it feels!)

So hopefully soon I will have posts and pictures on-line.

Thanks!

Just as an FYI...I love hearing from all of you and I love comments! So thanks to all of you who have commented. I would have sent emails thanking you, but I don't have all of your addresses.

So, thanks!