Half pint.....

I made two new bags over the weekend. I had a lot of fun making them and they were birthday presents for me too. My birthday was on Monday and I am the big 33 now. The kids were great and made me lots of cards and hugs and kisses. Robert took me out to eat for my favorite brie and crab dip, sourdough bread and bread pudding from Cape Fox Lodge. I had such a nice day and my family made it so special. Also a good friend of mine stopped by and brought me a delicious birthday treat, that was such a nice surprise. Katie and the pink tote are almost the same size!

Clyde's Vest...

Clyde Nason, Robert's dad, made this beautiful vest for me for Christmas this past year. I thought it was so wonderful that I had to enter it in the quilt show along with my wallhanging. Pappy, you received a 2nd place ribbon and I will be mailing it to you soon. Congratulations!

This was my favorite quilt in the quilt show this year, and it also received the peoples choice award, Judges Choice award and first place applique. Judy Madden did a wonderful job. Each square is a miniature applique block and they are all different. She said that it took her two years to complete them all.

Quilting....

I took an applique class and finished my first applique project. I really liked the class and the teacher, Judy Madden was excellent. The other picture is from the quilt show. I entered a wall hanging again this year and received a 2nd place ribbon. I am happy with that! There were so many beautiful quilts this year and I hope that you all had a chance to see them.

Kitchen Before and After....

May 2006 marked the beginning of our first kitchen remodel. Thanks to Jasen Wickert, without whom we would not have begun this project, and Clint McClennan, without whom we would not have finished, we have completed the project! We want to extend a hearty thank you to both of these brave men. Thank you, Thank you. Doesn't it look great! I would be remiss if I didn't not mention all of the hard work and effort that Robert put into this as well. He finished the floor, worked on the wiring, drywalled and finished the exposed wall, and many more things. I am so impressed.

The Stomach Flu has come to town....

Hi everyone! It has been pretty much a sad place here for the last week and a half. Last week Justin, Katie and I came down with the stomach flu. By friday I was better and over the weekend I was able to go to my quilt retreat. I had a great time, and accomplished lots of quilting that I had been looking forward to working on. When I came home things looked okay, but then Rebecca came down with it. Robert this whole time wasn't feeling too great but managed not to succumb to it. So on Monday I made a big pot of chicken noodle soup which worked nicely on the more tender constitutions. Rebecca is finally better today and I expect her to be up and ready for school tomorrow. I spent two days disinfecting the whole house and I think we are finally safe to come out of hiding. We all kept saying how we need to remember to be grateful to God when we are in good health! I never appreciated eating food quite the same way that I do now. Praise the Lord for our good health and I am praying also that Brendan will be able to forgo this family illness.

Merry Christmas....

We had an especially wonderful Christmas. Once again, the kids got up, dressed and made their beds. What great kids we have.... After all the presents were opened we cleaned up and got ready for our friends the Axelsons to come over for brunch. I tried a new recipe that I found on allrecipes.com for french toast soufle. It was great and so was a the egg sausage strata. Nancy brought a great fruit salad and we had such nice fellowship. The kids all played together so nicely and the 2 two year olds learned about sharing new toys. Katie wasn't sure how to do that, and I think she will need some practice. I realize that most of what I have written about has been about presents and what everybody got. We all had our thoughts on the Lord and talked often all month long about the birth of our Lord. It is good for them to hear and for us to tell. We send you all warm wishes and hope that you all experienced the love of Christ.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun. The kids all got themselves dressed, beds made and upstairs in record time. They ate their breakfast without complaint and waited patiently for us to say the magic words. We let them each open one present and then we went to church. On the way we talked about the Lord and what Christmas was to us.

The Great Math Boys....

The boys are great builders. Brendan is great with the dominoes and Justin creates designs with triangles, squares and diamonds. I had mentioned in an earlier post how much we love the math box that we bought at the beginning of the year. We still love it and still get lots of use out of it.

Katie the horn player....

Katie and her friend John are good buddies and love to play the horn together. Katie makes us smile, you just can't help yourself. Can you?

Here are the kids in the process of decorating the tree. They had fun finding all of the ornaments from years gone by, I hope that they always have those fun memories.

Tree Trimming....

Why do they call it trimming the tree? Well, I guess in the same way that you have a fancy dinner with all of the trimmings, you are putting all of the trimmings on the tree, rather than cutting away, like trimming your hair. Hmmm. I guess I had better stop there with my musing. The kids had a great time decorating and it turned out very nice. I let them do all of the ornaments for the first time. It was a lot easier than worrying about it looking perfect and a lot more fun for them. I am glad that the Lord gave me the patience to try it that way.

Playing in the snow...

Rebecca covered Brendan in snow at his request. He got snow in his face and realized quickly the folly of asking his sister to bury him. He wasn't too happy about the cold and getting wet. We tried to reason with him, but it didn't become clear to him until he began to work with his dad to clear snow and lay down salt that getting cold wasn't so bad. God made us to work and it is when we work that we are truly content with out lot in life. He learned this lesson well. Rob and I were really happy for him. Justin and Rebecca played well together too. He didn't ask to be buried.....

Beautiful Snowy Days

Yesterday was another great day of snow. We all played outside and took some family pictures. Katie was especially joyful and we couldn't resist having our pictures taken with her in the snow. It fell in small flakes all day long and covered all the trees with a thick blanket of snow. It was just beautiful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving morning, and while it is still quiet I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! What is everyone doing today? We have had Thanksgiving dinner at our house for the last three years, so this year will be a nice change. We will be going to a friends house and I know we are going to have lots of fun. Of course I get to relax a bit, not having to run around like a crazy chicken cleaning the house and all of that. So, what is everyone making this year? Gone are the days of green bean casserole in this house, no one ever ate any except me for nostalgic reasons. I will be making a turkey breast, stuffing, sweet potatoes and a salad to contribute to the meal. I am so Thankful that we are all together and that we are all healthy, Praise the Lord.
Many Blessings :)

Fellowship...

We have really enjoyed visiting with friends this past week. On Friday night we had Virgil, Patsy and Becky over for dinner. After dessert Becky had to go home, but the rest of us watched Josh Grobin. It was a fun night and Katie was especially attached to Virgil and fell asleep in his lap. Saturday we had the Antonsens over for dinner and after Laura's delicious cheesecake we played some games. The card game Swap proved to be a big hit with all of us. The best part of the game though was when Justin got us all back for all the times he lost to the slap card. When a slap card is played, everyone has to put their hand on top of the card and the last one with their hand on top has to draw a card. Justin lost every time. Finally it was his turn to lay down a card and with much drama he pretended that he was about to lay down a slap card and we all scrambled to slap it only to find out that it was a swap card! He had a good laugh and so did every one else. Some times I don't realize how smart my kids are!

Quilting progress..

I ordered a McKenna Ryan kit about a month ago to make for a friend for Christmas and I finally finished it last night. My biggest problem was getting over my fear that I couldn't do it! It was really fun and I might have to make some more now that I know how. Now if only my sewing machine was working properly so that I could quilt it.....

More Fun Pictures...

Here are some more pictures of this mornings fun in the snow. The kids made their first snow man and it looks great! We did get an early start this morning. They should be ready soon to go out again. I felt like it was a good day to have lots of comfort food today, so we had buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. Those were really good and so I thought I would try the ultimate in comfort food, homemade macaroni and cheese. Well, nobody liked it even though for homemade it was good. Tonight I think I will just make them pb and j.
:)