Happy Birthday, Boo!

My baby turns two today.  And I'm not pregnant yet... this is weird!  :)

Peter is such a joy.  He has really been so fun lately.  Such a crazy, spunky, spazzy kid that loves little cabbage patch stuffed animals and Toodles.  He was so excited for his birthday cake....

 Until we lit the candles...

 Then he was a mess...

 We blew them out quick and he was all smiles again.  Crazy kid.

 The kid loves to eat.  He used to be very picky.  He still is a little bit... but he's eating much more now.

 He is saying several words now... Mom (MOM!), Dad, Grace (Gace), Puffball (pu-ball!), Dash, Hello (He-wo), Look at that (Wook a-that!), Watch this (wat-this), Oh Toodles, Num-num.... to name a few.

 He loves his stuffed cabbage patch cuties Cow and Tiger.  Tiger is missing... but cow still makes him very happy.  He's getting a surprise later tonight that will make his world complete again.  We found another tiger.  ;)

 He also loves to play with megablocks, cars and basketball.  He got a little cash register for Christmas that is pretty fun too.

 He loves to imitate his siblings.  Especially when they are being silly.  He has been known to laugh hysterically when Graham smacks himself and falls to the floor... and then he'll do it to himself... over and over and over again.

We love our little Petey-boo!  Happy Birthday!

lost pictures.

Since getting our new phones we haven't been using our regular camera nearly as much.  I figured this would happen... but I'm not very happy about it.  I need to try to keep the camera updated as well.

These were taken a few weeks ago when we had the sickies.  It's funny because Jayne, Peter and I are all home from church today because Jayne has croup and I am getting over a yucky sinus infection.  I wish we could just live in a bubble during the winter.  I hate being sick.  Especially this time of year!  Jayne and Peter were so adorable that week Jayne was home sick.

 Jayne loves to give Peter kisses...

 So sweet.

 As you can see.... he's not a fan.

I think the big kids liked being home from school a little too much.  It meant more computer and tv time.

 Most of the time the house looked like this that week... it was crazy.  Fun to have everyone home though!

This little guy is the only one that hasn't been sick this month!  I don't know how he got so lucky.  Hopefully he won't catch Jayne's croup... as he might have a harder time of it due to his asthma.

sewing.

I love to sew.  It makes me happy to sit down and create something from a few pieces of fabric.  I go through phases where I don't sew at all and then I'll sew a whole bunch.  I love it when I catch the sewing bug.

 I made quilts for two of Jeremy's sisters this year for Christmas.  This one was for Valerie...

 It is embellished with little tiny pearls, antique lace, tiny mustard colored pom poms and these little lace flowers.  I love how it turned out.  It was hard to give this one away.

 This one was for Becca.  The fabric reminded me so much of her.  I even quilted both of these by myself.  It was hard work.  I much prefer sending them to my mom for quilting.  Although I do love the look of Becca's with the straight lined quilting.

I made a bunch of stockings this year.  Two for our birds, five for my brothers family and one for my little nephew.  I neglected to take a picture of any of them.  I shamelessly stole this from Jeremy's sisters blog.  I love how they turned out.  They all had this shape... but all different fabrics.  My kids are begging for new stockings next year.  We'll see...

 I decided last minute to make a quilt for the people we bought the practice from.  They have done so much for our family that it seemed fitting to make them a quilt.  I used my 1930s fabric and made a basic square quilt for them.  I embellished it with antique lace around the border.  I love how it turned out!

 I realized about a year ago that I have never made a quilt for myself.  I've made them for my kids, friends and family... but never one just for me.  I've realized that I love vintage looking fabric.  I wanted lots of vintage quilts for our family room.  I found some panels at the quilting show last June and I haven't done anything with them.  I decided that it was time I did something with them... here's the first one. This one is going to get hung on the wall in our new house.  I adore it.

 I love the train fabric in this one.  I am not in love with the quilt yet.  Maybe once it's quilted I will love it more.  I made it in a rush.

 This one is so adorable close up.  The little pictures look like they're straight out of an old book.  The ones with the little girls say, "Grace" on them.  She thinks this one is for her.  :)

I have a few more in the works.  I'll post them when I'm finished.

first snow!

We finally got snow the week of Christmas!  It was even the super fluffy, dreamy snow.  We were so happy.  The kids all bundled up and went outside with Daddy.  I am not a fan of snow.  I love to look at it, but hate going out in it.

 It wasn't wet enough for a snowman... so they built a little city instead.  Gracie made a few snowballs and then came inside because she was too cold.  She takes after her mommy.

 Peter was hardcore and wouldn't accept any gloves.  He lasted a lot longer than I thought he would.

 He was however ticked that his toys didn't roll as well in the snow.

 I think the boys could have stayed out there all day long with Daddy.  It's been so fun to have him home a bunch the past week.

new system & birdies.

In Gracie's words, "We change our rules a lot!"  What she means is... we change our job charts/reward system a lot.  I have found that something works for a little while... and then the kids (or I) get bored with it and it kind of fizzles.  We just started a new system last week and it's working great.  The kids have been very into 'screen time' lately.  Computer, iphones, or tv.  Mostly the first two.  We found that they had kind of forgotten how to play in their rooms.  So, we decided to limit their screen time (we did before but were pretty lax about it sometimes).  Now they have to earn tickets to play their games, and they only get twenty minutes a day.  No exceptions.

This is how they earn tickets... 1 ticket = ten minutes of computer or phone time.  

And here are their after dinner jobs:  (They rotate to a new one each Monday night.  And they get Sunday's off.)

 So far it's working like a charm.  Except Jayne hates to empty the trash and would rather not get a ticket then do it.  She's a little stubborn like that.

Totally random... but we came home to about a bazillion birds in our bushes and trees in the backyard!  It was kind of incredible!

 We sat in the car and watched them for a few minutes and then the kids had fun storming out of the car and scaring them half to death.  Classic.

Merry Christmas!

We had a Saturday with nothing to do.  That is so rare for us!  We decided to find Santa and surprise the kids.  We wanted to avoid the commercialism and crowds of the mall so we headed to a little village nearby called Chagrin Falls.  It's seriously a village.  Tiny and quaint and just adorable.  If we didn't know we are supposed to stay in our ward, we would move there in a heartbeat.  I love it so.  We heard that Santa was visiting Township Hall so we headed down Main Street and found the place.

 The kids were so excited that nobody was there and they got to have him all to themselves!  Peter went up and stood about three feet in front of him and just smiled and smiled at him.  Santa situated everyone around him with Peter in front for a picture.  Peter wouldn't turn around for anything... He was so interested in that big red man!

 Each of the kids got to spend some quality time with him... Jayne asked for a kitchen with a cart and some food and some dishes.  She has her mind set on that this year!

 Gracie asked for a Nutcracker.  I had no idea it was at the top of her list.

 Graham asked for a Lord of the Rings Lego set.

 Peter just wanted to keep his distance...

 Lincoln thought he was way too cool for this... but he was kind to his mother and did it for the picture.  He asked for Minecraft.

 The whole little town hall was transformed into a winter wonderland.  There was an incredible train.  Graham pointed out that one of them was the Hogwarts Express!

 Jayne was thrilled that they had coloring for her.  Her favorite past time lately.

 Gracie and I loved all of the fancy gingerbread houses.

 Lincoln preferred the pretend Santa to the real one.

 They even had free cookies and hot cocoa!  Such a treat.

 We stayed until Peter told us that he was done.

We are so grateful for all of our blessings this Christmas season!  We have been blessed with two wonderful families that show their love for us from a distance.  We are blessed with a ward family that makes it a little easier to live so far from our real families.  We have a home full of love.  And most importantly we have the love of our Savior and His church in our lives.  There truly is so much to be grateful for this Holiday season.

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas 

and a Happy New Year!