A year of the kids, 2014

As I end 2014, I like to watch the kids grow.  (And I have to figure out how to take the annual family selfie since it is 17 degrees outside today. Ouch.)

 December 31, 2013S

Sam turned three in January.

 

Feb.

March (at the circus!)

April (Daddy turned 40)

May (I failed to have one of all three of them in May)

June (Father's Day)

July (God, it was SO HOT)

August (at the lake)

August, take 2

September (at the zoo)

September take 2, Ginty turned 2

October take 1 (at the pumpkin farm, look at the plane!)

October take 2, Jack turned 10

November

And December (hello Santa!)

Hopefully tomorrow I will return with a new family portrait. :-)

Happy New year to you!

P.S. Swap about half full, go sign up! (The sign up change is only in the hopes of making the shipping/organizing the shipping part easier. It is by FAR the most frustrating and drawn out part of the swap.)

A year of making, the 2014 version

Oh Dear. On top of the other illnesses we already had, we have contracted some sort of raging stomach flu.  I was VERY sure death was in my future by 5 am Saturday, but today I am able to eat food again.

That has caused a slight delay in everything, as you can imagine. I will go ahead and make the etsy heart to heart listing live as soon as I am done here. You can follow the etsy mini on the right side bar to my shop and look for the RESERVED listing. Once you purchase ONE of the reserved listings you are in the swap. When all the spots are full I will send out the usual group email.  As in previous years, the rules are roughly:

Make 14 valentines and mail them to me, get 14 different valentines in return. Your valentine can be made from anything you want, please try to keep it smaller than approximately 5 x 7.  They can all be the same, or they can all be different, it's entirely up to you. Your etsy purchase will cover your portion of the return shipping costs this year, so no extra money to remember for the boxes! You can search heart to heart here on the blog to get ideas of what previous valentines have been.  The mailing deadline will be in my hands my Jan 31. Please keep in mind you are making a swap commitment, others will already be crafting a valentine for you, so no flaking please. If you have questions or concerns about how to use the etsy listing, please shoot me an email. Some of the wording there is a bit confusing, but it's just there to keep the listing within etsy guidelines. Although it states you are purchasing MY valentine, you are STILL getting the usual swap box.

I cannot wait to see them this year! I have already purchased a few things to make mine. :-)

And now, a year of makin' projiks:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Not as much making as I would have liked, but, hey, I have something to show for it every month at least!

The thrift store called

The thrift store was calling me this morning - they had a wayward quilt in need of rehoming.

I dismissed it at first -

the first three rows are REALLY rough.

But 10 rows are amazing, so in the cart it went.

Then we trotted off to the park to try and enjoy this 60 degree day. Except Sammi had an accident after about 15 minutes. Ooops.

I spent the afternoon taking down the Christmas stuff. It's all down except the big glass tree (so.much.ornament.wrapping.) that I am dreading. 

I set up a custom etsy listing for the Valentine swap so I am ready to launch in a few days.

I started planning Miss Samantha June's FOURTH birthday (shut the front door!).

And now I am sitting here chewing my 900th cough drop. Surely I will sleep again, right?

What is everyone else up to?

And the wrapping paper flew

My goodness. I am sure I feel like this every year, but this year I am surprised that I  managed to get all this done in time.  That fever I had for one little day last week has left me with a WHOPPING cough that I cannot quiet. I have tried everything under the sun - homeopathics, external creams, medicines, teas, blah blah. I just cough all day and all night long, leaving me exhausted. I can't even nap! This is a real travesty. LOL








We made it to church last night (which was at a horrible time - 5 pm), and I loved seeing my little two so eager to participate and so aware of what was going on. Sam loved spotting the baby Jesus everywhere and Grant loved holding up his battery candle (wires, you know).  Jack is still TOTALLY not into the church thing, which is fine. I do find it interesting how some folks just seem wired for "god" and some do not.  (As a side note there - as a biologist I find the God Gene stuff really interesting.)

Never mind though, Santa came to see us anyway.

The look on her face over that box of ponies kills me.

This year Grant took his sweet time. Open something, play for an hour.

What Grant was NOT happy about was the pj photo. When I took this one he was great! And then I realized that oh, crap! I had the camera on incandescent light.

And when I tried to adjust it the tears started.

Samantha was NOT amused that Grant would not cooperate. She just wanted to put on her rainbow dash costume. (Which she still very clearly remembers was on clearance on Target at after Halloween and she is sure Santa finally went back for it even though mommy told her it was already sold.)

Grant then required lollipops as a bribe. (Which didn't really work. And Sammi continued to be less than impressed with him. When I said say cheese she replied "take a chill pill". LOL!)

Goodness, their matching jammies kill me with cuteness. Jack was disappointed he didn't get footies too, and I had to explain they don't make matching footies in a size 14 (!).

Now, here I sit.  I already took down the green tree. The sun is finally shining and I wanted the children to be able to get out in the yard.

If I weren't sick I would have all this Christmas clutter put away!

I have Dave home for 9 days and no quilt in progress and no energy to even start one. Bah humbug to me again. :-)

I hope you are all having a ho!ho!ho! Merry Christmas with your and yours.

Gingerbread houses, never again shall we meet

 I let the kids make the gingerbread houses yesterday.

It's no secret that I DESPISE this activity. It's frustrating, it's messy, it's a waste of money! It was okay when it was just Jack and you could just set one in front of him and let him go, but supervising the chaos and trying to put the houses together makes me crazy.

Yesterday I declared this was OUR LAST TIME EVER DOING THIS! If the kids want to gorge on candy we can just gorge on candy and watch a movie!

 Sammi methodically placed every single tiny ball where she wanted it.

 Jack made a hot mess.

 Grant ate his weight in choking hazards.

I even tried hot gluing the buggers together and that was a nightmare too.

 

So no more! I set myself free from this nonsense.

 

If only I could set myself free from the cookies we need for Santa, the house that needs cleaning, the mountain of laundry that needs to be put away, the groceries that need to be bought, the presents that need to be wrapped and the meal that needs to be planned.

 

hmmmmmm.

 

Bah humbug. :-)