60 Years Young!

Happy Birhtday Mom!

WE love you very much. Thank you for all you do and thanks for being the best Gran Gran!

Recent Projects

The holidays are officially here, and that means that the procastination must come to a stop. With all the traveling that we have been doing, and will be doing, time is running out! I have managed to whip a few things together.

Project #1, Pants for Ani

I sewed Little Ani another pair of pants. I sacrificed my favorite, old, green hoodie so my sweet little will stay warm and cozy.

First, I cut off the sleeves and then I cut off the bottom of the hoodie to be used as the waistband.

All I did was sew the two sleeves together to make the pants and then I attached the bottom of the hoodie to make the waistband and Voila, new pants for Ani!

Project #2, Pants for Sophia!

We finally get to meet our little east coast niece, Sophia, this Christmas and we are very excited! So since I am on a pant kick, why not make some super comfy pajama pants for Sophie.

I used some fabric that I had leftover from another pair of pajama pants that I made for Kendall. The fabric is very soft, white, furry, and oh so comfy! I learned that one her favorite characters is Olivia the Pig, so I decided to incorporate her onto Sophie's p.j.s.

I traced a pair of pajama bottoms and then cut the pieces out.

I found a photo of the pig and drew her out. I traced the head and the body was done free-handed. I then cut Olivia into three pieces. I sewed/embroidered her head onto a piece of pink fleece fabric ontop of a piece of felt. I then sewed the pink felt legs to the fleece body. She was complete! Now I pinned her to the outside of the right pant leg (sorry I don't have photos, I'm bummed too!).

Finished product...

I think she's going to like them, I sure do!



Project #3, Christmas tree skirt

Nothing fancy here. I just used up some fabric from stockings I made last Christmas. I cut up the rest of the fat quarter into fours and made a patchwork tree skirt. I backed it with some white cotton/linen.



Our Christmas Tree!



Farewells

On my last day in St. Louis, I learned that my grandfather was not doing well, and not expected to spend many more days with us. So the girls and I went to be with my Mom, who was flying out the next day to be by her father's side with her sisters. The girl's and I would continue our drive to El Paso to pick up my sister and her girls, and then continue on to my aunt and uncle's ranch. This was to be our meeting place before the services took place. The bright side to funerals is being able to see all those who are very dear to you, family. What a truly beautiful and peaceful place it is. It was exactly what everyone needed, a quiet place to be together.

We had some good times...

And even better farewells.

We love you Papo!

Happy Thanksgiving!



I hope that everyone enjoyed their turkey day and was able to spend it with loved ones. We certainly enjoyed ours!
Our celebration began on Wednesday when Gran Gran arrived!

We were able to stay on track just long enough to get our 2 pumpkin pies made.

We broke a long lasting tradition this evening, we decided that it is a ridiculous rule that you have to wait until after Thanksgiving dinner to eat these delicious pumpkin pies. So here's to a new tradition, pumpkin pie anytime!

Our Thanksgiving dinner.

The perfect ending to a perfect day! Enjoy your weekend and each other!



Meet Me in St. Louie!

This was my first time flying with children. This was the first time my children have ever flown on an airplane. Let's just say I was a little nervous. I made sure that I was the prepared mama, who had everything she needed, because I refused to be "that mama" who had the screaming children on the plane. I understand these situations can't be helped, but I at least had to try to be ready. We waved bye- bye to Gran Gran and then we were on our own. The flight went surprisingly smoothly! The only bad thing was the fact that I WAY over packed. All the carry-ons that I brought, all the heads that got smacked as I walked down the aisle with 2 children and 3 bags hanging off my body, good lord!

Welcome to St. Louis!

These are the two lovelies that picked us up,

Luci and Hollyn!

St. Louis proved to be a fun and vibrant city designed for the people. There was this amazing hands on museum, The City Museum. It was more like a piece of art.

Alex, Amara, and Hollyn

You can actually climb in all these metal "tubes". It takes you up into different levels, where you can find systems of caverns, a wooden tree fort, ramps made for feet sliding, a circus show, aquarium, an art area. Just levels and levels, 10 stories to be exact with roof top ferris wheel and 10 story slide, not to mention all the other slides located throughout the museum, and a bar, AMAZING!

You can climb in all of this!

There's even an area for the youngins.

We also paid a visit to the Butterfly House

It was so hot and humid!

Beautiful orchids!

This one was bigger than my hand and so spectacular!

Also,

The St. Louis Zoo-Free to the public, and absolutely amazing!

No trip to St. Louis would be complete without a visit to The Arch.

View from the top!

We had such a great time. It always goes by too fast when I am with these folks. Lou and Al have been in my life for...years...and now we have kids that also love one another.

Thank you so much, we love you guys and miss you already!

Vacation, funeral, sickness, Oh my!

Hello and good morning to you all! It has been weeks since I last posted, almost a full month! Things have been well, CRAZY! So, I will give you all a full report of all that has been going on around here in these next few posts.

When we last spoke it was Halloween. We really enjoyed ourselves and had a great time trick or treating with out friends Joe, Becca, Orin Star, and sweet little Isaac.

We are so grateful to have met this sweet family!

The very next day, the girls and I were about to embark on one hell of an adventure (Daddy had to stay back and hold the fort down). We planned a trip to go visit my dearest friends who just moved back to St. Louis. We booked a flight out of Albuquerque. That first meant a 4 hour drive, before we could even get on the plane! Knowing that this was grounds for a meltdown party, I decided that we needed to stay the night in Albuquerque, and since our GranGran lives there, this was even better!

All Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween!

It was a great weekend here. Grandma and Papa came up to visit us! We spent the whole weekend getting hugs and kisses and getting spoiled! Thanks again, we love you!

I made up some last minute costumes for the girls. Amara is going to be a Yip Yip alien from Sesame Street. We made the costume a little different because Amara wanted to add her Fairy Baby's wings to the costume. So, we have a Flying Fairy Yip Yip!

We had a little bear suit that GranGran gave Amara for her first Halloween. So for Ani's first Halloween, she will be a Brown Barbaloot, from Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax."

We are going trick-or-treating with our friends tonight, and are very excited!!

Hope you all get lots of treats!!! Have fun and be safe!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see...inspired by soulemama @ http://www.soulemama.com/



Have a great weekend!

Happy Un-Birthday Grant!

I can hardly believe that it is already Thursday!?! We have so much going on the next few weeks, months! Grandma and Papa are coming this weekend and we are very excited! We also have a dual-birthday(twins)  party to go to, and Monday is Halloween, and then we head to Gran Gran's for a quick overnight visit, and then we are off, St. Louie bound to visit ol'Lou (and Hollyn and Alex, and Pootie, too!)! Whew!...It doesn't end there either, enter "The Holidays." I'm ready!

Thanks to Nikki for the motivation to finally complete this WAY overdue project. I am just excited that Granty will still be able to enjoy it!

Let's begin.

I bought a solid hoodie from, sorry to say it, Walmart. I drew, traced, cut-out, and Heat-N-Bonded a guitar and a star from some felt and scrap fabric. 

Setting

As you see, I sewed a tight zigzag

I'll get better with time, but I mean well! :)
Happy Un-Birthday Granty!