It has long been a tradition in our family that the Mother gives the kids new pajamas on Christmas Eve so that they will look good for Christmas morning pictures.
This year, I decided to sew pajamas for my kids. I have two huge boxes of fabric given to me by a lady in the ward and I thought it would be "fun" to sew pajamas. I thought it would save money too. Well, it was fun at first, and it did save a little money. What I didn't count on was the TIME it would take, or how much sleep I would loose sewing until 1 or 2 in the morning for days (and weeks) on end.
To be completely honest, this project falls into the same category as Halloween costumes. I hope to NEVER sew them myself again.
This first picture of the kids in pajamas looks great! No, I didn't make these pajamas. My mother gave them pajamas a few days before Christmas. I guess she know there was a possibility for disaster when I told her about my project. After all, she sewed pj's for us when we were kids.
Here it is. My kids in the pj's I made for them. In my defense, I did measure the kids. Still, they are all too wide, and too long. Can I shift the blame to the pattern?
Adam and Joshua held hands by themselves, and held still for a picture! Since when?
Look at how nicely Olivia's pajamas fit! I found them for 2.99 at Kid-to-kid!
Joshua only wore his new pajamas for about an hour before we made him change into the pj's his grandmother gave him. The problem? He wouldn't keep the pants on! He kept taking them off and putting BOTH legs into one of the pantlegs. Well, maybe next year when they all have grown a little the new pj's will finally fit everyone.
It takes experiences like this for me to remember why I like sewing quilts and why I shouldn't make clothes. How I made Emily's baptism dress actually fit her still amazes me.
This year our family went to see a Live Nativity near the beginning of December. After parking and the hay ride to the farm, we waited in line to walk through the "town of Bethlehem" set up in a large barn. While standing in line outside the barn, we watched the two men on horseback dressed as Roman Soldiers ride up and down the line. They would stop and watch the people for a while and then move on. Michael lifted Joshua (age 2) to his shoulders to see the horses and costumes. One of the soldiers rode over to Joshua and asked Michael, in a very serious tone, "how old is your son?"
Until I heard that question, the whole experience had been just an exciting adventure. We were taking the kids to see actors dressed up in costumes playing parts from the story of Christ's birth. When I heard, "how old is your son," the adventure became real, and I imagined how another mother long ago might have felt when asked that same question. In fact, the first mother asked, "how old is your son," by a roman soldier after Christ's birth might have proudly answered, "he just turned two years old," only to have her worst fears become reality as her baby is executed! I'm sure no mother at that time had very much warning of Herod's command to slay the children two years and under - except Mary or Elisabeth. My heart goes out to all those mothers who had to experience such a cruelty.
As the soldiers moved on, I really thought about how it would be to live back in the day when Jesus was born. As we walked through the different booths of pottery, and weaving, and baking bread, I thought of how blessed I am to have so many conveniences of this day. In just one day, I can do about 10 loads of laundry (no exageration!), mix and bake bread, give everyone in the family a warm bath, sleep on a comfortable bed, enjoy a home that is warm, DRIVE where I want to go in only a few minutes, MICROWAVE the leftovers - or even cook the whole meal in minutes, NOT iron all the clothes, and countless other tasks that could easily take forever without modern technology.
As we came to the end of the "town" and saw the last stall holding a donkey, I became anxious to see the baby Jesus. He wasn't there! For a minute I was worried I had missed the whole purpose in coming. Not to fear, the little family was in the next barn over, out of site from the searching soldiers. This separate little stall was quiet and calm compared to the busy town we had traveled through. All who entered to see the baby were reverent and barely made any noise. Even my children were quiet. Yes, everyone was quiet, except for the little baby wrapped up lying in the hay. He was fussy and I loved it! His mother gently picked him up and rocked him. The little baby Jesus was fine as long as his mother rocked him standing up!
This Christmas season, I feel a need to share my testimony of the Savior. I know Jesus Christ was born. I know he is the Son of God. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we can all become cleansed from sin as we repent. I know Jesus died for every one of us, and more importantly, I know he lives! Jesus knows and loves each and every one of us. He is concerned for our welfare. This past year I have made an effort to recognize blessings I have receive. I am constantly amazed at the innumerable ways my famly has been blessed EACH DAY!
Merry Christmas!
This year our neighbor cut two Christmas trees and gave one to us. It isn't the perfectly groomed tree you would find in a tree lot, but we love it anyway. It drinks about a gallon of water a day.
The kids loved decorating the tree. Joshua got so excited to put "balls" on the tree. Since they were non-breakable I let him help. Miriam and Adam must have had a silent race going to put the most ornaments on the tree. Emily tried to hide her favorite ornaments (the ones with pictures of her in them) in the back under the bottom branches, but I made her get them out to hang where we could see them. Through it all, Olivia sat in her saucer seat and happily watched us decorate.
Love the fence around the tree? I can't quite decide if the fence is to protect the tree from the kids, or the presents from the kids. :)
Joshua did not want his picture taken with the tree, so I had to get a picture of him when he wasn't paying attention.
Everyone else couldn't wait to get their pictures taken in front of the Christmas tree.
actually, they do this every night between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m.!
My favorite part is Joshua running in and out in the back. :)
Adam and Joshua fell asleep yesterday while Michael and I were "Christmas looking." Once they were out, we started "Christmas shopping." Not shown is Miss Olivia in a third shopping cart with items to purchase. (Emily and Miriam were at school)
About 18 months ago, I wanted to learn to quilt. My Relief Society had a class on quilting. Our patterns were from the civil war era and the fabric replicas were muted colors. I decided if I was going to make a quilt, it had to have a purpose, and our need at the time was a quilt for Adam. None of the fabric I saw that was meant for the project looked like a little boy. That's when I got the idea to use bright animal prints instead. As I started sewing the blocks, I decided why not make two quilts and have one for Joshua as well.
I finally finished putting them together, and my friend, Celeste Henderson, machine quilted them.
Enjoy the pictures:
Great job Jenny - on these and the other 96 pictures you added to "My Pictures" this afternoon.
...and water.
It's the day before Halloween and we are carving watermelons.
Watermelons?
Yes, that's right. Watermelons. Michael grew tons of watermelon in our garden this summer. After he picked the ripe watermelon in July and August, more watermelon grew on the vines. These were smaller and we never thought they were ripe. Michael picked them the night before it froze and we have been keeping them in the garage. We decided to carve them because we had so many and it would save us at least $20 by not buying pumpkins!
The kids thought it was a great idea. They even told all their friends at school they were going to carve watermelons. Miriam couldn't stop hugging her watermelon and Adam copies her, of course.
Carving watermelons are a lot easier than carving pumpkins. Scooping out the insides takes only seconds as opposed to pulling out the stringy pumpkin seeds. We were surprised to see that these watermelon were overripe! The fruit was mushy, but that made them easier to hollow out. I did taste the fruit, but it wasn't very sweet. That's what you get with a watermelon growing in September.
Here we are, posing with our masterpieces.
(the next day...)
Today is Halloween!
The girls dress up in their costumes for their Halloween parties at school. Emily is a witch, of course. Miriam picked this costume out herself. She says she is a hula dancer, and I think that is because it came with two plastic flower leis. We don't argue with her because she feels beautiful in it and that's what counts. Miriam actually let me help her with her hair-do today. It has been weeks since I have been allowed to help. Emily on the other hand, told me witches don't comb their hair, so she went to school with a bed head.
Even the little kids get to dress up this morning. The elementary school is having a Halloween parade and all the families are invited. We are on our way to the gym to wait for the kids to walk by.
Even Michael came to watch the parade! He sure doesn't like his picture taken, but the kids were so cute next to him, I couldn't resist. See the chairs set up in curves? The students get to wind back and forth through the gym through the path of chairs. It's amazing how many parents come. By the time the parade starts, every seat is full.
Isn't this the most adorable spiderman you have ever seen? Yesterday he threw a huge tantrum complete with throwing himself onto the floor and kicking and screaming when I tried his costume on him to see how it would look. Today however, he held his feet out for me to put it on him, and actually wanted to wear it. Kids are silly.
This is our bee. That's Joshua's name for her. He says, "bee" instead of "ba-by." That was the inspiration for her costume. She is so soft and warm, she is fun to hold in this outfit.
And we can't forget our favorite fire fighter. He has the best smiles. Adam loves the hat, but doesn't like the clear shield that covers his eyes. We keep it permanently up - although Joshua likes to tease Adam by pushing it down now and again.
It's been a half and hour waiting for the parade to start and our little bee fell asleep for her morning nap on Dad's lap. Too cute for words.
Finally! the kids are coming!
Miriam came to give me a hug as she went by. She was so close, I only got a picture of half of her. Beautiful costume, Miriam.
Emily didn't want to stop for a picture, but the line conveniently slowed to a crawl so I could get this shot of her. Pretty cute for a witch who doesn't like to comb her hair.
Want to know that best part about the kids Halloween costumes? We found them all at a second hand store while on vacation in Colorado. They all averaged about $5-$6 each! Great deal!
Where do kids get their ideas?
My girls like to make signs for their bedroom door. Usually it is something along the lines of:
"Stay Out!", "Please Knock", "Don't come in", or "No brother's allowed."
For the past week they have had a sign on their bedroom door that makes me smile every time I see it. It isn't, "kids only" because they have already written that in CRAYON on the door itself. (anyone know how to get it off?)
I have no idea why she would choose this phrase, but she did. Miriam took the biggest piece of paper she could find - 11" x 17" paper - and wrote:
"No Burping."
I like to quilt. A year and a half ago my friend taught me how to cut pieces and sew them back together again and even match corners. Since then, I have pieced two quilts for the boys' beds, one for a ward secret santa project last year, one half finished jean quilt in pieces under my bed, and a baby quilt for a friend of mine. I like to quilt, but only get to do it once in a while. In fact, I started the boys' quilts a year and a half ago before I got pregnant with Olivia. That really slowed me down, but they will be finished! My friend is machine quilting them for me and I should get them back the first weekend in November! The only thing left will be to sew on the bindings and that could take another year and a half - but I hope not.
So here are pictures of the baby quilt I made last week for a friend of mine. Now where did I find time to sew? You guessed it - I have a lot of cleaning this week to make up for what I didn't do last week. :) It was really nice to take a break from the usual jobs around the house and sew the baby quilt. I had a lot of fun. I just had to post some pictures because I thought it turned out really cute.
This is the whole quilt. It is made from all flannel fabrics. The big blocks are 8" squares, and the small blocks are 4" squares. I think the yellow border was 1 1/2 inches wide before I sewed on the binding. I used warm and natural cotton batting and it turned out really soft and warm. To quilt it, I first assembled the back, batting, and top and used pins to hold the layers in place. Then, I just fed it through my sewing machine.
Here is a close-up of the quilt. You will have to click on the picture to see it big. I just loved the dog print and had to find colors to go with it. The light blue print has puppy paw prints. The blue and green just seemed to fit because they matched the colors on the back.
Here is a shot of the back of the quilt. It has narrow stripes of yellow, blue, and green.
Making this quilt makes me excited to find some more fabric and make another. This quilt was really easy since it was all squares. The next one will need some triangles. :)
This morning I read, Daughters of God, an April 2008 conference talk by Elder Ballard. My favorite quote from his talk helps me not feel so guilty for ignoring my house for a week.
"...sisters, find some time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and interests. Pick one or two things that you would like to learn or do that will enrich your life, and make time for them. Water cannot be drawn from an empty well, and if you are not setting aside a little time for what replenishes you, you will have less and less to give to others, even to your children."
I get overwhelmed all the time with all I do at home with my kids. It's nice to have a hobby I can do to replenish my well. Whether it is reading a book, quilting, or just taking an out-of-the-house-by- myself break, it really helps me love my kids (or housework) more when I'm done.
Olivia is ready for rice cereal. She is in her high chair, bib on, and has no idea what is about to happen to her. Until now she has been on a milk diet and it's her first time trying solids. As usual, she is her smiley self. That's my hand on her side holding her up so she doesn't fall over.
Rice is a big hit. Olivia was anxious to eat more and more. Her cute tongue tried to push it back out a lot, but for first time mush eating she did great.
Still smiling! I think her brothers and sisters were behind me making faces at Olivia while she ate.
I had to put this one in. Adam is so excited to watch Olivia eat from a spoon. He really got her kicking and smiling during feeding time. Can you see me trying to show Olivia how to open her mouth?
Well, Olivia loves rice. She has all week. I love rice because it lets me sleep longer when Olivia does. Next week we might try oatmeal.
Joshua was a little timid when it was time to open gifts. He stayed right by Michael and was hesitant to even open his gifts. (yes, wrapped in leftover Christmas paper)
Miriam could't stand the suspense. She showed Joshua where to tear the paper, and tried to help with each gift. He just wasn't moving fast enough for her. Miriam reminds me of myself as a child.
Joshua couldn't figure out why we lit candles and pushed the cake closer to him. All afternoon I had been telling him, "no touch."
When we started singing "Happy Birthday" to Joshua, and everyone looked at him, Joshua hid his head until we were done singing.
Now comes the part where the birthday boy blows out his candles, right?
Not this birthday boy. He held this pose for 2 minutes while we all tried to tell him to blow out candles, and show him how. After all, doesn't every 2-year old already know to blow out candles? :) Finally, Michael and Adam helped Joshua by blowing the candles out for him.
Joshua might have been a little more reserved than usual during his birthday celebration because we had company! My sisters, Jenny, and Jamie, and Jamie's husband, Pat, came for cake and ice cream. We had a great visit, and I had to laugh when both my sisters wore red too. We didn't even plan it.
Monday after Joshua's birthday, a box arrived from my family in Wyoming. Inside were books, snacks, art supplies, and cards. (did I miss something?) Joshua's favorite item from the box was the hoops and yoyo card (http://www.hoopsandyoyo.com) from my sister, Michele. Everytime you open the card, it chants, "we want ice cream, we want ice cream..." Joshua just sat and grinned ear to ear. He played with that card all night, the next day, and still today.
Happy Birthday Joshua - We sure love you!
