pictures pictures and more pictures

Birthdays first


now for Christmas

Ronan doesn't seem too happy about Timothy's present

I made the blanket for Emma. She knew all about it but I wrapped it up anyway. It isn't the fanciest blanket in the world, but it was made with love and it is warm ~ the two most important 'ingredients' to making a blanket


this doll is a replica of a character in a movie that we all (me and the kids) happen to love in this house. I found the pattern a couple of months ago and all the little kids knew I was making her for Erica but they somehow managed to keep it a surprise.
Connor seems far more excited about Ronan's present than any of his own.
Gingerbread houses decorated at Amy's house. (we didn't wait until Christmas to eat them)
Harry Potter PJs and Batman cowl. an interesting disguise.
last year Connor got this toy... it is a sonic screwdriver ~ a toy replication of a prop in well loved TV series here. I not only got him one, but a spare because I knew that it would get lost or broken. then I decided that I wanted one for myself. I know, silly and childish of me...
he broke his and the spare and this year he got to have mine since I never opened it. this is the last sonic screwdriver that he will have. I hope he takes better care this time around.

12

I missed posting on the day. Timothy's birthday was Saturday. I am ashamed that I didn't post anything about it then. I should be more so because it was his golden birthday - 12 on the 12th day of the 12th month.

all the pictures are still on my camera and I will have to take some time in the next day or two to move them over to my computer and put them up on the blog. I will. I promise.

but in the mean time, Happy belated Birthday, Timothy.

Fifteen

Fifteen. 15.

what in the world happened? where did the time go?

Erica is 15 years old today.

Happy Birthday, Erica. I will have more to say and pictures to show later.

but for now I wanted to be sure to mention that it's her special day

yearly pictures

It's about time I updated the kids' yearly pictures. I took them way back in October and that's the extent of what I got done with them.

I really wish I had taken Erica and Timothy out again. I have such a hard time getting a really good picture of Timothy. For some reason he is terribly camera shy. And the reason I needed better pictures of Erica is because her hair was still wet when we took pictures for this year. She isn’t looking her very best.

But I am pleased with a few of the pictures taken. I guess that I will just have to be content with those few and maybe make them pose in front of the Christmas tree when I get that put set up.

I’ll start with Erica and her wet hair. In just under two weeks, she is going to be 15. I can hardly believe it. Wasn’t she just a baby yesterday? And if she’s going to be 15 that means that I’m older too. I don’t feel older. I feel like I should still be a kid myself.

Timothy, he’s grown taller than me over night! You might think I’m exaggerating that but I don’t think I am. He really was shorter than me just a couple of weeks ago and the other day I realized that he is taller than I am now.

a rare picture of Timothy smiling.

Emma has changed so much in the last year. I think that she has changed the most. Last year’s picture she looks so small and this year she looks like she’s 10. She is so anxious to be big. I’m not ready for her to grow up. She is only 7 years old right now, but I’ll blink and she’ll be turning 15 before I know what happened.

Connor. What more is there to say than that. Just... Connor. What a scalawag ~ I think that's a fairly accurate description ~ but so lovable. I did manage to get a shot here of a well behaved, non-mischievous Connor. He’s not a bad boy, he just loves silliness and often doesn’t know when he should stop.

Baby Ronan. Not a baby anymore, but neither Tim nor I am willing to stop using the word baby for him. Some time soon we will have to but we can still get away with it for a while longer and we are going to take full advantage of that little bit of time.

Every day he has us laughing. Yesterday he was making up songs and playing a violin Christmas ornament like an electric guitar. It’s more of a ‘you had to be there’ moment. It’s hilarious all the same.

he's trying to cross his legs.

so here they are. Our kids.

December ~ a.k.a. the busiest month of my year

Even though it is the most hectic month, I'm so excited. Emma is right there with me. we are so excited about Christmas just around the corner. Hooray!

In no time at all it will be December. In fact in a day and a half it will be. I have noticed that the older I get the faster time flies, but this year has got to be the fastest one yet. I wonder what the next year will be like.

So here it comes, our families busiest month. it begins with the traditional Sisters' Camp Out where my sister rents a cabin and we all show up with the tastiest treats and music and warm clothes and bedding. we laugh and sing songs and some of us dance around. then we head over to the cemetery and sing to our mothers (Melanie was born of a different set of parents as the rest of us, but she is our sister all the same) ~ I forgot! Charity gets to come this year too! I am so very ready to have that night out. It's only one night away but it is extremely rejuvenating. then back home we go ready to be with our kids who drive us crazy and in essence drove us away for a night in the first place.

the following week we have two music programs at school immediately followed by Erica's then Timothy's birthdays.
I can't believe that I am old enough to have a daughter that is going to be 15 in just a couple of weeks! How did this happen?

the next week is busy because I will be making Christmas treats for Christmas day. I make all kinds of things and then must hide them so the kids and the husband don't eat them all. last year I went through three bags of pretzels for chocolate covered pretzels because Tim took one bag with him to work. not that I'm complaining. so this year I'm planning on at least one bag to wander off to work with him.
so then at the end of that week Emma has her music program at school.

which then brings up to Christmas week. I must finish all the treats and all the wrapping. I need to make sure the kids have shopped for the person they chose out of a hat. then on to Grandma's house Christmas Eve. we have a great time visiting and snacking and visiting more. when we get home the kids have to go to sleep as soon as possible because by then I'm beat and want to set out presents and go to sleep.

Christmas is our day... just ours. we sleep as long as the kids will allow and then we get up and quickly set out treats and open presents. then the kids play with their presents we play games and watch movies and nibble all day long, in our pajamas.
I can't wait!

more on the eagles

today when Tim got home from work, he was driving on to our road and saw an eagle swoop up and perch in our tree. I didn't get a picture because he/she had already left by the time I got outside. :(

but they are here and it is likely that we will get to see them more and more often

Yay!

more nature in our back yard

so it isn't exactly in our back yard, but it was about a block away from our back yard.

Alice gave me another call today. I think she is going to be my neighborhood bird watcher.
paraphrasing, she said there are two bald eagles in the tree by the lake out by the highway, they're just sitting there.

I really wish I had a better zoom lens on my camera, but I can't really complain because although a bit fuzzy around the edges, these are the best bird of prey pictures I've taken in the last couple of years.

they sat and looked at me for a couple of minutes. I snapped away but missed any pictures of them looking directly at me.
then a really noisy truck went by and they had decided that they had enough.
my lens isn't great for action focusing. ah well. I was glad for the opportunity to get this close.

just passing through

Alice called me this morning, on her way to our sister's house, to tell me that we have swans on our lake. (clicking on any of the pictures will allow you to see a bit larger picture)

there were hundreds of geese. I didn't count the swans, but I think there were seven.






we didn't stay out there long. I didn't want the boys out of the car running around a large body of water while I was looking through a camera lens. not a great idea.



Thanks for calling, Alice.

trick or treat picture and some other stuff

trick or treat. a couple days late, but here are the kids in their costumes.
Ronan kept his pig nose and ears on almost the whole trick or treating adventure. I count that as a success because in previous years with tiny kids and home made costumes they don't stay on very long. (like Connor and his toy box costume which lasted for only one house)

Connor and Emma used their costumes from last year. they didn't seem to feel gypped for having to re-use a costume and actually Emma insisted on using the dress again this year. I'm glad that they weren't upset about reusing because I honestly don't think I could have handled the tantrum that could have happened.

Timothy's costume is a car accident victim. I made fake blood and tore up an old sheet. that costume was totally free! in fact the only thing I spent any money on this year was Emma's sparkle make up and the glow sticks.

Erica is in my old Renaissance Festival dress. she is three things in one. first she is a pre raphaelite painting. second she is the lady of Shallot. and thirdly, she is Me from 16 years ago, complete with long flowing hair and very narrow waste. It's hard on me to see her wearing all my old clothes.
The Shawl she is wearing was something we whipped up in about three hours that morning. She needed something warm and I'm not about to part with my cloak so we improvised very last minute. it turned out pretty good and one of her friends at school asked if she would make one for her. Erica told her if she brings her some yarn in the colors she wants she will make one for her.




In other news... I'm working on some Christmas presents. I am finishing up Emma's blanket. I have 2 small squares to make and 6 small squares to sew on to the blankets edge. then I have to make some more flowers and butterflies and maybe a lady bug or two to sew onto the blanket.
I am almost done with that and I have a goal to have that finished before Thanksgiving.

I am also working on a project for Erica. I'm not sure if I should say anything about it just in case she ends up reading this. I'm really happy that I've been able to keep it a surprise so far. I think everyone else in the family knows I'm making this present for her and they have managed to keep it to themselves! and that's amazing because as recently as June these guys have blabbed about every present that they have known about. I may mention more about this soon. but I am hoping that this will be finished before December as well.
I kind of want to save those last few weeks for planning birthdays and Christmas treats.

I'm feeling really good at this point. I finished shopping for the little boys. as far as purchased Christmas presents I only have 4 left. the anxiety that I usually start to feel around this time of year is considerably less than, say, last year and the last 7 years.
the next thing to do is to find a moment or two alone so I can wrap the presents.

I just finished Ronan's costume

Connor is modeling it because Ronan was being difficult, but I think it will work out just fine.

comes complete with tail

what do you think? just a pig or has swine flu?

don't be alarmed ~addition~

that music is from my playlist located at the bottom of the page.

this month's theme is The Nightmare Before Christmas. My kids LOVE that movie. I have to admit that I have loved this movie ever since I went to it in the theater so many years ago.

I think that I will play around with having music on my blog for a while and see if I like it.
so far there is one down side with the player. I wish that I could upload some of my music from my computer. but I'll make due with what I can get with playlist.com but then again, maybe I just haven't poked around enough on the site to see if I can put my own music on
we'll see


addition: I guess you wouldn't be alarmed if you didn't scroll down to the player first... it doesn't load the player until you are at that section of the page. So either i will need to move it or I'll scrap it altogether.

surprise! two more hats...

I'd better be careful or I won't be able to make anything else.
while taking a break from the Christmas present for Emma, I decided to whip up a quick little hat.
for the last month I haven't done too much work on anything but the blanket for Emma for her Christmas present. well, that's not entirely true. I did make a couple of water bottle insulators/coffee cup cozies. oh and a small rug. but mostly Emma's blanket.
anyway, yesterday I got really tired of squares and sewing the squares together so I thought I should do something else for a bit just to give my brain and hands a break from that monotony.
at last month's sale, Lynn's minister and his wife and daughter came by and asked if I could make a strawberry hat. of course I can, but since I didn't get an actual order I didn't do anything about it until now (because a strawberry really would be cute and fun to do)
so I started one.I need to put seeds on the hat, but I'm still trying to figure out how I want to do it without having a lot of excess yarn tangling up the inside of the hat. Here it is so far. Red yarn does not photograph real well. but you get the idea.
once it's done I'll be posting it in my shop, I think.



I also made this cute hat. it's been a couple of weeks since I've worked on it. I guess I'm waiting for a little inspiration on just how I want to finish it. It is a new born size hat.
Timothy had been watching me work on this hat (click on links to see) and he asked me if I ever make boy hats.
well, I can, but I just haven't really done much by way of boyish hats - apart from the pumpkin hat and a couple of plain colored hats. I'll have to do a few of those and then I really should move on to some other things besides hats.

I promised and so here you go

I promised Charity that I would post pictures of my hair tonight. I'm not at all happy with anything but my hair... (except for the nerdy kind of part in my hair in this picture, but this is the best I'm going to get. It isn't easy taking a quick self portrait and my hair fell out of place before the picture took. oh well....
Here you go, Charity. I'll probably remove the embarassing pictures of giant, round me soon. please, just look at the hair :P

it has been about 6 years or something like that

I went to my sister today and had her cut my hair off.

I decided to go really short. I like it and so far no regrets. I just might allow someone to take my picture (which I hate really a lot since I've gotten old and scary looking) and I'll post one here to show off my new hair.

I tried to sleep in

but this morning Connor woke up and kept trying to get Ronan (who had crawled in next to me about 5 or 6 this morning) to wake up and play with him.

It wasn't working too well until Connor came in and announced that now he gets to have his birthday soon. that could only mean one thing. Snow.


the last of my lovely vibrant snap dragons are a bit chilly.
I guess it really is time to collect the seeds from all my flowers.

I just might have brought this on us. Yesterday I made a very spur of the moment decision to stop by the apple orchard and buy some squash. I've had a hankering for the last couple of weeks. now that I've fully accepted that cold weather is upon us and it's time for cooking in the oven all the time, it snows.

granted it won't last for very long, so I will enjoy this time of Connor being thrilled to look out the window and have his birthday to look forward to - in January.

more on the party

Emma had a very exciting day. she took the cookies to school and everyone loved them. she shared them with all the kids in her classroom and several of the teachers and the ladies in the office.
when she got home she showed me that a boy from school had given her a ring. it was a gigantic plastic diamond. he says he found it on the playground and just gave it to her.
her class signed a card for her and she got a card in the mail from aunt Shirley. Shirley always sends cards for birthdays and anniversaries. She's so wonderful.


Emma had a tricky time blowing out those candles. she started out with 4 boyfriends! then 2 then one. :)


can you tell what we had to drink at supper?


the cake and icecream was a flavor sensation. I got Emma a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. she's very girly and decided that pinky pinkness was the way to go there.
She went with Daddy yesterday to pick out the ice cream and get a few other items for the party and she picked mint chocolate chip ice cream. it was an interesting combination of sugar. it kind of worked though.

everyone had such a very excited time. Connor and Ronan, but Ronan especially, had a very hard time sitting down and letting Emma open her presents by herself. I had a tough time getting good pictures with them in the way of the camera or getting them to sit down for a while.
birthday's are thrilling for all.

today is a GREAT BIG day

Emma turns 7 today, the 7th!

this year is a big one for Golden Birthdays. first Ronan, now Emma, and in a couple of months Timothy will have his.


this is our birthday girl this morning.
to make today a big deal for her - at school the kids usually take a treat to share on their birthday. I usually get Little Debbie's for them to pass around but I did the insane and made a double batch of sugar cookies and we frosted them and put sprinkles on them.
I usually don't undertake such a big project until Christmas when I make treats and stock pile them for Christmas day. but today is extra special and hopefully she will remember this for a long long time.

Happy Golden Birthday, Emma!
More pictures to come.

now that's a lot of rain

I don't know how much we've gotten today, but it isn't over and it's been raining ALL day. by all day I mean I woke up to earth shaking thunder a little before 1:00am. it really shook the house.
I wonder where that lighting struck for the ground and air to be so disturbed that we could feel it.
It was kind of fun, though, I really like thunder.
I don't like wind. I feel really vulnerable when the wind starts blowing hard. ugh. but thunder is kind of calming to me.
weird, I know

a nice pick me up

I made another sale! this time it was an actual item, not just a pattern, and so I am really excited about that.

:)

another super cute hat

I am particularly proud of this hat. I really love it. I made this as a special order for a wonderful lady who is giving it to her granddaughter.

Erica saw it and was instantly in love. gramma Lynn was instantly in love with it too. and I hear that Jill ~ the a fore mentioned wonderful lady ~ fell instantly in love with the hat as well.
I'm just exploding with delight that it is so adored. I can't wait to find out how the granddaughter feels about it too.

scooby dooby doo, where are you

I couldn't believe my eyes! Even though I'm not really a giant scooby fan (at least not since I reached the age of adulthood) I have always thought it would be so cool to buy a van and paint it like the mystery machine. I guess I'm not so completely weird as I thought.
I saw this go by and asked Tim and Erica "Is that real?" and it really was.

getting ready for the sale

Saturday I will be hanging out in Amboy for their town birthday celebration. I still have stuff I made long ago to sell and I am finishing up a few more things this week to make sure I have a decent selection.

gotta make some bracelets yet.

the miracle of Band-aids

the other day Ronan was running through the living room, though all the kids know perfectly well that they are not supposed to run in the house. He tripped and banged his nose on a gigantic block and he scrapped a bit of skin from the bridge of his nose. I'm sure it was bruised a bit as well, but we can only see the scrape and scab.

This morning he picked at it and the scab came off. it wasn't bleeding but he insisted on a band-aid and proceeded to put it on by himself because he's so grown up now that he's two.
I left the room and didn't see the good job he did by himself until he came out of the bathroom.
I had to take a picture

All better.