My first pieced quilt

all wrapped up and ready for giving

fabric card

fabric gift tag

taggie

When Ryan was little, Mom made three or four blankets with this

quilt pattern. They were great for the kids' floor time. Once they were on their tummies, the

bright fabric was a constant source of entertainment. I still have two at my house to

use when we have friends over with little ones.

This was my first attempt at a pieced quilt...it was so much fun to watch it take shape.

i LOVE this fabric

view of the back...more of my masking tape quilting

this will be the last of the project photos until after Christmas...

from here on out it's Christmas gift crafting...

Thanksgiving Break - Days Four and Five

Day four is technically Thursday, but I found a few more pictures from Wednesday that

I wanted to share. The sunset on the hills Wednesday night was gorgeous! They

were as pink as could be.

My little helper made pumpkin pies. They were delicious!

Bob, Ryan and I spent a lot of time this weekend playing Boggle. If anyone out there is

looking for a game to get for a child eight or over, this is an awesome game! Even though

Bob almost always wins, Ryan and I still have fun trying to find as many words as possible.

We started playing this two years ago, and I can see so much improvement in Ryan's spelling.

His lists used to be very short and mostly spelled incorrectly. Now, he'll get 10-20 words each round.

While we played, Emma painted. She's discovered that she can paint with her

markers if she uses water and a paintbrush. She gets the brush wet and then rubs it on the

tip of the marker. It's great because there's no mess! This is her reindeer.

Emma and I discovered that her upper and lower case alphabet

flashcards fit perfectly side by side along the top of the landing in our living room.

We spent Thanksgiving at home...alone. But we still had a great time. Luckily, no

one else got sick and Ryan was better after 24 hours. We enjoyed a full turkey dinner...and then
several days of leftovers. This was my first turkey dinner all on my own...and it was a success!

We sure missed being with family, though.

Our table set for four but with the leaf added in order to hold all of the food. (smile)

Lots of food, eh?

I tried using the crockpot for my stuffing this year, and it was

delicious! Crisp on the outside, perfectly moist in the inside, and not

taking up space in my oven.

I spent a bit of the evening on Thursday working on this. Can't wait until it's done...just

might need to keep it for myself. While I sewed, Bob and the kids played

table tennis, air hockey and some board games.

~~~

I don't have any pictures from Friday, but we had a great day.

Dad and Mom came up. Dad and Ryan went go-card racing and then to Max's to

build some work benches. Bob and Emma stayed home where it was nice and warm. Mom and I left about 11:30 in the morning, thinking JoAnn's wouldn't be busy. The first sign of just how busy they were was the fact that there were no carts. After snagging one from a customer that was leaving, we went immediately to the fabric cutting counter to get our numbers...B97 and B98. They were working on 4 or so, so that wasn't so bad. We got our fabric, wondered around a bit, and headed over towards the cutting counter. That was when we discovered they were on the A's still. That meant that there were roughly 150 people ahead of waiting...and some of them had carts full of bolts of fabric. And it was after 1:00 p.m. and we were starving!!!

I was just getting ready to leave Mom with our cart and head to Subway when we discovered the express lane!! If you had three or less cuts to be made, you could just a much shorter line. We ended up finishing when they reading A90, so there were still about 110 people ahead of us. We were so happy to give someone else our numbers and leave that store!

~~~

Bob, the kids and I spent a quiet evening at home on Friday evening...games, a Christmas movie,

more sewing for me. Just two more days and life gets back to normal...for 2.5 weeks anyway.

Our Thankful Lists

Bob

1. My family

2. Our friends

3. Good health

4. Our home

5. Employment

~~~

Katie

1. My sweet little family

2. Dear extended family and friends

3. A home all our own

4. Our good health

5. A husband who lets me be crafty

~~~

Ryan

1. Our dog, Sandy

2. Our family

3. Having a home to live in

4. Having friends and family

5. That we're going to have a merry Christmas

6. Cranberry Sauce

~~~

Emmalee

1. The turkey

2. Pumpkin Pie

3. Christmas and birthday

4. My friends

5. My family

6. Everything

~~~

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Thanksgiving Break - Day Two and Three

Day two of break started with this view from our front window...snow on

top of ice and frigid temperatures.

I think the skiers were happy!

And so were these two. Emma has wanted to make a snow

angel for so long. She plopped down and just laid in the snow for a while.

Meanwhile, Ryan went out and started to shovel the sidewalk and the driveway

without being asked. I'm starting to think that there are a few benefits to

having an almost-ten-year-old!

We discovered that we traded our very long sidewalk and short driveway for a short

sidewalk and very long driveway! Lots to shovel!

The view from my kitchen window as I was making hot chocolate.

The afternoon was spent playing DS,

relaxing (and then napping),

playing with stuffed animals with a chocolate mustache.

I spent my afternoon finishing a few gifts...no pictures to share until

much later!

Later yesterday afternoon, I finally got up the courage to

help with kids make their own pillowcases.

These are the fabrics the kids picked.

I may never get to use my machine again!

Emma's photo of me as I'm ironing her seams.

All done!

Ryan did a bit more of it on his own.

All done!

So, the day went well, until about 6 p.m.

About half of the people we spent the evening with on Sunday ended up

with the stomach flu. Ryan decided to join the ranks. It was a loooong night!

This photo is from this morning (Wednesday). He's feeling better.

We're wondering who's next!

Rather than head out to Mom and Dad's for Thankgiving Dinner tomorrow,

we'll be keeping our germs here.

Thanksgiving Break - Day One

Weeks ago, when we decided to spend Thanksgiving Week at home rather than

travel to La Grande like normal, I promised the kids I'd take them swimming at the

YMCA pool. There's one just about fifteen minutes away, and it is awesome for the kids.

The roads were driveable this morning, so we hopped in the car and headed to the warm water.

I was in the pool with them, so the only photos are the ones taken before we headed out.

Anyway, the kids had a great time! Ryan tried to give me a heart attack as I watched

the one who will always be my little boy go off the high dive from cllleeeeeaaaarrrr across three pools. That's way too far for this momma's comfort! I love that he's so comfortable in the water.

Emmalee met a new friend and then, to her delight, discovered that she's also a Kindergarten student at Emma's school. They have plans to meet under the big yellow slide when

school starts again. Her name is Kennedy, but Emma kept calling her Canada.

I was just going to post the one photo...but look at that pose!

Our Weekend

Bob has always wanted a pool table. When we looked at this house and

found the large room downstairs, he really started his campaign for one!

Friday, after he got home from work, I went and picked up our new

pool/air hockey/table tennis/flick football table. Then he and Ryan started doing what they love to do best...putting things together.

We also watched the Sloan boys that evening while Greg and Amy went to a
very cold, but exciting BSU football game. Carson got to help put it together.
Unfortunately, he didn't get to try it out that evening. Part of the design was a bit
flawed, so Bob had to do some extra work on in Saturday morning.

These two crack me up...this is how they are smiling in every posed photo I have
of the two of them. They had a great time, and Emma decided that six hours
is the perfect length for a play date. They played with playdoh (for hours!), their Gameboys,
stickers, stamps, and with all of the toys in Emma's room.

Trevor

These two played with light sabers, their DS's, and Cool Math on the laptop.

This was at about 11:15 p.m. ~ a little quieter, but still going strong!

Carson and Ryan were "chatting" back and forth on their DS's, in Chinese.

Quite entertaining!

Ryan spent most of Saturday at the airport helping Dad and Max on Dad's plane.

When he got home, the table was all put together and ready to try out.

They only used the pool side ... Bob had to use some epoxy and it had to cure 24 hours before they could spin the table over to the air hockey side.

Bob giving Ryan lessons in pool.

There's plenty of room for the table downstairs...the only downside is

this support beam! Bob seems to have figured a way around it...literally! :)

With the kids off for the next week for Thanksgiving, the delivery of this

early family Christmas present was perfectly timed!

We had a bit of snow on Sunday. Between meetings, the kids

went out to check it out. More is expected over today and tomorrow, and then lows close to 0 degrees on Wednesday. I guess I have to accept the fact that winter has decided to arrive!

After Gospel meeting on Sunday, we headed over to the Sloan's house for some pizza, delicious chicken/white bean soup, Settlers, and playtime for the kids!

Con and Brice

Greg and Ryan

Amy and Malia...such a little cutie!

These two used to not get along that great....guess they've

gotten over it! There's nothing like a friend you can sit on!

The dads and the babies...

Greg with Trevor and Ryan with Malia

He's 15 months and she's almost 6 months.

Ryan, Carson, and Damion

~~~

What a wonderful weekend!