Projects: Christmas Presents

This year I really wanted to make a lot of the Christmas presents we gave. I had such a great time doing it! I don't think I specifically thought, "I'm going to make presents this year," I just found things that I could make and decided to do it. I was watching Psych and saw this awesome pineapple quilt and knew my brother who is on a mission would love one like that. He loves Psych and it's super cold where he is!

I found the pattern for the pineapples here.

 (Sweet Girl wanted to model it)

 (this was my awesome packing job, it fit into a large flat rate box!)

This is the first real quilt I've every actually made by myself. I've tied quilts before, but when I did that it was just two pieces of material with batting in between. I've done a few block quilts (one was just a tiny blanket and isn't quite square) and another block quilt I made I had help with. But this one, this one was much more intricate than anything else I've ever done. I also put two blankets on the inside so it is SUPER thick! It took a long time to make, but I am super happy with how it turned out!

I found these adorable dress up aprons on Pinterest. They looked pretty easy to make (and they were) so I decided to try it out! I had so much fun making them! I made a Princess Aurora apron first.

 Then I made a nurse apron, and a few regular aprons. Then I made an Elsa apron for one of our nieces.

One of my favorite features of these dress up aprons is that they are easy to put on and take off. Easy enough that Sweet Girl can put them on and take them off herself, and since she is pretty independent these days, it is perfect!

(Silly girl didn't want her picture taken, so she started taking them off)

We had my Sweet Sister-in-law's family for Christmas on my Sweet Husband's side.
I've loved this idea of a cross-stitched family portrait ever since I saw it on pinterest!
I plan to make one for our family too, it just hasn't happened yet.
I had so much fun looking through pictures and finding outfits they had that I could recreate in the cross-stitch. And I also had fun adding little things about them that they like!
I put it in a cute frame, but apparently forgot to take a picture of it at that stage.

My Brother's Wedding

Change is inevitable, nothing ever stays the same. But I think change is good! Especially when that change means weddings and babies! This previous year, we've had a bit of both of those in our families!

My little brother married a wonderful girl in December! It's so fun having another sister-in-law! And we were also blessed because she also added our sweet new niece to our family! It has been so fun to see Sweet Girl play with her new cousin! They love each other and their sweet baby cousin! Grandpa especially loves having more granddaughters because now Sweet Girl gets a little jealous and whenever her new cousin cuddles with Grandpa she thinks she also needs to cuddle with Grandpa! She is a Grandma's girl usually!

Their wedding was beautiful! They exchanged rings, we had a waffle bar, and then we all headed up to the temple for their sealing. The sealing was beautiful! Their Sealer gave them wonderful council. I love going to sealings, I love seeing the happiness on the couple's face and I love the peace that comes in the temple! I especially love sealings because they remind me of my own sealing to my Sweet Husband! He is such a blessing in my life! I love to remember the day we were sealed together. I love remembering the words our Sealer to us! Even more, I love each day we get to share together!

  

 So cute to see their little girl run up to them after they came out of the temple!

 I told my Sweet Sister-in-law that I knew my brother loves her because he actually smiles in all the pictures!

Remember this picture?.. lol most other pictures he's in.. lol!

But this, this is a real smile!

After their sealing, we went outside and took a few pictures. They took a more without us, but since they were headed on their honeymoon right after, we headed to Texas Roadhouse. It was so delicious!

Christmas Tree Hunt 2015

The Thanksgivings we spend with my family at some point during the break we go get our Christmas tree! See here and here if you don't remember.

It's one of my favorite Christmas traditions, we did this when I was little!

 My mom was there too, but she was taking the picture.

 Sweet Girl loved helping and she started a little rock collection in the black case she is carrying around.

 This year we actually dug out the tree rather than cut it down so we could plant it in our yard afterward. 

 When we got home, my Sweet Husband put it in some soil in a bucket,

which was actually a lot easier than trying to get it to stand in the tree stand!

 Sammie enjoyed decorating the tree,

Daddy helped her put her ornament from her Grandma and Grandpa C on the tree!

 My Sweet Husband planted the tree for us after Christmas!

Funny things: November and December 2015

Sweet Girl is such a funny girl!

Every day she does something that makes us laugh!

Here are several for your viewing pleasure:

Uh oh, coloring on the walls.

 Honestly, I just laughed and took the picture because in the grand scheme of things it really isn't a huge deal. I told her no, got the magic eraser, and bam it was clean.. lol!

Plus, it was pretty darn cute how proud of her drawing she was.

 One day we were shopping and she was having a little bit of a melt down, so my Sweet Husband took her outside and she LOVED the big balls outside of Target! He said she would try and push every ball!

 I made a quilt (more information about that later) and she thought it was a pretty awesome fort when it was up on the quilting frames!

 All of a sudden she was afraid of the vacuum and when I would turn it on, she would run and "hide" under the cushion of her rocking chair.. .lol!

 In October, I taught her how to play hide and seek.

Later that day she started hiding in the closet...lol!

Since then, she's loved playing in the closet!

 I just love this picture!

 She finished her popcorn and turned her bowl into a hat!

 Lol, I guess she wanted to be a baby again, she climbed right in to her little rocker that we had out for her baby cousin!

 She loves pretty things! Even though she doesn't love it when I do her hair, she sure likes to have things put in it when it is her idea!

 She loves to be outside and discovered that the wheelbarrow is a perfect little slide she can do all by herself!

 On this particular day she must have been going through a growth spurt or something because my Sweet Husband took her on a walk and when they came back around 4:45 she was asleep. If I remember correctly she hadn't napped super well that day, so that could have been part of it too. But she slept until 6, woke up and I got her out of the stroller, then she cuddled right down on my shoulder and fell back to sleep. Then slept right on through until 6:00 am the next morning!

 She wasn't too sure of the headset until she could hear everyone else and herself in it! Then she thought it was pretty cool!

 Until she fell asleep!

 Lol, sometimes it's more fun to lay down with your toys!

Our little engineer in the making, she loves to dump them out and will play with them for a while!

Although, she also likes to just dump them out too!

 Giving Daddy kisses!

 Bundled up for a run!

 One might think we have a mouse...

nope, we have a Sweet Girl! Apparently, she wanted mac and cheese!

 She thought it was pretty cool to pretend to drive!

 Walks are exhausting!

 Our little Cinderella!

 She tried on her Daddy's baby clothes!

I thought she looked pretty darn adorable!

 One day I was trying to load up the stroller after I finished running and she wouldn't stay by the car and wanted to run around the parking lot, so she got to sit in the trunk while I loaded things up.. lol she wasn't too excited about that!

 She had a field day unwrapping the fake gifts from an activity I was trying to get rid of!

 The week of Christmas Daddy wasn't feeling well, Sweet Girl loved helping Daddy!

She read his stories out of his favorite magazine...

 and got him blankets so he wouldn't be cold!

 Man, I wish this one wasn't blurry!

She's such a funny and sweet Girl!

We love to have her little spunky personality around!