A quick Birthday Quilt for Olivia

Here's what I've been busy with today. The twins turned 5 years old Monday - but the party/cookout isn't until this Saturday at my MIL's home.  So that gives me a few days to whip up a special gift from momma.... yep you guessed it! A Panda Bear quilt for Olivia!

So here's what the design wall looked like around 3:30pm today! This pattern is one that "Quilts for Kids" organization uses and it really goes together fast!  Only theirs is 5X6 rows and I wanted mine to be a little bigger so I made enough that it will be 6 blocks by 7 rows.  I don't want Olivia to outgrow it too soon!  Their pattern calls for a 3.5 outer border of the focus fabric, but I'll use a 6.5" size to grow it a bit more. :)  It's gonna look great!

 

Here's another of the same pattern and nearly at the same stage of completion done up in blue, green and yellow.  I loved that yellow fabric when I spotted it on the "Spot the Dot" sale at Hancock's.  It was 75% off and I'm kicking myself for not buying all that was left on that bolt!  As I would have loved to make this one another row wider and longer too, but couldn't.

And guess who wanted to race me upstairs?  PT is always shouting "ReadySETGO!!!" before I'm ready.  That little cheater, look at him with one foot already out the sewing room door!. lol

Meet my new Garbage Man

I'm so thankful that I happened to have my camera with me today and was able to take these first two photos. When we got home and I noticed Paul Thomas running out to the street as he *LOVES* to check the mailbox and I thought that was what he was up to - but today he did something new!

He tugged and pulled on the garbage can until he had rolled it all the way up the driveway and put it back into it's usual spot by the garage door!  I snapped a couple photos and even video taped him pulling b/c it was just so cute! and so surreal that he's growing up so fast!!  I asked him when he was done how he liked it - and he gave a thumbs up and a sideways thumb, b/c he liked that he was strong enough but didn't like that the can was smelly. I've never smelt anything when pulling up the can before. Funny! :P

 

Summer is suppose to be a time of relaxing, sleeping in, and just doin whatever you want when you want....right? Well not with my kidos! We had 1 week of lazy days of summer, then as of this week activities have started and been keeping us busy each day and night!  Nora's been going to "Safety Town USA" school for 2 hours each day and swim lessons each evening. She will "graduate" tomorrow night :)

Happy 15th Wedding Anniversary to us!

15 years ago tonight, David and I said "I Do" to a life together as Man and Wife.  We choose 2/21 because both his mom's parents, and dad's parents (both sets of his grandparents) also married on February 21st :)

How can time pass so quickly??  How is it that I can remember so much from some of those years, and yet have ave no recollection to some of those years in-between???  I know that it was a long wait for us to become a family - 8 years waiting for our first baby and then, BAM within 3 years we had 3 kids!  Life since then has been so fun, and challenging at times, but so worth the wait!

I'm so thankful God choose David for me and the kids.  He is truly a great, great man!!  I love him so much.  Thanks David for putting up with me this long and being my best friend..... I hope we have many more years together! 

Wow - I had to log back in to edit this and share two more photos.  Just a few moments after I posted this, there was a knock at the front door....  Are you Mrs. Minor?? the girl asked.

Thanks to Olivia having my camera in her hands, you can see my reaction after bringing them into the living room and setting them down on the marble coffee table. ;)

Thank you David!!!  You totally caught me off guard and totally surprised me! I've forgotten how long it's been since I received roses, but the feeling is the same as I remember.... I'm a little bit giddy now :D  Thanks again honey.  I love you always too!

 

Will be away from the computer for a while

I've decided to give up using the computer for my leisure time during the 40 days of Lent starting on Ash Wednesday tomorrow.

I'm hopeful that this year's Lenten Journey will be one of the best yet. May each of you reading this also enjoy this time to prepare our hearts for Jesus this Easter. 

See you in April after Easter.

SNOW much fun on Valentine's Day 2012

Guess who's having SNOW much fun today on Valentine's???  It's been a very mild winter here in Indiana this year and today's the first big snow of the season.  These Texas kids are SO excited. Can you tell?
 

Olivia

Paul Thomas

Nora

Who, just couldn't wait to start throwing snowballs at each other, and me!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

A couple quilts I've been working on this winter

Although the sewing room here in the rental home is very, very, tiny.... I've enjoyed working on some blocks and today got my rows sewn together into a quilt top. Ta-Da!

 

It's called Hand Me Downs and I've made it 100% using cut up men's cotton button down shirts.  I just love the colors and the soft texture.  It's sure to be a favorite sofa quilt in the future :)

Antoher quilt that I've been working on and is neeeeearly large enough is this one. Although I love our King sized bed... it is a huge task to make quilt for it.  Ideally I'd love to have one for each month to change out, but I'll just have to settle for a couple as it takes forever.... and ever!

Did you see my little "Monkey Helper" in the photo below???  Olivia was so willing and ready to help hand me pins off my magnetic pin holder Sunday afternoon. :)    (Yes. Yes, I know there are boxes still in the sewing room.....at this point, anything still boxed up is just gonna have to stay that way until we buy our new home.)

We only have my 1st ever quilt that I made for David before we married that we use on our bed and it's not quite wide enough but we make it work... at the time he had a King size waterbed so hangover amount wasn't considered - just enough to tuck in each side.... but this one will fit the bed or ELSE. lol

I took this photo today, outside hanging over the neighbor's fence.  Aren't all those scraps scrumptious!  ;)

Folks in the region asking "where's winter" will soon get their answer

Looks like we might FINALLY get a SNOW!!!  The kids have been wishing and wishing - and although it did snow during the drive home, New Year's Day, it wasn't enough to cover the ground and it didn't stick around.  However the weather man says that snow is on the way tomorrow!!!  :)  Bring it on!

New Traditions & Happy New Year

This year, since we are so close to family, we've decided to begin a new tradition and all spend the night at Mimi's & Poppy's home for New Year's Eve.  Even David's sister and her kids!

There's an exciting rivalry game between University of Kentucky and University of Louisville that starts at Noon so we'll need to be there before the tip off.  Not sure the exact plans yet, but I think someone mentioned a game of Monopoly and some movies... and Poppy has several fireworks saved from 4th of July last summer that should light up the neighborhood!

It's gonna be fun.  What are your plans?

Only 3 more sleeps!

Christmas is almost here! It's been stretched out before and after the holiday for us this year. Last weekend David took the twins to KY to have Christmas dinner with his Dad's side of the family. Nora had a Girl Scout Christmas party immediately following Mass and also they had their badging ceremony and she didn't want to miss that.  Also that evening a classmate of hers invited all the girls over from the 2nd grade and they all went door to door Christmas Caroling Sunday evening... which if we had skipped the Girl Scout thing and went with David and the twins to KY we would have had to leave very early to make it back in time... so for us it was best for Nora and I to stay here and do her things, and David and the twins go to KY for the day. :)

This weekend, we'll go watch Nora in the Children's program at Christmas Eve Mass, then wake up at home Christmas morning and have to be on the road by 11am to make it to my Dad & Clara's home for Christmas Day dinner. Then early next week David's mother will have her Christmas dinner.  Thankfully David is off work until Wednesday!

Last weekend was a busy one for us as I mentioned above with Nora's activities, plus throw in there that Olivia had a Birthday party to go to on Saturday evening.....  but the most fun thing of all was on Saturday, I baked cookies all day while the kids helped with decorating brown lunch bags that said "Merry Christmas from the Minor Family." After supper we bundled up in our warmest coats and took our jingle bells with us door to door and started a new for us tradition, Christmas Caroling! It was so fun! The kids had been begging to do it and I was much easier to convince than David.... But in the end he obliged and ended up having fun too. :)

"Jingle Bells" ~ "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" ~ "May the Good Lord Bless You" are the three songs we sang at each home.

 

So speaking of only 3 more sleeps until Christmas - are you done with everything??  I've been all done with my shopping for at least two weeks now, but something I haven't done yet is wrap A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Nadda. Nuttin! Notta Thing!

 

The last 2 days I've been feeling terrible.  Perfect timing with school letting out :/

It started off with aching all over (back and neck) and fever.... Then yesterday every tooth in my head throbbed while my back also ached and I was so cold and chilling with fever on the sofa. Also as of yesterday it felt like I had a HUGE ROCK stuck in my throat. Ouch!

Thankfully David came home from work and served supper to the kids and oversaw their baths... not that he wanted to b/c he was plenty tired too from all the hours he's been putting in at work. He's up and gone from our home each morning before 7am most days.

Today I'm feeling a little better. I've been keeping the ibroprofin in my system all day and that helps a lot with the throat pain. No chills or aching today, but still feels like a rock in my throat.  I might feel up to eating supper which is a big improvement!


Tonight after the kids go to sleep, I'll have to get out to the garage and *FIND* all the presents that I've tucked away here and there... and get them started on wrapping. Only 3 more sleeps until Christmas and would you believe there isn't a single present wrapped under our tree? The kids get up so early (before the sun) each day and are running downstairs to hunt for our Elf on the Shelf, that I just haven't been able to trust that they'd not unwrap anything..... so I just haven't put anything out.

 

I will hold back the gifts they told me they wanted to buy each other and let them help me with wrapping those. We'll see how good they are with secrets after they've helped me do the wrapping..... they also have gifts to each other to take to Dad & Clara's dinner - they let all the grandkids draw names at Thanksgiving but forgot about adding my kids names into the hat. No problem, Nora can draw Paul Thomas, he draw Olivia and she draw Nora. Problem solved or so I thought... then they said their limit was $10 and the gifts we already bought for each other are more in the $25 range.... So I guess I need to pick up something else to use for that.

 

I have a few things in mind...for the $10 gifts... and thankfully with David off work tomorrow, he can stay at home with them while I slip in and out of Walgreens or CVS and avoid any last minute shoppers tomorrow. 


Until then - I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas Weekend! 

CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!!

Ever wash a pair of shoes, and remember the sound of clunk-clunk-clunk when it starts the spin cycle?  Well yesterday I was doing laundry and still close by the machine when suddenly I heard a very loud CLANK-CLANK-CLANK!!!  much louder than being off balance, or washing a pair of tennis shoes!!

Thankfully I hit the button to stop it before opening the door, b/c when I did - I found that the center piece of the washer was in about a half a dozen pieces!!  ?? How did this happen?  So I called David at work and he asked me to take a photo and email it to him so he could see how bad....  the camera took one photo and then the battery died. figures. :/

After we picked up Nora from school, I came home and loaded up this wet load and my other 2 loads of laundry and took all of it and the kids to the laundry mat with me.  We left at 4:50 and was there until about 6:30pm. 

Wanna know the crazy part.... when I was taking out all of the wet load to load up to take with me, I removed all the machine pieces, then clothes................ then I pulled out a AA Battery.... then a wooden wall CLOCK!  Yes, a clock - the kind you hang on a wall!!  About as big as a dinner plate! 

NO WONDER, it tore everything loose when it went into the spin cycle!!  Now who do you suppose did that???  At the supper table I asked if anyone had dropped a clock into the washing machine, and got three "NOT ME" replies. :/  Thankfully I think David can fix it pretty easily!  I hope!





 

St. Nicholas

 Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, everyone!

Last night before bedtime, Nora made sure to put her shoes outside of her bedroom door and Olivia and Paul Thomas quickly followed suit although they really didn't understand why.  They just did what Nora told them to do. :)  She also gathered up mine and David's and did the same with ours outside our bedroom door.

This morning the children woke up to find two lolly pops in each of their shoes!  Thank you St. Nicholas!

Nora's Habitat Diorama - The Blue Whale

I am ***SO*** glad I thought ahead, and put Nora's Science project in the front seat of the van tonight so we don't forget it tomorrow!   I'm so proud of her and her 1st "project" for school.

 

Just before Thanksgiving she brought home a sheet saying they were to choose any animal that lives in desert, rain forest, ocean, artic, or regular forest and show how they get their food, water and their shelter. 

Before I finished reading the assignment paper she was already telling me, " I want to do my natural habitat for the BLUE WHALE because it's the biggest animal or mammal on the earth Mom!  I am gonna keep my animal choice a secret and not tell any of my friends at school b/c I don't want them to copy me!"

It took me a whole day of shopping to gather the stuff we had decided we needed for our shoebox.  Hobby Lobby, the pet store for the rocks, Target are just a few of the places that I found what I needed.

Adding the facts of her blue whale to the side of the box was her idea....but we typed them b/c there was no way she could write small and neat enough... Did you know that a Blue Whale's heart is the size of a small car?? Or that it's main arteries are large enough that a human could comfortably swim inside them?

She knows so much about animals of the ocean... thanks to her Godparents (Michael & Abbey) for getting her the book "Nora the Nonapus" when she was only 3 or 4 years old. We have read that book at least 500 times and now she reads it to us! :)  Who knows, maybe one day she'll get to swim and scuba dive in the ocean and take up-close looks at all the creatures that keep her so fascinated..... 

 

Maybe Marine Biology is in her future? Who knows?  and to think I start to sufficate if I am sitting in knee keep water and try to put my face with snorkel tube and mask into the water.  true fact.

Here's a view from the top looking down - and the over all view so you can see the box top that it will sit on.

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what animals her classmates choose tomorrow.  Who choose desert, or forest, arctic or ocean...

 

 

 

 

 

 Oh and you know one of my favorite parts... the back of the box. :)  She wrote, "Nora Minor.  Together with Mom. Cool! Really. ♥