So I did a lot of crafting. Some on my own, some with Andrea, some for Relief Society. Here are a few of the things I finished. I didn't get pictures of the Relief Society crafts for Super Saturday, The two ornaments I made for all the cousins, the hydrangea wreath I made for the front door. I also didn't finish several planned things, but am hoping to find time to finish them in the next month, rather than packing it all up and leaving it to next year to add to my ever growing list of stuff I want to do.

One day all the girls came over and we watched White Christmas, and crafted, and ate and giggled. It was one of my favorite days over the Christmas holiday.

I was in charge of the Relief Society dinner. It turned out just as I wanted, wonderful food, relaxed, lots of visiting, nice music (provided by one of Sally's quartets). The menu: Cranberry Pork Roast, Smoked Gouda Twiced Baked Potatoes, Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Candied Walnuts, and a Blue Cheese Vinagrette, Homemade Rolls and Grandma's Green Jello Salad. Every one brought dessert to share- I loved the homemade toffees and carmels. I was glad the night turned out so nicely.

The following was the garland I started last year (you can see how far I got here). I loved how it turned out but couldn't get a good picture of it. It says Peace on Earth.

This is what I made when all the girls came over the top one is about 5 inches across and I made it for this great dress I just got that is a lot of grey suiting material and needs something bright and shiny to break up all that grey. The large one will go on the sash and the three little ones will be on the collar. The girls made lots of cute things, my favorite was a grey and bronze one with a cameo in the center. They were fun and easy and I think I will make a ton more.

Becky and Susie avert your eyes.

I planned on making three of these. I got the idea from this great website. I just got Harvene's done- so Susie's and Becky's will be birthday gifts. Theirs are much more modern and fun. I can't wait to show them to you. I just love this batiked fabric- so many colors, and so rich. The quilting is just random stitching back and forth in three different colors.

Upcoming...

So tonight I finally downloaded two months worth of pictures. So I have tons of thoughts, feelings, cute stories, and pictures to share. Months worth really. So hold on because I made a goal to try and catch up this week. And I will. I will. I know I will. I hope I will.

A Few Snapshots from My Blog Break

Here was my fabulous day (Yeah for toddler motherhood!)- oh and this was actually yesterday but I am just getting around to having time/energy to write tonight.

-So I was on call the night before- never a good omen.
-Kids woke up at 5:15 am.
-I semi-woke up and slumped around for the morning sneaking cat naps every 10 minutes.
-Tried to remember when Laura was coming over to look at family portraits.
-Laura then showed up as I finished that thought. I can not even begin to explain the state of my home- utter disaster- or my self- I had gone to sleep with wet hair so I had the full on Polly Lion Mane, tee shirt with a hole in it, no bra, no sleep circles under my eyes- very very bad.
-Just as I pull on a sweatshirt (my very pathetic attempt to be socially acceptable) father-in-law pulls up- unannounced to rake leaves. (Which kept Coen busy for an hour so that was great and we have three giant sycamores in the yard- so tons of leaves and Leonard raked the whole front yard even though he is allergic to them because he is a living breathing SAINT.)
-Laura sees the panic in my eyes and instead of looking at photos she cleans my kitchen because she is a living breathing SAINT (it may be genetic).
-Get final list of photos together- that was good.
-Lay down on bed- exhausted phone keeps ringing. During one call Coen falls off the bar stool and some how lands with his arm under the stool- the first of 3 major injuries for the day.
-While crying he then tells me that when I have a baby girl her name can only be Charlie. No others are up for consideration.
-We all nap. Because let's be honest that was all about survival.
-Wake up when Alma gets home from work, rush around to make dinner foe missionaries. Spaghetti squash never gets finished in time and I forgot about the salad in the fridge but other wise it was a good meal.
-right before Missionaries show up Alma point out that I might want to get dressed, and maybe do something with my hair. He offers to get in his PJs if it will make my outfit look a little better.
-The only clean clothes are the ones that live in the bottom of the drawer and haven't fitted since Beckett was born. I do not look good. Maybe the opposite of good.
-Coen wakes up just as the missionaries show up and wails and wails and wails, then he goes into my room and wails in there. Towards the end of dinner he comes in and sits on my lap and wails. Just as he is done crying injury #3 occurs (maybe caused by his mother) and the wailing restarts. This entire time Beckett is out eating the 2 missionaries, smiling and waving at them anytime they look over at him and rubbing food in his hair because it makes them laugh, over and over again.
-Alma asks missionaries to share spiritual thought as he is ready for tortuous night to end- and just as the one elder starts to read both boys really start to wail- the loudest of the night and it was already a loud night. His companion and I just start laughing- what are you going to do? The elder keeps pausing waiting for a quiet moment to continue- but between the screaming and now food throwing, the hysterical laughing it is just spiraling out of control. At this point Alma tells him to power through which makes the two immature adults laugh even harder.
-There are two young men who are now willing to wait a couple more decades before starting their families.
-Put Beckett in to tub. Coen decides he is ready to eat after everything is cleaned up.
-I go to check on Beckett to find that he has pooped in the tub. This is a usual occurrence in our home. The unusual thing was he didn't start wailing. Normally Beckett is freaked out by poop in the tub and screams like a girl in a horror films while he tries to climb over the edge. But today he just gathered all the poop in his toy fishing net and threw it across the room. I personally was impressed by the motor skills required to do this- not to mention the problem solving. Alma was less impressed.
-Finally boys to bed. Finally. And they curled up together in the crib, sharing the big Star Wars pillow (a hot commodity in our house) just a sweet as yo could imagine, the little liars.

So all in all an awful day with some great highlights- amazing service from Alma's family- I lost it completely by the end and just laughed at the absurdity- a nice talk with Becky and Coen was dry all day! And today the roller caster of motherhood just started all over again. Beckett answered the phone when Susie called and apparently chatted a little before he brought me the phone. Coen told us he loved us about a thousand times (I am not exaggerating). He also told Uncle Dave the barber that his dad's father was named Grandpa. We went to the library and I finally tracked down all the books floating around our home and turned them in! I haven't been caught up in months-thank goodness for renewing. I found a lot of great book about Thanksgiving- and some children's Thanksgiving poetry. They are just great and tomorrow I will list them on here so you can see if your library has them. Coen is big into listing what he is grateful for- mostly his family and cookies. Beckett is getting lots of words- read, ma, da, my da. my ma, me go, hi there, bye, book, bowl, yeah, no, out- and lots more.

And this happened tonight:

At least half of the game was trying to clean it up!

Last night I got home from the hospital pretty late to find this:

I love my little football obsessed kid.

I love the Fall

The Requisite Halloween Pictures

Here are my boys- not sure who handed down Coen's costume, but he found it in his closet and was sold. Beckett's was a K-Mart special bought on the 30th.




Isn't he just the most darling little carnivore? At music class another little boy was a lamb and they kept sitting by each other. It was so cute!

Friday we went to Grass Valley's toddler trick-or-treat. Probably my one and only trip as I hated the crowds. I felt a little inadequate as Andrea made this great costume for Summit and Breanne had sewed matching cotumes for her girls and her self. But you can't beat $8 at K-mart. And honestly I put way too much on my plate so I am trying to cut myself a little slack.

While we were walking around Beckett fell asleep mid sucker.

Saturday night we had hamburgers and went trick-or-treating with Alma's family. The big kids were so good with Coen. They walked with him the whole time and held his time. I love that they like to spend time with our little guy. Here is Annie as a mermaid.

Jessica and Beckett

The whole crowd. Coen pulled in quite a lot of loot. I found out later that at every house he would look up with his little sweet face and say "Two please." and everyone gave him extra. So for being the littlest guy he got the most loot. He has asked us to go trick-or-treating every day since, and cried when I packed up the spookey guys (skeleton Halloween decorations).