Christmas Eve

Its been a busy week for us!  Cooking, sewing, giving, crafting, and lots of celebrating.  Merry Christmas!

and to go with his sweater . . .

It's been a long time since I had a successful encounter with a sewing machine.  This week I managed to sew up these adorable pants so this sweater would have a suitable match.





Here's Mr. Fancy Pants in his new pair of "Quick Change Trousers" from Anna Marie Horner's book, "Handmade Beginnings", to go with his newly knitted sweater of course.  The cuffs on these pants come in a pretty close second to the cuteness of the panel on the back side, wouldn't you say?



It gets even better.  With Christmas time so near, I couldn't resist making the reverse side of these a bit more festive!



These are "santy pants" for sure!!!



 

There you have it, quick change "santy pants" trousers!!!

Merry Christmas Ya'll!!

She's 7 today

With this one, I remember so much.  Besides my parents and husband, she’s probably my biggest fan.  You’ll find her each morning in our bed as she has done for the past 7 years.  She’s happy, joyful, confident, mischievous, loves to dress in high heels and could wear her best dress every day of the week if we let her.  As I set up her table last night I could feel the lump coming up in my throat, not because she’s getting older, but the flood of memories came on strong and I remembered things I hadn’t thought of in years.  It can be quite painful remembering even joyful times.  Oh the gratitude I feel for being her mother.  She has saved me in ways no one else has.  One particular time was the day after Rosemary was born, we were in the PICU at the hospital and she came with my parents to meet Rosemary for the first time.  I was really worried about what the other kids would say about how she looked and she looked up at my mom and said “Isn’t she beautiful!?”  She totally saved me that day.  I remember looking down at her at three months saying aloud, “You’re such a Dittles” and that nickname stuck.  Then there was the time when I had to have surgery on my right hand to take a cyst off.  All the kids (only three at the time) were waiting with Daniel in the waiting room of the surgery center.  When they wheeled me out of the recovery room, she was the first person I saw, you could tell how concerned she was of me because she got to me first.  


With Jonmichael.


One morning in the kitchen.









Oh Dittles, my life will never be the same.  Happy Birthday love! 

good morning

Good Morning.

Here's a few clips of what our mornings have been like here recently.













Mornings.  I have always been a morning person, first one up, first one singing, first one eating.  This year has been a bit more stressful for me as I get 4 of our 5 kids off to school, have I told you how much I love Mondays?  They are the best!  Once they leave, I take a deep breath and begin to plan how to make the most of my day.

Off to my day!

the mad dash

I subtitled this year's halloween, "the mad dash."  It certainly was a mad dash to get all six pumpkins carved in two hours, waiting for expected guests, phone calls to be made, and get out the door in time to make it this year to our neighborhood pot luck before gandering off to fill up the candy baskets as high as they could be filled.  Oh and in the mix of it all, celebrate Daniel's 39th birthday.  Whew.
















All expectations were met.  This was probably the most fun we have had on Halloween in many years and more importantly, we were all together.

growing up fast

Again, as I scanned over all those pictures last week these got a category on their own.

As we wait to ride out hurricane Sandy today, I'll be sure to enjoy this day of family together-ness {sneek in a few little extra hugs} and be grateful that we are forced to slow down and think about what matters most, our love for each other and how amazing our lives are.

Here's to hoping every one gets through this storm safely!!  Enjoy your family today!

Together-ness

As I sat and scanned through the several hundred photos that I downloaded recently onto my external hard drive I realized that were was this pattern of together-ness throughout all the photos.  The first emotion that came to me was a sense of gratitude for how our family loves one another and also a great appreciation for the way everyone gets along and values their time with each of their siblings.  Despite all the challenges we have faced with Rosemary having so many medical needs and all the nurses that have been in and out of our family home, we are now in a place where everyone who comes and goes does feel like family.  So together, we can all relax and enjoy one another, look after one another, and love one another in peace.  In this moment, peace and gratitude fills my heart in a big kind of way.  What a lucky girl I am.