Crafty

Is it the winter weather? Is it because I am home too much? Something has made me obsessed with sewing these days. I had a Crafty Christmas.

These ridiculous rubber gloves were for my mother. She can be a domestic diva when she cleans toilets and washes dishes. My dad got a chefs hat that I made but I am not sure I got a picture of that one. Maybe I will post it later.

The flower was for Baby Kate on a head band to match the 4 aprons of her 3 sisters and mother below. Shawn also got a matching chefs hat but without the pink.1 `

My latest project are these adorable baby shoes. I have made 5 pairs so far and am using up all my scraps. Any of you having babies, make your requests. :)

Karissa modeling her apron she got for Christmas. Her nickname is "Kiss" so this was appropriate I thought. She also got a rice bag to heat up and bring to bed with her since our house is freezing!

Rainy Day

Mommy, this is Fun!!!

Let's do it some more!

Oops...

Christmas Take 2

Our neighbor outshined us in the gift department this year. He opened her gift first and didn't care much about the others after that. She gave him this sweet Lightning McQueen track with a talking Sheriff and a Train. The Lightning McQueen has a remote controller too. He LOVED it.

James and Karissa showing off their enviably fashionable headgear.

Hyrum gave me this great Duet book so we can play piano flute duets. It is a ton of fun and we have been performing for any guests who will listen to us. Come over and you will see. :)

Hyrum in his spiffy new chefs hat made by Yours Truly. We were pretty low-key this year. He did get something else though, don't worry.

Karissa trying out her new Hello Kitty vacuum that plugs into her USB port. She will get some real good use out of that I am sure. That is one of our treasures left over from our trip to China last summer. I am so glad we saved it for this special occasion.

Belated Christmas photos

 

Scottie and James enjoying they’re yearly visit with Santa.

Decorating the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas from the Anderson’s (and foster daughter Karissa).

Things you'd never see on a sunny day

Sometimes it's nice to have a good rainy day....but rarely do you wish for 20 in a row. There is only so many times you can go to the library in a week; and Scottie is beginning to think he owns the train table at Barnes and Nobles... So, we branched out: Monroe's fabulous reptile zoo, "home of the the Reptile Man and the only albino alligator in the Pacific Northwest". How's that for staking a claim? The albino's name is "basker".

Also, look closely at the pictures again. That really is a single turtle with two heads. The old wise turtle's name is, most fittingly, Jolly.

Halloween

I went out of town for two days to go to my friend Jodi’s wedding.  Jodad was her usual radiant self, and I enjoyed seeing some old Boston friends.  Because it was the weekend of Halloween though, I cut the trip short and came home for the festivities.

 

Beautiful Jodi, Matty and Summer, and Brian is holding Maren, Allison had to leave early, and James was fascinated with something at the next table apparently.

 

Though Scottie would have probably rather gone in his new Lightning McQueen pajamas which he got for his birthday, he consented to be a cowboy for Halloween.  Notice that he wanted a sword in his holster though, this is one fierce cowboy.

James was a chicken.  This costume brings me so much pleasure.  Poor James was really hot when we were inside the church so we had to lose the costume not too long after we got there but I loved holding him in it.  Scottie wore it when he was one year old too.  Probably all of our kids will get to wear it. 

Can anyone guess what Hyrum’s costume was?  He was an aquarium or a coral reef.  Karissa lent him her fish slippers MaryKate and Ashley.  They were a lot of fun until he got soaked outside in the parking lot.

 

Karissa put in a cameo as James Magelsen.

 

Jem is my name, no one else is the same, Jem is my name!

Oktoberfest

Cali and Ray Follett put us on to the fun, that is Oktoberfest.  We went up to Leavenworth with them and enjoyed some good eats, some good songs, and some good company.  Thanks guys!

Captain Underpants

Did I mention I have been potty training since October 4th?  I may have repressed it since this is one of the more annoying things I have done as a mother.  He is getting pretty good, but what is the deal with number two?  Honestly, every kid I know being potty trained recently has a thing with number two, which mess by the way, is the absolute worst to clean up.  My hands are dry and cracked from all the hand washing.  But I do love my captain underpants.  He has taken to wandering the house with a long sleeve t-shirt and only his underpants, socks are optional. 

I’m 31!

There was a beautiful amazing lady who was in our ward in Monroe all through my growing up who died last week at the age of 102.  She NEVER liked to tell people how old she was and someone commented that she would be ticked now that everyone knew.  Maybe she didn’t want people prejudiced by her age when relating to her.  Anyway I don’t really care if you all know that I am officially a decent mommy age.  In my head I am still 26, which was a glorious year, thanks to Hyrum and so whatever the number, I will always be that age inside.  I celebrated my 31st birthday on Saturday.  Thanks to the fam it was great.  I woke Karissa up a little after 8 in the morning to go for a run with me and it was great.  We got absolutely soaked.  We literally had to ring out our clothes after the run but we had fun doing it.  Hyrum and Scottie made me a delicious breakfast and then later a cake (monkey bread actually, with candles in it), and gave me some really cute Chaco sandals.  I can finally throw out my old Tevas that I got in high school, the velcro was done for.  Then we went pumpkin patching.  Check us out.

 

 

Scottie and James in the pumpkin pile on a big truck bed.

 

 

 

 

Since I was the birthday girl, I got to be the pumpkin royalty.

 

 

 

 

 

Scottie especially loved riding in the wheelbarrow.

 

 

 

 

Maybe we will do it for my birthday again next year. 

Shadow Have I Loved

From the first day when we brought home the baby chicks back in March, Scottie loved the black one. She was the solitary black sex-link chicken so I named her Shadow and she became Scott’s chicken. Hyrum and I claimed Sheila, and Skunky, the two Americana chickens. Shadow quickly became the best chicken of the lot. When we would bring out table scraps she had a knack for getting most of them. She could even jump really high and get them out of our fingers. She was our favorite chicken. She laid eggs first out of all the chickens but one day one of them broke and we saw her pecking at it and soon her eggs would disappear. We would find DARK brown shells in the layer box. So we took her out of the pen for a week to separate her from the others, and then when I left for Ireland with the boys, Hyrum performed the dirty deed. But yesterday she may have received clemency, though two months to late. Hyrum found a stash of six DARK brown eggs under a bush outside of the pen. Could she be innocent? Could one of the mangy Buffy’s eaten her eggs? We are having trouble with a Buffy now. Guess what, when I cracked opened the eggs one by one, they smelled bad and were getting a little cloudy. Do you think this will go on our record at the judgment? None of us enjoyed our chicken dinner much. Scottie still talks about her and says she is with Heavenly Father. I think she is too.