Friends with Blogs

Really appreciated this post on fasting by Meg over at her blog, Held by His Pierced Hands.  Meg and I were friends in college and lived in the same dorm.  It's been really fun to see friends finding wonderful ways to serve the word though the blogosphere.

Like- Christina at The Evangelista.  She was a fellow ECHO apprentice with me and theology major (i believe) so our paths crossed more than a few times at ND.  I always knew she was stylish and smart and now it's sharing it with the world.

I'm sure there's others, but those two are on my radar right now.

Christmas Continued

because blogger has issues downloading images...  someday I'll get the hang of this!

 A nativity scene in the hands of a 2 year old :)

Christmas movie watching

Salt dough ornament making

our ornaments baking.  I won't share the recipe we used because
2 of the 3 handprints have broken in half.

We felt so loved!

Reinbeers, a gift for my brother

Christmas Eve dinner in the afternoong before evening mass of red and green, okay pink and green pancakes.

St. Nick came and brought the 3 gifts

Christmas

It seems appropriate that I post about Christmas on the last day of the Christmas season (liturgically).

This year it seemed we were blessed with lots of celebrating.  Since Joe's brother's family traveled up over Thanksgiving rather than Christmas we had what Joe and I started to call "Thanksmas Week."  We celebrated so well (thanks to Joe's family) that I almost felt like Christmas was over and it was only Black Friday!

We stayed in town for the actual day of Christmas and were able to join Joe's family again for amazing food and festivities.  To sum up the Holidays we traveled to my parents house for a little over a week which just flew by, and a wedding with some of my extended family.

After everything it's been kinda nice to get back to same-o around here.  The decorations are down and B is stuck hanging out with just me day after day.

Here's some pics to sum up the good times:

Christmas PJs - check 

Why not have a house project during December?... more on this in a future post.

Christmas Card picture attempt number... who knows.  Gotta love a toddler.

Actual Christmas Card pic... it was the first one we took, not joking.

High Five

An absurdly warm December day, is it just me or is he getting older by the minute?!

7 Quick Takes 12-7-12

Linking with the 7 Quick Takes crowd

1. B’s language has really grown in the last couple weeks.  He’s using pronouns now!  Yay for “you” and “me” J

2. The living room is nearing completion.  It’s got a fresh coat of paint, a new built in entertainment center and new curtains (that are being made and hung up one by one.)  Wondering how I found curtain rods long enough for 13.5 feet?  more detailed post to follow.  Here’s a little pic of our new wall color.

 

3. Due to the living room’s cosmetic reno our tree is still in a box in the basement.  I think it will come out this Sunday.  Or maybe we'll get a real tree this year, we still haven't decided.  Growing up, my family usually put up the tree on the the Third week of Advent.  After all it is “Gaudate Sunday” which means Rejoice.  The word is Latin and comes from the first word in the daily prayers for Sunday. Sooo we'll also light that pink candle and remind ourselves that we are getting very close to Christmas!  I imagine a little singing of O come O come Emmanuel to be extra credit :) 

4. There’s been no snow here yet.  Not a single flake.  I still miss snow, those Notre Dame winters were amazing with snow, I think I got spoiled.

5. B and I made it to 2 daily masses this week!  We ended up in the cry room both times, but that’s partly because it’s SO QUIET.  We went to 2 different churches and both times he was the only one under, oh, 20.  I know the older parishioners love him and they smile and wave which I appreciate but I also know what it’s like to be distracted at Mass (understatement of century) and want them to be able to pray.

6. I watched White Christmas the other day while B napped and I ironed. (did I mention the curtains are for 13 ft rods?)  I watched it with commentary from Rosemary Clooney. (taped in the 90s I believe)  It was awesome.  I suggested checking your DVD’s Special Features section to see if you have that option.  If you don’t have the White Christmas DVD then…

7. These takes are already taking enough of your time.  I leave you with this sad photo:

It's happens to the best of us, overcooked sugar cookies.
I believe the current phrase for this is "epic fail." :)

Finishing up some Fall Fun

We headed to an Orchard after our Atlanta trip.  We bought some good food, fed some goats and played on the playground.  We took the camera in hopes of some good pics of B... here's some of what we got.

Warm and candied

B ran over to the bulldozer yelling "Cat Machine! UP! UP!"

Last year I had to walk him up this ramp
holding both of his hands, and now...

If only you could hear him say llama... hilarious

Bond, James Bond.

Trying valiantly to get Ben to smile at the camera with me

Credit goes to Joe for this great pic

They gave him a little apple on the way home which he promptly ate... yay!

Meeska, Mooska, Mickey...

MOUSE!

B needed a costume he would enjoy and want to put on so it had to be someone or something he likes right now.  That was clearly Mickey Mouse.  

Also his same aged cousin that we were going to be visiting could be Minnie! 

Grammy teaching about the value of chocolate :)

THE HOW-TO 

I made or tailored every piece of this costume and loved just about every minute of it:

- The leggings were from the Old Navy girls section, don't tell. (sewed the lace under on the bottoms of the legs to be sure it didn't show).

- The black shirt is a 3T from Target.  A size bigger to get the longer arms and torso but then I used this tutorial to make it tight.  I refer to it as his toddler underarmor :)  I used the same technique on my costume, but more on that later.

- Red shorts were made from scratch and lined with black satin to keep them from riding up on the leggings.  I used this tutorial (great website!) for the kid shorts and lining them. Then I hand sewed on white felt "buttons" on the front and a little velvet black trim as a tail.

- The ears are plastic mickey ears that I hot glued onto an old headband of mine.

- The gloves are homemade... traced B's hand, sewed around it, clipped the same allowances and turned it inside out.  Then added the black marks on the back.  I found some websites that were helpful, but I ended up winging it my own way in the end.  I found some thin white knit at Joann's and then doubled it on both the front and back of each glove.

- The yellow shoe covers I made with this tutorial.  Then I added the roll around the ankle just like the gloves.  

Just in case somebody needs an explanation (or I need to come back to these notes later :) ) The roll technique is one I'll be coming back to again I'm sure but I can't find the site I used to figure it out.  Basically you sew around the thumb and fingers but where the roll starts you leave it unsewn on the sides and long (as if it was going halfway up to his elbow.)  After you pull it inside out then you sew the sides of the long section so when you roll it up to the wrist your seam allowances are getting rolled up.  Then I hand sewed the roll so it would stay in place.

I didn't get too many pics of B to post because he's 2 and never stops moving... especially when he sees a camera!  Thanks to my dad for getting him to stay still for 2 seconds.

How can you not love this little tail!?  I think we have video of him trying to get it to wag by saying "wiggle wiggle" and shaking his hips side to side.

  

It was awesome to see so much family in our week long road trip both immediate and in-law.  We drove home feeling so blessed!

Recapping Octoberrrr

a little bit from the garden on my window sill

What a great month that seemed to fly by!

Some highlights:

- B attended his first high school sporting event at the age of 2, when we went to watch some of my former students play volleyball.  It was awesome for so many reasons.  I love my former students, and I got to see many of them. I got to watch volleyball (and I would by lying if I didn't say I teared up when varsity ran out to warm up music, dang I wish I could still play like that.)  And I got to witness B enjoying the whole event.  He kept saying "too loud" to the warm up music but liked clapping and watching so many people running around.

- Date with Joe at a nice restaurant celebrating a number of things all rolled into one night.  It was just a great night that gave us a chance to reconnect.

He travels so well... and I'm so glad!

- Road trip to Atlanta.  Both Joe and I have brothers in ATL so it makes it convenient to see both whenever we go down.  We were able to attend a baptism (of my Godson, what what!) AND surprise Joe's dad for his birthday by having his whole immediate family staying at his brothers for a few days.

Enjoying the rest stop view

Stretching at stop while travelling

 More soon, finally got my computer back up and running!

7 quick takes 10-12-12

Linking up with Jennifer and a buncha great bloggers for 7 takes at Conversion Diary

1. Still loving Fall. 

2. Experimented with making my own creamer hoping to be able to use less sugar in my coffee.  I think it would have been awesome if my almond extract didn’t taste and smell more like alcohol than almond.  In the end I added lots of sugar to cover up the alcohol taste and then my coffee was awesome!  Like a dessert to start the day.  I stumbled on the blog camppatton.com through Quick Takes a couple weeks ago and felt like I made a friend when she mentioned drinking creamer with some coffee in it.  (Also, she's a great storyteller, check out the blog!)

3. I played with B as if I was a fellow 2 year old today, it felt weird but I think he learned a few things about sharing and waiting your turn.  I was a little perturbed at how easily I got into character J 

4. B and I went to Mass this morning… We actually made it there, never mind that it was during the first reading being done so sweetly by a small child for a school Mass.  Sometimes the two year old you’re trying to get out of the house refuses to put on shoes until you are actually in the church parking lot. 

5. I’ve wanted to support some of my former students and go see a volleyball game at the high school and finally had a chance to this week.  Joe and B came with me and it was SO much fun!  B was amazed at how many people there were and how loud the music was etc and was so good.  I won’t lie I teared up a little when varsity came in to some warm up music.  I forgot how much I love that sport and wish I could play still! 

6. Caught B singing “call me maybe” over the baby monitor after his nap today.  Love it. 

7. Enjoying the Big Bang Theory with the hubs, gotta go.  

Phew, I'm outta blog writing shape, it's been too long!

Little video

To my (rachel's) GREAT Aunt Joan:

 

Here's a little something you might enjoy...
 

 

 

We LOVE You SO MUCH!! 

 

You are in our thoughts and prayers right now!

 

 

7 Quick Takes Friday 8-31

1. September is tomorrow… What?!  This is the first August I haven’t had a job or program starting (or having a baby).  I feel like I should be stressed out, but it’s so calm without being connected with school.  I’m going to enjoy it for the next couple years.

2. I am loving my new bike!  I haven’t had a new bike since being a teenager.  Of course I don’t have a pic of my bike, but I do have a pic of my riding companions J  

3. I can't believe how B sleeps, I'm completely and utterly spoiled, I know… a 3 hour afternoon nap is still pretty common.  Actually I think he's going through a growth spurt right now, he's been eating pretty well too.  More on that later.

4. I got a sewing job today!  I’m looking forward to working on it.

5. The laundry room is almost complete.  I’ll post finished pics in the next week or so.  Just have a couple coats of polyurethane on the counter to go and some curtains to finish sewing.

6. B ate a whole piece of pizza tonight… and we pulled his high chair up to the table without the tray.  J and I just kept staring at him and wondering at how old he’s acting (sometimes) these days.

7.  Happy Belated Birthday to my Sister!  Ben's been singing the happy birthday song randomly lately...

Have a great weekend!