My new love

I am soooooooo not girly.  I don't get pedicures more than once or twice a year, I rarely wear skirts (though do skorts count?  I do love my green skort.), it takes me less than 15 minutes to take a shower and get ready to go to even the fanciest of parties (because the most makeup I ever wear is mascara and I have lost the ability to style my hair in any fancy way), and I haven't worn heels regularly since I quit work to have kids almost four years ago.

I am, however, kind of crafty in some old-fashioned and distinctly feminine ways.  I love to crochet (even though I don't do it much anymore), I used to love to do counted cross stitch when I was younger, and I have a not-so-secret desire to learn to sew.

I can sew straight lines like crazy, and I have sewed almost all of the curtains in my house.  Curtains are easy -- they have lots of straight lines, don't need to withstand going through the washing machine very often, and you can whip up a valance with a minimum amount of material.  I would love to learn how to make more fun things for the home though.  Things that involve scary aspects like -- gasp -- zippers.

My mom taught me some very basic sewing when I was in middle school (we made a super cool crop top), but I haven't attempted anything wearable since then (unless you count aprons).  When I was in my third year of law school, I was bored one day and bought a cheapie sewing machine.  I have used that for the past decade even though it skips stitches and has an almost incomprehensible instruction manual.  What I needed was a new machine that actually worked well so I could embark on new adventures competently.  I was through pining after the sewing skills of my Aunt Janet,  Corey's Granny Kappy, and my sister-in-law, Jessica.  After consultation with Janet and Kappy, I found a great machine on sale.

Check me out sewing with my new machine that Corey and the kids got me for Christmas!

Yes, I had a little help finishing the t-shirt blanket I started for Corey when Charlotte was a baby.  He has a RIDICULOUS number of t-shirts, and the only way he will part with them is if I sew the pictures off of them onto a big piece of fleece and create a memory blanket for him.  I had a horrible time doing this with the old machine because of the stitch-skipping issue.  It was a whole new deal with the new machine!

I do prefer to sew without a toddler on my lap, but we had just found out that Petey Pie had a broken collarbone and I couldn't say no to his requests to sit on my lap while I sewed.  Thank goodness he took a nap soon after and that Corey didn't mind me sewing while he watched Michigan State play in their bowl game.  Yes, I have to sew at the dining room table because there is no other place to set up the machine in this tiny house.

My next projects will have to be featured in a later post, because they're still in need of a little tweaking.  Let's just say that Peter's room will soon no longer have mismatched valances still featuring the nursery colors.

And even more Christmas fun!

In the days after Christmas, we had all sorts of adventures.

Charlotte tried out her new roller skates for the first time.

Quinn and Peter tore around like crazed animals (once Peter started feeling a little better).

Everybody but Maisie played with Maisie's new tea party set.

The cousins snuggled while watching a little bit of Diego.

We fed a flock of hungry ducks.  These same ducks wouldn't come near us last summer when they were warm and well-fed, but this time they practically swarmed us.

Here duckie duckie duckie!

I couldn't really hear what Peter was saying to the ducks, but he had all sorts of things to say to them.

Come back!

We ate lunch at Lipuma's Coney Island.

We had more fun with Granny Great and Grandpa Great, as well as the Traverse City crew: Great Uncle Dave, Great Aunt Lisa, and Ellie (who drove down the day after Christmas).

Ellie and Peter built an elaborate tunnel for the cars to navigate.

The cars flew through the air, too!

Barb made the mistake of telling me this was the coat she wore for skiing when she was in junior high.  According to my calculations, that coat is close to 50 years old!

Peter and GrandDad had great fun with the train set out in the garage.

We visited our buddies Amanda, Brad, Declan, and Harry.

And finally, we had a great hot chocolate party after Charlotte and NanaB shoveled the snow off the driveway and made some snowmen (while Peter napped and I went shopping with Granny Great).

Thank you for a wonderful Michigan Christmas, NanaB and GrandDad!

The Christmas post, only 3 weeks late

The day of Christmas was pretty difficult -- Peter was sick (even though his strep test was negative, he had some sort of virus that caused a fever and ridiculous tantrums) and I had a hard time thinking about anything else.  We still managed to have some fun though!  It started with the bad decision to wake Charlotte and Peter up before they were ready so we could get the present-opening show on the road.  Poor Quinn and Maisie had already been up for hours and we didn't really realize just how sick Peter was yet.  Peter only made it through opening stockings and the gifts from Santa before I had to take him downstairs to chill out away from the chaos for a while.

Charlotte's stocking was almost as tall as her!

Quinn was super enthusiastic about everything.

Petey needed a lot of cuddling that day.  He loved the plane Santa put in his stocking though.

Corey couldn't back up enough to fit in all of the presents under the tree.  It was a little ridiculous!

We Skyped with Great Uncle Dave, Great Aunt Lisa, and Ellie after a little breakfast.

After a rough morning, Peter took a long nap and woke up in time to get dressed up for a fancy Christmas dinner with Granny Great and Grandpa Great.  We took this shot of GrandDad with his Mini Me, but Petey wasn't in a smiling mood.

Quinn hadn't seen his Uncle Corey in over a year, but they were good buddies right from the start of this visit.

The Sanderson ladies looked gorgeous.

Somehow, I didn't get any good photos of the great grandparents, but you can see both of them in the background of this picture.  I think I took some shots with Steph & Don's virtually identical camera (we had them both sitting on the counter and I just kept grabbing the first one I saw) so she may have some good ones.  Quinn got a really cute little playset for his cars, and all the kids were obsessed with it.

Sanderson cuteness!  (And there's Granny Great again in the background!)

Maisie (who calls herself "Ya Ya"), carried around NanaB's heels for quite a while that evening (carrying on the longstanding tradition of toddler shoe obsession).  She was quite proud of her own snazzy little red shoes, too.

Christmas ended with a whole bunch of frazzled grownups and some overstimulated kids -- just how it should be!

Christmas Eve

Most of Christmas Eve was spent in the car on the way up to NanaB and GrandDad's house in Michigan, but once we got there we still had some time for a little fun.  We kicked it off with an adventure in the woods to leave apples for the deer to find.  Each kiddo got a bag of apples to carry.

Maisie somehow convinced her mommy to hold her bag.

Kayla dog led the way, followed closely by explorers Charlotte and Quinn.  NanaB and Uncle Don made sure we didn't have a repeat of Camp NanaB (when Uncle Don had to rescue a lost Charlotte in the woods).

Everyone's favorite "tow truck pasta" was served for the kids' dinner.  None of them can resist Lightning McQueen in mac & cheese form.  I think Peter was trying to tell Quinn how to eat them properly here.

After Maisie's first ever taste of jell-o jigglers (in Christmas shapes) -- I think she liked it!

After dinner came craft time.  NanaB showed us how to make jingle bell shakers.  Needless to say, the noise was absolutely deafening.

Maisie showed her mommy how to make one.

Later, Maisie showed Uncle Corey how to play with cars.

This was the best group shot of the kids we could manage so late in the evening.

Only the older two would sit still to hear GrandDad read The Night Before Christmas.  Only Charlotte actually made it all the way through to the end, though.

Cookies for Santa!!!

More Christmas fun to come!

More pre-Christmas fun

Before we headed up north to Michigan for Christmas, we opened up some presents sent by Auntie Ernie, Uncle Andrew, and Sonia.  Corey was couch-bound and feeling cruddy after a certain surgical procedure, so some early Christmas presents were just the thing we needed to cheer him up.

Unfortunately, Peter didn't want to share his new stuffed Boots the Monkey.  It was love at first sight.

Peter also got a stuffed Swiper the Fox, whom he calls "Oh man!"

Charlotte just about lost her mind when she opened up the Busytown Mysteries books.  We have now read them to her are least 40 times each.  I have actually taken to hiding them for a couple of days at a time so her other books can get some attention as well.  NanaB had borrowed a different Busytown Mysteries book from the library for Charlotte over Christmas in Michigan, and she suckered just about every adult around into reading it to her at least once.  She has a Huckle obsession.

Peter was imitating me cheering over my new scraping beater for my beloved KitchenAid stand mixer.  He wasn't sure what the excitement was, but he always joins in to any celebration.  He even celebrates when it is perhaps less appropriate (like at church at the end of a hymn).

Peter tried to steal his daddy's car wheel clock.  He kept saying "wheel!" over and over, and he had a minor meltdown when we confiscated it.

Every little girl needs her own polkadot umbrella. Now she just needs some warmer weather so her mommy will let her play outside in the rain.

Thank goodness I got new rain boots . . . so that Peter could insist in wearing them every time he sees them.  Oh well.  Maybe I can wear them when he's napping or something.

Thank you for all out wonderful presents, Erin, Andrew, & Sonia!  We really love them.