Hey friends!

If you read this blog in a reader then click on over and see the new banner I just made! I have had this on my to do list for over a year and finally figured out how to. Here is the tutorial I used.

I am also currently using Clover Lane's tutorials and info on digital scrapbooking. Check out her info here. Our girls are 2 and 3 now and what I have documented has either been pictures taken, blogging here, or scribbling a few notes down and throwing them in a box :(. I have always wanted to do a scrapbook for each of their first year and then one for every few years from then on! Thanks to this idea I have already done about 20 pages in the last 5 days.

Maggie turned 2 last week. I'll be back with more pics on that soon. Such a sweet spunky girl.

Oh and that quilt. I put it down because of flair ups. It will be brought out again soon...

Thanks for checking back. Oh and the banner looks fine on my computer, but let me know if it is a weird size, cropped, or stretched on yours.

Girl's room part 2

I told you a while ago of goals for decorating my girl's bedroom. Dorothy's birthday came and went and there were plenty of other distractions for her at her August birthday and even at Christmas for her to remember that she was suppose to get a quilt from me. It was also a dilemma for me because I couldn't decide if I wanted to make it a toddler bed size or twin size. I knew the toddler bed wouldn't last much longer than a few months or a year before it was passed on to our escape artist, Mags so I hoped to make a twin size. That just meant a lot more work for me. Like twice the work. Luckily the decision was made for me by waiting so long to pick the project up again.

Here is the tutorial I have been using. Here is the quilt that started it all. I started this last June and only worked on it about 2 weeks (10-15 hours maybe) before completely packing it up in preparation for rearranging the house (like trading rooms with other rooms). I unpacked it this past last month and have been working on it quite a bit. Today I finished piecing and trimming the 80th square. I have spent about 40-50 hours on it so far.

I am like a deer in the headlights getting ready to sew all the squares together. I can't possibly pull it off.

The colors of the quilt are what I call bubblegum, cotton candy, cherry, lipstick, sage, and lime. Or something like that. I am loving the color scheme and excited to have an almost complete room.

List #5: Hibernation activities

Hibernation: to pass the winter in a torpid or resting state
Torpid: having lost motion or the power of exertion or feeling

We are hibernating. In these cold months we have had colds, viruses, stomach flu, RA, back injuries, etc. We are in a resting state. We have lost motion. I think I am OK with that. Some of of our inside winter activities I had planned to do as Advent activities and round 1 and 2 of Mr. stomach flu pushed those back to January.

Here are some of the things we have been doing to keep the fun going around here while at home so much.

Muffin Tin Rainbow Lunch: Freeze dried Strawberries, Goldfish,
Barilla plus pasta, Peas, Blueberry juice, and an Oreo (see I totally break my own rules).

• Muffin tin lunches. Does your one to two year old only eat processed snack food to sustain herself and even then only a tiny bit a day. D did this at that age and Mags is on the same track. I think it is partly all the teething that takes place and partly the new found battle of wills, etc. I remembered reading about muffin tin lunches in the blogoshere and looked them up. Basically it is adding fun to eating, packaging your meal into muffin tins or other cute containers. Most grown ups and kids fall for something if it's presentation/packaging is pleasing to the eye. Dorothy prefers her muffin tin lunch to be rainbow colors. I try to have just 1 or 2 to be a processed snack and at that hopefully with no corn syrup, since I know it makes my RA flair up. I don't always follow this. To each his own. This really does not take me much extra time, I just use what bits of food we have and don't make this complicated. The green cup is almost always peas or green grapes because in the winter those are some of the only green food we ever have :) As they get older, I see us branching out into themes to go along with the season or a favorite book. For example, look at these great examples: Thanksgiving, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Book, Valentine's Day.

• D is working on writing her name. She use to hold her pencil naturally and then I think her teacher and I both made comments on holding the pencil properly and she got nervous and now questions how to hold it. Well we had a million character band aids around that never stayed on when the girls needed them so we began using them as stickers. I wrapped her pencils with a Dora or Mickey and now she knows to place her grip where the band aid is. It really seems to help.

• D also needed a boost in her confidence about writing in general, not just her grip. She told her Aunt Dawn and I separately that it was one of the hardest parts of preschool (Is that not adorable?). While sick, we didn't spend as much fun time doing art or drawing at home, so I have a writer's work shop basket where she can doodle, draw, and explore whenever. It doesn't seem like such a chore now at preschool or when I give her specific tasks, because she has lots of opportunities to do it on her terms just the way she likes it (This is our approach for reading/letters/phonics too). Right now we have just a basket that can be put out of Mag's reach. When Mag's can be trusted to have pencil access it will be on a lower level for both of them to use whenever they want. Here is a super inspiring Writer's Workshop for young writers. Love it.
  

• Mags is really into sorting and stacking. Sometimes I help and show her colors and sizes, but a lot of times I just let her do it her own way and have fun. In the picture above she is lining up our Mickeys and Minnies by size. No that is not even all of the ones we own. I guess we hoard -I mean collect Mickeys and Minnies :)

• Speaking of hoarding. I watched a couple episodes of Hoarders to kick start a much needed donation pile in our home. We are going to be in this house a couple more years and we need to get rid of about 1/4 of our things since there is no space or need for them anymore. I though that show would kick me in the pants and inspire a house purge. Then I watched Toy Story 3. Darn it if those two shows don't cancel each other out....sob. That Andy and Woody. House reorganization to. be. continued...sob.
  

The Girl's Room

I told my friend, Wren I would post. I know she lovingly judges me when I go for a while without posting.

I have always thought to myself that as long as my health allows I want to make a baby quilt for my girls, and then a twin size quilt that they help pick out fabric for when they are older say 3, 4, or 5. Well this 3rd birthday my little pink loving fashoinista, Dorothy Jean is approaching . She has many milestones on the horizon such as 100% potty training (slowly getting there), preschool this fall, and a big girl bed.

OK so long story, well long (that is how Mike describes my story telling)...

My girls have a blue, red, and green nursery. The original rental bedroom that Dorothy inherited was periwinkle and lime green and apple red was my choice for gender neutral theme. I am now trying to figure out how to phase out some of the blues and add a lot of pink, which is easier now, because they have a neutral off white wall in our house.

So we are making a pink quilt with lots of bits of green, white, and red in it. I found a pattern I love and of course it is stupid hard and very meticulous. I started this process with 2 months until her birthday and tomorrow marks the 1 month until her birthday. We'll see. I made a practice quilt for dear friends to see if I could pull it off. Again, I say, "We'll see".

Practice and baby gift for dear friends

Goals already completed

• Make a practice quilt to make sure I can pull this off (I made a baby quilt for my friends 3rd baby girl, being a 3rd child myself I thought she needed something of her own).
• Get rid of several boxes of stuff we never used for the girls.
• Organize their closet (so much stuff-took me a whole day. Remind me not to let it get so bad ever again).
• Rearrange room. Get Maggie away from all items that she can destroy or harm herself with.
  

Goals for their room

• Get art back up on their walls that Maggie can't rip down when in her crib or on her changing table.
• Make Dorothy's birthday quilt.
• Make a banner or bunting to add more pink to the room
• Make the height chart that I have had in my mind for 3+ years now and fill in the girls heights over the last 3 years

Some of my favorite pictures of last year part 1...

I am so thankful for this past year. Here are some of my favorite memories. Lots and lots of pictures!

Dorothy's first moment with Maggie Sue!

Our first family picture.


Mike and his girls.

My family. In small, medium, and large.

Brooks, Jamie, and Mike in DC for the Sovereign Grace Worship God 09 conference.


Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.

...Again Mike at Sojourn's CD release party.


Our friends Lachlan and Ellory Sue with Dorothy at the Ems house.

4th of July with the Degraides and Montgomerys


This sums up my day sometimes.

I am so crafty I make people and quilts.



Grandpa and Grandma Huff with their grandkids and celebrating their 40 years of marriage.

I love this sweet girl.

Maggie Sue Courage

Halloween with the Lewis and Butlers.

Avery and Dorothy.

An outtake from our family portraits with my MamaDear, Mickie Winters. Yes those are pajama pants, with Mary Janes, with no socks.


These pictures were taken by me, Mike, Chuke Heeke, Michael and Mickie Winters, Chip Lewis...and if I forgot to credit someone, let me know.

I'll (try) to blog December pictures soon!

Maggie is sad that I haven't blogged in a while.
She wants me to change that.
I told her I would blog more often and that made her feel better.
Also, I have no idea why there is a line under the previous sentence and it won't go away.
Oh well.

Last week at seven weeks.

And last night at eight weeks old!

Thankful for Maggie Sue

My friend Terri posts her daughter Ellory's prayers. So when Dorothy said her first unprompted prayer tonight I was inspired to post: "Jesus, Maggie Sue, Maggie, Thank you. AMEN!"

Dorothy's love has grown quite a bit since Maggie came into her world 8 weeks ago. Our prayer has been that they would be loyal to one another throughout life. I, a true nerd, looked up loyal: unswerving and faithful in allegiance. I feel like that sums up what I want for them.

The above picture was snapped with Mike's camera phone as we left from the hospital to bring Maggie home.