Skirt makeover!

One of the first skirts I made for Ava was using the top of a pair of jeans that were too short and then adding a layer skirt to the bottom. I was initially pretty pleased with it, but just never liked it enough to have it be something that Ava really wears. Today when we were picking out her clothes for church, I decided to take that skirt and remove the bottom and start over...and I'm really happy with how this turned out!

It's pretty bold, but I love it. And it has a great spin to it...that is really important to Ava right now! (Just so you know, she did not wear these tights with the skirt today - I finished the skirt and then just had her try it on - I know they don't match).

She's happy with the change and so am I - what could be better than that? Now I know it will get some wear time!

A love of reading...

It's fun to have Andrew be so excited about reading. He got this book (Diary of a Wimpy Kid) on Wednesday and read it in just a day or two. He has been reading little pieces to Zach all weekend. It's great to see and fun to watch.

There really is nothing better than a book that you just don't want to put down!

We decked the halls!

On Friday we decorated the house for Christmas. I love it. Everybody helped and it was nice at the end of the day to sit down and just enjoy everything looking "Christmasy"!






So cute...

The perfect Christmas card...

And of course a picture opportunity wouldn't be complete without at least one or two "crazy face" pictures!

And here is our traditional picture of putting the star on the tree. This year was Ava's year. I'm just hoping Marisa will turn this picture into the black and white negative that she did for Andrew and Zach...please??
So, now it looks like Christmas at our house. Hopefully I'll get some baking (if not all of it) done this week and then we can just sit back and enjoy the season!

Christmas Robes

Beth and I decided to make Christmas gifts for each other's families this year. I was having a hard time thinking of something for her boys (girls are so easy for me) and then my friend Tami suggested these robes. She made them for her boys a couple of years ago. Off to get the fabric and pattern and away I went! These are the completed robes...obviously my boys modeled them for me!

This is the robe for Eric...

This is the one for Ryan...


And here is the robe for Nathan. I am really happy with how they turned out and now I have a good idea for something to make for my boys! They really liked them too.

They are now wrapped and ready to be shipped! I love that feeling! Thanks again Tami!!!

Family Traditions

This year is the 3rd year that we made the kids trick-or-treat candy into a chain to count down the days until Christmas. It's fun to see how excited the kids are when they wake up on November 1st and see the chain hanging in the den.

I love seeing the reminder too...it's even fun for me to see the Christmas countdown! And it's espcially fun to have our own little traditions that make the holidays feel like "ours".

Holy Whoopie Pies!

Oh my goodness...oh my goodness! Last year I made pumpkin whoopie pies and loved them. Well...I decide to make them again this year and boy oh boy did I make them! I had a slight recollection that the recipe made more than it said it did (12 pies/24 individual cookies), but I had NO idea how much more. I decide to do a quadruple batch because I want to bring pies into Greg's office tomorrow...so, I thought it says it makes 48, that gives me plenty to take to work and then I'll have a little left for us. Hmmm...in case you are wondering, a quadruple batch ends up making 123 completed pies, yep, 246 individual cookies, uh huh, over 20 dozen. I'd say we have just a few left over!

There were whoopie pies everywhere today!

I didn't have anywhere near enough pans to put them in, so they had to be doubled up!

Or tripled up! Anyone want a whoopie pie?? And yes, I made a note on the recipe this time!

The arrival of Winter

We got a good snow on Saturday/Sunday and to me it makes it feel like winter is really here. Luckily it has just been at the freezing point and so the weather has been as mild as it can be and still have snow on the trees (my favorite winter look).

The kids have been so excited and have been getting out to play in the snow every chance they get. We also just got our Chester Bowl season passes and so all of the kids are excited to get their skis on! It's great to have everyone looking forward to winter - especially since we definitely have winter in Duluth!

It is so satisfying!

To go from this...

And this...

To this! I just love to hear the little "pop" of the lid...music to my ears!

The Weepies

Elsie's son, Sterling, and his friend wanted to go see a band, The Weepies, in concert in Minneapolis about two weeks ago. Since they are still in high school, Elsie wasn't ready to have them drive 2 1/2 hours each way on a school night, but said she would take them. She bought 4 tickets and I got asked to be her "date". I had never heard of The Weepies, but that didn't really matter to me...I was along for the ride...figuratively and literally!

Well, it ended up being a great concert! They are an indie folk band and the music was awesome. They were really funny and personal and so the concert was entertaining - both the music and in between sets.

Here's a link to a Weepies song...just in case you want to find out what you might be listening to if you were still young and cool and in high school!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4sa2HoXpsE

Living the high life...

It wasn't my intention to start Ava on a life of pedicures by the age of 3 1/2, but a few weeks ago I went with Elsie to get a pedicure during the day (for her birthday) and so I had Ava with me. When we got there I found out they would do a buff and polish for $7...and so began the high life for Ava!

She was really happy and really good...no one had to tell her to be still or to wait for the polish to dry...she is already a pro at that!

It's a little hard to tell in this picture, but Ava picked a pink sparkle nail polish (what a shocking choice) and even had little, pink gemstones put on her big toes...now that's fancy!

Here are the 3 of us! Just a girl's day out.

I'm not usually one to dress up my dog...

But I couldn't resist this little Halloween outfit. We took Duchess out with us for the first round of trick-or-treating. She looked really cute in her little skull and crossbones!

Halloween cuteness!!!

The Warhol Dress

A few months ago my friend Melissa sent me a link to a website that had this dress pattern for free. Later, I bought the fabric, but it just hadn't made it's way to the top of the project pile...at my house that can be a hard pile to reach the top of! Last week I finally got around to it and am really happy with how it turned out. Can't you just imagine this with a turtleneck, tights and grey legwarmers?? I sure can!!

I think the neck line of this dress is by far its cutest feature. Very fun! Here's the link in case any of you want to put it somewhere in your project pile!!

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2010/06/amore-italiano-and-warhol-dress-free.html

The dark days of winter

Today was the first real sign of winter for me...the early dark! We were leaving church at about 4:30 and I turned the headlights of the car on. Boohoo. It's amazing how being this far north really makes a difference in how early it gets dark. I just figure it's only about another 6 weeks and then we'll be on the uphill for longer days!