What I did when I should have been cleaning...

I'm almost finished with my Christmas decorating. It takes me forever to do it because I'm so indecisive. I do love my branches with the boys' pictures on them. My sister-in-law Leah made the ornaments, and they are adorable! She used my very favorite picture of Jack; he is making the weirdest face!

I had black crows on these branches for Halloween - probably should post a picture of that too sometime.

I can't figure out if I should hang something over the fireplace or not. It looks kind of neat without anything - Swedish or something.

I'm really on the fence about this. I'm considering painting the inside of this cabinet some sort of saffron maybe. I don't think the pink is really me. Plus, it is the reason I'm trying to make pink work in the dining/kitchen area. If it weren't for this, I could just go crazy with the red. This will only be the 4th time I've painted it!

Sweet little boys. Jack hates his puffer vest. Nick and I tried to show him that Owen had one on too, but he just pouted, "It's not the same!" In the end, we won, and he wore it to church. It's the small victories, people.

My 23rd Birthday - Revisited!

Ancient footage of a party held six years ago has emerged. The pictures were made on something called "film." These pictures have been converted into a more convenient format for the sake of this communication. These are the pictures.

My 23rd birthday was one of my very best birthdays ever! I planned a surprise party for myself only to discover that my mother-in-law and sister-and-law actually filled my requests! We had ice cream cake, a Strawberry Shortcake theme, and wedding punch. That was way back when my BFF Rachel still lived here! The only thing missing was Nick. He was at Niagra Falls that day with his band. Were we babies then, or what?!

A Blow-Out Party!

Yay! We're back! After a brief stint as a non-internet, non-television family, we have rejoined society! I have lots of news to share, but we'll just ease in to it so as not to overwhelm ourselves.In addition to many awesome presents (trucks, bathtoys, clothes, a sleeping bag) Owen got a drumset for his birthday! He is quite talented, if I do say so myself. He does an amazing cover of "We Will Rock You" in addition to originals such as "I Just, I Just Love You" and "Stupid."
This last picture is my favorite. Jack is blowing out Owen's candles! My dad took this picture at the perfect moment!
This abrupt ending is brought to you by kids and messes! Really, I can't decide what I hate more - Play-Dough or Moon Sand!

Brief Update!

I'm still here - just busy! I'll update soon with pics I promise! Here's a brief recap:
1. Christmas happened!
2. Lucy is in doggy heaven, but we have Molly now!
3. I graduated!
4. I'm teaching art!
5. We bought a house!
6. Jack is NOT a baby!
7. Owen is a terrible liar!
8. Nick is a stay-at-home dad two days a week!
9. My dad wrote a book! And we're in it!
I'll give all the details later, but for now I'm going to go finish reading New Moon!

I know I'm using way too many exclamation points, but I feel like a twelve year old girl seeing her camp friends again after a whole year of school! So much to say!

I've been tagged, too!

I've been tagged by Leah to do the following:

1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer

2. Choose the 4th picture

3. Explain the picture

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.


My pictures are organized so that I have one folder called "Cat's pics" that contains zero folders. So instead of taking these instructions literally (which would result in some youth group picture totally unrelated to me), I've chosen the fourth picture in my folder.

This was taken in December I think. Nick said, "Hey, take a picture of Jack on my shoulders!" What stands out to me the most is Jack's booties. They are leather, fur-lined boots that were passed down from Owen. Jack-Jack was such a baby then! He still had his pacie! Owen got rid of that for him though; when Sophie was born, Owen gave his own pacie to her and then took Jack's out of his mouth and put it in Sophie's bed in the hospital. I think each boy requested the pacie twice after that but were fine when we reminded them that they had given them to Sophie.

Sweet babies. Here is a picture of what Owen looked like last December.

I tag:

1. Vanessa

2. My dad

I'd tag two more, but I think the other two people who actually read this have already been tagged! More rule-breaking for me!

One Week Too Late..

Happy Halloween!


The boys had a great Halloween. Owen was Superman - after a traumatic few minutes as a Swamp Monster - and Jack was a spider. The day after Halloween, we went to the youth group's party at the Keiths' house. It was perfect! We had hotdogs and cookies, then we went on a hayride, and when we got back to the bonfire we had hot cocoa!


But that wasn't our first Halloween party of the season! We went to Nick's parents' house on Tuesday for the college group's party. Some of the costumes were a little scary, so Owen confined himself to the house for most of the party. The best part of that party? S'mores!!!!

One last thing before I go - you need to meet Lucy! Here she is with her proud owner Nick and his BFF Caleb standing with arms akimbo (which I take to be a position of approval).

Sew Not a Blonde

I'm a busy girl lately, what with student teaching and all (are those of you who see me every day sick of hearing that yet?). I've made a few new things recently, but alas, I forgot to take pictures before giving or selling them. I do have a few new orders for backpacks and baby quilts, so that is super exciting. I just have to find the time to fill the orders now...
Since I don't have anything brand new to show you, I thought I'd show you all some pillowcases I embroidered this summer. I was going to have one of the sleepy girls have brown hair, one have auburn hair, and one have blond hair, but do you know how hard it is to find the perfect blond thread? It is impossible! My sister used to ask me all these questions about her hair. "Is it too yellow? It is too orange? Is it brassy?" (What does that mean anyway?) I never understood until I tried to pick out "blond" thread. Apparently there is no such thing. So we have an auburn haired sleepy girl and two brunette sleepy girls.



One funny student teaching story before I bid you adieu: When I lost my voice last week due to a cold, one of my 6th grade boys said, "If you are so sick, why are you here?" Before I could write a reply on the board, the boy next to him said (so seriously), "Because she NEEDS the MONEY!"