kidding around

Like so many of you out there, I am choosing to give a lot more handmade presents to my kids this year. I consider myself extremely lucky to not have kids that come to me with a list of toys and HUGE expectations for gifts. I’d like to think that some of that luck has to do with my husband and I, but sometimes the powers of peer pressure takes over.

I’m not saying I won’t buy them anything (I can’t put too much pressure on myself!), but everything we do buy will be purposeful…like, the slippers my son is dying to finally receive!

ANYWAY, I will stop being preachy and just show what I have made so far…I feel like I am on track and really excited for my kids to get their handmade loot.

Let’s see here is my list so far:

Sleeping bags for special friends (from Hillary’s pattern, with the zipper omitted)

Superhero (from the Purl Bee rabbit pattern, with modifications of course!)

checker board (from Martha Stewart)

More to come!

After some nasty vomiting episodes and long naps, it looks like this kid will go back to school tomorrow.

Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded how much your kids need you and a bath! The freshness of a bath was not overlooked in this house.

And, because I promised my daughter I would do this- can someone read her blog?! She was inspired to write and is bummed no one has commented. Truly, it is fun to hear from people my girl…but writing with some regularity would help too!

I hope to share what I’ve been working on this week!

Hey, I sort of fizzled with the last 2 days in my month of photos. Like with most of you, I was busy with holiday stuff and the dreary weather was pretty rotten for photos.

It’s funny, this year with my photos I had a hard time really getting into documenting my life. Maybe it’s because my days feel fragmented, I’m losing the desire to blog, or I’m distracted..who knows! We’ll see what direction I take in the new year.

We had the nice surprise visit with family yesterday. The kids played the morning away with their cousins from Portland. They made the long trek from Oregon to Illinois and drove the extra 2 hours to see us after visiting with other family. Love that sort of spontaneity- pretty surreal. Oh, and it was nice to visit with the parents too!

Alright, then- on to school projects and a Christmas parade later tonight.