November 2014 Update

November was a fun month too. Lots of family and gearing up for the holidays. I stayed busy with a couple different craft projects here and there and got started on a few more Christmas gifts. One thing I wanted to be sure to get was a good picture for our Christmas cards this year. I decided that I wanted to do one with all the kids dressed in white. I LOVE they way they turned out. My four perfect angels!

My cousin Courtney (Mitchell) Blaser sent my girls a fun surprise in the mail. Each got their custom made hair bow/headbands. Emma's is pink of course! Kiera got her favorite color blue, and Ellie got a cute black and white striped one. Thanks Courtney!

 November 9th is Dan's birthday. We had a little get together with Ben, Kara and Zachariah. He requested red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. He also requested something extravagant for dinner. I believe it was chicken cordon bleu or something like that. I can't remember if I managed to pull that off or not. I think I did, but you'll have to ask him.

 Happy Birthday Dan. We love you!

Thanksgiving was at our house this year too. I love hosting! I love the preparations and getting the house all decorated. But this year I especially liked our set up in the front room. We had two full sized tables since we had bought a dining room set from our neighbor who was moving. We bought it so that Ben and Kara could have it. Luckily they agreed to let us hang on to it until Thanksgiving was over. It worked out so nicely!

We had tons of awesome food! I didn't get many pictures of the food but I did manage to get a pic of one of the pies I made. I make a lattice apple pie with some leaf cutouts. mmmmm pie.

 

Still nothing but smiles from this little girl

Dan is still staying busy with cub scouts. To get ready for December's pack meeting/activity he made these cute little Christmas trees to go in the middle of goodie plates to give to people at the retirement home. The boys painted them and they turned out great! 

 These are the ones I painted up to be the examples for the boys to go off of.

I can't get enough of her!

I was asked to be in charge of one of the craft projects for our ward's Super Saturday craft fair. I taught the class to make these wooden nativities. It was a breeze since I already made a bunch last year.

I finally got around to finishing the quilt I had planned for this project ever since I recovered the baby swing seat back in July of 2011! I then quilted it with swirlies with my quilting foot. It is just scrumptious! One of these days I'll make something to give away right?

After making the quilt I was on a roll and decided to work on my other works in progress. I just have to bind this one together now.

 and no project is complete without starting another one right? I started another scrappy quilt top from some of the left over scraps. Who knows when that one will be done. Story of my life...

I have ADD when it comes to all my projects. I start something and then start something else, and when I've given that a go I decide to move onto something completely different. I was strolling JoAnne's Fabric store and decided to learn how to crochet again. A few YouTube videos and practice stitches and wha la! I am working on a baby afghan with a hood. Not too shabby eh?

And check out this little gem! Dan has been mulling this one over for months and we finally broke down and started it. I drew out each of the layers and Dan cut them out. Each layer is a different piece of wood.  Dan's dream is to make these to sell. We just need to figure out the best material to make them out of first.

I posted the above picture on my FB page and got a request from a friend to make 4 for her to buy and sell in their store (they own the pharmacy up in Darrington). She wanted one to look like wood. So I found this neat wood graining tool and put wood grain on each of the pieces. I thought it turned out pretty cool but Dan isn't happy with how the edges of the nativities are turning out with the material we are using. We are thinking it may be too humid for them. We're going to give it a try during the warmer months and see if they turn out any better.

This little girl has found her voice and is cooing up a storm. We spend many a night chatting away.

Look who's excited for Christmas.  They decided to play dress up Nativity style one day.

Ethan's class at school was learning about the first Thanksgiving had a Thanksgiving Feast. They each made their own costumes and Ethan decided to be an Indian. I love how he made a pattern with all the colored shapes.

This year I have fallen in love with Oriental Trading Company. I have found so many little crafts that are perfect for our Family Night activities. I love to stock up and love that I can order them online and have them delivered to my front door.  This is a pic of our animal masks we did for one FHE. 

 The day after Thanksgiving is Christmas Decor day! I was so excited for this day! Can you guess why? Look at all those Santa's! They finally have a place to hang out together! And check out that cute stocking advent calendar. That was one of our ward's Super Saturday crafts. I put a goody or surprise in each of the stockings for the kids to count down to Christmas. They are going to love it!

 Only 25 more days til Christmas! I'd better get busy!