What am I going to do with this man?

Now you tell me! I was about to scramble an egg for Alyssa when I discovered 3 had hatched!

Naturally I ran for the camera. The husband was curious to know why I was heading to the kitchen with it. So after I snapped this photo, I took the carton and showed him?

For some reason he thought this was the funniest thing. The garbage can is on the opposite side of the kitchen and our kitchen is small, but I guess that was just too far to walk.

Christmas Part II

Dinner and presents at our house was so much fun even though we were so done with the family gatherings. This was the fun side of the family visiting.


They're a bit dark and my camera lens was dirty but you can still see the kids and finally, for a brief moment some co-operation from Christopher.

One can only guess what she is thinking. Later the Care bears were singing

We ditched the dress and got into something more comfortable.
I love it when they get books, always a good thing. That hat was too cute

Another bad shot but too late to complain about it.
We had Chris' sister Liza in the green her son Colton
Our Cynthia, in the colorful top. Chris & Liza's mom
Linda, Cynthia's sister and Auntie to Chris. Her husband Skip

Here they are Skip and Linda. Skip recently had surgery and was a mess but still came to see us. They are such wonderful people. Both are teachers and I guess that's why they always get the kids such great books

He's so silly but he's the cutest thing when he wants to be. We headed outside where they played with their toys and colored for a bit then it was over.

So glad the madness is over

So much work gearing up for this and it's gone in a flash. I'm glad. Our tree sucked this year. The many dinners that took place was exhausting and the mess the tree was making was getting me down.

It looked great the first hour or so after I had finished decorating it but after the kids had their way with the ornaments, lights and the tree itself, it was useless to even try to fix it. Someone one thought it would be fun to throw their hot wheels at the tree. Maybe it was like magic when they got stuck between the branches and didn't fall to the ground.

Not too bad in the dark

Daddy said they were excited when they saw the presents, especially Alyssa. Christopher of course is Mr. Seriousness himself. (I got up later)

Christopher didn't want to be photographed for reasons unknown so we got Alyssa with some of her goodies. She loves Care bears, now she has a buddy to sing along with her Funshine Bear she got for Xmas. You should hear them. They're too cute together, the bears singing that is.

Yes apparently I was a good girl this year and got my Serger. WooHoo!

My husband deserves a special present just for getting this for me. He knew I was talking about getting one but he also knew it would take me a while to gather the courage to spend that kind of money, so ta-da! I can't wait to go to try this thing out.

Christmas Part 1

Hello and Happy Holidays

My husband's poor photo-taking ability but at least I got some photos of me

Because of my husband's family "situation" we always have to have at least 2 functions of everything. It sort of sucks but what ya gonna do? So 1st Xmas was at his sister's house with dad and company. What happened? Christopher got a busted lip. Bitten by a dog. It's a long story and I won't get into it now because I'll only get mad. It was very chaotic and rushed as his sister had to go to work on Monday. So this was the big present from grandpa. Look at that face I truly believe that daddy told grandpa to buy those slot cars for him to play with because I could barely get him off of it today.

Well tomorrow, Christmas Day is Xmas #2 with his mom. Let's hope this will be incident free and fun. I would have shared Alyssa's big present from grandpa, but I am too lazy to grab the camera, walk up the stairs and take a photo of it.

Christmas Cards almost completed

I got an early start so hopefully I could mail them out by the end of the week. I know the husband says he needs about 5 and me....well I probably will need about 10 so 5 more to go.

Not too bad right!

I didn't sleep well last night just thinking about the dress. As soon as the kids got up I grabbed Alyssa and planted the dress on her. She looks so pretty, it makes my half-assed job look decent. What do you think?

It's a good thing I didn't cut the dress. It really doesn't need cutting just hemming and securing that belt in place. YAY ME!

Daddy had just walked in. His job was cancelled so we will have a family day. I think we'll get the tree today. How fun!

Now the true test. I am sending the photo to my mom to get her opinion. Wish me luck!

Is this wearable....

...and would you put your little girl in this?

My mother always warned me, when it comes to sewing, you really have to be in the mood to do it, otherwise just forget it and put it off until you do. Things never work out and you constantly have to rip out stuff because you're "doing it with a heavy heart" & "halfway" is what she used to say and that's what happened to me a last night.

I decided over the weekend, to make Alyssa a new Christmas dress since we're going to have at least 2 Christmas dinners with family. Yes me and my grand ideas again!

I wish I could say I was trying to save money by making it myself but I would be lying as the cloth came up to way more than what a store bought dress would have cost me. Foolish me. I think I just got excited looking through the kids fashion book.

So this is what I've just done. Let me just warn you, it's not completed so be kind. As you can clearly see it's too long but I won't cut it until she's tried it on. Heck I don't even know if it will fit as I didn't measure her. Another one of my faults. What makes me think that I have skills like my mom is beyond me. She doesn't really need to measure when she makes clothing for kids. Sigh.

I think you can see it better here. If for some reason you spot pins it's because the buttons aren't in yet at the back and I had to hold it together a bit. I'll buy a flower to stitch on the waist band. I just bundled a bunch of cloth to get an idea of how it would look. If I have to squeeze her in this thing I will, even if it's for one photo.

My next project: Tan herringbone tweed gauchos for the little miss and then a pair of pants for Christopher.

A nest of some sort

Hard to believe that she was an almost bald baby. She doesn't like me to comb her hair and when she sees me with the comb she takes off running.
It's slowly taking on a reddish tint, thanks to daddy
I'm sure there are things living in that nest!

What are my chances?

I've noticed I've gotten pretty greedy this holiday season in the things that I would like to have. I guess that's why it is referred to a wish list huh? Hopefully Santa will be kind to me. I have been a good girl this year.

At the top of my list is the beautiful Brother SE-270D
Then I would love to have this Brother 3/4 Lay-In Thread Serger. Just looking at the thing gets me nervous. My mom has a Kenmore serger and although she is very experienced with different machines and sergers, she still has to refer to the manual just to thread the thing correctly. So what of me?
This is all I have right now. A discontinued Kenmore model. Pretty basic and a far cry from any of the more recent models. It has served me well but I think it's time for an upgrade.


I'll get it all out now. I also want one of the Canon rebels. I'm unsure of what model and all the details. I know I won't get that for Christmas though but like I said I'm wishing. Chris knows this and has mentioned it to his mother, the photographer. He gets all his camera advice from her. So she offered to bring her model for me to test & see if I like it. What a tease! Then the camera goes home with her and I am left with dreams.

Poor me. Literally.

He's mine all right!

I headed to Wal-mart today to retrieve some test prints of a Christmas photo and happily discovered that they indeed had a Kodak kiosk so that I can get them on better quality paper. The ones the store uses is Fuji which I hate. It's so flimsy. Anyway so I am behind the only other person in line and looked away to tend to Ms. Alyssa when I heard:

Christopher: HEY (very loud I might add)You can't do that! It's not your turn! You have to wait in line.

I swung my head around to see what was going on and I see a lady looking a bit
embarrassed. Her face in fact turned red.
Her : Oh...hehehe (a fake laugh quietly) I didn't know there was a line. I'm sorry.

But I didn't believe her.

I wanted to bust out laughing and when I walked away I did.

Me: "hey, that was cool what you did, thank you."
Christopher : You're welcome

That was something I would have wanted to say if I had caught her myself but wouldn't because it would be rude. Lucky for me I had someone to do it for me.