Christmas Tree

We finally put up our tree today. I just haven't felt very Christmas-y lately and so I haven't been in a rush to put the tree up or do cards or any of the stuff that usually I have done by Dec 1st! Aidan started asking about the tree so I promised him we'd do it soon but if it wasn't for him it would probably still be in the bin downstairs!! Maybe next year things will be a little more settled and I'll have time for the Christmas Spirit :)

Once the tree was set up they put their new ornaments from their Aunt on the tree. I should have taken a picture of just the ornaments, they are really cute!

They were very pleased with the ornaments - they're wooden blocks and Keira's has a K on it, Aidan's an A - and then little felt arms and legs with a wooden face and a little elf cap. They had a great time decorating the tree but I think they thought it was a race! I'm glad there were only 2 of them because I was kept really busy trying to make sure they each had an ornament to put up as well as protecting the delicate ornaments and making sure nothing got smushed or broken or eaten. I have this one ornament and it looks exactly like a heart of jujubes with a little teddybear hanging from the point of the heart. In fact it is so lifelike that until he was old enough to understand, Aidan would constantly try to eat it. And now Keira is trying to eat it. She kept saying 'Candy!' while looking at the tree today!

Afterwards I got my little elves to put all the presents under the tree

They always look way more impressive under the tree. I didn't think we had all that many, but the tree is full - and I am so thankful for that!

Michael said the tree needed lights so I figured I'd decorate the kids while I waited for him to finish what he was doing and put the lights up.

This just makes me laugh!

So does this. I'm sure she had NO idea what was going on!!

See - her expression says "I have no idea what you did to me mom, and why would you then want to take a picture?!"

They are growing up so fast. Keira is potty training, in a booster seat, and loves to have tea and marmalade toast for breakfast.

Aidan is determined to grow his hair as long as his Uncle Luke's. Uncle Luke has hair down to his butt, so Aidan's got a long road ahead of him! His behavior at school is now mostly limited to the usual grade 1 stuff - butting in line, not listening etc - for while I am very thankful for. He is learning to read and write and lately has taken to writing sums (1+1=2, 6+6=12 etc) out on his little notepad in his room. He is so inquisitive and I like explaining things to him - like the components of what we eat (carbohydrates, protein, fat, sugar) and what they do for our body.

Potty Training and Other Adventures

It's always hard to know when to start potty training. Some kids are ready earlier than others and even if they are ready, it's a difficult process. We've had the potty in the bathroom for awhile but Keira has been really resistant to the idea of actually using it. She actually started saying 'NooooOOO thank-you!' when we'd ask her if she had to pee. Then one day when I was telling her that she should be using the potty and wearing underwear she actually said to me "No uh-wah! Dee-pa!" and I knew the time had come. When you can articulate that you are more comfortable in diapers and would prefer not to wear underwear, the time has definitely come. The challenge was to get her to do something on the potty. The girl can hold it for hours and hours! So this was my clever idea:

I sat her down on her potty in front of the tv with her own pop. I figured the tv would keep her sitting in one place (on the potty) and the pop would work it's way through her system and sooner or later ... but most likely sooner ... something would happen and then we could make a big deal out of it. My plan worked great until she sat on the couch and repeated her new trick - totally forgot the towel!

She has been doing SO well. A couple days later we made a special trip to Wal Mart to get her some Disney Princess underwear which she is thrilled with. She knows all the names and loves picking out which princess to wear. Right now she is good to go at home - knows when she needs to sit down and does her thing - but we're still working on learning what to do when we're out and about or at a friend's house. I think she's doing really really well since she's only 2 and almost 5 months and I am really enjoying backing off the diapers - especially since usually she manages to stay dry during nap and bed time!

In November Michael had his 2nd annual Grey Cup Kegger and was excited to wear his new BC Lions apron while cooking up wings. Unfortunately his team did not make it to the game but he was very thankful that the Roughriders did not take home the cup.

We had about 29 people here throughout the afternoon/evening and it went really well. The kids had a blast, got to stay up late and were tired and grumpy the next day :)

And really, what's a kegger without someone falling asleep / passing out and getting written

on?!? Aidan thought this was hilarious that Mike wouldn't wake up and thought someone else's suggestion that we draw pictures on him was the best idea ever. And once Michael wrote something we couldn't very well say no to Aidan. So he wrote his name on Mike's arm and then crossed it out. Apparently now it was 'invisible'. Just like on our bathroom wall and the back wall of his closet.

Can you tell I'm at loose ends and just looking for more sewing projects? Aidan's flame hat wasn't covering his ears so I decided to use the leftover house coat material and make him one with ear flaps. It turned out super good but I think I need a new mitten pattern because they keep on turning out super skinny. Hopefully they will work for Aidan's hands!

And then I remembered that Keira's hat is a little small so I made her one too. The beige polarfleece is just SO thick and soft, I wish I had enough to make myself a hat too!

Aidan had his Christmas Festival at school this past week and I took the kids down for an hour. They got their faces painted - Aidan got a snowflake on one side and a snowman on the other ...

... and Keira got a star on one side and a snowflake on the other. She wasn't too sure about it!

They threw balls through hoops

and glooped icing onto already-super-sugary gingerbread man cookies

But I think the highlight was the mini-golf set up in the library. Aidan was actually able to hit his ball and make his way through the course, only needing help with the last hole

I really loved watching Keira try to hit the ball and completely miss every time! We hit the ball together and she had a great time

Hot Pads

One of my friends lent me a magazine with 50 quilt blocks and I suppose it was inevitable that I would get inspired and decide I just had to make a couple of them. I decided to make some hot pads for Christmas presents. The best part is that I would be able to practice my quilting AND have a gift when I was done! Originally I was just going to make 4 for Michael's Grammy. I spent hours figuring out how big the pieces were going to be and how much material I would need, but after returning from the fabric store and cutting out my pieces I realized I had enough for 10. I have no idea how that happened. Apparently I really really suck at math.

I had a very difficult time picking fabric. I'm not sure why, but in the end this is what I chose. The patterned for the main fabric, the dark for the rest and the lime for the accents.

All the pieces cut out ...

... pieced ...

... and sewn. With a LOT of ironing involved! The quilt block I chose is called Card Basket. In the magazine it's rated intermediate so may have been wiser to do it after a little practice but hey, why not just jump right in??

I think the back looks almost as cool as the front!

All done! Another friend has a link on how to make your own quilt binding so I checked it out and found it was actually quite easy! I think it adds a nice touch to have binding that matches your project exactly.

Since I had so much extra material and the first two turned out so great, I decided to make more. This block is called Water Wheel or Whirlwind. It was definitely a lot easier and therefore turned out a bit better as well :)

This one is Aidan's favourite

I still need to practice corners with binding, but overall I'm really happy with them and also the way the fabric matched!

More Christmas Projects

I am really having fun thinking of things and then making them for Christmas presents this year! I've gotten into sewing a lot more this past year and am really enjoying making new things such as these things I made for some Christmas presents:

I found this pattern for a coloring tote bag, but when I made it, it was super tiny! The bag with the bugs is the original size, the polka dot bag is 9" square.

I love having leftover material that I can use for these little projects! I made Aidan a blanket when he was 8 months old and the bug bag is made from that material. It's the perfect size to hold his Leapster!

I enlarged the pattern to 10" wide by 12" tall which I think is the perfect size. Just big enough to hold a regular coloring book! This material is from Aidan's blanket as well and I think it looks SO great!

I think I like the lining on the left better with all the letters and stuff

The front has seams 1" apart which is perfect for markers! Now that the bag is enlarged, there are 10 little pockets for markers, pencils, pencil crayons - I'm really happy with how they turned out! Once Aidan saw the larger ones he decided that he didn't like his little bag anymore and wanted a bigger one. Thankfully I had enough material that I could make him one as well! The great thing about sewing stuff for your kids is that they have no idea what you're making - until you're almost done, and that can always wait until bedtime :)

Back in the early Fall Michael and I went to a fundraiser for a little girl out in Sexsmith who has a lot of medical issues due to vaccines. One of the items at the fundraiser was a tutu that was super cute! I took a look at it and figured I could probably make it and then when I Googled it, I found a whole bunch of tutorials (even some tutu-orials!) online!

It turned out so cute that I had to go back to get more tulle to make 2 more than I was planning to! And now that I know how easy they are to make - no sewing required! - I think every little girl should have a little tutu to dance around in!

Keira's Blanket

Since I finished Aidan's blanket a couple days ago I've been working on Keira's blanket - it was soooo close to being done, all I had left was sewing on the binding and doing the quilting.

Here's the finished product! You might notice at the top by Muno's block there's a part with no binding - Fabricland ran out of the binding I was using so I'll have to wait for them to get some more stock in before I can finish it completely. I decided to just echo the squares for the quilting and it turned out really nicely. Not too much and not too little - just right!

This is the back. I used Keira's old receiving blankets and it works out pretty well because she's really into purple lately! I wish there were more colors involved, but I only had so many blankets to work with!

Christmas presents ready to go! And now that these are done, I can move on to other projects like housecoats, pajamas and tote bags!!

One Down, One to go!

I stayed up way too late tonight just so I could finish sewing all the figures onto Aidan's blanket, but now it's DONE! Very exciting - so of course, I had to post pictures! :)

The whole thing - it is long and skinny, but it matches his Ikea bed

Closeup of the bottom 2 rows

Closeup of the top 3 rows

... AND HAT!

I had some flame material left ... and since the mittens were a hit, thought I'd try a hat. However, I didn't have a pattern and it turned out to be a little more difficult than I thought. That's why it looks kind of like a mushroom. *sigh* It's kind of funny, actually, but Aidan likes it :)

Halloween

Here are the kids all dressed up for Halloween! Keira is using Aidan's old Pooh Bear costume and Aidan is, of course, Spiderman. I should have looked at the picture and taken a better one with Keira smiling ...

First we went over to the neighbours on either side of us and then came back to the house to wait for Michael. The kids took this opportunity to dive right into their candy! We had been invited to go along with some friends on their bus (yes, a school bus) and trick or treat. It was awesome! The kids had a blast with the other kids and it was definitely warmer than wandering the streets on our own!

Michael and Keira coming back from a house. Keira's getting sick and was really tired by this point (hence the soother) but she definitely wanted to go get candy from the houses. She was just as sure that she did not want to eat any of the candy!! It was pretty funny, she got upset when I tried to offer her some ... I guess that's not a bad thing though!

Aidan and Emaly, who matched quite well as Spiderman and Spidergirl.

The kids with their loot! We did more driving than trick or treating, so we didn't end up with a lot of candy but that's really not a bad thing!!!