Mike gets ripped off with Home-made gifts!!!

I needle felted Totoro for Mike for Christmas.


And crocheted an ugly "Jayne" hat for Mike too. (we like Firefly the tragically canceled t.v. series)


"Pretty cunning don't 'cha think?" Not too close to the original, but just as ugly in it's own rights!

Isobel Gets Braces

Isobel has started a long and at times painful process of fixing her teeth. Isn't she cute?! And she is with her cousin Ashley in this picture.

Our First Cut-Your-Own Christmas Tree

We decided we'd like to try cutting down our own tree this year. So we set out to Sloughhouse Tree Farm to give it a try. The children had a fun time running through the trees. Mike and I had fun trying to chop the tree down. We wanted a picture to document our momentous occasion, so we asked a kind tree to take one for us. I think he did a great job.

Pictures under the tree

I was trying to get a picture of the children under the tree for Grandma, and this is the squirmy baby trying to escape. We ended with a pretty good one, I think.

Quest for Creative Outlet

When Ian went to Golden Valley Charter School, some of the moms would meet and have a knitting group. I wanted to learn to knit but I never made it to the group. I thought about it and decided that I could teach my self. So I learned with the help of YouTube. I made some scraves for the kids for Christmas.

From there I wanted to knit more things than scraves. So I looked into making a little toy for Ellie. I couldn't find any patterns for knitting cute toys, but there were crocheting patterns everywhere! So I used YouTube yet again, and learned how to do amigurami the Japanese art of crocheting small toys.

Ian's bear "Luke".

Ellie's Piggie.

In the midst of all this I found "needle felting" and made a cute bunny. You start with raw wool and poke it with barbed needles 'til it turnes into what you want.
I sure found a lot of crafty hobbies all at once! It has been fun! Now I'm trying to get my sisters to try the Amigurami too...

Halloween Again! Again!

I wanted to post more Halloween pictures. The kids are very IMAGINATIVE when it comes to costumes. We don't usually buy them. The kids create them. Isobel is a mummy here (toilet paper should do the trick!) and Ian is a Chinese man (Kacy brought an outfit for Ian from her stay in China. He wears it regularly, not as a costume. I think he was lazy about dressing up).
We also made a gingerbread haunted house. The whole family got in on this one! Notice Ellie with the scissors in hand!

Stop-Motion Family Home Evening

Featuring Lego!