Christmas Stockings

Both Mike and Lilly needed stockings this year. My mom made me and all of my siblings one years ago,  it's the only one I've ever had and I plan to keep it that way. 

Isn't it lovely? Way too much embroidery for me!

Really I shouldn't say that it's too much embroidery, you should see the ones my sister does. (Lydia that's a hint to take photos and post so that I can insert a link here to your amazing stockings) Thanks for posting Lyd

You see I just don't have the patience to do what she does her's look something like this.

Except all are appropriate according to the recipient. All of those little details are done by hand. AMAZING!

Ok anyways. I wanted one for Mike and one for Lilly but was not willing to do all that work and for a while I felt guilty. Then I remembered that such projects are supposed to be fun and if it's not going to be fun, don't do it. (Ask my mom about this theory) 

I wanted Mike's and Lilly's to match mine in size but I didn't care about actually matching fabric or anything like that. So I went to one of the blogs I follow and found these directions. click here to see This was a bit more complicated because I used cotton instead of felt like my mom did. I had to use batting and then line them and ugh, hand sew the binding as well as the embroidery for the names (I don't enjoy using a needle and thread though I am getting better) With the directions from Anna and my stocking as a pattern, so they'd be about the same size, here's what I ended up with.

I love, love, love, this fabric.

I think Mike was pleased with his reindeer.

I should have turned the flash on on my camera but oh well. I'm quite pleased with them. They aren't perfect and maybe some day I will make fancy-shmancy ones like what Lydia does but then again, maybe not. 

Merry Christmas...

Oh Christmas Tree..

I am so excited for Christmas this year. Last year was Lillian's first Christmas but she was only a few months old and didn't really have any clue what was going on. We were also preparing to move to Alaska a week post Christmas and it was really hard for me to relax and enjoy the holidays. So I wanted this year to be different.
We got our Christmas tree last night and got it put up and decorated. Lilly helped at the beginning but it was about bedtime. She did really well until I tried to help her put her ornament on the tree, I think she would have slept with it had I let her.
I'm still working on stockings for Mike and Lilly, I'll be sure to post those in a couple days when I get them done.

Helping Daddy with lights.

This was right after she had a mini melt down. 

Our lovely tree.

As I was writing the first blog Lillian was playing on the counter next to me. She's figuring out how to get these crayons to work

She stood up and opened the cabinet and I flashed forward about 4 years to when she climbs up and gets a cup to get a drink all by herself. I'm not quie sure I'm ready for that...

Okay Okay....

I know, it's been a while. I'm not very good at keeping up with this (I think I went over this in my last post) and I really don't have much of an excuse. Maybe I'll do better... we'll see how that goes.

Lilly is now 16 months. She has been walking for about four months now. She gets faster and faster every day and has perfected the art of running away, especially when she sees you have a diaper in your hand. She has recently discovered "talking on the phone" (her version is without the talking, just holding the phone to her ear.) She loves books, well, likes to carry them around and get one of us to read, she's bored after about page three most of the time. She also likes to carry around anything the resembles paper and a pen and "take notes." I have tried giving her markers and crayons, it usually doesn't work too well, she is more interested in putting them all back in the box than anything.
I love seeing more and more of her personality come out. I am amazed at how much she knows and how quickly she picks up on things. I gave her her coat the other day and told her to put it away. I was assuming that she'd throw it on the floor and go off to do something else. I was wrong, no more than 2 minutes later she came back to me with her coat and a hanger, I certainly didn't teach her that.
She tends to be a very busy little girl. Busy in a good way, not a holy terror way. :-) Quite often you'll find her sitting on the floor organizing something. Or better yet in the "box" she discovered this a few weeks ago and it remains her favorite spot. She throws all the animals out, climbs in and then stuffs the animals in underneath and on top of herself. Pretty common to find her there or in the laundry basket.
Towards the end of April, she will be a big sister. I can't believe that it's 5 months now. Part of me wishes that she understood a little bit that there is going to be a baby, but I think it will upset her world less this way.

I think next on her list of accomplishments will be talking...

It's been a while

I haven't posted in several weeks. I don't feel like I have much to write about so most of this will be photos. It was nice and not windy today so we went outside for bit.

It's nice to have a "big brother" two days a week. Caswell is doing very well with Lilly, often helping her walk and...

teaching her how to examine bugs. They were also throwing "javelins," aka sunflower stalks. 

Teeny tiny girl in a BIG world. 

Lilly is walking now, all over the place. She does very well most of the time, goes up and down the driveway slope pretty well too. She's starting to come get me and lead me to random places in the house as well. 

Oh and she has eight teeth now. 

Still obsessed with picking up rocks, I have to watch her closely as she likes to eat them as much as she likes to carry them around.

My happy Lilly, 14 months.