One more hat finished, although it's a little late. The weather here has been crazy cold the past few days, but I think tomorrow it's supposed to get all the way up to a balmy 35 degrees. Ah well, she still looks cute wearing it, even if she doesn't really need it. I started Emma's already, and my sad goal is to finish it before Spring.There has been a flurry of last minute crafting around here because Emma keeps thinking of more presents she wants to give. The entire top bunk is covered with various items she has either made, purchased, or found around the house, all to be given to various family members. So, any family members who may be reading this, you might want to make space on your shelves for the influx of trinkets you will soon be receiving!

I made a batch of gingersnaps to bring along when we went to the lake for Thanksgiving, and at least once a day since then, my brain begs me to make them again. Twice I've given in, and then been somewhat regretful because once they are here I lose all control over myself and I can't stop eating them. I think part of the problem is that I use whole wheat pastry flour to make them, and then convince myself that they aren't really so bad because it least they are whole wheat. Never mind the three sticks of butter and two cups of sugar thrown in as well. I was planning to make some for a cookie swap tomorrow, but since we have been running around nonstop for the last two days, I've decided to stay home instead. But don't think I won't still be making the gingersnaps!I did meet up with some friends for two swaps yesterday - another ornament swap and a holiday swap. I made more houses for the ornament swap, and in case you are getting tired of looking at these little houses, I promise that this is the last picture of them. For the other swap, we were just supposed to make some random item, and I made embellished towels. I was planning to do patchwork, but I waited too long and had to take the easy way out. I wanted to use kitchen-y type fabrics, and I found all of these food related prints in my stash. I actually had even more food prints so I had to narrow it down. I think having so many fabrics about food alone means I might have a little bit of a fabric hoarding problem. A couple people couldn't make it yesterday so I don't have all the swap items yet, but when I get them all I'll post a picture. The things I did receive were lovely.
One more thing - I just got some jumbo muffin pans in the mail from my friends at amazon.com and I love them. The only thing in the world better than a chocolate chip pumpkin muffin is a huge chocolate chip pumpkin muffin. Okay, or maybe a gingersnap.

I have spent most of the morning today and the first part of the afternoon trying to decide if we should go out or not. I have errands to run, but is it worth digging my van out from under the snow and taking the little ones out in the freezing cold? We need groceries and although I could scrounge around and find stuff for us to eat, we have no cream, half and half, or milk, and I need at least one of those for my coffee. This morning I tried to drink it black, and blech! All day I've been missing my coffee, which means the real question is, is it worth braving the elements so I can have a good cup of coffee? I've waited long enough that the decision has basically made itself for me, because I have to pick Emma up at 3:00 anyway. Oh Starbucks, here I come!Our Christmas tree is struggling. Since we put it up, it's been knocked over several times. Yesterday, while rolling around on the birth ball, Emma grabbed the tree to steady herself and down it went. Some part of the base must have bent when it fell because I couldn't get the tree to stand up quite right after that. While I was making dinner the kids knocked it over three more times, and I finally threatened that if it fell one more time I was taking it down. Of course, about thirty seconds later Noah pulled it down on top of himself so I removed all the ornaments and promised to take down the tree all together after dinner. Steve came home and called me a Scrooge, then stood the tree up again and fixed the base so that it would be sturdier. I ended up not taking it down, but now it has no ornaments, some of the lights have been pulled off, and one side is all smashed in from hitting the floor so many times. Very festive, let me tell you.
These photos, which have absolutely nothing to do with this post, were all taken in the last two days. I like them because they all seem to show off the kids' blue eyes.

One more ornament swap down, one more to go. I sent off these little houses yesterday. Hopefully their recipients like them. I think they are pretty cute and I wish I would have made one for myself, but I have no desire to sew any more house ornaments. I can only handle so much repetition, which is a small downside of ornament swaps.Since I had Allie, I have been amazed at the friendliness and helpfulness of strangers. Whenever I go anywhere, I generally have Allie in the sling and Noah on my hip and I can pretty much do anything I need to do while carrying both of them. Still, I must look like I need help because people are always going out of their way to be helpful. The other day we were at Panera and I was carrying a high chair to our table while also carrying Noah and Allie, and on the short trip from the stack of high chairs to our table, three different people came over and offered to carry the high chair for me. During the snow storm on Tuesday, we were walking out of HyVee and a man who was walking in turned around when he saw us, then helped me by pushing my cart all the way to my van and unloading all my groceries while I buckled in the kids. Today we were walking into Target and I was carrying both kids and a picture frame that I wanted to return, and a lady who was loading up her own car came over and offered to carry the frame inside for me. Even though I don't think I really need the help, it's nice and I appreciate the offers. Someday I won't always have my arms full of little kids, and when that time comes I hope I remember to offer help to those who do.

We get a ton of toy catalogs in the mail and Emma likes to look through them and point out the things she likes. For the past couple months, I've been taking note and planning to try to recreate the things that she likes - specifically this and this. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago she came across this Star Performance Theater and now it's all she talks about. Whenever anyone, even a complete stranger, brings up Christmas, she goes on and on about the stage and the microphone that she will be getting. It seems like most of her sentences anymore start with, "When I get my stage..." I do not think this stage sounds like a good present at all, nor do I want it taking up valuable limited space in my house. Still, I can see her opening all her handmade gifts, then tossing them aside and going, "Where's the stage?", which I will definitely not appreciate. In order to avoid that scenario, and also because she really really has her heart set on the darn thing, this morning I begrudgingly ordered her both the stage and the microphone. The silver lining, however, is that now I can give her the other stuff for her birthday and I will have two additional months in which to make it.
Another Christmas present that might not work out so well is a Bumbo Seat that I purchased for Allie. I have always thought they looked cool, but the short time for which they could be used was probably not worth the price. I was excited to find a good deal on one at a resale shop and rushed home to have Allie try it out. I figured she would probably have forgotten about it by Christmas and therefore I was not worried about spoiling the surprise. She hated it. She sat there long enough for me to take this one picture, then she wanted out, immediately. Hopefully she'll like it a little more in a few weeks when I try to stuff her in there again.Over the weekend we purchased some wine to bring to a party and decided to buy some for ourselves as well. We used to have wine at home much more often but have gotten out of the habit (which might have something to do with the fact that I have spent much of the last two years being pregnant). After we agreed that we'd both like to start having wine with dinner more often, I decided to perform a little experiment. Steve picked a $22 bottle of cabernet, and then I noticed the World Market brand of the same kind of wine, which was only $4.99. I decided to get both and do a little taste test to see if we could tell the difference. Steve was certain that we would, because we've both heard that it's hard to get good red wine for cheap. When we got home, we immediately conducted the experiment. The verdict? The more expensive wine looked a little darker in the glass, but there was absolutely no difference in the taste. Either that, or we know absolutely nothing about wine and probably deserve to be drinking the cheapo stuff anyway. Isn't that interesting?

My local AP group met for lunch and had our annual ornament swap today. There were eighteen people participating this year, and if I had to do it over I'd probably make something a little less time consuming. Cutting out the 144 little pieces of fabric wasn't so bad, but trying to divide each styrofoam ball into eight even sections, then cutting all those sections, then stuffing the fabric down into the crevices was definitely getting a little old by the end. Still, I am glad I made them because I really liked the end result.I got a slew of great ornaments from everyone else, which makes me excited to set up our tree this weekend. Aren't these cute!?I'm also participating in a couple other ornament swaps this year, and have started receiving some ornaments in the mail. Yay! We already had a ton of ornaments before last year, but now, because of my ridiculous obsession with ornament swaps, I have way more ornaments than could ever fit on any one tree. I need to find some cute (out of the reach of little hands) way to display them all.

I've been wanting to post about Allie, but I can't seem to get a picture of her that makes her look as adorable as she really is. Still, I want to talk about her so these pictures will just have to do for now.When I found out we were expecting Allie, Noah was only seven months old and I basically thought it was a disaster. I planned to have all my kids three years apart and I wanted nothing to do with having two babies at the same time. Of course, what was done was done, so I tried to look forward to the new baby with something other than complete dread.Fast forward to now: I am SO happy we have this baby. So, so thrilled that she is in our family. I found out that instead of causing more stress, she brings me nothing but joy. Allie has completely brightened my life, which is saying quite a bit because my life was already pretty decent before she was born.
She loves to gurgle and coo and will continue a "conversation" for as long as anyone is willing to listen. When she smiles, which is often, her whole body shakes with happiness. I thought my other two kids were easy babies, but I'm pretty sure Allie really IS the most easy-going baby ever. I really cannot imagine a more wonderful surprise.

Tonight was a fun night - dinner at a Japanese steakhouse, browsing around Barnes and Noble, buying new shoes, seeing a surprise fireworks display, then getting coffee and driving around looking at Christmas lights until all the kids fell asleep. Now we are back at home and everyone is in bed. Well, everyone except me, of course. I am not going to waste any more time in front of this computer, but am instead going to curl up on the couch and read my book. When I get tired, I'm going to crawl into bed and try to find a space somewhere amidst all the arms and legs of my husband and children. All of whom will undoubtedly, in their sleep, soon rearrange themselves so they are as cuddled up and close to me as humanly possible. I am so very blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Some random stuff...

~ I never listen to "popular" music - like Top 40 stuff - and when I do happen to hear it, it usually gets on my nerves. Noah likes to turn on the TV and push the buttons and one day when I was nursing Allie on the couch, he turned the TV to VH1 and left it there. There was a video playing, and long after I had turned off the TV, I couldn't get the tune out of my head. I went and downloaded the song - So What by Pink - and we've been listening to it. A lot. It's just so darn catchy. If I happen to not play it when we're in the car, Emma will usually request it. So the other day I was getting my eyebrows waxed and Emma was standing next to the bed, quietly watching, and then suddenly started absentmindedly belting out the song. "I guess I just lost my husband, I don't know where he went! I'm gonna drink my money, I'm not gonna pay his rent!" She seemed kind of embarrassed when she realized she was singing out loud, but nevertheless, I think it might be time to stop playing that song and start listening to something a little more wholesome.
~ Emma makes ornaments for gifts every year, and this year she really really wanted to make something with glitter. She's been working on them for the past few days, and even though she only ever works at the table, somehow our entire house seems to be dusted with a layer of glitter.
~ I've read all about the possible dangers of using plastic dishes so we've accumulated a decent collection of "safer" cups for kids. For some reason, I have also been holding on to the plastic ones. Yesterday I finally took every single plastic cup we own and bagged them all up for Goodwill. Yay. Now I'm looking for some good non-plastic mixing and storage bowls. My goal is to eliminate every single plastic dish in our house by the end of the year.

~ My very sweet friend Shawn made this beautiful memento for Allie. I love it and I'm looking for a good frame for it so I can hang it in the kids' room. Isn't it gorgeous?~ I made a couple patchwork pumpkins for Halloween gifts. I didn't finish as many as I wanted, so a few people will be getting Thanksgiving Pumpkins instead. Which reminds me, I should probably get started on those.

My lovely, charming, and witty friend Deanna invited me to join a swap. Since I seem to actually be physically unable to decline any swaps, I accepted. My task was to create 35 of one item and I decided to make lip balm. I wanted to make it vegan - no beeswax - because the best chapstick I ever had was some vegan stuff I got from Naturally Luxe and I chose to make it vanilla flavored because that seemed like a basic flavor that most people would like.I ordered all the supplies I would need, including forty cute little tubs, and got everything all laid out and ready to go. I cooked up the ingredients, then dropped the melted solution into the tubs with a little plastic pipette. The whole process was pretty fun, but I especially enjoyed squirting the balm into the containers with the dropper. Perhaps I should have been a chemist.I would have liked to add some color, but I don't think any color really goes with vanilla so I left it out. The lip balm looks a little boring to me, but is otherwise very smooth and well-scented and lip-balmy. I'd like to try making another batch, but I'm not really sure what I would do with forty more lip balms.

I just finished knitting this hat for Noah. It was the easiest pattern ever so it came together pretty quickly. Last night I was seaming up the sides, and I guess it's been a long time since I've had to do that because I apparently forgot how to do it. I was watching a movie with Steve and I didn't want to get off the couch and look up the right way to sew the seams so I just continued to do it incorrectly. Consequently, the seams look pretty awful, but luckily Noah is not the type of guy who cares about that kind of thing.

We have a window in our shower, and during the four years that we've lived here, the spraying water has taken a toll on the trim around the window. Yuck.
It was starting to look really awful and I had mentioned to Steve several times in the past that I'd like him to fix it. Steve has a lot of wonderful qualities, but since starting and finishing home improvement projects is not one of them, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Now, home improvement is definitely not my area of expertise. Come to think of it, I'm not sure I even have an area of expertise, but doing projects around the house is for sure my area of bumbling around cluelessly. Still, after talking to a couple of helpful gentlemen at Lowe's and then purchasing a few items, I set to work on the window. I sanded it all down, then applied spackle over all the rough spots. Once that was dry, I sanded again, then applied two layers of paint. Voila!I did all this yesterday, but didn't mention it to Steve because I wanted to surprise him. He noticed it this morning, and was apparently less than impressed. He said that I did it wrong, but whatever. I'd much rather have something done less than perfectly than not done at all. I am still proud of myself and happy that the window looks so much better than it did.

After Noah was born, we buried his placenta under a tree in my parents' yard. Last week when we were visiting them, they bought two more new trees - one for Emma, and one for Allie. We didn't have Emma's placenta after she was born so we didn't think to plant a tree for her at the time, but I am happy that all three of my kids have one now.
We buried Allie's placenta under her tree, and then my mom read a blessing for her. My brothers weren't there this time (too bad, because I know they are devastated to miss any event that involves a placenta), but both of my grandmas were in attendance. Even though I get the idea that my family thinks I'm a little kooky, I am so glad that they're all good sports. I will always enjoy watching these trees grow along with my children. I am also thankful that my dad was willing to dig the holes for all these trees.
And, just because I think it's cute, here is a picture of my dad and the little boy who is obsessed with tractors.

I'm happy to report that - over a year after starting it - I finally finished Noah's quilt! I had issues with not being able to find a suitable fabric for the binding so that put the whole project on hold for a long time, but a few weeks ago I finally found something that I liked.For this quilt, I chose random fabrics that I thought he would find interesting for one reason or another. I remember looking at quilts when I was a kid and being so interested in the different fabrics, so I hope Noah feels the same way about this. I wanted to do stippling for the quilting so I purchased a darning foot for my machine. I should have gotten one long ago because free motion quilting is so much fun! It took much longer than I anticipated and used almost three entire spools of thread, but was very worth it. I love how it turned out!I just used a blue sheet for the backing and I was a little worried that, because I had never done any stippling before, it wouldn't look good and would really show up against the blue. It does stand out a lot, but I think it looks okay. (And for the life of me, I can't get this picture to turn the right way.)
I was trying to take pictures of the finished quilt today, but the kids kept messing with it so I couldn't really get a good shot of the whole thing. At one point Noah ran up and grabbed the folded quilt off the couch.He immediately threw it on the floor and flopped down on top of it. I guess he likes it!

Something pretty incredible happened today. For the first time in my life, I got my license plates renewed on time. AND...not only did I do it on time, I actually did it two months early. Yay for efficiency! Noah, Allie, and I ran all over the city today, accomplishing many errands. It feels good to have all those finished, but now I have no energy to do all the dishes that are piled up in the sink, pick up all the toys/shoes/books that are littering the floor, or fold and put away the three full baskets of clean laundry that are sitting in my living room. Eh, you win some, you lose some, I guess.
My mom visited us last week, and aside from the usual help she offers, it was great to have her hold the baby so I could take pictures. I always want to bring my camera everywhere, but in reality I rarely do these days because it's just one more thing to carry and it's difficult to take pictures when wearing a baby.We went to the pumpkin patch one day and picked out a couple little pie pumpkins because Steve had promised to make some pumpkin pie. We're still waiting on that pie, and those pumpkins are taking up valuable (and sparse) counter space so I'm thinking that tomorrow might be a good day to make some pumpkin butter. Yum!

I keep going back and forth about this blog - I keep thinking I'm just going to give it up because I can never seem to update in a timely fashion anymore, but then at the same time I sort of miss rambling on about my kids and the stuff we do together. So, here is the beginning of another attempt to keep the blog posts coming.Halloween was fun. We spent it at my parents' house, which is always a good time. Emma was a bride, and she wore her costume off and on for a few days. It was nice to have her looking "fancy" again for a little while. I didn't get a costume for Allie because I thought it would just be a hassle and she wouldn't know the difference anyway, but I'm still feeling a little guilty about that. I guess that's what happens when you're the third baby. The good thing is that I'm pretty sure Emma and Noah alone were cute enough for all three of them.