Archive for January, 2008

Christmas 2007

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
We had such a wonderful Christmas this year!  We had so much fun I’ll have to condense it a bit to make this post a reasonable length =)

This year, Eric and I made fleece blankets for our Christmas presents.  It was a lot of fun!  Jo-ann’s has a great selection of fleece, so we tried to find appropriate colors and designs for everyone.  The best reaction we got was from Joyce.  Hers had penguins on it!  Everyone liked them!  Now if we can only come up with something wonderful for next year! =) Image
I got to spend two weeks in Tulsa, and Eric joined me for the second week.  =)  I arrived in Iceland on Wednesday….  well, Tulsa really, but it was a disaster area!  Trees everywhere!  Casey had described the tree in his neighbor’s yard as a tree moat, which I told him was the perfect description!  Fortunately, Mom’s power came back on so I had a nice warm place to stay.   
Mom has an absolutely wonderful playroom in her new house!  She has this great train set, and a kitchen set.  Barrett especially loves the choo-choos.  He’s addicted to them really =)  All his birthday presents were either trains or cars!  He likes trains so much he’d “read” his Thomas catalogue, sometimes by himself, sometimes sitting in my lap. All the kids love the kitchen set.  Barrett likes the chips best.  Casey makes huge meals and takes orders (Mexican, yummy!)  Raegan likes the sink best, on Thursday she spent the first 15 minutes washing her hands! 
 Casey is getting really good at board games.  We played Bingo, Chinese Checkers, Memory and Guess Who!  We played Go Fish too, but since Raegan and Casey laid their cards face up, it was hard for me =)  They won that!  Raegan liked playing with the marbles from the checker set.  She was so good though, she’d only take out one at a time! Raegan and I had fun snuggling on the couch, spinning, coloring, playing kitchen.  We spent hours one day pretending to eat spaghetti and chocolate with the pretend food =)  Mmmm!  I was so glad she remembered me! 
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We watched Charlotte’s Web, and Casey pretended to be Wilbur.  He climbed into the baby jail that was for Kiley.  Raegan and Barrett did too!  Funny how kids like being caged. =)
  Bingo!  Mom, Casey, Barrett and I played Bingo!  Mom got this great Bingo set for kids.  It had things like animals on different colors, so you could call blue tiger, purple cow, that sort of thing.  Other boards had shapes, numbers, and even math problems!  Barrett said thank you whenever I gave him a game piece.  He just enjoyed collecting the game pieces, but when I asked him to find the cow, or find the tiger, he liked doing that! 

Mimi took me to get my first maternity clothes!  The sales lady offered to let me try things on, and I was very confused.  They say to buy your pre-pregnancy size, but surely it shouldn’t fit now!  Then Jen came and showed me the belly =)  So it was fun to try on! (Casey warned that I wouldn’t think it was so fun when the baby was actually that big)  Evidently I’m going to get huge!  I can’t wait =)  Mimi didn’t know about the pillow.  She thought I was really showing!  I got three pants and three shirts, and some pjs. 

The boys loved pretending Eric was a donkey, horse, or a pig.  He wore himself out giving rides!  The day everyone else went to the mall, Eric was relieved to get to babysit instead of having to go shopping on Christmas Eve.  He was amazed that they never got tired of riding on his back while he ran the exact same route around the house.  Then, we’d toss them on the mattress in the living room =) 

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Raegan loved getting big hugs.  I’d squeeze her tight and make a noise like nnnnn!  (Like Grandma Bair used to)  She started leaning into me and making the noise =)
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We played Risk with the kids.  I won because Alex had a pact with Alli, then talked her into overextending herself.  He killed her, Eric finished him, and I finished Eric!  We actually played a lot =)  Alex was excited, he’d never played with anyone who would actually finish a game of Risk with him. 
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Kyle has been working at Mom’s, stripping wallpaper, chopping branches, general helpfulness.  He told Mom he was her 24 hour maintenance man =)  He brought Kiley over.  She’s a sweetheart!  She let me carry her around and play with her, no problem.  She’s very active, pulling up and almost standing!
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We made tamales from scratch for Christmas!  This was a project we’d been wanting to do for a long time, so we were all so excited to really get to do it!  Rosario came over and taught us how to make them.  Originally, Mom told her we needed 40, but I told her we needed at least 60, and then I amended that to be 100.  We ended up with 184!!!  Image
We got back to California on Christmas Day.  Tina had just gotten in to town a couple of days before, so it was perfect!  We went over to the Cupertino house and had a wonderful lunch and opened presents.  I got several good movies and beautiful new clothes.  (I can even still wear them!)  Tina gave us kites!!!!  Eric and I were thrilled!!!  I love to fly kites, and these are adorable!
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We celebrated our Christmas on Christmas morning after we recovered from the flight home.  We started by opening our stockings.  I was thrilled to see that Eric had filled the baby’s stocking!  I had wanted so badly to buy something to put in it, but I hadn’t found anything I loved before I left for Oklahoma.  He got the cutest little hooded bath towel!  It’s so sweet!  And he’s so thoughtful!!!
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Project Clean out the Nursery

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Shredding Fun
One of the first tasks I set myself when I got home was cleaning and reorganizing the house!  Don said it was way too early to be nesting, but I wanted to take advantage of all my time off from work!  I went through every closet and got a huge pile together for the Salvation Army.  I got rid of all the clothes that no longer fit that also wouldn’t be good maternity clothes.  Even Eric voluntarily got rid of some clothes.  I also reorganized the closet so I could fit a few book boxes in there.  That way I could empty the bookshelf in the office to use as a dresser for the baby’s clothes.  Now, everything in the house is perfectly organized!  I love it!!!  I even cleaned so much out of the office closet that there are a few shelves for baby things =)  My next task was to reorganize all the office supplies so we could get rid of the tables and desks.  I managed to fit all the office supplies in the closet.  Then, I needed a shredder!  I shredded all the old documents that people said I didn’t really need to be saving!  I completely emptied the desk!  I had put most of the shreddings in trash bags, except one pile.  When I showed it to Eric, he got this mischievous look in his eye.  The second my back was turned, he dumped shredded paper all over me!  Well, I couldn’t let that go unpunished =)  So several bags got emptied on his head as well =)  What fun!  Now, the desk is gone, so this is really starting to turn into a nursery!  I’m even starting to call it the nursery instead of the office =)  I’m so excited!  I have so many plans for decorating!!!!
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Projects for 2008!!!

Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
I am determined to finish all my old projects before I get busy working on stuff for the baby!  So here is the list of what I’ve done since Christmas:
1.)  I finished a quilt that I’d started five years ago!  I’d made the mistake of sewing the top together without having anybody in mind to give it to!  Mom said she loved it and I should finish it, so I gave it to her to take it to be machine quilted, but we never got around to that.  So, I decided that it was time for it to be finished!  So I just tied it!  It’s all done now, and very pretty.  It’ll go nicely on Mom’s quilt rack. 
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2.)  Project two was to start a baby quilt for Juan and Veronica.  I found a pattern, it’s very basic.  Juan likes things simple =)  It’s just six inch squares in fabrics.  The great thing is that it has lots of texture!  Flannels, cottons, chenille, all kinds of fabric.  The colors are blues, greens and yellows.  I’m going to appliqué sports stuff all over it.  I’m just waiting on the appliqué football Mom found at a Jo-Anns in Tulsa.  I got a baseball and a basketball from my Jo-Anns.  I hope they like it!
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3.)  Project three was to make a quilt for Andrea.  I’d put off making one for her and Aisha forever because I couldn’t decide whose quilt to make first.  Well, Aisha asked me last year for a quilt, so I made hers.  Then I was ready to do one for Andrea!  I did the hidden wells pattern again, it’s one of my favorites!  She wanted blues and reds, and I found all these great batiks at a quilt store here.  I didn’t want to get her a lot of florals or girly fabrics for her.  She told me I was completely right to avoid those =)  I love how it turned out!  I can’t wait to give it to her when I go to Tulsa in March!
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4.) I had ordered new bedding last year from Pottery Barn, but they weren’t a set so they didn’t match as well as I’d hoped!  So I decided to make a duvet cover from the flat sheet that I’d never used.  I’m so happy I did!  I found a yellow sheet that matched for the back side on sale at JC Penney’s.  At the same time, I found a plush blanket like the one Mom has on her bed.  It’s so soft and fuzzy!  Plus it’s warm, and still lightweight.  So we’re sleeping on top of the beautiful duvet cover and under the fuzzy blanket.  It’s nice, because I was kind of feeling weighed down by the duvet.  I’d throw it off ten times during the night, but I have to have a blanket when I go to sleep.  So it turned out perfect!  My bedroom matches now =) 
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5.)  Next up, projects for my nursery!!!  Here’s a sneak peek 
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