Category Archives: A Little of Everything

that Thanksgiving post

I know it is January and Thanksgiving was way back in November, but that’s just how things work for me these days. I get to it when I get to it.

Here are some family pictures from our trip to Idaho.  I wish I had taken photos of everyone sitting at the dinner table, of the kids playing legos for hours on end, of my sister in-law pouring over the Black Friday ads.  But, alas, I was too busy actually experiencing it all to remember to pull my camera out.

It was so fun to all be together.

the whole family (almost)

One of my brothers is missing, but he’ll be in the next family picture for sure.  (And I promise my Dad really does like all of us– just not the picture taking part I guess :))

all the cousins

Look at all those cousins!  The boys definitely out number the girls.  That’s how we do it.

the babes

And look at the babies.  My brother’s wife came down with severe preeclampsia about a week after Eva was born. There were a few scary days and finally the doctors decided they had to do an emergency c-section to save her life. Her little baby was born at 32 weeks and just 2 lbs. 14 oz. There was a scary lung colapse when she was about a day old, but since then she’s been a tough little girl. Just tiny. Here they are at 3 months old– Eva is about 15 lbs. and Savanna is 7 lbs. How fun is it that we have girl cousins one week apart?! Very fun, if you ask me.

We also visited friends on our trip and had so much fun. I think a post about them is in order too. When will I get to that do you think?

a new year

views from my basement

views from my basement

views from my basement

views from my basement

(So, these pictures are completely unrelated to what I’ve written here today, but they sure make me smile.  I love that my basement is Thor’s motorcycle course.  I love that Ian has all his clothes on backwards.  I just love it so much I can hardly stand it.)

It’s the end of the first day of the year and I feel like I need to just sit and write something. 2011 was good. I grew a baby, fell deeper in love with my husband, watched my children grow into more of themselves. I feel privileged to be here to witness it all.

I’m also feeling like there is more growing I need to do, like I’ve been in a state of stagnation, like I need to push a little deeper and grow into more of myself. I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions (generally because I’m horribly inconsistent and not super good at following through on things) but I do believe there is power in putting things in writing so I’m just going to make a list of things I want for this new year.

  • I want to read more– to have meaningful things to think about.
  • There are three things I want to do just about every day– scripture study, yoga, and writing.
  • I want to design fabric.
  • I want to feel like I’m using my time just as God would have me use it– to end each day with no regrets.
  • I want to stop comparing myself to others.
  • I want to stop worrying about what others think of me.
  • I want to feel confident that the relationship I have with each of my children is just what it should be. I want to feel confident that there is no doubt in their minds how much I love them.
  • I want to organize and decorate my home with beauty and intention– filling it with things that are beautiful, meaningful, and useful.
  • I want to be a source of inspiration for someone- to somehow make another’s life better by something I say or do.

I’m sure I could go on. There is always so much room for improvement. I have t his mantra I often repeat to myself

Be content and reach.

Be happy with the place you’re at, but always, always keep trying to be better.

How about you? What do you want for the new year?

 

getting with it

the letter

Last year we didn’t get a Christmas letter written or a single card sent.  I was newly pregnant and oh, so tired and nauseous, with in-laws in town.  That was my excuse.  There’s always an excuse though, isn’t there?  Now I have a new baby and on top of that pink eye ravaged through our family these last couple of weeks so I couldn’t take a good Christmas picture for our card.

I faced those would-be excuses head on, went through our photos and found one of each kid that was cute, enlisted the help of my husband to make them fit right, and placed my order at Costco.  The bummer– we didn’t notice Hunter’s name was misspelled until we had 100 HunDers in our hands.  Oh well, done imperfectly is better that not done at all.  Right?

team effort

Getting them out the door was a team effort.  One big kid did address labels, another return addresses, and the third did stamps.

lots of envelopes

The little kids obviously couldn’t be left out, so they had stickers and envelopes of their own.

his own stickers

look

The littlest supervised while doing her favorite new activity– sucking her finger.

the supervisor

just for me

There were even a couple addressed to me :)

green is my favorite color

green sweater

In January I took my Christmas money to the yarn store and came home with 5 big soft squishy skeins of  beautiful green Madelinetosh superwash merino yarn.  (The color is Malachite, but I’m sure I bought worsted weight yarn and I’m not seeing anything that looks like it on their site.  I think Madelinetosh Vintage is the most comparable.)  I wanted a sweater with sleeves, so I cast on for my very own February Lady Sweater.

February Lady back(this photo by Jonah)

It’s the biggest thing I’ve knit with a fancy lacy stitch pattern.   I made a hat for my mother in-law last Christmas which I constantly miscounted and messed up so bad I had to start over, so I was a bit nervous I would mess this up too, but none of those mistakes are noticeable and I never ripped a single row out.  About halfway through the body I realized I was twisting my yarn overs wrong which resulted in smaller holes in the lace, but I just kept on with that mistake for consistency’s sake.  I think that was a good thing actually because I think it would really stretch out of shape if it were knit any looser.

nearly a year in the making(this photo by Brenna)

I finished it the week we were getting ready for our Thanksgiving trip to Idaho.  There’s nothing like having a bunch if things I need to do (like laundry and packing) to make me feel ike I really need to knit or sew or create something.

It is itchless (hooray!) and warm.  I picked out the buttons with 3 littles in tow and have since decided I need to change them to something round that won’t be constantly skiwampis.  I’m also wishing that the buttons went all the way down, instead of just being at the top because I’m so newly un-pregnant.  Oh well.  I’m sure I’ll love how it fits next fall.

pretty knitting

It certainly is the prettiest thing I’ve knit.  I love the magic of knitting.  I know I probably say that in every knitting post, but it is just so cool that a really long piece of string can be looped and looped into something lovely and useful.