getting with it

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?

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

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

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

There were even a couple addressed to me

to bring in the weekend

I thought I’d share some of Hunter’s new moves. He’s figured out how to find the songs he likes on the iPod in the kitchen.

Now it’s time for the weekend. I spent my day mopping my floors for the first time since Eva was born. I’m trying to get ready to bring out the Christmas stuff, but I feel like we need to do some major organizing and decluttering first.

What do you have planned for the weekend? I’m hoping to wander through the Holiday Handmade craft fair, get books put on the proper shelves, and maybe Christmasify the mantle. Oh, and get a post or two together about our Thanksgiving trip.

green is my favorite color

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.

(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.

(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.

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.

3 months

Eva is 3 months old today and we are on the road for our Thanksgiving trip. I can’t even put into words how cute she is! During this last month she has been much happier. I guess she’s realized that life on the outside is fun– there are so many people to smile at and talk to.
I’m blogging from my phone somewhere on the highway in Utah. Oh, the marvels of modern technology– one of the countless things I’m thankful for this week. Here’s to good weather, safe travels, lots of knitting ( thanks to Barry for doing all the driving), and time with good friends and family!
Happy Thanksgiving all!