Naomi loves shoes

Found these pictures of Naomi trying on Catie's "high heels".  She loves trying on shoes and wearing them around.  Remind me of my niece Ashleigh back in 2003.  I have a picture of her, about the same age as Naomi, walking around in Uncle Josh's thongs.  =)

warm 'n cozy

 Here's another blanket for the baby.  I did applique all by myself for the first time!!  And binding too!! you can't really see the binding well but that's okay because it isn't that great.  So if you see it in person just ignore that, okay?  =)  

 And I finally made Nathan's quilt/blanket.  I bought the fabric in the States in 2010.  And now it's 2013.  {At least it was the end of 2010 and this is still the beginning of 2013 so technically it hasn't taken me as long that sounds.}  But anyway, the plan then was to make a quilt with all plaid blocks.  Kind of like this or this. But a couple months ago I found this fabulous, super super soft fleecy minky fabric in PLAID!!  So I bought 2 metres.  I already had the denim fabric on hand for a different project.  I couldn't decide whether to leave it as just denim on the front possibly with a plaid like quilting or put the plaid squares row on it. As you can see I put the pieced row on it and just did some straight line quilting.  I also used the same plaid fabrics to make a scrappy binding. {this binding turned out slightly better than the baby quilt.  but I'm definitely still a beginner and will probably get someone else to do the binding on my quilt if I ever get around to making it.}  I am so happy with how it turned out.  I love it.  I finished it last night after Nate was in bed so I put it over him while he was sleeping.  This morning I mentioned that I made something just for him.  He ran into his room and got it off his bed and was cuddling it.  He then gave me a big grin and a kiss.  I think he likes it too.  =)

  

beach time

The one and only, genuine, original family band =)

Grandpa seems amused by all the chaos.  =)

Catie gets glasses

  A few weeks after VBS Catie mentioned in passing that it was harder for her to learn the songs this year because she couldn't read the words up on the screen.  Then several weeks later we were in church and she kept asking for the number of the hymn we were singing.  After reminding her that the hymn number were all posted up the front she said that she couldn't see them.  Well, life happened and we didn't make it in to the optometrist until a week ago.  He ran a bunch of tests and said that in the 12 months since she had seen him last Catie had become short-sighted.  He was very surprised actually stating that she was young for that and her last visit showed absolutely no indications of this.  He mentioned that it's possibly from all the reading she LOVES to do but there's no way he was going to tell a child to stop reading.  I think genetics have a lot to play though as I am the only one of my family without glasses/contacts and Josh and most of his family have glasses/contacts.  Anyway, she got to pick out a pair of glasses {her favourite colour--BLUE!}and we ordered them.  They came in today so we went straight away to pick them up.  She wanted to go show Daddy immediately so we did.  He took a quick photo in his office.  She isn't to wear them while she does schoolwork or reads but is to wear them at all other times.  So far, so good.  She loves them and kept mentioning that she could see things better.  =)

Girly Randomness

 we made a real hair bow with Catie's hair. 

 Beka, ready for church and needing her fringe to be trimmed.  

 Apparently this is the only photo we got of Emma in her new dress from Grammy.  We will have to correct that.  She looked so beautiful.  {as always} 

 Remember this dress, Mom?  This was Catie's Grammy-made Easter dress in 2004.  This was taken after church and after Naomi pulled the bow out of her hair.  

and here's a random photo from today.  Naomi insisted on wearing her new shoes and she kept walking around carrying at least two bags.  I turned around and she was sitting on the box of nappies just playing with dolls and bags.  She caught me just as I took the photo and gave me a cheeky grin. 

At the beach with friends

Emma's birthday

 opened her gift from Grandma on Monday night because she wanted to open a gift while Uncle Jason was here for the weekend.  

 She had some willing helpers opening her gifts Thursday morning. 

 new dress from Grammy

 presents from family

 phone call from Grandma

 She designed and decorated the cakes and cupcakes herself.  with some help from sisters and mama.  

 new owl mirror from the S's

 a new pillow and cushion from the Challacombes

 owl beanie from Dinah

we all took turns holding little 8-day old Elizabeth.  So cute and tiny!! =)

Josh's Birthday

Josh's birthday was last Saturday.  We didn't take too many photos but got a couple at breakfast.  Jason came up for the weekend.  We got Josh out of bed early(ish) and had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  Then he opened presents.  We met the Sauvageot's at the driving range that morning where the kids played a LONG round of mini golf while most of the adults hit a bucket of balls on the driving range.  The we went to a couple shops which was CRAZY because apparently the day before Easter is a big shopping day and the entire town is out and about.  =)  Josh and I went to dinner (birthday boy ate free!) with Steve and Jennie then came home and celebrated with chocolate pie and pumpkin pie with the kids.  I think all in all it was a good day!

Jurassic Ark

We went to an outdoor creation museum/garden thing a couple weeks ago with a homeschool group.  As you can see it was a cool rainy day.  We didn't get too many photos as we were trying to keep the little ones interested and out of the gardens.  =)  It was good though.  {Nate did NOT want his photo taken. haha}

Naomi and her dollies

Naomi is loving the big dollies lately.  She has three favourites (the two Cabbage Patch ones and the Grandma-made one with orange hair.) She will randomly bring them to me one at a time and want me to hold them all.  Tonight she brought them to Daddy while we were still at the table.  Then he got to have a big cuddle with Naomi and the dolls.  They moved to the couch where she found more dolls/stuffed animals and sat with them for probably half an hour.  =)