Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here and we fully enjoyed all that it brought. Friends, laughter, grumpy kiddos, and family. But most importantly, we were able to celebrate Christ's birth and the kids got that this year, exciting stuff!

We spend Christmas eve morning with Chad's dad. We had a nice brunch and had a quiet, relaxing present opening and visit. Later in the evening we headed to Portland for our annual Christmas Eve get together at Shirley's (My mom's best friend and the kid's honorary Grandma).

Christmas morning came and Chad and I anxiously waited for the kids to wake up. The kids wore their Christmas pj's (they got to choose the fabric this year) and we read the Christmas story from the New Testament before opening gifts. This was the year of home made gifts. We have capes and pjs and pillows, flowers and caplets and leg warmers. And we can't forget the wonky bible cover that I'll have to remake in order for a bible to actually fit in it (sorry about that Dad):) Oh how my sewing fingers are tired:) My poor machine needs a vacation as well:)

Chad's gift was a true labor of love. Its the most complicated thing I've ever tried to make (besides the two small humans that I made a while back). It's a very manly computer messenger bag. The lining is the special secret. Chad is really into robots this year so I indulged him and gave him a bag full:)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas is Here!

The first round of Christmas started with a family trip up to the Tri-Cities to celebrate with my brother and his family. The added bonus was that we were able to watch my s-n-l graduate from nursing school! It's a very exciting time for them, I can't wait to see where this new knowledge leads her.

It was a very quick trip (left Mulino on Saturday morning to make it in time for the 2 pm graduation/pining ceremony and then leaving Sunday after church). I must honestly tell you that my bum is still shaped a bit like the truck seat:)

We did presents late Saturday evening. The kids were nearly asleep standing up, but the presents perked them right up:) I made super capes for both Gabe and my brother. Every boy needs a cape:)

(Does anyone find it funny that Chad is on TOP?)

The theme this year was Classic Iron Works:) We are all now outfitted to represent the business. Anyone need a fancy wrought iron drive gate?? We just happen to know where you can get one:)

The Christmas Season is Here!

Our Own Little Star

Kyla had her school Christmas program on Tuesday evening and shined like a star:) In the past, she has had difficulties standing in front of an audience and participating. She chewed her nails one year the ENTIRE performance and rolled her dress up to waist the next. This year, she jumped on up, sang her heart out, and did all the hand motions with gusto. The gym was packed with people but she seemed to enjoy the performance. All in all, it was a stellar participation effort:) We are so proud of our little girl! Here's a glimpse of the concert.

Mrs. Imholt and Kyla
The most wonderful teacher ever!!

Thanks Grandmpa K, Grandpa G, and Grandma T for joining us and supporting Kyla!

The Refashioning Continues

The last two months has tested my sewing capabilities to the maximum. I'm hoping that I come out of this sewing spree much more wise than I was going into it:) Here are a couple of the latest refashions.

For my sweet niece on her 10th birthday, I made this fun and quirky skirt out of t-shirts that I had on hand. The picture doesn't do it justice, with Han wearing it, it's divine:)

Another November birthday prompted this pretty little skirt. The material came from some work out pants that I purchased to turn into shorts this past summer. The leg remnant just happened to be the perfect size for a little three year old girl:)

A recent refashion for me stemmed from a pile of maternity clothes that I was ready to get rid of. On top of the monstrous pile was an off white knit shirt with tent like proportions. I don't think I ever wore it while pregnant, but I somehow have it:) I don't have a before pic, just use your imagination...an extra large old-fashioned, tent-sized maternity shirt with a scoop neck. This is what it turned into after a bit of altering and cutting down and the cutting down again:)

I had this great idea to turn a shirt that was a bit big and a bit not-my-taste into something stylish and fresh. I had some inspirational and conceptual help here. Unfortunately, it looked much better in my head:) It's wearable but not my favorite refashion. Not bad, just not great:)

Before (I had already taken off the collar at this point)

Kind of what I was going for
What I got

There's more, but I haven't taken pictures yet. They'll come eventually:)

Oh Me Oh My!

I've been sewing like a machine this past month and a half but all the sewing has been done in secret. I had this amazing (amazingly mad) idea to hand make all of our Christmas gifts this year. Why spend lots of money when I can just whip us something extraordinary? Homemade is more special, right?

My list of things to make started out a page long, seriously, it was a page long! I've whittled it down slowly, checking each item off as it rolls off my sewing table:) I'm not going to share the finished products just yet, you'll need to wait until Christmas just like everyone else but I will give you just a little peak at what I've been doing.

I've been doing a bit of this...

A lot of this...


And even more of this!


The Kids have been doing this...

And this...


Ohhhhh, Christmas surprises, How fun!!

Date Night!

Kyla and I headed out to Linfield College last night for their concert choir's Christmas Concert. I hope that she loves, or will love, music as much as I do and with that in mind, I'm trying to expose her to all the different types of music out there:) This is a great venue. It's close to home, FREE, generally well produced, and most of all, pretty laid back so if a little girl forgets to whisper, all is well:) She's a people watcher and was enthralled by all the college kids and the non-stop activity.

We ended our evening with a stop at our new McDonald's for a yogurt treat. The evening reminded me how much I enjoy spending time with her, you know, outside of being the child rearer/ruler:) She has such a joy about her, she's ready for anything, but most of all, she makes you smile when you are with her. Thanks Kyla Rayne for a fun evening!

To chase the chills away

It's down in the single digits temperature wise here in Oregon and I wanted to send out a little something to warm up your heart. Giggling can do that you know:)

As we are learning to parent Gavin, we've found that timeouts work well for him. Not just a normal, "you can still see whats going on" timeout, but an "in the corner, back towards the action" kind of timeout. I don't ask him to stick his face in the corner or to rub his sometimes snotty nose on my walls, but he generally does this on his own accord.

It starts like this...

And then the great weight of his head pulls him forward...

And finally, nose in the corner.

Now as a child growing up, I myself spent time with my nose in the corner of our family living room with my younger brother on the other side of the wall with his nose in his corner. Ahhh, good times:) We also had a friend (you know who you are D-man) who spent an immeasurable amount of time in that very same corner. I saw Gavin the first time and was assaulted by waves of memories of my brother-of-my-heart looking just the same.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, On to more parenting I go:)

You can easily help out your school, did you know that?

Did you know that you can donate $$ right to your child's classroom? The money is to be used only in your child's classroom at the discretion of the teacher. No red tape, no crazy paperwork, just a moment of your time and a bit of your budget. Is your child's education all that you dreamed? A small donation to their classroom can help provide the craft supplies, teaching tools, or little extras that can make their learning experience amazing. Think about it. Maybe instead of purchasing that extra or extra,extra toy for Christmas, write a check to the school and help your children get everything they can out of their education. Which do you think they'll get more out of? One more wrapped gift under the tree or a better/more memorable school year?

Think about it.

A Hunting We Will Go

We went on our annual tree hunt this weekend. We drove up to Hagg Tree Farms outside of Newberg and searched until our toes and fingers were frozen. We eventually found the "perfect" tree. The goal was to find one that actually fit in the house:)

Our little Shadow Family Picture:)

The Perfect tree!

Carrying on the tradition of the kiddos helping to "hold" the tree on the car:) Gav figured out quite quickly that the tree didn't fall off if he let go, while Kyla was so worried about even letting the tie get loose:)