Christmas Pictures

Enjoy

Merry Christmas!

We hope all our friends and family have a wonderful Christmas. We will post some pictures of the day soon, but you can check out Facebook for the ones I took with my phone for an up-to-the-minute recording of the day so far.
Love you all!
Jen

the cords

My grandmother was an avid seamstress. While I don't know the entire history of her sewing prowess, I do know she sewed my mother's wedding gown, and that's testament enough for me. So when Grammie asked me if I would like her sewing machine some day, I jumped at the chance. Not because I too am an avid seamstress, but because I knew how much it meant to her & I know she would want her sewing stuff to go to someone who would at least care about it, if not use it.
I know the concept of sewing. I can muddle my way through threading the machine and sewing a relatively straight line, but to do anything more complicated would require me to spend countless hours reading through the "how to" book to try to figure out all the levers and switches and dials - not to mention the bobbins and the tension etc. Anyway, I've gotten it in my head that I could make the gifts for the kids' daycare teachers, and my idea was to use Grammie's cool machine (complete with scanner and computerized embroidery bells and whistles), and embroider a teacher's initials on a blanket. Couple that with a jar of the spice tea mix (y'know, the kind you make with Tang?), and you have a nice, homemade gift that might actually be a little useful.
Grammie's machine and the affiliated manuals and boxes have been sitting upstairs since Mom and Dad brought it when Ella was born. I rifled through boxes and found the manuals and started to review them before I even took the case off of the machine. I was THAT determined to do it right. I've poured over articles that Grammie printed off of the Internet, and even studied the D&C thread guide (which is to embroidery thread as paint chips are to painting - and I LOVE paint chips).
Last night, I found the full blown manual. I brought the machine downstairs to the dining room table (heavy!). I carefully removed the case, even replacing it and taking it off again so I would be able to remember how to put it all back together. I sat down in front of the machine, looked at the book to my right, and realized I didn't have a power cord.
So I went back upstairs to look in the boxes, all to no avail.
Tonight I decided to really unpack the boxes to assess their contents & hopefully find the chord.
I did not find it.
nor did I find the cord for the super cool scanner.
I did find a side of my Grandmother that I have never really known.
When we went to Grammie's to visit, I always liked to visit her sewing area because it had this kinetic energy to it. You could tell that as soon as she sat down at her stool, and had her mind to create (or fix) something, that it was going to be DONE, and it would probably be a good idea to stay out of her way until she was finished. I don't ever remember her sitting down in front of that machine while we were visiting.
As I was unpacking the boxes, I could still feel a little bit of the hum of the machine. She sent a pin tomato, a power strip, LOTS of rolls of stuff that I think is fabric stabilizer, but that's only a best guess. She sent a straight cutter, a pair of old Sears electric scissors, dozens of spools of thread, a thread holder, Velcro and zippers. Among the treasures was a small magnifying glass with my Grandfather's initials in the well-worn copper casing. Holding it in my hand, I knew that she carried him in her consciousness even when she was in "her zone". I wondered how many images that item might have conjured if I was a psychic.
I'm really looking forward to learning to use the machine, and hope she can remember where she might have packed the cords so that I don't have to go buy more.

Past few weeks (months)

Here are some going back to Halloween. We weren't able to get a lot of pictures of them but they had a good time trick or treating. We really enjoyed having the Glasses over too, the Ella's had a blast.

We got some really good rain this past weekend, a rarity in these parts. During a lull in the rain we went for a walk and let the kids play in the puddles on the way to the park. The were stinky and soaked but it was worth it.

Halloween





November pics:



December so far:

August and September

Here are some pictures from the last couple of hectic months. Sorry it's been so long since we posted.

Happy Birthday Ella

Ella's 2! We had a small party for her with just family on her actual birthday and a bigger party for her yesterday. Lots of good friends showed up for snacks, cake and playtime. Thanks to all who came, Ella had a blast and a great 2nd birthday.

Ella bday

Party Pics and Videos

Here's the action from Max's party. Thanks to all who came he had a blast.

Max's 4th party

From Max's 4th party

From Max's 4th party

From Max's 4th party

From Max's 4th party

From Max's 4th party

Max's 4th videos

Here's some videos of Max on his bike and enjoying his cake.

From Max's 4th videos

From Max's 4th videos

From Max's 4th videos

From Max's 4th videos

From Max's 4th videos

From Max's 4th videos

Max's 4th

We celebrated Max's 4th on the 4th this year since we had the day off and Nanny and Aunt "Happy" were here. Max's big gift was a new bike which he took to immediately. He was turning and braking with ease in no time and even got to ride his bike to the pool for play time later in the day. Enjoy the pics, I'll get some videos up soon as well.

2 Month Gap

Sorry for another 2 month gap. Here are some pics from May and June. Max turns 4 in 2 weeks, we are totally freaking out. Ella is now using sentences and thinks she's as old as Max now.

Finally New Pictures

Um, just realized it's been over 2 months since we posted - sorry. Here's some pictures from our silent era.

Update

We realized we hadn't updated the blog in quite some time! Chris will probably post some pictures soon.

Ella is getting to be such a big girl, and she wants to do big kid stuff like her Bubby. Her language has really taken off too! Some of her favorite words now are: outside, please, thank you, you're welcome, dog dog, woof. She also has some super cute phrases like: "what happened?" (complete with a shoulder shrug), "Oh no",

Holy Cow. I sat down to type this update in MAY. How does that happen?

New phrases: "where is bubby?", "I want silly dog dog" (which means she wants to watch Wallace & Gromit), and "all done".

It seems Max has turned into a little boy overnight. He still loves reenacting scenes from Thomas the Train episodes, but also likes playing with airplanes & playing "spaceball" - which is really just base-ball with a small plastic ball, played without a bat in the living room.

I'll try to post some more profound, not necessarily kid related stuff soon, but no promises.

And to my friend Rachel, there, happy now? :-)

Snow Day!

We woke up Friday morning to about an inch of snow. Both kids had a blast with the snow (half) day. Only in TX can in snow one morning and 24 hours later be in the mid 60's.

From feb

From feb

From Jan

From Jan

New Pictures

Hi everyone. Here's the latest batch of pictures from our 2011 so far.

Whole Lotta pictures

Here's a bunch of pictures to start your new year off right. These go all the way back to November. The holidays were crazy, hence the lack of posts and pics. We'll try to keep them coming more regularly in 2011.

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos

From Dec 10 videos