Congrats

My Cousin Tyler & Kristie had their baby boy 12.30.09!

Jakson Scott, weighing 7 lbs 13.9 oz.

What a way to bring in the New Year and they are both excited for their new bundle.

Christmas

Since New Years is today, Yea for 2010 !! I better share about our Christmas, what a wintery one it was.

Jim gave us the idea to start out our Christmas trip visiting a water park in Brained. It was quite nice and CMW did not want to leave. But now we know she really likes the water, even when she is turning blue. It was a nice and relaxing way as a family to start out our long weekend together since there happened to be some glitches in 'plan of events'.

Pequot was where our festivities started, along with the snow. It was so nice and peaceful. The snow was coming down in big flakes and the first snow fall was white and fluffy, the second snowfall was very went and heavy. My friend Lyz asked 'what's one thing you hold onto a little longer?' (referring to Christmas) and I think it's the peacefulness of snow in Minnesota. Since i'm a true Minnesotan, the snow in ND is just not the same. It always blows away and is mostly hard and compact, nothing soft and fluffy. I think that is one thing i miss, plus the nice 30 degree temps.

Anyway, back to Christmas! The celebration of our Savior, Christ Jesus. Since the storm was coming, we had fewer relatives to celebrate with but we still went to Christmas eve services, dinner was still wonderful, and the gift giving was just right. I think my family needs to start a tradition of remembering Jesus besides attending the eve service. I think it would be wonderful for everyone to remembers the true meaning, I guess next year i'll have to try a little harder and come up with an idea or two. My family did get to enjoy our time with both sets of grandparents, my sisters family and my parents along with nice weather a lots of new snow!

After the family celebration, on Friday Jim, C and I packed up our car and headed to the Olson's Farm for a small visit and then on-ward home bound. The visit was wonderful and we got exposed to the new game 'Banana-grams' it's similar to scrabble and it's fun game. But our continued trip home did not happen until Saturday morning (to much snow in ND). And when we did get home Sat. we were snowed out. Yes, that's correct, not 'snowed in' but 'snowed out'. A very nice snow drift always covers Footer St. when there's a storm and the other 2 roads were also cover with snow. So, we walked in until the 'man with a plow' came by to break a path. And our house was at 52 degrees since our furnace exhaust was covered. The good news, God watched over us on our drive from MN to ND and I just can't leave out our trusty chickens. Even through digging them out of a snow drift, they survived the storm. Now that we were safely home from travels, in our house, started warming it up and the chickens were safe. We bundled up to ventured over to the Waa's for a time of visiting & dinner. It didn't really seam like a time of gift giving with so much going on, games, computers, movies, dinner preparation and what not. But oh well, visiting was nice and CMW got some pretty nice gifts. And our Sunday was another day of digging out to get to town for groceries.

A visit from Maga & Papa

It was a great weekend and boy did I get tried out!

My parents came up to see CMW and of course us. It had been a long time and it was so nice to see them.

My dad was all geared up and had his tools ready to help Jim with sheet rock in the 'man cave'. They got it all up and 2 rounds of mud on the walls.

My mom decided she was going to get the Christmas shopping done for the year and that's just what we did. We hit a lot of good deals and didn't break the check book! How sweet is that! We only shopped for 4 hours including travel time but there was nothing left of us. We even stopped to eat lunch and recharged but when we got home, we both crashed and Jim got C. My parents also brought a delicious white sauce chicken/spinach lasagna (it was so good) in which we invited the Waa's from across the lawn for dinner. It was a great time and Jim build a great fire and it was cozy warm. :-)

It was just so nice to visit and catch up and now Christmas at their house won't feel so crazy since we've seen them recently. CMW certainly does enjoy her Maga & Papa when they come to visit. Papa Art has his tic-tac in which he always shares and this time around Maga got to help out a lot with C's dolly's. They also brought us more wood and we continue to burn it up in the fireplace. Needless to say, I excited for Christmas and traveling home to see my parents once again plus all of my family and friends! Oh, the joy of family!

C & Jim sitting with their feet crossed resting on the foot stool after dinner.

Got to love the girl!

CMW in Papa Art's rubbers.

Celebrations of many...

It just so happened the Sister's Family Christmas in Mankato MN which is a wonderful gathering of Jim's moms sisters & families was the same weekend of CMW's 2nd birthday. I would not and could not leave out her big day. I wasn't really thinking of making her celebration into anything real big, I just brought this cake to add to the sweets of the day and to help others to remember her. We did sing happy birthday and she tried to blow out the candles but her dad helped after the 3rd try. I made a delicious chocolate cake with a sour cream/chocolate filling and frosted with cream cheese. I still taste it, mm,mm. So, between celebrating birthdays (there was 2), we ate, had a great time of fellowship and enjoyed a round of white elephant gift exchange.

My girlfriend Sam decorates cakes and she helped me out a lot! Thank you, Thank you!

CMW is trying to blow out the candles but she doesn't quite have enough lung power or spit control to blow them out yet.

(Jim, CMW & Cousin J.)

It's crazy to think our little lady is now 2 yrs old. How exciting! Her check up was just last week and she weights 23.4 lbs. and is 30" tall. Just a petite girl and she's doing well, according to Dr. Hordvik!

(CMW stealing a cookie off the sweets table at the Sister's Family Christmas gathering.)

The Family!

Since we did not remember to bring our own camera, Aunt Ginny took these pictures for us. Sunday the 6th is the actual date for CMW's birthday and before heading up to the Twin Cities we visited the mall for some Christmas shopping & some play time for C. She did not want to get in that car seat, it was not a good ride down and she remembered. Her dad took her to the play court for kids and she ran and climbed all over those germ infested toys and then we sanitized her. She also got to ride the Carousel at the mall and she really did enjoy it.

We had a wonderful weekend of seeing family and friends and a wonderful time Celebrating C's 2 years of Life! What a gift we are given by our good Lord.

Thanksgiving & Beyond

(i guess i thought I posted this, and i did not, oops... enjoy it a bit late)

I just need to write and tell all my family and friends how great my Thanksgiving holiday was. I would say it was spectacular!

To start early on Monday, my girlfriend Sara and her husband Shawn and Lily the dog drove though town and we met them for lunch. They were passing through going to MN from Montana. The first time since last October that we've seen each other. It was a quick nice visit!

Moving to Thursday, it's the start of Jim staying home for 4 days! Yahoo! I really enjoy Jim being home all day, it's nice to have company and someone to help with CMW. I not only like him to be home, I enjoy it when he comes shopping with me. :-) Which is what we did on Friday and Sunday. But we can't forget about turkey day. We, the Waa family showed up at the Waa family across the yard for the great turkey meal. The Mrs. Evan Waa did all the cooking and it was great! It was a yummy meal and we stayed all afternoon and visited and watching movies.

Friday I was dropped off at the Chiropractor and he with CMW went to Menard's with not a lot success. Then off to Joann's Fabric and got what we needed. Thank goodness I was not going to get fabric because the line was super long and was taking forever even with 5 cutters on the line, yikes! Blow's Sew and Vac was calling our name, just to look was our plan and I had seen an ad about their great Black Friday deals. We have been contemplating getting me a new sewing machine but I kept putting it off, but not this day. With Jim's quick advice, we walked out with one. A super-duper nice quilting/sewing machine. I got a table to go along with machine for quilting and extra feet all wrapped into the discounted price of the machine. It's amazing and i'm quite sure I am over the amazing part yet. Since i've had my great new machine I have sewn a pair of slippers for CMW and i'm working on a small quilting center piece for winter/Christmas. I will have to say it's pretty nice machine!!

I will have to add that I was not the first to sew a project. Mr Jim was and do you want to know what he did? He fixed a pair of underwear! Yes they are new and the waist band busted open after one wash. And we can't just get rid of it because of the waistband, don't ya' know? So, he showed me his great sewing ability! To end the day we got together with some good friends and had dinner and dessert. It was so nice!

And the rest of the weekend Jim and I traded off on what we 'wanted' to do. He got sheet rock for our basement and worked downstairs some and I went out with some girlfriends for coffee and fellowship. I also cleaned up my sewing room and reorganized. It felt great! We went to church and went shopping for CMW - new socks, undies (contemplating training for CMW) and a few Christmas gifts. We also got a tree! Yes, I am so excited and I have not been this excited before. Usually in my family the tree goes up just before Christmas and comes down shortly afterwards but not this year. We have our tree and it's going to get decorated this week so we can enjoy it all of December, yippee!

Once again I need to say it was a great Thanksgiving weekend. We didn't travel, we saw family, we shopped, we spent time together at home and with friends and I talked to many of my family members over the phone and we are awfully Thankful for all of this to happen. Now I'm ready for the Christmas season to begin and thankfully recharged for what is coming in the up coming month!

Check this Out, a give away!

At Today's Give Away there is a chance to win a $25.00 shopping spree at www.funfelt.com. This ends on this Friday the 4th @ 11:59 MST.

Story Time felts is all about teaching through felt story telling. It looks pretty cool and if want to take the time to enter to win, here's the Today's Give Away site to read all about it.

Good Luck!

Knee-high boots & socks & ...

CMW loves to put on my on my stuff... just about anything that she can figure out or that we will help with. So here's a bit of what she's been up to.

Knee-high boots...

socks... also knee-high

And last but not least, a bikini... this was tied on by her father and I'll let you know this wasn't the only day that she has worn this bikini, what a crazy kid.

Cookies

Jim took these great pictures of CMW. She found this cookie in a plastic bag from my bag and thought she was going to be sneaky. She was sitting in the chair quietly eating the cookie and thinking maybe no one would notice. But her dad found her and couldn't resist taking some shots of her being so happy with her chocolate cookie.

The beauty of Greenery

I'm so excited, we bought this Christmas swag from our neighbor boy who's a boy scout and it came just in time for... Thanksgiving! Yes, it came this last week and now we'll be able to enjoy our swag all of December. Maybe a little snow will come and it will look even better with a little white dusting on it's needles. Plus this sway is quite large. I was thinking a small one would look great on our door but when this one came, it was definitely not going on the door. It's at least 3 ft in length and it's smells wonderful. As you can tell it's not on the door due to it's size but next to our front entrance so we can enjoy the beauty.

All the same, it's beautiful and I'm Thankful for this great piece of greenery for the holiday season!

A new groove...

I'm in for a new groove... meaning the lack of motivation is getting a bit old. As winter approaches, I'm super excited for it's winterly/shimmery look but for me, i'm not sure how it will go. I want to be ahead of the game meaning, I'm gonna get out my light-lamp, keep up with volleyball and walking at the mall and my social interaction. And get my motivation soaring. I am now done with the sub-nanny position and I'm done being sick, I'm ready to get into gear. Meaning (taking my oath) schedule appropriately, get stuff done that I want too, don't procrastinate, and delegate (to the husband). We are all done being sick and we all had our dose of fevers & aches and now we are ready for the holiday seasons!

Oh, for the love of Thanksgiving! We are staying in Prosper (no traveling!) and spending it at the in-laws. And my good friend Paula is coming to Moorhead for the Thanksgiving holiday and I get to see her, yeah!!

Anyway, back to a new groove thing. I feel I'm always in a slump and I just want to get out. I'm not sure what that will take besides not being sick, getting enough sleep & food and just finding the motivation. Plus a little time alone might help too. SO...

What I have decided I can do is put on hold and resist any sewing for the store that I contribute to. I have also set the goal of getting some stuff done for my family and friends and made a check list (those are important for me to get things done). I just need to figure out the alone time (delegation maybe? or friends?). I'll keep you posted on how things go. You can bet, I'll be trying to find my motivation by getting my sewing room prepped for a few good cuttings, a lap quilts, a wall hanging and possible a small table runner. I'm getting excited already!

The one thing that isn't in a slump which I'm quite impressed about is, I've gotten good at pre-planning meals for at least 3 nights a week. This is super sweet when I know what I'm going to make and how long it will take. And Jim loves this too because dinner will be ready by 5:30 just after he gets home and then he has the rest of the night to do what he wants. It's also nice because after you clean up, you actually have some of your evening to get something done, like sewing and putting my kid-o to bed (which her dad does frequently!).

So, wish me luck with getting a new groove and say a couple of good prayers for us, CMW and I need them each and everyday to make it through.

Weekend Festivities

Our Halloween weekend was wonderful with nice, warm weather. :-)

I was able to get out by myself to a local craft fair and boy were those ladies pushy. Not the way to get me to buy so I was in luck and saved my money. :-) I was also able to catch up on the chicken 'cares' too. They are growing like weeds and are much more adventerous. CMW likes them too and they are not as afraid of her either. So after a day of miscellaneous stuff, like carving pumpkins, sewing and spending time with CMW Jim talked me into trick or treating in the 'neighborhood'.

CMW in her ladybug costume. I also made her a tutu

but decided it was to chilly to wear that gid-up.

Lets just say it took us 2 hours to get to 5 houses. Our neighbors love trick or treaters and there isn't any kids out in our area anymore, so they were so excited to see our CMW. We even got about 10 new kid books. Now this is what I call quality trick or treating!

I use a glove to clean out the pumpkin because the pumpkin guts

burn my skin and CMW had to try it out too.

Just checkin' out what's between the teeth of our pumpkin.

Pointing, what's inside?

And this was totally caught by accident... not sure why she thought she needed to kiss the pumpkin but she did.

Sunday I was your happy greeter at church and saw a friend from college and we used to room together. Haven't seen them since Halloween 2006 but i'm glad they are back in town. They are church shopping and they have two super cute kids, their newest addition was just added 6 wks ago. So besides starting my day off with a bang, the sun was out and the leaves were calling our names. I guess I should say, Jim started it all. Him and CMW went out and raked up the nice crisp, crunchy leaves and then we started jumpin' in. I also soaked up the last bit of sun before winter really comes and the sun really disappears from this area of the US. It's also not a weekend if i didn't get some sewing projects started or finished. And since i'm only home for 3 nights a week i was catching up on laundry and house work that just doesn't get done by it's self.

It was a nice weekend to be home and whatever you did this holiday weekend, we hope you had a nice, eventful weekend as well.

Our weekend...

Our weekend started on Friday, like some, you relax and praise that it's Friday and the weekend is here. Well for the Waa's it was not this way this weekend.

Friday night started with putting in this new light starting at 8:30 pm. Our old, most likely 40 yrs old was wearing out and we had to keep hitting the end or turning on/off the switch to make it work. It was a bit annoying and it finally got the best of Jim. So our light is in but we still need to move it up a bit and get different bulbs. Fluorescents are a bit much.

I got to sew and sew some more. I finished this scarf that I made from 5 fat quarters. The material reminds me of Spring and Easter time, so it might have to come out later on.

I made this bib on a trail and error basis. I now know I need to have the front and back matching and i'd make the neck a bit different but i still like it and it will work for CMW. I'll be making more for gifts. It as snaps on the side so one can wash the bib flat.

And I couldn't resist making these simple cute patch-work bags.

I think they would look cute as mini easter baskets, potpourri holders or a little girls bag.

A clutch purse for a girlfriend. A simple 'night on the town' clutch.

It was so fun to make. :-)

Jim also has been working on the basement, removed the entire ceiling, these are the tiles that are left for removal, boy does the basement smell better with those gone. :-)

He also put in 6 new light (last weekend) in the 'Man Cave'... the room he's working on.

And he's building walls to insulate and sheet rock. We are working on finishing the basement... or at least this room. Then it will be warmer and nicer to be down and we'll feel like having people over for movies and gaming more often.

And better yet, he took care of CMW most of the day, washed and put away the dishes and stripped the bed and put new sheets on. Sweet, what a guy! I just loved my weekend, it was a great! SIL Julie came over with nephew J to visit, Sunday church had a great message & worship and in the evening SIL Julie and MIL Jane along with Jim, we all rearranged MIL Janes living/dining room. Oh, how it was great fun and productive too!

Just a Note

Just a note to those who might feel they are not getting my blog posts.

I am not motivated to get posts up weekly, so I enjoy blogging for a few hours an evening or so and I label them by the date they are happening for future reference.

I hope you enjoy the new events of the Waa's.

(look beyond the first page, there are lots of news)

(one of my many small sunflowers, perfect for reminiscing about fall.)

A little more of CMW

CMw put this diaper on her bear all by herself.

Isn't she talented and she was so proud of this too.

She loves her daddy!

She's ready to go hiking!!

We were downstairs working on laundry and she found the back pack and got her baby in and got ready. Clipped the waste belt that's on the floor and got the straps on her shoulders and she was ready! Photo opp! :-)

And for our MOMS Club harvest party we dressed up as a ballerina. She was one last year too but this year it was more fun for mom. I made her tutu and we put the rest of the outfit together by her already owned items. Tights from ggg aunt Jeanie, shoes from maga Paula, let warmers from gg. g'ma Kay and the shirt a hand-me-down.

It's a pretty good costume, is it?

I'll try to get another picture closer to Halloween for the full effect. :-)

CMW was working on decorating a pumpkin with stickers and markers.

One more exciting day at the Waa's with ... Mascara

One more exciting day of the Waa's. CMW had my mascara which I didn't think she would get it open but that skill of turning caps works quite well these days and this is just one of the results.

She was at least accurate of where the stuff goes and she didn't smear it anywhere else, thanks goodness.

Look close and you'll see her new eye make-up and surprisingly, none was in her eyes, just on the outside. So, does this mean she'll be good at make-up some day? hmmm...

I hope she sees herself as so beautiful that she won't need that stuff! Just as my mom encourage me to see myself as beautiful and not needing all that 'face paint'.

P.S. I use to wear clear mascara, why? not sure, but now I graduated to wearing mascara for 'blue eyes' tinted blue. I started wearing mascara again just to have curled lashes and I always wanted to buy one of those eyelash curlers and it took me about 10 years to bring myself to get one.

Does this fancy mascara work?

I'm not sure but some days it makes me feel a bit more dressed up and fancy.

And there are those days that I just need it.

Our special guest

It this a great smile!

Just chillin'

Let me introduce Murdock! We have the privilege of 'dog sharing'. Yes, this is new to the Waa's household but it is great way to work Jim into one day getting our own. And the best is he is trained, he listens, and we give him back in a day or two. He belongs for the family of the Andersen's and they love that we take him but also give him back. :-) Thanks to all of them, I get a bit of pet therapy in every week and it's great! And CMW also really enjoys having a pup around too!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We made delicious Choc Chip Cookies and we had a lot of fun.

CMW enjoyed dumping in ingredients, stirring, picking out the chips,

and photo opps.

We had a fun time and our cookies where yummy!

Sorry no pictures of our finished product

but it just reduces the urge to want to bake your own. ;-)