Valentine's Day Cookies

 The boys and I decided to make some fun cookies for Valentine's Day.

When we got to about this stage I was thinking that I couldn't understand why anyone would ever think that making cookies and icing from scratch was a good time.   It was taking forever!

 But then we got to this part, and it was so much fun that I'm ready to do it again tomorrow!

After years of rather awful-looking sugar cookies, these are rather bea-u-ti-ful!

To make them, I outlined the hearts first, as you can see in the picture with J & C, then after that hardened for about an hour Chris and I flooded them with runnier icing, them made dots with the contrasting color, then made hearts by dragging toothpicks through the dots.  

And that part at the end is an amazingly good time!

Happy Valentine's Day

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Some cute pictures of my wonderful grandparents

It's a....Niece!

Happy Thursday!

 I showed you the guitar Chris built for Joel, but have you seen the hammered dulcimer Joel built for Chris?

Here it is pre-strings.

 Here is Caleb.  Hiding with his duck call.

Here's a fun way to store your fabric - make your own little bolts and write how much you have at the top.

And here are some I-pad covers I stitched up after being so inspired by my little bolts of fabric.  

The top one was for Ashley.  See the A?  It's subtle.

I weighed the boys yesterday.  30 pounds even each. 

They're huge!  Ha!

Being so big has Josiah contemplating being an adult.  The other day he told his brother, "Caleb, I'm going to grow up and I'll have to leave you.  But don't worry, I'll invite you to my wedding."

Hello, again!

 Hi!  We've been having a swell time here.  We've had one little snow.

 Josiah tried to take muffin-making into his own hands one morning and added just a little too much milk.

And the boys and I went on a lovely little hike yesterday and picked these beautiful daffodils.

Christmas at Great-Grandmother's

 This year, the boys got to celebrate Christmas at both sets of grandparents' and two sets of great-grandparents'. 

 Here they are at 'Gweat-Gwandmudda's', as Josiah would say.

 33 of us gathered together for Christmas Eve dinner and gifts.

 There were seven cousins five and under.  They had the best time together!

And to top off the night, Santa came to pay a visit!

Hand-made Christmas Presents

Chris and his handmade present of the year...a guitar for Joel!

Pretty good looking, eh?

Here are pictures of some of the presents I made for Christmas.

6 Fleece Earwarmers.

5 sets of Snowman Hand-print ornaments.  Turned out to be a much neater experience with my boys than I expected.

15 peacock feather headbands, from our old peacock, Harry. 

3 Sets of Felt Food!  Ta-daa!

Family traveling toothbruth holder!

I made 9.  We used ours on our travels, and it was great!  Just toss it in the wash when you get home and it's all ready for your next adventure.

And 2 dino hoodies and 2 cute zoo shirts.

Altogether, I made 42 gifts using mostly supplies I had on hand, for a grand total of.....$18!
 It was lots of fun, too!

Now I'm just waiting to see one of my sisters with their ear-warmers on their head in the great outdoors!