Christmas 2013

 From our Christmas party at church:  Aaron was Joseph, and Jordan was a shephard.

This picture doesn't do it justice, but at the family Christmas party on Christmas Eve at uncle Ivo's and aunt Ivana's there was some music and serious dancing going on.  Aaron started dancing with his cousin Valentina.  He was even twirling her.  Not sure where he learned how to dance, but he did a good job.

 This was our little gingerbread house that we did with the kids.

We did our best to put Christ into our Christmas.  I repeated last year's idea of writing down as many of their good actions as I could and on Christmas after we acted out the birth of Jesus, we offered our gifts to Jesus by reading them to him.  The kids' chest swelled with pride and I could see how happy they were with their good choices.  The next day Aaron even gave me a back rub, foot rub, and lots of cuddles, and then asked me to write it down on his gifts to Jesus.  You bet bud!  Maybe if I write down all of Paolo's good actions he'll offer to do the same. :)

half way to 90!

 December 17th my true love officially made it half way to 90!  That's the insulting nice way of saying he turned 45!  I have to say that we love this guy more than anything else in the whole world!!!  Happy birthday Papa`!

This is the birhtday cake that the boys requested we make- a monkey (in case you can't tell, which might be a big possibility!)

More Christmas projects

 This is a table top, 43 inches squared made for our neighbor.

 And Isabel eating the best foccaccia ever made by my husband at work, and posing!

I've also made a couple more of these pillow cases.  It's a lot of work for a person with so little time so it's going to go to people that I like a lot. :)

 And I've made a flock of these owls for Christmas presents to teachers/school staff and friends.

Christmas time is near...

 This is Isabel thouroughly enjoying a gelato that some friends brought when they came to visit.  I really shouldn't be giving my 2 year-old sugary stuff, but exceptions like friends being gelato are definitely allowed!

 A package from my mom came recently.  I opened it up before the kids, took out what needs to go under the Christmas tree, and then closed the packages back up for them to open up.  I was so grateful for the package because it's the time of year where I wish I could throw my arms around my family- around my mom, my sibblings, my nieces and nephews, my friends.  But being far away I can't.  I can love them with my all my heart, but that's about it.  So it was like getting my mom's arms thrown around me, and I was so grateful!

 Fun hats and gloves from Grandma

 ...and my favorite chocolate chips!!!

 Thanks grandma for the fun glasses, hats, stickers, and everything else!  Mostly thank you for thinking of us.

A song for Heavenly Father

Today while Jordan was busy drawing, something that he does a lot of all day long.  I actually expect him to become some kind of artist for the amount of time that he likes to draw.  I asked him what he was doing.  Here's what he told me:

Sto disegnando una canzone per Padre Celeste.  Non ci sono parole.  Ci sono solo le immagini.  E` piu lungo del mondo.  Cosi` può sentire di più lo Spirito.

I'm drawing a song for Heavenly Father.  There aren't any words, just pictures.  (after a brief pause) It's longer than the whole world.  That way He can feel the Spirit better!

Out of the mouth of babes!  So here's his "song":

a super SUPER hero

a king's crown

Jesus

a knight to fight off the bad guys

a web to catch the bad guys

a mother praying

Joseph Smith seeing a light

the world

armour

star at Jesus' birth

the sun and moon so that there's always light and night

defeating the bad guys

il cavaliere, the knight

Recent projects

 I've been trying to be on top of the game this year and actually make some Christmas presents more than the day before Christmas.  I decided to try this tutorial done by my friend Kati.  I'm actually making quite a few of them and it's kind of my blanket Christmas present this year.

I went to the local convention center and went to a craft fair, and wanted to have this pillow done for two friends that were going with me.

 The one thing I did different from Kati's tutorial was that I didn't do a star on the tree.  It was mostly laziness, but I quilted a star on top with the free motion quilting.  Even if it's not yellow, I think it still looks ok.

 This is the second pillow case, without a pillow in it.

 I was also in charge of an activity with some women from my church.  I came up with some no-expensive, cute Christmas presents to be able to make.  We did "brownies in a jar", and

this Christmas tree.  The colored balls on the top are chocolate balls.  You can't get better than chocolate!  Especially Italian chocolate.

what a mess!

 Yesterday Jordan stayed home from school.  He and Isabel managed to be partners in crime and did some damage around the house.  After dumping a whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet after pooping, and clogging it, and after Isabel colored on the table and chairs, and after a lot of morning tantrums, Isabel decided that she needed to eat an ink pad.  Hopefully no major chemicals in that thing.  I washed her up and gave her some milk to try and help dilute it.  Thankfully it was washable ink. :)  And washable markers. :) And thankfully I had a thick pair of rubber gloves to fix that clogged toilet. :)

 This morning Aaron told me to close my eyes.  He then put that nice little beard on me (that Jordan had finished coloring), he did it again with the mustache.  Apparently it was really funny because both Aaron and Jordan laughed their heads off. So I had them take a picture of their handy work too.

I love these little guys more than life itself!

I love you as much as...

Lately with Jordan we've been playing the "I love you as much as..." game.  It's fun to think of ways of describing to him how much I love him, and even more fun to hear what he comes up with.  The other night I was leaving for the evening and hugging each of the kids.

I told him that I loved him as far as the sun.  He thought for a minute and then said

"I love as far as Heavenly Father!"

So cute and melted my heart.


Another Jordanism: as we were walking to school on Friday morning he told me "Mom, I'm going to Jaccopo's house after school!"

This was news to me.  I told him it sounded like a lot of fun to go, but that the mom's have to talk first and agree as to when and where.  After a moment, he said, "but Mom, you and I agreed on it, but you weren't there!"

 Hmmm, I see.

Bad teeth

 Aaron last year had a huge hole between two molars.  He's not able to tolerate pain in his mouth well.  We tried laughing gas, we tried everything and couldn't get it fixed.  So we ended up having to do outpatient same day surgery and have him put out and intubated to get his teeth fixed.  Since then I've been RELIGIOUS about brushing and flossing.  I've probably missed 5 nights in the last year.  Even when kids are crying, and I'm so tired I can't see straight, I still brush and floss their teeth.

The night of Halloween I was brushing his teeth and noticed some brown that wasn't going away between some molars, so worked extra hard at cleaning his teeth.  He has another huge hole between two more molars.  We're going to the dentist on Wednesday and I hope that we can figure this one out better than last time. :(

You can see where Isabel fell off her tricycle- onto her nose!

 We had 3 days of celebrating Halloween.  It's not really celebrated here in Italy, although it's starting to now.  We organized with some friends to go to several businesses and friends/grandparent's house to trick-or-treat.  It was so much fun for the kids!  The next day is a holiday in Italy and we invited a little Scottish friend over and we celebrated.  The next day was a "Halloween birthday party".  3 days in a row of sweets and treats!  The kids loved it, but I'm glad that we're done with our sugar streak.

 My mom brought glow sticks when she came this summer.  There were a lot of fun with trick-or-treating and with our little friend.

These two love each other to death.  Isabel loves to try and tackle and wrestle her brothers.  I think she's going to be a little Tom boy.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

 This is a quilt that I made from a bunch of charm packs, using the dresden ruler to make the drunkards path.  I gave to a good friend who inspires me in her quilting.  I'm entering it into the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side in the ROYGBIV (color wheel) category.

 I really don't blog a lot about what I quilt, but it's what keeps me sane and with a project always in mind.  I'm amazed at all of the entries!  If you like quilts, go check it out!