C'mon...Hang out with us. We're so exciting

What's the name of the guy that falls asleep and wakes up and years have passed?? Whoever he is, I can relate. I feel like time has zoomed by and I napped and missed it.

Christmas and New Year's have already passed and it is 11 days in to January. Um...did someone hit the "fast forward" button?






Here's the highlights of the holidays:

Christmas was quiet and intimate. Mom and Dad come over on Christmas Eve and spent the night. We got to bed at a decent time and got up

We made a crockpot omelet that cooked overnight. There was enough food for an army so we shared it with the neighbors across the street.



Stinkerbelle was awake and happy and like opening presents. She didn't really understand it all but she LOVED being surrounded by toys!
She loves toys that sing and light up when she touches/shakes/eats them.

Parker dog got some new chew toys for Christmas. He had them destroyed in about 2.4 seconds. Sigh. Stinkerbelle thought his toys were pretty cool too. In fact, it is a constant battle to keep the dog's toys out of her hands (and mouth!!)



Stinkerbelle has learned to crawl. And now she is learning the very important phrase, "no no!" Although, so far she seems to think it is all a big game. When she hears the phrase, she stops and looks at us with a big smile and then continues whatever she was doing. What a little devil. Where does she get that?? (Don't answer that Mom.)



After Christmas, we went for a road trip down to San Antonio to see my friend, Rebecca and her husband Darryl and we saw Lovie's grandmother and uncle and family. It was a nice little trip. On the way down, we stopped at my grandparent's house for lunch and some stretching/wiggle time for Stinkerbelle. Overall, she was very well behaved on this trip. This picture is Stinkerbelle and her Great-Grandmother Rena.


Gram and Hey Dad (my parents) watched Parker dog while we were gone. Gram taught him to stay off the furniture. He's a smart dog...for other people!!

New Year's was fun. We made it to about 12:30 before we collapsed. We hung out at the neighbor's house, toasted the new year and went to sleep. Wow. Don't you wish you could hang with us?

Snowball Fight...a virtual one

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Photo of the Quilt

I know y'all were just DYING to see a photo of the soon-to-be-famous quilt. For some reason, I couldn't add this photo after I had published the post. Technical difficulties.
The orange fabric is soft and furry....and was the most difficult to sew!!

Quilting Bee

Yesterday I went to Sears and bought a sewing machine. Whoohooo! It's a pretty basic model. In fact, the box says that it is for "ages 8 to adult." I guess that means it is safe for me. Mom and Dad came over to hang out and watch the football games. Little did Mom know that she was also going to help me make the first quilt.

It was really OUR first quilt. Mom hadn't made one before either. We learned a lot on our first quilting adventure. One thing we learned was that stretchy fabric doesn't play well with non-stretchy fabric. We battled that one over and over. Another thing we learned was that pressing the fabric really is an important step...that we skipped. We were winging it (at my direction) and the final pieces weren't exactly lined up. We improvised pretty well and the final product looks pretty cool. Havanna LOVED it. I had it draped over my legs and she was sitting on the floor by my feet. She kept giggling and grabbing it. She blessed it with a heavy dose of drool.

If I am going to continue in to the world of quilting, I'm going to have to learn some patience. I've already picked out my next project. A t-shirt quilt. Wish me luck.

Last night, Stinkerbelle woke up about 4:30 am and was fussing/talking/playing in her crib. Lovie got up first and gave her pacifier. She was already fussing by the time he got back to bed. I laid there hoping that she'd fall back asleep. Lovie and I listened to her for a while before I felt him give me a gentle nudge, as if to say, "Your turn." I had to laugh. I went and got her and brought her back to bed with me. She was struggling to breathe through her little stuffed up nose. Once she finally fell back asleep, cuddled up next to Mommy, she slept for two more hours.

We got the Christmas tree and the rest of the decorations up on Thanksgiving Weekend. Stinkerbelle didn't really seem to notice. She's happy as long as she can sit on the floor with her toys and have PLENTY of room to wiggle around. Still not really crawling, just a lot of "skooching."

She's still a very good baby. Lots of smiling and an occasional laugh. She still gets the most entertainment from watching the dog.








Stinkerbelle has become quite the drool monster. Drool and boogers. There is a never-ending flow. I should come up with some sort of use for all that drool...

I'll bet if I bottle it and say that it removes wrinkles, like some sort of youth serum, I'd make a fortune! Or, maybe enough to pay for a gallon of gas?

Thanksgiving Blur

Has it really almost been a week since Thanksgiving? Sheesh. I think my finger is stuck on the FastForward button in life.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to my parent's house on Thursday morning and ate and then had a very relaxing afternoon. Mom and I decided to brave the crowds at Garden Ridge and I managed to find a whole bunch of stuff I probably didn't need, but bought it all anyway. Mom managed to find significantly less. It has all been put to good use. We stayed over Thursday night and made our way home that afternoon. Lovie and Son braved the cold and went to the high school football playoff game that evening. Stinkerbell and I stayed home and started on the Christmas decorations. We managed to completely avoid Black Friday. Well, sort of. Keep reading.

Saturday, Lovie and I decide to go to some antique stores to look at some corner hutches and armoirs. Son is spending the day with his mother and SuperNeighbor offered to watch Stinkerbell. It's just the two of us...feels weird, but we love it.

We hit 5 different antique stores. Really. FIVE. We picked up a shopper's guide at the first stop and it mapped out the other local stores. We bought little stuff here and there and saw lots of beautiful (expensive) furniture, and a lot of junk too. We hit paydirt at the last one. We found a great corner hutch and a HUGE armoir for less than the other places wanted for a single piece. Now that both pieces are home, we realize that furniture looks much smaller when it's in a huge warehouse than in your home with low ceilings. We still love them, but stand in awe of all of the wonderful "junk" they will hold.

Monday was SuperNeighbor's birthday. We met up with her family and some other friends at a Ft. Worth restaurant. The guest of honor was coming later so we got all set up while we waiting. There were flowers and a bunch of balloons on our table. (Thank goodness for their tall ceilings.) We watched through the windows until we saw her walking toward the front door. We quickly decide that we'll stand up and start singing to her as soon as she walks in. She comes in (cue the singing) and turns to her left (away from us) to look for us. She finally turns the other direction......uhh....not her. Stop singing. Sit down. Entire restaurant is laughing, along with us. Poor lady didn't even realize she was being serinaded. SuperNeighbor arrived about 10 minutes later. Undaunted by our earlier mistake, we sang for her (again.) It was a great evening. She loved the story about how she was replaced, temporarily.

I've joined a charity/social organization in my little local town. One of the annual events is the adoption of local families and buying the kids some gifts. I hoped from store to store last night and got it done. It was a little stressful because you know very little about the kids. It's hard to know their interests. Hopefully, the stuff I got for them will make their Christmas a little brighter.

While I was out "doing good" I went in JoAnn's craft mega store and found a little quilt kit. It comes with instructions and all the fabric, pre-cut. I've always wanted to learn how to quilt and this one seems pretty harmless. All of the pieces are square, no funny angles or curves. It is designed for sewing on a machine. Huh. So here is me. Buying a quilt kit. No sewing machine. Not a needle or spool of thread in the house. Good plan. (Um, Mom? Can I borrow your sewing machine?)

In the world of blur....I need to give a shout out to my to bro-in-law. Happy Belated Birthday!!

Happy Half and Four States

Today is Stinkerbell's Half Birthday. She's officially a Half.

She's so alert and is really thinking about talking and crawling. Today she got up on all fours and was looking around. As soon as she lifted up one hand, she fell over. It's progress!! :-)

I had to go on a short work-trip to the Washington DC area this week. I flew out on Sunday morning and went to my friend Bridget's house. She works in Philadelphia and lives in Delaware. I flew to Philly and drove through a bit of Pennslyvania and Maryland on my way to Delaware. It was so beautiful along the way. The leaves on the trees are just amazing. I tried to take some pictures along the way.

Bridget's House in Delaware:Bridget's lawn had a few leaves scattered on the lawn. I think they thought I was a little nutty for taking a picture of their lawn, but I couldn't resist.