Rush to the finish line

Getting ready for Christmas always seems to involve rushing around. It doesn't seem to matter how early I start and how on top of things I think I am, I seem to still find myself rushing around trying to get ready in the last moments. I think I am probably not alone in this. I'm guessing that many of us are this way.
This year for Christmas, we are going to my parents house. We booked our flight in July, and so I started shopping for presents then. I was really on top of it. By the end of August I had about half of my presents purchased and shipped to my parents.
Then on Labor Day weekend, I was checking my e-mail and noticed one from JoAnn's. Now most of the time I don't read junk e-mail, but for some reason, this time I did. I noticed that they had Christmas fabrics on sale, and for some reason I decided to follow the link to their website. While I was there I saw a blue fabric with snow flakes on it. Seeing that fabric put an image in my mind of a dress for Cinderella, and a little vest and bow-tie for Guy Smiley. So I just had to go out and get the fabric to make them.
Just a little background for those of you who don't know.... When I was in college I majored in Family and Consumer Science Education. One subject that is covered a lot in that major is sewing. I never really sewed before college, in fact I was terrified of a sewing machine. Then I had to take the class, and so I started sewing.
Just before the semester when I was supposed to take my second sewing class, my husband and I decided that it would by wise to invest in a sewing machine, so that I could work at home. I didn't know much about sewing machines at this point. All I knew was the ones we used at school were Bernina's and my mom's machine that she had for years and loved, as far as I know, was a Singer. So I looked for a Singer that was what we felt like an affordable price.
The machine I ended up with was a great machine for someone who is only doing basic sewing, or someone who is learning, but to do a lot of sewing, it wasn't the best thing we could have bought. This machine has a strait stitch and a zig zag. It only has a basic foot, and so you are quite limited on what you can do on it. So I haven't done that much sewing since I left college, where I had access to more advanced sewing machines. That and I hadn't even set up my machine since we had moved here.
So after I bought and laundered the fabric, my husband helped me rearrange the furniture so that we could get my machine set up. But still my machine stayed in it's box, because I just couldn't figure out when I would find the time that I could sew with two kids about. One of them being old enough to maybe catch on to what I was doing.
Then at the end of October I had one of my sister-in-law's come for a visit. She was working on sewing a quilt. She had done most of it at my father-in-law's house, but was stitching the binding by hand, while she was visiting us. I don't know if it was seeing her sew, or just realizing how much time I had while she was here, but I decided to do something about my sewing. So I got my machine out of the box, and decided to make some pillow covers, that I had been intending to make. I figured I would do this first, so that I wouldn't be as rusty when I was sewing my kids clothes. Well that plan worked for maybe 3 days. Then I realized, that I could do the sewing, but when would I cut out the fabric? So I stopped, and decided to just buy some clothes for my kids.
I stayed in this stage until about right before Thanksgiving. I decided that if I was going to buy some clothes for my kids I better get to the store to do it. I went shopping and came home disgusted by all of the holiday commercialism in the stores, as well as not having found anything that would work. I decided then and there that I would make them clothes and I wouldn't put it off any longer. The next day as soon as I got up, and my kids were still sleeping I got one of my peices of fabric laid out. Then any moment I got throughout that day I worked on getting it ready to cut. By the end of that I had my blue fabric cut, and so the next few days I worked on getting it sewn together as best I could. I then did a similar day with my white fabric.
Well somewhere along the line, I learned that the fabric I had gotten for my son's pants was too light weight for winter. So that put me on hold there.
Then I realized that the reason I had not been able to find anything for him in stores is because I was looking for something in a 9-12 month size, which by the way doesn't exist. Once I learned or remembered that baby sizes went 6-9 months then 12 months, I decided that I would try to buy a shirt and pants for Guy and then make the vest and bow-tie. So I found an outfit on Sears website, and bought it. When it arrived it was way too big. So now I am back to making a shirt for him, as well as the vest and bow-tie. And I only have a week. I am almost done with Cinderella's dress. I am doing everything except for button's and buttonholes. Those I will do on my mother's machine, most likely after Christmas. So now I am in a mad rush to the finish to see what I can get done for Guy, before the big day arrives. I'll post pictures of my creations after Christmas and tell you how it went.

1st Haircut

OK so this picture is in part a bad example, because he had just finished eating, and so he not only had food all over his face but in his hair too. But it was the best picture I could find that showed how much Guy needed a haircut. Particularly because I like my boy's to have short hair. So his hair is sticking out all over the place and if you look towards the top and back of his hair, you might be able to tell that he has some really long hair back there.
He used to reach up and pull on his hair, while he was eating his bottle. And that hair in that section, got really long.
Well, I've never given a baby a haircut before. Cinderella has naturally curly hair, and so her hair never really needed to be cut, to look cute. She has had it trimmed, but that was by my sister-in-law, who is a beautician.
I asked my visiting teaching companion, who has a son about 3 1/2 months older than Guy, if she has ever cut her son's hair. She told me she has a few times. She takes him into the bathroom, gives him something to play with that is kind of a novelty. And then she kind of combs his hair with her fingers and cuts the hair above her fingers. So if someone gets cut, it is her.
So we tried it this morning. I took Guy to the bathroom, put him on the floor, gave him something to play with and he held still for maybe 2 or 3 snips of the scissors. Then my hubby stepped in and tried to help buy holding Guy's head. Well we got the really long stuff on top, and most of the long stuff around the ears, as well as a few other places. There are still some long areas, and it is not at all even, but hey it looks better right?

Gettintg Elfed

I got an e-mail from my dad, about elfing people he loved. I clicked on the link in it and saw quite the site. You might get a kick out of seeing the people I elfed. Have a Merry Christmas.

Probably...

Cinderella has picked up a new word today. The word is probably.
She uses it all the time. If I ask her a question the answer always seems to start with probably.
"Do you want soup for lunch?"
"Probably not."
"What do you want?"
"I probably need to look and see." She opens the fridge. "Um, probably that." She points to the whipping cream.
"We don't eat that, by itself, we use it when we make stuff."
"I want to drink it."
"I don't think so, do you want a yogurt?"
"Probably some juice, and a muffin." Referring to the Costco muffins.
"Do you want a blueberry one?"
"Probably not, probably a chocolate one."
Do you see what I mean. Even without me listing who said what I bet you can guess who was talking where. It is cute and fun.
One of the things I love about being a mom, is exploring all kinds of new stages, and experiences with them.

Can't have Christmas without Snow

Cinderella was sick this weekend. So much so, that she missed church on Sunday. Going to church is one of her favorite things. Particularly nursery. (The class for children aged 18 months to 3 years). Daddy stayed home with her, and Guy and I went to church. Later in the day, I thought I would help her Sunday feel more like Sunday.
On Sundays in our home, we try to behave differently than we do the other days of the week, and we try to do things that help us remember our Savior, and Father in Heaven. So I suggested watching a movie. Well of course she was all for that, but when I pulled one off the shelf that wasn't one of the standards, she wasn't incredibly happy. The move was "Mr. Krueger's Christmas." A film staring Jimmy Stewart, and featuring the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I tried to pacify her by telling her it is a Christmas movie. She said "NO! I DON'T WANT TO WATCH THE CHRISTMAS MOVIE. I DON'T WANT CHRISTMAS!"
I didn't respond to this the best. I have to admit, I was tired and emotional, and frustrated with my daughter. Well after some thought and prayer, I finally got her to sit down and read stories with me.
Well I kept thinking on this incident, and decided that she was tried with "Christmas" because all she understood about Christmas, is that it is something that has been changing a lot of things, like movies, and music, etc. from stuff that she likes, to stuff she isn't really familiar with, and she was tired of it.
So then we used our Little People Nativity, to tell her the Christmas story and try to explain what Christmas is.
Then this morning, she corrected my assumption. She found the case for "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" and asked me what it was. I told her it was the case for the DVD that was in the computer, and I took the DVD out to show her. She then told me "Cinderella doesn't want to watch that movie."
I told her, "you don't have to."
And then she said, "We don't have any snow. Grandma, has lots of snow."
I asked her, "so we can't have Christmas without snow?"
And she said, "No. We need snow."
Well for Christmas this year, we are going to Grandma's house, in the state with the slogan, "The Greatest Snow on Earth".
So hopefully for Cinderellas sake, we will have snow on Christmas.

Things that go bump in the night

So last night when we were sleeping we were suddenly awakened to a loud bang, that to me sounded like the dryer door being slammed shut. My first thought was that my husband had gotten up for the day, and was getting in the dryer for something. But I couldn't figure out why he would be getting in the dryer. Then I realized that he was still in bed and it was only about 3:00. So I turned to him and asked him if he knew what that noise was.
He said it was maybe the laundry detergent. You see yesterday we went to Costco, and in an attempt to save money, I thought we could get our detergent there. We had previously been using Tide, and decided to try Kirkland brand. I don't know if their bottle of liquid detergent is shaped slightly different than the Tide one, or if we just didn't have it back far enough on the shelf. But somehow in the middle of the night it fell, off the shelf onto the washing machine, and then landed on the floor.
The valve cap broke in the process and there was detergent all over. Thankfully though that is all that broke and it landed right side up.
Could have been worse. Now we just need to figure out how to close the container, and where to keep it.
I didn't think to take pictures of the mess last night, and I wanted to get it cleaned up before the kids got up. But you may notice in the pictures, there is detergent smeared on the side of the bottle, and some on the top of the washing machine that was missed when we were cleaning up.

No Snow

Just wanted to let you all know that our snow was pretty much melted within 48 hrs, after falling. Our climate came through with it's "normal" behavior, and rained half of Sunday, and all day Monday, and cleared away all of the snow. But at least we had it for a day. :)

A Winter Wonderland?

So we live in a climate that is known for their wet winters. Rain, rain, and more rain. So we figured we most likely wouldn't see much snow this winter. Cinderella was quite disappointed by this. She has gotten the idea somewhere in her almost 3 years, that Christmas needs snow. In fact one Sunday as we were driving home from church she told me "Mom, Christmas is coming." I said "Yes it is", and she said, "Do you see snow? Where's the snow?" We have seen snow forcasted a few times, but never had any fall. Well that all changed. Today we got snow. When Cinderella woke up from her nap, the world was white outside. So of course we had to bundle up the whole family and go and play in it.

The kids loved it. Cinderella couldn't get enough of it. And once we put Guy down in the snow, he took off and had a hay day until he realized he was cold. He was then ready to go back inside. However I think he would have been happy to come out again if we had let him.