Quilting

I have been sewing and quilting for most of my life. My mom is a seamstress and a quilter and has taught me some of the techniques. I have made some clothes but it is not something I really enjoy. I do however really enjoy quilting. I love that I can design my own quilts and make them as small or as big as I want.
When Jaclyn was a baby I went to a quilt fair with my mom and sister-in-laws. Three out of four of us had babies within weeks of each other and the four of us were planning on quilting together. I love quilt fairs they have quilts displayed throughout and there are local quilt and craft shops there as well. I found a bundle of sock monkey fabric that I wanted to make into a quilt for Jaclyn. After bringing the fabric home and picking a pattern I realized I had enough fabric to make at least three quilts.
I then decided to make quilts for all my nephews and niece (I have 5 plus my 2 kids). Since three out of seven were babies I made them all sock monkey quilts. I just customized them for each child. Then I found different transportation fabrics for two of the quilts. Since starting these quilts I have made 5 quilts and bought the fabric for the other two. I now have another nephew and I am still looking for fabric for that quilt and my other sister-in-law is due two weeks. Lots of babies in our family!
So in my "spare" time I will be making 4 other quilts. I have been really enjoying making these quilts for my niece and nephews. I love that they get used and are loved. I love my niece and nephews so much that it makes me happy to see them using their quilts. I will continue making these quilts for all the children that are born into our family!!

Here are the quilts that I made for my kids.

Quilting

Quiet Time

Over the last couple of months Jaclyn has been struggling with nap time. She has decided that she would rather play in her room rather then sleep. I have tried different things like moving her into her playpen for nap time and going in there more times then I can count to tell her to sleep (which she thinks is very funny). At the same time she does really good without sleeping during the day and then she sleeps really hard all night long.
David on the other hand has always needed a nap. In fact he was sleeping twice a day for two hours each time until he was almost two. Then he switched to one nap a day. Lately though he has been waking at night and that is not cool at all. I like my sleep and I am happy that for the most part my children are good sleepers. So this whole waking at night I needed to stop!

I have started this week to keep them both up all day. So far it has been going good, our options for our afternoon quiet time are going to their rooms to have a quiet time, sitting and reading together or watching a movie on the couch with blankets. The problem is that when David goes to his room for "quiet" time it turns into nap time. So the other day I set them up to watch a movie and this is how they stayed for the whole movie. I think them both fell asleep at different points but they sure slept hard that night.

I am still trying to figure out what I want our afternoons to look like. Right now this is a typical quiet time with the kids half asleep on the couch.
How have some of you other moms out there figured out the whole going from naps to no naps routine?

Quiet Time

I Love You Day: Part 2!!

Tonight after the kids went to bed I made us a "take out" dinner.
Both Chris and I love Asian cuisine but are unwilling to pay for good take out that comes in boxes. We have found a great place for those times when we do want to splurge.
So tonight I decided to make us our own personal "take out". I found these great boxes at Michael's craft store and we used some fancy chop stick I was given from a friend in China. Chris pulled out a bottle of sparkling Apple-Pomegranate juice for us. Then as we sat down to eat our dinner we watched The Notebook.

It was a perfect way for us to end (I Love You Day) Valentines Day!!

I Love You Day: Part 2!!

I Love You Day!!!

When we started having kids we decided to make Valentines day special for us as a family.
I called it "I Love You Day!" I usually get a few little things for the kids and I blow up some balloons. This year we did crafts as a family and also made cards for each other. Then we put hearts up because David was insistent on having decorations.
Due to Chris's work schedule we waited until today to celebrate it as a family. Yesterday when we were out the kids each picked out a little something for each other. David loves to give things to his sister and Jaclyn is starting to learn as well and wants to give things to David as well. They just love to see each other smile.

Last night Chris and I stayed up late getting everything ready for the kids. We wanted to make a cake for today, but also wanted it to be a surprise, so we baked it and decorated the whole thing last night. It didn't end up having as much decorations as I initially wanted however I still think it looks cute and I know the kids will love it.

The kids were so excited this morning with everything. Jaclyn has been walking around the house saying "surprise" "balloons." And David is giving us hugs and kisses and saying "I love you."

side note: David already had a Mickey Mouse and Jaclyn already had a Minnie Mouse. The Disney store had a fantastic sale and we bought them the opposite one so they each had a set.

I Love You Day!!!

So Wonderful.....

I just told my kids that after we were done cleaning up our toys that we would be going upstairs for a bath before bed.
David responds was "that's so wonderful mom, thank you!"

So Wonderful.....

Tea Anyone?

The kids and I had a lovely tea party in our pj's the other day!

Tea Anyone?

Monster Jaclyn

Monster Jaclyn

Trains

Trains

Snow Day

My kids love the snow, they would play in it every day if they could. Here are some pictures of them enjoying themselves!!

Snow Day

Sleepovers

David and Jaclyn are each others best friends and love to play together (most of the time). One of there new games is to play sleepover at bedtime. Usually they will both crawl into Jaclyn's bed and tuck themselves in for the night. The other night we decided that if they were going to sleep then they could have a sleepover. I went through our bed time routine and then turned out the light and left them together. Less then 5 minutes later David came out and said that he wanted to sleep in his own bed. Chris and I figure that it is only a matter of time before one of them sneaks into the others room at night to have a sleepover.

Sleepovers