More quilting

I know you are all wondering what is going on with my machine. Well let me show you.

Alex's quilt is finally done.







And since binding was impossible to do in a timely manner by hand, I decided to use my machine and do a "baseball" stitch all the way around. It didn't turn out perfect, but at least he will get the quilt today instead of next year. :-).




I posted this quilt when I first finished the top. It is a bitter sweet quilt for me cause I hate it. It is very loud. But, I also love it. I went outside my comfort zone to complete this quilt. I have never made anything so "loud" and pushed myself to take the pattern and make it my own. Well then I quilted it myself on my machine. I put flowers in the centers of the four patches and did some squigglies around the outside. I have had several people offer to take it off my hands, but because of everything that I put in it, I just can't see it leave my hands.
I still have to hand do the binding, but we will see how long that takes :-).


Now it's time to see what other unfinished projects I have, and what I can do to finish them. It feels really good to get these off my plate!

Fingerprint Friday

Fingerprint Friday

I saw another good idea for a new post series every Friday. I have an incredibly blessed life so I hope to never run out of things to share... I will probably forget to post, but then again, maybe not.

There's a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called "Fingerprints", that goes:


"I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God.


Just look at you
You're a wonder in the making
Oh, and God's not through, no
In fact, He's just getting started…"



I know last week I said my boys, but I think I will focus on each of them invidually first since they are amazing blessings in my life.

There are so many things I can say about David. We met when he was barely 18. Three months later we choose to date. I had a three year old, but he didn't see that as a hinderance. 18 months later we became Man & Wife. One month later I was diagnosised with Lupus.

I see God's fingerprints in David every time I look at him. God is teaching him so much right now, how to be a strong leader, a loving husband and a good dad. It is amazing to watch him grow in so many ways. I look forward to every day to see how he will grow that day. He is such a blessing to me in so many ways.

Ok- so maybe I'm not so good at this fingerprint thing- but I hope to get better :-)

Fingerprint Friday

I saw another good idea for a new post series every Friday. I have an incredibly blessed life so I hope to never run out of things to share... I will probably forget to post, but then again, maybe not.

There's a song by Steven Curtis Chapman called "Fingerprints", that goes:


"I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God.


Just look at you
You're a wonder in the making
Oh, and God's not through, no
In fact, He's just getting started…"



The men in my life. Being Married, and a mom I work hard at making sure they are headed in the right direction. With all three relationships I seek God's direction and pray that His fingerprint will remain strong.

Lots of rain in Seattle

I found these pictures on the web and I am completely shocked...

This is Snoqualmie Falls on a normal day:



And this is from yesterday:




That is completely crazy!! I can't believe how much rain and snow melt we are dealing with in January!! Lots of people are dealing with flooding. It's a little crazy around here and the rain keeps coming.

Pretty good two days

Ok, so yesterday was probably one of the best days I've had. At 8:00am Alex got home from being gone a week. I was so happy to see him, we talked for a while about his week and his holiday's with his other family and it was great to see him smile. I missed him so much.
We went to church and the lesson in Sunday School was SO good. It was on discipline, and I can't wait for next week. Plus the Daniels came so I "volunteered" to hold their new born for the morning. (Ok, it wasn't volunteering, I took him, but they don't mind and I get my baby fix).

We came home from church and instead of my Sunday nap in my room I curled up on the couch with David to watch football- and I fell asleep.

I had a hair appointment and while I was waiting I got a free hand massage. I'm telling you it was WONDERFUL.

Then we got Josiah ready for bed and went to Jeremy & Jennifer Williams house (in the snow) to play five crowns. I was so desperate to play that we risked getting stuck to go beat them at the game.

And today it just got better. One of my directors had told me that he had an amazing Christmas gift for me, he had told me he and his wife were really excited for me to get it and when he showed up today I was excited to open it.

He gave me the concert book from Bryan Adams 1985 World Tour AND some photos that his wife's friend took from close to the stage. It is SOOOO cool- words cannot describe the excitement!! (Yes I know I'm a nerd).




So totally cool! I think I need to get a shadow box now to put some of this stuff in!!

Christmas at the Lewis'

Here is our Christmas fun. On Christmas eve night the Lewis' came over for gifts. And with Nathan staying with us it the guys decided to see wow would win at arm wrestling. And thanks to my WONDERFUL sister in law, Tina, Josiah got a Marshmellow shooter. It shoots mini marshmellows. I can't wait for Tina to have her own kids so I can get her kids fun toys just like this one. Christmas morning we went and got my parents since it was snowing pretty hard and there was no way their car would make it out of the driveway. Josiah very excited about Star War Legos Alex opening a new hat David Josiah with a new Steelers jersey, he was so excited he had to put it on right away. David got new running shoes. our annual family photo. We took several and this was the best I could find.


On Christmas night we went to the Gates house for games. It was a ton of fun and they always make the games a riot. Sorry, no photos, I was way to busy laughing to think of my camera. I can't wait to get together with them again, hopefully soon!

Then Sunday Josiah got to sing in church. I had to bribe him to go up there and from the video you can see he is bearly singing and not doing any of the hand motions. The gum in his month was a good idea cause at least it looks like he's singing. LOL


Please forgive my shakey video. I really need to get a tripod to do more videos

A New Book

I was at my family Christmas party last night and my aunts had read this amazing new book called "The Shack". I tend to relate more to God through stories that are in the here and now. I have listened to this book at work and spent an hour holding back the tears. It is truly an AMAZING story of pain and love. I encourage you all to read it and be encouraged and feel "the presense of Love". Please post your comments on the book below! :-).

New Blog!!!

My little brother who just moved to Salt Lake City with one of the cutest nephews in the world has finally jumped on the blog wagon so we can keep up with him and his family.

check it out by clicking HERE

And of course I will keep it logged on my blog list.

Christmas traditions

One of our Christmas traditions is to watch my FAVORITE Christmas movie. We have been watching it since our first Christmas together.


I love the songs and the characters. My favorite muppet is the ghost of Christmas present.



If you haven't watched this movie, it is really a great family tale, and of course Gonzo & Rizzo the Rat are amusing to watch as well.... my favorite line is LIGHT THE LAMP, NOT THE RAT! LIGHT THE LAMP, NOT THE RAT.

Anyways... tell me what your favorite Christmas movie or tradition is, I would love to hear them!!

My turn to rant

So it's snowing, I think no matter where you live you are being hit with these "winter storms". For those not in Seattle, when it snows here, the city is paralyzed. It snows a few inches & then it's gone within 48 hours.
Well, the first bit of snow came last Saturday and then it froze, by Tuesday, the roads were still a mess. Wednesday we had the "threat" of snows & schools closed. So Wednesday night we got hit. And now it is Saturday and the next storm is here, another 3-6" are supposed to hit us with lots of wind.

The news is only reporting on one thing, schools are closing. We have come to a stand still. The tempatures have not gone above 30 degrees. I am miserable. I don't know if I have ever expierenced cold like this for such a long time. So here is my rant.

This morning we went to the Super Wal Mart up north and as we drove I am distracted by the beauty of the snow. The news is so negative about it, the icy roads, the chilly tempatures, and so on. But has anyone stopped and reported on teh beauty of the snow. I can't get over how the snow hangs on the evergreens or how the trees void of leaves become snow fille branches. It is amazing, it is beautiful, and peaceful. So as we all stress about transportation, keeping warm, our loved ones, take a second to look out the window & just thank God for the beauty he has created.



(David & Josiah on thier way to sled down the hill).

Christmas Tree

Our Christmas Tree went up a week ago. We had a good time going through all the ornaments. Each year we give the boy an ornament that represents something they have loved or had an interest in during that year.






The angel on the top of the tree is sentimental to me, I don't know if I will ever get rid of it- even when David say a Mickey & Minnie one and said I could buy it.... I couldn't do it. Even though my tree is slowly converting to an all Disney tree.



We had a great time. and I'm glad to see the tree go up. Now our house smells like Christmas. I just can't wait!

Hand Quilting

I took a hand quilting class earlier this month and I finished my first project. The teacher, Pat, is also a lady from my local quilt guild. She put together the four patches & I combined four of them to make this wall hanging.

it's hard to see the detail in photos but in the center is a wreath of holly and each of the outside squares has a christmas ball in it. Now i just need to finish the binding and it's complete!! It was a lot of fun to work on.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Leavenworth!

Almost every year we make a trip to Leavenworth. It started several years ago when my parents would take Alex on their church bus, then I started to join along and then Josiah. And ever once in a while David joins us. This year it was all four of us, plus my parents on the chartered bus headed east to shop and watch the town light up. This year there was no snow, so it wasn't a lot of fun for the boys, but we still had a good time.

We got up at 5:45am to catch the bus in Snohomish.





On the way over they had a raffle with a $5.00 buy in. We joined in since everyone was a winner and to our surprise David won the big jackpot.... it was a nice little bonus so we gave the kids so play money for their day.

We stopped at the little candy store just outside of town, the river here was so beautiful I couldn't help taking some shots.


I played with my camera and got this black & white.



And then it's family photo time.


Hat Shop fun... I think Alex ran for the hills when he saw the camera come out.



Sorry Kim, Jason & DJ.... Mom took this photo.


Josiah with the Nutcrackers.


A new way to keep Josiah out of trouble.


What do you eat when it's 35 degrees outside? Icecream of course and it didn't melt!!










And the annual family photo!! I look forward to getting this shot every year.


We had a great time as a family, very little fights and we even got some Christmas shopping out of the way.
So I guess this means I am all caught up on my blog! I hope you enjoy all the stuff going on in our lives!