Snapshot

"And I call this game Fun in a Box," said the Cat.

These knitted Mary Janes are oh, so cute, but they don't stay on.

Here, Baby, have some puffs!

The baby is mobile.  Oh boy!  A little later she pulled up on the cedar chest.

Knitting Projects

Two things I have knitted for Elizabeth recently, or not so recently as the case may be.

Knitted for my friend Monica's baby Heidi, modeled delightedly by the lovely Abigail.

A Few Projects

Two washcloths,



and a pillow for my friend Joanna. She picked out the fabrics (at my request) when they visited us in Alaska, and I just finished it. Shame on me!

Well, I'm sitting here with Philip. He has been sick with a stuffy/runny nose for the last few days, so we're home from church. He hasn't slept well at night, so neither has Mommy. I'm feeling it. Steven spent yesterday and today at Fort Custer with the Army, so we were all home this morning. It makes for a long day.

The other day Philip climbed up in Steven's desk chair and was reading. He does love books.

"Okay, Mommy, I finished sorting the crayons, and now I'll organize the recycling for you!" He did help put them away. (Yes, he got a haircut.)

Oh, and the quilt. I took this picture

so I will remember the layout when I get it back out. Arg! I made the additional six inch squares, but I STILL don't have enough of the background fabric! This lovely stuff--anybody have some?!

I did place an ad at missingfabrics.com, so we'll see what turns up. Otherwise, well, who knows. The quilt will get finished somehow or other. My creative juices aren't up to it right now, so it's put away and the floor space is now available for other uses.

I have started working on the baby's quilt again. I'm using 1930's reproduction prints, and it's coming together. Just nine-patch squares, but I think it will be cute. Samuel's and Elizabeth's baby quilts were nine-patches too. I do really like the simplicity of them. Philip's is even simpler with just squares and rectangles, but I think the fabrics really make it.

One more thing. I am in the midst of knitting three baby girl hats! You know we're having a baby girl, and my brother Ben's wife Abby is due with a baby girl the day after I am (!) and my brother Steve and his wife Jolene are in the final stages of adopting a little Chinese baby girl. So three new baby girls in the near future.

Two will be just like this, and one with the dark color as the main body of the hat. I'll try to remember to post a picture of all three when they're done.

Speaking of babies, during my NST on Friday I had three contractions, so the doctor checked me. I am NOT close to having the baby, but they did tell me to pay attention and come in if things heat up. Well, while Steven was gone I did have lots of contractions. (Let's call them Braxton-Hicks, shall we?) But they are not regular, so we're hoping for another few weeks. I am planning to pack our bags pretty soon, though. I don't need to be doing that in the middle of the night.

Y'all take care now!

Ill Fated. . .

Well, the mittens. What's wrong with this picture? I don't mean the fact that the thumbs aren't the same size, since you can't really see them here.

Does this help?

Old News Alert

Philip can climb up on the kitchen chairs now. The other evening I glanced over and he was presorting the Pit cards for us.

I knit these socks for Mom for Christmas. I wanted to keep them when I finished, but. . .

Our New Place

We have been in our new house for about two weeks now. We were here for a week with just our van boxes, so we rattled for sure. Here we are eating breakfast at the card table we borrowed from Mom and Dad. One of the legs has a habit of inching toward collapse, so we were kept on our toes. :o)

Steven flew to his folks', and they traveled together to SC to pack our stuff into a truck, then drove up here to Detroit. Our renewed friends, the Ls helped us unpack, along with two men from their church. We couldn't have done it without them! Especially the sleeper sofa, which ended up in the basement because it wouldn't make the corner into the front door. (Obviously furniture has gotten bigger since the house was built.) Philip is having fun with all the boxes.

I walked around taking pictures of everyone working (or playing as the case may be). Unfortunately, Dad was taking the trash out to the curb, and when he got back in I had a memory lapse. Sorry, Dad. I know you're disappointed. ;o)




We celebrated Christmas with Mom and Dad while they were here. I can finally show you the socks I knitted for Mom. I think they turned out cute, and they fit her just right.

Philip loves his singing card from Grandma and Grandpa. It has kittens "singing" We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Matthew gave us Lego Champion a while back, and we played it the other night. It was really fun. It was a very close game, but Mommy came away with the trophy.

The other day as we were pulling out of the driveway Samuel spotted this deer in our back yard. Made us feel a bit more at home.

We're pretty well settled in. Philip is certainly a very busy boy. I followed him around with the camera the other day just to try to capture his activity. When I've recovered I may post the pictures. . .

Hope you are well and enjoying your preparations for Christmas. Elizabeth and I made fudge and meringues this afternoon, which we plan to give to our neighbors along with Russian Tea Cakes and candy cane cookies. Hopefully it won't take me so long to post again.

New Hat for Philip

I found some really pretty yarn to match Philip's brown and orange coat. His hat is finished. He loves it.

Too fast--he snatched it off before I could get the picture.

Gotcha!

Just in time. . .

By the way, in real life that is red, not pink. He wore the hat without crying for a few minutes this morning, so maybe we'll have to work up to a full wearing.

Goodies

Philip got another haircut, and he likes Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins!

I finished a pair of socks I've been knitting. I like them.

Baby Blanket

I finished the blanket in time for the baby shower! It really did turn out nice. Very soft, nice body, cute colors. . . Adorable baby!

Happy mommy.

It's Been a While Since I've Done a Chatty Post

Well, the day is done (knock on wood, hope not to be called upon in the night. . .) and we're kinda bored without the king of our castle. About thirty seconds of tickling the offspring is enough for me. He will do it until they're all sweaty and gasping for air. I'm at the end of my fun knitting projects. Oh, my blog! I have a blog that has languished sadly for too long. So here goes. Some pictures with commentary so you can catch up a little more on our cold corner of the globe.

Let's look back a while to Christmas Eve. We had a big breakfast for supper before heading to the Chapel's service. Lots of singing and candles. Always a pleasure. (Sorry about your head, Steven.)

Months ago I entered a sweepstakes at the Commissary. It interested me because it was for a child's bike, and we have a child that wants a bike really bad. (Please be proud of me, Mr. Rose, for using the correct adverb here!) I won! So Elizabeth got a beautiful new bike for Christmas, some assembly required. The big blue/green present inspired a huge amount of curiosity. We didn't tell them who it was for until Christmas morning. As it turns out, it's bigger than Samuel's, but he doesn't want to ride it because of the lady-like color.

The kids playing bus:

The most colorful eggrolls I ever made resulted from this pan of goodies. My produce expert insists that they were out of regular cabbage. It was kind of weird eating purple eggrolls, and I'll eat pretty much everything.

Fancy Nancies at a library event:

New Years Eve fun with friends. We were so thankful for warm weather that week, as the kids played outside for hours. The Rs have snow machines, including a small one that Samuel drove by himself. Melissa allayed my fears a bit when she told me that it couldn't go fast. Samuel told me later than he only had to be pulled out of the ditch twice. Whew.

Here's little Levi in the sweater I made for him. Puts Samuel's cheeks to shame! Make that Philip's cheeks. I just had to leave that little blunder in for laughs. (He's about six weeks old, right Tammy?)

Speaking of knitting. You know how I've been knitting sweaters for the new babies at church over the last year or so. Well, we have one that is three weeks old. It was a no-brainer, but also very difficult to decide to knit him a hat instead. Wait, I should explain that Isaiah's parents didn't find out his gender (before his birth, that is), or I would have knitted him a sweater before Philip's birth, as I did for Levi. I love hats with ears! Philip models it here:

Okay, if you've hung with me this far, I'll share two recent knitting. . . disasters. One of them I'll try to retrieve, but the other is irretrievable. (Moment of silence, please.) This entrelac hat is so beautiful, and was a lot of work! Majors on the jaunty,

majors on flattering the skin tone,

majors on enormity.

It's pretty hard to try on a hat while knitting it. By the time I realized how big it is, it was just too sad to pull it back. I'll try to pull in the ribbing, but that's a lot of yarn to wear on one's head. (It's for me, by the way.) Deep breath. Then there are these mittens for Elizabeth.

Note the nifty colors that match her hat. Note also the shape, which resembles the shape of human hands. The hands are huge for her, but the thumbs are mere decorations, since she can't fit hers in them. Boo hoo. What good are opposable thumbs, I ask you, if one can't use them while playing outside? I do have enough of the yarn to make new ones. We'll see.

Help!

I'm drowning in hand-knits!