A Visit From Lucy

My girlfriend came to visit nearly 2 months ago to allow me to meet her new daughter, Lucy, who was 8 weeks old at the time. Lucy was so beautiful and engaging. Her mom was really pleased that she slept so seamlessly both in the car on the ride up and all night long when they stayed over. I wanted to share a couple shots with you all.

From the moment they arrived, my little ones were absolutely intrigued by little Lucy. 

Lucy with Mommy.

A shot of the boys and Lucy was truly difficult with the low lighting of my house, my refusal to use the flash so as not to blind the baby :), and the fact that they all could not stop moving. This one turned out pretty good, considering. 

Fixing her gaze upon high contrast.

 This was another blurry shot as Mom was putting on her wrap, but I just love the look on her face.

 I am shown holding her as she stares up at the bright blue sky and the gnarly silhouette of oak branches.

Here are a couple of clear shots with the littles holding her. Clear shots....not from my camera, of course.  

Wow, somehow Mommy looks like a proud Jedi in this photo. Hahaha!

I hope to have more of these visits as she grows older. What a delight to have them over. I am truly grateful for moments like these.

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Valentine's and St. Patty's Days

It certainly has been a while since I last posted. Doesn't mean we haven't been super busy, though. I guess I will start with a holiday summary.

Valentine's Day was busy, but mellow. Dylan had a party at his Montessori preschool and the boys and I had a teeny celebration at the park with my dear friend, Shannon, and her children.

Jared made these Valentines from cut up magazines and paper bags. We love to be resourceful!

Mommy helped Dylan to sew these select vintage Valentine images printed from the internet. We glued fabric to the back of each and then he sewed them...well, some of them. It got pretty tiring. :)

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St. Patty's Day was fun for all the boys. We dressed in green, listened to some Celtic music, smelled the scent of Irish stew in the crock pot, made some crafts, and just had fun. 

This vegetarian Irish stew was awesome!!

This was a fun fruit rainbow with a cloud and a black cauldron of gold, aka banana slices. I am glad I have a photo of it because the boys looked like a pack of wolves and the platter was empty within a minute.

All in all, we had some lovely celebrations and I am sure more to come. 

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Homemade Gifts

This past Christmas season, I made a few handmade presents for a few close friends and the boys. The boys saw me as I progressed through the process of knitting their warm hats, so it really was not officially a surprise. Plus, I have yet to complete Jared's.

 I started out with knitting a beanie for Dylan. I thought this bright green Andes Wool yarn from my stash would be complementary to his red hair. It turned out pretty cute.

 

I made this hat in Firecracker Heather (also wool) and black stripes. I would have probably done a black beanie with red stripes, but I had more of the later than the former. He loves it anyway. Besides, it unintentionally matches his snow jacket he received for Christmas. Perfect!

 Somehow, I still always make him laugh. Maybe it is because I myself am such a goofball. Yeah, Luke, hold it back....we can't tell you are not trying to crack up here....  ;)

 I decided to make some select friends and mothers some creative necklaces/ornamental decor for the holidays with supplies I already have on hand.

Talk about slacking......some of these I have not given to my friends yet. My goodness!

This gallery of orange pendants on hemp and a matching sunshine painting were given to my dear friend, Shannon, who quite apparently loves the color and sun-shininess itself. I painted this below out of impulse one night. Other than on the table the boys and I made, I have not painted anything for years. Though amateur, it didn't turn out too bad. :)

Love to create! Wish I had more time to do so at this point. But I am enjoying just being much of the time.....being a mother, being a teacher, being a chef, being a woman, being an active human being... 

Catch you later......

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Christmas At Our Abode...Though a Bit Late In Posting It...

Wow, I have been more unplugged lately than I have been in a long time, which is wonderful. I am obviously with the kids more, enjoying this insanely sunny winter so far, and since Xmas, I have lost about 13 Lbs! So, I finally loaded a month-and-a-half of pictures onto my computer today because I have been super busy...even too busy to worry about quilting. So, here is a collection of photos from Christmas time.

The boys and I made ornaments with some friends out of little cloth dolls that my girlfriend found at the thrift store. Here is my silly little elf. He reminds me of a court jester.

On Christmas eve, the grandparents stopped by to give the boys their gifts. They were awesome!

 

Jared has since had fun making some of his Eco Crafts...

 All I can say is that this is one of the coolest things a 12-year-old can receive as a gift!

Dylan got a little tree home with three finger puppet forest pals, two of which him and Grandma are playing with. So dang cool!

Lukey is drawing a winter forest scene...maybe he was trying to summon the snow...

 For Christmas Eve dinner, I made a vegetarian meal, both because turkey and ham are expensive, and because we are eating meat and poultry less and less frequently. Above is an apple butternut squash torte before it was baked, so that you can see the yummy innards.

 The torte was baked with cheese on the top, and the meal was accompanied by green beans with shallots and sherry and a bowl full of garlic mashed potatoes.

 We also had veggie jambalaya to round out the whole meal. It was fantastic!!

 Christmas morning was mellow and super exciting for the boys.

 Santa really spoiled them this year. I think next year the "old jolly man", a.k.a. Mommy, should flex better skills of frugality. They made out like bandits. Also, Note to self: we need to get our tree later on than last year. Getting it the day after Thanksgiving is not conducive for a small home that constantly has the wood-stove running. It was pretty dry by Christmas. Oh well.

 Dylan showing off some of his stocking stuffers...

 Lukey was excited about his hats and his skinny jeans and his funny pajama bottoms and.....

Dylan sporting some serious fashion here.....Jared getting stoked off of his many Barefoot Books...

They all got some super cool games and puzzles.

Lukey checking out his Official Handy Game for Boys....

 The Littles playing with their new Connectagons....

 Mickey Mouse pancakes for Christmas morning. I totally forgot until recently that my mother used to treat me to these when I was little. :)

Jared helped make flax seed meal shortbread cookies.....

 Here are his finished cookies.... They were buttery and delicious!

 Dylan was so cute when playing with his dinosaurs on the grasslands with a river and mountain range.

And lastly, for Christmas we indulged in an enchilada recipe that I am consequently unable to find, and I am not wasting anymore time looking for it right now. It was in one of my Vegetarian Times magazines. And, of course, mine never looks as good as the photo in the magazine. This was accompanied by avocados, lime wedges, sour cream and we served sauteed kale on the side. It was superb!

We drove to Tahoe, but unfortunately there was no snow and almost everything was closed so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. That is okay. We already figured that before we went there. Other than that, we stayed home and enjoyed each others' company. Merry Very Belated Christmas!

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