Catching up...

So, I've gone on an accidental blogging hiatus.  My apologies.  I've decided it's time to catch up because there are just some things in life that need sharing.  I've published 3 separate posts today in an effort to share - so please endulge and enjoy!

The Holidays

I love the holiday season. LOVE IT!  And I actually feel like I have time to enjoy it this year.  We had a fabulous Thanksgiving in the Dallas area with David's family.  We rushed out the door and forgot the camera, so I don't really have many photos to prove it, but the memories are still there.  Lots of neices and nephews, fried turkey (so yummy - thanks Mike!), time to relax with the family, time to help Gordon and Sarah move from an apartment to a new rental house, a complimentary massage (which was fabulous - thanks Jean!), a temple visit, a baby blessing, and so much more.  

To me, though, one of my favorite things about Thanksgiving is gearing up for Christmas.  I know there are many people who like to separate the two holidays...in fact, I saw this posted and reposted on facebook (and I admit it made me laugh)

 ...but the way I look at it, what greater blessing do we have to be thankful for than the birth, life, ministry, atonement, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ?  That is definitely the biggest blessing I have, and what better way to say "thank you" than to get in the Christmas spirit?  And now that December is here, it is OFFICIALLY Christmas time....and I actually feel like I have the chance to soak it all in and enjoy it this year.  Maybe it's the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom.  I find that I'm singing Christmas carols more often because Alasyn is around to sing them to, and that I'm thinking about the Savior more often because I'm surrounded by nativity scenes in my spruced-up and freshly decorated home. 

Welcome Christmas!!! 

Fall Festivities

THE PUMPKIN PATCH 

This year David found a quaint little pumpkin patch out in Grapecreek.  Yeah, the pumpkins were more expensive than at the store, but the experience and the pictures were well worth the price. 

TRUNK-OR-TREAT

Our experience at the Grapecreek Pumpkin Patch also inspired our Trunk-or-Treat theme.  David and I carved a few pumpkins the night before the trunk-or-treat and then dressed up the back of our SUV up as a pumpkin patch.  Alasyn went as a pumpkin, and David and I decided to be scarecrows.  I've never been much of a Halloween fan (I think it rubbed off on my by my father) but I enjoyed "theme"ing so much this year that I'm excited to make it a tradition. 

Alasyn's 1st Birthday

She turned one on September 29th. Yes - I know it's December and I know that she is now 14 months old, but I just couldn't let this major event slip by without a proper debut in cyberspace. Late is better than never. :)

My mom and dad came over for a small family birthday party for Alasyn, complete with cake and a few gifts. I made her a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. I didn't want her to go on a complete sugar and fat overload, so I reduced the sugar and used apple sauce instead of oil. The cake was still very yummy, so I was hoping for a full on dive-into-the-cake scene. What I got was quite a bit short of that...a slow but steady savoring of cake - well, icing mostly - one orange-drop morsel at a time. After she got done with the orange icing drops, then she branched out to the rest of the icing on the cake...and I think she enjoyed the feeling of it in her hands as much as she enjoyed the taste of it in her mouth. She got a little bit of cake in there too, but I think her preference for the cream cheese icing should have been an obvious foreshadowing. She LOVES cheese, she loves everything that has even a hint of sweet (naturally of course - who could blame her) and now she HATES carrots.

Summer Sewing Project #1

For those of you who know David well, you know that he loves "classic" things that are no longer in style...and then once they become stylish again he won't wear them. :) David has 2 bow ties that he loves to wear, and even though he wears a standard tie 3 or 4x more often than his bow ties, all the little kids at church know him as the "bow tie man". For a while now, David has been talking about how he wants to get a self-tie bow tie. (The 2 he has are set bows with clasps.) So, for Father's Day I thought it might be fun to make him one. And since it was for Father's Day, I decided to make Alasyn an outfit so she could match Daddy. I found the bow tie pattern on some random guy's blog here, and I made up the pattern for Alasyn's skirt with a little inspiration from my sister-in-law Sarah (using one of those stretchy headbands as the waist band) and from another baby skirt that someone recently gave us.

For summer sewing project #1 (aka - I-have-very-little-experience-and-it's-been-a-long-time-since-I've-attempted-anything-like-this project), I think these turned out pretty well. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of David and Alasyn WEARING these, but when I get one I'll make sure to update this post with that too.