Christmas Crafts & Recovery

We left Monday afternoon with a clean house, we returned last night and made a messy house. In my attempts to avoid unpacking this....I cleaned up all the Christmas decorations. I suddenly remembered, I didn't take any pictures of the stuff I made today, and I know everyone is dying to know what I did with that football field worth of flannel. Well, here ya go!
Here are Hannah and Gavin's Christmas blankets and pillow cases. These things are SO easy to make. See why I couldn't resist buying this flannel? The pink and blue snowmen, the pink and blue snowflakes, the cute blue penguins, and the pink Christmas trees! I fell in love at first sight!
My next blanket I made was a Christmas throw. My sister-in-law, Rachel, was over and I showed her my cute flannel, she liked it a lot. She twisted my arm, and I decided to make not one, but two... we both needed one. She cut, I sewed. It was a fabulous team. She also helped minimize the critical remarks from Kevin on how messy the house was getting.I made this pillow too! I love the red ball trim.
I wanted a wreath, but all the ones I saw I didn't like, so I made my own. I was really intimidated with the thought of making my own wreath, but once I got started I realized how easy it was.Remember my New Year's Resolutions for this year? One of them was to finish all my unfinished craft projects. This is one I finished. I got a custom mat, but bought a regular frame from Michael's (the mat was twice as much as the frame, but it makes the cross-stitch look so good). This one only took me 6 years to finish!Another one of my unfinished craft projects finished! My Christmas advent calendar only took me 2 1/2 years!I think Hannah has caught the crafting bug, maybe she was born with it? Nature or Nurture? Santa brought her a sewing machine for Christmas, she is so excited to use it! Unfortunately, the elves put the wrong sewing machine in Santa's sleigh, so Hannah can't sew on it until Santa comes back to bring her the right one. While she waits, she is working on her hand sewing.

Well, back to unpacking from Christmas and beginning the task of finding places for all these new toys Hannah and Gavin got.

Daddy Hockey Championship

Merry Christmas to me!!! I got a new camera! Thank you Kevin. Kevin and I never can wait until Christmas to give our presents to each other.
Last night was Daddy's Hockey Championship Game. The kids and I went. We watched them smoke the other team in the first period.
Then as usual, we all need a break, and go to the arcade for the second period.
We go back once the third period starts. Kevin is borrowing a jersey, he is #68 right now. It looks so weird to me because he has always been #22. I'll be happy when he gets his jersey. It's taking FOREVER!
Kevin played really well and scored some goals, but the best part is watching Hannah and Gavin get so excited to see him play.They are so proud of him. He is the coolest Dad! I'm proud of him too. I hope he keeps playing hockey.
Here is Kevin's team, the VIPERS!!! They are all trying to convince me to let Kevin go to Las Vegas on my birthday weekend for a tournament. We will see.
The season starts up again after the new year!

Finals Finale

Took my last final tonight. I almost had an anurism trying to finish my project that was due today. Luckily in crunch time Kevin totally pulled through for me. He sat there patiently cutting out tiny test tubes and petri dishes so I could paste, yes paste, them into my lab journals. Kevin would cut, Hannah would hand them to me, and I would paste and label. Then Hannah and Gavin picked up all the scraps of paper. I am so happy and very grateful for my family's help today. I would not have been able to finish it without them... well, maybe I would have, but then I wouldn't have gotten to take a shower before I went to school. YIKES!

I'm so happy to be on Christmas break now! I can have a life for a brief moment and be a good mother again.

Thank you Kevin for your support... this was a rough semester, but aren't they all? Somehow we get through it, we always do.

Touch Down!!

I'm still alive, but my camera isn't. I wanted to post pictures of Hannah's gingerbread house, but my camera went psycho and.... I just need a new one.
We have been crafting up a storm at the Jones house. It all started with my Black Friday outing.
I woke up at 6:00am and got to JoAnns by 6:15am. Total chaos. I pulled number 53, yes 53!!! to get my fabric cut. This was 6:25am. I bailed and went to another JoAnns. It was heaven there. I got all the flannel I ever wanted! It was on sale for $1.49 a yard. When I went to the register it all totaled to $149.00. I was so confused, did I really buy that much flannel. Oh crap!! When I told Kevin he FLIPED! He said (yelled), "you bought 100 yards of flannel!!! That's a FOOTBALL FIELD!"
I didn't realize how much I had purchased until he said a "football field." Ouch... I had the intention of returning some of it, but I keep using it. I made Hannah and Gavin Christmas rag quilts for their bed and pillow cases. Can't show you because of my camera. My sister-in-law, Rachel, came over yesterday and we finished off the last of the flannel making 2 Christmas rag quilts. We haven't finished the blankets, but they are turning out so cute. I love sewing with Rachel. She probably cut out 100 squares and I sewed them all. We just need to sew the squared together. So I have scored a touchdown, I have used 100 yards of flannel in about 2 weeks.
I would like to appologize to my husband. The house is messy, you are hungry, and running out of clean underware. I'm sorry. When you come home the house will be clean, and your laundry will be folded and put in your drawer. The house will be as it should be. And you can score a touchdown too!

Hannah is 4!

I'm a bit late with Hannah's birthday post. Many good excuses...
Hannah is at the age when you wake up on your birthday and it just feels magical. The feeling that goes away the older you get.
Hannah was a sweet baby, she always liked to sleep on my chest so she could hear my heart beat. We have always been buddies.
Hannah's birthday was last Friday. Although she insisted she was four since the day of her party. This past Monday was her school birthday party. I made the pinkest cupcakes ever! The kids loved the hot pink cupcakes.
Hannah and her "boyfriend" Jake.
Mrs. Lance is Hannah's preschool teacher. She is wonderful. Her class mates sang Happy Birthday to her and then dove into the cupcakes. Gavin had a great time in Hannah's class. After cupcakes he participated in practicing their holiday songs for their Christmas Program. He is so ready for preschool... I'm ready for him to go to preschool.

All that really matters in life......

To our friends and family. Here's all that really matters in Kevin's life.







Following one of Kevin's games we were allowed into the locker room once everyone was decent. It's by far Gavin's favorite part. Within a year he'll be playing, you watch.

Airport Field Trip

I have the best group of girls in my Microbiology class. We have so much fun playing with bacteria together. One of the girls, Melanie, works at the Long Beach Airport for a private company. She invited me to bring my family down to see the airplanes. It was awesome. Gavin and Kevin were in heaven, they both share the same fascination for airplanes.

My friend arranged for an "escort" since we can't just wander around the airport with out any supervision. He told us about all the planes, but I just call them "baby airplanes."

The helicopter was pretty cool.

Hannah and Gavin loved to fly this baby airplane that smelled like an old Datsun truck.
The jet was pretty cool. Our "tour guide's" friend flies this airplane for some super rich guy. He said it costs $700 just to clean it.
Hannah and Gavin took turns flying this airplane too. I made sure they didn't touch any buttons. Could you imagine the damage they could do? I'm sure it's much worse than your heater on full blast, wind shield wipers going crazy, and the radio turned up all the way.


I wouldn't mind flying around in this plane... must be nice!

We had an awesome field trip. I was happy that I planed something that Kevin actually liked doing! We will definitely have to go back again.

Birthday Party!

This year I decided to go BIG! I combined Hannah and Gavin's birthday parties into one big event. We rented out the Gymnastics Center at the YMCA and had a blast!Hannah and her best friend Zoe.Hannah and her boyfriend Jake.
Gavin loved the foam pit.

My whole family came... we haven't all been together since February 2006. I don't know how I did it, but I got everyone in the same place at the same time.

Even my grandparents from Oregon, Aunt Debbie, and Mark made it to the party.
Michael drove up from San Diego with my new cousin, Allison. They had never met before and this was kind of a psuedo blind date. (Kevin's Aunt Marilyn got married and this is her new stepdaughter. She is so much fun and can totally dish it out to Kevin, a quality I like in her.

Grandma and Grandpa Brown had a good time watching Hannah and Gavin.

I'm not sure who had more fun... the adults or the kids. I witnessed my 52 year old father do a back flip on the trampoline and attempt some funky dismount on the uneven bars. I don't think I've laughed so hard. I wish I had a picture.

Hannah and Gavin scored with all their presents. Hannah had her entourage there to help her.
Gavin's favorite present was from Aunt Rachel and Uncle Aaron. The kid hasn't put down his hockey stick and puck since he opened it.It was utter mayhem and I have no idea who gave what to my kids. I still need to sort it all out.

I made a frog cupcake cake. I've never made a cupcake cake before and I really stressed out about it. When I arranged the cupcakes and asked Kevin for his opinion, it wasn't good. I needed a crafty friend. I called my friend Stacy. She came over after work to save the day. She rearranged the legs and thanks to her I was able to finish the cake.After I frosted the cake the frogs legs turned out to look more like huge buff frog arms. That was my fault, I should have frosted it a little differently. But here is the final product. It was so nice because it was a cake, but pre-cut for the little kiddos.

When we got home I was so exhausted we all went straight to bed. This is what our kitchen looks like now! Now I need to attempt to figure out who gave what to Hannah and Gavin.

Institute & "Slick"

Every Thursday the kids and I go to institute. I really used to enjoy the classes, but my kids are too rowdy so I just hang out in the game room and my kids play pool, ping pong, and cards with the college students.*Gavin playing hockey (of course)

Hannah and Gavin have made more friends than me! I'm just Hannah and Gavin's mom to everyone... I wonder if they know my real name?
Anyways, a couple of weeks ago my friend Stacy watched Hannah and Gavin because Kevin had dinner with a doctor and I had school. Hannah and Gavin fell in love with her brother in law, Kyle, but for some weird reason my kids call him "Slick." Even Gavin calls him that. Hannah is in love with Kyle, he plays cards, hide-and-go-seek, and just gives her a ton of attention. I think she has a huge crush on him and it manifests itself through her punching him and just being straight up annoying sometimes. He is so sweet to her and I like him because he takes the attention away from me for awhile. Thanks "Slick" for the break! I think I'm going to have him babysit next time Kevin has a dinner and I have school!