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.