Baby Martin

When we were in Mt. Pleasant we went over the mountain and saw Sam and Ashley's baby, Martin.



Isn't he cute?

His mommy looks pretty darn good too!

New Year in Mt. Pleasant

We spent a few days after Christmas in Mt. Pleasant. The kids had a great time playing in the abundant snow.


Aubrey in her snow gear.


Tyler WALLOWED in the snow. He LOVED it!


We used the new sled on the dirt mound in the side pasture.


Cousin Jenny spent the day and night before New Year's with us. She, Brian, Tyler, and Maddie made a very cool snow dragon named Herald in the front yard. Notice the egg he is guarding next to him.


Jenny and Aubrey dancing to beautiful music.


Marc and Sarah brought all the fixings for New Year's fondue.


It was delish!


Grandma S. also made some yummy chicken and dumplings.


The kids (Eliie, Ben, Aubrey, and Maddie) had fun playing with new Christmas toys and the Mt. Pleasant staples...


...and each other! (Tyler and Isabel.)




If you made it this far in the post you'll want to be sure and hear the "beautiful" music being created to ring in the new year. It's amazing what you can do with a crystal glass and a little Martinelli's or water! So much talent concentrated in one small family...

Happy New Year!

Christmas Kite

Christmas afternoon we went to the park and Brian flew his kite. I love this video, because we get so few days like this. It did rain a little, but while we were at the park it was just cloudy, windy, and cold. Almost felt spooky. The noise you hear is the kite flying through the air. Tyler thought it sounded like a dragon! It was all Brian and Dad could do to hold on to it. It is quite a feat to keep a kite up in this much wind. Also, Brian said, you have to count how many circles you do in one direction, then guide the kite back through the same circles and swoops in the opposite direction to keep it from getting all tangled up. We kept all the kids behind the kite flyers, as at this speed the kite could do real damage if it hit anyone!

Twilight Quilt

Remember Julie's present I was so excited about? She is totally obsessed with the Twilight books and movie, so I made her this quilt.


It is a Trip Around the World pattern with photos from the movie and book covers appliqued onto some of the squares. Maddie copied and enlarged the TWILIGHT letters from the book and I appliqued those across the middle. My friend Georgia quilted it on her longarm machine and it turned out pretty cool!


This is what Julie looked like when she opened the quilt!


I told her it was the next best thing to being wrapped in Edward Cullen's arms!

Merry Christmas!

It has come and gone...and we sure had a good time!

Sydney, waiting for Santa, in her curlers for dinner with Grandma & Grandpa N.


The traditional "waiting on the stairs" photo. The "kids" are never allowed to come down till the tree-lights are on and Mom is ready with the camera!


Sometimes this causes stress...


Dad drives us crazy, carefully opening each of his gifts with a sharpened pocketknife!


Grandma D. was so excited to get here - she came with "bed head!" (She claims the WIND did it on the way over!)


Amy made Julie and Ally really cool Twilight bookmarks. (They were kinda hopin' there were tickets to Forks, Washington in there :)


Maddie and Amy got new bikes for Christmas.


Other than almost blowing away in the wind, they really enjoyed them! They have been on several rides already, even in our unseasonable cold!


Merry Christmas everyone! Hope yours was as great as ours was.

Cookie Exchange

I am incredibly blessed to have several groups of good friends. My quilt group includes old and new friends that I just love. This is Kris, Jeanee, Elaine, Georgia, Rose, Sylvia, and me. Let's see. Who was taking the picture?...Oh, yes...Kimberly! Did I mention I love these ladies?


We get together about five or six times a year to sew and visit. In December we have our annual cookie exchange. (Kimberly, Sylvia, and Kris.)


Did I mention my husband loves these ladies too? Last week he enjoyed their fudge, caramel popcorn, coconut-lime sugar cookies, pumpkin cookies w/penuche frosting, chocolate chip pecan cake, chocolate nut cookies, and homemade salsa.


This is the group's junior member. We consider Macie "our baby," although she really belongs to Georgia, who delighted us by having her last year when her other children were 20, 16, and 14!


I put my chocolate nut cookies in these cute Martha Stewart boxes for the exchange.


Since this is a sewing group, I also made each friend a decorated jar of thread. They turned out pretty cute! Oh wait, and did I mention I really love the ladies in my quilt group??

Catch-up (Not Catsup or Ketchup!) (Man, I'm Hilarious)

Since I was such a slacker-blogger in the past few months (due to extreme busy-ness, not anything worse!) I decided to post a few "older" pictures of happenings...This was way back in October. Remember when we made spooky photos (which you can see here) I promised to post some pix of the kids being "statues" at the Reflections Park in town? Here is Maddie on an empty base.


Julie, looking very...hmmm...artistic. Well, I was TRYING to take an artistic looking photo...


Tyler sure knows how to strike a pose...


As does little Ally.


The little kids just thought it was fun to see who could scream the loudest...


...although Sydney did finally get into the spirit...


...and Aubrey seems to have a thing for hugging inanimate objects!

I love it that everyone is such a good sport about our crazy ideas. And now, blogspot is taking too long to upload photos and lunch is over, so I must quit and get back to Christmas prep. I'll post more soon.