Only slightly behind...

I feel like this title has been the theme in my life for this past year.  Since I last blogged, we have celebrated Christmas and a New Year and are already 16 days into this new year!  Crazy!  As expected, I went beck to Iowa for the holidays and have been back in Georgia for a week and a half.  Here are some of the highlights from the past month:

I made it back in time to go to Avery's preschool Christmas program.

Here Madelyn and I are waiting for the program to start.

 Here is Avery's class singing.  This is the 3 and 4 year old preschool class...they were so adorable!  

So glad I was able to be there.

Drew turned 1!  I know it seems like just yesterday he was born, but this little guy is now 1, or as Avery says, "He is a number now!"

The birthday boy!

 I am in my highchair...why is my tray empty?

 As Drew was opening his presents, Madelyn was very helpful in testing his toys to make sure they worked.

 Avery and I at Drew's birthday party.

Fast forward 2 days and it was Christmas day.  Parker was thrilled to wish everyone a Merry Christmas wearing his santa outfit.  Can't you see his excitement?

He did get a 2 foot rawhide for Christmas...so while he had to endure dress-up for an hour, he was rewarded!

While I was home my Mom and I were able to help out and babysit the kids a few days.  They were even nice enough to share their germs with me and give me a stomach virus on New Year's Eve, but I will spare you any more details.  Luckily they are so cute, that I can forgive them for their sharing!

  

Playing with play-doh at Grandma's house.

The girls playing with Parker.  While he enjoys the kids, he is always happy when they leave so he can go back to his normal nap schedule.

Parker likes to help Drew clean out anything that was dropped in the highchair.

While I was there, Beth and Paul were able to put together Avery's "up-down bed," as Avery calls it.  Avery was very excited to have her new bed and Madelyn liked it too.

In other exciting news, I traded in my car.  I no longer have my Rendezvous (lovingly called Ronnie).

 I snapped a quick picture as I said good buy and left him at the lot.

Unfortunately I haven't taken pictures of my new vehicle, but I got a 2007 Ford Edge and I am super happy with it.  The only picture I have of it is below...

...no this is not in Iowa.  Shortly after I got back to Georgia, we were hit by a huge snowstorm.  Athens got about 8 inches of snow and probably a half to full inch of ice on top of it.  We basically shut down for a few days.  This happened the night before classes were suppose to start back on Monday.  Because of the snow, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were snow days, while Thursday and Friday both had delayed starts.  So far this semester, not one full day yet!  This will change as of Tuesday, but for now I am enjoying a gradual start to the semester.

During Christmas break and my 3 snow days I was able to work on and finish several fun sewing and craft projects...so look forward to those in a future post, soon!

December is here!

I know it has been December for like 11 days, but still this weekend is when I have really felt December.  Finals are in swing at UGA: I am finished with the class I took this semester and only have 2 more finals to give this week.  So within a few days, I will get to live a more normal life and spend time on my own schedule!

So here are some of my December updates.  The week after Thanksgiving I went to the Athens Holiday Parade.  It was so much fun and glad I was able to go.  This was the first time I have been in the 5 Decembers I have lived here.

Britton is all bundled up for her first parade!

 She even got a good view thanks to her dad!

Santa and Mrs. Claus finished the parade!

The Athens Christmas tree before it was lit for the season.

This past weekend, Rachel and Chris hosted their annual Christmas party.  I only took a few pictures on my camera, so I hopefully will add more later.  It was such a fun night, with great food and friends.

Katie feeding Britton.

 Meg and Holly

 Meg and I

Hope you all are having a wonderful December!  Can't wait to celebrate the holidays even more after finals are done and grades are turned in.

Technology can blow my mind!

Technology amazes me almost every day (and it also frustrates me many days), but today it is amazing.  This past week I went back to Iowa for Thanksgiving.  Right now, I am typing this post while I am flying back to Atlanta!  How amazing is that...Internet on my flight!  It is pretty awesome.  I know Airtran (and other airlines) have offered in-flight Internet for a while, but I have never paid for it.  During the holidays this year Airtran is offering FREE wi-fi while in flight...so I decided to try it out.  Pretty awesome (and so far no motion sickness from being on the computer either)!!

Back to the past week...this past week was a great time spent with family and friends.  I got to see my friend Val while I was home (I am lucky she has a job that has her traveling close to Decorah).  I got to spend time with my sister, her husband, and their three kids; my brother and his girlfriend, my parents, and also some aunts and uncle!  It was a good week, with many blessings to remind me to be thankful for everything I have.

Here are a few pictures from this week.  On Sunday, we went to the La Crosse Children's Museum, they had a new Dinosaur exhibit.  Avery was very excited about the Dinosaurs, Madelyn not so much...

Playing with the water and boats.

Drew and Mommy on the slide.

Avery and Madelyn playing in the store...this was a very serious task.

On Tuesday, I got to go to dance class with Avery and Madelyn.  Here the girls are shaking their sillies out.

Madelyn ready to dance!

Avery showing off her first position.

After dance class was done.

I also got to babysit on Wednesday, and we were able to start the morning off with a picture of all three of the kids.

And of course, we decided to scare Mommy and e-mail her a picture like this.  What it would be like to have twins!

Playing with the photo booth application on my computer.  Sisterly love!

Madelyn and I...a classic Madelyn face.

Madelyn, Rachel, and I (and party of the doll's head).

A bigger group...Drew's expression is great, 'What the heck are you guys doing?"

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!  Back to a regular work week on Monday. :(

Remember this fabric?

A while ago, in September, I decided to participate in a challenge event being put on by my local quilt shop, the Dragonfly Quilt Shop. I was given (as were the others that participated) a yard of this fabric, not knowing what it was.

Do you remember this fabric?

This was the challenge fabric.

I came up with several ideas for the fabric, but finally decided on a jewelry theme project.

I started with making a necklace holder. Here it is displaying some of my necklaces.

Then I decided to make an earring holder to go with the necklace holder. Here they are pictured together.

I made a necklace using the fabric.

Made some flowers to put on a baby headband.

And finally, I made a set of earrings to be displayed on the holder (here is the close-up picture, sorry it isn't the best quality).

The shop's website has pictures of all of the participants' projects. And if you happen to be in the Athens/Watkinsville area, you can go in and vote for my project as your favorite (if mine is your favorite) until December 11th.

Tis the season...for Christmas Cards!

If you can't tell by the sudden revival and life to my blog, I am back in Iowa for the week on Thanksgiving break. As we are gathering with family and friends for Thanksgiving, of course my first thoughts go to "It's almost Christmas!" and this of course leads to some level of panic with everything that needs to be done before the 25th of December. One of these items: Christmas Cards!

I have always enjoyed receiving and sending Christmas cards. I remember as a kid looking at all the pictures and updates we would receive and now I always look through the basket of cards, letters, and pictures when I am home for the holidays. This year I am thinking I may have to use Shutterfly to make some holiday cards...with of course pictures! While I don't have cute children of my own to use in a card, I still have a few options for this year: the standard a picture of Parker and myself, picture of me with my adorable nieces and nephew, or pictures from my summer in London. So many choices...

I think I like the cards with multiple pictures, that way you can experience more of my year!

Option 1: Cheery and Red

Option 2: Colorful Snowflakes

Option 3: Cute Stocking Card

Option 4: And finally, a card with 6 pictures!

Place your vote for which card you would like to see in your mailbox this holiday season! And make sure I have your current address!

And of course Shutterfly offers other products that I need to take advantage of, like photo books! My goal is to put together a photo book to help organize my few thousand pictures from my 6 weeks in London! I can't wait to start working on it, I might have to make more than one! Or maybe I should just make a calendar...that way I can have new pictures every month! So many options!

Check it out: Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… learn more here.