Christmas 2009

We had a great idea this year for Christmas. We thought it would be fun if we had Brad's family spend Christmas with us at our house. We are now in a house big enough to fit everyone, finally. So they came down Christmas Eve and we had pizza, watched a movie, played games, and got pajamas from Jackie. They were fun pajama pants and white t-shirts that she had printed on them "Naughty or Nice?" They were really cute.

We had to get up really early Christmas morning because we were talking to Zack at 8. He is Brad's brother that is on a mission in Bulgaria. We woke up at 6:30! I put our breakfast casserole in the oven. The casserole is a tradition from my family that we eat every year on Christmas and only on Christmas. We started opening presents together under the tree at 7. Wow its a good thing there isn't any furniture in our front living room because there wouldn't have been any room for it! It was really fun to open presents and see what everyone got and their reaction, priceless.

Marlee was still in bed but Allie had so much fun with the presents. Grandma Jackie would pick out the presents and Allie would deliver them to the recipient and say, "Merry Christmas!" so cheerful and with a big smile on her face. It was the best part of getting the present.

Allie had a lot of fun opening her presents. She got exactly what she wanted from Santa, a Dora puzzle! Thats all she asked for. He was surprised but it really was the only thing that she wanted and that she talked about. But it was definetly not the only thing she got! She got super spoiled this year, she got too many toys to count.

When Marlee woke up we got her right to opening her presents like everyone else. She loved to open the paper. I have to say she has the best reaction of anyone I've ever known. She loved every present so much and grabbed it and held it close and shouted and smiled and giggled. It was the best. She got some really fun toys that she already loves to play with. Here are the girls in their playroom with all of their new toys!:

This year we talked to Zack on Skype. We got a web camera and chatted with him online while we were looking at him! It was so awesome. He looked really good and surprised us with his new calling. He was called to be the Assistant to the President, so he was a the mission office. We all sat around talking to him for about 2 and a half hours. It was great, everyone loved to see him and talk to him and hear about what is going on. It was like he was right there in the room with us, it was weird but cool.

My sweetheart gave me a cutting table this year. I got one from my family that was pretty much exactly like it when I turned 18 but on one of our many moves, Brad broke it. So I guess it only took 2 or 3 years but he paid it back! Thats okay because I didn't sew at all for a few years while I had little babies and didn't have a place for it. So now I think I am the luckiest girl in the whole world because I have my own craft room with everything I could ever want.

Here is a little sneak peek at what I am working on now that I got a few projects done. This is my new project for the week. Pretty cute huh, I'm loving it so far!!

Marlee has been busy this week. She started to walk, holding on to something all by herself. And she started to crawl! I thought she never would crawl. She has hated it ever since I tried to get her to do it. She hasn't had any desire that I can see to even be on her hands and knees. She would cry every time we would put her on her knees and she wouldn't try to get up on them on her own. She loves to stand though. When she was about 8 or 9 months she would reach for your hands and pull herself up to standing. It took her a while to try to take any steps, but that caught on fast. She started walking really jerky at first and then got better. Last week I tried to have her hold on to one of her toys and push it and walk on her own. She was really off balance and I would have to hold on to her pants or something because she would loose her balance a lot. But now she is a pro! She pushes her toy around everywhere, she doesn't do good at turning around but she is really good at going straight. She got a new toy for Christmas and loves to walk around everywhere with it now.

Here is Marlee's crawl. She stays on her knee on the left side but on the right side its a foot. She does half traditional and half bear crawl. It is funny to watch but it gets her where she wants to go. She loves her new found independence.

Well we had a VERY Merry Christmas, it was busy but soo much fun! We love our families and each other it is fun to spend time with those you love on Christmas.

Finally got a top tooth!

Marlee got her bottom two teeth at 6 1/2 months. We have been expecting her top teeth for quite some time now. She had a few weeks that she was pretty un-bearable. She was really fussy and didn't want anything else but mom. I'm sure it was her teeth, they kept swelling up and getting red and then it would go away. Last week she finally had one pop through on the top! And then a few days later another one on the bottom came.

So here she is showing off her teeth:

And I am going to show some quilting I've been doing, like I promised. I wish that I would have started free-arm quilting a long time ago! It is so fun and looks beautiful!! Here is my finished table runner. I did some swirlies and then stitched in the ditch around the squares to make them pop.

And then on the other quilt I made, I did curved lines in every block. It looks really good but I think it looks better with blurry eyes. :) I just know that I'm not perfect and there are some mistakes but it does look perfect from far away or with blurry eyes. It was a really fun quilt and my favorite that I have finished so far. Don't worry, the other day I got enough stuff to make 4 more quilts. I definetly have my work cut out for me, now I just need to find the TIME!

What I did today

I made this blanket today. Aren't the colors cute? It was pretty easy and I am quite fast. I will finish it next week and show the finished product! I can't wait to get the back on and quilt it!

New House, LOTS of Pictures, and Food...

Wow, we have had a busy month! In November, we decided to not renew the lease at our apartment. We started looking for houses and it took a few weeks, but we got a great deal on a really nice house in Layton. It is up on the east bench right below Highway 89. It is in a really nice neighborhood and ward. It is 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, so we have plenty of space and some to spare. I get my own craft room and the girls have their own seperate rooms and a playroom. There is another spare bedroom that will be for Zack (Brad's brother) when he gets home from his mission he wants to live with us and go to Weber.
We got a new bedroom set! Well actually we never had a bedroom set before so I can't really say "new" bedroom set, we just got a bedroom set, and a King Size BED! Oh my gosh I love it so far. I wish we would have had it a long time ago but now I know that we deserve it for all the years that we lived without it. We got the bed and night stand
A big huge 10 drawer dresser for me with a mirror on top.

And a dresser for Brad. Aww, his and hers, how cute.We are loving the new house and already love the ward we are in and everything that is happening here.
On Sunday, my friend Jill came to our house and took family pictures for us. We needed some for Christmas cards and I haven't had Marlee's pictures taken since she was 3 months old. So here are the pictures, I love them so much.

I like to make home-made gifts for christmas, so I have been sewing a lot. I can't really show what I have been working yet because it will spoil Christmas for some. I will show you a table runner that I am making for the china hutch that is at our new house.

Marlee has been helping me with the scraps.

Tonight, I made stuffed bell peppers. It was a good experience, I have never had them before that I can remember so I tried it. They were really good!

We made a gingerbread house tonight, too. Here is the finished product, we aren't professionals but we got the job done and it stayed standing for a full 5 minutes! Seriously, it fell apart right after I snapped the pictures.