My Little Helper

Claire always asks to help me when I am making something in the kitchen. I try my hardest to always say yes. I don't want to discourage her from helping but sometimes it is really hard. It's more like saying "Yes, come make a huge mess and double the time it should take to make this." I have been letting her help for about a year now and it is starting to pay off. Now she knows how to help a little better - and I know what to trust her with. In other words, please do not be alarmed that she is stirring pots on the stove. She knows to be careful and I always stay right there with her.

She was proud of herself that she could stir both pots at the same time.

She has also learned to taste as she goes.

I have passed on some chores to Claire. For a while now she's been helping me by putting away the silverware from the dishwasher. I have always hated doing that for some reason. I save it for her to do now and she likes it.

Joy watching her sister help.

Joy is so funny, She always looks on, longingly, as Claire and I do things together or when Claire and Josh are playing, she can't take her eyes off them. I think she wants to be a big girl too already.

Christmas Handprint Art

The day after Thanksgiving, we started Christmasing; putting up lights, decorations, baking and crafting. I haven't blogged because all my projects have been half done for the past few weeks but I am finally starting to get them all wrapped up. Plus, I have had zero time.

The first "craft" we did was hand print art - ideas stolen from Pinterest.

Claire made a Christmas tree.

She enjoyed it but needed some help in the self-control area when we were stamping her hand. Sliding you paint covered hand all over a white canvas becomes much more irresistible when your mom tells your not to. (Note - I found both canvases at thrift stores for $1 each!)

For Joy, I did a snowman footprint painting; Claire helped paint her sister's little footy.

I am glad we took the time to do these projects. Now we will have these precious pieces to bring out each Christmas and remember when our babies were still little.

Annual Autumn Pictures

Sometimes, even the best planned photos shoots...

are torn asunder.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Friday at the Farm

This weekend we made a trek out to Vertuccio Farm for the last day of their Fall Festival. I wanted to go before Halloween but we were all too sick so it had to wait.

It was amazingly uncrowded and the weather was perfect!

They had a great, big, air-bouncer thing that Claire instantly HAD to jump on. Most of our time there was spent bouncing.

Josh and I bounced too. It was pretty fun I must say. Even Joy enjoyed it.

We spent some time looking at the animals

and feeding the goats.

Claire milked the fake cow for about 2 seconds.

and did some other activities the farm had to offer.

Joy and I hung out and watched Claire and Dadda most of the time.

I forget how small she is until I see a photo like this. What a peanut girl!

I was hoping to get a good picture of the two girls together, but after about 40 shots none of them turned out. I have to post this one though just because I love Joy's expression so much.

"Get me out of here!"

Sometimes I feel a little sorry for Joy because it is going to be tiring to be Claire's sister.

That's okay, we love you Claire.

All in all we had a really good time and plan to go next year!

Halloween...Finally

What a bummer Halloween was for us this year! Our decorations never made it out of the garage and our pumpkin was never turned into a jack-o-lantern....But more about that in a moment.

Claire could not decide on what she wanted to be this year. She changed her mind every other day. If she saw butterfly wings in the store, she wanted to be a butterfly, if she saw a ladybug costume, she wanted to be a ladybug, she even said she wanted to be a caterpillar or a cricket for some reason, but those two were out of the question. She definitely had a bug theme going though. One day at Goodwill, we found a big girl's bee costume that was made out of cute fabric so I got it to resize for her and told her she was a bee. She needed some convincing but after my mom found the wings for her at the dollar store of all places, she was sold.

A leotard, leggings and antenna finished the outfit. (also found at thrift stores)

Easy beesy. I was glad that her costume was low maintenance (and cost) this year.

Joy was originally going to be a peanut but after much trial and error, I decided there was no way anyone would be able to tell that she was a peanut. She looked more like a sack of potatoes.
After I abandoned the peanut plan my mom suggested a flower since it would kind of goes with Claire's and it would be easy - at that point I was running out of time. So a flower she was.
Complete with lady bugs crawling up and down her stem.
Joy is very hard to take pictures of. When we try to take pictures outside, it is too bright for her and she squints and looks angry. I think more than the sun was making her angry here though.She was a sweet flower most of the time.
The Friday before Halloween, we went to my grandma's for their trick or treat morning. Claire woke up coughing and sniffling. We could tell she was getting sick.

We decided to go for a short time and stay away from Gigi so she wouldn't get sick. The Renaissance residents sat at tables with their candy and she just went up to them and said "Trick or Treat!" and then "Thank you!" when they put a candy in her bag. I was happy because everyone there was giving out good candy.
After that, Claire went downhill drastically and was sick for days, she was barely well enough to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood and to go to the harvest carnival at church. We kept her away from other kids though and the carnival was outside so we figured it would be okay for her to go. She would have been devastated if she had to miss it. It wasn't til a week later that she was finally not feeling sick but still has the cough and nose issues. Of course she couldn't be sick without giving it to me and Joy, so we have all been sounding gross and feeling blah that past few weeks. Hopefully next year will be a better one for us!

They Don't Make Them Like They Used To

I have been coveting my grandma's sewing machine ever since she moved out here and gave it to my mom. It is so solid and heavy, made completely of metal parts.

Not these flimsy plastic things that they make now days.

My machine had an episode a few months back where it just stopped working. I started to panic and tried several things to get it started again but nothing worked. I remembered what I learned from growing up with Nintendo - When all else fails, blow in it. So I did and miraculously it started working again. (and has worked well ever since) The event got me thinking about what would happen if my machine died on me... I would probably want a better quality one, I had asked for this one because I had no idea how sew when I got it 3 years ago and I didn't know if I ever would. I looked at some machines and the prices. Outrageous! I knew I would be out of luck and have to save for quite a while to get a new one.

Well, one day I stopped by Goodwill and look what I found!It is the exact same machine as my grandma's, in perfect condition and in the original cabinet. You can imagine my excitement when I saw the price, $34.99. I had a coupon so it came $27.99.

I was a little nervous that it would need servicing but when I tried it out I was shocked at how beautifully it runs. It makes the most lovely, quality humming sound.

I love it. Happy sewing to me!