Mother's Day

Well, blogging has become difficult without a camera. But now I have a new phone with a great camera so I can start using that.

We had a great Mother's Day. Chris (and Allison) got me these beautiful flowers on Saturday. They are gorgeous....and now Chris is going to have to start keeping the vase full because I like having flowers on my table. Anyway, I am so grateful to be a mom. She adds so much joy to my life and is such a great little buddy. Being a mom is the best!

Easter

Not having a camera definitely makes blogging difficult, but thank heavens I have a family who LOVES to take pictures and share them with me!

Easter was great this year. It's fun having a 3-year old because the Easter Bunny is really exciting to them, but at the same time, I was able to sit down and talk to her about the real meaning of Easter - and I think she even got it!

Anyway, Sunday afternoon we headed over to my parents for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. My sister Sidse had found this beautiful outfit for Allison to wear for Easter so she did a little photo shoot with her.

But it's hard to play with your cousins when you're all fancied up, so she didn't last long in her dress...

My mom got all of the kids little bags of Easter candy and a card. Allison thought the bunny card was hilarious and just her size!

Sara kept the kiddos entertained...

And they finally got to search for the eggs....it was raining, so it was an inside Easter egg hunt.

Thanks Sidse, for sharing your pictures. Now if CHANEL would just post some pictures from Kevin's birthday party, then maybe I'll get to post those as well....

Worn out!

Saturday was a lot of fun. It was our friend Laura's 24th Birthday so we spent the day with their family. We headed up to Bainbridge Island to this really cool pool and spent a few hours swimming. I was amazed at Allison's progress in swimming and I really want to get her in swimming lessons soon. She wore a life jacket and just swam around for hours and wouldn't let me help her at all...definitely different from last summer. I am excited to swim more this year!

After swimming we went out to a nice dinner and then headed back home. It had been a long day for Allison, but when we got home her Aunt Julie and Uncle Tim came over with their baby Hailee. Allison LOVES Tim, Julie and Hailee and just couldn't go to bed with them there. So we were all sitting around talking and I noticed Allison was being really quiet....and this is what we found:
I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the legs crossed and her hands clasped together. This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Allison...I just wish I would have had a stinkin' camera to capture the moment in stead of having to use my cell phone...but oh well!

Injury #59,574

Seriously, I cannot even remember all of the injuries this kid has gotten over the past three years. I'm afraid she may be a tad bit accident-prone. At least we are learning how to handle these situations calmly!

This is the story: Allison and I were doing dishes one afternoon and there was a tin can in the sink that I needed to rinse out and put in recycling. The lid was still partially attached, and little Allison decided to put her thumb inside the can. Since the lid was still attached her thumb got stuck inside and she freaked out. I reached over to help her get it out, and she ripped her thumb out of the can - creating a nice big gash on her thumb.

After 3 hours in Urgent Care Allison left extremely traumatized and her thumb now has six stitches. I didn't know you could fit six stitches on her tiny little thumb, but they managed.

Excuse the picture - with my camera dead, we have to rely on the cell phone to document things around here.

Sad Day!

My camera is officially dead. It appears that someone stepped on it (I'm not naming names, but my bet is on the little three-year-old that lives with me). Anyway, just a few of the last pictures I was able to take before our camera took a nose dive...

She's Growing Up!

I can hardly believe it, but my little girl is a Sunbeam! I cannot believe how big she is getting. she is my little bud and I love her so much. It was actually quite emotional for me to take her to Primary that first Sunday - I cannot imagine what it will be like when she goes to Kindergarten. I had to work very hard not to go and check on her every five minutes - not like I needed to check on her at all since her Dad was right there and her Grandma & Aunt Sara were there doing music, but I just couldn't help myself! Time just needs to slow down....

Crafts!

For some reason, this year I decided I wanted to make a lot of the Christmas gifts I was giving. Of course, I couldn't be realistic about this and only make 1 or 2 things and just buy the rest - in stead I made almost ALL of the gifts we gave. I must be a glutton for punishment.

For most of the women in my husband's family and one of my sisters I made scarves. I found this beautiful pattern that had a kind of "waffle" pattern. It was really cool - my goal was to make seven (so I could include my Grandma's), but I ended up with five (sorry Grandmas!). I was really proud of how they turned out. For Tim & Julie's baby Hailee, I decided to make a blanket. I should have made these for EVERYONE - it was so easy!

For my two nieces, Kendall & Taylor, I decided I wanted to make them each a scarf and a bag. Pink for Kendal - Purple for Taylor. Well, in the end they got a hat, two scarves and a bag. I just couldn't stop making stuff for them!

There were a few other Christmas presents I made that I forgot to take pictures of. For all of Chris' brothers, I made a memory book of their Mom. I really enjoyed creating it for them and I hope they enjoy it as much as I do. Of course, as soon as I ordered it, I realized all of the other things I could have done to make it better, but oh well, I'm fine with how it turned out - maybe I'll do Volume 2 next year.

I also made Lacy and Rose each tutus. My friend Laura taught/helped me with those. She also helped me (well, she actually did 95% of the work) make Crayon Rolls for Allison. They turned out really cute, and I'm ready to make some more.

So, after all of this crocheting, you would think I would be DONE with crocheting for awhile. The problem was that I crocheted all kinds of stuff for other people, but didn't make anything for Allison - and she definitely noticed. She begged me to make her something, so I found this pattern for a flower purse and I made it for her. It's really cute, but definitely not really usable. Of course as soon as I made the purse, all she could do was ask where the hat was - so I had to make her one of those, too.

Then, once I made the hat for Allison, I had people lining up with orders, so I've made four more hats and still need to make another one...

By this point I had caught the bug and now I just want to crochet all of my gifts from now on (sorry Carolyn, definitely expect something homemade at your shower next week!). My friend Heather had a baby shower last week and I decided I wanted to make something for her. I found this pattern for an adorable little stuffed dog, and since they are dog people, I thought I would attempt it. Crazy person that I am, I came up with this idea the night before the shower, so I was a little nuts trying to get it done on time. Didn't quite turn out the way it was supposed to look, but Heather loved it, and that's all that matters...

I also made her a frog bib for her little guy. I think it's adorable and I have a few more I want to make.

It's crazy - I've been making so much stuff that now I have all these patterns I need to organize. Who knew I would enjoy it so much?