Birthday photo shoot

We went to JCPenney for Landon's birthday pictures. We had a great time and got some great shots. Here are the best ones.

We are back from our nice, long Thanksgiving holiday. I've got to finish a smocking inset, smock another, and construct two outfits before Thursday. I'll post pictures as I get things done. I'm having issues with a reindeer...the pattern has him facing one way and I need him to face the other and am not sure how to do that quickly and easily (I don't think I can reverse it in my mind) If transparency sheets aren't too expensive I'm going to get some and copy it onto that, then I can flip it and have the reverse image on the back side.

Birthday boy!

Landon's birthday was Friday and we had his party on Saturday afternoon. It was a small party at home and we all really enjoyed it.

Lots of help and interest in the present opening.

Present opening went great, until Landon opened the gun Papaw got him. He loved it so much that he didn't want to let go of it to open anything else...

and had a little meltdown (this was too cute and I just had to include it!) I embroidered his t-shirt and Kenna had to have one too...hers says "Look at me I'm 5" though I think it probably should have said, "Look at me I'm green with envy." She ended up not even wearing it to the party!

This is the gun, which he slept with last night, and took with him in the van this morning. I drew the line at taking it into church though. He also took a nap with it this afternoon.

He did realize he'd gotten other really cool toys, too. This has been another favorite and the other kids love it, too. Thank goodness I had the foresight to get two remote controlled vehicles to go with it, though they all want the same one anyway.

This is why Kenna didn't wear her shirt...

she went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party Saturday morning and got all fancied up.

Hair, nails, necklaces, makeup, feather boa, and a Dole Banana sticker (from breakfast)

Riley was having a ball grabbing for the camera...

which is probably why my lens is always smudged.

Landon had to pull baby duty Friday to help me out...

he did a good job (though Riley woke up because I kept taking pictures).

Shh...can you keep a secret

If you promise not to tell, I'll let you peek at some of the Christmas presents I'm making.

I *love* this tote bag. I got two, and I'm very tempted to keep one of them. But I think I may use one for my SAGA Christmas party gift and dig out my seriously underutilized Vera Bradley tote for me. I can even monogram it to make it feel special and new. The red tote came from http://www.lakeside.com/. They are terribly slow shippers (I placed my original order Oct. 28 and the last part of my order just shipped today) but they have lots of cool stuff reasonably priced.

Close up of embroidery.

This purse came from Lakeside too.

The first of many, many kitchen towels I'm doing. I'm a little worried because the rest of the designs are split and I'll have to stitch and rehoop. It'll give me lots of hooping practice though.

I'm also working on Riley's christening gown. The date is a little up in the air, either Dec. 7 or Dec. 14th...I've sworn to get this kid dedicated before he's a year old, so if it gets pushed to the 21st I guess I can live with that too...if you want to come (and all are welcome) the 14th is the most likely date, but I can't say for sure yet. Actually, we are planning on combining the christening with his first birthday (especially since the poor kid doesn't really have any "baby" friends), so if you can't make it for church, come for cake and ice cream.

I'm smocking a couple of Christmas outfits also that must be done by Dec. 7...nothing like a deadline to make me dread working on something. I'll post pictures when I have something to show.

Birthday weekend

Big weekend for birthdays and long drives. My stepson celebrated his 12th and some little friends of ours turned 6 on the same day. Saturday was a really long and really awesome day.

I actually have some "sewing" to share...I did these shirts for the girls' presents.



Happy 12th birthday to Wesley!

We took a wrong turn on the way to our friends' house and didn't regret it one bit because this is what we got to see. Though a photo doesn't do it justice...it was just miles of this on both sides.

Six years old! Happy birthday Emma Kate and Gracie.

Eli and Kenna...old friends.

"Aunt" Amy's house....where a boy can be a boy!


Riley got so dirty, he had to have a bath before we left for home (Landon, too).

Twister!

Fall Frolic

Playing in the yard...

Halloween

Kenna and the girls dressed "festively" on Thursday and had a blast playing with the wagon.

Here's our whole crew ready to go trick-or-treating, which in our neighborhood, is a hit or miss prospect. We tried one street, decided to give up and go to a local church's trunk-or-treat, but arrived too late. So we just went to a few houses we knew, then brought them home and let them trick-or-treat at our door...dumping all the candy we got Wednesday night into their bags. This resulted in about half a dozen more trick-or-treaters coming to our house (hey look how much they gave those kids!) But we had plenty to go around...even if we did have to reach back into our own kids bags to get it. :)

We decided Landon really looked more like an intern.

Our little doughboy...can 't tell you how many times he got poked in the belly. ;)