More Time With Family

We stayed with Wes and Carolyn and their three kids for our Thanksgiving trip. We always love staying with them and just hanging out.

{Theo and Caedmon, only 2.5 months apart}

E loved the fact that he could ride indoors and that both his cousins loved bikes as much as he did!

They were so kind to let us get out for the first time--just the two of us-- to the pace where we met, The Gypsy Den. We got to sip our coffee and share a cigar.

W tried to re-pay the kindness by making a Swenson tradition for breakfast: Swedish pancakes.

But in the end, we may have completely worn them out. To be fair though, they were just coming off being sick. 

Thank you W+C for amazing hospitality!

We love ya.

Swenson Thanksgiving

Lots of people...

{that's Dof and her new husband...found out that day she's having grandbaby Swenson #17 in May!}

Lots of play...

And lots of good food...

We are so so glad we got to come down this year!

Bro-mance

E totally has a man-crush on his Gpa...

The other day, E got in big trouble because he broke my car's rear view mirror off AFTER I told him not to hang on it. We were upstairs getting ready for his nap and he was crying for his grandpa so we called him. E told Grandpa all about what happened. He finally calmed down after taking with him and took his nap. Now, whenever he gets into trouble, guess who he wants to talk to?!

Poor Gma....

;)

Head Dresses {The Kids' Table Favors}

 You just never know where inspiration will hit ya. I've been trying to come up with a more meaningful place card/favor for our Thanksgiving. But also one that didn't have me running out buying supplies either. What a tall order! And I wasn't having any luck.

Then over the weekend, E and W were playing with this felt head dress that I had picked up at JoAnn's in the $1 section a while back. It was too big for E but it was too cute not to pass up when I bought it. While they were playing, it hit me: I could make one for each cousin that will be there. And I'll personalize each to make it more memorable! So I immediately got to work by pulling out all my scraps. And I used the JoAnn's headband as my template.

First, I cut out my seven headband strips from brown. Then I embroidered all seven cousins' names.

Next, I traced the four different templates for the layered leaves in green, red, orange and brown felt. {which I wish I could show you my four pretty little stacks, but that picture somehow got deleted. bleh.}  Here's the back of the one I purchased to give you an idea of the templates I used.

I then cut little slits into the leaves, to make them more leaf-like. That was done by folding each leaf in half and making little downward cuts starting from the top of the leaf.

Now came the tricky part: assembly. 

I glue-gunned all my layers together. My first run-in with a problem. I came up with this finished product:

 Um, yeah. Not going to cut it for a warrior-like head dress, yo. I consulted with my other half who is THE problem-solver. And he suggested I do this:

I glued the rest of the overlaying parts of the leaves together to try to reinforce them. Viola! We're back in business!

I also glued a small extra piece in back to good measure.

I laid them all out to make sure I put the velcro pieces on the right sides.

Funny thing about velcro...when I only had three head dresses left to make, they suddenly disappeared. W and I started going through the downstairs wondering where we could have put them. Since I do my crafting on our dining table, it's not uncommon for materials to be re-located for meal times. W suddenly started laughing because he saw the velcro had totally done its job...to my butt!

It was hilarious; partly because a minor crisis had been adverted and I didn't need to re-do them.

Last steps were to pin and sew those puppies up!

And then they were done!

They are all packed up and ready for our long drive! Sure hope they like 'em. Now, how in the world will I be able to get all seven wearing them and smiling for the camera?!

Out-Takes

We were at my parents' today taking Christmas card photos for my mom. Out of over a hundred photos, only ten were good enough for potentials...getting SIX people lookin' good simultaneously is hard! Especially with an almost two year old ornery little bugger. Instead of showing you the good looking ones, here are some of our "just fabulous" out-takes. ;)

Capturing A Park Date

Elizabeth and I have been getting together weekly for over a year now. So fun that sharing the church's nursing room a few times and one run-in at Micheal's could create such a sweet friendship. I told her I'd bring my new camera this week so I could have some new victims subjects to practice with and to finally get some pictures of the kids playing together. She was game and wished me luck--her boys are tough cookies to capture.

Her kids are the definition of wild, crazy, and down-right hilarious. I can't wait to see how Baby#4 {a girl due in January} will add to the mix. 

Zach {7} is the leader and persuader of the pack. He comes up with all the ideas, like burying his brother in the sand.

Stephen {5} is the sensitive/serious one. He's also the climber. I think he'll make a great poster-guy for REI someday.

And then there's Ellie {3 in March} who is a complete doll with killer curls, but can definitely hold her own {she does have two older brothers}. And a serious crack-up.

{we were having a very serious conversation about what she wants for Christmas}
 

Ezra and Ellie are pretty much two peas in a pod.

And we always have a great time together. {Yes, Elizabeth is 7 months pregnant, but you can't even tell}

They sure are pure-bred boys through and through.The kind bursting with energy and with mischief to spare.

 

Seriously love this family. Even with three kids and one on the way, Elizabeth was the first to bring us a meal when Theo was born. And she took Ezra for an afternoon during the week I had mastitis. Love that feeling you get when you just know you have a friend for life.

A Wee Bit of Everything...

Remember me mentioning this?

Well, I'm already putting this recklessness to good use {recipe HERE}! :)

I might as well confess now that I'm loving taking pictures of food. I don't know why exactly--maybe because it's so yummy--but it's FUN!

In other hobby news, I'm about five mittens in on my garland project. So much fun, but definitely tedious. My craft stuff has been dominating 1/4th of our dining table for the past two months. I'll get it done one of these days...

Since we bought the bike, there's only been one day that E has not hopped on the thing- and it wasn't for lack of trying on his part. We took him to a park to ride around, since doing laps in our complex might be getting a little old.

Unfortunately, we didn't get too far when it was clear that E was so ready for a nap. Distracted pedaling + meltdown about having to turn back leads to...

That's okay because an evening with the gparents more than makes up for it. ;)

That's E {with his "Agua Hair Styling" courtesy of Gpa} with his two favorite people.

I'm absolutely enamored with all of our fall foliage. It's absolutely beautiful. I don't think I could ever grow weary of it.

I told E to pick up the leaves and toss them in the air. I got this. Sometimes I don't where this kid comes from. Yeesh.

Oh, and did I mention he got a job recently?

Hard worker, but easily distracted. It's so much fun seeing him move more into the pretend stage. Pancake pieces become race cars, play dough becomes a batch of cookies, and he gets hired on by our landscaping company. Can't wait to see what he thinks up next.

Speaking of pretend, W may have inadvertently encouraged Ezra's very first imaginary buddy. One of W's tactics for getting E out of his whiny-meltdown-tantrum-acts is to suddenly say, "Look! Did you see that elephant just go by?!" It works, but now they're talking about what color it is and E has even added a baby into the mix. E pulls me by my hand so I can go try to catch them with him.

Hmmm....As if him wearing a helmet all day isn't enough.