I Finally Did It!

I have been quilting for a little over a year now, mostly baby blankets and other baby stuff for friends and family. I finally decided to channel my quilting skills into making a real grown-up sized quilt. I made this one for Brett's mom for Christmas. I'm quite proud of it. ;-)

Christmas Week(end)

Brett and I each had a five day weekend for Christmas which was WONDERFUL. Actually, Brett is off from school for 2 whole weeks, although he is still going in to see patients on certain days. We got even more snow. I swear there was at least a rock solid (and I really mean rock solid) foot of snow on the ground outside just from the past week. We are handling snow removal for our neighbors while they are out of town. They conveniently picked a very snowy week to be away, but we don't mind because they're good neighbors. Here is my snow-shoveling husband out clearing the walks on Christmas Eve:


I was so excited to FINALLY have a white Christmas that I just had to take a snowy picture in front of our tree in our front yard.


Later that day we went to see the movie Four Christmases, which Brett & I can totally relate to. Then we drove all over town looking for a restaurant that was open for dinner. There were surprisingly few restaurants open for Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner and a movie we returned home to make some cut-out cookies. Brett & I have always just called them sugar cookies, but everyone in Iowa seems to call them cut-out cookies, so I will call them that too. :)


Christmas morning we slept in. It was wonderful. Then we went out to see what Santa had left under the tree:



(lovin' the bed-head)

Santa even brought something for Moose:


We hung out, relaxed, watched a Christmas Story a few times and made our own Christmas dinner. I don't have any pictures of that.

Friday we did our part to keep the economy going ;) by heading out for some day-after-Christmas shopping. I'm afraid I don't have a picture of that either, but we had a good time.

The rest of the weekend Brett & I focused on cleaning and getting more organized. I am especially proud of my completely re-organized closet:


I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

We Haven't Blown Away (Yet)

I am having a hard time believing that today is the first official day of winter, because we have been hit hard by the winter weather already. It all began on Thursday with lots of snow, sleet, and of course freezing rain to go on top of and solidify all of the snow we already had on the ground. Yesterday Brett was kind enough to go out and de-ice my car that had been sitting outside since Thursday night. The snow was so solid that this huge chunk came off in one piece off of the roof of the car:

Everything outside is completely covered in ice...

Even this bird house has a giant icicle:

We could even pick up giant chunks of snow in our yard because everything is so frozen:

Today it is very cold and VERY windy. When I woke up this morning the air temperature outside was -7 degrees with -32 degree windchill... I think I am just going to stay inside where it is warm and cook some chili. :)

NOTE: For those of you receiving e-mail blog updates, I added a cool plug-in to the blog so that it looks like it is snowing. If you want to check it out, you can go here.

Christmas Toys

This year, in lieu of an office gift exchange, we decided to pool our money and buy toys for needy children. My co-workers Amanda and Jordan and I went to lunch and afterward went shopping for the kids. We had lots of fun together, and it feels good to help out a good cause.
Racecars for the boys:


And a cart full of toys:

Last Weekend

I figure that since this weekend is pretty much over, I should probably blog about last weekend before time gets away from me.

Thursday was bowling night, as usual. Brett was on fire that night and bowled five consecutive strikes! We have since learned that this feat is called a "five-bagger" in bowling lingo.


Brett's look of pride after bowling five strikes:


Friday night was the much-anticipated Christmas Craft night at my house. My friends Meggan..:


...and Kelly..:


...came over for some food, wine and Christmas crafts. If that sounds to you like a winning combination, let me tell you- it is.

We made all kinds of ornaments, including these cool round ornaments made out of scrapbook paper:


and reindeer magnets made out of Christmas light bulbs:

Then Meggan had the idea to make boy & girl reindeer, so we added bows to some of them:


We also made more of these ornaments from Homemade by Jill that I previously blogged about.


On Saturday we wrapped some Christmas presents...

...and I made Moose a stocking. He had been needing one for some time now:


Saturday night we went with our friends Kelly (above) and her husband, Matt to Clinton, IA (about 45 minutes away if you don't get lost) to check out the Symphony of Lights. We sipped hot cocoa, ate some yummy gingerbread, and looked at all the pretty lights in the snow. It all felt very festive and Christmas-y.




...Then on Sunday I finally finished this adorable baby quilt for my friend Tara who is expecting a baby boy any time now: