Just the Three of Us

We recently had a "family" photo taken of just the three of us. It seemed like a little bit of an odd thing to do with three-fourths of our children missing, but this is how most people know us these days. I find this to be an odd stage of life, actually. When meeting people in our new city they assume Abigail is an only child, and look at me with wonder when I explain that no, actually she's the youngest of four!

Her First Formal

My "baby" is not so much a baby any longer. She attended her first formal a few weeks ago, and looked beautiful. Her friend Meredith fixed her hair into a style that was becoming to Abigail and accented her dress nicely. 

 Her shoes? Simple, clear jelly flats. They looked like glass slippers!

Which was quite fitting since the formal was held in a real castle. And after all, she is Cinderella!

Valentine Gingerbread Homes

Tradition. We've made gingerbread houses for years, and we all look forward to it. When a friend hosted this year, I was happy to be able relax and not have all of the baking, cleaning up, etc. that goes along with such an activity. But there's something to be said for hosting, too. You know, like if you're invited for Thanksgiving dinner, and it's wonderful, but you don't have the leftovers for sandwiches, and the carcass for broth. Yeah, it's kind of like that. But different, too. 

Verne especially missed me hosting since he wasn't able to partake in the house decorating. Sometimes I think that activities I plan are too over the top, and that maybe no one even cares. It's not that I feel under-appreciated; I don't. My family has always been very good about expressing their appreciation for what I do. It's just that maybe I don't need to go to the lengths that I do to show my love for them. Maybe I'm doing these things more for myself than for them, because they're what I would choose. Maybe they'd be satisfied with doing less, or not doing the activity at all. 

In any case, I had those feelings of missing something, and decided to proceed in a different way. Since Abigail did get to build a Christmas house and time was going to be very limited when we were all together over the holidays, I decided to move the activity to Valentine's Day. Abigail invited friends since her siblings would be absent. I baked and assembled eight houses: six for the girls, one for Verne, and one for me. 

The leftover dough was baked into hearts, big and small, and round cookies bearing a homemade stamp. Marshmallows were dipped in Dolci Frutta and topped with snowflake sprinkles and nonpareils. Pink lemonade was also served. 

The table was set with a house at each spot, and goodies for decorating were placed in bowls just before the girls arrived. 

Each girl was also asked to bring some candies of their choosing to share for decorations. 

Look! A real, live gingerbread person!

The girls had a great time, and it was fun to see their unique decorating styles. However, the highlight of the day was watching Verne decorate his house. I made his house a bit different, and added a chimney. He is special, you know.

The girls were allotted 3 hours for decorating. No one needed that much time, and they used the last hour to play games. But Verne? He worked, and worked, and worked. He took four hours on his house, and with that I got my answer. These traditions? They are not just for me.


Cookie stamp found here.

Sweet Days

For so many years the hustle and bustle has happened in our own home, but the days are much quieter now. Abigail and I were thrilled to be thought of and invited to participate in a Gingerbread House Party. The afternoon was a wonderful mix of older and younger children, and a sweet time with other moms. Having baked and assembled these houses so many years in the past I truly appreciated the hostess and all of her hard work.

Mac is home, and now we wait for Autumn and Collin to arrive. The turn around time will be quick, just as it was for Thanksgiving, but I'm so grateful that we'll all be together.

From our home to yours, Merry Christmas!

Us- 2013

We had a few family photos taken after Mac's college graduation, but to be honest, Mac had hat head and everyone else was wearing a goofy grin. While I was happy to capture the day, it wasn't our finest moment.

Thanksgiving afternoon, Collin's friend Randall met us to capture a few images. No pressure. We'd already eaten and been laughing, and the smiles came easily. Perfect? Our finest moment? No. What we really look like? Yes. It was quite chilly, being only 37°, but the late afternoon light was gorgeous.

Mac had the brilliant idea to capture a "sorority girl" photo with Collin, and their smiles are perfect. Since Collin usually hates being photographed, being comfortable with the photographer and the silliness of the moment really made him laugh. Perfect.

October 2013

Recipe for the popcorn bars can be found here. I HIGHLY recommend adding nuts. 

October came, and now it's nearly gone. I completed another trip around the sun. I gave and received snuggles, cooked soups and scones, ate goodies, oversaw Abigail's lessons, finished two quilt tops, and ran. And ran. And ran.

Three more sleeps until Verne and I run our marathon. I think we'll both be glad for the time change that night.

Commencement

There's been lots of talk of quilts, and not much of family around these parts. We've gone from a houseful of children to having only one left at home. This past weekend, Mac graduated from college and will continue to live in an apartment in the same town where he attended university these past four years. He's been employed as a technical writer for an auditing firm over the past year, and was hired full time. Autumn is sharing a house with a friend, attending school, and working several jobs. Collin recently rented a home, and is employed locally. He's attending school as well. That leaves just Abigail here with us. 

It's quiet. Very quiet. 

With everyone scattered here and there, the last time we were all together was Easter 2012. I was thrilled to get to spend Friday evening and most of Saturday with our entire family. 

Time marches on.


Photography credit goes to Mac's friend Sarah who was majoring in photojournalism, but has recently made a switch.

Autumn Turns Twenty

I can hardly believe that two of my children are out of their teens when it seems some days that I'm barely out of mine! We saw Autumn for a few brief hours on Saturday when we traveled for the wedding of a family friend. This is the third wedding of our children's childhood friends this year. When did everyone grow up? Two of those three are about to be parents themselves!

Back to Autumn... she looks well, and it was good to kiss and hug her and see her at work later in the afternoon. I do believe she's thriving there and it makes me happy seeing her happy.

I finished part of her birthday gift on the car ride on the way to the wedding. I'd started this little gnome/mushroom mug rug quite a few months ago. One day last week I machine quilted the entire thing. I then proceeded to rip all of that quilting out, and re-quilted it- by hand the second time. Much better! The binding was stitched into place and the finished gift was presented to her in person Saturday afternoon. You can find the pattern here.

Did I mention that Autumn caught the bridal bouquet? She smartly pinned one of the roses to her sweater before arriving at work, and looked radiant!

Family Fun: Steelers vs Bengals

Verne kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday. I'm the practical sort most of the time, and couldn't think of anything I really needed. I then began to think of what I might like to have. To be honest, I'm trying to live a simpler life. I don't want more things sitting around to have to dust. I couldn't even think of anything useful. It was then that I started thinking...what would be fun for all of us? And then, as if on cue, Collin mentioned that the Steelers were playing the Bengals soon, and how much fun it would be to go to the game. One afternoon, just for fun, he researched tickets. Yep. We could get four together. 

So Collin and I schemed, and the day before my birthday I was able to tell Verne that we would be seeing the Steelers play that Sunday evening. I told him it was my birthday present. And his. Tickets don't come cheap, you know? He was thrilled. 

Driving into the city I was overwhelmed with the amount of black and yellow I saw. We were in Cincinnati after all. People were singing, and waving Terrible Towels. 

When we reached our seats, it was fun to see that we were mostly surrounded by Steelers fans. A friend had warned me that her son had attended a game in Paul Brown Stadium several years before, and that the Bengals fans had given him a hard time. 

The first half of the game made me very nervous. I kept texting my mom who is an avid Steelers fan, and she assured me that they always play better in the second half. 

 I prayed it would be so!

Sure enough, things turned around, and we won 24-17. It was super fun evening. The whole way back to the car we were surrounded by black and yellow, people singing and cheering.

It's better to give than to receive, but I have to say I received much joy by treating Verne to the game!