Bryn's Quilt

I just finished a quilt! Which is a big deal since I'm definitely not a quilter. I sewed a patchwork quilt years ago and tied it with yarn (you know the kind I mean?), but I'd never done this type of quilt before. I couldn't find a good striped material that I liked, so I sewed strips of blue and green together to make the top layer, and then the bottom is just a solid piece. For the "quilting part" I just connected the layers together with straight lines every three stripes. It was a fun project. It's 44" x 60" so it will be Brynlee's quilt for her toddler bed. I thought she'd need a toddler bed sooner, so I started on this quilt months ago. But now it might be a while before she switches to a toddler bed, so the quilt will just sit in a box. Yadda yadda yadda, too much information. But hooray for quilts!

Fun Weekend

My brother Jae spent the Thanksgiving weekend with us and it was such a great time! I love my siblings! In the past Bryn took a little while to warm up to my siblings since she only sees them 2-3 times a year. But Bryn and Jae are regular Skype buddies now, so she was silly and comfortable with him right off. She loved reading with him, coloring, dancing, and getting all wound up and silly with him. We also spent time with my Uncle Mark this weekend, which Bryn always LOVES. This is Mark and Bryn enjoying Thanksgiving left-overs. They're good buddies. On Saturday we went to one of our favorite places: Dana Point. We walked the trail that leads to the Ritz. It has such a nice grassy area above the beach. We read books, colored with Bryn, threw around a football, and took naps. It's such a beautiful place to hang out. Bryn and Josh The best part of cooking a turkey is using leftover turkey for a pot pie! Bryn's pride and joy is our little Christmas tree. She plays by it all day and says "We really love this Christmas tree!" about 100 times a day. One final, blurry picture before Jae took off. THANKS JAE for coming to visit! Today at about 5 pm Bryn paused and said "Jae at work?...... Jae come home now a Mom and Bryn?" Luckily, she'll see him in a month!

Christmas Season!

We got out our thin, little Charlie Brown Christmas tree this weekend, and Bryn was in heaven decorating it with ornaments and also random toys and things she found throughout the house. It's been a constant project as things have been added and removed all day long. These pictures show a pretty normal tree, but I should have taken the pictures when the tree was covered in play dough cups, plastic animals, strings, papers, and lots of other random things.

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our apartment today and it was such a great day. We had two guests this year: my brother Jae who drove down from San Fransisco, and my uncle Mark who lives here in Huntington Beach. Bryn was napping when we ate, but she enjoyed a big meal when she woke up. When Bryn came out and saw Jae and Mark here, she immediately ran back to her room and came back with hats for everyone. She insisted that we each wear the one she picked out for us. She was loving all the attention from Mark and Jae, spending most the day running circles around our front room and trying to make us laugh.

Thanksgiving Party

We had a little Thanksgiving Party today for Brynlee's little playgroup. I'd learned from past playgroup days that these girls don't like wearing headbands, so instead of indian headbands I made some simple indian feather clips.

I saw a cute idea in Family Fun magazine of making a felt cornucopia, so I made three simple versions of it for the girls to play with. The girls had fun filling and emptying the cornucopias, and finding the matches of each vegetable/fruit. I asked the girls what they were thankful for (or what they loved) and these were what each of them said. I thought their answers were cute. I don't have good pictures of this, but we used some very authentic beads to make indian necklaces. Eating popcorn, with their new necklaces Coloring time. I replaced the crayons with fruit snacks to send home with the girls, with the little things they had made.

It was so fun to have an excuse to make some Thanksgiving crafts!

Five More Days

It's been a long fall and I am so excited to be back with my family for Christmas. In the meantime, we're counting down the days til my brother Jae comes down from San Fransisco to join us for Thanksgiving. Bryn loves Jae, so she's probably even more excited than I am. She's been talking all day about Jae coming to visit, and she's already decided that, when he arrives, "Jae wear Brynlee's purple hat". I'll have it washed and ready.

A BIG Day for Me

It's been a big day for me. I sewed my first pillow cover....with a ZIPPER. I've only sewn with zippers a few times before, but they still kind of intimidated me. Until, I found a great tutorial (click HERE) for pillow covers with zippers, so I tired it out. And......I realized zippered pillow covers are actually simpler and quicker to sew than the envelope closures like I used to do.

Behold, the zipper!

Birch Aquarium

Josh had work off today, so we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps in San Diego.

It was a really neat aquarium and a beautiful day!

Grateful

Bryn made me laugh all day long with her non-stop rambling about her stuffed turtle who "had yuckies in his diaper" all day long, the mysterious "sad pig with a party hat"?, and other made-up stories.

Josh brought me home much-needed chocolate covered raisins.

We bought a really high-quality fake Christmas tree for $25 at Target. (Think Charlie Brown Christmas).

Then we smooshed together on the couch for FHE, sharing a bowl of ice cream, with Bryn burrowing under blankets, laughing through the lesson, and begging us to tickle her.

I am blessed.

We Date

We got a babysitter and went on a date last night, which rarely happens. It was awesome.

We went to a new place and I actually ordered something I loved, which also rarely happens. (Josh always gives me a heard time for ordering healthy, not-that-tasty food. But last night I scored! And my husband was so proud).