What a Year!

2011 has come and gone so fast! I think we are ready for the new year this time. We have been so busy this last year that now I feel I can take a breath and sit for a second. For the holidays we spent Thanksgiving at Ryan's Uncle and Aunt's place across town. It was a great time. So nice to have family around and sit and talk, play games and just enjoy each others company. We have no immediate family around so it's nice to compensate with Ryan's cousins.

For Christmas I made all my Christmas cards, lots of work, and made 27 pairs of pajama pants/shorts/capris. It was a lot of work but I love making them for Christmas so why not right?

Abby and Sammie have on their matching capris and shirts I made them for Christmas

We also continued our family tradition of the 12 Days of Christmas. We chose a single mother with 2 girls my daughters' ages. We had a lot of fun. We also did jammie pants for them for one night. They live close by so it was nice to get the stuff together and let the kids run it over.

For Christmas we had my brother in-law, Bob,

and my 2 nephews, Corey

and Ian,

and my little brother, Aaron over.

We had a great time! Corey grew out an afro and it was fun to put my fingers in. They are always so good with the kids and the kids love playing with them, especially the girls. The girls love the attention. We went sledding one evening with them and it was so fun. On one hill Seth went down on his stomach and he got hit in his manly parts and couldn't move when he got down the hill so Corey and Ian laid him on the sled and carried the sled out of the way like a stretcher. It was really funny watching them. Seth will shoot me if he knows I posted that too. He was a good sport, didn't even cry. Just couldn't move.

Ryan sledding with Abby and Sammie

Abby, Sammie and Maggie being pulled along by Daddy

Lillian bit it good!

Ian went really far on this one

Corey's looking good!

Dominic went down a really slick run and stayed on!

Aaron held Maggie while I took the pictures. What a guy!

Lori and Ian chatting at the table

It was such a wonderful time! Now the new year is here and I currently find myself sewing again but this time it's skirts for Lillian. She has none and is tired of the dresses she has. So we enter a new phase where I am sewing for my daughter because she wants me to not because I want to. Well, I do it because I love her. I want to teach my girls to sew so that they don't have to always rely on me for that after they leave home. I want them to be self-sufficient that way. So in talking to my mom the other day she said to let Lil put the elastic in the waist or let her cut some of the pattern out. So I think for my sanity sake we'll start small and do elastic. I'm not always patient so I guess we're training me to teach her. It works. I hope to be the kind of teacher with my kids as my Mom was and still is with me.
PSSSSTTT. Don't tell my mom but I'm also making her this really cute skirt for her birthday this month as well. I'll try to snag a picture of it before I send it off.