What do you do while waiting for your baby to come?

Try making 7 quilts. It will keep you very busy. And it also will give you something creative and pretty to work on. Here are the quilts I made in December and January.

This one is how it all began. This used to be a duvet cover that sat in my closet not being used. so I ripped off the back, added a thick batting, tied and bound it. It became a favorite of my family's to use on the couch so that led me to this next one . . .
This was Gil's quilt that I had professionally "quilted" and ended up hating because it was so thin (no warmth) and I felt the back was itchy. So I thought I would pick out all the stitching, add a flannel back, put a THICK betting, tie and bind. This one was the most labor intensive and COULD NOT have done it without the help of Tatia and Diana - both who like to pick! Mom was a great sounding board. She picked out the two new borders to make the quilt larger for Gilbert. Thanks Mom! I think it turned out great!
This quilt I made once I got home from Utah, after Christmas. It is a quilt for Connie (Gil's Mom) for coming to stay with us so often and help take of the baby. I think she will like it.
This is Tanner's quilt. He said he wanted something warm so I put double batting inside. I found this pattern online and decided to try it. Their block was all one color repeated throughout. I decided to do three different colored blocks: red, brown, and yellow. I'm happy to see Tanner using it.
I made this mini quilt for Teo for his toddler bed when he is ready to move out of his crib. I don't know where he will be sleeping - either with Tanner or Lola, so I decided to make his quilt match Tanner's in case they share the same room so they will have matching quilts. Teo likes me to wrap him in this quilt when going on cool stroller rides or sitting on the rocking chair watching a video before bed.
Finally, I decided I probably should make a quilt for the new baby . . . so I made this horizontal rag quilt. I really like how it turned out. The hardest part was deciding the order of the fabric. It took me one day to sew, one day to cut and wash. It is very soft and I love the colors.
Last, I made this patchwork quilt for Lola Bee with little bow ties for the ties. I tacked them on with the sewing machine. The hot pink makes me happy. Some of Mom's old fabric is in this quilt along with curtain fabric from Tatia's old Barn Rd. house in Sandy. I kept it all this time.
I feel so happy to have a Mom who taught me how to make quilts when I was 8 years old. She cut the fabric and I sewed them together. It is a great skill to know. Thanks, Mom. I love you!

Zippity-doo-da

Wow! Can we celebrate my half-birthday, too?
Thank you everybody for your lovely compliments ( and 1 disparagement) !

Last night I had my first CLOGGING class! So fun! A lady in my Relief Society had a group many years ago and she has agreed to teach us. We will perform at our RS birthday party in March.

TTFN

I LOVE Tatia!
She is an amazing mother to her children (and her dogs too). She is very creative. She writes well and plays the piano at all the family gatherings for the last several years. She wrote her ward's Christmas program and it was beautiful. She also directs her choir and gets them to perform their best Her choir is one of the best ward choirs I've ever heard. She maintains a great figure, much better than mine and I think she could get credit for it. I think it's too assumed that women with good figures don't really have any weight problems. Tatia has made a conscious effort to watch what she eats and has dynamite looks for it.
She has also done a spectacular job at managing her depression. She smiles a lot and makes those around her comfortable and happy. Her kids think she's great, but the real compliment is that her kid's friends think she's the bomb!
I like to hang around her and tell people "Yup, she's my sister!"
Happy B-day, Toshawatamus Incredibilicus!

It's HER Birthday!

Happy Day Tatia!!

(Not that I think you will ever see this....)
Always looking up
Always engaged with others
Always interested
Always younger than me

Do something fun today!

A Few Blogs for Some Facinating Info!

Over at Books We've Read I have made up my list of my

Top 10 (really more) books of 2010!

If you are looking for a good book to read, or one to stay away from, read that list! Oh, then comment and tell me what you liked!

Today happens to be Zak's 18th Birthday!!

I made a video about his whole last year. It's my first.

Come and enjoy!

Colesdaily.blogspot.com

Today is also Heather & Steven's First Year Anniversary!!

I interviewed them and that sweet thing is on the Cole blog also.

Just trying to keep you all up on all the news!

OH, and for our Fantasy Football, Zachary and Kylie tied for our Family Playoffs. But, Zak won the tiebreaker for that since he has a better overall regular season record. (Steven won the best overall season.)

Zak is currently filling out the paperwork to be a registered voters. What a good citizen!

Took Some Time for the Tree!

Finally, I took some time to help the tree!

I enjoyed all the effort. I think we ate dinner very late that night, but we still ate!

See the musical note? That is a new ornament that we given to me and Candice for singing at a Relief Society evening.
Remember making those balls??
And making the Angels and hearts?

We are singing and ringing bells over at the Cole's Blog starting on Christmas Day, come visit!
Chase also got cake all over his pants, you can see that over there too.
Much hilarity ensues.

I decided to share the Payne family's Christmas decorations! Howdy, all!
We decided to wrap ribbon around the tree this year as opposed to draping it down the sides. It was fun. Just so everyone knows, those of us in Utah, including Candice got together at Nana & Bumpa's for a little sing fest and visit Sunday night. I thought it was a great way to kick off Christmas week.
Nana, Bumpa, me, Diana and Katy went to Tatia's ward Christmas program - which she wrote and directed. She is amazing people! Amazing! It was so beautiful and she has a wonderfully talented choir... and I'm not just saying that.
Diana, Kate and I went to Nana & Bumpa's after church for brunch where Bumpa made us waffles on his new waffle iron Christmas present. YUM!
Enjoy the pictures. I love our stuffed animal collection. We have a bunch more not in the chest. I took special pictures of Stitch because he's hard to see but such a cute character. There was no way to put him in a more visible place because of all the other stuffed people who had to be there. Fun, fun, fun!
Diana and Kate cut out snowflakes and made a wonderful snowy mess, but easy to clean up.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

 Christmas is my very favorite time of the year, full of glowing lights, warmth, love, giving, delicious smells, and even better food! I can hardly ever keep from decorating as soon as possible, and this year was no different.  Thanksgiving night the tree went up, and I've been loving it.  Every night we are sharing a Christ centered scripture or Christmas story, and we are both excited to start some of our very own 'little family' traditions.  So without further ado, here are a few snapshots of our Christmas home and goings on.

 

This is our tree at night.

 I didn't like how our tree looked, so added popcorn garland! Sadly, Steven ate the rest of my popcorn before I could finish, so the top of our tree is missing garland. It  bugs me, so I'll pop some more :)

  

This is our mexican santa, from Mexico. He keeps watch over us, in a 

non-creepy way.

 

I been doing A LOT of baking and candy/chocolate making.



This is Steven acting out the gift of the Magi  for our nightly Christmas story.

Merry Christmas! Love, the Coles.

What does Christmas look like in everyone else's home?

Cole's Thanksgiving

Just sharing the pictures from our Thanksgiving...Enjoy! We did!

These are our place settings...little pilgrim ships. They have everyone's name on the sail AND M & M's in the ship. They were delicious. They were made by the efforts of Julie, Kylie and Nana. Nana decorated the tables. Beautiful!

This is the FOOD table before the food is on it.

This is Kylie's decorating ideas....props provided by Nana.
oh, back to the eating table

Time to eat!

We had 2 tables. All in one room. Worked out great.

The other table.

The food table FILLED with the food!

I'll describe what you see from the back and left to right:

mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce

Turkey, gravy (middle-ish), green beans (made with fresh beans!), pomegranate jello, plain red jello, ham

The turkey. Thank you.

Another view of the table

The other table.

Teo, entertaining himself.

That is Silvia sitting by Christopher. Silvia is Gil's cousin.

Hmm...did I not take a picture of the DESSERT table?? How strange of me...

It was filled with delicious items. Sad you missed seeing it.

We had a great time.

If you were not on these pictures, PLEASE post pictures of YOUR Thanksgiving!