Oops

Just in case you're wondering what happens when you accidentally wash your husband's white socks with red fabric.......

Sorry, honey.

Merry Christmas

Every Christmas Eve we have a family Christmas devotional.  With all the little kids we did an abbreviated version.  We watched the new church videos of the birth of the Savior. This is the video of the Shepherds:

You can find all of them at lds.org.  I hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas and has had an opportunity to remember the true celebration of the season.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Giving

We headed over this morning to deliver gifts to a family in need this morning.  This is part of the "Christmas extravaganza" (as my dad would say).  Everyone in my family pitched in, so we were able to do quite a bit for the family.  The most important stuff was bedding and coats, but we also got a lot of fun stuff for the kids. 

Quilt front

I finished the toddler quilt with only an hour to spare, so it was perfect timing. The pattern is based on Jamie Mueller's "Auntie's Diamonds" featured at Moda.

Quilt back

 It was so fun incorporating Elle's scraps into the back of the quilt. 



I was using my mom's sewing machine, so I didn't feel comfortable doing free motion quilting.  I stuck with doing stitch in the ditch and outlining the diamonds.  I think it looks cute.

Here are a couple of pictures of Elle's sheets on a toddler bed mattress.  I think they're adorable.  I love the way she chose to do the elastic - such a cool idea to put it on the outside.

 I love how well they go with the quilt.  I met the little girl this morning, and she was SO cute, so I'm so excited for her to enjoy them.

We're getting the last of our shopping done now, so that we can enjoy Christmas Eve together.  It's been awesome having my entire family all together for the first time since my wedding (5 years ago).  We're quite the rowdy clan- we've had family pictures, a game night, a Treasure Island movie night (the Charlton Heston version was a family favorite growing up), and tons of Wegmans runs (if you haven't been to Wegmans I'll just say you're missing out on life and leave it at that).

So Cute!

When Elle heard about what we were doing for the family in need for Christmas she offered to make sheets for the toddler bed- seriously, what a sweetheart!  I got the sheets in the mail and they are SO cute! 

They are going with this toddler-bed quilt:  I just finished the quilt top yesterday.  She also sent me some of the extra material from the sheets and I'm so excited to incorporate it in with the back of the quilt.  That's today's project. 

More pictures to come:  I'm hoping to get a picture of the sheets on a toddler mattress for Elle.

Quilts Progress

I finished the baby boy quilt.  The pattern is based on Amy Smart's "Easy Bricks Quilt" featured at Moda.   I hand stitched most of the binding during the car ride up to New York, so it was a quick finish once I got here.  I'm now in the middle of piecing together the toddler girl quilt top.  In the mean time here are some pictures of the baby boy quilt:

Quilt Front

Quilt Back

It's nice and cuddly, soft.  Even the brown binding is fuzzy.  I did some free motion lines for quilting, because it was late at night and I needed something quick and simple.  I made the quilt pretty big so that the baby can grow with it.  Now I've got to get to work on the second quilt.  Only a few more days until we deliver everything to the family.

Fellowship Interviews Already?!

It seems like just yesterday Joel was applying for Pediatric residency programs, and now we're already going through the same process all over again.  He's planning on specializing in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (Blood diseases and cancer for children).  The fellowship is another three years of training - beginning a little over a year after the match date (May 2, 2012).  He had his first interview yesterday and as always we like to have fun analyzing and ranking the programs as we go along.  So here goes:

(source)

Cleveland Rainbow Babies

Initial Thoughts:

Pros: There has been a lot of positive change & forward momentum to the program.  Really enthusiastic and passionate faculty and ancillary staff.  It's a very fellow focused program (training future leaders in the specialty) with a lot of flexibility in training.  All Hem/Onc services will be localized in the hospital, and it has a strong Sickle Cell program.  Cleveland is an inexpensive city to live in, and it's closer to family (5 hours to both grandparents)

Cons: Currently the in-patient facilities are underwhelming.  There's more of a focus on science-based research instead of clinical research.  He wasn't super impressed with the fellows he met.  We'd be moving 2 1/2 hours away from the temple, and we'd have to sell our house.

Bottom Line: An up and coming program that Joel would be happy with if he matched there.

Our current rankings:
1. Rainbow Babies

Music Winnings

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, but kept forgetting......I won a signed copy of Hilary Weeks' new CD from Macy Robison's Photography Blog.  I love Macy!  She was my mentor and I was her first student teacher.  I would not be the teacher I am today if it weren't for her.  I learned so many wonderful things from her about teaching and just about being a good person. 

Macy also sent me her CD.  She is now traveling all over the country performing for Time Out for Women.  It's a wonderful, inspirational conference for women.  My mom went to one and loved it.  It didn't work out in my schedule to go this year when it came to Cincinnati, but one of these days I would like to go. 

Here's a video of Hilary's recently released song: Beautiful Heartbreak.  It brings tears to my eyes every time. 

Music All Around

(source)

Joel and I went to a Handel's Messiah sing along this weekend and had so much fun!  It was my first time at the Southern Theater hearing the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.  It was great singing challenging music again- even if it was just for one night.  Note to self though - following the score on your husband's iphone makes reading the notes quite challenging.  Remind me next time to bring my own score in good, old fashioned paper form.  That being said, the highlight for me had to be watching all of the ladies around us swoon as my husband sang in all his pure Tenor glory.  He sang the Messiah twice while at University of Richmond, so he's very familiar with the music - he had people pointing and chatting about him as he sang all of the difficult melismas (running sequences of notes) flawlessly.  That's right ladies - he's all mine! :)

And if that wasn't good enough - he's also singing in church today one of our favorite Christmas songs - the Wexford Carol.  It's an Irish carol that's not quite as well known, but I love it!  My absolute favorite version is Mack Wilberg's full orchestral arrangement (listen below), and Joel likes the Celtic Women version.  Every arrangement we've ever come across is meant for Baritone, but my hubby is a True Tenor - he sings in the rafters, folks.  He asked me to write him an arrangement in a key he could sing that is a mix of the two versions we like.  I only have a piano - no orchestra or even a harp, so the sound isn't as full as I would like it, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  He'll also be singing it at my parent's church on Christmas day, so we're getting good use out of the song this Christmas.  Maybe after we tweak it a little, we'll record it so you can hear our version.

Christmas Blocks Coming Together

Slowly but surely we're getting there......
#29- All Wrapped Up:

#21- All in a Flurry:

Cassie's comment the other day made me realize that I hadn't ever put all of the blocks together yet, so.... here are the first 13 blocks:

Since then I finished another block- #33 One Special Star:

That leaves me needing 2 more squares to round it out to 16, but now I'm feeling like it needs another row.  I think I'll focus on the 2 blocks for now and then go from there.

A Little Update....Just for the Fun of It

There isn't a link up at Freshly Pieced today, but just for fun, I thought I'd track my progress for the week anyway.

1- I completed the 18th Skill Builder block.  I love how they're looking all together now.

2- I'm up to date on my Blogger BOM.
3- I made a bag for each of the boys for Christmas.  Little Man and Little E (Cousin) are both getting a wooden train set for Christmas and inside each of the bags is a train from Thomas & Friends.  I know perfectly well they will only care about the train and not the bag, but I still think they're cute.

4- I got a Christmas block done, so I need 6 more to finish off the quilt top.  This is #36- Christmas Memory block:   (I love the little present in the middle of the sashing)

Stats for the Week:

New projects - 2
Completed projects - 2
WIP- 3
No progress-  Ladybug Quilt & Halloween Wall Hanging

What are you working on?

Letters of Gratitude

This past week's Activity Days fell on the last day of November, so we made Gratitude Cards.  Each girl made three cards expressing gratitude for 1- someone from church, 2- someone in their family, 3- any person they chose.  They made the cards themselves - I was impressed by their creativity. 

Our newest addition to the group is slightly under aged, but she's so cute we've decided to let her tag along with her mommy.

Getting My MoJo Back

It always takes me a couple of days to get back into the rhythm of life after vacation.  Unpacking, doing laundry, and keeping children happy (who had gotten used to way more attention than just a boring 'ole mom can give them) makes me tired.  When I finally got back to sewing it felt so good!

(I'm linking up to BOMs Away Monday at What a Hoot):

1- Skill Builder #18: Flying Geese- I'm officially half way done with this sew along and am totally loving it.

2- November BOM (#3):  Split Star

Waterfront Paradise

Joel and I were lucky enough to be able to get away for 24 hours to celebrate our 5th anniversary (A huge thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Thompson for crowd control while we were gone).  We headed down to the Chesapeake Bay.  We stayed at an adorable 1800s Bed and Breakfast Inn outside of St. Micheal's, Maryland. 

  This is the view from the porch off of our room:

 We actually stayed in the annex next to the main house.

There was no TV or Wi-fi.  It was perfect for us to just get away and unwind.  First thing we did: sat on the dock and watched the sunset.  The unseasonably warm weather was the cherry on top of an already fabulous evening. 

So relaxing......There goes the sun:

Once the sun was long gone, we headed to town.  Since it was off-season the entire town was pretty much shut down by 5pm, so there wasn't much in way of window shopping, but that's alright.  We headed to dinner at a really cool, local restaurant.   We don't eat a whole lot of seafood, but when staying at the Bay how can you NOT branch out?!  We had crab cakes and rock fish and Joel also tried ceviche (made with salmon) for the first time.  The highlight of the meal was actually the orzo sitting in a basil remoulaude.  Yum!!

 The view is just as nice in the morning.  :)

The best part of the trip? (Besides spending time together alone- obviously):  Waking up at 7am, cuddling for a couple minutes and then rolling over and going back to bed until 8am.  With a son that regularly gets up by 6am, it was sheer decadence.  Yay for sleeping in!