Spring

Spring is even here in Minnesota... its actually been here for a few weeks but I've been too busy to write anything and post pictures. My parents visited last week and besides going to the Mall of America we spent some time outside. Ben bought a giant container of bubbles and the pictures describe the fun better than I can.

Valentines Gifts

I found this heart shaped silicon baking tray on sale. I've wanted to make something with our broken crayons so it worked out perfectly. Sophia and I chose the color combinations and I really like how they melted together. Sophia kept asking if she could eat them when I pulled them out of the oven... she thought the oven turned the crayons into edible food. After showing her they wrote like crayons I think she understands she can't eat them.

Sophia has really loved playing with her big legos and she loves to make stuff and give it to Ben or I. She made this and as she gave it to me said "Happy Valentines Day". My heart melted like the crayons.

Ben took away gold as my Valentines gift. See the lovely gold knobs and handles below. That what was throughout our house. Shiney isn't it? He replaced everything with a nice brushed silver. Thanks Ben!!

Obsessive

Ben and I were talking about how we get obsessed about things. Ben is obsessed with work and learning how to code/program right now. He worked the entire weekend at home because he wanted to. Saturday/Sunday morning he came to bed at 5am! I thought I was a fairly technical person but I'm not... He tries to explain things and I get really lost. He's enjoying his job though and I'm really proud of him and want to brag about how smart he is.

I'm obsessed with sewing right now. I can't find patterns in my size and I'm not sure I remember how to follow one anyway so I've mostly been sewing things for the girls. Ben holds on to things which normally annoys me but has come in VERY handy for refashioning. He had this XL tall flannel shirt and a XXXL Vandals tshirt.

I made an Abbey dress, Sophia skirt and me skirt from the flannel shirt. It was 11:30 when I finished the me skirt and Ben was working so here's the best timed picture I got.

I made this Abbey dress and Sophia dress from the Vandals t-shirt and an argyle patterned bedsheet. I'm really happy with how these turned out. I used their clothes as a guide to make the neck line and arms.

Day to Day

Over the long weekend the weather was so nice (sunny and in the 30's). We had a lot of hanging out having fun time. As of yesterday it got a little colder and the clouds were hiding behind the sun.

At the back edge of our yard there are lilac trees. Here's what they look like all frosty.

This is 1 of 3 evergreen trees on top of the hill of our back yard.

The girls fresh out of their bath getting some Daddy time.

Sophia found lipstick, actually lipstain.... this photo doesn't show how bright it was. Sophia definately has the better fishy lips here.

All us girls got new scarves in the mail!!

Sledding

Buddy kept chasing Sophia and I when we'd sled down the hill.

Solution: I'll make him sled with me. Notice he has his game face on.

Action shot as he decides the sled isn't for him.

Christmas Morning

Our tree on Christmas morning. The Angel fell off the top before Christmas so you'll just have to imagine a pretty white angel there.

They were really excited to see the stockings all full. The girls have matching Christmas pj's... We all got red pj's because I wanted a picture of all of us. That didn't happen though. too much chaos.

Abbey sharing her candy cane lollipop with Ben for a second.

The girls opened about 3 presents and were done. They wanted to play with the things they opened. Abbey's on a bouncy ball and Sophia is showing her My little Pony.

First real snow

We got 3-4 inches of snow but we have 1- 1/2 foot snow drifts due to winds 25-30 mph.

Here's Ben, Sophia and Abbey sledding down the little hill in our backyard when it wasn't windy and freezing.

This is one of our windows in the 3 season porch. I think it was -11 this morning.