Holiday Season

So, we've been super busy this holiday season and I've just neglected taking the time to sit down and reflect on all the things we've done. Here goes...I'll do pictures later. We went South Carolina for my Mama's family Christmas. We went to my uncle's house in Aiken. He has a horse and a pony...and my aunt took us out to see them. When someone mentioned going out to the barn to see the horses, Walker excitedly jumped up and said he wanted to go, Hudson looked at my Mama with this scared look in his eyes and said he didn't want to go! But, he went anyway. While out at the barn, Walker fed the pony and the horse treats and even said he wanted Pony to come out. Hudson, on the other hand was quite the opposite! We went out a second time during the evening and this time, we brought out the big horse. Hudson was quite frightened of this. (I think Walker was just a little scared, too...those things are BIG). But, Walker petted the horse, while Hudson didn't want to get close and cried a little. Although, right after he said...I did good, I just cried a little bit and I was close to that horse! My sweet guy is so self aware! We had fun visiting with family and playing our white elephant Christmas game! We also celebrated with the Stephenson family one Friday night in December. The boys always have sooo much fun playing with all their Stephenson cousins, and this was no exception! They played hard and even with dogs running around!
On December 20, Hudson sang at church in both services! This was such a huge deal because last year, he was supposed to sing, my parents drove all the way from Commerce, and even brought Papa along and the boy would not do it! I could not convince him that it was fine to go up and sing on the stage that Mommy sings on sometimes...he just wouldn't do it...he cried and cried, and I wasn't going to force him, so he sat with us while all the other kids sang. Well, this year, that kid was such a big boy. He walked in a line right up to the stage(however, he stopped at the row where Tony and all his grandparents and Beverly and Clay sat and said "I'm gonna sing again in a minute.") He also told me after that he didn't sing last year, he just cried and that he was a big boy this time. I really was so proud of him, and he beamed on the stage...so proud of himself! There were over 55 three to five year olds who sang that Sunday.
There's lots more, so I'll post more with pics and maybe video tomorrow! I can't believe that it's almost 2010!

Winner...

So the winner to the giveaway is...


And, because I have two boys, and they both wanted to pull a name, I decided to have 2 winners. The second winner is...
So, Kristy and Angela...let me know what kind, size and colors you want for your hats!

Giveaway...

So, with Christmas coming, I thought it would be fun to do a hat giveaway! I'm going to give away 1 hat...whatever color and size you'd like. I will custom make it for the winner. The choices are the Finley, Hudson or Walker hat. To enter, go visit http://www.finlindesigns.blogspot.com/ , then come back here and tell what your favorite hat style is and who you'll give the hat to if you win! For a second entry, blog, tweet, or facebook about the giveaway and then leave a second comment that you did that. I'll pick a winner on Saturday morning, December 12, so you can comment until then to enter.

Hats

So, I'm going to really start making the hats to sell...I've set up a website with some of the hats that I've made. Hudson and Walker both have their own beanies, I just don't have pictures of them yet. Need any Christmas presents for boys or girls? These would make good ones! Go check out http://www.finlindesigns.blogspot.com/ . Starting out, I'm going to do totally custom ordering...whatever colors are requested. Lori is going to make picture frames to custom order...and that will be coming soon. Let me know what you think...comments friends, comments!!! I vowed to take a picture of each hat that I made...and the other night I made one for a friend and forgot to get a pic...I guess I'll have to request a picture of the baby in the hat...that'll be even better!

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins

A friend and I were discussing blogs the other day and talking about how you can make yourself look or appear a certain way based on what you choose to post about. So the end of this blog is to let you see that yes, I am only human too, and nothing is perfect. And, if you think someone is, you are totally fooled, because no one can do everything perfectly...something's gotta give somewhere!
The boys got to paint their own little pumpkins the day before Halloween (one of the things I love about my days at home with them...doing fun things like this). We carved our family pumpkin that night. Finley was a little fussy in the swing, so we put her in her bumbo on the floor with the bowl of pumpkin goo and I let her play. We made sure she had her pacifier at all times so she didn't try to eat it! She had so much fun squishing that stuff around and putting it on her feet, her face, all over her clothes. I would have never ever let Hudson do that...but by the third, you just kinda roll with it more! The boys had fun helping pull out the goo and separate the seeds and guts (I just realized tonight that I never got around to roasting the pumpkin seeds...and I do that every year...). Here are some pictures of our fun! And just so you don't start thinking that we've got it all together, a few pictures to prove we don't. The morning we painted the pumpkins, we cleaned the car out first. And yes, all of this STUFF was in the car! And...now it's all in the garage...still! :)I also told the boys they had to pick up the den and put toys back in the toy box before we could paint, and they did. But this is what it looked like. So, while they painted, I took this picture...sometimes(or a lot of the time) I let what they do to help stay the way they helped do it...and let it be good enough!

Scarecrows and pumpkins

We put our scarecrows out after church one Sunday in the middle of October. We went to the pumpkin patch at Washington Farms on October 29. We rode the cow train, watched the pig races, played in the corn box, looked at the animals, raced the ducks, rode tricycles, and raced through toddler sized maze. We really had so much fun spending the afternoon together!

My computer and I have had some issues this month. It wasn't letting me load my pictures from my camera onto the computer, but I finally got it working today! So, maybe I'll do a few pictures a day for the next few days so as not to overwhelm the eye...or the blog. Here's a hat I made for Finley recently. Before she was born, I learned how to make hats and made about 3 newborn ones that she outgrew very quickly. I just figured out how to do this ruffly edge and made this for winter...I think I'm going to start making them to sell...I already have one "client" friend! This is a placemat clutch that I made for my sweet friend, Tiffany, for her birthday. I made the clutch purse using a placemat and this tutorial from Happy Together.