Spoiled

One thing that my mother is a professional at. Spoiling my children. Miles cried pretty much the entire way home about how he wanted to go back to Grandma's. Even Anna piped in with a, "But I want to go back to Grandma's where I don't have to do chores." Oy.

Another way my mom spoils them is through food. Every night MUST have dessert.

I promise Lucas didn't mind (note all the scratches on his face from Emily?)

Moving On

From there, we traveled the six hours from VA to where my parents live in Pennsylvania. And from the moment we arrived it was all about the swings. My parents have several (as in LOTS) of mature trees on their property. When I was growing up, I remember spending HOURS on rope swings, climbing trees, building forts, and even raking the leaves into big piles in the fall. It is the same today for my children and that makes me so darned happy I could wet my pants.

 I can't really give you the full magnitude of how high this particular rope swing goes, but this might give you a vague idea. The man in the picture is my oldest brother Adam... He's about 6 feet tall.

Hold on tight!

We are Family

We took a quick couple of minutes on our way out to snap some pictures of Audrey & Family.

We miss you guys already!

In Virginia

Our time in Virginia was mostly spent just enjoying the fact that we didn't HAVE to do anything. We picked vegetables out of Audrey's garden. We enjoyed their great and spacious house (Audrey has her own craft room!) We swam in their kiddie pools. Audrey took me to a yarn store (swoon! more about this coming!)

 Audrey has an endless amount of patience. She made homemade noodles for the lasagna we feasted upon. Craving it right now. She even let the kids (and me) help. She's a saint.

 Their family just added ours right into the mix of things. It was wonderful.

 Even when Lucas was demonstrating his monkey skills.

 Our "older" kids kept themselves occupied pretty well with drawing and playing and making a magnificent mess in their playroom everyday.

 Isn't Hannah beautiful?

 Pretty sure Miles is in his pajamas in this shot...it was that kind of a trip. It was hard to leave them, but we had more adventures awaiting us.

Avoiding Inundation.

Yes, we went on a vacation. Yes, it was fabulous. I'm going to try to slowly blog about all the wonderful and fabulous things we did, but it'll probably a post/day about it until I'm done.

For starters, this was a road trip.  Is there really any other way to do it with five kids? We certainly can't afford the $2000 in airline tickets just to get to my parents. Plus, if we travel by car minivan we can stop wherever the heck we want.

Our first stop was in Roanoke, VA where Matt's sister and her family live. We dig them. They tolerate us.

 There we met up with Hannah (above) and Emily (below).

Emily and Lucas pretended to be friends when everyone was looking. But when everyone was preoccupied with all the delicious food Audrey forced us to eat, they were just plain brutal to each other. It's been over a week since we saw them and Lucas's scratches have finally healed (not even kidding!). But don't worry, it wasn't all Emily as we caught Lucas biting her several times. Our only consolation was that they were equally matched in meanness.

She looks real tough, eh?

Hiatus.

We're on one. Be back soon-ish with something fabulous...

4 Months

Can you believe it's been four months since Libby was born?

Some days it seems like just yesterday.

And some days it seems as if I've known her for ever so much longer.

I admit that in the evenings, after she's fallen to sleep, her father and I sneak in to peer at her tiny body.

And we laugh and smile and talk of what a fabulous kid we've made.

More Knitting?

I realize that I'm posting an awful lot of knitting projects and that many of you do not, in fact, knit.
I didn't use to, either.
I have never taken a class.
About 10 years ago, I borrowed a knitting book from the library. If I remember correctly, I used some very cheap yarn and started with... sharpened pencils.   Yes.
I taught myself. And then, I promptly put aside knitting and decided to scrapbook instead (which I still do, on occasion).
Three-ish years ago after my brother, David, died (he was an avid knitter) I decided to pick up the needles again. I actually even made a really crappy pair of socks, using real needles this time. And then I put aside my knitting and decided to sew and take pictures, which I still do.

Then, last November, I decided to remind myself how to knit again since it was getting "cold" outside. This time, it stuck. I can't get enough. Knitting is the last thing I think about at night, and the first thing I think about in the morning... and what I dream about all night long. I find myself thinking up ways to slip in some knitting time and I almost always have a project with me.

If you would like to learn to knit... here are some excellent resources.
www.knittinghelp.com
Great video tutorials. Also check out YouTube for anything you need help with.
www.ravelry.com
TONS and TONS of patterns, and people who know what they're doing. Great forums.

I would just love for each of you to learn to knit. I find it to be incredibly relaxing and it makes me feel like a million bucks when I have a finished project. Like this one:

 Many thanks to my friend, Melinda, for helping me to get a good shot of Miss Libby in her new dress.

 I decided on these hilarious little bobble buttons.