The Holidays are exhausting, but totally worth it, right?!

This whole blogging thing was meant to help me keep up with little Nora's milestones and track my fun projects. Turns out- all of the keeping up with Nora and creating the projects has taken up ALL of my time.  Which is totally fine.  I mean I definitely wish I had the energy- and lets face it- discipline- to sit down and write every few days about the happenings over here.  But, I really, really like to sleep.

I keep hearing little quips on the interwebs that if you don't (blog/instagram/pin/tweet) it, then it is like it never really happened.  Wait, what?  By that standard I think it is safe to say that my freshman year of college is gone with the wind, never to be heard from again.  Let's take a moment to thank the good Lord, shall we?  ahem.

Moving right along.

We have had some fun times over here.  I even have some photographic evidence to prove it.

trunk or treat-  Nora caught on really fast to the free candy aspect

The kids are over it.  Happy Halloween yall.

despite a bad fall and bloody knees, this gal pushed through- it was for the candy.

she totally got it.  no please. no thank you.  just grab and run.

visiting our dear friends in Dallas (future home some day-- fingers crossed!) @ Thanksgiving

Friendsgiving Turkey day 2013 in Dallas

the biggest turkey of them all

our little family @ by big brother's wedding 11/30/2013

I'm a lucky gal-  these guys, yeah, they're by brothers.  For the WIN.
-- Jacob, Me, Josh (the Groom), and Turner man - wearing the tie I made him!)

Tie pattern available here:  http://seekatesew.com/mens-skinny-square-tie-pattern/

I shortened it a bit to make it the right length for a ten year old.  He loved it.   I have also made this tie for my brother Josh.  He even wore it in his engagement pics. Talk about love.

the sweetest flower girl there ever was. // this is the only picture we got!

You guys.  I am telling you I cried like a baby.  I was so sure she wasn't going to walk down the aisle.  In fact, I didn't even get her a basket or flowers to walk with I was so sure it wasn't going to happen.  The time came for us to give it a shot.  Jeremy kept Nora in the back with the bridal party while I waited, super nervously, up front. If I am being totally honest, I cried from the very beginning of the wedding procession.  But then it happened.  It was Nora's turn and I walked to the edge of the aisle at the front to coax her down the aisle.  Jeremy told her to "Take the flower to mommy."  and I literally had to choke back a sob.  And she did it.  She looked up and saw me and walked straight down, stopping only briefly to poke at the flower.  Afterword I found out that Jeremy was determined not to let the flower girl walk down the aisle without at least one flower.  He pulled it from an arrangement in the back.  He melts me. 

It was by brother's wedding and it was beautiful.

 In the coming days weeks I hope to share a little tutorial on this custom covered family recipe book I made for my brother and his wife.  I seriously love her.  Back on track-  this project was super easy and fun to fill with recipes from my family.  So- tutorial to come!

This tie- which you saw above was another fun project.  I want to come up with a way to lessen the bulk.  So perhaps another project is going up on my creative board...

This table is one of the five hundred reasons I haven't blogged in months.  I did two craft fairs and they were awesome.  Well, one was awesome, the other was meh.  They were such fun experiences and I think I want to do more in the spring.  No promises.  

And this guy.  Oh man. This guy.  I love this quilt and I will hate to send it to live with his new family (my brother and my new sister-in-law).  I was so naive in counting the amount of hours this baby would take.  I told Jeremy, "Maybe 20-30 hours".  Try 90+....  A lot of that was trial and error and probably inefficient use of my time.  ahem.  getting caught up in the grey's anatomy story line...ahem.

Also, Nora does not love the sewing machine.  I can only sew during nap and night time.  

But, he is almost complete and I hope to ship him by January.

Speaking of January-  Stash Bee 2014 starts in January.  I am so excited.  And nervous.  I can't wait to learn all sorts of new things.  Check out Stash Bee 2014 here!  

xo,

Jansen

The last of Summer

Whew.  What a whirlwind wind-down last few weeks of summer we have had.

We have made the last few weeks count with plenty of play dates and park dates.  A little trip up to New York (which honestly the weather had it feeling a lot more like fall-  eek!).  Plus, a quick trip down to Virginia Beach to visit our great friends and their sweet little Vivian.

It has been exciting to try to cram in all the last minute summer adventures. In years past I have been so anxious for the change of seasons that I usually skip right over and jump ahead to the next season.   I love fall and wearing sweaters and cozy socks.  I love the chill in the air and cuddling up with a nice quilt and a cup of coffee. I was always looking forward to what was coming next.  I decided this year I would make a conscious effort to suck every last drop out of the season, most importantly the day and the moment I was in.

No more wearing Uggs in 80 degree heat to try to force the feeling of Fall.

I chased down the Ice Cream truck in the neighborhood because Nora just had to experience that this summer. We ventured out to the beach just to feel the sand one more time. We wore our favorite summer outfits, just one last time.  We ate our favorite summer meal on a blanket outside. Nora will never be this age again.  Next summer she won't get to wear the same swimsuit or little sundress.  I am sad to see my baby grow older but I am so excited to see the big girl she is becoming.  I understand so much more and yet still so little about what it means to live in the moment. I am trying.

But today is October 1st- and you better believe I had a cup of Pumpkin Spice coffee wearing house slippers and wrapped in a quilt.  Despite it being 80 degrees outside.

I can't wait for the excitement of fall.  Jeremy's mom is in town this week and that means I can get all of my Halloween decorations up in one day!  Hooray for grandparents!

Now for a photo dump:

 

     

Momma + Mini at my Dad's wedding reception

                      

  I seriously will never get enough of those chubby legs.

            

         

last days of summer in our favorite dress!

That was the last of our summer in a nutshell.  We are moving on into fall and I am ready to embrace it with open arms.  Nora has thinned out so much over the past year that she will actually be able to wear a lot of the same clothes for fall and winter as she did last year!  I am excited for practical reasons but also for sentimental reasons as well.  Jeremy left for Afghanistan in mid-October last year.  He didn't get to see Nora in all of her clothes.  I am about 100% sure he doesn't care about what she wears (unless it has an Under Armour logo on it).  Emotionally, for me anyways, this makes it seem like there was less of a disconnect while he was away.  

Bring on the pumpkin flavors of fall!!

cuteness overload: more oklahoma pictures

i just received these photos from my mom's camera that she took during our stay.

they all make me miss home. and family. and chickens.

going on a chicken hunt

          

 

             

 

love my momma.

belated one year old pictures

i am so so so in love with these pictures taken by Mariah of Olive Juice Photography down at the devon boathouse in downtown okc.

mariah and i were friends waaay back in high school and managed to pick up right where we left off during my last visit back to oklahoma.  she is such a sweet momma of two little girls and an amazingly talented photographer to boot!  we had fun catching up and trying to get nora to smile.  and- let me tell you, those smiles were few and far between on the evening of her shoot.

to top things off, nora got a nasty mosquito bite on her ear the night before, leaving the ear swollen and red. those nasty bugs love my sweet baby.  despite the shoot taking place after nora's bedtime and the nasty bug bite, mariah managed to capture some sweet smiles from the little bee.

i love them all.

look how swollen her ear is!  poor baby.

                        

    

       

                              

         

       

cracks me up.

       

i sometimes have moments where i can't believe that this is my little baby.  she is growing up so fast.

letting go

what a trying few days we have had over here.  

to start we had a surprise visit from a little friend of ours.  her mommy needed a break, and thus dropped her little one off *insert surprise here* to play with nora, during what should have been nora's nap time.  we love our friends.

our friend is currently struggling with territory issues as well as a bit of an aggression problem.  under normal circumstances i am willing to let go and let kids be kids.  you know, kids need to figure out self expression, how to share, and specifically- learning boundaries of what is 'ok' and more importantly what is not 'ok'.

i get it.  however this situation presented some difficult challenges.  this little gal has parents that have chosen to avoid telling her "no", as in they don't use the word.  at all.... she is a few months older than nora and therefore a bit bigger and stronger.  nora is still an observer and isn't quite able to defend herself just yet.  a bit of a david and goliath scenario, if you will. 

i was at a complete loss on how to get these kids to peacefully co-exist.  how on earth do i maintain my role as a disciplinarian for my own little and then allow the other to get away with murder*?  i don't know the rules about disciplining someone else's child but i can assume if they don't say 'no', hand slaps are probably off the table.  time out? she seriously laughed at me.  so i played referee and we muddled through.  i can't say it was my best moment.

*ok, not actually murder. 

thankfully this was a short play date.  her mommy returned refreshed and ready to resume parenting of her own little.  

nora got her first shiner and she's a beaut.

the morning after

poor little lady took a nosedive into the entryway bench.  she recovered quickly, which jeremy attributes to her 'wolverine' genes.  if only.

true story.

remember that time when i went to the store and shopped for an hour with my little crazy in tow.  and then i found all my goodies and went to pay, only to discover that my little crazy had gotten into my bag at some point earlier in the day and had  taken out my wallet.  that's right folks.  no dollars, no plastics, nothing.  just my mumbled apology as we hurried out the door. 

lesson learned:  always keep a backup card in a secret spot.  thank heavens this didn't happen at the grocery store.  

luckily, it hasn't all been crazy bad these past few days.  we have also had some crazy good.  

nora is figuring out this whole spoon & fork thing.  it's awesome.

digging in

though sometimes, let's face it.  you just need to drop the spoon and dig in.

eating every last drop

here is hoping for some good crazy to come in the days ahead!

xo,
j