Merry Christmas!

hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable day.

we drove to Mobile to spend time with my family... it has been so fun just hanging out and watching sara interact with everyone.

wanted to share this sweet picture of a christmas tea party...

enjoy the holidays!

p.s. i'm really enjoying the collage function on picasa...can you tell?

look what fun we had this morning! we invited some sweet friends over to have a Christmas pajama breakfast party. thanks to them for braving the cold weather to have a such a memorable morning!

missing aunt sissy

isn't she pretty? i miss her face and her help and her movie quoting self! it has been quite sad to not have her around... it was such a treat to have my little sis live with us over the past 3 months. (not only for child care but also for our relationship)

she had the crazy idea of going to breakfast in our pajamas on thursday.. so we got up and threw on our slippers and went around the corner to have a great breakfast...

i'm so glad sara got to spend so much time with her!

we will miss her... but i am so proud of her and can't wait to see what happens next!

i sewed a few Christmasy things this week... take a peek...

and you know there is a toddler in your house when you find this...

oh, Jesus in a tea cup!

my new toy

i know you all have been wondering what i am doing with all of my new found free time (yeah right, huh?) .... well yesterday i accomplished so much... i worked on a couple sewing projects for myself and sara (will post later), had coffee and lunch with my sis, washed and put back on my sheets (the whole making the bed after washing the sheets thing gets me every time!), helped my hubby study for an exam (ask me anything about the Model Rules and a lawyer's professional responsibility and i might be able to answer), ordered Christmas cards, and began taking apart the mile high pile of laundry sitting in my bedroom...
and i have been spending time learning how to work this thing....

yes, my sweet and thoughtful husband gave me this for graduation.. along with some flowers and a cheesy yard sign! i have been taking way too many pictures of nothing...

my sweet model... sara was in bed... and i had to practice!

love, love, love this little girl!

i will take some pictures of my sewing and post soon...
hope you are doing well

finished

today was such a sweet day.

it was the end of a wonderful experience. i was really blessed to be under such a great teacher and now a great friend.
today the students had a surprise "going away" party for me. (so many of them think i am moving...even after much explanation... its hilarious!) I was given handmade cards, sweet letters begging me to stay and many dollar store gems! they were so thoughtful and really cute. I will miss my days with them...
but can't wait to sleep in, hang out with sara in our pj's and sew!

and the winner is...

sara had the honor of drawing a name....

and she handed me...

Mary!
(i'll email you soon for your address)

we spent our thanksgiving in mobile with my family...

it's beginning! can't wait for more of the holiday season.

a thankful day

happy thanksgiving!

the itch and a giveaway

i've had the sewing itch for the past couple of weeks now. but i couldn't scratch it (sounds wrong, i know) until my student teaching portfolio was complete... well, look at what i finished!

i worked on this the past week hoping to have it ready early so i could take a few days to sew and work on other things around the house before Thanksgiving. it was a long process but i am so glad i finished... so as soon as i finished, i began working on a couple things i had been wanting to make... here they are minus a birthday gift.

dino shirts for some little guys


and a girly Christmas outfit for Sara


in honor of finishing my portfolio and Thanksgiving, i thought i would have a little giveaway. i've never had one here but have always wanted to... so here it goes, post a comment by Friday and then i will randomly choose the winner and send you this little goody!

hope you enjoy your monday!

vertebrates

can you find me? right beside the cat and fish... gotta love second grade humor!

sorry for the absence... school is winding down, which means finishing all of those requirements. it is going quite well. i love my students and my cooperating teacher!

have i mentioned that a certain little someone has learned to climb onto chairs? annoying as it might be ... she is so cute sitting in a "big girl" chair!

she is enjoying the big girl outlook that the chairs bring!

and a bow is definitely more important to an outfit than pants... can you tell?
have a good week!

say no to drugs

like write lesson plans...

goodies

my mom is in town this weekend... we had the chance to drop by some local thrift shops and spend our saturday morning at other peoples homes looking through their cast-offs .... we found a few treasures!

we were looking pretty rough today so no pictures of us... just this cutie at the table like a big girl

hello

have a good week!

Texas state fair

oh, what an experience! the whole thing.. .the food, the FRIED food, the people (i could write a whole post just to honor the people watching that occurred), the family and the Texas Star...

Sara had her first Fletcher's corny dog...

feeding the goats in the petting zoo...

more food...

and ending the night with a parade.... she was fearless... that girl would have walked right out to the floats if we would have let her.

how was your fall fair experience?

growing

Sara can reach the table.
so now bags of snacks have to be carefully placed in the middle of the table. she is growing up. it's funny how it sneaks up on you... one day you can put a bag of snacks on the edge of the table
and the next day you can't...

it's the same in adulthood ... growing up sneaks up on you...

but there's something encouraging when you sense yourself grow up....
you allowed God to change that thing in you that needed His healing or you really learned how to trust Him in grown up, painful situations...

growing up is a never ending, beautiful process.

hope you had a good weekend!

the girls

i have been so lucky to spend some quality time with my girls.... my sewing girls... i absolutely love these pen cushions. they are so fun to have around. my sister in law gave me the bottom one this past christmas.... she found it here... and she picked up the top one in mexico... i just love working with these cuties!

we have had a couple of teacher work days lately, which has meant some time to sew (it's working...right?). i have had this bedding order just itching to be worked on. so the girls and i started and finished it last weekend.... what do you think? cute, huh?

can't wait to meet the little guy himself!

community

com.mu.ni.ty- a unified body of individuals

we have been learning about community. what they look like, what they are made up of and how we relate to them. it was interesting to watch second graders work in mini communities as they built models to represent their community....
take a peek at what these creative minds came up with....

it's neat to watch my students interact together as they discover new ideas
and reinforce old ones

i have been reminded of how blessed i am to be unified with such amazing people. we would not be were we are today without the people who were willing to pour into our lives.

hope you had a good saturday!