Mmm Mmm Good!

I made a tamale pie recipe the other day. Allrecipes.com is such a great place to find recipes. You can find this recipe by clicking here. It was good but I would add 2 more Tb of butter to the corn mix. It was too dry. Also add salsa and sour cream on top!

Slow cooker tamale pie

 Ryan decided to get fancy and make a peanut butter chocolate cake. It was even vanilla and chocolate checkered inside with yummy peanut butter cream!!! Love that husband of mine!

Ryan's peanut butter chocolate cake

And just so you know....I hate when people take pictures of their food and blog about it so I am at an all time low! :-)

Sheeps and Ships

More rag quilt fun. I made the sheep quilt and then decided to donate it to a woman that has 18 children (17 of which are adopted) and she is in the process of trying to bring 3 more home. She was having an online auction so I donated it to her to auction off.

 This quilt I made for a friend that is having a boy in April.

Cleaning House

I decided I need to tackle my house one space at a time. The pantry was my first victim. It's sad to admit how many more victims remain.

Before

After

After close up

Amateur Sledding

I say amateur because we are hoping to go to Soldier Hollow and get in some real good sledding sometime soon, but for now the hill at the park will have to do. 

Looks like Breck's worked hard right? Not so, this snow ball was already here.

WOOSH! Love it!

Ava....always going against the grain. Ms. Unconventional.

*Disclaimer: Yes the baby was a block away, cozy in his nap. Yes I am a bad mom.

Jess-ica

Posing for the camera. 

At our house Jesse has an alter ego named Jessica. Jessica comes to visit about once a month. With Jesse's gorgeous long eyelashes how can Gracie resist dressing him up every now and then?

Not so sure about this whole Jessica thing. This is the first
picture taken. He quickly got into the groove as you can see above.

Hair Bow

Gracie amazes me with her interest in hair. I literally had never touched my hair until I moved in with my dad at the age of 12 and woke up realizing I had to do my hair for school. This was no small feat considering I still was ratting my bangs at that time (yes this was 1994 people). Hence my nickname Chia, as in Chia pet. ba ha ha. Another story for another day. Anyway Gracie loves to look up hair styles on Youtube and then practice them. My little fashionista!

She partially made this one up on her own. It's literally a hair bow.

My darling girl. Love her! She made dinner for the family tonight and bathed the baby. Thank you sweet girl!

Gracie's 9th Birthday

Nine already?!? It can't be so. My baby is growing up. She is maturing so quickly. She is our perfectionist and worry wart and we love her SO much! She has always been so darling and I am proud to be her mama.

Another pirate party!

I made this shirt for her to wear. She loves it!

This is a necklace she wanted off Etsy. She was really thrilled that I actually
remembered and bought it! 

Pin the patch on the pirate! Of course it couldn't just be a generic pirate
it had to be the infamous Jack Sparrow!

Freeze dance! Emmy (girl in blue) won every time. She is great at
stopping on a dime!

Constipation maybe?!?

Kenzie (on right) is just about to sneeze.

In the middle of saying "CUUUUTE!"

Gracie and her friend Gracee....adopted from Guatemala. She is such a character!
I always enjoy having her over.

Gracie got a new outfit for her favorite baby  Alissa.
I am NOT allowed to call Gracie and Ava's babies "dolls." 

L-R : Leah, Kenzie, Gracie, Emma, Gracee
Jesse and Ava too!

Monsters and Cupcakes

I have been working frantically trying to get this monster quilt done for my new nephew Learick! We got to go down on Friday and meet him. He is dark and ADORABLE! He is half Columbian and 1/8 Mexican. Love it!

Ava and I had a great time combining a few different appliques to make
her a little monster girly. Gracie even pitched in and decided we could
use a whale spout for the pony tail.

Learick Samuel Webber

This is little Learick Samuel. Yes I'm looking divine aren't I? Hunchback don't have nothin' on me!

The lady that sales the appliques names them. This is Humphrey. 

This is Spike.

This is Chunk the Cave Monster. He started out with two arms but wouldn't fit
 so I had to perform surgery and get rid of one. It is tedious work sewing around every eye,
tooth, mouth etc... but it gives me time to just zone out and think.

 I made the quilt below for a darling girl that was just recently adopted from Bulgaria. I contacted her mom and she said she would adore having a little rag quilt for her. You can read about her story here. You can also find more of the adorable applique patterns here.