Doesn't Everyone....

 ...clean the kitchen in her swimsuit on a Saturday morning?!?

Finished in 2016 No.3

 This has to be one of my all time favorite fabric collections - so I decided I needed to keep one of the quilts with it for myself.  I had this one pieced this fall and then it went to a quilters - I got it back just before Christmas.  I finally finished the binding this week.  This is the first time I've used a medium density quilt pattern (I usually use low density).  The 'Scottish Thistle' pattern matched the fabric so well - I love how it turned out.  This one is now living on my quilt rack!

Finished in 2016 No. 2 (& The Girls' Room)

 I finished Heidi's 'Bunny Quilt' just in time for her birthday.  I searched long and hard for a bunny pattern but never found one so I made this up myself.  I started with a small bunny size but then realized I would have to make 132 of them to make a twin size quilt - not something I was up for.  I did include the first two little bunnies I made at the bottom.  Heidi loves her quilt and the gigantic bunny she got for her birthday which now lives on her bed.

 Now the girls' room is fairly well finished....

 These drawings were made by our friend Johanna in Alaska - Brittney picked out the quotes.

 And the final finishing touches....

Ballet Girl

 Heidi's ballet class ended before Thanksgiving but that hasn't stopped her from practicing.  She puts ballet clothes on every chance she gets and dances around.  Next year we're going to have to put her in real ballet!

Heidi - The Three-Year-Old

 I took advantage of some dry weather yesterday to get some 3-year-old pictures of the Heidi bug.  This girl just has fun - with just about everything.  Except when she doesn't, in which case nobody does!  Generally she is a joyful little girl - always finding ways to make things fun.  

 Likes:  Swimming (we have to get her in lessons now that she is 3 - she wants to jump in to the deep end on her own and is always pushing away from us when we're holding her), pre-school (especially Teacher Amanda), friends (Emma, Lauren and school friends Caden and Cora are favs), her bunnies, sledding, cleaning (seriously, she has two cleaning sets she loves to use), coloring, smoothies, fruit snacks, basketball and the Beavers.

  Dislikes: Not much.  Except maybe some battles over clothes (she loves anything with sparkles - and will often times throw a fit over anything else if she feels like it).

 Other tid-bits:  She is still totally a Mommy's girl.  She does love Daddy and 'HER' Allison, too, but prefers Mommy to just about anyone else.  She can recognize her name, the letter H and several other letters (thanks to letter/name recognition work at pre-school).  She loves learning Spanish at school and will often tell us a color in Spanish.  She gives the world's BEST hugs and is still quite the snuggler.  We are so. very. thankful. to have her in our family!

 She got a gigantic bunny for her birthday - she was showing her bunny a car that was driving by...

Heidi's Third Birthday!

 Our Heidi-bug turned three on Friday - family came over for a pizza dinner and CAKE of course.  Nana made Heidi's favorite triple-layer-raspberry cake for her.  She and Lauren thoroughly enjoyed her cake (as did the rest of us!).

 She got a new jacket & new Go Beavs! dress that she enjoyed modeling.

The big kids spent the party upstairs in the play room decorating for Heidi - Sophie managed to write out Heidi's name in streamers.  Our girl had so much fun being celebrated.  And we love having her to celebrate!

Little Sprouts Bulb Pots

 I love the 2nd Saturday in January - it is time to make bulb pots with the Little Sprouts Club at our local nursery.  Heidi is finally big enough to do her own project and thankfully Allison is now old enough to pretty much do hers independently (aside from Jodi & I sending her back to get more dirt several times!).

 All three girls carefully put their pots together and then made tags labeling the flowers in their pots.  Even Heidi.  She took her time and carefully wrote everything out - in her own way.

 Heidi also made friends with all the ornamental garden pieces.  She would chat with them, hug them and then ask me to take a picture of her with them.  Love how friendly she is!