Just before Christmas, my niece asked if she could have a sleepover at our house while she was visiting her Meemee and Pops. Of course, I said yes because we hadn't seen Natalie in a year, and Sophie was quite excited to have her little cousin over.

On the night's agenda was coloring, watching a movie, eating junk food, and sledding, which Natalie was especially excited to try out. She doesn't see a whole lot of snow in her home state of Texas, after all.

Natalie adores her Uncle Mike.

After covering themselves in Lisa Frank stickers and then playing Candy Land with Mike (he's grooming Natalie to be a board gamer like himself), everyone got bundled up to head outside in the freezing, dark night and drive to the hill at a nearby school. I normally don't go for playing out-of-doors these days, but I did agree to go along and take a few photos.

Her squeals were so cute!

I have no clue how these two managed to get down the hill this way, but they did…

This was just a second before Sophie took a hard spill on the little snowboard we brought along…

But she survived okay.

When I was a kid, sledding was my very favorite thing to do when there was snow on the ground… I'd walk to the big hill where all the neighbor kids would gather, and we'd use flattened cardboard boxes to slide down on. They were very slippery, and it was exhilarating to go as fast as we could. When I recalled this fond childhood memory, I decided to hop on board one of the sleds and give it a whirl for old times' sake. This is how I pictured myself looking as I glided down that beautiful, snow-blanketed hill…

But when I was looking through my camera, I realized with a sudden jolt that those carefree, cute days of my youth were gone… oh, so very gone.

Live your childhood, young Natalie. For soon it shall pass, and ogredom will greet you.

After sledding and hot chocolate, it was time for bed for the cousins. I allowed them to bring popcorn and reindeer eyes to the room with them, and they watched a DVD.

It was such a fun sleepover! And despite all the junk food, the girls slept soundly until late the following morning. 🙂

I'll be back tomorrow with a picture of my new release. Enjoy your day!

Has the first week of the year already come and gone? Where was I?

I'm shocked that we're already 1/5 of the way through January, but with the craziness of these past few months, I've barely had a moment to catch my breath. One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year is to reflect on what took place in the previous 12 months, and I'm just now getting around to doing that today. My goodness, what a year it's been.

January…

February…

March…

April…

May…

June…

July…

 

August…

September…

October…

November…

December…

 

May your new year bring you blessings to be thankful for,
friends to hug, and peaceful stitching times for those
crazy moments in your life.

If someone would have told me in 1987 that my future children would dress up in clothing from my high school days, I'd have laughed and laughed and declared that the only era anyone would ever think was hilarious enough to dress from would be the 1950's.

I was wrong.

Not only did Sabrina and Connor decide to dress up as workout partners from the 80's, but they decided it would be best to put a zombie twist on it as well.

Sabrina tried talking Connor into going as Richard Simmons, but he was a little too apprehensive about donning short-shorts and applying QT all over his body.

Here they are, stretching and warming up before their trick-or-treat marathon…

I don't recall ever dressing like that in the 80's, by the way.

And then there were the Southern Gentleman and Southern Belle Zombies…

And these two wouldn't feel like they got their Halloween's worth of fun if they didn't act out their parts for the camera…

And then they joined forces with the Workout Partner Zombies…

I'm glad that one of the zombies remembered to bring their iPhone along, just in case a text from Frankenstein came through.

And it's good that the iPhone-carrying zombie remembered to do her stretches half-way through the chase as well…

Crazies, all of them.

P.S. When Sophie came back home that night, she said to me, "People kept telling me and Dad that we looked like some people from a movie who got carried away in the wind or something like that."

My Sabrina turned nineteen on the 12th of this month, which means the state considers her an adult now. I don't know if she actually feels any differently, but I do know that she still looks like the same strawberry-haired baby angel that I fell in love with back in 1993. The only difference between now and then is that she isn't so much my shadow any more, following me from room to room, sucking her thumb and hugging my leg every time I stopped for one moment.

What a joy she has been to me.

We made quite a weekend of it in celebration, that's for sure! Sophie took the reins as the birthday party planner, and did a fine job of it. The only things missing were a headset and mic for her to speak her commands into, and our paychecks for doing everthing she commanded. "You are to stand here, and when I say 'POTATO,' you are all to yell 'SURPRISE!!!' Got it?"

Since Sabrina is a volunteer assistant zookeeper, Sophie thought it would be a great idea to have a zoo-themed party.

We even set up lots of little plastic animals around the table…

…And placed pictures of Sabrina in various animal get-ups around as well…

Mom told us about the iPad app Hey You, which you can see scrolling in the background of the photo below (it said "Happy Birthday, Girl!")…

And what party is a zoo party without Zoo Pals plates?

And of course party favors, which my dad employed to harrass my mother…

Sabrina's favorite cake is a good old-fashioned Betty Crocker lemon cake…

We had a big cookout as well, with burgers, hot dogs, and the rest of the usual stuff, and we were all thrilled that Bre showed up about half-way through dinner! After we ate and had ice cream and cake, we headed to a nearby bowling alley…

Here's my left-handed dad, bowling right-handed. All night long he kept switching hands, trying to figure out which side he preferred (he normally does everything sports-related with his right hand). I think I had more fun watching him scratch his head and try different techniques while switching hands back and forth than I actually did bowling. (Okay, truth be told, I didn't bowl that night; I just took pictures while Mom knitted next to me!)

Bean's boyfriend, Connor, came along as well.  Connor is finally getting used to me stopping everyone every other moment to take a quick picture…

Did I say quick picture? Sabrina knows better. Connor hasn't quite gotten used to that part – which was especially painful while holding a bowling ball. (Notice Sabrina's neck muscles straining to keep her ball up.. there may have been a slight chance that I was deliberately taking a long time to get the picture, but that will stay between you and me, okay?)

For a burly guy, Mike is quite a graceful bowler…

But these two weren't very graceful at showing off when they got a strike for their team…

Btw, Connor is a super sweet guy, and he and Bean hit it off the moment they met.

(Dad is still in his own world, methodically testing various bowling techniques…)

We had a lot of fun at the bowling alley, but we weren't finished with her party yet. The next morning we headed to Kansas City to go through the haunted houses at Worlds of Fun. What a great time that was! The weather was dreary and wet, but that only added to the fun. When Sabrina and I were discussing the threatening weather situation, I was telling her that I thought that rain storms and snow storms always made the best memories when you think back on fun events. You don't hear too many people pipe up excitedly and say, "It was so nice and sunny out that day!" But you will hear someone say, "Wow, remember that crazy rain? We got soaked!"

Anyway, here's one from Worlds of Fun that just cracks me up bc of the looks on everyone's faces… one of the Corn-Stalkers that were roaming around outside of the cornfield maze sneaked up behind Bre to spook her. After a good laugh, she asked him if he'd pose for a picture, and surprisingly, he agreed.

I think we've all recovered from that weekend now. Sabrina, if you're reading this, I hope you had a fantastic time on your birthday! We love you so much, and we're so proud of the young woman you've become.

Now would someone mind going and telling Pops that we've all gone home?

Before the hot summer comes to a close, Bean and Joon decided to get together at the lake and have me take some pictures of them. These silly girls have so much fun together (except for when they're arguing over who has the messier bathroom habits or why one of them borrowed the other's eye shadow without asking), and they always keep me laughing.

I give up on lecturing this child about her fingernails. She is who she is, and she's fine with that! 😉

I think these girls will miss each other. 🙂