My New Favorite Book

Santa was kind enough to bring my new favorite childrens' book to Gretchen last year. Olivia is a lovely little pig with big ideas and and a very pretty wardrobe.

My favorite line is towards the end. When her mother tucks her in at night and says, "You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway," Olivia so sweetly responds, "I love you anyway too." Anyone with a preschooler (or really, any energetic child) would appreciate this book. With the limited text, it is fun to as Gretchie what she thinks is happening in the picture.

The biggest laugh from Gretchie comes on the page where Olivia tries on all of her clothes, and one pair of pantyhose.

Two art lessons are included -- a small frame of beautiful Degas ballerinas and a photo of a Jackson Pollack which Olivia states she could recreate. When she tries it out by splattering the wall at home, the next page shows Olivia sitting on the bottom step with just two words. "Time out." I think this one will become a classic at our house.

A little downhill sledding

We have a little bit of a hill in our backyard. It's not fun to mow but is good for other things like rolling down on your side, running down in a sundress a la Laura Ingalls, and sledding. Very slow sledding. Here are some pictures of the fun we had this morning. The fun was followed by shoveling the driveway and hot cocoa, of course.

Erik, showing the girls how it's done.

Taking my turn.

The girls wanted to race. Gretchie won.

Crash landing so as to avoid the swingset.

Gretchen, all smiles.

The hard part.

Quilt

Here's a photo of the baby quilt that I made for the daughter of one of Erik's good friends from the Army. I was a little late getting to her - she was born April 1st of last year -significantly under estimated the time it would take to hand stitch. It's hard to see in the picture but there are little butterflies and paisley shapes that are outlined in stitches. The larger rectangles that look blank in the picture are stitched with flowers and a big butterfly.

It was fun to have Katie hold up the quilt for the picture - I've probably held up a dozen or more for my Mom to take pictures of her quilts.