Oh, brother!

Oh, brother, I have a lot of past stuff and some new stuff to post about. Hold onto your hats, ladies and gents. Actually, I think there are very few 'gents' who read this...

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Oh, man, I am going to learn how to sew *sentence typed with much trepidation*! Ty bought me a very nice, middle-of-the-road, perfect first-time Brother sewing machine for Christmas. I have been wanting a sewing machine for a long time. I have SO many projects in my pretty little head that I want to do with it. I was beyond thrilled when I saw the box! But then I sat down to sew up a slit in one of my skirts - the simplest of projects to start on, I thought - and I came away nearly in tears and totally defeated. I have NO idea what I'm doing! I watched the instructional DVD, I read a lot of the manual. Ugh! My mom tried for years to get me to learn. She's an awesome seamstress and she always tried to get me to sit down and watch when I needed her to do something for me. But I was never interested. "I will never want to know how to sew." Let that be a lesson, Kelly Anne! Listen to your momma. So there it has sat, with the unsewn skirt bunched up next to it, unused and lonely for about three weeks. I know that I need to try again. I got some tips from my mom over the phone and I know what I was doing wrong. My friend, Ann Lacouture, had me all inspired to make my own comforter and curtains for my bedroom. Now I am paralyzed with fear. But don't worry, folks. I have given birth to two babes, I've run triathlons, I've finished a marathon....I will learn how to sew! And Kelly will sit and learn all of the skills I acquire before she leaves my home. Even if I have to hold her down just like in the picture below. :)

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Since Ty would mutter 'Oh Brother' every time he had to take out one of the glued-in bows that I insisted on sticking in my daughter's hair, we have entered the CLIP phase. Goodbye, bows! Okay, it wasn't really because Ty hated it. Let's be honest. That was irrelevant. He knows that had nothing to do with it, but he's grateful all the same. It's because my baby girl's hair is getting long and thick and was starting to fall over her eyes. Plus the other day when I got her up from her nap the bow was upside-down because it was ONLY attached to hair and her hair had gone all crazy. I decided that it was time to move on.

And if you think, after looking at the above pictures, that she's not a fan of this clip business, think again....----------------------------------------------------------

Oh, brother, this little brother is one dapper dude in his new Sunday duds. This outfit brings me great joy. Sure, it's cute enough from the front....

...but the party starts where the elbow pads begin. That HAD to have been what sold Santa on this particular set of duds.------------------------------------------------------------

Oh! Ty's brother, Adam, and his wife Laura came for a short visit the week after Christmas. We love visitors! It was cold, but we wanted to show them some water since it's cool that we live by so many little bodies of water :) so we bundled up and headed out. They were so fun to have around! The kids - Max especially - loved having them here. They are going to make fabulous parents to the little girl they have cookin'! We had them here for New Year's Eve, which was really rockin'. Fondue in our pj's, sparkling cider in plastic wine glasses, and missing the ball drop because we got confused with pausing live TV. Jealous? You should be. It really was a nice night.

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Oh, brother, I disliked our boring laundry room. That was one room that had remained untouched from all of our remodeling and painting before we moved in. I always meant to get to it and Ty has the week off between Christmas and New Years so we tackled some of those "we really need to get to that" kind of projects. We painted our white laundry room in stripes, pictured below. Yes, Janet, you were totally the inspiration behind this. We thank you. We also made-over our master closet, but I didn't get any pictures really of that. Nice, eh?

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So there you have it. Caught up. Stay tuned for some real excitement since we are entering the month of February which, of course, is the birth month of my beautiful baby girl. Plus we're just a really exciting family. :)