Sweet time with my sister!!

 I am one HAPPY girl! :-)

It is more than amazing to be HOME for the holidays. Many more pictures to come!

Blessed New Year Wishes to You All!!

Abi

BIG News, Folks!!

IT'S A BOY!!

 

 

I am over the moon today, picturing Christmases to come when my baby boys will play together and be best buds... and all the fun we will have as a family with two little men running around! I cannot wait to meet this little fellow. I am in love!

 Hope you are all having a blessed Christmas day, wherever you may be. 

Peace and Love this Christmas day!

Abi 

December Snippets

Cozy Christmas-time 

My growing babies and me.

Those with small amounts of money do well with large amounts of creativity!

4th Anniversary flowers. My honey and I spent the day thousands of miles apart, but are thankful for each other, our growing family and our journey through life together every day!

Came in one Sunday morning after getting little man ready for church and he had emptied the contents of his toy chest onto the floor and had made himself comfy inside.

Rainbow yarn always brightens my day!

Little mountain man.

Breaking Free

I Love Flowers

Did this piece a couple months ago.
Bright, colorful flowers.
Peace.

A New Little One to Love!

Expected to arrive: May 2013!
Thankful!
Peace.
Abi

This Boy

Love him so much!

Final Finished October Project

October Isn't Over

And I'm still working...

Whipped up this little guy today. 

My first amigurumi attempt.

Inspired by this cute little guy:http://www.flickr.com/photos/amurphy/3475608441/in/set-72157594535564605

Ean has fallen in love. This hippo is destined for another owner, but I may have to work up one for my little fellow :-)

Who knows, I could be back again tomorrow with another finished project. 7 or 8 more gifts to start and finish before Christmas... and probably more, because not all requests are in. 

It keeps me out of trouble....

Kind of.

Peace.

Abi

†

October Workings

Cap in progress for my niece, Simonne.

Nephew Ethan's Blue hat.

Sister-in-laws mitts.

Just another potholder.

Big brother's waffle hat.

Newborn waffle hat (unknown recipient... i just made it when i was frustrated with all my other projects).

It's 3 days to November... and I think I see light at the end of this Christmas gift making tunnel. It's been a blast making lovelies for my favorite people in the world and a great opportunity to improve my skills, but it's gotten to the point where if I close my eyes I actually see knit stitches! I might have a little problem... it may or may not slow down once i finish these gifts... 

Ean has been a champ to model my nieces and nephews hats, but even he has limits (as seen in the picture above). I almost feel bad now, when i ask him to put on ANOTHER hat. He's such a sport though! I'm blessed!

Michael has even taken a turn (modeling), as you can see. I'm proud of him too! He's so patient with my yarn buying, pattern finding, crazy knitting lady antics :-)

All this to say, I am very excited for Christmas (I will get to see my entire family! Which includes 7 siblings, 3 siblings in law, 8 nieces and nephews and my parents... plus my grandma, and various aunts, uncles and cousins too!! And my husband's family too!). I'm enjoying learning new knitting techniques. I am incredibly thankful for my husband and son and life is pretty sweet in Southern Arizona. 

Times of sadness, longing and grief return from time to time, but God is good. He has a plan! In this I have peace.

Abi 

†

September Projects

Gray gnome hat for Bruce L.

Yellow Seaman's Cap for Lewis R

Purple Miranda hat for Claire Simonne R.

Røisehaven Potholders

Navy seaman's cap with yellow pom pom for Petey R.

Ocean mandala potholder

Lizard ridge dishcloths

Plus 3 crochet potholder

Purple waffle hat

Rainbow waves Potholder

Most of these were completed last month (though at least one hat was finished at the beginning of this month)... all the hats are for nieces and nephews of mine and will be Christmas presents! Some of the potholders are spoken for, and I may just keep the others for myself *grin* 

It's been hard to focus on much of anything after the events of the past couple weeks. Hopefully I will be able to get back to work soon.

Thanks for bearing with me and praying for me and my family during this hard time. 

Peace and Love.

Abi

†

Resting, refreshing our souls and grieving. Not just my beloved grandpa, but also for my sister and her husband who are mourning the loss of their first child to a miscarriage.  Lord hear my/our prayer for all who mourn the loss of loved ones tonight. Peace. Abi †

Robert Stephen Bolduc

My beloved Grandpa breathed his last at 3:08 A.M. on October 6th, 2012; old and full of days, he is gathered to his people. He died with his whole family (myself included) by his bedside. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Thank you, Jesus.

A Sweet Morning Smile

My baby wakes up early. Early for me/us/him is between 6 and 6:30 every morning and depending on what mommy and daddy did or didn't do the night before (i.e. watched psych until 1 am, decided it was high time to tackle the pile of dishes on the counter and deep clean the pots and pans cupboard at the same time, crochet/knit an inordinate amount of potholders/dishcloths/rows on a hat to finish before lights out... or maybe we were zonked after a long day of chasing little one around and tuck in at 9 pm...) when the time comes that our sweet little man is awake, he follows the routine that has now been set in place.

Every morning.

We hear his door knob jiggle, door rattles, opens, he exits and promptly closes the door. He doesn't appear around the corner. He is looking to see if anyone is up. Negative. Returns to room and closes his door. Silence.

15-20 Minutes later...

We hear his door knob jiggle, door rattles, opens, he exits and promptly closes the door. Appears in our doorway (usually with an animal or two in tow)... smiling. He waits.

One of us will either tell him to go back and play in his room for a little longer (if it is before 7 am). Or wave him in. The first command is met with a quiet obedience and he returns to his room where we can hear him playing (and he often turns on his favorite Winnie the Pooh songs on his cd player). The second one, when we say "Good morning" and tell him to "Come [s]nuggle with us" is always met with just the biggest smile you can possibly imagine.

That smile is sometime the very sweetest part of my day (if it turns out to be a rough one). I can always count on that smile... and I never want to forget it! He starts every day wanting to smile and snuggle... how do we ever say no...

oh yeah... because we were up too late...

crazies.

Go to bed! Greet your little one with a smile in the morning! Maybe there won't be any more bad days!

Disgustingly optimistic, right? I know :-)

I like that about myself.

Enough for now.

Peace.

Abi

†

Labor Day Camping Trip

Happy Campers! (Photo courtesy of Daniel L)

Our site. Not included in this picture is the beautiful and lovely sounding stream that accompanied us as we talked, ate, slept and enjoyed the cool mountain weather.

Camping can be magical.

Our friend's little boy... or "Baby Bwuce" (Bruce) as Ean calls him :-) 

Heading off on a hike our first morning on the mountain.

Finding fresh, ripe raspberries growing wild on our hike = awesome!

This little boy was more than content to sit on this enormous stump and eat the raspberries we offered.

Bacon in one hand, a cinnamon roll in the other... the good life!

Bacon over a bonfire. Delicious! Lovely mornings (middays and evenings too) were spent around the fire. 

TINY mushrooms I found nestled in a patch of moss.  

A dark picture of me and the boy, but it's the only one... I like to spend my time behind the camera!

Yeah... my camera/photography skills cannot do flowers justice...

Evening hike to a developed campsite upstream from ours for the facilities :-)

Cool beetle Ean and I found.

I'm guessing a very poisonous (but pretty) heart-shaped mushroom.