Gifts for Dad

Father's day had a t-shirt theme.  I helped Maura pick out a couple (a motorcycle t-shirt for her and matching "Cereal Killer" shirts for both of them) but the best t-shirt was the one she made him with the help of her teachers.  

Yes, that's a footprint heart.

Just in case anyone forgets whose dad he is.

Deck the Halls

I attempted to get a picture of Maura with our Christmas decorations.  It wasn't entirely successful so here are a few attempts.
I finally finished the advent calendar I started 2 years ago.  Next year we'll work on actually filling the hats and mittens with something to count down the days.  We hung Maura's stocking to get it warmed up before we head north to meet Santa.  The little tree is the only tree we got up this yeaer.  But it has linghts and strings of gumdrops so we're content.

Smiling baby, off-center mantle

Centered mantle, kind of blurry

"Wait a second, mom.  I'm not ready."

If she were any cuter, it would be illegal.  :)

Puppy Love

This little fella made the trip from Virginia to Illinois last week.  Jason's cousin Melissa is expecting a few weeks after us so we wanted to send a little treat to our cousins in the Midwest.

The pattern is from Spud and Chloe at the Farm.  I have ambitions of making all sorts of animals from this book.  Of course I've had the book since April and this is the first one I've completed...   
I'm sure sometime around 2025 I'll get around to accomplishing this goal.  Of course my mom managed to finish a lot of craft projects when we were little.  And knitting needles make a lot less noise than tin punching in the middle of the night.