First Snow of the Season

Even a good dusting is exciting at the beginning of the season!

Let the baking begin!

We made some peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses this afternoon. Yummy!

I did my Thanksgiving grocery shopping this morning, and I can't wait for Thursday! We'll have a pretty simple meal since it'll only be our family, but we're still looking forward to it :)

I hope everyone else is ready to enjoy their holiday!

A few sewing projects

I've been sewing some this fall.


Maria's reached the age and size that it's nearly impossible to find decent clothing for her. So, I made 3 skirts for her. I only have pictures of 2 of them...

Oops, no close-up of this second skirt. I have material for one more skirt (for me), but I haven't gotten around to making that one yet.

I've also been crocheting. I really enjoy crocheting. It's relaxing, with all the repetitive stitches. It's also easy to pick up for a few minutes and put down. It also doesn't involve dangerous sharp needles that little hands can get.

Here is a leg warmer that I crocheted for Elena to wear over her leggings on cold mornings. I did finally crochet the second one :) --This is not the best picture of Elena!--

I just finished this project! It is a wool diaper cover. You can see in the above picture the wool cover we purchased several months ago. The cloth diapers we were using at night always leaked - not during the day, only at night. I had heard that wool covers were great for this, but they are much more expensive than regular covers, so I was hesitant to try them. Eventually, I became tired of dealing with wet sheets every morning, and decided to try one. Well, it works great!! We've NEVER had a leak. They are made of merino wool, which is very soft and not at all itchy. They are easy to wash. Actually, unless they get soiled, they only have to be washed once every few weeks. We love them so much that we wanted a second one for night use (when you wash them, they take a couple of days to dry), and some for day use. I found a great pattern and got some good yarn and made this cover...

I think it's really cute. Next time, I'll do the leg cuffs a little differently - there were 3 options in the pattern. I can't wait to make some more (the new baby would love some, too, I'm sure! -- Oh, for those who haven't heard yet, we're expecting another little blessing next July!!). But, I'll have to wait until I can start another one because there are a lot of Christmas things I need to take care of first.


Here is a leg warmer for Chiara. When she saw Elena's, she asked for some. Unfortunately, this one doesn't have a mate yet, so I guess that is the next item on my crochet-things-to-do list.

It's that time of year!

Just a quick post to point out to interested family and friends (mainly Grandma!), that I have put together a preliminary Christmas list and posted a link on the right side of the blog. Please let me know if you get anything from the list.

Going on a leaf hunt

Fall is coming to a close. The weather is getting quite cool and nearly all the leaves have fallen from the trees around here. So, I think it's time to look back at our leaf hunt we went on last month to remember how beautiful the trees were!

I uploaded some pictures out of order, so first you will see what we did with the leaves when we got back home...

We laminated some of our favorite.

And we did some leaf rubbings. I thought these turned out very nice!

Here is the leaf hunt! The kids had been begging to go since the first leaves started to turn in September, but I held them off until October when my parents visited.

I hope you all had a beautiful Fall!!!

Through the eyes of my iPod

I mentioned in my birthday blogpost that I got an iPod Touch for my birthday. I never really knew what these things really did, but I sure have learned a lot about it over the past few weeks! And, it's really great!

I have the calendar set up with appointments and activities (with alerts since I constantly forget things!), I keep lists of what I need to do, what to buy at the store, what to pack for a trip. Whenever I think of something new, I pull it out of my pocket and add it to the list! I can check email, the weather, and Facebook quickly. I have ebooks that I can read if I have a moment. There are some great Catholic Apps, like the Rosary, which helps the younger kids focus and follow along (ok, the pictures help me, too!). We have the Liturgy of the Hours on there, so when we went to D.C. we didn't have to bring all of our big books with us.

Something else I love is the camera. If there's something I want to take a quick picture of, the iPod is easily accessible in my pocket. Of course, the quality of the photos isn't as great, so it doesn't replace our regular camera. But, as you can see below, it's great for some fun candid shots!

If I walk out the door in the morning and see a rainbow, I can take a picture easily!

Or sunrise...

Or, I can take of picture of Matteo learning to add and carry numbers for the first time and email it quickly to the grandparents.

Who can resist the cute baby-in-the-bath picture :)

Well, I made good use of my iPod in D.C. and even have some pics that we didn't get with the camera.

Like Elena helping me pack (or unpack early, rather)...

The kids ready to get in the van...

In the van...

Maria enjoy 4 uninterrupted hours to read!

Elena - the one minute she wasn't fussing or sleeping in the van. Thankfully, the sleeping last much longer than the fussing!

At the hotel...

Dany's not really asleep in this picture :)

at Air & Space... (I love the fake penguins in the back!)

Matteo next to one of the engine bells (I think that's what they're called) of the Saturn V rocket that propelled the Apollo missions into space.

Elena discovering ketchup for the first time...when she ran out of french fries, she figured just licking it out of the cup was just as good :)

Among the kids' favorite things we did on our trip was eating out, they said :)

Maria and Elena checking out a Lunar Excursion Module...

The only picture we got of the kids in front of the Washington Monument had Cati with a kind of sad look. Well, she's not sad here...just the typical Cati!

Who wants to miss out on a goofy Dany picture???

The WWII memorial...

Didn't get this on the regular camera...

Well, there's another look at our trip to Washington (among some other things).