St. Lucia's Day Sweden

My sister Kayli sent me home with her St. Lucia costumes when I went to Pittsburgh last month.  She celebrated it with her kids a couple of years ago on the actual day--Dec. 13th, after being inspired by one of our favorite authors Elsa Beskow.  I just took photos once it snowed.  The kids had a great time though, so it was a win.  And they all loved the bread!  It was freezing (2 degrees) so the whole day of prep was all for 1.5 minutes of pictures.  :)  After, they all played they were witches and wizards for a long time.

Where'd February go?

 February went fast.  Sniff.  Here's a bit of what on.  Elder Bush left for home so he came to take a photo with us.  Both Elder Bush and Elder Shellman are the oldest of large families and they said they liked to come to our house because it reminded them of home.  Elder Bush may or may not have been responsible for the large gash on Nicolas's head while we were gone.  They were both excellent missionaries.  I hope my boys grow up like them.

The kids had "Nationality Celebration" at school and Elena was so excited to choose Colombia.  So yes, I sewed her a dress.  I need to take actual photos of her because I modified the dress after this picture.  She loved it though.

Lando insisted he was a knight saving Elena the princess.  He even had me record the whole thing.



Valentine's Day dessert, Cours a la creme.  So good.


 Happy baby, sometimes, a lot sick and teething baby also.

 I love getting packages in the mail.  This is Sebas's birthday present.  Exciting, eh?








We took Lando out of Kindergarten, it's full day and he didn't handle that well this fall so I was only letting him stay a half day (much to the teacher's and principal's dislike) but then he was falling behind and getting frustrated so we just withdrew him and we'll put him in again next fall.


FHE treat.  Wasn't that good.  White cake looks pretty, but then it's never that tasty.  Sad.

Lando and Jubal are good friends, I promise.


I  could do with a little help from Efraim actually.






Ha Ha.



I love Nicolas's drawings.  They're always so happy!  I've also been quilting and this month.  I started teaching 4H sewing classes on Friday, and Leo and I are trying to decide what we want to do with our lives.  Life is very strange. Isabel and Sebastian did swim team this month and Elena did diving.  Jubal is now officially potty trained.  I decorated the boys room and finally like it.  And then there was all the parent teacher conferences--Jubal's a bit of a bully in preschool (no surprise) but quiet (what??!), Isabel gets distracted walking across the room and starts reading other kids' books over their shoulders and they get mad when she tries to turn the page on them (so Isabel).  I went to a YW camp mtg in Laramie and Leo is busy with Elder's Quorum stuff.  We went to Utah this past weekend--Sebas went to Harriet's birthday party and Megan had an adult sibling party at her house.  It was so much fun!!!  And then we went to Mom's house the next day.  It was a nice and relaxed visit although all Leo and I did Saturday was run errands like crazy.





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Efraim is 1!!!!

Efraim's birthday was great!  He is such a sweetheart--cuddly and sweet!  And even though he's tiny, he looks so huge riding his bee bike around.  We had grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing.  Yum.  He certainly enjoyed it.

Pittsburgh!!!

In January Leo randomly decided to go to a class in Pittsburgh for work and we had enough points on our credit card for me to fly out with him!!! YAY!!!!  So I sneakily planned and executed an awesome plan to surprise my sister Kayli.  And she was so surprised, she said it didn't even register in her brain for a while that it was us on her doorstep.  Then we spent three days together while Leo went to class. It was so fun!!  We had grand plans to go to Falling Water and to Meadowcroft, but it was cold so instead we went to Goodwill and Target and Joann's.  We did go to the Frick Museum and the Cathedral of Learning at the Univ. of Pittsburgh to see the Nationality rooms, which were very cool.  And one night Kayli and Brett and Leo and I went to an escape room, which we escaped and that was really fun.


 
So lots of cars from the Frick museum.  This was my favorite carriage.


My favorite car because it matched my shirt. Plus 60+ miles to the gallon. Sweet. Wish I got that in my van.   Also cars were so much cooler looking and fun colored back then. They're all boring now.
   This was one of three Rolls Royces the Frick family ordered at the same time (one for Dad, Mom and big sister) all custom made (colors, dash gauges, interior colors etc).  Crazy.


Then we went to the Frick greenhouse, right next to the kids' play house--and it was a REAL house.  Seriously.


 And I tried to take photos of one dress that was gorgeous to remember the details, but the glass was not cooperative with my phone camera. Also I wanted to actually go through  the Frick residence but I didn't think our kids would be good for the hours long guided tour.  :(  And the Underclothes touring exhibit from the Victoria and Albert was all boxed up ready to ship out.  So disappointing.

But we got to have lunch with our husbands at Luke Wholey's and even met Robert Wholey.  Sweet, eh.  They liked us at the beginning but not after our kids *cough* trashed the place.  Yummy swordfish though.  Then we went to the Nationality Rooms. I loved all the carved wood!!! Lucky my phone was dying or there'd be oodles more pictures on here.

I think I should recreate this tapestry with appliqué on a quilt for my boys.  It would be awesome!

Hungary.

Czech

The actual church next door.


And Japan.

Also we dressed Efraim up as a rabbit twice. He didn't like it either time.

Kayli missed out on these sweet boots from Goodwill.

















Leo and I got a call from our babysitters, a young couple in our ward, asking about what to do about Lando's split head.  I gave awesome directions on supergluing over the phone.  They sent us this photo to reassure us.




When I found out about Leo's class I decided to make Kayli a quilt--I actually saw the pattern in December and bought it then for some unknown later time but I couldn't pass up actually bringing it to her. So I quilted very quickly.

After our awesome escape.  We made a good team--every one chipped in.  And then we went out for yummy Thai.  Leo and I also ate at Gauchos and The Milkshake Factory, I highly recommend both.  Kayli and Brett were sweet and took Efraim for a night too.  Oh, and Leo and I ate at our favorite gyro place in the O'Hare airport and then he took me out for steak again in Ft. Collins where he went to the temple and I went to Joanns again.  All in all, it was a marvelous time.  So much fun to see Kayli!!!

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