Shawls and Hats

I've been a busy knitter lately so I'm using today's post to show off what I've made since the summer.

Over the summer I made this shawl for a friend of ours. She, her husband, and their 4 kids are going to be missionaries in Lebanon. (The ladies in the picture are ladies I knit with, who pray over the shawls with me. They are so much fun.)

I finished it and mailed it in July, then took a month or so off since it was "summer" and all.

In September, the prayer shawl knitting group I go to started up again, and so did I. My first shawl of the "year" is this lovely one I made for a friend of ours who, along with her husband and young daughter, are going to be missionaries in Africa.

Once her shawl was finished, I started one for the prayer shawl basket in our church. It's pretty much what it sounds like, a basket, in our church, full of shawls that we've made and prayed over for whoever needs one.

Around the same time I started this pink one, I also started one for a friend of ours who is in England, leading Club Beyond (youth group) for the military kids stationed over there.

I finished both of them in the beginning of December (mostly so I could mail the one to England and have it arrive [hopefully] right around Christmas. And I'm currently working on two more. Most likely for the prayer basket again. At least that's what they're both intended for right now, but I guess you never know what might come up.

And now on to hats!

You may remember the Spider-man hat I made for Zeke and the Ironman hat I made for Deacon. (If you don't, click HERE.) You may also remember the Green Lantern hat I made for Josh. (Again, if you don't, click HERE.) Well, after finishing Josh's hat, I started on a Batman one for me. By the time mine was finished, the one Finn was rocking was too small so I made him a new one (which is too big) in colors inspired by the X-Men. Wolverine in particular for now since he's Zeke's favorite, but when he's big enough to pick one for himself, he'll be able to.

Now, Finn's hat and my hat don't have our respective superheroes icons on the brims like the others do, but I'm okay with that. Basically I knew I'd never get the Batman one right and I didn't want to spend upwards of $10 (including shipping) on a patch. And since Finn's isn't really anyone specific (no offense Wolverine) I figured there wasn't a point in putting one on his yet. I guess I could put a red X, but meh.

So there you have it. That's what I've been doing to keep myself busy (and warm!). Because, you know, life isn't busy enough around here on it's own.

Oh, That Youngest Walter Boy

Do you see this face?

This face is the face Finn makes every time I tell him "No" or "Stop". Yeah, disciplining this one as he gets older is going to be rough.

* * * * *

The other day, after coming in from getting Zeke off of the bus, I came upstairs to find Finn under the table. This isn't a terribly big deal, except that I hadn't swept for a few days. So by the time I pulled Finn out from under the table, he had an old, hard French fry in his mouth, as well as an old, dried up apple peel, and a little chunk of play-doh. After I swiped all of his goodies out of his mouth, he then tried to replace them with the piece of PBJ he had in his one hand, and when that failed, he tried for the dried broccoli he had in his other hand (Linda joked that at least he was going for a variety of foods). So pleased with this new area of floor he discovered (I blame the cat for this, by the way) I found Finn under the table many times throughout the rest of the day (don't worry, I swept the floor right after I pulled him out and took all his treats away).

Obviously, he's quite happy under there.

*****

Finn is pretty much in love with himself. And who can blame him, right? His new thing to do (usually while we're cooking dinner) is to come into the kitchen, and make out with the baby "in" the oven.

He's done this a few times, and I thought it was only the baby "in" the oven that he was so keen on, but then I read a book to him that has a mirror at the end, and as soon as he saw himself in the mirror, this is what he did:

Which is what leads me to believe that Finn is in love with himself. Or that he likes to lick things that look like him. Whichever.

* * * * *

And finally, here is a video for Finn's aunts. See, my sisters are somewhat known around these parts (and by "these parts" I mean to Josh and me) as cranberry sauce maniacs. Probably because one night Josh had come to my mom's for dinner and cranberry sauce was served, and each twin probably ate about a can of sauce herself. So, for them, we filmed Finn freaking out over some cranberry sauce.

Seriously, I couldn't feed it to him fast enough. The video doesn't really do the moment justice. You'll just have to trust me that it was quite hilarious and made us think of my sisters. Fondly, of course.

Go My Favorite Sports Team!

As you may or may not know, we enjoy football in our house. We like to play football as well as watch football. We cheer for everyone since Zeke has no allegiance to any particular team. We do enjoy college football a bit more then professional, but again, since Zeke has no preference and football is football, we watch whatever we can whenever we can. So, we're pretty excited that the Superbowl is coming up.

I am excited for the Superbowl for a completely different reason though. This year, for the Superbowl, St. Jude Children's Research hospital has partnered with the NFL on FOX to create a new fundraising program called Game Day. Give Back. Now, we aren't having a Superbowl party to try and raise funds, but what we have decided to do is donate to St. Jude's according to the final score of the game. So, if the final score of the Superbowl is 21-16, we will donate $37 to St. Jude's. (If the score only winds up being something ridiculous like 7-0 or 3-2, we'll just add a zero to the end of the total number of points.) And I have to say it again, I'm really excited for the Superbowl now because of this. We may not wind up giving what some would consider to be a lot, but every little bit helps.

All of that being said, would any of you care to join us in this "pledge"?

Chips Ahoy!

Deacon is a potato chip eating monster. This kid would eat chips all day, every day, if we would just let him. It doesn't even matter what kind of chip, he is an equal chip lover. Doritos, fritos, cheetos, bar-b-que, regular, rippled, sun chips, etc. They are all delicious to devour.

Look how happy they make him. As I was getting Deacon up from his morning rest time the other day I said (as usual), "Deacon, what shirt would you like to wear today?" Deacon looked at me and said, "How about you get the shirt, and I'll get the chips." He then left the room, got some chips from the pantry and went upstairs.

The only downside? Chips, especially the "cheesy" ones, tend to make quite the mess. We all know Deacon is anything but neat when he eats, but still:

Chips can get a little out of control sometimes. I did show him how to lick his fingers when he is finished eating, so that helps a little. But when he so clearly enjoys them, a little cheese all over the house is worth it.