Christmas Stockings

When my brothers and I were born, my grandma made us each a quilted Christmas stocking. Maybe it's because I grew up only ever seeing these homemade ones, but these are really the only ones I like. Whenever I go to other people's houses, or look at stockings at the store, none of them seem right to me. Last year when we put up the Christmas tree, we bought some cheap stockings from Target just to have something to hang, but I really didn't care for them. So, this year I decided to make us some! I found a pattern (via pinterest, LOVE that site!), picked out some fabric, and got to work yesterday morning.

The first few steps were easy. Cut the outer pieces, lining, and batting, using the pattern, make a quilt sandwich, quilt the pieces together however you want (I did straight diagonal lines on mine, and followed the pattern of the squares on Tony's), put the pieces right sides together, sew a 1/4 seam around the edge, and flip right side out. Around this point I was feeling so proud of myself because this project was turning out to be pretty simple. Then I got to the band at the top and got incredibly frustrated because the directions were not very clear and I could not for the life of me figure out how to get these pieces sewn together. I had to take a long break and come back to it later. Once I googled directions and saw a picture of what the directions were asking I realized how simple it was. Took me just a few minutes to finish them up from there. yay!

Here are the finished products. All I have to do is add our names to the top. Hopefully I'll be able to finish that up tomorrow. I think they turned out pretty nice if I do say so myself! :)

 My stocking

Tony's stocking

Wonderful Evening

Last night I had such a wonderful evening with the sweet boys I nanny for in the summer.  Their mom messaged me a few weeks ago asking if I could take some pictures of their family. Of course I said yes! We met up at Pecan Park at 4 and took some pictures of the whole family, the three boys, and some individual shots as well. I'll edit those in the next few days and you'll be able to see a few posted on my photography blog.

After the pictures at the park we drove over to the new fire station by their house. It just opened a few weeks ago and Jennifer had asked me if I would mind taking a few pictures of Quinn in front of the fire truck in his halloween costume. Quinn is obsessed with firemen and wants to be one when he grows up. She bought him this awesome costume for halloween that looks just like the real thing. Well when we got to the station the firemen there were so friendly. I took some pictures, they let the boys play in the truck, and gave us a tour of the whole station. The boys were ecstatic. it was so much fun!

When we were getting ready to leave the station Matt asked me if I would like to join them back at the house for dinner. I had such a nice time with them! Jennifer and I sat outside and watched the boys ride bikes (they can ride on 2 wheels now!), and tossed the football with them as it got dark while Matt grilled some delicious steaks.

I love that sweet family so much! And those boys always manage to make me smile :)

Reasons I love my job

This morning I went to see one of my students play in his football game. At the end of the game I was giving him a hug and telling him goodbye when one of his little friends standing nearby overheard us talking and walked over ...

friend: hey! is that your teacher?
student: yeah
friend: aw man I wish MY teacher would come see me play. Your teacher is awesome! You're so lucky.

I looked back at my student and he was just beaming.

Christmas Vacation

I am SO excited about Christmas break this year!

One of Tony's good friends, Kyle, and his wife Jacky, rented a super fancy RV to take a 2 week trip to Colorado over Christmas break (I'm talking multiple bedrooms, heated floors kinda fancy). The four of us went to the gun range yesterday, and then out to lunch afterwards. At lunch, Jacky and Kyle invited us to join them for a leg of their trip. So, I spent the evening coordinating with Jacky, and working out flight arrangements with my dad to make this possible

I was already going to be in Denver the 22-26th for Christmas. Now, instead of flying back on the 26th, Tony is going to fly up to Denver to join me (thanks Dad for getting my flight changed, and using the miles to get Tony to Denver instead!), and we are going to meet up with Jacky and Kyle in Breckenridge to spend a few days playing there then road trip back to Texas in the RV with them! I'm so excited! I get to see my family for Christmas and go snowboarding with them, AND I get to go on an awesome road trip with friends. I seriously cannot wait for Christmas break now! So much fun ahead! :)

Dewberry Farm

Last week we took the kids on our annual field trip to Dewberry Farm (have I mentioned how much I LOVE that place?!? SO fun!!). The bus ride is actually pretty long for first grade standards. It takes about 40 minutes so by the time we get there the kids are usually getting pretty antsy. We were almost there when one of my cute little boys turns around and asks:

"Ms. McCormack, how much longer until we get there?"
"We're almost there D"
"*big sigh* I hate when people say almost!"
we then round the corner so we can see the farm
"Look D, we're here"
"Wow, that really was almost!!"

too cute!

We had a great day at the farm, just like last year. The kids had a blast even though it was FREEZING cold and incredibly windy!

Tony's Halloween Costume

I know it's been a number of weeks since Halloween, but I just haven't been in the blogging mood so this hasn't made it up yet.

I came home from school one afternoon, a few weeks before Halloween, and Tony informed me he wanted to be dead Caesar for Halloween, and he wanted me to make his costume! I was not quite sure how well this was going to turn out given that I have never sewed any type of clothing before, but he assured me I could do a better job than what he could find at the store. We spent some time picking out fabric and researching what a Roman tunic should look like (I also whipped up a toga, but that was much simpler and didn't take any time at all). When it was finally time for me to get to work on it, I was SO nervous I was going to screw it up. Tony had such faith in me, and I had no confidence at all that this project was going to be a success. I am happy to report though, that the costume turned out great! I think it turned out better than I could have hoped actually. The whole thing just came together really nicely. Tony loved it, and everyone knew who he was right away, so I would consider it a success overall. I felt so proud of myself for actually making something that not only fit him, but also looked great. Here are a few pictures so you can see how it turned out:

Mad Shooting Skills

Today we went out to the gun range with Jacky and Kyle so the boys could shoot their new guns and I pretty much put them all to shame.

We started at the pistol range and I shot my .22 a few times while the boys played with Kyle's .45 and Jacky shot Kyle's .22. The boys were shooting pretty well, every shot hitting the target, but sort of all over the place, when Kyle suggested I try shooting it. I was a little nervous because that is the biggest pistol I've been around. He put three bullets in and told me to give it a try anyway. I lined up my shot, and hit the bullseye first try. The boys were shocked. I turned back around, lined up my second shot, and quite literally shot straight through  my first shot hole. Lined up the third shot, and hit the same exact spot again. I turned around and all three of them had their jaws dropped. Apparently I put boys to shame with my mad shooting skills. I was pretty impressed with myself! Turns out that is a fun, powerful, gun to shoot!

Later, we went down to the rifle range. I shot my .22 for awhile but got bored because I've shot so much at 50 yards that I can pretty much put a hole in the bullseye no matter how many shots I take now. Kyle got out his AR-15, and shot a good cluster a little high and right of the bullseye. He handed it over to me and told me to try it out. I put 10 shots in a 1 inch cluster on the right side of the bullseye. Kyle says I should quite my day job and become a sniper. haha.

I also got to spend some time shooting T's AK-47 and SKS. The more I shoot, the more I find I like shooting the bigger, more powerful, guns. Such a fun hobby! Who knew I'd be so good at it?!? :)