first giveaway win. ever.

i won my first giveaway ever this month. i just recently started reading the blog, narrating life, and she had a giveaway from tag team tompkins. i enter a lot of giveaways, but never win any of them. until now.
 

i won these four beautiful letterpress prints, with a christmas theme to them. i love the prints and plan to incorporate them into my holiday decor somehow.
 

my favorite part about the giveaway, though? they are made by a mother and daughter duo. their names are diane and madeline. i think that's great.

i can't wait to get home and see them in person.

christmas with the linfords

before we left for boise, we did christmas with my family. all of my siblings and their families were there, which isn't that rare, but still fun when it happens.

these pictures don't really have anything to do with christmas. diane just loves my parents' cat and is pretty hilarious around him.

all of the grandkids in christmas pajamas from my mom and dad. it's really hard to get a picture of all of them together these days. rachel's not a big fan of the camera and diane doesn't really hold still. thus, beth and i are also part of the picture. you could sort of crop me out, but beth...

while everyone else was opening presents, diane pushed around the box where we were throwing the wrapping paper and took the paper out as fast as we could put it in.

the grandkids waiting with baited breath while my dad tried to unearth one of the toys. do any of the toy manufacturers actually have children? have any of them every tried to open one of the toys? if i have to undo one more twist-tie or cut into the impossible plastic casing that is costco's only downfall, i swear...

diane was going on pure adrenaline that night. she carried around her blanket and watched the chaos, but didn't really act tired until about two hours after her bedtime.

my thumb sucker.

madeleine got angelina's birthday for her birthday. i love these books and so does madeleine.

madeleine is at that phase where it is really hard to get a picture of her smiling that does not involve closed eyes or an excessively cheesy smile. all kids go through this, right?

a cooking set for her play kitchen. she loved this and carried it around with her the rest of the night.

beth made capes for the kids. they are reversible superman/batman capes and were quite the hit.

madeleine wanted hers turned around so that she could see it.

diane and diane.

randy looking hot in a new sweater.

my mom made each family a byu quilt this year. pretty fun. we are big byu geeks and all sang the fight song together. we figured out that we have nine byu degrees between all of us, with four more in progress. go cougars.

after all of the gift opening, i finally let madeleine open all of the kitchen set and spread it out so that she could see it.

in addition to christmas, our family has a whole bunch of birthdays to celebrate in december. matthew and madeleine are only a year and five days apart. so, in addition to a christmas celebration, we also celebrated everyone's birthdays.

how things work around here, apparently

madeleine: i want some cheese and crackers.
me: (holding diane, who had finally calmed down after being upset for a while) randy, could you get her some cheese and crackers?
jeanie (my mother-in-law): i can get them for you madeleine.
madeleine: no, i want my mommy to make my daddy get them for me.

christmas and madeleine's birthday

we had a great day today. christmas in the morning and birthday celebration in the evening. we decided to continue the tradition of birthday balloons from santa, but this year, we went a little bigger and better. madeleine came downstairs to a huge balloon from santa. it had to be weighed down pretty heavily so that she didn't float away.

i got madeleine a huge box of coloring books that she slowly pulled out and stacked together. i love to see her personality come out in simple things like unwrapping a gift. 

grocery shopping carts from marte, alex, and bryan.
 

musical instruments from grammy and grandpa bob.

the felt food was a big hit. thankfully. i finally finished it all last night, even though i swore that i would finish it long ago and not be doing it at the last minute. 

both madeleine and diane loved the food. 

birthday cupcakes after christmas dinner, followed by birthday gifts. 

an art kit from grandpa bob and grammy.

a new helmet to go with a new...

bike! our big birthday gift to madeleine was a pink strider bike. she loved it. she has been asking for a bike for her birthday for months - it was hard to wait to pull it out until now. i think she'll have a blast with it. 

diane spent the day running around and darting up the stairs at any chance she could get.

it was a great day, spent with family, giving, and remembering the birth of our savior. merry christmas to all, and a happy new year!

2010 christmas season: december 25th

celebrate two birthdays.

christmas quilt for kyle and kim's family

as a christmas present for kyle and kim's family this year, i decided to make them a quilt. they are an on-the-go family, so i made a utilitarian picnic quilt for them that they can throw in the back of the car and use wherever. i actually finished it in october and had a hard time keeping it a secret for over two months.

front of the quilt

back of the quilt

 when i quilted the quilt, i decided to stitch the letters p-e-c-k into one of the rows to personalize the quilt a little bit more. don't look too close:

i really like how the quilt turned out and love how the fabric came together. i warned kyle and kim that if they don't use it, i will come and take it away. and having it labeled with peck won't be a problem.

this was a big undertaking for a christmas gift and i'm glad that i got it done early, but don't think i will be doing it again any time soon. and certainly not two in one year.