Oh my...

...Gosh! My daughter has this fascination with the color blue. Everything needs to blue, she has this favorite blue shirt and pulls it out of the hamper again and again. Well, today she thought it would be fun to be blue! And she did! She got into my blue yarn dye!

Just kidding!! It's washable magic marker! 

David had some fun, too.

Off to the bathtub they went after that fun, eye make up and all.

To wake or not to wake...

...at this time of day, yes! It was 6pm, my sleeping
beauty will never go to bed if she takes a nap now.
I was busy getting supper ready and Katya was
quietly reading on the couch, until I looked and she
fell asleep! I caught her just in time, she was willing to wake up and help frost the chocolate cake for supper and wait with her shark to scare Daddy at the door
when he got home!

She happily went to bed at 7:30. Mommy and Daddy happy, too!

Katya thought...

...David needed a taste of her apple when I wasn't looking! I didn't dare take it away, it breaks his heart when I take something away from him. It kept him occupied for a while anyway. He got a few sour bites in there, too. So funny! It is his first taste of table food, I thought he would just suck on it, but he loves chewing and he surely did so!

Baby, baby....

...this morning while I was making breakfast I snapped a few photos of Katya nursing her baby, she has done this before, but never so seriously. She sat there for about 3 minutes nursing! That's a long time for her to sit still doing one thing these days.

Today on the list to do is: make supper and have it ready for Papa when he gets home from work at about 4:30, but I'm hoping we can get to church together tonight, instead of me going alone tomorrow morning with the kids.
I'd love to dye some more yarn, but I'm afraid there won't be much time between other daily duties, like folding towels, and not a daily duty, but daily fun: playing with the kids!

It's raining and ugly outside, we miss the sun, Katya is talking about riding her bike around the big water in town and finding a new park...we can't wait. Oh, she talked about swimming, too at Mama Lu's! I can't wait for summer!!!

All Settled In...

...for the most part anyway. Organization is key! We moved from my dear brother's 2800 square foot house to this teeny weeny 2 bedroom apartment. We are adjusting well, considering the situation. I just keep telling myself I can do anything for a short amount of time; short being 3-4 years while my husband finished mechanical engineering school at Mankato State University. It will all be worth it in the end I tell myself. God is taking great care; all is falling into place just perfectly, we just need to trust him.

The biggest downside is we have no washer and dryer in our apartment...this sucks!! So, just a few steps away is the laundry for $1.00 per load, 2 washers, 2 dryers, one of which doesn't even work! Why don't they replace it!!?? Today, we are going to go and play at my friends and do laundry. I racked up the numbers for laundry per month averaging $50.00 a month; more in the winter and less in the summer! I'm bringing my dear friend homemade bread in payment; she was very happy!

Diapers are the biggest problem... can't dry the plastic pants in the dryer, I use to put them on the floor register in the bathroom at my brothers, but here there are radiators lining the walls at the floor (We don't usually have the heat on because it gets like a sauna in here if you do. Katya runs around in a sundress half the time!) So, here the the heat goes up, plastic pants line the living room walls stuck in the radiator and we all dress like we are going to the beach!

I can't wait to get to the dye pot again... I think of it all the time; what colors next, color mixing rolling around in my head, so many to chose from, what will I do first!? Hopefully soon!

David is up now, sitting on my lap with a big rumble in in pants, gotta get to reality now. Oh yeah, I get to change my pants now, too!

A tornado has hit...

...well, not really; the house just looks like it has had a tornado rip through it! It's moving day come Saturday, the 2nd of January and we are up to our knees in boxes, stacked all over the house. The kids' toys are everywhere, they are having a hay-day with all this packing. We pack 2 boxes and they have 1 unpacked it seams! Katya is going to Grandma's tomorrow -yippee! We should get the rest of the house packed up for the most part, leaving the essentials for Friday and a nephews birthday party we didn't think we'd make it to.

We had a break from packing today with a trip to the cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) for a few appointments, including a hair cut for Katya, so adorable she is. In between appointments we went to Como Zoo; what a great time to go to the zoo during the winter! The lions and tiger were so active; it was awesome and hardly any people there. It was like we had the zoo to ourselves, fantastic. So, the tiger climbed up on the big rock next to the window, eye level to Katya and turned around, stuck his butt close to the window, peed and ran back down to play in the snow. He came back up later and sat there for all of us to look and photograph him. Both the lions and tiger roared and growled. It was so much fun, of course the monkeys, Katya's favorite, were fun and funny to watch, too.

Back to packing tomorrow...

My Darling daughter...

...Katya, just over 2 years of age pushed a chair from the dining room table into the kitchen and climbed up onto it. She leaned over slightly, reaching with her eyes and peered into a big stock pot on the stove with a skein of yarn floating in blue water. She exclaimed: yarn soup! From here on out kettle dyeing yarn in our home was called yarn soup.

This was the beginning of my yarn dyeing experience. I loved it. I started with blue food coloring on a worsted weight blend of wool, cashmere and rayon. It's all I had in a neutral color in my small stash. I knew it might not turn out with the rayon, but it did! It is a beautiful turquoise yarn now. Katya said she wants a hat made from it, I have more feminine colors in mind for her, although someday one of my kids will get something knitted from it. In the mean time it's part of my slowly growing stash.