Merry Christmas!

Pictures By The Lovely Natalie Hilliard

We recently were able to have a mini family photo shoot, and a great baby photo shoot with David's cousin, Natalie (check out her work here), a professional photographer out of Seattle. She did a great job, and I've been excited to share these pictures with you all!

Isn't David just so handsome?! And Micah's head looks kind of funny because of the angle he has it turned but he looks like he really loves his dad.

Video Catch-Up

We've taken quite a few videos of Micah lately, and haven't been good about getting them uploaded. Today might not be the best day to do it, since Micah had his 4-month shots yesterday and is still crying them off, but right now he's happy in his bouncy chair. We'll see what I can get up!

 (Micah got to have his Christmas present a week early, since we'll be out of town on Christmas... and i don't have any patience to wait for surprises. I want it now! He loves his new jumperoo!)

(Micah's such a sweet little guy! We just love to play with him, and he sure loves his daddy!)

(This is from our first snow, back in November. Isn't he cute?)

And right now, while I'm posting this....

Crafts Galore

Marci and I went shopping in Tri-Cities last Saturday, and discovered a new store! Hobby Lobby is now open, (apparently I missed the memo that it opened a month ago...), and they have SO many different kinds of craft supplies. We spent a little while there, and then I went back on Tuesday with my friend Heather. I've been having so much fun making some Christmas gifts, like fun necklaces and flower pins. Plus, I made plans for many more crafts to come.

Heather and I are hoping to have a booth at Hermiston's Farmer's Market this summer (are we really the farmer type?), so I've been getting excited to have items to sell there. Here is a look at a few of the things I've made so far:

These are necklaces made from crystals and fabric.

And flowers made from fabric.

There is a lot more in the works, but I can't show it on here yet. :)

Friday Fun

Just a quick, very cute video of Mr. Micah!

Standing Up!

He's able to stand up now, with a lot of help balancing!

Christmas Decorations!

I've been excited for a while to get our Christmas decorating on, and had a great plan to get it all out on Black Friday. David and I both got food poisoning though, (we think it was at least... we felt awful, and then suddenly better) so the decorations were forgotten in the shed.

I FINALLY was able to start decorating on Sunday, and we got our Christmas tree! It still had snow on it though, so we let it dry out overnight in its stand, then I got to decorate it on Monday. It's kind of a strange tree, because all the branches look freally full and green, but then on the inside there are TONS of dead pine needles. And I mean tons! I vaccummed up nearly an entire canister worth, and then tossed nearly the same amount out the front door... so strange! I think I got most of them out now, but we won't be leaving the tree lit when we're gone any time soon.

So, I know you're dying of anticipation to see what we've done with the place!

Our beautiful nativity scene... I could have sworn we lost Joseph, but there he is holding a staff and wearing a robe that matches Mary.

Sorry, the sun is really bright, and you've probably figured out already that I'm not a very good photographer.



Our tree is really large, and too tall for our beautiful star to fit on the top, so I put this pretty bead wreath on it instead. It's kind of different, but I like it, and it matches a lot of the ball ornaments.



We already have a few presents, and strangely, all of them (except the huge one, which is for Micah) are for my sister... we must really love her a lot. :)



The snowman quilt my mom made for us, which I really love, and a few decorations on the shelf. Plus, we updated our pictures, so Micah's the focus of our wall, not just our wedding.

There are a few more little decorations around the house that I didn't get a picture of, and I'm enjoying the warm Christmas-y feel of it all!

Craft Night at the Wattenburgers'

Tonight I got started on my Christmas crafts! I've been wanting to do something crafty lately, and haven't gotten the ambition to begin, but I had an empty space on the wall next to David's and my stockings, and it was just waiting for Micah's! So, I got out my sewing machine and supplies, plus the fabric I bought this weekend, and got to work. I tried to chronicle my project by taking pictures, but towards the end I forgot to keep taking them at each step... you could just imagine what I did in between!

My fabrics, purchased from JoAnn Fabrics. (I bought way more than I needed. It only took about 3/4 yard of the polka dots and less than an 1/8 yard of the red and green)



First I cut out the stocking pattern (4 of them, so that the inside is lined to match), and 2 of the same shape out of batting. (Well, it's technically a chunk of thin fleece because I didn't have any batting)



I then sewed all around the outside and quilted the stockings with a diamond pattern (below). I like the stockings I make to have some dimension to them, which is why I use batting and fabric on the inside. It could be done with less fabric and probably less work if you skipped the quilting and just had a single layer of fabric.



 

This is what Micah was doing while I was working on the stocking, and David was doing the dishes. (He does them on his own all the time! I have the best husband!)



Then Daddy was done with the dishes and Micah got to hang out with him! (Plus we took a break for some dinner and a trip to Wal-Mart to get thread when I ran out)



His finished stocking! I hope he likes it and doesn't think it's too girly looking when he's all grown up!



These are the three stockings that I've made for our family. The green one is David's, which I made him when we were still dating. The red is mine, made for the first Christmas we had as a married couple. Each one is a little different, because I've tried a few different styles of the top cuff. Which one is your favorite?

 Now my excitement for craftiness is renewed! And it was so simple and fun to get a project finished in an evening. What should I make next?