Quilts and cuties and cheeks, oh my!

Last week after helping my mom make a quilt for my sister's birthday I decided I wanted one too. Logan told me I could buy myself something nice so I decided buying enough flannel for a close to queen size quilt would be nice :) It's not really big enough for my queen size bed but it does cover the top so it's a good size for movie watching and definitely big enough for two ;) I can't wait to cuddle up in it with my wonderful hubby! *sigh* :)

Anyway, here's sort of the journey from fabric squares to cuddling up.

I cut out all the squares and after laying out the pattern I stacked up each column and separated them with little numbered papers. I love that tea fabric. It's so great :)

Here's evidence I actually did do some of the sewing. I "quilted" each square with an 'X'. I asked my Mom to sew the columns together so they'd be straight and nice.

Here it is all finished :D the back is all the brown fabric.

This is the "test run" Genevieve was watching Pooh's Heffalump movie and I have to say the quilt worked juuuust fine :) I snuggled in there after we took this picture. I'm excited to take it down to Sisters and use it during the traditional watching of Pride and Prejudice :D

Tonight I gave Rowan a splashy bath which was made EXTRA special when we got an EXTRA special phone call ;) It was really fun but sort of hard to keep Rowan from standing up and trying to grab my cell phone ;) Rowan showed off his animal sounds and got a good laugh :)


Afterwards tempted by the promise of a "cookie" (animal cracker) I lured Rowan out of the tub and into a towel. Which is promptly abadoned and made a run for it :)

He ran around frightening my brother's Hayden and Cameron with his nakedness. Cameron actually jumped up on a chair, then a table to get away from him. It was so funny!




After some protest I did get him back on a towel, dried off completely and jammied.




After a bit of a bump on the head (made all better by a cuddle with mama of course) we collected blankie, donkey, and the pluggie and Rowan went to bed. he's a good boy :)

Happy birthday pinkie!!

Today is Courtney's birthday!! She has reddish pink in her hair, which looks awesome. She's 17 today. She's my sister. I love her. Even though she can be a bit of a drama queen. She is an amazing young lady. She loves God. She likes Taco Bell. And she's a SUPERB aunty. I think she's great!

Way to be 17 Courtney... way to be.

I did it

After a bit of thought, a few "second thoughts", and a smidgen of apprehension I decided that another ear piercing would be fun, cute, and not a big deal. I knew it'd be reversible if I didn't like the outcome but now that I have them I think they're here to stay.

I guess somewhere in my mind I thought it would look a least a bit tough.

This is from the mind of a girl whose ONLY body modification was her first set of earrings gotten in the first grade. Of course the second set doesn't make me look any rougher or tougher than the first. I chose little alexandrite crystals (June's birthstone in honor of Logan's birthday) and they look really sweet. From a distance you can't even tell they're there. I think though that after I can switch out earring I could probably "toughen" them up by switching to some metal skulls or something if I really wanted. Ha ha, I don't think I could look much like a hooligan if I tried. Least of all with my two little gemstone earrings in each ear.

In any case I like them... and I hope Logan does too. I don't think he read the email I sent him telling him I was thinking about doing it. I have a feeling he'll think they're cute.

He's a dancy boy

On Saturday Rowan enjoyed part of the Miss America pageant at grandpa and gramma's house. He watched one girl tap dance for her talent, after staring for a couple seconds he started stomping quickly and giggling. After that one another girl was dancing for her talent. I missed Rowan spinning along with her but I did manage to catch his last little dance on video as well as him joining in the applause. It seems that every time he hears applause on TV he'll clap along, even if he's in the middle of playing or in the other room. It's really cute :)

Gremmy was there too!

I noticed that I didn't get any pictures of Rowan's Gremmy into that last post. While part of that reason has to do with card reading and networked computers, and brothers who pirate the internet away from certain boxes to play certain GAMES... the larger reason is that on this last trip the Gremmy was quite elusive as far as the camera was concerned. I do have a photo of her from our game night... but I fear reprisal. You gotta be careful when your mother-in-law has a blog and a camera too ya know ;)

Choosing the safer than sorry route I'm just going to show you at least that she was with us. Here we are sending her off to visit her parents in Anacortes. (She's up at the ticket counter.) Rowan was the perfect gentleman and helped her with her bag.

Until that is he needed a little help himself.
Then his dad lent him a hand ;)

Speaking of that dad guy...

I think we can safely call Rowan "Chip"

we don't always get to see the cute side of that "ol' block" through all the tough and gruff but it's there :)

holidays and beyond

Whew! It's been a while eh? Well Logan did indeed make it to Portland to rescue us from the ice and snow. Here's me with my knight in... khaki fleece. Maybe not the most romantic rescue in history but VERY appreciated nonetheless :D

After a few days at home we came BACK down for Christmas with the whole Hilman clan. That is my Dad and Mom, my brother Rylan, my sister Joylynn with her husband Jess and three children Wyatt, Genevieve, and Danika, my sister Cherise with her husband Kiel (pronounced like Kyle), my sister Krystle (recently promoted to Seaman Apprentice in the Navy :D), my sister Courtney, and my brothers Hayden and Cameron.

Santa didn't disappoint ;)

Rowan had a great time opening presents, hanging out with the cuzzies, and sporting his new sailor cap from aunty Krystle (which I've heard it's known as a "dixie cup")

Logan and I had a good time too

After Christmas we went to Sisters for a few days. It's always a special treat to get that far south on holiday. We treasured every moment :D

"hanging" around with Goddy

Enjoying yummy spaghetti and amazing Christmas pears.

Testing grandma Becky's stain fighting skills with a grand spill of Goddy's glass of red wine all over a very light carpet! (incase you're curious her skills are TOP NOTCH :D) After admiring his handiwork from afar (with dad) he grabbed a rag and pitched in.

He's a good boy.

He sampled and enjoyed a bit of Godmom Lindsey's gluten-free macaroni before calling it a night in his greenbear christmas jammies.

He also sampled and enjoyed a good helping of snow with a walk around Goddy and Gremmy's house with mama. It's kinda tough to see because I took this picture the next morning after a little rain but my footprints are flanking his little shuffley prints :)
I had to walk right behind him holding he hands or he'd trip every other step.

After fun filled days in central Oregon we headed back up north with a New Years stop again in Portland before heading back home. Rowan couldn't manage a toot out of his horn but he did "kazoo" it pretty good ;)
We partied the evening away watching the ball drop in New York at 9PM west coast time and then calling it a night secure in the knowledge that 2009 had come to the U.S.



Now we find ourselves in Portland once again. After going home on a Thursday just to bring Logan to the airport on that Saturday morning to fly out to Georgia for a three week class. I was originally planning to go back home this week but army life has been taking quite a toll on my emotions lately and I just needed to be around family. So we're hanging out in Portland for another little while before we get to go home and get ready for Logan to come back, again.

This is Rowan "dance dance"ing.

Uncle Hayden taught him this phrase which most often means he wants someone to turn on a YouTube video with silly music. And if you don't turn it on he will find a computer and bang on keys and click the mouse until you stop him at which time he'll look up at you and say, "Dandans?" (meaning of course, "dance dance")

He's a busy boy

As grumpy as I am that I can't be with Logan I can't help but smile and be happy when I watch Rowan running around here. He sure keeps everyone on their toes :) he really doesn't stop for much more than to eat and that's just because he's strapped in the highchair.

He's a busy, busy, sweet, cute, sweetie little boy :)

So the weather may be kinda crappy but at least Rowan is cute :D

grumpy post

I am stuck in Portland. Logan is stuck in Olympia. Snow is fun but this situation is not, it's not terribly horribly the worst day I've ever had but I do miss Logan a LOT. I'll post a couple cute pictures of Rowan on here later (when he's up from his nap and I can use the computer with pictures on it) but for now it's just a bit of a humbug.



BOOOO snowy and icy weather keeping me from seeing my Logan!

Mommy and Rowan time

Logan's been gone training in Kentucky for a few weeks now and since our camera broke just before he left Rowan and I have taken advantage of Portland, and Gramma's camera, being so close to capture some memories for Logan to share when he gets home.

We came down last week for the zoolights. Rowan really liked the fish carousel (above) and the train (below).

This week we've come down just to hang out and for mom's birthday on Saturday :D
This morning we went to Freddy's.

When we got back to Grampa and Gramma's house and played in the snow before naptime.

After all that fun I got a WONDERFUL surprise!
All the way from Kentucky Logan managed to get me flowers for our anniversary!

With help from his mum (thanks mum!) Logan had the flowers ordered and delivered to my parents' house.

Mom always likes to take a few fancy still life photos when someone gets flowers :) The bottle of "strawberry" is one of the bottles of sparkling juice I got in honor of my anniversary. Which my parents, brothers, and Rowan helped me enjoy with dinner.

Now it's time for hot chocolate and fruity deliciousness for dessert! Yum!

snow here too!

I still don't have a camera. Luckily my video camera has a picture taking setting... unfortunately it doesn't seem to like taking still pictures very much so they aren't great. BUT they are pictures of Rowan's first time playing in the snow :)

curious little george

(My mom already put this picture on her blog but I like it so much I'm posting it too.)



I just love Rowan's little face and the fact that Max has wisely decided to steer clear of the situation by staying out in the hallway. They both kind of have that "Woah... she is serious" look about them.

bad luck!

Our camera is broken! We were trying to take a family Christmas picture last night before Logan had to leave on business for a couple weeks. The camera was on the back of our blue chair in the living room and as we were walking around getting ready to take the picture it fell off! The lens landed first I think because it won't retract back into the camera anymore and the screen will only display a white screen with the words "LENS ERROR". I am SOOOO bummed! The holidays is a terrible time to be without a camera when you have an adorable one year old.

You know what this means... time to seek out the Grammarazzi!!

Christmas tree adventure

On Monday night Logan got off a bit early so we decided to take advantage of his availability and go cut down a Christmas tree! I've been trying to get some pictures on here but our wireless router has been acting up :P But I've got them on here now! So here you go. A taste of our damp, kinda cold, kinda dark tree safari.

da boys

Mommy and Rowan in front of the "one"

As Logan was tying the tree down Rowan was trying his best to climb into the driver's seat.

Through rain and cold and dark of evening we made it!
Here is our tree all set up and beautiful!

Rowan likes it too. Even if it is a bit... leany.