Moran Family Fun

I'm feeling the lack of a good fabric store right about now. I think I've used up all the old sheets around the house and all the little scraps of fabric from projects I did years ago. I've been looking online and there are so many awesome fabrics and great ideas out there. I've never been much of a sewer but I think I've been bitten by a little sewing bug. Yesterday we were snow bound so I decided to pull out my supplies and see what I could come up with using the things I had on hand. I ended up doing three projects; iPod cases for me and Emily, a crayon roll for when Natalie is on the go, and a pincushion/organizer/scrap bag. I can't claim credit for any of these ideas - I've been wasting a lot of time reading sewing and crafting blogs looking at everyone else's creativity and just copying what they have made. Padded cases to keep our iPods scratch free. I also love these for a small camera, GPS, lip glosses, pens, cell phones, whatever gets lost o...

The snow arrived this weekend, just as predicted, and we got a lot. The kids didn't have school on Friday which was probably a good thing. The snow started that morning and didn't stop for two days. We ended up with about a foot of snow here where we live, but probably less in other places around us. A friend of mine said that they only got about an inch. It seems that the weather is usually a bit worse on this side of the base. On Friday I wanted to just stay home but Abigail had a bit of a tumble and we needed to go to the ER to get her tounge (that she had bitten THROUGH!) checked out. The drive to Landstuhl, where the hospital is, was so not fun. The snow was really coming down and there were drifts across the roadway. I saw two cars off the road in the first five miles we'd driven. When we finally got there the guy at the Triage station had her stick out her bloody, mangled tounge. Then he had a doctor come over to take a look at it, and then another doctor came to ch...

We have lovely doors leading into our dining room and living room. Beautiful wood doors with paned glass on the top half. I really do like these doors; I really do not like cleaning the glass in them. I put it off, and keep putting it off until I can't take the fingerprints and smudges anymore. Yesterday I finally got to that point and cleaned the glass in the doors. Today when I got up and went in for breakfast what did I find? A perfect handprint on the dining room door! A couple of different times for Mother's Day I've gotten the same gift made at school. My child's handprints done in paint with some poem about missing those handprints on the walls when they are grown and gone. I'm sorry, but I just don't think I will miss their messy handprints no matter how many sappy poems I receive for Mother's Day. Cute giggles, silly games, and peaceful sleeping faces - that's what I'll miss.

Since my German class ended last week I've found myself with a lot more time on my hands. I'm still taking classes but they are much easier for me and don't take up so much of my time and energy. I've been itching to create and make things and spent all day today doing just that. To make it easier for me to change the sheets and the beds easier for the kids to make each morning I've stopped using flat sheets on their beds. They get a fitted sheet, a blanket, and a comforter instead. A few months ago when I made that switch I decided to keep all the flat sheets from our twin sheet sets. I figured you never know when I might change my mind or when I might come up with something to make from all that fabric. Natalie's favorite sheets are the Lion King ones, she always wants them on her bed. It's really kind of surprising because I don't think she's ever seen the movie. The first project I started today was making a quilt for Natalie out of the Lion King...

Since about the middle of December we have had snow on the ground, with the exception of a few days here and there. On Monday the kids had a two hour delay for school. This is the first time they've ever had ANY type of snow day. Yesterday the military classified the road conditions as black, which means only mission essential travel in government vehicles and no personal vehicles on the roads. Of course I happened to be out driving at the time and the roads didn't seem that bad to me. Today was actually sunny, but bitterly cold. Tomorrow and for the next few days the forcast is for snow and by the end of it we are supposed to get an additional 18 inches of snow. We'll see if anything actually happens but if we do get that much snow it should make for an exciting weekend. This picture is the view from our balcony. I love the way snow covered trees look. Driving the kids to school yesterday we went through a stretch of forest with trees all around and overhead. It was bea...

Driving in the car this evening I switched the radio to the Canadian station just in time for "The Debaters", a talk show done by CBC Radio. Every week there are guest comedians who debate issues such as - is Celine Dion a good ambassador for Canada - and other interesting topics. The idea is to use funny and facts to make your point and win over the audience. At the end of the debate the audience votes, by clapping and cheering, for who gave the best argument for their side of the debate. Today when it came on Emily was with me and she said, "Yes! I love The Debaters!" It is a really good show and I love it too, but I remember as a kid having to listen to NPR in the car with my mom and not loving a single show. Okay, except maybe Car Talk on Saturdays and All Things Considered. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that even now I don't seek out talk radio stations, but Emily often suggests checking to see what is on CFN because they do a lot of t...

This year as we were taking down the Christmas decorations I found an ornament on the tree that I've never seen before. The kids don't remember putting it on the tree and Jared doesn't know where it came from. Anyway, it's a cute little wooden police officer and I really love it. We have a few police themed ornaments; cars, whistles, etc. but this is my new favorite. We like him so much that he didn't go back to the attic with the rest of our Christmas things and is instead going to be out and with us year round. Thanks to our mystery gifter, we love it! Keeping guard over the pretty bottles in the kitchen

Most people know that we love to play games; we got nine new ones for Christmas this year! But we also enjoy jigsaw puzzles and we have six new ones in our house. My favorites by far have been two that Abigail was given that are meant to be worked by adults and kids together. There are big pieces for little hands and little pieces for big hands. It's perfect for a snowy or rainy day when we just want to stay inside and no one gets bored because the puzzle is too easy or frustrated because it's too hard. A completed project - the big pieces are on the left and the small on the right

The living room on Christmas morning We were hoping for a White Christmas this year and it looked like we might have one, but for the two days before Christmas we got rain that melted away all the beautiful snow. Things didn’t quite feel like Christmas to me this year until about a week before the actual day. By Christmas Eve I was excited and grateful to be able to spend this time of year with my family and friends. We had our big Christmas dinner that evening and it was good but I would have been just as happy to have a regular dinner after all the busyness with Samantha’s birthday and the Robin Hood play. Maybe this Christmas I will need to rethink that particular tradition. On Christmas Eve we did what we do every year and read the story of Christ’s birth from Luke 2 and sang our favorite Christmas songs. The girls all draw a name when we put up the tree so they have only one sister to shop for each year. After we finished singing they opened their “secret santa” gifts from each o...

Happy 5th Samantha! It’s always surprising to look at our children and realize how fast they really are growing up. With Sam it is doubly strange because she is still so small, really such a little short girl, so she doesn’t even look five. Samantha loves having a Christmas Eve birthday and I hope that it always stays that way, I would really not like for her to feel overlooked or anything because of Christmas being right there with her birthday. This year Sam wanted to go bowling to celebrate her birthday. We all went bowling the day before since things would be closed on the actual day. Usually bowling is an activity that we all enjoy doing together. This time it was not so fun. There is a new rule at the bowling alley that you must bowl without bumpers if you are over a certain height. Madison and Emily are both too tall to use bumpers anymore and they really struggled. It went something like this: gutter ball, gutter ball, gutter ball, one pin down, gutter ball, gutter ball, repeat...

The week before Christmas Madison, Emily, and Abigail participated in a Missoula Children’s Theater production of Robin Hood. This was my type of show, four days of rehearsals followed by one performance. The kids had a fun time going to rehearsals and it was nice for them to have something to occupy their time during the first week of their Christmas break. The performance was on Christmas Eve so we made it part of our celebration for Samantha’s birthday. Abigail was a skunk, really one of many skunks. There was a whole band of loveable, but stinky skunks that just wanted to make friends. They were a big part of helping Robin Hood to rescue Maid Marion because who else could have been stinky enough to drive away Prince John’s guards? Abby did a great job and even though there were a bunch of skunks we could always tell which one was Abby because of her red hair peeking out from under her skunk hood. Emily was a member of the Merry Band, a roving band of out of work performers. She wa...

Our friends the Kennedy's came to visit for the two weeks leading up to Christmas and they were the best guests. To be honest, I was a little nervous about the whole thing before they got here. I love John and Larisa and their family, but two weeks is a long time with six extra people in our house. Have you ever had the experience of going to visit family or friends for a while and being ready to just go home about half way through? I have and I was concerned that either us or the Kennedy's would be feeling that after six or seven days! In the end it turned out to be a great visit. The kids all got along; our little ones especially loved the Kennedy kids. I think this was the first visit with them where even our littlest kids were able to connect with and really start to love the Kennedy's the way the rest of us do. Besides having a wonderful time together I wanted to share a little of what made them such great guests. 1. They love to play games as much as, actually...