New Years Eve

Well, I finally got Andre's man blanket done the blocks are a lot bigger on this one because he wanted a bigger quilt than the other ones that I had done and I was feeling lazy bigger blocks =less time cutting after it was done I was worried that it was too bland so I added red corduroy blocks to the green blocks. I like it a lot better now :) and Andre likes it too.

We had a pretty tame New Years Eve, we just stayed at home and watched DVD's of the amazing race. It cracks me up that we watch all the episodes and some how Andre always manages to catch the last3 episodes every season. The kid has talents because he can come in at the end and nail all of their personalities and know exactly who we are rooting for.
We are a pretty lame family in the fact that we didn't even talk about any resolutions for 2009.

Jennifer

2008 New Years Resolution

In order to finish Andre's "man blanket" (his words) I need to go and get more red flannel. I am not quite sure how I miscalculated, but I did and that means a trip to JoAnn's :) I went by and picked up mom on my way and we went on down to JoAnn's after walking around for a bit we saw some really cute cute towels on clearance. Mom and I were looking at them and I said those famous words "we could make those really cheap" off we went to find waffle muslin and mom bought all that they had (it was only 3 and 1/2 yards) after all of our fabric was cut we looked at each other and my a vow ...

This year we will do the projects that we buy for. Every month we will spend a weekend on Christmas projects and we will complete them.

I will keep you updated on how it goes :)

On the way home mom reminds me that I had once before (years ago) decided that I wanted to start quilting and had bought some stuff for it. So, it was decided that I would come in at her house and try and find it. She said it was probably in the basement so we went down...what a disaster (said with love) then mom looks at me and says that her 2008 New Years resolution had been to clean and organize the basement umm we better get busy!!

So I spent all day Saturday at mom's helping with her basement. Melinda and Sabrina came over to help too. We got a lot done, but we will still need to go back tomorrow.

Tonight was our Christmas with Dan's family. We went to Uncle Aubrey and Aunt Nan's house. Beth, Aaron and Ariel were there too (the usual group). The kids (and me) played Scrabble and then we opened presents. After the presents were opened and Beth, Aaron and Ariel left and we stayed and talked about life for quite some time. We always have a good time visiting and Aunt Nan is a fantastic cook :)

Jennifer

Rag quilt results..

I thought that I would post some pictures of my rag quilts I made for Christmas so this will be a pretty picture heavy :)

Here is Melinda and her quilt I really started to make this for mom and then decided I liked it to much and wanted to keep it for myself, but then I decided that I needed to be a big girl and I gave it to Melinda.



This was my favorite quilt. When I started to cut it the one of the patterns actually made my eyes hurt it was so busy!! But once it was finished I just loved it the patterns weren't to busy. Dan says that the reason that I like it so much is because I am not used to pink in our male dominated household.

This one was for Reggie our Georgia Bulldog fan. It always cracks Andre up that Reggie is such a Georgia fan when he actually graduated from Georgia Tech.




This one was Armons'. I am sure that he likes it esp. since he saw it for 2 weeks before he knew it was going to be his.


The dogs crack me up they think that all of the blankets are theirs'. if they see the blanket they immediately head for it and plop down.

Jennifer

Merry Christmas

Christmas was wonderful!!

First thing JoJo gave me the look, I had been sewing with some zebra print fabric and JoJo had been eying it. I promised her I would make her a bandanna for Christmas morning so I set to it. I had no pattern and I am fairly new to sewing so it was a little trying and a little fun. I put the zebra fabric on the top and hot pink flannel on the bottom. She loves it and hasn't tried to take it off yet.

Everyone came over around 9:30 am and Melinda had brought the stockings with her. So we kicked all the kids and husbands out and stuffed the stocking really fast :) Then on to the present opening portion of the day it was really nice we had made a vow for less "stuff" this year and it really helped with the day not being so overwhelming. After opening gifts and eating a bite of breakfast everyone headed home and I took a little nap :)



Around 3:00 pm everyone came back over for dinner. Thanks to my nap I was running a little behind, but it was no big deal. Dinner was nice and everyone ate way too much :) . Afterwards Sabrina and I went looking for a good Christmas puzzle. We all went to working on it except for Reggie and Andre. After a little while a huge silly string war ensued. It was such fun and everyone had a good time.








Eventually Andre wondered down and even managed to get a few pieces of the puzzle in!! Every time Dan put a piece in Armon did a little chant it was so funny! After the puzzle was as complete as it could be (seeing as Sabrina took home a piece with her) we went in and watched The Dark Knight (Andre got this for Christmas). It was a full complete day.


BTW some of my favorite memories were:

Dan opening our new silverware and having to take it all out and sort it before he would open the next present.

JoJo sitting in Andre's lap during the present opening and Andre asking why she looked so sad. I said let her open her present. That was all it took she, had her toy and was so happy

Sabrina telling me her favorite part of Christmas was just having the family together. (Isn't she the sweetest)

Armon cheering for Dan whenever he put a piece of the puzzle in.

Melinda and Mom being upset that they hadn't gotten any silly string in their stockings and they wanted to play too!! Next year everyone will get silly string and I will get 2 cans lol

Jennifer

Christmas Eve....

OK I seriously over committed myself with these blankets!! I have been sewing forever and there is no way I will be finished...Next year I am starting sooner, like in January. I have been sewing until 2 in the morning and last night Armon stayed downstairs with me and we stayed up until 5:00 am so I could finish another one. It is seriously crazy!! Every time Andre sees me start one he asks is that one for me? I thought that I had plenty of time and in my own defense Andre's blanket was one of the first ones I had done, but he wanted one that was bigger so he got put on the bottom of the list. Flash forward to Christmas Eve and I am working so hard on Andre's quilt and I run out of red flannel. I am so bummed that there is no way for Andre's blanket to be done. It is 1/2 way done so that will have to be enogh for Christmas morning.

Dan has been a wrapping fool!! I haven't wrapped one present (who has time to wrap when I have to sew?) yet and I probably won't have time to. Armon helped out some, but then he had to leave and go to his moms. Can I just say I am soo lucky to be in this family!! Everyone is willing to pitch in when ever help is needed.

Dan took a ton of pictures and wanted to make sure that I posted some so here are a few:



And no Christmas is complete without the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree:
Some of our favorite ornaments:


I hope everyone has a wonder Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Jennifer

4th Anniversary

Today is Dan's and my 4th anniversary!! No way does it feel that long. I have to say that I feel blessed to have Dan in my life. Everything seems so much better/funner when I am doing things with him. We weren't sure how we were going to celebrate our day. We have been spending so much time together lately that we thought it would be fun if Melinda and Sabrina came over.

Sabrina had never seen Grease so we watched that first, Dan is such a good sport!! Unbelievable Sabrina didn't like Grease we decided that we don't know who she is and someone must have been switched at birth lol! Then we watched Momma Mia which Dan said was much better this time (we had watched it on Tuesday) because Sabrina had changed the setting so that the words to the songs came on as they sang them. Now that was fun Sabrina, Melinda and I dancing around singing at the top of our lungs while Dan just laughed at us.

Then we sent Armon to Super H Mart (the Chinese Grocery down the road) for chicken fried rice and everyone had a feast of chicken fried rice. Then we finished hanging the ornaments on the Christmas Tree!!

It was a really good day! We had so much fun and we realized how lucky we are to have each other.

The Oberlanders

Mom and I were running errands this morning when we got the call that my Uncle Jeff, Aunt Mary and family were in town. My cousin Steven is in the Army and he is being stationed in Korea and they coming to see him off. Our luck is that he lives right in the middle of mom and I. I was perfect we met them for dinner and got to see most of the cousins Samantha was there with her 2 little ones! Amanda came and we had such a good time talking!! And Steven and his new wife Brittany, the only one missing was Daniel who is stationed in Tennessee. After dinner mom and I went back to their hotel and really got to visit!! Poor Aunt Mary and Uncle Jeff I didn't want to leave I could have stayed and visited with them forever, but Amanda was giving me a ride home and she didn't want to be too tired and forget her way back to the hotel. So she drove me home around 2:00 am (I know) and we sat out in the driveway and talked for a bit longer. I really connected with Amanda even with our age difference it feels like we are so alike!! I think that she is going to come and visit with me soon!!

Dan really loves this picture every time he sees it he says that could be us. I take it to mean that we could have 2 girls and that they would probably look very similar to Katie and Allie!!!

They were some seriously sweet girls!

Jennifer

Things seem like they have been really crazy here at the Brooks house!!. Lt has been raining nonstop for 2 days and JoJo came in covered in mud. Dan gave her a bath and she was nice and clean. She is such a Daddy's girl :) . Today we wake up to sun and nice weather. JoJo goes out and she comes back in covered in mud. I wish that I had a picture. Poor Dan all that work for nothing!!

Armon is having his first round of college finals. He is worried about math in particular and has to do really well on his final to pass the class. The poor guy has stayed up late every night studying for this final. He finally took his final yesterday and called me afterwards he said he was still shaking, but thinks that he did pretty good. He is checking the teachers website every couple of hours to see if his grades are up yet. I remember going through this all to well so I have been trying to take his mind off of it. I hope he finds out his grade soon....and that he remembers what this feels like and studies all semester long next semester.

Andre is getting ready for his finals, but he has another week or so. He keeps on trying to get us to go to a shooting range. Maybe we can go this weekend. Get some aggression out and have some family time.

I also have some semi exciting news. I have been offered a job contingent on passing a background check!! I can't imagine not passing a background check so it looks like I will be starting a new job on the 15th. We are pretty excited as you can imagine!!!

Jennifer

Crafty weekend: A Sew Off!

Dan and I decided that we would do a more traditional smaller Christmas this year. We are doing this for a couple of reasons, 1) money is a bit tight right now, 2) there is always an overload on Christmas morning and 3) The boys really don't need anything right now. With that in mind I decided that I would make some presents this year. After scouring the black Friday ads I saw that JoAnn's had flannel on sale for $1.49 (that's very cheap) a yard. So, I was bound and determined that we would be hitting JoAnn's second on our stops (Kohl's opened first so we went there first)

Mom, Melinda, Sabrina and I hit JoAnn's and it was pretty funny everyone split up and mom and Melinda hit the section that I would normally run to...the Scrapbook Section. I grabbed a cart and Sabrina came with me and we fought our way through the fabric section. I was very impressed with the selection of flannel that JoAnn's had. After Melinda and mom got what they needed from the scrapbook section (mom got a Cricut!!!!) Melinda got in line for the cutting of fabric and Sabrina and I kept piling more and more fabric in the cart. I was pretty bad at one point I was actually looking in other people's cart and asking if they were going to get "all of the fabric on that bolt" it was all good natured and everyone was really nice and chatty. We probably had to wait about an hour in line, but it didn't seem to bad because we were still checking out fabrics. Once the poor lady started cutting my fabric it took her about an hour. Finally Sabrina had to pull me away and tell me "Aunt Jen you have enough" she ended up dragging me out of the store lol!!

Sabrina wanted to come over and help me make some rag quilts. So we went and picked her up and brought her back to our house. Dan helped us set up both of our sewing machines next to each other and we went to work. Man that girl can cut and sew!! She was such a huge help and we really enjoy having her with us. We said we were going to have a sew off, but her machine was definitely faster than mine so even though she won she didn't rub it in my face :)

Jennifer

Political Family

Andre and I (Jennifer) went to the Saxby Chambliss rally today!! I was really excited to go, I think that this is the first election that I have gotten so emotionally involved with. Of course McCain and Palin didn't win, but the emotional involvement has flowed over to the Senate race. So, when we got notice that Sarah Palin was going to help campaign for Saxby, I knew that I wanted to attend the rally (even though I have already voted).

I RSVP'ed for all of us to go together, but Armon backed out and Dan had to do some work so I checked Andre out of school early....I know bad parent alert...and we headed over to the Gwinnett Arena. There was already a pretty big line when we got there and there was the cutest older couple in line with us. They have been married for over 40 years and were pretty chatty. It was nice to meet them and hear about some of their life experiences. It definitely helped the wait go faster :). Once we got into the actual arena I scoped out the best seats. We weren't too close, but we had a clear view. It was pretty neat to check out all the signs and just people watch. Saxby only talked for a minute and then Sarah talked for about 20 minutes. She is a pretty good speaker and was really interesting. Andre says that he didn't learn anything new, but I still think it was worth letting him leave school a little early.


Jennifer