Brrrr...It's Cold Outside!!

Whoa! It's cold outside. I thought -14 below yesterday morning was cold...but when my Grandma informed me it was -33 below up in northern Minnesota...well, I guess I just couldn't complain nearly as much as I wanted to. I am very ready for summer...but unfortunately I will have to wait for awhile yet.

Ella came out all dressed up in warm clothes. In fact, she had managed to get on 4 different layers of shirts. I was pretty impressed. Her little arms looks like the marshmellow man. She was pretty proud of her accomplishment.

Here's hoping a warm-up comes soon!

My Own Hand-Painted Yarn

I have been wanting to dye my own yarn for awhile now. I've been reading up on it and researching it for a couple of months. On Tuesday, I finally decided to take the plunge. I unrolled my ball of natural wool yarn into a hank, mixed my kool-aid in various cups, and started painting it onto the yarn. I wasn't so sure I liked it at the beginning, but as it dried and the colors mellowed out a bit, it started to grow on me. Now with it wound back into a ball, I'm pretty happy with it. The big question is will I like it when it's knitted up?!? I'll post a pic when I get to that project and you can judge for yourself.

Children's Museum

We went to the children's museum in St. Paul a while back. I was going through pictures and realized that I hadn't posted about it...so I wanted to share a little. The kids had a fun time and their favorite part was in an area called "my community". It consisted of all sorts of things that you see in your own communities...such as a grocery store, a fire station, a bus station, a post office, and a restaurant. The restaurant at the children't museum just happened to be a korean restaurant. I loved it...in fact, it brought tears to my eyes remembering our own journey to Seoul and all of the things that made it so amazing. Everything was set up to resemble an authentic korean restuarant from the ingredients and recipes down to the traditional table where you sit on the floor and eat your meal. There were even pictures on the wall of landmarks in Seoul that we had actually been at in person. It was so much fun and made me miss this wonderful country and it's people.

All Girl

Ella is my "girly" girl. She is flowery and pink through and through. She just loves to play house, cook in her kitchen, and take care of her babies all day long. One of her favorite things to do is change her babies' diapers and outfits numerous times a day. If I am carrying Ben around in the baby carrier, then Ella gets hers out and straps her own baby in too. She's gonna make a great mommy someday. She's getting lots of good practice in now between taking care of her dolls and mothering her little brother all day long.

Ella's Longies

This past fall I decided to knit Ella some "longies." My knitting guru friend, Tricia, makes and sells them and does a fabulous job. Ella had seen quite a few of the ones that she had made and even got to model a pair. She loved them right from the start, so I decided that I would make Ella her very own pair. It was a blast knitting them and even more fun to see how much she liked them. For the first 4 days I couldn't get her to wear anything else. How cute is that? It made my mommy heart just swell, I'll tell you that much. I'm hoping to find some good boy yarn and knit up a pair for Ben too...when I get to that pair, I'll post more pics.

Christmas Cookies

Well, the season is here and the cookie baking has begun. Ella has been having so much fun. What's better than mommy asking "want to bake cookies again, Ella?"

Of course she enjoys the measuring, scooping, and cookie cutters...but the tasting, now that's where it's all at. And since I would rather eat the dough than the actual cookie, there's no one telling her that you have to wait until the cookies are baked in order to eat them. We each get a spoon and start scooping...into our own mouths. Yummy!

This was our first batch, and since then we have done oodles and oodles more. We have a good 15 dozen cookies in the deep freeze. I'll post pics of our first annual "Cookie Bowl with Nana" soon. We had so much fun and of course left with even more cookies.

Ella's New Hat

Since the weather has turned and winter is now here, I decided to knit Ella a new hat for winter. I was so excited...based on advice from a great friend, I ordered lovely wool for this new hat. I couldn't wait to get it since it was coming all the way from Uraguay. I emailed them and they said that they would go out that very day to hand-dye my yarn and once it was dry they would ship it out. How exciting is that?!? I waited and waited and waited. Finally, one day there was a knock on the door and on the other side was someone needing a signature for my package. Yarn...what a wonderful thing to get in the mail...and then to open the package up and run my fingers through the lovely hank. Only a knitter could understand the beauty of it all.

I got out my needles and started knitting. Ella picked the design she wanted along with the pom-poms on the ends. She saw a picture of a hat my great friend Tricia had done and wanted one of her own. Thanks, Tricia, for letting us use your pattern.

Anyway...Ella loves her hat and her ears are toasty warm on those cold Minnesota days. Isn't she cute?!?