A Season of Joy

Hi everyone!
This year as you all know is filled with Joy in more than one way. Our sweet granddaughter has filled our home and our hearts this Christmas like none since our own kids were born. We have three kids in our home again! I keep thinking though that its going to be a double-edged blessing some day soon...
But for now, we have the Joy of our hearts and the Joy of the season. Following are consecutive pictures of Joy, from a couple days after she got home to just yesterday.





As you can see, she is a lot more active now, something I have been looking for fervently. She has also lost the yellow tint. She 'wakes' up around 8 or 9 every evening and its all you can do to hold on to her, she squirms and flings her arms and legs around like she's running a marathon! It's good to see :)
This is our big Christmas present this year. It was really odd how this TV came into our lives...
I told the kids we wouldn't be having a lot under the tree this year as I wanted to buy the family a large flat screen, probably a 42 inch or something close, and it wouldn't leave much for other things. They were good with that.
Then Kevin went to work at a local furniture store. He delivered a TV just like this one to an older man one day. The man had been having trouble with his older 52" TV and rather than have to deal with sending it back to be repaired he just bought a new one. Kevin asked him if he needed help getting rid of the old one, and the man said he didn't know what he was going to do with it. So, Kevin brought it home. Turned out the 'problem' was two small tubes that cost (w/shipping) less than $7. One of Kevin's best friend's Dad is an electrician. Yeah.
Wow.

Kevin trying to be as tall as the tree; his feet are actually off the floor...
It took 5 tries to get them all to look at me... the man on the left is Miguel, Joy's father, he's doing a great job being a Dad.
Sansa going fishing on FaceBook....
Yeah, she has a thing about TV's too. :)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Brrrrr!

I don't know who ordered this weather but they should be dipped in a pool of cold water and left out in it.

It has been below freezing here for over a week with lows below zero and double digits, too damn cold for any living being, whether woolly, feathered or clothed.
Kevin went out to get the eggs and feed one morning and the eggs were so cold, when he touched them they cracked. So I put a red heat lamb in the chicken coop, hoping that maybe I would get a couple eggs this week and maybe the chickens would have water all night rather than it freezing solid between feedings. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

On another note, Joy is living up to her name. She had her first doctor appointment yesterday and came out none the worse for it, although they really ticked her off when they stuck her in the foot. Whatever it is in her blood that is causing her jaundice is still elevated but the Doc didn't seem too concerned about it, just said we need to keep an eye on it still.
I have a picture I want to share on my phone but for some reason can't figure out how to get it here, when I do I will post it.

Stay warm!

Baby Girl Pennington is now Joy!

Mom finally settled on a name, Joy Angel-Lee Pennington. Joy is doing fine today but wasn't able to come home yet, they wanted to keep an eye on her for a little longer. Her temp was a bit low this evening but they got her warmed back up and she's doing great.
Because Grandma's a dolt, I kept forgetting my camera in the car, so this is the only picture I have to share with you today, but trust me there will be many more :)

Baby Girl Pennington

Baby Girl Pennington (Mom hasn't settled on a name yet) was born yesterday around 4PM in Elko Nevada weighing a whopping 5.7 lbs and 18.5 inches long. They estimate she is at least 4 weeks early and after a slightly rocky start she and Mom are doing fine. Pictures and details to follow! :)

Baby Shower... and other stuff

I just don't post enough. That's why you all get this plethora of topics every time I do, cause I just have so much to say lol
I'll start with the baby shower, which we had yesterday. A dear friend of mine hosted it at her house and she put together some really neat stuff! We had three games and a drawing; the first game involved a diaper cake made out of rolled up diapers and several interesting and useful items such as a spoon, liquid medicine dispenser, thermometer pacifier, etc, which Jari carried around so everyone could look at it and memorize.... what? She was then told to leave the room and everyone had to remember what SHE had been wearing, that was funny :); a game that started when everyone walked in the door and were given a clothes pin and told not to say the word 'baby'. If you get caught by someone else saying 'baby' you lose your clothes pin, the person with the most clothes pins at the end of the party wins; and a word scramble that was really, really hard lol I only got like three of them, good thing I wasn't playing :) The drawing was for anyone who brought diapers to the shower, we put their name in a bowl and it was won by my Mom.
It was a lot of fun, and Lisa did a WONDERFUL job on the cake and everything else! Again, thank you Lisa!


I didn't get a picture of the Mom to be, she was supposed to be sitting in the rocker there next to my nephew Jordan (he and a friend crashed the party :), there is my Mom and her friend Claire.
And the cake! I was so impressed with it, isn't it pretty!

My own personal, lonely, dye day...
Ok, no I'm not really sniveling... well maybe just a little. I'm too far away from anyone else that enjoys or understands dying or spinning. This was a singular project anyway, so I would have done it in my kitchen regardless :)
I've been trying to figure out what I was going to make Jari's baby blanket out of and finally decided on some of the Merino/Silk/Bamboo that I bought from Mim a couple months ago, then I had to figure out what color to make it. I'm not a pink person, never have been, neither is Jari really, so I decided to dye it about the same color we painted her room a few months ago and then add a little something to make it interesting...
Before.... and after. I used Chartreuse Cushings Perfection dye, I loved the way the yellow came out, it was the perfect color! Then came the leap of ...faith? Well, faith in my judgment I suppose...

I took some pink dye, made a very concentrated amount and sprinkled/poured it over the yellow, then steamed it for 20 minutes.
I was still not sure I liked it at this stage, I wanted to reskein it so bad I hung the skeins up by the kerosene heater to speed things up. It didn't really matter, I still had to wait until the next day.
And this is the final product. I think I like it, but I really want to see it in action. I looked and looked finally found a pattern I like on Leisure Arts Library but the check out is broke :( so I'm waiting until they can get back to me, probably tomorrow.

Eggs! Again!
Yesterday there were only two, probably had to do with the fact that I went to the Shower and left Kevin to feed and he didn't!!! Which he got unbraided for but that didn't change the fact that the chickens went hungry. I wonder why it is that kids just don't get that? Most of the time he is very reliable, so I haven't ever had a reason to think he wouldn't do it... maybe its because they've never gone hungry?
So I went out today and this is what I saw! I happened to have my camera with me because I was going to take a picture of the laying boxes Kevin and I built. The sixth little round thing in there is a golf ball... sooooo, I am assuming at this point, that I have 5 chickens laying, at least part of the time, two more to go!

Holiday Sale at SNS Etsy Store

Just a quick note to let everyone know I am having a Hand Spun Holiday Bash at my Etsy store! 15% off all hand spun yarn until December 15th.
Get em' while they're hot :)!!!

Happy Thanksgiving, From Our Home to Yours!

Things I'm Thankful For -
The weather! Its been beautiful here, same as last week, cool but calm and sunny.
My family! My DH had to work today so we had our dinner yesterday. Although my niece and nephew couldn't be here (had to go to their dads) and my sister wasn't feeling well, it was a very nice dinner. My Mom and I decided that our Thanksgiving tradition is leaving the rolls in the oven because we do it every year, so this year I bought pre cooked ones so we actually had rolls on the table this year! ;-)
My soon-to-be grandbaby! Jari's last Dr's appointment (Monday) showed she was at 4.5 centimeters. She isn't going to make it to Christmas according to the Doc! :)
All my wonderful animals! They keep me going day in and day out. The sheep, chickens, dogs, cats, birds and last but not the furry least, Chilli the chinchilla.

I hope all of you have a wonderful, family filled Thanksgiving, and a full, satisfying holiday season!

Next up, Christmas music! :)