She's So Crafty!

Or she wants to be. 

Here are some other crafts that I've made. All for Kensi. Well, one was for me. :) I made Kensi's name with letters from Hobby Lobby, painted them brown and then free handed the designs. I think it turned out AWESOME! Not going to lie, pretty proud of how it turned out. The last pic is a canvas I Modge-Podged with scrapbook paper to create decor for my living room. Copied the idea from something I saw in a store. Still need to add a Bible verse to it though. 

Cutie Bug!

Latest of Kensi. She is getting SO SO big. But I love all the new stages.

All clean after her bath. And blowing bubbles. 

Grinning.

Sweet girl.

Hey Aunt Bets!

OOOhh! Hello there. 

Silly girl.

Cutest polar bear. Ever. Ever. 

Curly hair after her bath. 

Big cheesing!

Sleepy, sweet girl in the morning. 

Hutson Family Christmas 2011, That Happened in 2012

So we got together in January for the Hutson family Christmas. We couldn't all get our schedules coordinated until now, but it worked out because everyone (except Bonnie, Kensi and Benjamin) were there.
One thing you can be guaranteed of when we all get together is lots of fun, playing and food. The one thing I love is getting to see all the sweet little cousins and spending time with all my first cousins.

Grandma meeting Billie Jean for the first time! She is so little and SO sweet!

Apparently Ellery was being silly! Love this picture. <3

Dax prepping for his future baseball days. 

I love this picture. Brett told T-Man to get behind him so that if Anna hit the ball hard it wouldn't hit him. He went straight behind Brett and just stood there drinking his sippy cup. P.R.E.S.H.

Future ball player here too. 

This little girl is hilarious. Love her. So sweet too!

Anna hitting a home run! (Or almost ;) )

Sweet picture. 

I Love to Sew. And paint. And remodel. And....

OK. So the second part of my "resolution" for 2011 was to do more hobbies. I think I succeeded there, but I could definitely have done more. Hopefully this next summer I'll have lots of time to do them since I'll be out of school!

So for starters, I started making dresses. I made some for cousins, friends and even sold a few. Now, I'm not sure if they're worthy to sell. I'm not super confident in my sewing skills, but no one complained so I guess they were adequate.

I also made several outfits for Kensi. Loved getting to make her lots of stuff!

Another major, major project I've undertaken, which is not a hobby, but I don't mind, has been remodeling the house I moved in to in October. That is another post though. 

Reflections- Part 1

So I was looking in my old posts and saw what I wanted to do this past year. They were read more, blog more and do more hobbies.

So I kind of stunk up the blog more, but I did get better.

What I read this past year (I'll see if I can remember all of it, so bear with me.)

Ok, so I read several Nancy Drew books. Yes, I know. Do I care? No. I loved the books growing up and I love reading them.

The biggest books I read, or actually listened to, was the Harry Potter Series. and O.M.G!!!! I loved them. I actually listened to them about three times. And here's the deal. I didn't wait to read them until now for any particular reason. I just really don't like reading books because it's the thing to do right then. I like reading them because they seem interesting to me. But I'll be honest, the real reason I read them is because Ryan wanted to go see the final movie. And I wasn't going to just go see a movie without seeing the other 7 movies. And I won't go see a movie based on a book without reading the books first. So I read, err listened, to all of them. In about two weeks. I could have cried when they ended. So what did I think? I think that the books have a similar story line to Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Chronicles of Narnia etc. I don't think they're about witchcraft. When I have kids, they will SO read them. And honestly, it's my favorite story out of all the ones I listed above. The way J.K. Rowlings tied everything together just blew my mind. Seriously. I wish the story never ended.

This is true, especially after the HP series. 

I also read Jane Eyre, and then saw the movie that came out at the beginning of last year. Favorite. Movie. Ever. Seriously loved it. So good! It didn't hurt that Mr. Rochester was pretty stinkin' hot in this version either. ; )

I also listend to a lot of random audio books of iTunes. 

Blue Heaven by C.J. Box - it was a thriller. Pretty good. Probably would never have looked at it in the store but it was the book of the month once and only 5.99 for the audio. 

The Last Templar by Raymond Khoury- your typical Templar story. Still pretty good. 

Murder of the Century by Paul Collins- I think it was set in the Gilded Age and it was interesting from a media standpoint. It was about how papers sensationalized stories and often got facts wrong (not much has changed.)

I got into a series that was also a thriller but really good. The setting is Amish Pennsylvania. Read it. 

Pray for Silence and Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo 

There is also a third one I haven't read yet. 

The Third Secret by Steve Barry. This one was interesting. Pope. Cover Up. Mystery. Death. Secrets. Your basic conspiracy theory book. 

True Grit by Charles Portis- good book. iTunes book of the month.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen- LOVED it! Still need to see the movie. 

The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig- OK so I think this was like a dime store novel. Ha! It was OK though. It passed the time at work!

I spent a lot of time listening to books rather than reading them. I'm sure I also read Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers at some point this year. 

OK, so I did OK on reading books, I think there's a few I've missed, but it's OK. I can remember them later.

I also did work on hobbies, but that's another post!

Happy New Year, 2012!

For the record- I do not believe this is the last year Earth survives- at least not the December 2012 bologna. That being said....

I went to bed before midnight on New Year's Eve, but for a very good reason! I left early New Years to go see my sweet niece. Grandma went and got to meet her 8th great-grand baby for the first time.

Funny story- Bonnie was changing Kensi (dirty) and she has gotten her clean and was doing a final wipe and she started going again. So we let her finish, wiped again, went in for the final wipe again, and got more. It was rather comical.

"Hey, yeah you, bring me some milk!"

Kensi got to wear Poppa George's welding hat. We love her wearing it.

She also got to meet Aunt Shirley and Uncle Alen. Her great aunt and uncle!

Oh, and Zoolander, we've got your "Magnum" look down pat.

Gran loving on Kensington

Grandma, Kensi, Bonnie and Gran

I'm sure there is an original of this picture with Dad holding Bonnie. 

Grandma loves all her grand babies oh so much!