Birthday Month!

March is birthday month in our family.  It was growing up for me, too.  Lucas' birthday kicks off the month and this year he turned four.  Sometimes I still find it hard to believe he's already four.  Lucas mastered buttoning a shirt and can officially navigate the xbox better than I can.  He has a huge vocabulary and an awesome personality that make him super fun to be around.  He's always saying something hilarious and sometimes, when it's especially inappropriate, I find it hard to contain my laughter.  The other day on our walk to the bus stop we had this hilarious conversation:

M: Do you want me to carry you? It's a long way to the taxi station.
L: You know what else is a long way?
M: What?
L: It's a long way to the top if you want to rock & roll.

And the kid likes rock & roll.

One happy Birthday Boy!

Lucas woke up super early, as expected, and calmly notified us that there were presents waiting in the living room for him.  He sat and waited patiently for us, as we aren't quite the early risers that he is. 

He even humored me and let me take a ton of pictures.  :)

Lucas got his first Legos this year!  I'm not sure who's more excited, Lucas or Adam.  They both had a blast making trucks and buildings all morning.  I haven't even stepped on any Legos yet so I think that's a good sign.  Few things are as painful as stepping on a Lego with bare feet.

The Year of the Lego.

Bear wasn't too sure about being awake so early and all the commotion.  So he mouthed his trusty rhino friend to help ease his anxiety.

This happened.

Since we previously had cake at Adam's change of command ceremony and Lucas was bringing cupcakes to preschool the following day, we decided to have birthday pie this year.

And just like that we have a four year old!

Annyeong haseyo

I've been searching high and low for baking stuff to make cupcakes for Lucas' upcoming birthday.  He's having a Mickey Mouse party and it is impossible to find red cupcake liners.  So I turned to facebook.  There are a few facebook pages for spouses of service members stationed in Area IV (Daegu is considered Korea Area IV) and a few people recommended sam won, a baking and decoration store in Daegu.

As we were walking up to the second floor where the retail store is located, we passed a nun.  She said, "an yong" to Lucas, which means "hi."  I said to Lucas, "She said 'hi' to you.  Don't you want to say 'hi'?"  He replied, "No, she didn't say 'annyeong haseyo' only 'an yong' so I'm not going to say 'annyeong haseyo' to her."  So formal.  As a side note, I've seen annyeong haseyo spelled about 12 different ways and I'm not sure which one is correct.

Right outside Daegu Station Exit 4- go to the right and it's about a block down the street on the left-hand side.

Big selection of, well, everything cooking/baking-related.

I went in looking for red cupcake liners and left with red and black food coloring, a bundt pan (!), silicon cupcake liners, and tongs.  And left without, you guessed it, red cupcake liners.  They simply cannot be found.  So we'll be improvising and hope the cupcakes turn out well.

I was so spoiled in the US as far as finding whatever I need easily.  Here, it's much harder for me to get around.  I always enjoy the adventure getting places even though I find being a passenger terrifying.  The roads are pretty narrow and the drivers are insane.  Adam always drives or I take the bus or a taxi.  I like that.  Of course there's the language barrier so I can't easily ask someone where something is located.  The positive side of that is I really get to explore by going up and down every aisle.  I'm normally super high strung and straight to the point but I've found I really enjoy just looking around.  At everything.

After the trip to sam won, we headed to the Market in search of quilt batting.  I believe I will never tire of going to the Market.  I didn't find any quilt batting so I'll have to find a place online that will ship to an APO.

Ahhh, the Market.  I love the Market.

As we were driving back to post we passed a few furniture stores.  We've been looking for a piece of Korean furniture for our entryway so we stopped at one.  After months of searching, we finally found it!

Here it is!

Beautiful fish carved in the doors

The top

Close up of the drawers- I love all the different wood grains!

This mirror goes with it.

We think it might be a dresser, especially since it came with a mirror, but it's not very tall.  It's a little bit wider than what we were looking for initially but all three of us really love it. 

Baby Rhino's first big quilt

Using google in a foreign country is an adventure.  Today google started on English.  Sometimes I get the US version of google and sometimes I get the Korean version.  Fun times.  After a few hours, google switched to Korean.  I tried for 45 minutes to switch it back to English and somehow it ended up on Portuguese.  At least I can read that a little better than Korean.  I finally got it switched back to English.  This whole ordeal lasted all day.  

I was all set to start quilting my New Wave quilt when I discovered I don't have any batting.  I'll have to go back to the market in search of batting sometime this week.  So I've decided I'll write about some of my favorite quilts I've made in the past that I never blogged about.  I need something to do with Lukie is at preschool.

Back in February of 2011 I decided Lucas needed a big quilt for his new big boy bed.  I had never made anything larger than a lap quilt so I was pretty nervous.  I decided to use this adorable Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman collection.  I absolutely love it.  The sashing is Kona White.

I was busy.

Disappearing 9 patch

The quilt went together quite quickly.  And it just kept getting bigger and bigger. 

The back

For the back, I used up some of the remaining blocks from the front.  The majority of it is from All Star 2 by Riley Blake.  I absolutely love that line.  Lucas' favorite color is orange and that collection is a great combination of orange and blue. 

Basting in the playroom.  This thing is a monster.

I free motion quilted this bad boy.  This quilt is at least twice the size of any other quilt I'd done up to this point.  It took about 5.5 hours of quilting to complete.

I quilted "love you" - a first for quilting words

Love him.

There you have it.  My first bed-sized quilt.  It fits on a queen-sized bed but it resides on a full.  This quilt went together much faster than I thought it would.  I made the blocks and pieced the top over a week.  I was able to do all the quilting in one afternoon and bound it in one evening (not the same day as the quilting).  Since this quilt I have made three more bed-sized quilts and plan to make many more.

Lucas sleeps under this quilt every night.  This is still, and probably always will be, my favorite quilt.  So much love was put into it and it gets so much love in return.  When I first put it on his bed he would say, "Baby loves this quilt!"  He used to call himself "Baby"- so sweet.  Several times a month he will randomly tell me how much he loves it and that I made it for him because I love him.  And isn't that the way it should always be with a quilt?

Rough days

For the past six months or so Lucas has been playing "ambulance."  He's really been wanting to ride in an ambulance and yesterday he got that chance.  He was pushed from the top of the indoor play area and landed right on his head.  Apparently the sound could be heard from outside.  There are no emergency services on this post so if you need to go to the ER you have to go off post.  That means Korean hospital.  We headed over to the TMC (troop medical clinic) and they took us in an ambulance to a nearby hospital.

The doctor believes Lucas may have a minor concussion.  He's in a great mood and is his usual chipper, chatty self.  He doesn't have any neurological symptoms so hopefully he continues to do well today.

Korean hospitals are different, to say the least.  Most of them are equipped with an International Clinic that has English speaking translators.  Normally if you go to the hospital for anything you'd go to the International Clinic and they assist you.  We arrived in an ambulance so we went straight to the ER.  Luckily the doctor we saw today spoke very good English and we didn't need a translator.  People are everywhere.  Super sick people.  They don't pull the dividers between the beds or anything.  Lucas thought that was great and I thought it was terrifying.  I don't think people visit the ER here unless they are literally dying.  The hospitals are always super crowded which can be a bit intimidating but the good thing is that a lot of people are actually getting treated. 

Rest and Mickey Mouse- doctor's orders.

Lucas can now cross Ambulance Ride off his bucket list.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, the neighbor's dog attacked poor Bear through the fence and tore his dewclaw.  Blood everywhere.  The vet on post was closed when this happened and there aren't any nearby emergency vet clinics.  These are the things I really took for granted in the States.  We've been wrapping his paw and it seems to be okay.  We'll check it again in the morning and see if he needs to see the vet. 

Bear's blood covered baby rhino.

.

Sad pup.

Rough day for the little guys in this house.

Preschool and snow!

My baby started preschool on December 17th.  Hard to believe that sweet little guy is already three years old.  He loves it and has learned so much.  He sings and dances like crazy.  And asks tons of questions.  I wonder where he gets that...

Holy moly!  This kid is in preschool!

We've also had lots of snow!  Thankfully it's cleared up now, but for several weeks the ground was covered.  Pretty cool the first couple days, not so much fun after a week walking to school in 20 degree weather while slipping on ice.

Serious snow.

This is the most snow I've ever seen.  Lucas loved it.  Bear liked it enough.

And then this happened.

Adam wanted to make a giant snowman but realized those snow balls might have been a bit too heavy.

Preparing to move

After leaving sunny El Paso, TX in April, 2012 we headed to hot and humid Lawton, OK for Captain's Career Course.  In July, 2012 we found out we'd be heading to Korea come fall.  We were excited, nervous, anxious, and BUSY.

My husband is super on top of things and applied for command sponsorship right away.  In order for a servicemember to bring his/her family to Korea, they must apply for the family to be command sponsored (CS).  Basically it's a process to determine if all members of the family will have the services they need.  There aren't many family members in Korea so some of the medical facilities, schools, etc don't have everything some people need.  For instance, if a family member has certain medical conditions they might be denied sponsorship if the medical facility near the base can't treat it.  That is just to ensure everyone has access to the services they need.  Our CS was approved quickly so the fun of planning an overseas move began!

We had to get passports, immunizations, arrange for our household goods (HHG) to be shipped, get tickets, get the dog a ticket, ship our car, and the list goes on.  Luckily the Army takes care of moving the HHG and storing whatever we didn't bring with us so that wasn't too bad.  In the middle of all this I had sinus surgery to add a little excitement to our lives.  The end of September was super busy packing and cleaning, the beginning of October brought Adam's graduation from CCC and a long drive to Oregon.

 

Yellowstone National Park

 We spent an awesome month and a half in Oregon visiting family before we left the country.  On our drive we went to Yellowstone National Park and spent time in Montana.  Then it was home sweet Oregon.  We all loved spending time with family and friends and Lucas cherished the moments with his grandparents.  I was really happy to spend so much time with both of my parents and not feel like we needed to cram a visit into a few short days.  On an extra rainy Saturday in November, my dad drove the three of us, our dog, six suitcases, two backpacks, and one carseat up to Seattle for the looooong flight to Korea.

A walk in the rain with Oma

At the Oregon Coast Aquarium with Boppa

Christmas wrap-up

It has been awhile.  We've been busy with the holidays and, of course, being sick.  The week before Christmas is always a hectic rush to get gifts finished and mailed off to family and friends.  So here's a wrap-up of the Christmas sewing and crafting.

My husband has been asking for a quilt for a long time.  It seems I'm always making one for someone else so I my goal for Christmas was to make him his own and we've named it the Husband Quilt.  Keeping this quilt a secret until Christmas was quite a challenge because I don't have much patience and wanted to give it to him the second it was finished.

The top is a collection of Timeless Treasures Tailor flannel and the back is this Riley Blake flannel.  They are both incredibly soft.  I used wool batting for the first time so this is one warm quilt!  The wool batting has quite a bit more loft than I'm used to but I think it's great in this quilt.

Finished size: approximately 66x66 in

 I stuck with a simple pattern for the top (HST) because I haven't worked with flannel much.  I love the way it turned out.  This is probably my favorite quilt (tied for first with L's bed quilt, naturally).

Pieced binding with remaining flannel and diagonal quilting

L is quite the helper so I decided to make him his own apron.  I made a few of these for my nephews for their birthdays earlier in the year and he loved them but wasn't quite ready for one of his own.

Cupcakes for helping Mama in the kitchen

One side for helping Daddy in the garage

L loves his new apron and I'm certainly looking forward to him helping me out in the kitchen.

Adam has taken up wood working recently and has made some really cool stuff; including this bird puzzle for his dad.

He also made this awesome bird mobile for one of our nephews.  Adam did the cutting and I did the painting.

Lots of bird watchers in our family.

Adam has made some cool boxes out of old pallets, a step stool for L's bathroom, and lots of other things.

Now we just need to finish organizing the garage so he actually has some room in there!

Back in November I started working on a 12+2=Q quilt by Oh, Fransson!  I was a little ambitious thinking I could finish that, along with all my other projects, before Christmas.  Needless to say it's not done.  That is at the top of my to-do pile right now.

Advent madness

A few weeks ago I made an advent calendar for L.  The advent calendar itself came together pretty quickly but I was nervous to quilt it because of the pockets.

I'm not a huge fan of appliqué so I used a fabric paint pen for the numbers.

I liked the way this advent calendar turned out so much that I made a second one for my niece.  The advent calendars are almost identical but I added some fabrc with a little more pink for hers.  She will be celebrating her first Christmas this year.

Practice quilting words

This was the first year my little one was able to go trick or treating.  Every year on Halloween the poor kid has had an ear infection.  He actually had his first ear surgery on his first Halloween and last year he had a ruptured ear drum.  This year he could actually hear and was more than ready for some trick or treating!

Tic Tac Toe!

The season of crazy Christmas sewing has begun!  I'm a little crazy and I've had almost all of my Christmas shopping done since last month.  All that's left to do is sew.  

The first project completed is for my nephew.  It's a game quilt, based on this adorable Tic Tac Toe quilt.  How cute is a game quilt that little ones can toss bean bags at to claim their square for Tic Tac Toe?

I still had a ton of fabric left from the quilt I made for Baby L's bed that I've been anxious to use on a project for a special little boy.  Ready, Set, Go! by Ann Kelle for Robert Kaufman is one of my favorite lines.  And as a proud OSU grad, I have a special place in my heart for the color orange.

I made my quilt a little bit larger (it's about 44 inches square) than the pattern and I did not appliqué on the words "Tic Tac Toe".  The small squares are about 3 inches instead of 2.5.  This was a great way to use up scraps. 

Can't take a picture without Bear.

I still have to make the bean bags so my adorable nephews can play.

One project down, many more to go!