School Started!!

School started 3 weeks ago. You would think that I might update my blog a little sooner. What can I say it's been a busy 3 weeks. Especially when I've subbed at least twice a week. I have been getting a little knitting done. I'm working on a cropped striped sweater for Mal. Hopefully she'll like it, if not I know Audrey will wear it.

Here's the mandatory 1st day of school picture. I had to threaten Mal with taking away her phone if she didn't smile.

It's amazing what a threat can make a teenager do. We couldn't take the picture outside because of rain. What kind of first day of school starts out with rain? I'm sure the teachers were wishing for some sun to get the kids out for recess. It eventually brightened up and they were able to go out to second recess.

Our fall will be a little busy this year. Mal is in Cross Country again and has really upped her schedule for babysitting (It's about time she started earning money.). Audrey is playing volleyball, taking piano lessons, and playing in the church bell choir. Miller is playing flag football and just being his regular active self. Plus the nephews are playing football so there goes our Friday nights. (We love watching them play though.)

Breakfast Picnic

We had our annual breakfast picnic this last weekend. My sister Meriam and her family came up to visit. The kids had a ton of fun. We ate, swam, ate, played, ate, slept, ate, went to church, ate and talked. Food seems to play a large part in our gatherings.

Tiger really liked the meal. He was tired afterwards though. Well I think all of the kids were tired. See for yourself.

We had the standard breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancakes, fruit salad and cinnamon rolls. Needless to say we were working pretty hard over the grills.

Dad and Tate had a good time talking about wrestling and teaching. It was also a plus to have Kane and Keil with us to eat. They seemed to chow down on the pancakes. They are growing boys.

It was a great weekend and we always have a great time with the Thompsons. Yet on Monday I wasn't very active. It felt like I was hung over from the entire weekend. I definitely had a few naps.

A wedding and western Kansas

We went to a wonderful wedding last weekend. One of the girls I babysat when I was young got hitched. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. Luckily, the rain held off and made things a little cooler by bringing in some cool breezes.

Here's Carrie and Tiaan saying their vows. It was a lovely ceremony and there is just something about having the prairie as your backdrop.

Of course Carrie's nephew was at the wedding and we all had to get a little Liam time. He really seemed to like hanging out with Mom. She kept him pretty happy and I think he kept her pretty happy too.

Of course Audrey couldn't say the same thing. She loves babies so much, but they have a tendency to cry for her whenever she holds them.

Crying babies really didn't hold Sugar Booger back. She had a good time at the wedding and tried to get into every picture I took.

Kevin had to be the "creepy" guy at the wedding. I just love when he makes our pictures look so loving and respectable.

Finally I was able to get him to be normal for a few photos. It was tough, but I won the battle.

I really don't try to dress Kevin and Miller alike, it just seems to happen. That's Miller's only dress shirt that still fits and well Kevin has like 4 green striped shirts. (Don't even get me started on all of the striped orange shirts. I've lost count.)

I just love this picture of the kids and Carrie. We had a wonderful time with her family at the wedding.

On our way out to Garden City we noticed a new lake had cropped up between Jetmore and GC. On the way back Kevin decided to check it out. Little did we know it was the opening weekend for Horse Thief Reservoir. It was beautiful and will eventually have camping sites. The kiddos thought it would be great to camp there. I told them this was a little far for us to camp at since we have 3 camping sites within an hour from us. Three and a half hours to go camping is just a little too far for me to travel.

I know people complain that Kansas is just a flat piece of land that you drive through to get from Kansas City to Colorado. Yet I don't think those people have ever really just looked at the beauty of Kansas. How wonderful to see as far as you can. I miss this landscape, we've too many trees in our part of Kansas. I guess in some ways I'm still a western Kansas girl.

How could I not be?

"Summ...Summ...Summer.... Summertime." - The Fresh Prince

Our summer is off and running. We're at the ball fields 3 days a week with Thursdays giving us a doubleheader. Both Audrey and Miller are playing and having a great time.

We went and saw Caitlin and her uber cute son Liam. He's one of the babies that I made booties for. Here's a picture of the kids and Liam.

It was so wonderful to see such a beautiful, but BIG baby. He made Miller as a baby look small.

Before school ended Malorie had her Night of the Stars and she looked beautiful. This was her Easter dress, but it did a great job for occasion. It took all of the curlers and bending rods to get the curl in her hair. Unfortunately it was raining that evening, so it was really hard for the curls to stay in.

We celebrated Father's Day a little early this summer with the Miller clan. It was a good time, with good food and kids swimming the afternoon away.

There will be more pictures to come as we go along this summer.

Booties, Soccer and the 1940's... What A Post!

I have 2 friends who are getting ready to have baby boys in the next week and a half. Finding baby boy stuff to knit isn't always easy. Sometimes it gets down right hard. Either it takes way too long to make or it's way to fussy for any respectable mother of a boy to use. Well, I found the boy booties pattern that every baby boy I knit for will now receive.

Forget the baby kimono, the baby bib and never ever do the baby blanket. This is what all the fashionable baby boys are wearing now.

Super Cute Baby Chuck Taylors.

Could anything be cuter and so very little boy but these? I wish I was knitting when I was prego with Miller. He definitely would have had a pair. It even has you make shoe laces. The pattern calls for you to make a felt star patch to go on the top. Yet Kevin in his ever so wise knitting advice suggested that I "just use some white yarn to make the star." It worked. I guess I'll keep him for a little while longer.

The mommies-to-be loved the pair they received. I can't wait to see their little boys in them. Now if I could only come up with a pair of wrestling shoe booties I would be in business. Here's the link to the pattern.

Baby Chucks

Our April was filled with soccer, soccer and a lot more soccer. Yet Miller loved it and the girls didn't seem to mind going to his games. I must say his 3v3 league was a lot more fun to watch than his rec league "mob ball". His 3v3 team won the league tournament. These little guys are super cute and are so excited still about the medal they received for winning.

Yet again too cute!

I can't leave the girls out of this post. One of the schools in town just was place on the National Historical Registry. To celebrate this, the school had a birthday party celebrating the 68th year of the school. During this party they had kids dressed in 40's attire. Well, the girls were asked to dress up and here they are.

1940's cute. Though, Mal wasn't too happy about getting her picture taken. Ha Ha Ha, I won that battle. 

C is for cookie . . .

Today was the annual Junior League Luncheon. Since I'm a member I have to make cookies for the event. (Luckily, we have out-sourced the making of the chicken salad. I'll gladly pay for someone else to make that much chicken salad.) Each member has to make 7 dozen cookies for the event.

These little orange semi-circles were a big hit at the luncheon. Of course this is just the start of what they looked like.

Here's how they turned out. Little slices of oranges.

It's amazing what a little orange food coloring and orange flavored frosting and a bamboo skewer can do. I was really proud of these little bite-sized cookies. They were very good and very easy to make.

This next little one is a cookie I came up with a few years ago for the luncheon. It's a mint chocolate cookie. Tastes like a thin mint, without all the chocolate or Girl Scout packaging.

Here's the lonely little green mint cookie. Setting there all alone. No one to play with, not a single other cookie in sight.

But add a little chocolate ganache to our little green cookie friend and see what we come up with.

Lots of green mint chocolate cookies.

Lots and lots of green mint chocolate cookies. It's like an army of little imposter Girl Scouts lined up ready to be oohed and ahhed by little old ladies who want to have a tea party.

And I had to have at least one more type of cookie to take to the luncheon. My momma didn't raise any slackers when it came time to bake for any event. (Even Nancy has Mom make something when she needs a baked good.) These little things are Almond Snowdrops.

They maybe called Snowdrop cookies, but they look more like Snowballs. Kevin had a few right after they came out of the oven.

"These are great warm, can't you serve them straight from the oven?"

Yeah, Kevin and we will pass out the hot towels right after we serve these. I think he just wanted me to make more so he could eat this batch.

In the end I took 146 cookies that were taken to the luncheon. Of course some had to be taste tested before they were Junior League Luncheon ready, but Kevin and the kids are always ready to take one for the team.

Easter Outfits . . .

I'm not too sure how much longer the kids will let me take a group photo. Each year it gets tougher and tougher for them. I think they always look wonderful, but they are getting too cool for this kind of photo.

This was a photo from the first day of school in August of 2008. See Miller isn't too happy to have his picture taken.

First day of school this year. Malorie looks so excited to have her picture taken. I think I may have a theme with her. Of course Audrey is always smiling in every photo.

Malorie was complaining about being cold this morning. Audrey is wanting to smile, but knows we will be taking another photo because of Malorie's complaining. Miller is just looking up thinking what kind of sisters do I have.

And here is the final picture.

Great smile on Miller - check.

Smirk on Malorie's face - check.

Audrey showing her natural self - check.

Maybe next year I can get a decent photo of the kids all smiling.

I"ve been called out....

My friend Tanya checked out my website at Malorie's urging. She checked it out and was surprised on how little content I had put in lately. And needless to say it's horrible. I've been so bad about blogging on knitting, life and everything else. So now I'm going to try to be better.

On the knitting front I've finished a super cute pair of baby booties and will start on another pair here soon. The mommy-to-be loved them. She cried when she received my mom's quilt and my baby booties. (Hormones had something to do with it I'm sure.)

After the booties I might start working with T-shirt yarn again. God knows we have a ton of T-shirts that need to be recycled.

Soon I will have pictures of the booties up and a link to the super cute pattern.

And now I've updated my blog Tanya. So there!

One slipper down, another one to go.

I'm almost finished with Miller's slippers for Christmas. It has taken me looking at several patterns, but I finally came up with my own. It's been kind of hard seeing if the slipper fits and him not figuring out it's for him. I have started telling him that they are for the church sale. I've even pulled a foot out from under his covers to see if the size is correct. This is somewhat worrisome, that kid didn't even move a muscle when I pulled on his leg. I hope no one tries breaking in, he wouldn't flinch.

I'm planning on slippers for Audrey, but am not totally for sure with the whole idea. Frankly I'm getting tired of the Magic Cast-On. I may make some wrist warmers for her. That's going to be what I make for Malorie also. Her feet are growing so fast that I can't even keep up with slippers for her. Thursday at basketball the coaches measured her and she was 5'0". She then proceeded to brag about it at home. "I've only got 6 more inches until I'm as tall as you, Mommy." Hate to break it to her, but she's not gonna get there. I won't allow even if she could. I'm not ready for her to get any bigger. I'll start slipping coffee into her orange juice. She'll never know the difference.

Work on Halloween costumes will be easy this year. Audrey wants to be a rock star and Miller wants to be a punk. I think he only wants this because he is under the assumption that only punks have spiked hair. He really wants his hair spiked up. (You can so tell he lives in a household of mainly women. He cares about his hair.) So for their costumes I just have to pull together a few items we have around the house and we will be done. I think this will be the cheapest costume year ever! Why couldn't the kids want to be something so easy and cheap when we were always broke.

Can't I get anything done?

Oh my, 6 months and no blogging. Horrible just, horrible. We did have a busy end of the school year and a summer that just flew by, but 6 months. OUCH! I've been working on very few projects. Nothing seems to hold my interest in knitting. I think I may start on some slippers for the kids at Christmas, but won't completely guarantee it will happen.

This is the yarn I can 't seem to figure out a pattern for. It's sock yarn, but I just don't want to knit socks out of it. I like the colorway and the self striping of the yarn. No single pattern is calling to me. I did the above with at cast-on of 38 on my favorite size 6 needles. Super easy pattern of k1, *yo, k2tog* 8 times, k4, *ssk, yo*, 8 times, k1. But I didn't like the lie of the end, so I ripped it out. I may start this over again, but stockinette the first 2 rows and then start with the pattern again.

I am working on a sweater for myself, but it is taking me a while to work on it. I am modifying it somewhat. This is the pattern, http://mamallamaknits.com/cardi4.pdf. It is a cropped cardigan, but I want to make it full length. This is the short version. Now imagine mine with a long torso and sleeves. Plus it will be blue.

Now I need to get working on something and actually finish it. I'm so tired of starting things, ripping them out and starting again. I need some closure.

Knitting, Surfing, Blogging, Folding... My Life in a Nutshell

Slowly but surely I'm finishing the baby sweater. Nothing seems to be keeping me interested in my knitting. Maybe it's spring fever, or that I haven't finished anything since Kevin's cowl. I might just have to do a little itty-bitty project to actually finish something.

I've been checking out some different blogs and now I am totally enamoured with The Pioneer Woman. If only I could live like this in the country, homeschooling my kids (But that would totally hinder the education and development of my kids! I know my strengths and I just couldn't get MY kids to do lessons with me.) and cook the yummy stuff she does.

I guess I should go and fold some clothes. The poor kids are without socks and had to dig for them today.

Busy Times, Busy Times

Ooooo, I've been a bad, bad blogger! December was the last time I blogged. Horrible, just horrible. I've done a little knitting, but it seems we've been extra busy at the Unruh house. Between basketball practices and games, my volleyball games, short trips to watch wrestling and volunteer meetings and church there hasn't been a ton of time to blog.

I did finish Kevin's cowl on our way to Colorado to ski. It was super easy. I didn't have a pattern. Just size 10 circs and chunky yarn. Kevin loved it. He said it was really warm and he is even wearing it on the train when it is cold. Here Kevin and Miller are at the slopes with Kevin keeping his neck warm and stylish. The hat isn't my work. Those Nike people make a good ski cap for Kevin's bald head and he really likes it.


Right now I'm working on another baby item. The Mason-Dixon Baby Kimono is getting done again along with a pair of booties for my friend Susie who just had a baby girl. These babies keep cropping up out of nowhere. It makes me wonder where they come from!

Just Rambling

Kevin's mittens are done. He seems to like them. Now he wants me to knit him a cowl. The weather has been so cold here, especially the wind. He said that a scarf is too long but something to pull up around his neck would be perfect. I'll get it started as soon as I get some Christmas cookies and gifts made.

I think it is kind of funny that now he wants me to knit him things. He used to make fun of it, but he now is reaping the benefits of my needles.

Kolby is staying with us and is wearing his sub socks every night. He says they are the warmest socks to lounge around in. The other day I purposely dug my own knitted socks from the laundry to make my toes warm up.

I'm subbing tomorrow so hopefully I can get a start on Kevin's cowl. But with the weather, we may not have school. Hmmm, to make money or cookies. I'm not quite sure what I which I want to do.

A Month Gone And No Blogging

Shame, shame on me. The whole month of November came and went with not a single blog update from me. But a very productive knitting month for me. I finished Kolby's monster green sub socks! He really liked them.

I made Calorimetry for Malorie and myself. It's a great head band that really does keep your ears warm and your hair up! This only took about 2 days to do. Super easy, with old stash to be used.

I took Kevin to the yarn store on Saturday and have started making him some convertible mittens. I'm just taking a plain old mitten pattern and rearranging it to a convertible mitten pattern. I made Kevin pick the yarn. He was really surprised at all he had to choose from. (Again another male who has no idea how much yarn there is out there!) The really good thing was it was a sale day at the store and I got 10% off. WooHoo!!!

I finished baby booties and a pair of mittens for the Bazaar at church. No one purchased them, so I'm going to donate them to a local charity who needs mittens for kids this winter.

Also on the yarn front, Malorie used yarn to make the solar system. She did so well with her work she got an A+ on it. It was very cute and portrayed the planets fairly accurately. (We went through a lot of my left overs.)

Hopefully I'll get more blogging done for this month. We are going to Colorado after Christmas so maybe I'll get some massive knitting done then.

Progress on the Socks and Malorie to the LYS

I'm taking Malorie to a beginning knitting class today. She has expressed an interest in learning to knit, but I have a hard time teaching it. So when I got the LYS flier for classes last week and the class was being offered, I jumped on it. I'm going to go with her. I'm trying to spend time with just her. It gets hard to do, but I'm working on it.

I have one of Kolby's "submarine" socks done. I use the submarine term because these are the absolutely longest socks I've knitted and it looks like a green sub. I'm doing a little bit of other knitting right now. I need to take a break from the socks and church is getting ready for its Fall Bazaar that raises money for mission groups. I figured I could knit up some booties, a scarf and maybe a few dishcloths. This knitting will get rid of the Red Heart yarn my neighbor's mother gave me. Plus I'll get away from the socks long enough to appreciate them again when I knit on them again.

I've been knitting when I'm subbing or watching Miller's soccer games, but I've been up to a little sewing too. Miller wanted to be Yoda for Halloween and Jodi's nephew need a donut costume so the machine has been out and roaring to life again.

Well it's off to the LYS with Malorie. I'll take pix to show you how she does.

Why are people amazed by knitting?

I've started Kolby's sock request. I went to the LYS to get some sock yarn that was blue and yellow and couldn't find any. So.., I called Kolby. They're going to be his socks, so he should choose the yarn. Well, he drove up to the store came inside and was a little astounded by how much yarn there was to choose from. He decided on an electric green. It's not neon, but it's very vibrant.

I've been taking these socks everywhere. I want to get them done, but I'm still working on the toe of the first sock. This is not good since I doing toe-up socks! His size 12 feet are a little bigger than my kids, so I wasn't quite prepared to do so many wrap and turns.

Sorry for that detour into my wrap and turn obsession, anyway people seem amazed that I knit. On Sunday I took my knitting to the girl's volleyball games to do between long waits for each game. I had three people amazed that I knit and that they remembered their grandma doing it. (WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK ONLY OLD LADIES KNIT?) Then on Monday I was at my women's league volleyball game and took out my knitting to work for the hour long wait for our next games. Again more people were amazed that I knit. I think so were surprised that I did any craft work at all. Then when I told the recreation tech who was in charge of the volleyball games that night that I blog about my knitting I thought he was going to laugh himself into a heart attack. He couldn't believe that I knitted, but also that I blogged about it. Oh, if he even Googled knitting blogs he would be severely in shock on the amount of them! I mean look at the link about 790,000 hits from Google!!! That's not even taking into effect the people who blog about their knitting but it's not their primary subject!

Well I'm off to sub this afternoon and I'll take my socks with me. The kids think it's a hoot to see me work with all those needles and it gives me something to do while they are in music class!

Baby Sweater Down, Socks To Go

I finished baby Jentri's sweater and booties. The pattern is Helena from Knitty. I did change it a bit. The pattern called for 6 repeats of the arrow pattern, but after about 3 repeats are started thinking (which is a scary thing for me to do) the sweater would be way too long for Jentri. Her momma isn't the tallest person in the world. If she gets any height, it's gonna have to come from daddy!

The booties pattern is from Saartje's knits. I had to knit 4 of these little guys. Each time my sizing was off. Finally I knitted two that actually were close in size. It drives me crazy how my gauge can switch from one size to another depending on the day that I'm knitting.

I used plain ol' Peaches and Cream yarn for both. I love this colorway and it seems so perfect for a baby. The best part about the yarn is that it is cotton which is a great fiber to have with little ones. It's soft, durable and is easy to wash.

Now I've got to get started on my Christmas knitting. Socks, hats and hairbands. These things should go pretty easy. I've got to do stripes on the socks, so I'll be adding something new to my abilities. Last night I was looking for the booties pattern and found a headband pattern that I think the girls will like. We are going skiing at Christmas time, so I figured this would be a great stocking stuffer for the girls. I may even make one for me.

I'm seeing red, I'm seeing red!! Help!

I need to stay knitting on my baby items, but the tomatoes keep coming. Kevin's grandparents have been sending us tomatoes. I not complaining too much, but 3 Wal-Mart size bags every 4 days is a little overboard. I've made salsa, Italian seasoned tomatoes and even just canned tomatoes. I'm kinda getting sick of the color of red. I know that it will be great in February when I want to make some spaghetti sauce and I can go to the pantry and pull out a can of tomatoes. I'm just over tomatoed! (I wonder if the New England Journal of Medicine has ever done a case study? If not, do you think they would pay me to show the side effects of tomato processing at home?)

See all the RED. Wouldn't you be a little sick of the color after 4 hours of canning?

School starts a week from yesterday and I can honestly say I think I'm ready for it. Granted Miller will be in Kindergarten all day and this will be the first time in 9 years that I haven't had a kid home during the school year. I plan on substitute teaching some more this year, which benefits my knitting. I can always knit when the kids are at recess, lunch, PE or Music. When I went to enroll Audrey and Miller, the principal of the 2nd-3rd grade school asked me if I had all my sub paperwork in. When I said yes he snatched me to sub on the 1st Friday of the school year. I think I 'll start on my nephew's socks for my subbing project. Socks are so easy to take places to knit and it amazes people that you use 4 needles. It kind of looks like a torture device. (Sometimes I think it is!)

Shawl, socks, baby stuff and kids

Shawn's prayer shawl is done. It didn't take too long, but I just had a hard time getting into the groove about doing it. I used a pattern from Jennifer Worick's book Getting Started Knitting. I had done it earlier when I was working on prayer shawls for church. This one turned out much better than the first. I was more confident when I clipped the stitches and adding fringe helped give it a more complete look. I packed it up and will send it first thing in the morning.

I'm going to continue on Jentri's stuff now. Hopefully, I'll get it done before she turns 15! Then I'm going to get started on my nephew's Christmas stuff. My oldest nephew saw a pair of Miller's socks and now he wants some. Who would think that a 17-year-old would want something like that. He even put in a color request.

I thought I'd add a pix of the kids. I took this a couple days after Malorie got back from camp. She had a great time and I think her siblings were definitely ready to see her again. Malorie brought back the stuffed animals Audrey and Miller are holding.