hand-made with love

I dont know about you, but I definitely had a "quiet book" when I was little... but mine was no where near this cool. I hadnt even thought about mine in years until I saw one on PINTEREST about a month ago. If you dont know what one is you are about to see! The pages of a quiet book are usually made from felt or any other soft material, great for times when you need to keep baby occupied and well... quiet. It's main purpose is for during church but since Kenley has been going to the nursery during chruch (and having lots of fun there) we have had a great time with this amazing gift at home.
Gavin's Aunt Sue is a brilliat seamstress and came up with most of the pages off the top of her head. The first time I looked through it, I was floored. Its perfect. Check it out...

I love that most of the gifts that we gave AND recieved this year were hand made... and this year I gave myself enough time that they didnt have to be thrown together at the last second. I really impressed myself with some of the stuff I came up with! I made several cake plates, ornaments, did lots of mason jar projects, worked with some old wood and some cool vintage finds... and by the end of christmas had a good layer of mod podge, paint and sparkles on EVERYTHING...

When we were shopping around for everyone I couldnt help but notice the complete peices of junk that places like Target, Babies R Us, Wal Mart etc. try to pass off as childrens toys... Literal painted pieces of plastic that they mark up 300% and pretend that you MUST have. Lucky for Kenley, she knows some very crafty, talented people! Her Grandma Patty is finishing up a very special DOLL as we speak. (I will do a later post about baby "June" when she arrives).

Chrsitmas with her this year was SO much fun. I loved watching her open her own gifts and actually get EXCITED when she saw what it was. We had so much fun at home (even though we literally drove from Napa to Cloverdale and visa-versa FOUR times)... It was worth every mile though. We got to spend lots of quality time with both families.

It is so good to be back down here though. All of the tons laundry is finally put away, we are all unpacked and ready for an extremly busy quarter. Gavin is taking 20 ( yes TWENTYYYYY) units on top of baseball season and P/T work at the golf course... while I continuing working both jobs. Call us crazy... I know I do!