Jay Hess 1/24/14 Jay Hess 1/24/14

11 months for ollie

This has been an exciting month for us and Oliver. He continues to be a happy little boy, but now our happy little boy is walking all over the place. Now that it happens a lot more often I'm sure we'll have some video up here pretty soon. Ollie also is the proud owner of 7 teeth and he continues to use them to eat just about anything that he can get his hands on. He is getting harder and harder to pin down to take these pictures. He just doesn't want to sit still for any period of time. We are getting excited as we plan for Ollie's first birthday next month and can't wait to celebrate the first year of his wonderful life. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Jay Hess 1/2/14 Jay Hess 1/2/14

a hug quilt

Sometimes you are really far away from those you want to love on and give a huge hug. Although I can not be with you dear friend, I hope this hug quilt is a comfort to you.

I hope you squeeze it while getting good news on the phone...

and I hope you hide under it when days seem a little tough.

I hope you feel the embroidery and remember that you are loved...

and I hope you know that you were thought about with every cut and stitch.

And I hope it serves as a hug anytime you need one!

And I hope the above picture makes you laugh. Charlotte is wearing valentines pj pants with a halloween shirt with socks on her hands because it was beginning to snow and her hair is a hot mess. She loves you too!

xoxo, the hess family

Jay Hess 12/29/13 Jay Hess 12/29/13

a simple christmas morning, presents and of course...a quilt

We have been pretty deliberate over the past couple of years to do Christmas in a simplified fashion since we have had Charlotte and especially now with Charlotte and Oliver. We know that nothing can damper the spirit of Christmas like shopping with a toddler in tow (realistically O is a such an easy baby, let's be honest, C is the tough one...sorry Charlotte when you read this in a couple of years.)

I always love to make Christmas gifts and would deem every Christmas gift a homemade one if Jay would allow me. This year my homemade creation was a quilt. Back in July we threw Jay's dad a birthday party and when I throw a party that means that some fabric purchases are required. I had to buy some fabrics for table runners and a good deal of one fabric for the photo booth. While we were standing in line at the fabric store and Jay was questioning the amount of fabric I needed I came up with the genius realization that I would use all the fabric I purchased to make the birthday boy a quilt for Christmas.

Well, our move in date came and went to get into the house and soon the whole month of October had disappeared and I still had not started a Birthday-Christmas quilt, can we call it a Birthmas Quilt?

I know that I wanted to use my simple go-to pattern of a nine patch and do some variations to the pattern. So as the kids played one Saturday in the playroom I created and sketched and sewed. The kids had a great time together (the playroom was trashed!) and I had such a lovely day sewing and still being with the kids. I started with a simple nine patch block and then went with two borders, followed with some more nine patch blocks and some corner pieces and then a topper of nine patch blocks and some trim bordering pieces on the sides and bottom. It all went together so smoothly and it was almost relaxing just designing as I went and watching the quilt grow. This is what I ended up with!

Of course, I had to add his initials...

and some simple embroidery...

The back of the quilt was made almost entirely of the fabric from the photo booth with a penny strip down the middle.

Grandpa received his quilt on Christmas Eve and quickly put it to good use cuddling with his granddaughters!

Both kids have been sleeping in to around 6:30 to 7:00 each morning lately so we thankfully did not have a Christmas morning that started too early. Both kids woke up around the same time and enjoyed a good look at their bounty before they started!

For three straight Christmases in a row C has had no interest in unwrapping her presents and has to be coaxed to unwrap just about anything...where did this kid come from?

Oliver was a little easier to get to open his presents, he will do anything to cuddle with his da da da! Jay made this present for Oliver, it is much like the puzzle we made for C for her first Christmas. He has already chewed up corners and decided it is a great drum!

We hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas. We really enjoyed our first Christmas holiday with no traveling, packing up presents and waking up in our own house! A simple type of Christmas is the right type of holiday for us!

Jay Hess 12/24/13 Jay Hess 12/24/13

merry christmas

This has been an amazing year for us as a family. Oliver was born back in February. We moved back to Ohio in June. Moved into our new house in November and get to spend our first Christmas together in our new home. No more driving 8 hours both ways to be with our family. No more crying children for a good portion of those 8 hour drives. We are excited to be here finally and can't wait to make some great memories.

Here is a Christmas post that includes a trip to see Santa and making some Christmas cookies. We hope you have a great Christmas and are thankful for all of the blessings that God has thrown your way this past year...I know we are.

Here are the kids with Santa. You can't see it but Santa must have slipped on some snow in the north pole because he was rocking a nice black air cast on his right leg.

No tears from Ollie. Here's to a good track record come Easter time when we visit the oversized bunny.

Charlotte was excited about the candy cane and I was able to get a shot in before she was done with Santa. Not scared of him at all, but just acting very 2 years old that day.

We visited Santa at the Bass Pro Shop so of course we had to stop and see the fish. Not a great shot, but I went to the other side of the tank and captured this beauty. Fish might be Ollie's new favorite.