Anna's Back!

Ok, so I am a few weeks late in posting this.. my sister has been back for a while now. She took a 2 week trip to Europe (Ireland, Scotland, England) with some friends over Cmas break! It was a great experience for her and I am so jealous! We missed her a lot, and when she came back we had combined welcome home/birthday party for my Dad. It was a blast!

Auntie Anna with her two "Irish cuties"

Bekah's CUTE bib!

My studly Josh with his Irish look :)

Grandpa and Leah enjoy Birthday Cake!

"The girls" look at pictures from Europe!

Isaac has waaaay to much fun with the cake!

Cute Mother/Son Picture!

More Congrats!

Congratulations to my beautiful sister-in-law Hannah and her now-fiance, Adam!!! He proposed just this week and was accepted! I am so happy for both of them!! Welcome to the family, Adam!

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We now have 2 Helweg weddings in one year!!! WOW! June will be a busy month!!!! :) But what a blessing!

Our Bekah

Bekah has finally started to babble "words" like "baba" "dada" and "mama" as well as blow raspberries!!!! SO CUTE!

Leah & Bekah's Quilts

My sewing projects for the week consisted of a skirt for myself and PJ pants for Josh. I am loving the time I get to sew (naptime) and so I decided to keep going!

I started on Bekah's quilt squares this afternoon and got a great start on them. I love the material for each of the squares.. Leah has beautiful purples and Bekah has pretty pinks. (When they were born they each had a special "color" that best descibed them.. that's why I chose them)

I have yet to finish all of Leah's squares due to the fact that I have run out of the lightest color fabric and can no longer find it in any store. If you have seen it somewhere, let me know! I only have maybe 5 squares left on hers to make. Then I can start adding the borders and background fabric. FUN!

I found Bekah's square pattern online and Leah's in a quilting book. I am quite partial to the "star" patterns as you can see, and wanted them to somewhat match, yet to be different too.

I am so excited to be doing this for the girls.. it will match beautifully in the room they will share someday soon! Plus it will be a special heirloom for passing on.. :)

NOTE: I am NOT a quilting professional! This is my first ever attempt at quilting, and it is proving pretty easy so far! My sister is the master, and is tutoring me! :) If I can do it anyone can!

Leah's Square: "The Ohio Star" 12 inch

Bekah's square: "The Hope of Hartford" 10 inch

Bits and Pieces

WOW! Time sure has gone fast.. seems like a while since I have done a "family update" post!


Well, now that winter is finally settled down after the holidays I have been loving getting to attack my sewing projects. I have about 1/2 of them done, which is great! I am hoping to finish Leah's twin size quilt and start on Rebekah's soon. I wanted them each to have a homemade quilt for their beds. :) In fun Pinks and Purples. :) Will post pics when I get them done!

I have also been trying to take time to read some books.. "the Classics" like Moby Dick, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Sherluck Holmes Mysteries, etc.. I find I have been really enjoying them!! It's great to get some culture!

I also have started a Monday night Beth Moore Bible Study at church on Esther.. I am so excited about this! It really looks amazing, and what a treat to actually get time to myself to study God's Word.. something I haven't been able to do in a year.. (as a group study anyway) VERY exciting!

I keep continuing on with finding great deals couponing and such. But being the time of year, it seems the deals are hard to come by. I did however snag 11 Boxes of Electrasol dishwashing detergent for 75 cents a box!! This is about 6 months worth of soap for us!! Yay!

Rebekah is now 10 MONTHS OLD! How did this happen? My guess is she weighs in at about 20lbs! Chunky!!! She is a very big girl! Crawling and cruising are second nature to her now, and she is even becoming brave enough to "cruise" to other objects! Plus this week alone she is cutting 3 teeth! (2 top, one bottom) making a totol of 5 teeth! Wow!

She eats all kind of table food now (just this morning she ate 2 pancakes!!) and she is almost weaned.. (of her own doing..Leah weaned herself at 11 months)=) but she still nurses at night, which is great. She finally got the hang of drinking from a cup.. I was worried she never would! Now she drinks all kinds of juice and water.. and loves it! We have yet to try milk products.. :)

She also babbles constantly and is a very happy girl until you get to nighttime. (ARGH!) she is having the WORST time sleeping at night.. often getting up 3 times a night still! As she is still having to sleep in our room I can't really do too much to change things, but I did take the nightlight out of our room and that seemed to help her sleep a bit better. Any ideas would be lovely!!! I am hoping she will sleep through the night soon.. she has only done so 3x in her life.


Leah continues to be a big help to me with Bekah. The two of them play so well together! Yet it seems like we are at "discipline central" around here at times. Leah will often push Bekah or sit on her, etc. and I will give her a spank and then she will do it again! We repeat this over and over for hours! One morning she had had 6 spankings before it was lunchtime!! I think this is just a phase, but what a hard one it is!!! I really have to stick to my guns on getting to do what I say, and punishing if she doesn't. Today seems to be a better day, which I am thankful for! Usually she is such a easy-going child.. but she seems to understand how to "push my buttons" now, and will ofetn ask Grandpa and Grandma for things Mommy said NO to. (NOT good!) But I know it will be OK in the end.. Ode to 2 year olds!!!

She is a big help around the house too, helps me make dinner, set the table, and LOVES watching Mommy sew her dresses. :) She is a very good helper. I taught her the motions for "Away in the Manger" this past week and she LOVES singing it and "rocking baby Jesus" over and over! Another favorite is "Ring around the Rosie" which she does for hours!!! She also sings cute, made-up songs all day, and if she finds you listening will stop singing immediately! But is it sooo sweet to listen to!

All in all, it has been a good few weeks! Hope you enjoyed these bits and pieces.. :)

Sewing Week 1

I finally have gotten to my many projects for winter sewing!! I LOVE getting to sew, and this time of year is perfect for it.. stuck indoors all day! :) Here are my finished projects for this past week.. more to come later!

Matching Easter Jumpers for the girls

2 Nightgowns for Leah

2 New Dresses for Leah

Bathtime fun

The girls received lots of great new bath toys for Christmas, which was something they really needed! Now bathtime is something they both look forward to!! They both love it and play together so well!

Loving bathtime together

Bekah, our big girl!

Yum.. Tigger tastes good!

Leah, with spikey hair!

Tea Party Crasher

Leah and I set up her new tea set she got on Christmas Eve and had ourselves a fun tea party! She served me tea, cream, sugar and donuts and cake! (all pretend of course) She is such a little lady!!

Then, who should come along but Party-Crasher Rebekah!! She demolished our tea set, slobbering on everything! But happy and entertained!:) I watched Leah, ready to break up a fight or sooth sad feelings, but she was LAUGHING! She thought it was hysterical!!! I get such a kick out of these two.. what great sisters!

More Helweg Holiday

All of our entire family! Including future-in-law Savannah, and Hannah's b/f Adam! Wow!

All 11 siblings with Aunt Barbara from GA!

Great-Grandparents with the great-grandkids! (Ages 5 yr -9 months)

Auntie Savannah rocks Bekah to sleep.. 3rd time! She has the touch!!! (sorry for the blurriness, I just love this pic!)

Having fun getting drug on sleds by the snowmobile! (Josh, me, Stephen and Jonathan)

The boys duke it out over the sleds

The 5 oldest boys enjoy the snow!

Playing boot hockey! Savannah, Aunt Barb and I played! The girls were well represented! It was great fun!

Helweg Holiday

I know many of you have asked how on earth we have Holidays with 26+ people in one house! Here is a run-down on this year's Helweg Cmas, with the entire family! (out of 11 siblings, we have 2 married siblings, 1 engaged, 1 dating, and 5 grandchildren! (Plus one more on the way!) WOW! That is a lot of us!

First of all, you need FOOD! We cook massive amounts of all kind of yummy stuff!

Then come the hordes! Usually us moms & kids go first, then "big people", then the younger siblings.. otherwise we'd run out of food the way they eat! lol

The "little kids" table.. easier not to spill there

The "older kids" dining room.. yes we can't all fit into one room!

After a great dinner, we all SQUEEZE into the living room to open presents

The other half of the room.. little kids on the floor

Then chaos ensues as the presents are unwrapped! But what great memories! That ends my "Helweg Holiday" documentary, now on to fun pics.. :)

Uncle Josiah with Bekah

Grandpa gets a smile!

Our Marine, Uncle Michael with bro Isaac and niece Anna!

Hannah, her b/f Adam, Savannah, MaryGrace and Leah "hang"

Adam & Hannah.. the cute dating couple

Bekah's Christmas Video

I love this video!! She got so excited about getting to open things with paper on them! I love her little smile! Great!

Christmas Fun!

We had Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve morning, and such a fun time we had! Bekah loved her first Christmas! One of my favorite memories was Josh getting Leah up in the morning saying "Leah, it's time to open presents!" I will always remember how she got so excited and tore out of the room, downstairs to the tree. :) Fun memories. Here are a few pics from our holiday.

Jammies from Grandpa and Grandma


Isaac and Bekah hang

Josh opens his new PJ Pants I made for him


Leah's present from us, a Princess Tea Set!

Bekah really gets into opening presents

And tries to eat the paper

Tub Toys from Alex & Kyle!

Auntie Anna reads the girls' special books

5 " My first Little House" books from GreatGrandparents


Smile!

Bekah opens her last gift on Cmas day.. a rocknstack toy!

Josh with our family gift, 10 Odyssey albums!


Leah with her favorite "Peter Rabbit" movies from us