Thanksgiving in Utah

We had such a great time in Utah for Thanksgiving this year. We drove 13+ horrendous hours to get there (and back!), but it was worth it! In four short days we....

visited cousins,

Aunts and Uncles

met new cousins,

ate lots and lots of food and pie,

played games,

shopped at the Gateway in SLC

and saw the lights at Temple Square! Phew, I can't believe we did all that in 4 days!

The quilt is finally finished!

Today, I finished this quilt I started in September! I took a beginning quilt class at a fabric store here in town with a friend of mine. It was so much fun and I am so excited to know how to quilt now! Next project (after Christmas) is a quilt for Kaylee's bed. I am going to use Amy Butler's free pattern for the Daisy Chain quilt. I think I will just need to add 2 rows of squares to the bottom to make it fit Kaylee's twin bed. Its made from the fabric I carry in my Etsy shop. I am going to use a different color scheme than they suggest though.

Here are the pretty mitered corners and you can also see the striped back.

I am pretty happy with it, although there are things I would do differently. I would definitely use different fabric on the doors and windows of the house. Other than that I love it and I look forward to cuddling up with it for years to come!

Tagged....again

Ginny tagged me today. I am supposed to give one word answers to these questions (which is kinda hard to do, by the way and I didn't do a great job of it), and then tag 6 people. So here it goes!
Where is your cell phone- Desk
Where is your significant other? car
Your hair color? brown
Your mother? unconditional
Your father? missed
Your favorite thing? Health
Your dream last night? forgot
Your dream/goal? debt-free
The room you’re in? livingroom
Your hobby? sewing
Your fear? sickness
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
Where were you last night? bunko
What you’re not? unhappy
One of your wish-list items? bernina
Where you grew up? California
The last thing you did? blogs
What are you wearing? jeans
Your TV? old
Your pet? polly
Your computer? slow!
Your mood? contented
Missing someone? UtahFam (one word?)
Your car? white
Something you’re not wearing?
Favorite store? Beverly's
Your summer? short!
Love someone? Josh
Your favorite color? green
When is the last time you laughed? morning
Last time you cried? unknown

Ok, that was fun, so now I tag Tricia, Jolie, Nicole, Erin, Krista and Marci

6th of 6th tag.....

Ok, so Jolie tagged me a couple of weeks ago and I am just now getting around to doing it. You are supposed to post the 6th picture in your 6th photo album. This is a picture of Jackson when he was about 5 months old. He is so, so, so cute! Oh, why can't they stay little forever? In a lot of ways its nice that the kids are older but I so miss those chubby cheeks and being able to carry them. I love how you can just love on them all you want and they love it too. Jackson is such a great kid! He loves school , church, Star Wars, Harry Potter, his dog Polly, but most of all his family! He is always so kind to the kids at school. He told me the other day he saw a first grader crying so he asked him what was wrong. The little boy said nobody would play with him so Jackson asked him if he wanted to play basketball with him. What a great kid! We are so blessed to have him in our little family!
Love you, Jackson!!!!
Okay, now I tag Erica, Laura Lee, Steph, Erin and Krista. Tag your it!

Happy Halloween!

Here are the kids (and carved pumpkins) on Halloween night. Jackson (last minute) decided he wanted to be a nerd, so he put on his church clothes (?) ,sandals with socks, and nerd glasses. He looked pretty nerdy! Joshua had a friend over and they watched TV and gave out candy. I makes me sad that he's too old to trick or treat. Bummer! Kaylee was a witch, but all she wore was her old witches dress, no hat, no ugly makeup. Someone asked Jackson what he was and he said " a nerd" and then she said to Kaylee " Oh, are you a nerd, too?" She said, " no I'm a witch". The lady then said," Oh, I thought because of the glasses and the dress!" It was funny! Kaylee didn't care, she thought it was funny too.

What I've been up to

I haven't posted in a while because I have been busy setting up an etsy shop. Now I can have all the fabric I want for my little projects! Check it out and let me know what you think and if there are other fabrics you think I should carry. There is a little link to it on the side of my blog also with a sneak peak of the fabrics I got in.

A friend of mine in our ward forwarded me a link to a blog about foodstorage. I have been looking at it and I think its great. It has tons of great information on it, worksheets and tutorials. Keri, I think you will especially like it!

September is over....

September has been a busy month! We took the kids to Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo (Nor. Cal.) for Josh's Fedex party. That was fun and interesting. There was some 15 year old girls there who kept coming up to Joshua (just turned 13!) and asking him if he could come hang out with them. He was a good boy and said No thank you. And then we kept running into them and they would be like, "Look, there's Josh. HI JOSH!" I think it pumped up his ego just a tad. It was a funny thing to watch. He is such a cutie, if I do say so myself!

My friend Jenny invited me to come over and sew this cute purse that I didn't have time to do on Super Saturday! Mandy was so nice to come and teach up how to make this. It was so much fun to go and visit and sew. I love the fabric. Isn't it so cute? Thanks, Jenny and Mandy!

Mostly things I made this weekend

Pincushion
Reversable Apron
The reversed side

I have been on a sewing kick for the last week, so I made this pincushion from a free pattern I found on the internet. I also made Kaylee this apron today. It turned out good. I have to share this great quote I found last week. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be?" –Miranda Richardson

Well said!

Christmas in August

So Cute!




I started these stockings in January. I got the fronts all pieced together, but that was as far as I got, until this weekend. I decided to take a quilting class and I thought I had better finish the stockings before I start something new, so I got them out and finished them this weekend. (No names yet. I can't decide whether to stitch their names on myself or have someone machine embroider them on.) I was so proud of myself for finishing them (and I think they did turn out pretty cute, if I do say so myself!) that I decided to make Kaylee this headband I found instructions on someone else's blog. The headband turned out great too. Love them all!

The big 1-0!

This cake had gobs and gobs of frosting on it! But she loved it of course.
Double digits
Make a wish!
Darn, missed one.

Birthday's, Birthday's, Birthday's. Two weeks after Jack's B-day and it's time to celebrate Kay's. 10 years old, unbelieveable! She is growing up way too fast! Especially since I seems like it wasn't that long ago that I was 10. I love you Kaylee, your a wonderful daughter!

Jackson's 7th Birthday Party

Balloon Birthday Cake
Blowing out 7 candles!
Jack's friends Justis and Austin
Jack and Lucas

I can't believe my baby is 7 years old. He had a great Birthday party last month. The kids played carnival games and got tickets. Then they could use their tickets to buy prizes with to take home. I think they had a good time. I know I sure did!

Pool Party!

When our neighbors went out of town last month they told us we could use their pool. Boy, did we ever use their pool. It was so great being able to swim whenever we wanted. Most days we went over at least twice. I longed for the days growing up when we could swim all summer. Maybe someday we will have a pool of our own. (Hopefully before the kids are grown and gone! But doubtful!) Thanks, Lujans for letting us use your pool!

Kaylee walking on stilts

Kaylee decided that she should master the stilts while we were at my mom's. And she did!

Trip to Utah!

Largest rocking chair in Utah


My sister Erin's little girl, Jaden

Erin and Jaden

Jackson in Grandpa's truck.

As soon as school was out for the summer the kids and I headed to Utah to visit Grandma, Great Grandma and Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. We stayed for two weeks. Joshua went to basketball camp at BYU the first week and had a blast. We are hoping that will give him an edge when he tries out for the Junior High basketball team. Above are some pics from that trip.

Sequoia National Park

A small part of the hike up to Morro Rock. It was a really steep hike, but so worth it. It was an amazing view.

DCA

We bought a 2-fer pass the day the cousins came to visit so we had to use the other half in DCA the next month. It worked out well since Josh had gotten tickets for the Angels vs. Dodgers game in May.