Becca’s bday

Well I have been a bit of a blog slacker, not really but kinda since I had full intentions of blogging twice over the last week and I didn’t. I must be busy or something, weird? (just teasing obviously I am busy)

We celebrated Becca turning 7. We love Becca so much and are so thankful for a fun big cousin to play with. Uncle Dave and Aunt Rachel were home for Spring break that week as well, how fun is that! I guess this was a “surprise” party that she knew about but that she didn’t know all the details. idk but we all had fun.

She was making me laugh she kept pushing her legs all the way back, it was funny. This pictures didn’t portray it very well. I think she wanted to get out was what it really was. She hardly uses the walker at our house any more. She prefers crawling so that she can get down and into EVERYTHING or on everything she is a major climber.

Happy birthday sweet Becca

crafty

well not really. I enjoy crafting but I’m not overly good at it. I like to do things that give me a sense of domestic accomplishment, cleaning my house, cooking a nice dinner, sewing, these can all give me that satisfactory “betty Crocker” feeling. Although I enjoy doing these things I am not overly talented or creative. I can do them ok but have to get the idea and directions from somewhere.

Two birthdays ago Nick “bought” me a sewing machine and than two Christmases ago Nick “bought” me (paid for and I picked out what I wanted) sewing supplies. I have hardly done any sewing in the past. My mom sews for utilitarian purposes and my grandma gave us one sewing lesson. Fortunately for me my brother Dan had the wisdom to marry a very talented lady. So she teaches me how to sew :) thanks Chrisy.

Here are the three biggest projects I have ever done. I have made a handful of other things like curtains and stuff. For anyone who cares here is the info on my machine. I have a pretty basic sewing machine. It’s digital but can’t be programed and its called a Janome Magnolia . It’s nice. A little above basic and something I will probably not out grow for a long time.

If I can sew than you can too! Obviously I don’t have loads of time to spend on it and usually when I get half way through a project I go “What was I thinking?!?” but it always feels great when I am done.

So with out further ado here are my few little projects.

I made my first ever quilt for my girl friend Lauren who was having her second baby and her first girl. Like I mentioned above I need help when I sew. Chrisy either showed me how to do every step or told me how on the phone:) I went over to her house with the fabric I had and she helped me pick out some of her fabrics and than lay out a good pattern and then I took it home and got cutting and then sewing. My favorite part of this quilt was the binding material and little squares, LOVE IT! when Wills saw the quilt he told me the little squares (of the same material) were his favorite :) he’s so cute.

here are those pictures

I bought this chair at Ross for $7. I was pretty excited about that but I didn’t like the cover. not really my thing and it was beat up so I figured I would recover it (thus the price). Coincidentally Chrisy had the same exact chair that she had bought for Charity years ago. Her cover was super dirty and so she had been wanting to cover it. Perfect for me cause I needed her help :) we got together back at Christmas time and than I finished it home. here are the pics.

half way done

I made it to give to Allie but her little sister thinks it is a great toy! Scary kid climbs it and stands on it…

this was before I put Velcro on it to hold it in place. Now it doesn’t bunch at all.

she’s cute isn’t she!

The most recent of my projects was a baby quilt for my girl friend Jessi who just had her first girl. Yay! ( I finished the day she was born :) It’s her third baby but her first girl and I just fell in love with this pattern so I figured I would try it. I found this pattern at this very talented ladies tutorial section. I have never met her but she is super creative and I am so impressed with what she can do and how she finds the time!?!  Hers is sooo much better than mine but here is my rendition. again. if I can do it so can you :) I told both my girlfriends that these were made with lots and lots of love hopefully that makes up for my skills :)

I started with this

then these

then these

then these… if you don’t like ironing then don’t sew!

Then these…

aren’t these pretty!

then you get this

and poof you get this, just like that

we were visiting with Jessi before baby came and I saw that she had used the backing fabric in her little girls room so I found the matching material at Joanne’s and based my quilt on all those colors. It was fun!

well that’s all from me and my sewing. Hope it encourages you that you either are a pretty decent sewer or you can certainly pick it up. Try it maybe you will surprise yourself. I want to attempt some things for Allie next… we shall see how that goes… Chrisy if you are reading this get ready, hahaha, jk but really I’m not :)

stay tuned for several more post from me cause I am a bit behind :). We even went camping… guess where? Yosemite? Your WRONG. lol you’ll have to wait and see.

Party time

My nephew Gavyn turned 12 this year so we had a party to celebrate. Nothing to big just dinner, he requested tri tip, I think Nick may have slipped him a couple bucks to get him to choose that, just teasing. After dinner we played a few games and had root beer floats. I just remembered that the boys went to play laser tag for his birthday before dinner. William was pretty excited to be included in the group and it was super cute to see him and Nick headed out the door with all the “big” boys. Nick said they had fun and that Wills actually did really well. He even got a few kills. God knew Nick needed a son. :)

One of the games we played was minute to win it cookie face game. You put a cookie on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth with out touching it. I think my cousin William (also known as big Wills since we have Little wills) did it in something like 12 seconds It may have even been 7. I think I did it in 1min and 30 seconds… but I tried. The cookies we used had crumbs too so they got in your eyes. It was pretty fun and for record I beat my group so whoot whoot! lol.

Keira loves to clap! so cute!

Nate thought something was pretty funny :)

 

getting some love from Aunt Chrisy

Allie adores my momma and they are best buds. Sometimes on Saturdays Nick takes the kids up to my parents house and Allie spends the whole morning helping my mom. Mom says “sure anything I am doing Allie can do with me” It’s pretty cute. Allie really really loves grandma.

My mom took them in the spa and when she was getting ready for the party Allie told her to wear purple so they could match. She sings songs about Grandma “I love Grandma I love Grandma I love Grandma”

That is Big Wills, Phil, and Nick.

I think Jonathan had just gotten his cookie when I took this. hahahha

more life…

maybe I should have done all these in one big post… I don’t know. It just made more sense this was till I started to do it in multiple post and now it makes more sense the other way but I don’t feel like editing the other post so here is my final post of our pictures :)

Nick was warming up for his work out and baby sat and watched. Cute little baby! I am glad Nick is also smart and warms up his muscles before he throws on the heavy weight. I have really enjoyed him having his “home” gym. it’s been so much nicer for our family that he doesn’t have to go somewhere else to work out three times a week. Nick’s pretty dedicated to expending energy so it takes him about 1 hour 1/2 to get a solid work out in and its so much easier that he can just do that at home :)

I was cooking dinner and I look over and saw allie playing with the tape measure and measuring her baby sister. pretty cute…

silly Allie

Sunday after noon naps. They don’t do this nearly as much now that wills is getting so big but it’s still pretty cute when they do :)

not taking a nap… but cute non the less.

that’s all folks

cuties

I took a picture of these cuties for my mom so I could write her a thank you for watching them all for our Valentines party. These are my kids and Dan and Chrisy’s kids

life

I don’t really have much to report. We have been spending our time just like normal, Sunday is church, rest, small group, Monday we recover from the weekend, (I kind of let the house go on Saturday Sunday and so I spend Monday recovering, clean the house, do laundry… you know :) Tuesdays we shop, Wed we have preschool (we were sick for a couple weeks so we had to skip but we are better this week and got to attend), Thursdays we go to Preschool story time at our local library, Fridays we clean the house again and do all the laundry. Our lives aren’t really that scheduled that’s just generally what we do. I try to do school with Wills and Allie, I usually have to run a load of laundry every couple days, the bathrooms usually need to be scrubbed here and there throughout the week, we take bike rides go the park do extra shopping you know this is just our general format.

Sometimes I day dream about what chore I would get rid of if I could… it doesn’t hurt to dream, right Cinderella? (that’s a reference to the movie not to myself thinking I am Cinderella :) It’s kind of a big question if you really give it some thought, but all that to say, I wouldn’t give up cooking. I don’t mind cooking but lately I have been disenchanted with meals. I feel like I need some new things to cook.  I have a very picky household. lately Allie doesn’t like anything. Nick is picky, although I am thankful he doesn’t mind repetition and he likes simple, that combo makes him bearable. What do you make for dinner? any good suggestions?

p.s. I think I would give up dishes, which in my world has always included the kitchen being clean when you are done :) I don’t mind dishes, so since we are dreaming here, maybe I would rotate, dishes , laundry, bathrooms, cooking. I could go for getting a month off of each, that’s one sweet dream :)

anyway… here are some pictures of us lately.

baby loves the dishwasher! she thinks it is great fun to pull everything out

This is Keira life. Sissy loves her, poor baby :)

she loves to come and try to get the camera.