Thanks Mom!

Unfortunately I don’t have a “before” picture.  This is the best I’ve got:

My Mom was so kind and gave her old sewing machine and cabinet to Miss K.  We’ve been giving it a new colorful life and today we reassembled it and put it to use!

Miss K is so excited!  She already made a drawstring glasses holder for her brother today and has big plans to sew a make-up bag for a friend, and a skirt for herself.

She even loves it all closed up as a desk.  She made herself a paper name plaque, she looks so official.  Her stack of lined paper and a pencil pouch are all ready to be used.  It’s not surprising, office supply stores are her favorite place to hang out!  (She’s a proud owner of her own Staples Rewards Card!)

Time Out

Sometimes Moms need a time out too!

This is MY kind of time out!     I forget to get out and enjoy the beauty around me!

What a fun time out…thanks friend!

My Turn…Finally!

I went on my first backpacking overnighter.  I’ve watched my boys and husband leave on many weekend and week long camping and backpacking trips with scouts.

This time it was my turn.  I got to go with the Sophomore age girls from church.

It was mostly uphill, and a challenge, but lots of fun!

We saw a bit of poison oak, and tried to steer clear!

We loved seeing this stuff!  It’s edible…called miner’s lettuce and it was tasty!

 

This is where we camped…

 

The food was even good…just add water!

It was beautiful there!

   

Downhill on the way home proved to have it’s own challenges.

 

What a fun time spent with fabulous people!

I’m ready to go again!

Proud Mom

It was the perfect day before Mother’s Day.

All in one day my kids accomplished:

Black Belt Test

3 Hours of Community Service with a Happy Attitude

First Piano Recital

County Honor Band Concert

What awesome kids I have.  I’m a proud and lucky Mom!

They teach me patience, how to love unconditionally, and how to appreciate each of them for the wonderful individuals they are! My life is richer because of them.

Happy Mother’s Day!

With Love From Some Great Girls!

Remember this quilt from a couple posts back?  Well last weekend we got together for our leadership overnighter with the girls 16-18 from church and they tied this quilt.  We had a lot of other activities going on that night too!

I can't believe we got it done.  That's a lot of ties!  There were probably 5-7 rows left when a few of us leaders finally decided to head to bed about 1:30am. 

When we woke up in the morning it was all done!  A group of girls decided to finish it up in the middle of the night!  I was so surprised and so glad it was done.  My fingers were sore from all the tying from the night before!

There were a few ties that needed to be re-done...but for the most part they did a great job.  I bound it Friday and now it's ready to send off to the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake.  I wonder where it will end up!

20 Years

My husband had to bring it to my attention!  Today is the 20th anniversary of our engagement.  We will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary later this year. 

Check out the heart shaped strawberries he cut for the pancakes he made for us this morning.  We all enjoyed a yummy breakfast and then tonight we had our Chinese food on our good china. 

We are carrying on a tradition my mom and dad started, giving each of my children a small heart shaped box of See's candy.  We also decorate their bedroom doors with hearts...which was easier this year, because I cut them all with my Cricut, and I also added their name and some "We Love You"s.  Miss K says she's going to leave it up on her door all year.  We'll see how long it lasts on the boys' doors.

Fortunate

Snagged the templates and ideas from here. 

Happy Valentines Day to my sweetheart!  He asked me to marry him on Valentines Day with take out Chinese food and my ring was in the fortune cookie!  He's lucky I chose the right cookie, with two in front of me to choose from!  Luck really had nothing to do with it; he knew that I always choose the cookie furthest away from me.

I'm so lucky to have him in my life, he's the best!  We're a good team.

We always celebrate with Chinese food and this year I made him a little take out box and some paper fortune cookies with love notes in them.

Someday I'd like to try to make fortune cookies from scratch.  Has anyone tried that before?  I have a recipe I printed off many years ago, but have never tried it.

Happy Valentines day!

2009: A Year In Pictures

:: January ::

:: February ::

:: March ::

:: April ::

:: May ::

:: June ::

:: July ::

:: August ::

:: September ::

:: October ::

 

:: November ::

:: December ::

Thanks 2009 for the ups and downs, all the things that make life sweet, and all the things that help us grow to be stronger, deeper and more loving individuals.

(thanks Randi for the inspiration for this post!)

Ready for the New Year

I love the week between Christmas and New Years.  It's such a quiet time after all the busyness of getting ready for Christmas.  Christmas has come and gone and left us with such a happy feeling of family and gift giving.

Everyone is playing with their new toys.  And I have time to get organized!  Something about that new year approaching that makes me want to clean up.

I haven't touched the Christmas tree and decorations yet.  No, I went straight to work in my sewing area. 

I've gone through every drawer, cupboard, and container and boy does it feel good to have everything where it should be and to throw things out.

I even got the little quilts that I have received from swaps out of the cupboards and hung on my wall where I can admire them. (other little quilts I have received are displayed elsewhere in my home)

I went the day after Christmas with a friend up to L.A.  Her best friend's Mom passed away and left an amazing sewing studio with an amazing amount of every type of sewing tool and supply.  Her daughter invited us to come and take whatever we wanted.  So I came away with tons of fabric and rulers and such.  So cleaning up my sewing area was also to make room for all the new goodies!

I am looking forward to bringing fabric and tools to our little local quilt group to share the wealth!  We have a lot of beginning quilters who could use some supplies.

And for Christmas my wonderful husband gave me a Cricut.  For those who don't know, it's an electronic paper cutter that cuts shapes (of all kinds...animals, flowers, letters, you name it!) out of paper from 1/4 inch to more than 12 inches tall! Miss K and I have been having a lot of fun with it already.  I've also heard you can cut vinyl (home decor) and fabric with it too (with a fusible we backing.

  Miss K's Design!

So I had to make a little room for the Cricut (seen in the first picture above) and clean out some drawers in my sewing cabinet for a paper cutting station next to my sewing machine.

Now I'm all ready to sew and craft in the New Year!

Traditions

A couple of my favorite Christmas traditions:

Cookie decorating.  Gotta have homemade sugar cookies for Santa on Christmas eve!  And a few for us too.

Christmas cards.  I love receiving Christmas cards in the mail and displaying them on these doors.  It's like our friends and family are with us for the holidays.

And one more...opening sibling gifts on Christmas eve.  The kids are super excited...especially Miss K.

Merry Christmas to everyone!  Hope your holidays are bright and you are enjoying some of your favorite Christmas traditions at your house!

Thanksgiving Food and Fun

Last Thanksgiving our whole family (almost) was able to be together.  It was so wonderful! 

This year was great too, but it was just us and my Dad.  It was so fun having him here for Thanksgiving!  Miss K drew him this picture.

 

We made these cute turkeys for our Thanksgiving Table.  Miss K actually had fun making them with her friend; I helped with the glue gun.

She also made the name tags, the jello jigglers and the pasta salad. 

All these things helped her to have a fun Thanksgiving, since it's not her favorite holiday.  (she's not a big food person!)

Everyone helped out with the Thanksgiving Feast.  #1Son & Dad worked on the potatoes:

 

#2Son made the yams. 

Grandpa helped with the clean up.  Everything was delish.  We were just disappointed that we left the green beans in the microwave! 

We also did gingerbread houses.  Miss K worked on hers with her friend and Grandpa.  Thanks Grandpa!  It turned out really cute. 

For those that asked, we make our gingerbread house parts with a Pampered Chef stone.  Here it is filled with the gingerbread dough and ready to cook:

It's always tricky getting the house put together with the icing.  I need to remember to have the houses assembled a day ahead so they're ready to be decorated on Thanksgiving night.  That way the icing is all dry and the houses are nice and sturdy for decorating!  I love the smell of the gingerbread as it is baking!

If you celebrated Thanksgiving this week, I hope it was wonderful.  We all have so much to be thankful for!