Messenger bag

Next up on my Learn to Sew series was this cute little messenger bag. I've been putting it off for a few days but finally tackled it today thanks to the freezing rain that we had this morning and not really wanting to go anywhere. Probably safer not to go out if I didn't need to anyway. I did have to take Elliot to preschool today and pick him up, and that was enough of an adventure for me. The parking lot was a skating rink which Elliot thought was the best thing on Earth.

 

After reading the tutorial about a billion times, I figured I was finally ready to cut out my fabric. From start to finish, I think this only took me about an hour and a half. I'm so excited to show the girls today after school and see if it would be something that they would like me to make for them. It might just be the perfect thing for Ashley and all of her things.

Blanket for Mrs. Olsen

Amelia could hardly wait to get started on the rag quilt for Mrs. Olsen.  After she picked out the fabric she wanted, I helped her get all the squares cut out.  Once all the squares were cut out, Amelia laid them all out and I helped rearrange them a little until we got them into a pattern that looked good. 

After showing Amelia how to operate the sewing machine, I let her sew a few of the squares together.  She did a pretty good job for her first time.  I took over so that we could get it sewn together quicker.  She was a great helper bringing me the squares when I needed them.

It didn't take too long to get it all sewn together and ready to start clipping the edges.  Amelia clipped a row along the outside and then took a break because her hand was starting to hurt.  I took over and was able to get the whole thing clipped and ready to be washed in no time.  (OK.  I stayed up until midnight clipping and then had about 1-2 hours more to do the next day.)  Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the final product but it turned out so cute.  Her teacher even called me up to tell me how much she liked it.  And it was a great mommy/daughter thing to do together.

Fabric obsession

I have this thing for fabric.  On Black Friday, I headed to the fabric store and went a little crazy stocking up on flannel.  I had planned on making pajama pants for all the kids for Christmas, but it just didn't happen.  There's always next Christmas right?  Most of the fabric I bought was going to be made into baby blankets.  I love crocheting around the edges of blankets and giving them as gifts at baby showers.  After matching up all the fabric and cutting it out, I washed it all and created a giant pile of fabric that needed to be ironed.

The next thing to do is get it all laid out again and cut the burp cloths out.  Then it will be off to the hemstitcher.  I should be set for a while on blankets and could should skip Black Friday this year.

Amelia has been begging me to teach her how to make a blanket for a long time.  Luckily, her teacher is having a baby so I told Amelia that she can make a rag quilt for her.  She is so excited to get started.  Luckily, I have plenty of fabric in my stash for her to pick from.  She wants to get it done before her teacher goes on maternity leave so we will be sewing like crazy.  So, with a 3 day weekend, we should be able to get a lot done.

Lots of tracks

When we first started collecting train tracks four years ago, all we could do was make a figure 8. It was fun, but it is so much more fun now with lots of tracks that can go all over the house. Amelia and Elliot were able to build most of this by themselves and then just needed a little bit of help from me to connect the ends together. Micah even left it alone so the kids had a few hours of fun with them before it was time to clean up.

 

New hooded towel

For Christmas, I wanted to make new hooded towels for the kids.  Well, as I was finishing up another sewing project to go under the tree at 3:00 in the morning, early Christmas morning, I realized that the towels were going to have to wait.  Luckily, week 2 of Learn to Sew was making hooded towels.  I have Elliot and Micah's done but they can't use them until I get the ones for the girls done.  And of course I made a big goof and have to go to the store again before I can finish Ashley's.

I decided to made owls for each of the kids because the tutorial said that owls are cute in any color.  This may be true, but I have found that yellow owls end up looking like ducks.

Wiped clean

We have been having computer issues for I don't know how long.  Guy was finally fed up with it last night and decided to completely wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall everything.  So far, that has not fixed anything.  I'm having a hard time with the concept of not being about to find anything (hopefully it is all backed up on the external hard drive) and everything being so different.  I've talked for a long time about getting a laptop for myself.  Maybe it is about time that I do that so I won't have to deal with all of the issues that our PC has.

In other news, I introduced the kids to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.  The girls listened to the soundtrack one night while falling asleep and instantly fell in love with it.  The next day, we found the movie with Donny Osmond on YouTube and watched it.  Once again, they loved it!  Amelia has been begging to either listen to or watch it any chance she gets.  Maybe the girls will be my buddies and go see musicals since it really isn't Guy's cup of tea.  I can see many girls weekends in the future going on a little road trip to check out a musical.  Love my girls!!

Snow day

I was so happy last night before going to bed to see an e-mail from the girls' school saying that they would be cancelling school in the morning because of all the snow.  It was so great to sleep in a little and let the kids sleep in too.  I was worried that the kids would be bickering by 9:00 but luckily they got along for just about the whole day with only a squabble or two.  Definitely an answer to prayers.

By 11:00, I told the kids to get their snow clothes on so we could go out and shovel.  Ashley decided to stay in, but everyone else came out.  The snow was still falling a little and the wind was blowing which made it cold.  So, after a little of this...

I told Amelia to head inside while I finished shoveling.  She was a great big sister and got the boys in and all taken care of and when I came in, I found them all reading books together.  Fabulous.

Things

Ashley has always been attached to things.  Sometimes it is a specific thing like "blue puppy" from preschool and other times it is just a collection of things.  Many a night at dinner, there is barely enough room for her plate.  There is a spare chair in the corner of the kitchen that is usually holding her collection of things.  One day after school, I was noticing how heavy her backpack was.  Seems she was bringing home one rock everyday.  That had to stop.

Last night before bed, she set up a few campsites on the nightstand.

At lunch today, it was the Little People.  Love their little campsite.

Elliot's first day of Preschool

Elliot has been my first kid to do two years of preschool.  Part of it was because I really needed a break from his rambunctiousness twice a week and the other part was that I wanted him to do the Pre-K program at The Kinder Garden and I knew that the only guarantee to get him in for that was to do their preschool program first.  

I first discovered The Kinder Garden when it was time for Ashley to start preschool.  I needed something structured for her and this place seemed perfect.  They were just starting out so they had to combine 3-4-5 year olds all in one class.  Not really ideal but it worked OK.  In fact, I give credit to her teachers for helping her to learn to read before entering Kindergarten.  I'm hoping that Elliot will benefit just as much from their program.

He was super excited to go to school until it was time to drop him off.  There were a few tears shed but I knew that he would get over it quickly.

One of my favorite things that they do is this question of the day.  One teacher helps them "read" or figure out what the question might be asking and then the kids have to find their name and put it on the board.  Then they are immediately taken to the back part of the classroom to start on an activity.  Usually it is something to do with pre-writing skills like tracing shapes or drawing straight lines.  I love it!

Elliot is one of the older kids in the class and certainly one of the bigger kids.  I guess that is inevitable.

Daddy daughter date

Guy took Amelia out for a little daddy daughter tonight, so I was able to spend time with the other three kids.  Ashley has re-invented the game of tag a little and now when you are tagged, you say "mixed feelings."  I don't quite understand how the game works but I don't think it is very different from regular tag.  What I think is funny is that I don't think she quite understands what "mixed feelings" are.  I've tried to explain it, but I still don't think she is connecting the dots.  Ashley and Elliot spent time playing mixed feelings tag and duck, duck, goose with each other tonight.  Micah doesn't really liked to be chased but he loves to join in the chasing.  After they got all their energy out, I let them watch a show before bed.  I love seeing them enjoying being together.

I took the boys to the library today to pick out some new books.  Elliot and Micah like to play with the trains while I pick out books.  Amelia really wanted Diary of a Wimpy Kid so I had to be sure to get it.  Ashley loves all things non-fiction so I got a great big pile of books for her.  It is so fun to see their excitement when they get home from school and see all the books I got for them.  Good thing I have 3 library cards with a 50 book limit each.  Or maybe that is a bad thing.  But I love how much the kids love to read!  Amelia's teacher said that just about all of the kids reading scores dropped over the Christmas break.  Oops.  I'm not sure if Amelia was one of those, but there is always room for improvement.

Learning to sew

When I was pregnant with Ashley, Guy gave me a sewing machine for Christmas.  That was more than seven years ago.  My first project with my new machine was a chenille blanket for Ashley.  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun too.  Over the years, I have dabbled here and there with sewing.  I have made nightgowns for the girls, pillow cases, the beginnings of quilts, hooded towels, nursing covers, car seat covers, and even a few Halloween costumes.  Of course, nothing too difficult.  I found this little "Learn to Sew" series online and I thought I would give it a try.  Today's lesson was how to create a hem and sew a straight line, complete with back-stitching.

Here is today's project.  They are cloth diapers covered with a little bit of fabric to make it pretty so it can be used as a burp cloth.  Even though this was fairly easy, I wanted to start this series from the beginning and go all the way through.

I washed and dried all the cloth diaper and then ironed them.  Luckily, I had this super cute fabric in my stash.  It was originally meant to be a skirt for one of the girls, but after getting it home, I thought it might be too juvenile.

Next, I ironed a 1/2 inch hem around all sides.

Next step was to center the fabric on the cloth diaper and pin in it place.  Then sew all the way around.

And done!  Simple as that.

Out of one yard of fabric, I was able to get 8 burp cloths done.  So cute and ready to be gifted to someone. Hmm, I do have a niece having a baby soon.

Other than that, Guy and I spent our lunch hour at the school talking with the Secondary Principal regarding how the staff is preparing to handle a school shooting.  We hope that all their preparations never have to be put to practice, but we want our children to be protected.  I'm grateful that our children attend a school where there is open communication and directors want to hear from parents.  It was nice for this man to take time out of his busy day to meet with us.  I also ran into one of the Special Ed. teachers that taught Ashley over the summer.  It was so nice to get a little report from her on the improvement that Ashley has been making in school.  Honestly, it is like night and day to what she was like a year ago and it makes me so happy.

Fast Sunday and Nursery

New year...new time for church.  We moved to the 11:00 schedule.  I have mixed feeling about it all.  On the one hand, we have a longer time to get ready in the morning.  Hopefully Guy will be able to help get the kids ready since he will be home from his morning meetings by 8:30 or so.  On the other hand, we are at church right over the lunch hour so by the time we get home, kids (and parents) are starving and Micah is past due for a nap.  Maybe it will get better as we all get used to it.

Micah is having a tough time in nursery right now.  He was completely fine until a couple of months ago and then he decided that he needed to have either Guy or I in there to be happy.  I have tried to sneak out and it totally backfires.  He cries and cries and won't let anyone get near him to help him feel better.  So, when I was asked to help out in nursery today, I went right for it since I would be there anyway.

Amelia loves being in Valiant 8 and getting a little older in primary.  Ashley is in CTR 6 and is not so sure about being on the last row in Jr. Primary.  She likes her new teacher which is good.  I spoke with her teacher briefly about Ashley's personality and it sounds like this teacher is up for the challenge.  Elliot is in CTR 4 and is a hoot.  For the past year, he struggled going to Sunbeams every week.  I would drag him kicking and screaming to primary every Sunday.  As we left sacrament meeting today, I bribed him with M&M's once we got home if he would not throw a fit going to primary.  Well, it worked.  His old Sunbeam teacher was shocked.  Hopefully he will start going to primary willingly with no bribes at all.

After church was rough.  I was the only one fasting yet still had to prepare meals for everyone.  It made me a  little cranky.  After lunch, Amelia wanted to watch AFV.  It really helped to sit and laugh with my kids to make my crankiness go away.  Guess that is just something I have to work on.  For the longest time, I have been either pregnant or nursing so fasting wasn't part of my routine.  It's like learning it all over again.  I gave all the kids the option to fast today.  Amelia was an immediate no, as was Elliot.  But Ashley almost decided to fast, then changed her mind at the last minute.  We will try again next month.

I wish more days were like this...

I love lazy Saturdays.  Sometimes it is nice to not have to be anywhere or get anything done or be on any kind of schedule.  That was how today was.  The only thing I had to do was get Amelia to her Primary class party at 2:00.  Pretty easy.

After dropping her off, the headed back home with the rest of the kids.  Guy was off at a .22 match so we had the place to ourselves.  I put Micah down for his nap and was quite excited to see these two playing so nicely together.

And then it happened again...

And again...

They can be the best of friends or the worst of enemies.  It really just depends on the day.

Once Guy got home, the two of us got the Christmas tree out of the house.  I started packing up Christmas decorations a week ago but we just hadn't taken the time to get the tree out.  Today was the perfect day.  So now, the living room is starting to get back to normal.

I also downsized the pillows on the couches from this...

to this...

The kids have loved having so many pillows to play with but I hated having them all over the floor.

Sad to say that the other side of the room still looks like this...

Utes Game

Beginning January 1st, I wanted to write in my blog every day.  Not so much for anyone but myself.  I would love to have a journal to look back on and see all that has been accomplished in a year.  However, I was a little (O.K. a lot) behind on my blog so every once in a while when days around here are a little slow, you may just see a flashback post.

Back at the end of August, my dear friend Lara won tickets to a Utes football game and invited me to go.  Of all my years living in Salt Lake and even working at the U, I had never been to a game.  Since we had to leave home so early to get to the game, I had to get a babysitter to fill in for me for half the day.  She had to get the kids off the bus, help with homework, and do dinner because Guy had to go to back to school night.

The game started just about dinner time, so Lara and I stopped at B&D Burgers.  YUM!  Being a little unfamiliar with how close we actually were to the stadium, we drove away from there are tried to find a closer parking spot.  Totally wrong move.  We ended up driving all around the stadium and nearly all the way to the hospital before we made it back down the hill and parked about a block away from where we had dinner.  It was hilarious!  We ended up missing the first half of the game.  Oops.

 Halftime!

Sometime in the 3rd or 4th quarter or so, it started to rain a little.  Not too bad so we just stuck it out and it really didn't last too long.  Besides, I was having a rare evening away from responsibility and I wanted it to last as long as possible.

Final score---Utes win 41-0.  We got home just after 10:00 and it was the best "girls night out" that I have had in a long time!

Irony

Thanks to my fabulous husband, I now have a car that starts right up in the frigid temperatures.  I went out to start it a little early this morning in the hopes that it would be nice and warm for Elliot to go to preschool, and it fired right up.  No hesitation at all.  So nice after more than a month of praying that it would start when I needed it to.

As I was pulling in the mail today, it just so happened that we got two $25 gift cards to an auto parts store.  When Guy had to replace the batteries in his truck not too long ago, he was able to send away for a rebate (in the form of gift cards).  I totally laughed out loud when I opened up the envelope and had to call Guy to share the laugh with him.  Guess we should have sent for that rebate a little sooner.

My sweet Durango was also due to have the tires rotated.  The wonderful folk at Big O informed me that my rear brakes are going bad, my front alignment is off causing uneven wear on the tires, and my lower ball joints need to be replaced.  I've know about all of these problems for a while but it is hard to hear about them all at once and right after spending $xxx for a new battery.  And after working in the freezing cold, Guy is not really looking forward to doing more work in the cold.  So, we'll do the brakes and hold off on the rest.

Car Trouble

Today was the last day of Christmas break.  The first few days of the break were rough since Ashley and Elliot generally don't get along.  Elliot knows exactly which buttons of Ashley's he can push to get her to freak out and so he does it repeatedly.  Luckily, they have been getting along fairly well for the last few days.

We finished Episodes II and III of Star Wars today.  It was so fun to see Amelia put it all together and figure out the Skywalker family tree.  Now on to Episodes V and VI!  I can still remember when the digitally remastered editions came out with the enhanced scenes.  I was in high school and one friend in our group would sluff school to go get tickets.  Then, the night of the showing, we would stand in line hours before it started, playing card games and having light saber fights.  So much fun.

Around 4:00 this afternoon, I went out to start the car and take some movies back to Reams.  Only, my beloved Durango wouldn't start.  It's been acting funny for about a month so I kind of knew that there was always a chance that it wouldn't start.  I was just hoping it would do it when I didn't have to be anywhere.  I was also supposed to take the girls to dance about a half hour later.  Luckily, my good friend Lara came to my rescue and let me borrow her car.  I put the Durango on the battery charger on the off chance that that would fix it.  After dropping the girls off at dance and returning my movies, I filled Lara's car up with gas as a little thank you.  Her husband is out of work right now and I'm sure that they are stretching their pennies to the max.  I also knew that if I offered to pay her back in some way, she would turn me down.  So, filling up her tank was the least that I could do.  As luck would have it, the Durango started right up when it was time to pick up the girls from dance.  Oh happy day, but I still don't trust it.

When Guy got home from work tonight, he took it to AutoZone to get the battery tested.  He was going to do it yesterday when he had the day off but didn't.  Now it is 0 degrees outside and he is fixing my car.  What an awesome husband I have.  Hopefully he doesn't freeze his tail off and I will have a vehicle to take Elliot to pre-school tomorrow.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Micah

I've never really liked new year's resolutions.  I always seem to fail.  However, I would really like to start a goal this year.  For years I've admired bloggers that can keep up a blog on a somewhat daily basis.  I love the glimpse into their daily lives: the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between.  So this year, I'm going to give it the old college try.

Ringing in the new year wasn't anything spectacular around our house.  We put the kids to bed at their regular time and then stayed up and watched tv.  We didn't even watch the ball drop because Guy and I were busy having a discussion on roles and responsibility and birthday presents.  But I loved to hear some of our neighbors outside causing all sorts of noise.

New year's day has taken on a whole new reason to celebrate at our house now that we have a birthday too.  Micah got a candle in his muffin at breakfast this morning which he wasn't too happy about blowing out since it meant I had to take away his milk for him to blow it out.

The kids (mostly Amelia) have taken an interest in Star Wars.  We let them watch Episode IV on Sunday and then I rented I, II and III for them to watch in the next few days.  Elliot kept saying things like, "That's just like in Angry Birds Star Wars."  But mostly he was a little bit bored.  Amelia was full of questions like, "Who's Luke's dad?"  "Will Luke and Leia get married?"  "What is that thing called?"  Ashley sits and soaks it all in.  She will most likely become and expert in all things Star Wars.

One thing that I told my sister, Tamara, would happen today would be giving Micah a haircut.  The only thing he has had up until now is a little trim and in was starting to show.  Elliot and Guy were due as well so I did all three of them.  Guy was my helper to feed Micah Smarties to keep him distracted.  It worked great!  Elliot does not like the clippers at all so he got a sucker to help distract him.  It sort of worked.

After dinner, Micah got his birthday cupcake.  I tried a new recipe for a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting.  They were so yummy!  But Micah was not a fan of the peanut butter frosting at all.  Oh well.

Micah got spoiled for his birthday and got two cars, a puzzle, and new clothes from us.  He also got some trains, a wagon and more clothes from Grandma Corinne, Grandpa Steve, Auntie Tamara and Uncle Brian.

Mostly we had a pretty lazy new year's day.  The tree is still sitting in the living room completely undecorated and drying out.  There is still wrapping paper and boxes all over the place from two birthdays and Christmas all within the last week.  Hopefully I will get my living room back together soon.  School will be starting again in two days and the girls will even be going to dance tomorrow.  Time for me to start making sure closets are full of clean clothes and the fridge is stocked with supplies for lunches.  Only one more day of sleeping in.