More Quilting

I finished the top for one quilt and got the pieces cut for a second. It's been fun, and I think that by the time I'm done I'll be over the quilting "bug" for a bit. Hopefully to move on to getting some digital scrapbooking done because I am soooo behind!

Here's the entire top for the "Sea of Galilee" quilt:

And the layout for my warm colors/cool colors quilt. I only had to put about $11 into fabric for it since most of it came from my scrap stash.

Can't wait to see both of the quilts completely done and ready for cuddling.

H1 got to go on a fun field trip this week to Junior Achievement's BizTown. His class spent a lot of time preparing by learning about how businesses run, finances, and a lot of other things. They even interviewed for jobs. H1 was the CEO of Questar Gas. On the day of the trip, they played out a mock business day, complete with paying off loans, earning money, paying utilities, and buying things. He spent his "money" on this hat. He had a great time.

H2 insisted I take a pic of her doing one of her tricks, so here she is!

We were going to go to the museum yesterday, but H2 had a very croupy cough. Bummer. We just finished reading a book as a family about Leonardo Da Vinci and we were going to visit the new Leonardo museum downtown. Maybe next weekend! She had to miss cheer practice also. We ended up going out to lunch while DH and H1 went jeeping with DH's nephew.

Life as Usual

Nothing too exciting going on around here this last week. Last Monday I took a field trip with my 6th grade class (I'm a teacher's aide). We went to the planetarium. The star show and Hubble 3D movie were fun. I didn't particularly enjoy the bus ride though.

On Saturday we went to a model train show. It was a bit of a snooze-fest for me, since we had gone to one last year. I couldn't believe how crowded it was! Afterwards, we went by DH's sister's pet shop. There were baby bunnies that we got to hold. They were precious. There was also a sweet chihuahua that I fell in love with, but no more dogs for us right now. The one that we have leaves enough hair all over the house as it is (but he's totally worth it).

On Sunday we went to church and it was the most crowded I've ever seen it. We got there 5 minutes early and took the last spots available in the choir seating.....everything else was already full. People had to listen from out in the hall. I'm sure we'll have a split soon. It was especially bad because there were 3 baby blessings. I try to focus on how great it is that there are so many people that make church a part of their day on Sundays. Here's the view from up on the stand where we sat:

I'm finishing up a quilt that I started quite a while ago. I finally got the piecing done for the top. I'll have to put a wide white sashing around it because I've run out of fabric and it's not as big as I want it. The pattern is a classic quilt pattern called "Sea of Galilee". I love the way it gives the optical illusion of curved lines even though everything in it is straight.

This is what I want to tackle next. I found it on Pinterest. Gorgeous! It will be a great way to use up all of the scraps of pretty fabric I have accumulated

Backtracking

My new goal is to blog once a week......I'm realizing that by not blogging, I haven't been journaling. Time goes by so fast and life is so busy, but I don't want to forget the details of our lives.

I'll start with H2's birthday, which was back in August. She wanted a "candy" themed party. I have a neighbor who is super talented at making cakes. I bought the supplies and she helped me assemble the cake. It was fun and it turned out so cute!

At her party she made candy jewelry with her friends.

The summer also brought cheerleading into her life. She loves it. She is always practicing her stunts and never complains about going to practice. She has also developed tummy muscles of steel! She bought herself a uniform on Ebay to play "cheerleader" in....it has been a favorite game for her and her friends. This is one of her harder stunts, it's called the "bow and arrow".

H1 turned 11 in September. He also had a birthday party, but he didn't want me to make him a cake (says he doesn't really like cake). He wanted cookies, and he spent the time playing video games with his friends.

He also got his stage 1 braces off. They made a huge difference in his smile. Here is a page I made documenting the process from beginning to end:

In June the kids decided to have a birthday party for Smuckers. They made invitations and invited other neighborhood dogs over. The dogs all got a treat and the humans got cupcakes.

We went back to school at the end of August. I went to 5th grade camp with H1, which was a lot of fun, except that it turned the cold I had into a terrible monster cold. The drive down the mountain almost made my head explode and I missed some work. I still plan on going next year with H2 though. It was a good experience for both of us.

In October, a dream came true when I was able to go on a Disney Cruise with my mom. We visited Nassau and Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. Playing with the dolphins was definitely a highlight. We felt pampered the entire time!

A couple of days after I got home, it was Halloween. H1 was Phineas. I mad him a huge Phineas head to wear, and it got him a lot of attention when he wore it. Unfortunately, it wasn't comfortable so he didn't wear it for long. I never even got a picture of it! H2 was a cheerleader and H3 was a cowgirl.

A couple of months later, my mom came to visit for Christmas. We had a great and relaxing time together. On Christmas Eve, each of the kids got to choose one present to open. And DH opened his race car track to play with.

I've had a lot of fun playing with the iPad I got : )

And the kids were happy, happy, happy!

Here's to blogging more often!

Happy Birthday H3!

My baby just turned 7 yesterday! She is such a sweet girl and lights up our home with her terrific personality. Today in the car she was telling me that there's no job she'd rather have when she grows up than to be a mother. She loves and cares for her baby dolls and is very sensitive to the feelings of the people around her. I admire her faith. She is always the one that is willing to say a prayer, remind us to have Family Home Evening, or recommend that her brother or sister get a blessing when they are sick.

She got a camera (it's a piece of scrud, but she likes it), a styling head, a baby doll (of course), and a Happy Napper.

We also had a little birthday party for her. She had a Rapunzel cake:

The kids played with Fazoodles:

and she got some really fun gifts. It was a great, and exhausting, day for her.

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to St. Louis to visit my family. Boy, it was hot! We had a great time though. We went to Purina Farms where the girls tried milking a cow:

And we saw a really, really, weird looking duck:

We also took a trip to Liberty, MO to visit my brother and his family. We were going to take a train, but because of complications due to flooding, we ended up taking a bus instead. It was still fun.

We had dinner at Buca de Beppe in Kansas City and played in the fountain.

We also got to go the Magic House (it's like a big Children's Museum). There was a big "beanstalk" connecting the floors of the museum that the kids could climb up and down on:

Their favorite room was the bubble room. H1 made the biggest bubble of anyone!

That's pretty much all that's new for us around here lately!

Is It Spring Yet?? Please??

Winter weather seems to be dragging on forever and I am so thankful for the few-and-far-between fair weather days that we have had. We've had fun though!

January brought us a visit from Nanna. We were lucky to get to stay in a cabin up in the mountains once again. It was warm and cuddly inside and beautifully winter-y outside. We had fun going sledding together, everyone taking turns hiking up the hill and sledding back down again.

Nanna and H1:

H3 was remarkably brave!

All bundled up!

There were some amazing ice formations on the cabin and along the river.

At night we enjoyed a fire, watching TV, and cuddling.

The next day I had big plans to stop for BBQ on the way home. Not even a mile down the road, we ran into a road closure. There had been some avalanches that needed to be cleaned up before we could go anywhere. I tried to go back to the cabin, but the roads were too slick and we ended up stuck for a bit. We ended up having an overpriced but memorable lunch while we waited for the snow to be cleared. The kids were pretty bored, so I let them take some random pictures of our experience.

Our Smuckers had to have another surgery. His knee ligament broke (like the other one did a year ago) and he had to have it fixed. The kids were so precious with him. He is a very pampered pooch!

Do you like his gangsta bling?

Spring Break came along just in time to give me a much needed break. Things were extra busy at work and I was also trying to get my volunteer hours in so that I could choose the kids' teachers for next year. I did 23 hours of sewing during the month of March. Whew!

My parents came for a visit and we had a great time. The weather wasn't great, but we had a lot of fun regardless. The first thing H1 wanted to do with Grandpa was play some video games. We opted for Raving Rabbids, and Grandpa did pretty good!

H3 was a little cuddle bug!

H3 was very excited to have another loose tooth and decided that she really, really wanted it to come out while her Grandparents were here. She got her wish! While we were up at the cabin, her Grandpa pulled it out for her!

On their last night here, the girls played a hidden object game with Grandma and then watched Get Smart with Grandpa.

During that same time, a lot of our extended family was gone on a cruise, so we got to dog-sit Dixie. She was a welcome member of our household.

H3 has been practicing with a musical group from school for a couple of months now. She had her performance on Thursday night and she did so well!

We had our Easter party today and it was so fun! The weather was even nice enough to have an outdoor Easter egg hunt. First was the kids' egg hunt:

And the adults had eggs to find too. Each egg had a number in it. There were 7 prizes, some better than others. Our cousin J won the adult egg hunt again this year and got $20. There were also Hershey bars, $5, an old phone, and an old pinewood derby car (so it was kind of like a white elephant thing too).

Happy Easter everyone!