Our Winter Wonderland

**Obviously the pic of less snow is Thurs. Morning, then the one with the ground fully covered is Friday!!!

Well, We got SNOW all day on Thurs. I think we got about 12 inches. THe record back in 1978 was 7.8 inches. TEXAS is NOT known for it's SNOW. So this is huge. It's funny because I know most places like Colorado, Tahoe, Utah, Idaho and the east coast and the northern states are use to a measly 1 ft of snow. But everything stops here. It turns to ice or slush and it gets dangerous. Pretty much all of the school districts out here are all closed today. So there's tons of kids playing outside and making snowmen. So cute. I tried, but being 8 mo. preg, there's only so much I can handle. I have tried to keep the girls clothes, gloves and shoes dry...but I think our dryer just broke. Perfect timing! I will check it later. We have spent at least $700 this last month just in medical bills...oh wait...$800+. UGH. We can't afford to waste $ on a dryer right now. We got major baby bills coming up. BLAH! Anywho....Life is good, I have 5 weeks left of this pregnancy and I am ready to have this dancing queen. Her stage is getting smaller everyday and she's not to happy with it...either am I. I finally finished Maddie's QUILT. YAHOOOOOOOO! It am so proud of it. I just need to perfect a few things. Post pics later. Well, that's if for now!

***Checked the dryer....still kicking....Yippie!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Wow! I can't believe she's already 7. So crazy how time flies. We had a Luau party for her and some friends this past Sat. Here's some pics. Poor thing, today after school she get a cavity filled and a silver cap put on one of her back teeth. We will make it up to her! Next Monday I will be taking her to get her nails done for the first time. She's sooo excited!

Quilting, cooking and being prego.

Well, Maddie's 7th bday in in less than 2 weeks and I decided to make her a quilt. Yes....a real quilt. What was I thinking? I am now at the free hand quilting stage and I am DYING! I have already unpicked parts 3 times. My tension is all off and I am super frustrated! AHhhhhh!

I made the crib skirt for the crib...finally. It's out of the same purple corduroy that I love! It's funny, normally when I make things I do it correctly and as perfect as I can. I just wanted to get this done soooooo......I ended up doing the front panel and 1 side panel. Why???? Well..why should I do the other ones when the crib is against the wall. LOL. I thought I was crazy when I was talking with my friend about this, but she agreed to do it the easy way for once. I didn't even make the center part then attach the hanging panels. So, I ended up sewing NICE...Yes I was good on my seams....on 3 sides of the panels, but for the top....Yep....I used velcro on the raw edge of fabric at the top to tack it to the frame of the mattress holder. Hey...it worked and it's DONE. That's all I care about!
Cooking....I have been doing great on the freezer meals so far. I have 5 dinners and a side. I even tried making the lasagna with the hard noodles. I didn't even buy the (no-boil) noodles...just the regular ones. And...it worked and turned out great. I have two of those in my freezer! Tonight I will be making some yummy soup and freezing part of that too. Oh, I got a dehydrator...I have dried apples and bananas so far. The girls LOVE the bananas!
Being Prego...ugh. Well, I have hit the...."can't wait for it to be OVER" stage. I have about 7 weeks left and I am done. Here's my complaining sentence.....I am sick of the sore hips everytime I turn over or when I get up, and I am sick of the braxton hicks-the other night I had like 8 in 1 hour....NOT GOOD, but then it got better, I try to stay busy since I get bored, but then i over do it...Ahhhhh, balance????, I am trying to be independant when Larry asks if I need help, but now I have to let him help me (I know he wouldn't ask if he didn't want to help, but I can't do it all anymore and it makes my sad). Ok, so that was a long sentence...sorry. I just want miss baby out so I can hold her. She moves a ton and is doing great.
Singing....luckily I have a chance next month to sing in a stake choir...we are singing some AWESOME music. I haven't sung music like this in YEARS! We have about 80 in the choir. I am a very critical person when it comes to choirs, technical stuff, timing, notes, diction, and the conductor. Well, THank goodness the conductor (who is in our ward) is FABULOUS! and he likes me since I have spoken up about things and i have found mistakes in the printed music (music from the MOTAB). He was so happy to call them and tell them we caught a mistake in their music "Deep River" too funny! I just need to hold out and not have the baby until the concert is OVER! It's getting hard to have good breath control, but it comes with the territory. Another cool thing...so far....that one of my friends is going to write an Easter song for another friend and I to sing....the "so far" part is that Easter is 2 weeks after i am do. But if all goes well, we should be good. Super excited!

Ok, sorry for the long post. We are all doing well. Larry is finally feeling on the mend from his sinus issues, Maddie Loves school, and Kylie has a blast being at home and playing with all of the toys by herself! Me...I stay busy, as you can tell, and happy!

Projects of 2010

Ok, so I have 9 weeks left and it is flying by and there's so much to accomplish. I have been busy sewing things for the nursery the past 2 weeks. Diaper Stacker, Crib blanket, Valance, (designing all of those myself), then a boppy pillow cover, and then a few other flannel blankets. Maddie & I designed the blanket and we are so proud of it!






Last week I got a call from a friend of the lady that had me at the craft show in Dec. She had fabric and wanted me to make a 48" x 48" baby blanket (ok...first of all....I do NOT "QUILT"), I mostly deal with cotton and minky (mostly) with a simple inside out turn and top stitch. I know how to patchwork, so I said ok since she wanted a simple quilt. So she lives about 40 mins away and she mialed the fabric to me. Way cute stuff. It was Humpty Dumpty fabric with coordinating fabrics. I finished the patchwork top fairly fast and easy. I added the batting and minky dot, flipped and top stitched. Bu then I realized I needed to tack it down somehow with all of that batting. Luckily our quilting group for our ward met yesterday and they gave me some great pointers!!!! So within each of the 16 squares I sew'd (how do you type that anyways?) a 6" square in the middle. turned out pretty good, the minky backing didn't even gather! YAY. It took forever trying manuevure the fabric as I was sewing in the middle of the blanket, but I did it. Here's some pics.





So my NEW Projects for the next 9 WEEKS: (I feel like I been very productive by making all of the above things in 2 weeks!)
1. Freezer Meals
2. Learn how to use a Dehydrator
3. Organize my house and start Food Storage...for real this time. I even have the Food Storage Binder.
4. I went to a class on couponing...so now it's time to implement.
5. I have been organizing all of my recipes, I even put them in a binder and I have dividers...it looks fabulous! I was happy I got to use my label maker. I still need to get some page protectors, and then make a list of each item in each category.
6. I need to (hopefully today) organize my pantry and master closet to make room for food storage.
7. My main goal for this year is to stay on top of everything...yes I know it will be hard with having a baby... I need to be PRO-ACTIVE, and be POSITIVE, and set GOALS. Without goals I don't feel like I get anything accomplished.

So, let this post be inspiring to you. You may not be on a time limit like me, but remember to always do something for yourself as well. I know that doing all of these things will make me a better person and I will learn a lot and I am really excited! Oh yeah....and LAUGH A LOT throughout the process! I do! I am grateful for Larry and all of his support with my crazy ideas and my girls who love to HELP!!! They have even helped a ton with the laundry and they are so ecited for Sarah to join us soon!

Well, here's to getting as much as I can done in 9 weeks!!!

Merry Christmas from TX (Christmas EVE)

Well, our first Christmas in TX went pretty good. We started the night before Christmas Eve by having our friends (Stephen & Nikki Adams') from Modesto come and stay the night. We woke up on Christmas Eve and ate Bfast and played while I started the rolls. Then we had some lunch. I think I was on my feet at least 75% of that day...my legs are paying for it now! Wellll.....during all of that it started SNOWING. We didn't think it would stick,so we enjoyed it while it came down. Around 2pm the Adams' took off for San Antonio to visit family and we got the house ready for the big Christmas Eve dinner we hosted. As the day went on it started snowing EVEN more. We were so excited to be getting a white Chiristmas. We know it's not REAL SNOW (a foot or more for those in Tahoe, ID, and UT) but we were sooo excited to watch it blow off of the roof tops and cover our grass more and more. As people were arriving for dinner we realized we had to scrap the walkway....too much ice. We had a great night....9 adults and 11 kids, and the house stayed pretty clean. Luckily we didn't have any furniture in our big front room so we set up two long tables and chairs out there. We had awesome food....Prime rib and twice baked potatoes for the adults and hotdogs and mac and cheese for the kids. THen for dessert we had apple crisp and a banana pudding dessert. I was excited since i got to try a new cake recipe. Choc. Mousse Raspberry Cake. Sooo good! It was still snowing and pretty icy outside when everyone left around 10:30pm, so they had to be careful getting to their cars and getting home. Luckily they were all safe! That night we had the girls open 1 present each from Gama & Papa Evans. The got a jewelry treasure box which they LOVED! Then off to bed.

Cousin Time

This past Saturday, Lynette, Ella & Brett came to our house to hang out. Lynette brought the kits to make a sleigh, and I made them candy cane reindeer. They loved both. Here's some pics.