Kylie's Quilt

Well, Kylie will be 4 yrs old next Friday, so I figured I could at least start her quilt top. I was bored just sitting around the other day "taking it easy", so I picked a pattern and cut out the fabric. I have all of the squares made, so now I have tocut them all to the same size and patchwork them together. Shouldn't take too long. Here it is so far. I laid it out on the kitchen table (which is OVAL) so it looks like an egg. Oh well.

Sister gift to Sarah

So, when I was pregnant with Kylie we took Maddie to get her first Build-A-Bear and then we let her make one for Kylie as a sister gift. Thank goodness we have stayed away from that store since, and now it was time to go again. So after getting Maddie's nails done we went to the mall and entered the super special Build-A-Bear store that they are never allowed to go in! LOL. They were super excited to pick out an animal for their soon-to-be baby sister. All morning Maddie was telling me she wanted to get her a bunny. I didn't even know if they would have one since they swap animals out all of the time. Maddie has a pink poodle and Kylie has a green frog. My thing is that I always want to get the SOFTEST one possible. Guess which one that was???? A BUNNY! So Maddie was thrilled, but Kylie still wanted the gray cat. Oh well. We stood in line to get "Emma" stuffed and they each got to add a heart and make a wish. I asked Maddie what her wish was and she said she wished the bunny was real and wore real clothes....LOL! We didn't want to buy any clothes since this is for a baby. After rubbing the hearts on their foreheads to make it smart, their knees to run and play, their hearts for love, and their noses to smell good, they added the hearts and gave it a giant hug. Then they got to go and wash and fluff "Emma." So cute. They were so proud of their creation! After going to the mall we drove up to Carrolton to see Michael and Jeannie Stone at their new house and had dinner and played the Wii. Thanks guys for a fabulous end to a fun day!

Maddie's Spa Day

For YEARS Maddie has been wanting to get her toes and nails done at the Spa. Whenever we pass by one (there's a TON here) she makes sure to let us know what the name of it is and reminds us of how many she has added up by then. So, for her 7th Bday her Nana Baird/Patton And Gpa Rick sent her some $ so we finally went to get them done. I couldn't ever justify spending that much on getting a kids nails done when I could do it at home. But I guess it is an "experience" that she just wanted. So yesterday I took her since she had the day off of school. It ended up being $25 for a Mani/Pedi. She got Hot Pink on her toes and Deep Red Sparkles on her fingers. It was so funny to see her in the BIG chair. They even put the massage thing on....soooooo funny to watch her head and body shake all over! She was a bit too short to let her feet soak all of the way but they made it work. When the lady was scrubbing her feet she tried to hold it in (so funny to watch, I should have taken a video) and she kept looking at me saying that it hurt, but when the lady asked her she would just say it tickled. I was laughing so hard. Just the looks that Maddie was giving me! LOL LOL LOL. She thought it was ready weird that there were soooo many steps before putting on the polish. Soak, scrub, cut, file, cuticles, lotions,base coat, polish, top coat, then dry under a light. I am not sure who enjoyed it more....me watching her or her getting it done. She did so good! Now she wants to go back again. Of course! We will see. I told her the past two year that she had to spot biting her nails and then I would take her. You know that was the only thing that worked! I think she stooped biting them with in the past 9 months. I told her I would take her at age 6, but she was still biting them. So glad she stopped! Happy Birthday Maddie!

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!!!