Big News

It's a girl!

Although I'm 22 weeks today (but no one is counting), it still seems kind of weird to be telling people. We've kept it a secret for so long, but it's getting kind of obvious and I'm down to 2 pairs of sweat pants as my total wardrobe of non-maternity clothes that still fit. So, I suppose I can't hide it any longer.

I guess after 3 miscarriages in the past 3 years, I've become a little shy about spreading the news too early.

The good thing is that there are really no problems to report, she is growing right on track and I'm starting to feel like I can live again and that there is life beyond pregnancy.

We are looking at a due date of April 15, but as my babies are usually about 10 days early, maybe we'll shoot for sooner. And hey, this little one might share an April 6 birthday with big sister Sarah!

Another SweetPod AND BAG!

So, the amazing and talented Miss Jessica has done it again! This time with the SweetPod Saddle Bag. An amazingly cool diaper bag that just hooks on to your SweetPod so that you can take your baby and all the necessary gear totally hands free.


Jessica asked me to test the pattern, and like when I tested the SweetPod, I was flattered, honored, and giddy to get the pattern!

This pattern, like the SweetPod, is easy to follow, with clear instructions, awesome design and really great. It's fully-illustrated, which makes it so easy and it was just fun to make!!!

It took me SOOO long to sew it up (all because of me, not the pattern--more on the reasoning for that soon) but Jessica was patient with me and I actually got it done a bit ago but didn't feel like I could blog about it as it was a gift.

A gift for this wonderful gal. Natalie and I have been friends for ever! OK not ever, but a good 12-13 years now, ever since that horrible Political Science Class at BYU where we were the only two females in the class. We've been through a lot together: dating, breakups, marriages, births, fertility woes, and so much more. We've even been lucky enough to live by each other once or twice in those years!

Getting her last baby here was a challenge. When she told me she was pregnant, I asked what she wanted me to make her. She said she wanted a baby carrier like mine, so I sighed, then gathered all the stuff. And, since the SweetPod is something no mother should live without, (and the pattern is just so awesomely amazing) I made her one...and the Saddle Bag to go with it.


I was able to give it to her last weekend, and she was very excited. Baby is a little small for the Pod yet, but I'm confident he will grow and the SweetPod will be his favorite ride (and Mom's salvation!)

And guess what else? Jessica is giving away 4 patterns today over at BLOOM. Now is your chance to get one of these great patterns for free, so head on over! And even if you don't sew, with Jessica's pattern, you SO can make one of these!

It's Coming...

Christmas, only 20 days away. I swear it comes faster and faster every year. There is so much I want to do and make, we'll see how far through the list I can get. There is, of course, the "have to dos," then the "really should dos," and the "I really want to, but we'll see how time goes, dos."

Since January of last year, stockings have been on my "really want to do" list. Our poor family has never really had cute stockings. Most of them are made up of those super cheap red (what is that scratchy, ugly fabric anyway?) material, you know the ones that you buy at Wal-Mart for $1. To make it even funnier, I think they were gifts from some of Jeff's old girlfriends (yes, we've been married over 10 years now). Well, since stockings have been on the list for EVER, I decided to break down and do it. While I was at it, I decided to mass-produce and make 12 of them.


The Fabric (except for the red snowflake one) is Moda's 12 days of Christmas by Kate Spain (oh, designer fabric, how I love thee!). I borrowed my sister-in-law's cute pattern and made stockings for our family, one for her baby, and some for my sister and her husband for Christmas and some for Jeff's sister and her finance for her bridal shower. She gets married right before Christmas, so I thought it would be fun. At the last minute, I thought it might be too cheezy and almost changed my mind, but she seemed really excited to get them.

Also, almost a year ago, I ran into this tutorial and thought these little birds were SO cute. And (my favorite part) I quickly saw that it would not require any hand-sewing for closure--hooray!


I whipped up a bunch to give to VT sisters, and whomever else I see fit. My only frustration was that I ran out of polyfill with 3 more birds to go, oh well. I was silly to think I could make it without going to JoAnn's before Christmas!

Hope your holiday preparation is going great!

Backyard Fun

I have to show this off...I'm not the only creative one around here.

Jeff recently made a play structure in the back for the kids. We've been planning on doing it for only almost 4 years now. But, in less than a week, Jeff made it happen.

We opted to build it from scratch and not buy a kit because (1) it was cheaper and (2) the size we allotted for the play center when we landscaped wouldn't fit any of the pre-made kits we saw.

So, my amazing husband made up a plan, took stick lumber and hardware:


And turned it into this:


He did stain in all that red-woody color, and we're still waiting for the swings. But I can safely say the kids are loving it. Samuel has to go out EVERY day and Sarah insists she has to go across the monkey bars when her math is done (to stretch out). Eliza gets out every chance she gets too! David is (luckily) pretty content in the sandbox.


It's nice to have more entertainment in the backyard :)

Baby Shower Crafting

I went to a baby shower on Saturday morning. Friday night, I realized that I needed a gift. So, luckily I already had this nursing cover cut out. I whipped it up Friday evening and Saturday morning.


I also hurriedly made this little taggie. I love these taggies, so fun to make and it's a great "toy" for baby when they can't quite grasp toys yet.


The mom-to-be was super excited, which made me feel good :) So I guess it was OK that I was an hour late to her shower.

Wanted: New camera

I really have liked my camera. I got it for Christmas of 08 and it has been great to start me out on my digital camera experience. We got a great bargain, $99 with the Christmas sales. I figured it would last me until I was able to afford a DSLR camera. I didn't realize until Saturday what a deal we got!

Because on Saturday, a child dropped it...while the lens was out...and it fell right on the lens...making it, well...broken. But, said child immediately told the truth about it and that is always the most important thing.

So, we're back to using film and borrowing Sarah's OK camera for the time being.

The question is though...do I go for another cheap point and shoot (which wouldn't be as good as the camera I had) or try to squeeze the budget for a starter DSLR (which isn't quite the camera I was hoping to eventually get)? The only problem being that we are trying to make a lot of things happen in our family right now and $ is a huge issue...

I would love to hear any reviews you have about the camera you love and advice you have to give!

Meanwhile, I'm sending my camera into Canon for a free evaluation on repair costs (I'm not very optimistic). While it's there, I'll wait and maybe catch an amazing Black Friday deal. If I could buy my camera again for $100, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Maybe the camera faeries will be good to me again this year.

Things that make me happy today

I'm trying to not TOTALLY disappear from blogland...I thought I would just share a few things that made me happy today.


This apple grew on our tree in our backyard! Isn't it perfect! I had to snap a photo before I cut it up, dipped it in caramel and ate it (all by myself...shhhh, don't tell the kids!).

Next, I found this tutorial for the cutest, easiest Halloween treat bags ever! Even if you don't sew, you could so make these. It's making me wish Halloween wasn't on a Sunday this year!

And...I finished a project today. It seems I finish things too few and far between these days. It felt so good to see it all done! But, I don't feel like I could show it off (yet) though as it's a gift and I think the person I'm giving it to may be one of the 3 people who read this blog. So, if you've had a birthday within the last year or so, it may be for you :) It is way to cool not to show off though, So I will be blogging about it hopefully very soon. When I do, that means that it made it to the person it is intended for.

So, happy Saturday and Sunday for all of you out there!

Eight

So, I'm still trying to figure out how these kids grow up so quickly!!

Eliza turned Eight in August, and we celebrated the big day in Utah at Grandma and Grandpa's.

I should have taken a picture of EVERYONE who came to her party. We had aunts, uncles, cousins, Great-grandparents, a great family gathering. Eliza's face is all red in these photos from running around with the cousins.

Her dessert request was cheesecake (we made 5 of them).


She had a big birthday chorus and got to open her presents. A few from Mom & Dad,


And a baptism dress from Grandma and Grandpa.


It seems we celebrated Eliza's birthday the entire week. The above party was actually 2 days before her birthday, as Jeff and I took off during Eliza's real birthday (all by ourselves!) to go here for 3 days.

And spent one evening here (seeing Cats!).

We figured Eliza would have a fun "real birthday" with Grandpa and Grandma. (We heard they went to Chuck-E-Cheese).

Eliza had a list of things she wanted to do for her birthday in Utah.

Two of them were fishing up Fairview Canyon


And going miniature golfing.


I think we all had fun with Eliza's requests.


Happy birthday "fluh!"

I've Been...

On Vacation. Have you ever been gone so long, you forgot what your house looks like? We used to do it regularly (like every year) but this is the first time we've been gone for 15 days in over 5 years. We did a lot. MapQuest said that if we left our house and drove straight to Salmon, Idaho, then to Firth, Idaho, then to Orem, Utah, then St. George, Utah, then back to Orem, and then home again, with no extra places to go, it would be just over 2,000 miles. We went a few extra places and I didn't keep track of the exact mileage. I guess when your car has already turned over 100K miles, it doesn't matter any more :) I'll have to do a post on all we did...it was fun. Especially that Zion NP thing with just Jeff and I...it was great.

Canning. I think today finished it up...165 quarts of apricots, peaches, crabapple sauce, and pears and 25 pints of apricot-pineapple jam. That's just the last 10 days. I'm out of jars (and I bought 36 jars this week!) except for two pint-sized regular-mouth jars. They'll just have to stay empty until next year. I'm so done.

Dealing with a grumpy baby. If anyone has any advice, I'll take anything! Since we got home, David has refused to sleep in his bed. He will fall asleep in his high chair, in the car seat, in the baby carrier, on the living room floor, but he will not nap in his bed. On Monday, I determined that he just needed to wear himself out. I decided he would not leave that crib until he slept. After 4 hours (yes, four hours) of me checking on him every 30-45 minutes, he won. Unfortunately, nighttimes aren't much better. Luckily most nights we can sit next to the crib and rub his back until he calms down and finally falls asleep (this usually takes an hour). Twice this week, he has woken up and refused to go back to sleep. I'm done with the whole "bring the baby into bed with us" thing. Last night after 2 hours of trying to console him (from midnight to 2 a.m.) we gave up and let him cry. I had to get up and go to the bathroom at 4, and he was asleep then, so I guess he did finally give up. Maybe it's teeth, maybe he's sick. I'm about ready to take a trip to the Dr. to make sure he doesn't have an ear infection, but I really don't think so. As long as he is being held, he's happy. Yah, that made canning 165 jars nice and easy! Thank goodness for older girls. Couldn't have done it without them!

July Scrap Exchange

Every three months I do a scrap exchange...one idea+my page+5 kits=6 new pages ready for photos. Here's the one I did for tonight. And I'm super excited about the ones I got in return.

I have been doing something besides Math with my girls :)

South Dakota

If you haven't been to Rapid City, SD, you should go. It's a pretty cool place, tourism galore! I could not believe how much there was to see and do there!

Mount Rushmore was our drawing attraction. It's only about 6 hours from here, so we thought we would take a weekend trip.

We went a few days after David's birthday and listened to Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt on the way up and back. I highly recommend the book. I very much recommend books on tape while traveling too.

Mount Rushmore was very fun. From the first peek at the mountain, you knew it was a neat place.


I must admit, it was a little different than I thought. I'm not sure what I was expecting, maybe it being bigger? The more we were there though, the more awe-inspiring it really was.


We took a rager-led tour around the President's trail. After the first couple, the ranger stopped letting me answer the questions. I guess I knew too much. Maybe it was those library books we read the week before we left.

The trail gave us different angles of the mountain and views of the beautiful Black Hills.



I really liked Mount Rushmore.

We stayed that first night in a Rapid City hotel and woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to go.

Although there is A TON of stuff to see, we decided on some nice free sightseeing spots to spend our second day. And we were not disapointed.

Our first stop was the Museum at the SD School of Mines. They had dino bones, rocks, fossils, and much more. Samuel was excited to see a Triceratops head (among other things).


David was a pretty good sport hangin' in the stroller.


After the museum we went to downtown Rapid City. It's pretty small, maybe the size of Idaho Falls. They have a fun attraction there, well I guess 39 of them. Presidents on street corners.

We took pictures of almost all of them, but I'll spare you all the pictures. Here's a few highlights:

George Washington (of course!)


Ronald Reagan


Richard Nixon (I love this photo because of the kids' expressions!)

And Thomas Jefferson.

After the "City of Presdients" we headed up to Dinosaur Park. Here they have life-size dinos made out of concrete. All ready for climbing fun.


Bet you can't guess who loved it the most...


Next stop was Storybook Island. I loved this place. How could you not love it when Humpty Dumpty greets you as he is falling off the wall.


It is a park full of fairy tales, nursery rhymes and just plain FUN!! I'll let the photos tell the rest.



Our last stop was at the fish hatchery. They were just about to close up for the day, but gave us a big bucket of fish food. The kids loved throwing in the food and watching the fish jump all over. I have to admit, I enjoyed watching them too!



After all that sightseeng, we got shakes at Sonic and wound our way down the Iron Mountain Road. It was tiwsty, but beautiful!

We also drove through Custer State Park and saw a 400-head heard of buffalo!

We found a campground, set up our tent and cooked dinner (and smores!)



The nighttime was, well...eventful. So that we could all fit in our little tent, Jeff spread out the sleeping bags on the bottom of the tent and we had blankets on top of us. It was a little colder than we anticipated, and super hard to get comfortable. Jeff and I were both a bit worried about David, so we didn't sleep very well.

At about midnight, Samuel started coughing, then I heard the horrible sound of him throwing up. Light showed that he had done it in Eliza's hair, then turned and wiped everything on Sarah. My first thought was, "That's it! Let's just go home!" then I remembered that "home" was 6 hours away. I was so grateful that our campground had showers. Eliza and I tromped up to get her all cleaned up and Sarah changed into her clothes for the next day. We lost about 3 blankets but somehow we managed to sleep a little. Oh, the adventures!

We woke up the next morning and had a little breakfast. We were too tired to do anything big, so we went and saw Mount Rushmore one more time, then drove home. It was definitely a trip to remember!

ONE!

One is so fun. There's just something about that very first birthday that is so magical. Maybe it's because life is still so new and there is so much to explore.

On June 14, Baby "D" turned one.

We dressed him in his flag shirt (June 14 is flag day...I love that it's his birthday too!),


And went out and got him a birthday balloon.


He wasn't sure what to think of the balloon at first. He was very afraid of it in the car, but he warmed up to it. We tied it to his high chair so he could grab it and "bang" it often!

He got a few presents. A new umbrella stroller was at the top of the list! (who made this birthday list anyway?)


But I think he likes it.


He also got some other stuff: A new hat (that he refuses to keep on) and a boat from his sisters.


My favorite part was the cake. I made him a flag cake (hmm...wonder howmany of these he will get in his lifetime!)


I love the look of pure excitement in his eyes, you can just see him asking, "Wow, what is this!"


Only to be superseded by the joy of eating!



Yea for one! It's going to be a great year!