Last Present Update

I thought I'd show my last batch of gifts. These towels were for my parents. I got the pattern for the tea towels from posie gets cozy. So here they are:


Not all of the photos turned out as nice as I would of liked but now I can't go back and take new pics. They have been sent and received. Merry Christmas.

Another Present

I thought I'd start posting the photos of presents I made for family. There really isn't a lot but still it made me excited to make the presents.


When thinking of gifts for Krissie and David I just kept thinking of all these different ideas. Around the last minute I finally decided on place mats. The dishes and stuff are mine but it sure was fun setting the table like there could be a romantic dinner involved, really though it's usually just spilled milk. Here is a close up photo of the place mats.

Christmas Miracle

I spent all day yesterday but I finished it. I was beginning to wonder if Chas would get a stocking but he did.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. I've been discovered by the little one - must go.

Didn't know

Apparently many of my family members went out to eat Mexican across the United States last night. I didn't know but somehow I must have gotten the message. We had Mexican food at our house last night and I think in honor of Calvin I was able to eat my second black bean burrito (I rarely have room for a second burrito).

Calvin would of been 14 yesterday and many times throughout the day I thought of him. In face I didn't sleep much at all last night as memories of him kept flooding my brain. So I thought I'd share a photo of my dear sweet nephew. We miss you so much.


This photo is from roughly two years ago. Donna's family and my family were down in Las Vegas visiting our parents. Bonnie was playing right there and Calvin was chucking huge rocks over her head. Eventually he stopped (I can't ever seem to spell this word correctly) and no one was hurt - but I think we all wondered what might happen while he was chucking rocks.

Finished

I finally finished all the Christmas things I had to get done. All I really have to do is make Chas a stocking but if that doesn't happen I know he won't be too mad. It's only his first Christmas and I don't think Bonnie had one her first Christmas.

The one thing I'm super happy about is finishing Bonnie's Christmas dress. We took some snap shots today and of course she was goofy - I long for the days of her cute smile in photos.



Since she was being such a goof I opted to take her head out of the photo. I was really happy with how the dress turned out. I bought the pattern from Sugar City Journal and finally got around to making it. I was really nervous about making the dress but once I got going and read the instructions a million times I felt ok. It was so nice last night to see the whole thing come together - I finally feel like I can do more than make dolls and quilt. This is exciting.

Christmas Photo

Last year I took some cute photos of Bonnie in front of our Christmas tree. I think it was my only attempt to do something related to Christmas - I was 9 months pregnant at the time. I thought I would share Jay's & my favorite photo from the photo set.

The Runnaway

On Monday I was getting ready to run a few errands with the kids. I was doing little odds and ends all morning to just get some stuff done around the house and then around 11 am we were finally ready to leave. Bonnie is hitting the age that she doesn't want to go places anymore so as I was putting Chas in the car she sat inside the doorway just looking at me. I kept telling her to get in the car and instead she let the dog out. Normally Scooter just hangs out in the front yard but this time he kept inching away.

Finally I had both kids in the car and I yelled for Scooter. He took a look at the parking lot next to our house (we live at a dead end street and on the other side of the dead end street is a church with a huge parking lot - we live on the parking lot side). I see Scooter making a run for it. So I ran inside told Jay I had to go chase the dog and grabbed the dog's leash.

Out the garage I run trying to catch up with Scooter but I come to realize the entire church parking lot is covered in ice. I see the dog at the back of the church and I call for him. He looks at me and runs the other way. I'm cutting across the lawn trying to catch up with him. I finally get to the back of the church and I see him taking a dump on the church's front yard. This morning was shaping up to be so shameful for me - dog runs away and poops on church's front yard!

Past the church is a pretty busy street that Jay's parents live on. Scooter knows this route well because we walk over there for Saturday breakfast every week. Amazingly he gets across the street without being hit.

At this point all I could think was he was going to run after a car - he likes to try to do this when he is on a leash. I see a car driving closer to Scooter and I held my breathe. The dog looked at the car and thought otherwise and kept running forward.

He made it to Jay's parents carport unscathed. At this point he lets me catch up to him and I leash him and bring him home.

That day and everyday since Scooter has spent his time outside while we are gone from the house. I actually think he doesn't mind it so much.

More Christmas

I finished my In-law's present on Saturday. I was really excited to tackle this present and and little nervous. I had thought it out in my head over and over again. My idea came from Pink Chalk Studio. I saw her quilt block and thought this would make a really cute wall hanging for Christmas.

My cute little girl is holding up the wall hanging. Now that I've made one I think I could tackle another. I now know ALL my mistakes and think I could do a really awesome job on the next one.

If I make another one it would be for Bonnie. She really liked the tree and wanted it for her own. A cute little pillow for her bed would work.

After Christmas I will have a few more presents to post but not too many. I'm winding down to enjoy the holidays. I've got one present left to finish. Other than that I am half way done with Bonnie's Christmas dress and I'd love to make myself a new skirt for Christmas but we shall see.

I would also like to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on the robot doll. I was a little nervous it wouldn't turn out right but once I put everything together I decided it looked good.

Robot

This robot is headed off to Indiana today. I made this robot for my friend's son and I really hope they like him. I had fun making this guy. Plus I'd been wanting to make this Wee Wonderful pattern for a long time but just had never gotten around to it.

Snow

I don't have a lot of photos to post at the moment as most of them are gifts for my family and they all read this blog. But since yesterday my sewing machine basically hasn't slowed down excep for the short nap I took yesterday afternoon to re-energize.

Yesterday we were expecting to wake up to snow and the whole family was disappointed when it just didn't happen. As we were all waking up from out nap (except daddy - he had watched an old war movie on hulu) I was looking out the back window and all the sudden a gaggle of ducks landed in our back yard. All couples too. I told Bonnie to look outside and for a few minutes we just sat there and watched them waddle along. It was really fun. Then once the ducks realized there was no cracked corn in our backyard to eat they flew on to someone else's yard.

Thankfully, this morning we woke up to beautiful snow and it hasn't quit. We are really enjoying just looking outside during our morning routines and seeing the beautiful snow.

Really Wonderful Things

I read my sister's blog this morning. I think everyone should head over there and read it. It is such a wonderful story.

http://donnandkids.blogspot.com/

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Tax Season & Our Family

I stumbled upon this huge group of photos labeled "Tax Season and our Family." If anyone wasn't aware of it yet, Jay and I are accountants and work like dogs for 4 months of the year. Yes we work the rest of the year too but it's just not as intense as tax season. Here are some of the photos I found today.


This one is Jay holding baby Chas. Chas was less than three months old in this photo and I am sure it was probably after 8 pm when this photo was taken.


Bonnie loved holding baby Chas and it was really cute for us to watch.


Bonnie's coloring phase hit pretty hard during tax season. Jay would get down on the floor with her and color when he needed a break. I just thought it was so cute.

I think he was the best part about tax season. Chas arrived right at the beginning of tax season and he was such a joy to have around.

Thanksgiving and so much more

I can't even explain the sheer fun we had over Thanksgiving holiday. The kids even cooperated and slept through the night every night.

We headed down to Utah to spend the weekend with my sister and her family. My other sister and her kids joined us too. It was so much fun.

On Thanksgiving day we got a babysitter and went to the new James Bond movie - it was the best.

Then on Friday we got up really early. My big sister tells the story best. We were home before most of the people woke up. Of course my little ones were running around our bedroom. I stayed up for another hour and then crashed when Chas fell asleep for his first nap.

Later that afternoon we sent the boys out shooting - they had a great time. Jay shot a soda can in mid-air (he is so hot) and then shot it again when it fell to the ground - had to make sure it was dead. I am so proud of him. The girls and I sat at home and watched Hancock. We all really liked it.

Then we had Bonnie's third birthday party and it was pretty fun. She was totally excited about all her presents. We also had Lexi's 8th birthday party at the same time - she enjoyed the lip gloss I bought her.

Well Saturday found us driving back to Boise. I was sad to leave but couldn't wait to sleep in my bed on Saturday night. I hope everyone else had a great weekend.

The UN

When Jay and I lived in Queens we had many visitors. One year when Jay's parents were visiting us, we went to the UN and took a tour. Then we broke the rules and had a picnic lunch in their garden area. It was pretty fun that day.

Now when Jay and I are at home with our kids we no longer need to visit the UN because we are the UN at house Bradley. Basically Jay and I keep two small countries from fighting. Really in the end I think we are playing damage control because the smaller country, Chas, will soon be bigger than the current large country, Bonnie, and that small country is going to beat the crap out of the bigger country. I've seen it happen before.

Now that we've spent a few days at my sister's house it is fun to see the pecking order between the four little kids.

Currently Danny plays the role of a leader that create a war and then says not my fault. Currently some of his favorite things to say are: I didn't do it, It's not my fault, and Bonnie is doing ..... This cracks me up because 99.9% of the time I know it was him and that he did it.

Bonnie is a dictator of sorts. Whatever she wants, she takes - especially from Deano. Last night we were all eating popcorn and Bonnie had a full bowl. Deano wanted some and I told Bonnie to share - Deano came out of the deal with two pieces of popcorn. I just kind of laughed because later he found half a bag of popcorn on the counter and didn't share with Bonnie. He had so much fun moving popcorn from his plate to a space on the counter and back again.

I like to look at Deano as the underground resistance. He has the force of Mommy and Aunt Sally behind him and he wins much of the time. Like Chas, he will also grow to be larger than Danny and Bonnie and I have no doubt Chas and him will team up and beat the hell out of the older siblings. It will be a small war of sorts but be finished by nap time.

It has been fun watching how the change and interact with each other. Sometimes they play so wonderfully together and other times it is just frustrating as they continually pick on each other.

Sewing

A few months ago I bought a new Bernina. This last Tuesday I went to my first Mastering your Machine class and I learned so much. The first lesson I learned and put into effect yesterday was never touching the round nob the moves the needle up and down. Yesterday I did hands free sewing!

After I had bought my new machine, I had told my nieces that they could have my old machine. Plus I figured this way the girls can get better at sewing while not ruining their mom's machine. Since I'm here at there house all weekend I brought it over for them to give it a try.

We waited to begin sewing till three of the kids were down for their naps. That left only three kids awake, plus my brother was hanging out and Danny preferred to hang with Mike than the two sewing machines.

We got the machines out and I set them up. Then I began with the basics. We went over winding the bobbin, threading the machine and needle, and sewing not too fast. Although a certain blond haired niece just thought it was funny every time I told her to slow down. All in all I'd say the girls had a blast. They were working on projects for Christmas and I must say I was really proud that instead of wanting to buy things they thought it would be more fun to make them. My oldest niece put together a block of fabric and I was so impressed with how well it all looked together - I think she might have a flair for matching fabrics together.

Then slowing all the kids woke up and it was time to put the machines away before their littlest brother destroyed all that we had worked on. I found it to be such a fun afternoon myself.

The Joys of Children

I promised my sister a while back that, sure I'll watch your kids for a weekend. No big deal right? With her four and my two it adds up to six kids - I informed Jay last night I am done at three. I seriously was in bed by 9:30. I don't think the little ones were even in bed yet.

We have had some funny moments though.

This afternoon I tried to put Chas down for a second nap (he refuses to sleep and I really don't know what is going on). I walked into the kitchen where the three older kids (a 3 1/2 yr old, a 2 11/12 yr old, and a 1 1/2 yr old) sat eating their cracker snack. They all had this funny look on their face and got really quiet.

Next thing I know I hear Scooter, our dog, chomping away on crackers. They were getting such a kick out of feeding the dog. Apparently this is just a right. Of course I couldn't keep a straight face - it was totally funny. So I told them nicely, OK we need to stop feeding the dog.

Well that works part of the time. I'm going to need an extra car just to get Scooter home next week - I guarantee he is going to put on 15 pounds!

help

I'm currently sitting on the couch trying to create this post. My little boy has discovered the fun of pushing the on/off button on our mac. Anytime he sees me on the couch he comes a crawling and then grabbing at the computer. He is so freaking cute that most of the time it doesn't matter.

It's Over

Wow, I'm glad it's over. I'm glad we know who has won and what we have to look forward to in the next 4 years.

Conversations that clue you into my ditziness

On the way to voting last week.

Jay: So who should we vote for in the local elections?

Me: I don't know they aren't on Saturday Night Live. How should I know who to vote for.

Jay: Seriously?

Ah, I love to say things just to get him. I mean I have to get him to laugh after 10 years.

PS - this is my attempt to keep up with all the voting blogs I was forced to read.

Just can't stop

I've been sewing like a crazy fool lately. Actually I'm just figuring things out on my new machine and learning. Thankfully I'm taking a "master your machine" class because we all know I'd never sit still long enough to watch a video to tell me how to. So onto the exciting things I've been doing.

First, Jay had been bothering me to get a bedroom curtain made. I'd had the fabric for a long time but I was nervous because I didn't want to screw it up - I have a tendency to mess up my measurements.

I am really happy how the curtain turned out. The photo is not great but we've had nothing but nonstop cloudy days. So I just bit the bullet and took a photo.

Then today I got another wild hair. I made a small curtain for the window above the sink.

Unfortunately this photo didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. The lighting was just terrible. And for all who care Jay really hates the fruit tiles but I don't mind them so much.

Really what made all this sewing so easy was this:

So that cool thing to the right of the needles is a guide - I have no idea what the technical term would be. I just discovered this today. I just feed my fabric in and the guide helps me keep it straight. I was so freaking easy.

On another note if you are ever preparing a resume to send out to a potential employer - never, never write about yourself in the third person.

Oh something else - Bonnie told herself No No Bonnie today. I asked her if Bonnie was in trouble and she said yes. I thought it was pretty funny she was disciplining herself in the third person (I should point out that she is two and not creating resumes yet).

Really what made all this sewing so easy was this:

More Excited

So my sister and I have been wanting to buy this train cake tin but we couldn't bring ourselves to spend the money.

Fast forward to this morning. Chas, Bonnie, & I went to a local thrift store. I didn't expect to find anything but Bonnie loves looking at the books and playing with new toys. It's getting fun. So as I was heading out with a few new kids books one of the workers was unloading a shopping cart full of stuff. I spotted the train cake pan. I asked her if it was for sale and it was! I asked her the price $4.50 and I was sold.


Check out the cake pan on the William Sonoma website. I think you can see my excitement when you see the cost - what a freakin good deal I got!!!


I think I scored big time today.

Halloween

It's Halloween here at our house. I have to admit all I want to do is go back to bed and sleep all day. I'm a little sad about the costumes I made.

Chas's neck is a little too thick for the cape - Looks like I'll need to do a little last minute work there.


Bonnie will not wear her's at all. Maybe she'll be more excited when she see's other kids dressed up too.
On another note. I finished a doll for my friends daughter's third birthday. I hope she likes it.

Have a Happy Halloween.

Tagged Again

I was tagged by my sister Jeni on her blog with the instructions to open my 3rd picture folder and post the 3rd picture in it. Well, here it is:
This is a photo from Christmas morning in 2006. We were staying at Donna's house with ALL of my family. The only people not staying at Donna's house were my parents. It was around 26 people with three dogs that Christmas. It was insane to say the least.

Now I tag Lonita and Karen.

The Winner Is ...

Denverallens!

Now to all you siblings - mom did not give me her Pyrex dishes. I bought these off eBay.

I'm off to tend my two little kids. Bonnie has the flu and Chas is cutting two teeth! It should prove to be an adventurous day.

Thank you to all who participated. I think it would be fun to have cool drawings like this more often - I'll see what I can do.

Witch

Donna's Christmas present
Originally uploaded by Jay&Sally

So I thought I'd put this up. I made this for my sister Donna last Christmas. It's a witch and she loved it. I had a lot of fun making this gift. It has an honarary place in her house - it is out all year. I feel so lucky.

Magazine

Just got my ReadyMade Magazine bill. I have the option to give someone a free year to this great magazine. Leave me a comment. If actually more than one person wants it I'll do a drawing. This is kind of fun!

I will draw a name tomorrow morning - you have till tonight (Thursday) to enter.

Link

Below is a link to the obituary for my sweet nephew.

http://ads.heraldextra.com/articles/2008/10/19/obituaries/332432.txt

We've had a lot of support here in this town.

Gone

I am away from home. My oldest nephew passed away on Wednesday night.

T-shirt reads Crazy Mama

So yesterday amidst all the insane hours Jay and I have been putting in I thought I need to visit my mom. This Sunday Jay heads off for Phoenix to go to a conference and I thought why the heck do I need to stay home. So with the click of a button I bought two plane tickets to Vegas. One for me and one for Bonnie - Chas will sit in my lap. Don't ask my why I am traveling on a plane with two small children but it's not for that long and I can easily handle an hour and a half of screaming.

Now that I've gone and purchased the tickets I can barely sit still. Three days with my parents and with no plans at all. I am planning on relaxing with the kids and visiting the park a lot. The park is very close to my parents house.

And although winter is trying to set in here - it's still summer in Vegas! I am so excited.

He Stands

Yesterday Jay and I were so proud when Chas pulled himself up on the coffee table. He was basically standing up but on his knees.

I went back to sewing after this - I had a fun evening. The kid continued to play together and tear the house apart but it was so worth it to hear their giggles. Then Jay told me to get in the room. I came in to find this


He did this all by himself! By the way there must of been some food on his face - neither one of us can remember what it was though.

What Snow

Yep we had our first snowfall this afternoon. We are only 10 days into October. I hope this isn't a forecast of this winter. If it is, I think the kids and I will hunker down in the big bedroom and turn on the fireplace and just play games.

Looking forward to a semi-quiet weekend. Of course we'll be working but hey that's just life. At least on Saturday I can wear my slippers to work!!

Lambrettas

The picture at the top of my blog is a row of Lambrettas in California. The first one is ours - I love that bike. Well for one reason or another this summer 3 of our Lambrettas that worked are no longer working. So we are planning on getting two scooters back up and running while at the same time have two other lambrettas fully restored at Casalambretta in Denver. I have no idea what the dollar value will be on this but it will be big - I can be guaranteed that.

I don't mind spending the money as long as we have the money and currently I spend to much money and I doubt we can afford this. So I've been trying to figure out how I can get the lambrettas fixed, this keeps my husband very very happy, and occasionally buy a few things for myself. I have never been good at saving money and really really suck at it these days.

Does anyone have good suggestions on how to cut back on spending. Yeah Yeah I know just don't spend money. But that is really hard these days with the click and buy approach (the Internet). Well that is my current dilemma and any new ideas would rock because I could use them.

9 months plus 1 day

Yesterday my dear sweet baby boy Chas turned 9 months old. Oddly I reflected on how miserable I had been exactly 9 months ago that day and the excitement I had at finally seeing my baby and not being pregnant anymore. Here I am the day I had Chas.

I can't even begin to express how horrible the last three months were. But then I saw him

and all of the last couple of months melted away. He was perfect. The photo is him at 4 days old and he's lost a pound. Pretty much everyday from his birth has been a good day in our family. We just love him and he makes everyone smile - even strangers. Here are a few photos from last night - the first chance I had to get photos of him at 9 months.
Bonnie decided to get ino on the photo time and I couldn't say no. They do get along really well.

Utah

In an attempt to get Bonnie to not whine as much on the car trip we bought a Scooby Doo coloring and sticker book. Alas it didn't work. The first three hours of our trip from Idaho to Utah she whined and fell asleep five minutes before we stoped for gas. We couldn't believe it. I laughed and told Jay at least she doesn't disappoint - we always know she'll whine in the car. I was totally laughing when I said this and he looked at me and said you love your family don't you. And I said yep I do - and I do, they are just so freaking awesome.

We left Jay in Logan to watch a BYU game with my sister's husband and three boys. Turns out my sisters baby (he's seven) tried to start a fight with three men sitting next to them. The were cheering for the other team and totally thought my sister's baby was so cute - apparently baby was yelling Aggies suck and other silly phrases. Sister's baby was so proud of himself.

Saturday found my sister and I leaving Jay with Bonnie and us heading out to fabric stores. Again we found my sister's baby telling Jay funny things. Sister was telling Jay he can eat anything he wanted. Sister's baby piped up and said "if you need to know where anything is in the pantry just ask me. I'm in there everyday!" I just about lost it - he is such a character.

Really the one thing that made this weekend great was spending time with family and many many giggles. I think that is always my favorite when we can relax and just laugh.

Sunday was the best. Jay, me, sister, & sister's hubby headed up to Salt Lake to a religious conference and it was so awesome. We were so lucky to get to and just enjoyed ourselves. Here is Jay smiling for the camera - we were pretty high up and off to one side of the conference center.

We headed home and enjoyed a relatively quite ride home. The kids were exhausted beyond belief. I enjoyed it while all three people slept in the car and I just sang out of tune to some of my favorite music.Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

Tagged

So I've never been tagged before.

10 years ago I...

1. falling in love with Jay
2. moved to Spanish Fork Utah
3. learning to swing dance
4. working at a mutli-level marketing company taking orders
5. living in my sister's basement

5-Things on my "to-do" list today

1. make cookies
2. feed the family dinner
3. work at the office
4. sleep
5. charge my phone

5 snacks I enjoy

1. cake
2. chocolate
3. soda
4. cake
5. cookies

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. buy an apartment in Manhattan
2. Make Manhattan my summer residence
3. Visit Tokyo regularly & purchase oodles of Japanese fabric
4. Hire a housekeeper, cook, and personal assistant
5. Buy a restored muscle car for daily driving

5 Jobs I've had

1. cleaned apartments in the summer
2. worked at a coffee shop
3. worked at multilevel marketing company
4. worked at a pizza place
5. mom

Not sure if anyone reads this besides family, so I tag: Lonita

My Sweet Sweet Bernina

Two weeks ago I arrived at our local quilt shop two hours before their Bernina sale ended. I went ahead and ordered an Aurora 430 but unfortunately they had to order it in.

Last week in the very terrible beginnings of my cold the machine arrived. I was so very very excited but all the energy I had was to open the box and look at the machine. After that I promptly went to sleep.

Today I am finally feeling better and pulled the machine out. I LOVE IT! I am so very excited about this new machine. It is going to change everything. I only did a little sewing because the hour is getting late but I am just so excited. I have a long list of household things waiting to be made and now Jay and I can finally have bedroom curtains!

sick

I really don't know how this even happened. Sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning I felt like I was dying. How do colds get worse with age. Last night I finally fell asleep around 3 AM.

So I am thinking today is all Scooby Doo all day. Just to keep the noise level down so my head doesn't explode.

I'm signing out to go lay on the sofa. Hope everyone else feels up and good.

two to teenager

So my kids spend a good deal of time with their cousins. Enough time to say they love it there! I love it there too. I love having the little ones so busy that I can just chit chat with my sister. Bonnie's vocabulary has increased since last Saturday and she now says "Oh my gosh" all the time. It sounds so cute and funny and Jay and I are rolling with it. But the best part is she sounds exactly like her two older cousins and I'm not sure which one says it more. Jay and I are betting on Lexi.

Backyard Noises

Last night, as we usually do, we let our dog scooter out for his nightly doggy business.

Here is our corgi with my newborn (last January).


As Jay was shutting the door we heard this hoot hoot sound. We thought about it and figured maybe we have an owl.

We walked out back real quite like and listened and sure enough there was the hooting again. We felt really special to get to hear this.

Then as I laid in bed to fall asleep I heard her again. We just feel so lucky to have some space to hear the wonderful sounds of nature.

Baby News

My sister-in-law had her first baby last Saturday. Being an auntie I must say I haven't seen a more adorable baby since my little Chas was born.



I made some fun onsies and bibs for the little guy but as usual forgot to take photos of him. So I snuck a photo off their website to show you one how cute this little boy is and two how honored I am that he was dressed in a onsie from me when he came home from the hospital. (my photo is not so good so if you'd like to see better pics of Joshua check out their site)




Congrats Tim & Lonita and might I add Job Well Done! We are all so happy for you!

To Early

This morning I'm sitting here with my little guy. He woke me up before 6 am and all I could think was, it's too early to be making any noise in this house. So I did my usual routine of making him a bottle and wishing I might get a few more minutes of sleep. As usual it was futile and now we're sitting in the front room with him crawling around and me trying to keep him quiet. The one thing I don't want happening is little sister waking up - she NEEDS her sleep. She was quiet grumpy yesterday.

Jay and I escaped to Sun Valley last weekend and it was so fun. We decided to take the long was there through the mountains. It was such a beautiful drive and we stopped along the way to see different sites Jay had always told me about.

One of the stops was Bonneville Hot Springs. At these hot springs someone has built a shack and inside the shack is a tub that some of the water has been piped too. It was really cool - anyone can cork the tub and just take a hot bath.

We ate dinner in Lower Stanley by the river. It was so quiet and peaceful - by the way did I mention we left the kids with my sister. It was so peaceful at dinner. Then we passed Sawtooth City - its not big at all but again beautiful. As we went around a bend we noticed traffic was at a standstill. We had seen we were approaching a forest fire but Jay and I didn't think much of it - there are always forest fires at this time of year.


We got out of the truck and walked around. The fire was pretty close to the road. All of the sudden everyone started to notice that the fire was getting close to the road - literally we saw trees burst into flames. I must say it was an amazing site. We also saw helicopters dumping water on the flames. We were sent back to Sawtooth City and informed that a controlled forest fire got out of control. Ha! So after hanging around Sawtooth City and eating ice cream, taking a nap, and using the bathrooms Jay and I learn the might open the road up around midnight! You must understand at this point we'd been driving for about 5 hours, were maybe 20 miles from Sun Valley, and all we really wanted was a quite evening relaxing at the hotel.

Here's a photo of our shadows sitting on the door to the pickup bed.

So as soon as I hear about this midnight deal I headed back to the truck and changed our plans. That's me, the plan changer. I have absolutely no patience - ask my family, it's true. So the new route looked like we would be adding 4 hours of driving to our already 5 hours of a road trip. The plan was to drive north to Challis, then south the Arco, and then northwest to Sun Valley. On the way Jay was looking at our atlas/gazetteer and noticed a mountain road that could shave off at least a 100 miles.

Here's a photo of the helicopter heading back into the fire with water.



Back to the story our new mountain route was 2/3 paved and 1/3 rough road. We've done this before in the day light so why not take on another adventure. As soon as we get off the paved road we see large cattle sleeping off to the side and on the road, so of course I slowed down. Oh did I mention I'm driving because with Jay's vision he is unable to see well enough to drive at night - no depth perception. So we slow down and are really just having the time of our life. We see a coyote and more cows. Also the upward slope up the mountain is so gentle that Jay and I didn't notice how high up we were driving. Then we saw the signs for Sawtooth National Forest - I thought cool we are just having a great time.

Then we began the decent down the road/mountain and at this point Jay had already put the truck in 4 wheel drive for me, truthfully I couldn't tell a big difference. All of the sudden the road narrows and I was driving down a one lane gravel road. On top of that the drop off on the right hand side of the car was really steep. At the time Jay thankfully didn't mention it but he could tell it was a long way down.

Thankfully Jay suggested putting the truck into second gear and finally I felt like I had more control of the truck again. As I was driving this tight turn, a truck appeared coming towards me with a horse trailer. I guess everyone in Idaho does have a horse! Amazingly we seemed to both be able to fit on this insanely skinny road. As we were continuing down the gravel road Jay mentioned he saw a junction box for telephones. As usual I misunderstood him and I joked that maybe it was for people to call and ask for someone to pick them up because they are too scared to drive any further down the mountain. Jay laughed and said junction box, not a telephone. At that point I was so freaked out I think I just grunted a response. Then I mentioned - by the way I'm totally freaked out.

At some point we hit pavement again and proceeded into Sun Valley no problem. We checked into our hotel and I promptly fell asleep - I was exhausted.

All the photos were taken with my camera phone so they aren't so good but man what a trip.

At our house we are knee deep in children's cartoons at the moment. It's not just any cartoons either, we specifically watch Little Einstein's and Scooby Doo. Lately we've been watching a lot of Scooby Doo - probably a little too much when both Jay and I can refer to each other with Scooby Doo jokes.

Last night Jay was watching a John Wayne movie while I was falling asleep. I heard John Wayne talk and it reminded me of a Scooby Doo cartoon. As usual Scooby is scared to do something in this cartoon and his friends tell him to act like John Wayne. So Scooby says "Ron Rwayne." In the cartoon Scooby keeps repeating this phrase and acts tough - Bonnie thinks it is just the funniest thing she's ever seen. So last night I said it to Jay - Ron Rwayne. Jay's response was Ron Rwayne. We both laughed because we'd both knew what each other we talking about. Ahh parenthood.

Wordle

I discovered this cute idea from U-handblog. It's neat to see what type of words you use on your blog. The website to check out is called wordle. Leave me a comment if you tried it out so I can see what it looks like.

Sorry for not having any links but it seems like my mac won't let me copy and paste links. Anyone have a solution because I'm getting very frustrated.

not much here

Oddly enough not much has gone on this week. I seemed to spend almost the entire week wrangling kids and just basically surviving parenthood.

Some of my favorite moments this week have been observing little Chas. He is moving all over the house and getting into everything. His favorite thing to do is scoot over to the sliding glass door that leads out into the backyard. Once at the door he gets really excited and slaps the glass at the bottom of the window. We now have little hand prints all over the bottom of the glass and I just think it is so cute. When he is over by the window he loves to look outside. Usually Bonnie and scooter are outside playing around, especially this week since the weather has been so wonderful. Here is a cute photo with him right next to the window.
He has learned, like most babies do, to smile whenever I bring out the camera - he used to get scared when I'd pull out the camera.

The Winner is...

blueviolet who said: Well if the baby looks down at it, it'll be right side up! So all is not lost. Maybe we've all been selfish in making it look pretty to us all these years instead of to the baby. Perhaps you're a genius!

Happy Monday

What Happens when I'm not in the room

What Happens when I'm not in the room
Originally uploaded by Jay&Sally

I left the room the other for not more than five minutes. I came back to find the kids peeking out from under the couch.

Today I was trying to get the front room cleaned up and I discovered Chas's legs sticking out from under the couch. I quickly pulled him out and lo and behold he had found a sock - he was very proud of himself for getting the sock out from under the couch.

The boy has learned to army crawl and he is speedy. I have been getting the front room Chas proof and I think we are pretty safe he won't choke. At least I hope. That's my new before I hit the weekend. Have a great weekend everyone.

Grosgrain: Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Grosgrain: Garden Party Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

If you have a little girl go check this out. This dress is truely beautiful.

Wacky Wednesday Giveaway

The other day while I was cutting our bib fabric - I tried being super awesome. Yea that's right - I tried cutting two bibs at once. Can I just say lesson learned - I can only cut one bib at a time. I guess this is a good time to announce that I am getting closer to opening up my etsy store with real products made by me! I am so excited.

Like I was saying, on Sunday night I was really proud of myself for cutting out two bibs at once. This is what happens when I cut out two bibs at once - fabric is upside down.

At first I was pretty devastated because I just love this fabric. By the way I use the word love a lot - I don't think we use it enough in our country. Instead of tossing the fabric I thought heck what a fun little giveaway. So if anyone wants this bib leave a comment and you till Sunday (8/24/2008) at midnight to do so. If there is actually more than one person that wants this bib then I'll use that neat random number generator and we'll see who wins.

I have to admit I'm pretty excited to give something away. Am I silly or what - it must be the early morning handful of M&Ms I had today.

Hope everyone has a great Wacky Wednesday. I know we are.

curtains

I finally did it - I started and finished the kids curtains. I was able to finish the curtains for one window last week and then somehow I amazingly whipped out the curtains for the second window Wednesday night.

I have to admit that I'm really really very happy with the curtains. They are a little too short but the kids don't mind and I didn't have enough fabric. Plus I bought the fabric from Ikea so I couldn't run down to get some more because the store is 6 hours away.

Another reason I'm happy with myself - is I CAN sew a straight line. This is amazing to me.

Have a great weekend.

Mondays

I thought the way the day started I was in for a bad day. Thankfully my sister called and we met up at Costco. We then decided to eat lunch at her house - which all 4 kids loved. We are so lucky our kids enjoy spending time together. This pretty much turned my whole day around. Thank you Suzanne.

Then this afternoon the kids and I dropped of the home crafts I created for the Western Idaho Fair. I am really excited about showing off my stuff - even if it's pretty darn simple compared to the other stuff I saw. But again I'm just excited like a silly school girl.

But probably the most exciting factor of the day was that I had some time to spend on the kids curtains. I am so excited to get the curtains hung up. I finished two panels for one window and just need to sew up the next two and the kids room will have cute curtains. I'll post photos when I'm finished and the curtains look cute on the wall.

Oh the other exciting thing about the day was buying the matryoshka fabric from Kristen. I just love her designs. I have slowly just continued to read more and more Australian blogs. The ladies from down under are so incredibly creative. So impressed.

The Doll

I finished another doll. Most people will recognize this as one of Hillary's patterns. I'm pretty happy with it but I'm just not sure if it needs something more. What do you think? Here are some photos.

On another note I've had a very frustrating time with the binding of the doll quilt. The doll quilt will go along with this doll. I've taken it apart and then sewed it together again. It's still not perfect but then I reminded myself that a 3 year old will be getting the set for Christmas and so I'm not going to worry about it. There will be many more doll quilts in my future to work on. I'll post a photo when I finish sewing up the binding.

Birds

I love raptors or birds of prey. When I was a teenager I thought for sure that was what I'd be doing with my life - funny how things change. Living out west has provided me with the opportunity to see so many birds I had read about in real life. I love taking road trips and trying to identify what type of bird is in the sky.



Imagine my surprise as I was driving home from my sister's house today. This area I was in was part residential and part shopping. It was a crazy time of day - basically rush hour. I looked to my left on the other side of the road and there was a Golden Eagle just sitting off to the side of the road. I have no idea why he would be there but it was an awesome sight to behold.

All is Quiet

Just when I think it will be a smooth afternoon someone gets sneaky and downright naughty around here. Unfortunately it wasn't Jay and I.

Let me begin the story by the fact that the baby was sound asleep and absolutely perfect during this whole drama.

At nap time we sent Bonnie off to bed. I leave to door open for her nap so that she doesn't sleep longer than two hours. As usual I sent her to her room for her nap. Normally she is really good about getting into her bed and falling asleep. Mot so today.

Jay and I were exhausted from doing yard work for most of the morning and fell quickly asleep on the couch. During the nap, I remember waking up randomly and hearing Bonnie play but I didn't even think anything about it - I just appreciated the fact that she was letting us sleep at all. At one point I woke up, Bonnie saw me stir, and Bonnie stood behind a shelf where only the top of her head is visible. I noticed she was hiding under her blanket and I thought it was funny. Well when I finally came too out of my afternoon nap I noticed she was running around in her t-shirt and pink moon boots. Yep no diaper. I tried acting cool but when I reached the end of the hallway to the entry of her room I kinda freaked out. Poop was smeared everywhere - on the wood floors and on her carpet. So Jay and I spent 45 minutes cleaning it up and we both just had to practice staying calm.

Anyways a few hours later we are all fine and she is happily tucked in bed. We watched the original Superman tonight and it was quite a laugh. We all enjoyed it. But never again will I think she is being nice and letting me take a nap.

Not a baby anymore

Few things continually remind my that my first born, Bonnie, is no longer my baby. This is very tough for me because she was such a cute baby. Let's see first she throws tantrums all the time and if anyone knows cute babies - they don't do that. She no longer naps - life is not what it used to be. And sadly I cut her hair for the first time today. This was indeed very very tough. Her hair was mid back and she always had a lot of tangles. Plus she doesn't like me pulling it back anymore and so it is always in her face and looking terrible. So I pulled out some scissors and cut it shoulder length or at least close to that - she wouldn't keep still. So now I am feeling some remorse because she is truly not my baby anymore. She had her first hair cut today.

Play the Game

This is a pretty fun game, participate if you want! Add a comment on my blog. Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Overextended Thursday

Wow. Have you ever done just a little too much? Yesterday was a crazy day for me. On Sunday Jay and I decided to invite over a family for dessert on Thursday. Sounds like a good idea. But then Thursday arrived and I had a ton of visitors. Today I feel a little worn out but I'm off work so no big deal.

Even though we were really busy yesterday it was one of those great days. I finally felt like my house could be a meeting place for family to come and just hang out. My sister, Suzanne, came by with her two little boys first. That is always fun. Then later afternoon our nieces came by to play with Bonnie and then at the same time Grandpa stopped in. He stayed and ate lunch and I shared some cheesecake with him. Then our guests game over and we had some more fun. I made two yummy pies. This is all that is left. Looks like a good day for me!
Plus on top of that my baby got his first tooth yesterday and only 6 months old! Bonnie was almost a year when she got her first tooth. So Chas was grumpy all day and then in the evening I felt a tooth. What a tough guy. He is also sleeping it off right now. But just for good measure here is an adorable photo of him. He sits up a little but usually just falls over - so I was impressed he did this for so long.


Bonnie had such a great day that when I checked on her last night this is where she fell asleep. In the dog's bed! Makes me laugh.I would say yesterday was a fun and busy day. Now the kids and I are recovering today. Thank goodness. Oh and before I go I finished the top of my doll quilt. Just a peek and then I'm off for the weekend.