A Few Sewing Projects

So, I'm a total novice when it comes to sewing, but I really enjoy the end product. Here are two little sewing projects I finished recently.

First, is a little baby sling for Katie's dolls. I have 4 baby carriers myself and I thought it might be fun for Katie to have one for her doll since she'll see me carrying around our new baby. I used some scrap material (thanks Gina) and whipped it up in less than an hour. I think it turned out pretty cute.

The second is a waterproof pad. The only reason I post this is because I felt good about recycling things instead of throwing them away. Ryan had a waterproof mattress cover that was getting REALLY torn up from washing. The vinyl was split all the way across so that it wasn't really usable anymore on his bed. Instead of throwing it out, I cut a section that didn't have any splits in it and sewed it together with an extra baby blanket. Voila - a new mattress cover. It's actually a very useful size so I'm pretty happy with it.

I have 4 or 5 other projects "in the making." I am definitely not quick with sewing. I can't leave my sewing machine out in an accessible place. That means that I have to get everything out and put it all away each time I work on something, so small 15 minute sessions are incredibly rare. I only sew when I have a good hour or so to work on the project, and I don't have a good hour or so available very often. BUT, it's fun to have things to look forward to.

Guess Who Came to Visit

Uncle Joey! My 18 year old brother (VERY soon to be 19) brought two of his BYU roommates on a little road trip and camped out at my house for a few days. They hung out at the beach, went to Magic Mountain, saw a few movies at our dollar theater, and went to a concert. We found out that he has good taste in friends. His roommates were really respectful and totally nice to our kids.

Ryan adored them all and wanted to do everything with them. Katie was also very quick to warm up. It was nice to see her act just like herself even though there were new people around. I keep telling my Dad to come and visit so that he can get to know Katie in her own surroundings. After this visit from Joey, I am TOTALLY convinced that is true. We weren't much for entertaining the guys, but we were glad that they came.

Hurry back Joey - we love you!

Harry Potter's Got Nothing on Ryan

I am lazy and don't have a picture to show, but we had another little trip to the Urgent Care last night. Ryan was riding his bike (too fast, like usual) and took a nice spill onto the concrete. He had his helmet on, but it wasn't positioned well enough to protect his forehead from a nice little cut. It really isn't very big, but will end up being another scar right on his forehead - in between his eyebrows. We didn't think it was quite bad enough for stitches, but since it was right on his face, I thought I should be safe and take him in. He ended up with just surgical tape (thankfully). Unfortunately, he bled so much afterwards that the tape ended up coming off today. I made a makeshift butterfly bandage so here's hoping it works well enough.

I just wish that boy of ours could learn how to slow down a little. He is such a mover and is obsessive about speed. Oh well - being fearless and daring has its up-sides too. Doesn't it?

A Little Positive Peer Pressure Can Go a Long Way

A friend of ours recently posted on her blog a picture of her 3.5 year old riding his bike without training wheels. I was impressed and showed it to Ryan. That was all it took for him to decide that HE was ready to ride without training wheels also. If Simeon could do it, so could he. :)


Here's a little video of him learning.








Here is a little later in the day. Now he can do it without help getting started or anything. We have done little else besides watch him ride bikes the past few days.

Spring Cleaning

So this may seem like a lame post to most of you, but it's mostly for my mom. You see, when she was here visiting a few weeks ago, she walked onto my back patio and said, "Jenny, we do humanitarian aid for people like this." It was truly a disaster. The bushes were totally overgrown, there were sand and leaves all over the concrete, the bunny hutch had tons of yucky stuff underneath it, and I had so many outdoor toys that my kids could barely walk out there, much less play with/on any of it.

Look Ma, I've simplified. I about killed myself doing it, but worked for 3 days to get everything cleaned up (Derek wasn't so happy with me for overdoing it while he was at work). Now the kids play out there all the time. Ryan can even ride his scooter around - that's saying something. I'm ready for summer visitors to come and play.

Best Friends

Grandma was our photographer while she was here visiting a few weeks ago. Going through the pictures, these are a few of my favorites. But... they completely go together. I can't just post one, I have to see the whole story board.

Okay, hug each other.

Give a kiss.





Look how they were laughing and thought it was so funny.

Whenever I ask, "Who's your best friend" they usually will name each other. They do have fun together, even though Ryan really enjoys teasing. I hope it lasts...(the friendship, not the teasing.)

A Bit Too Close to Home

Last night after midnight, we heard a ton of noise coming from our rabbit hutch outside. They will often play and chase each other around at night, so I figured that was what they were up to. There was so much crashing around and it was going on for a few minutes so I finally looked out our blinds to see what was going on and saw a coyote pacing right outside their hutch.

Of course I panicked and yelled to Derek that we had a coyote on our patio and he went running out there to scare it away. He was easily frightened off and was gone before Derek even got out there. Still, bunnies are pretty fragile and I knew that they could easily die of a heart attack even if the coyote hadn't touched them. We brought them inside for the night (they are still hopping around in one of our bathrooms) and now we have to figure out what we're going to do about it for the future.

The coyote knows that we have rabbits and will be back - that I am sure of. Plus, even if they aren't out there, their cage smells like rabbit. We will surely have to bring them in every night in order to keep them safe - we just don't want him to return at a time when our kids are outside. Not sure if it's just safest to get rid of the bunnies or if things will be fine if we just bring them in regularly. I really want to keep them, but not at the expense of my children (if you know what I mean). I will say that I am very glad that we made some adjustments to our rabbit hutch ahead of time. We cut the legs off so it is very close to the ground and put a board on the floor of the cage so their feet wouldn't be exposed on the wires. The coyote wasn't able to go underneath - but if he did, he still couldn't get to them because of the board. They were unharmed, but it gave all of us a scare.

What Would You Do?

If your kids dumped a half gallon of white vinegar and about 10 cups of birdseed in a bucket in your garage that you use as a sort of trashcan, how would YOU dispose of it? I'm serious - I can't just pour all of that in my dumpster. I also can't pour it on the lawn and hope the birds go after the birdseed. There's a bunch of dryer lint in there with it. *sigh*

21 Weeks

Against my better judgement - here is a fat picture of me.

*sarcastically* Oh look, you can see my haircut now. It's only about 2 inches longer than when I had it cut initially. Oh well.

Just for good measure, here I was 21 weeks pregnant with Ryan. I only have about 3 pictures of my pregnancy with Katie. I seem to be following that same basic pattern with little sister here.

Family Resemblance

As an answer to prayers, my mother came to visit us this past week. It was such perfect timing since we had been sick for a few weeks and I have spent so much time in rehearsals for our Stake's production of "Savior of the World." We have all been exhausted. She came and gave me such a break and just made my kids entire week. They were so HAPPY. Katie really responded exceptionally well to Grandma Cookies' visit and she was able to take a million and a half fabulous pictures of my kids, which will take me forever to go through and pick my favorites because she did such a great job.

Today, I just wanted to show my sisters the shocking resemblance between Katie and myself as a toddler. Who would've known that if I just curled and fluffed Katie's hair the same way my mom always did mine, she could look SO much like me.