A new toy...

Over Presidents day we went to Grandma Walkers house to play and visit. She got a new toy...the Kenect (sp) by XBOX 360. I am not as fond of playing those games as most, so I mostly sat back and watched people play.

 

At the beginning we had legos and toys everywhere. Here is Brittney playing with a puzzle and Nathan at her feet playing with legos. 

 

Brandon was put into time out because he was mad at Nathan for taking some of his legos....so he is not the happiest. 

 

Sierra was very happy to have people at her home playing with her. Isn't she beautiful! 

 

 

Here is Nathan and Sierra playing the Kenect. They played it the most out of everyone. They had a lot of fun. 

 

Then here is Brandon and Aunt Rose playing now. Sorry Rose there was no flattering pose/picture! It is kinda fun to watch people play it. I did it once, but I felt too self conscience to really play. I wouldn't mind having one of our own...but I don't think we will for some time, but because it is a very active game I think I would like to own one, one of these days. 

Blue and Gold

Brandon attended his first Blue and Gold this week. He was nervous and very excited at the same time. He had to perform a dance in front of everyone with the other cub scouts and then he was able to receive his first patch. He passed off his Bobcat, so he is now officially a Wolf.

It was Hawaiian themed and the food was wonderful! Grandma and Grandpa Walker, Aunt April, Sierra and Brittney were able to come.

Brittney

 

 

 

 

 

Brandon with Grandpa Walker

I can't remember exactly what the dance was called but it is a popular Polynesian dance, the Hanuka?

 

This is Brandon right before hand. 

He was also able to do the opening ceremonies. Travis went up there and helped him, but because he did Nathan and  Kimball thought that they could run up there too. They were too fast for me to catch, so we went with it.

Now we are going to start working on our Wolf section and get things worked off. Brandon has already read most of the book and is very excited to pass things off. He is mostly excited about the camping and fishing.

What I have been working on....

This past week I have been hard at work making my sister a diaper bag and things so that she can have them before she has her 4th baby. Her babies come early so she was nagging asking me to hurry up and finish it so that she can pack her hospital bag. I was waiting for my Mom to send me some fabric, but in the end I used some of my scraps.

 

I used my extra Spirit by Moda to make her things. I had them left from my Moda Bake Shop quilts. I was afraid it would be rather loud, but it turned out just fine.

 

It is just a simple bag, or a tote some would say. I just googled diaper bag tutorial and picked the one that I liked the best (okay the easiest looking one) This is the tutorial I used. Sewmuchado Blog 

 

I like this bag so much I think I will make myself one. It's nice and big and I can customize the pockets for what I want it to be. 

 

Then I made her a nursing cover too. I didn't have one piece large enough so I improvised and made panels. I finished this one first before my sister knew what fabric I was using, and she really liked them. It made it a lot easier to make the diaper bag. Same as with the diaper bag I googled a nursing cover tutorial. This is the link I used. Freshly Picked Blog

I then had some left over soft and cozy fabric (I forget the name, I want to say minx from Moda, not 100% sure though) and made her some burp cloths. 

 

Now she has a matching set and collection. They are zooming their way to her now and hopefully she will get them tomorrow, and then she will be able to go into labor any time! Then what sister would I be if I didn't send some goodies along with it? So I sent some chocolate! Ah chocolate can fix anything! 

Where do you fall asleep?

The other night when Travis was out at another mine exploring, I let the boys stay up past their bed time to watch tv. I hadn't decided whether or not to let them sleep downstairs (they weren't that good that night) or not so when I went to go check on them....

 

So I guess they decided for me where they were sleeping....

 

What I must look like

The other day I decided to exercise in the afternoon instead of waiting until the boys went to bed. I did a stairs workout (running up and down my stairs in 4 min. intervals) core exercises and push ups. After I was done I needed to take a few pictures of myself and make a video to post on my friends and I's blog. This gets me points, and I like points.

Kimball at times would try to do the stairs with me (even though I asked him not to) and would try to sit on me when I was doing my crunches. So after my workout I told him that he could now do exercises and I would take pictures of him.

Now it makes me wonder...

 

What do I look like when I workout?

 

Granted he was enjoying me taking pictures. 

This one, I was not trying to show you my dirty laundry, but trying to take his picture doing his head bobs. I believe that was his push up....all fours and then move his head up and down

 

Then I was doing a lot of different plank positions, so I believe this is his

 

Regardless I love my little exercising man! 

My guys....

Yesterday after I got home from a Yoga class, I had no desire to do anything but shower, put on comfy cloths and sew! And that is what I did! I ignored everything else and just sewed all day! Thankfully my wonderful husband could see that I needed a day of no responsibility and took care of the boys for me!

Now some may not know my husband, Travis very well, but let me just say it in two words.....Computer Geek. He is a computer tech and as long as I have known him (10 years) he has played computer games. That is what he likes to do, it de-stresses him and makes him happy. I have come to learn that if I want to be with him, I need to move my things next to his computer....so that is where I do all my sewing, next to him and his computer.

So yesterday when I was taking a small break, I looked over and this is what I saw....

 

Travis was playing a new game (Star Craft II) and the boys had just migrated to him. 

 

He enjoyed every minute of it. I asked the boys if they were bored just watching Daddy, and they said no. That they actually liked it! Are we breeding the next generation of Computer Geeks?? I am afraid so! 

 

My Computer Geeks!! 

*Man do I love them all!*

Slow Going

Thank you all for your lovely comments! I really love the "Bird Love" quilt. My Mother in Law cried when I gave it to her, and has told me MANY times how much she loves it, so it was definitely a success! Now I just hope that others have the courage to try it! I was surprised at how many thought it looked too hard, because of the small pieces. The thing is I try to simplify as much as possible! So to me I think it is rather easy, the hardest being the assembly! Making sure you have all the right parts where they go!

I have been exercising a lot lately, due to my "Bet" with my friends. They are exercise manias so I am just trying to keep up. But because of that, and how long it takes me to "get into gear" in the mornings I haven't been sewing as much as I like! I have been working on my secret project (I can't publish anything on it yet) that is due in March. It does involve those colorful fabrics that I showed you earlier. I have been making blocks and trimming, and so I thought I would share my trimmings, maybe you can kinda get a feel for some of it then.

 

Travis keeps telling me that my blocks are beautiful, but I just hope that they will turn out! I can't wait to show you the final project but unfortunatley it will just have to wait! I am though done with all the blocks for the quilt (72 different ones) and so I have a little (okay a lot) more trimming to do to square them up and then I can start assembling!

Why do Birds Suddenly Appear?

 

I am trying to coax Spring to come by making another Moda Bake Shop quilt! If I make birds appear does that mean spring is close?

 

This is my latest project for the Moda Bake Shop. I designed this quilt back in July and received fabric for it in August. Because LIFE just gets in the way I was able to finally finish it at the beginning of this year. I designed and made it for my Mother in law. She has loved birds for ever and is always excited to see new species in her yard. I saw that someone made a bird block and thought, that would make a WONDERFUL quilt! I designed a bird house to go with it and Bird Love was born. 

 

This was a MUCH harder tutorial to write and took me almost 10 hours! I wanted to make sure that everyone could understand it, so I hope everyone can. I am very proud of this and so far this is my favorite quilt I have designed. 

If you find that you want to make it, head on over the Mode Bade Shop and check it out! I would also love to see anyone's projects! It makes me feel very special!

Happy Valentine's Day and Giveaway Winner!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!! Today has been busy. I went to Brandon and Nathan's classes today to help out and be there for them. They didn't have a "party" they just passed out their valentines. There we about 50 in each of their classes! So needless to say the boys got a lot of candy!

While we were at school I noticed that Kimball was getting a rash of some sorts on his hands. So when we were leaving I checked his body and sure enough...he had spots on his body. We went to the instacare and they said it may be a virus, but after showing a fellow friend and Mom, she said it was the same type of rash her daughter got after she finished taking her amoxicilian! Kimball has been on amoxicilian for 9 days now, but his ear infection is gone so we are done taking it. But poor little Kimball missed his Valentine's party with some neighborhood kids. But Nathan was so adorable and shared a lot of his candy with him! And even me! Here are a few pictures of them at school this morning eating breakfast. (Brandon wouldn't eat with us, and just wanted to go to class).

  

My wedding anniversary is on the 16th, so we kinda combine Valentines and our Anniversary. But this year we are keeping it LOW KEY! Hand written love notes to each other for today and then just a nice romantic evening in bed after we put kiddos to bed. So therefore, no more Valentine pictures! 

Now on to the giveaway! Thanks again to everyone that participated! Hopefully you weren't sore for too long!

 

Yeah congratulations Domestic Diva!!! I will send you an email! For everyone else if you would like me to send you a little special something, please send me your address and I will mail you something. I feel like asking people to workout is a lot and I appreciate you all doing it for me!!! 

In case you wanted to know, out my 4 friends that I do this weight loss challenge with, this weeks points I finished 2nd! I had a total of 69pts and from you guys alone I had 14! I had a total of 7 people participate which is 7 more than I would have ever dreamed of! Thank you again!!

Exercise or Quilting??

First and foremost I want to thank everyone who did the workouts!! I really appreciate it! Just think with all of that exercise you are now able to sew for longer periods of time.....wait that doesn't sound right!

I am not sure if everyone has checked out my friends weight loss blog, but if you have, hopefully you haven't found me too disgusting!! But if you haven't I wanted to show that I too have been working out hard!

 Here is me doing the planks from workout #1~ They sure are hard! You think oh heck I can do that! But dang they add up!!

 We have additional workouts that we can do, I have a little gazelle that I use, so here is me on it. Nathan likes to take pictures of me while I exercise.

 Nathan then of course wants his turn to exercise. Well actually all my boys like to use it. Why not, start exercising at a young age, although I think we need to work on intensity and length, but not yet.

 Kimball is now getting tall enough that he can now reach the handles.

 I think I had just finished workout #4 in this one. Doing those burpees....oh my heavens!!! They hurt my knees! I had thoughts of doing that workout again but never got it!

Here is another one earlier in the week! I am excited because with our tax return this year (yes we are poor enough that we get nice tax returns...I like them!) we can get me a treadmill!! YEAH! I have wanted a treadmill for AGES! So now I need to start researching them, but first and fore most find one that I can afford!!!

Now we have one last day to do this challenge (until tonight at midnight) and I wanted to let you all know that if you did more than one workout you can get an extra entry into the giveaway! I will draw names tomorrow sometime, and let you all know!!

Thanks again everyone!!!