Alive and Kicking

Every year I think that I can get so much done in the summer...no carpooling....no school events....more time....but every summer I end up getting way behind in everything! When will I ever learn my lesson??

I am alive and kicking still though, even though it's been almost 2 weeks since I have posted anything. I have been quite busy though.

1) I got all of the i spy packages out for the swap. It took a little bit longer than I would have liked but due to the  Postal Strike in Canada I am still waiting on two packages....we will see what happens there.

2) I am in Colorado (I live in Utah) visiting my Mom and Sister for 2 weeks +. I like coming here, it seems a little easier with the boys (I don't have to watch them like a hawk) and I get to have more "adult" time. With Trav working so hard and so much, its easier for him (only 1 person to care for) and me to come here.

3) The boys are in swim lessons for the very first time! (I know I am a slacker!) We have them until the 4th, and so far things are going good (pictures below)

4) I got a quilting job! I am quilting 2 quilts for a lady I have known since I was a little girl. She has some antique (2 generations) tops she would like to to finish for her, so she can give it to her children for Christmas. She has 2 more after these, but we are waiting on those for now. I am not charging very much...mostly because she has been a long time (good) friend and because I didn't know how much to charge. I did think about the $.01 per inch, but it seemed really high. So I said $50 for each. What would you have charged? (Anyone) They are roughly 78"x90"  each

5) I am also working on a wedding quilt for my cousin. She is getting married later this month. I am starting from scratch!! Only have 7 blocks done (sorry no pics) and have about 50 more to go! My mom asked me to make this for her, and of course I can't say no!!

6) I am also trying desperately to finish a Moda Bake Shop tutorial! I started it about 2 weeks ago, and have it all pinned, but I need to quilt it, bind it, take pictures of it, and then write up the tutorial!! GRRRR

7) My mom also has several quilts she would like me to finish for her if I have time. One is ready to be pinned and quilted - and then I think 2 others need to be finished pieced and then quilted. What I do for my Mom...she OWES me big time!

8) I also brought a quilt that I need to finish binding. It's been done for some time- I just need to finish it. I brought it with me so that my sister could take some awesome pictures with her AWESOME camera. Oh I wish I had hers.

9) I then brought my work horse of a sewing machine. It's timing was off and so it's getting repaired now. So some good news thus far!!

See everything that I need/want to get done??? They all will get done but who knows when. Then add upon that- 1) Nathan's birthday on Sunday 2) a garage sale we are having tomorrow and Saturday 3)helping my Mom get her house organized and put together.

Now for some pictures:

Swim Lessons

 Brandon has done AWESOME! Although he has never been afraid of the water and is willing to try anything. His teachers seem to be doing okay with him too. He does have moments where he has problems focusing, but overall- he is doing great!

 The first day Kimball tried to join in the lessons but we didn't sign him up. So I found the director person and asked if they had room for him in their level 1 class. Luckily they did and we were able to put him in. He has been doing awesome! He is much like Brandon in this, not afraid of the water and does whatever is asked of him. The only thing he doesn't like is being cold! They are in the shade most of the time and when he is out of the water- he shivers! But overall he is doing wonderfully!

 Nathan has been having a hard time with swim lessons. He IS very afraid of the water and would much rather stick to the side, never put his head under the water and have a floaty at all times! I have been challenging him to push himself and do everything they ask of him. Every day he gets a little better but I am hoping by the end he will be more comfortable with the water. I have told his teachers to be more firm with him- but they are young and afraid of being too "mean". Oh well we will get there in the end.

 Yesterday they got to jump of the diving board for the first time. Brandon jumped 3 different times! Just got up there and did it! I was so proud of him!

 Nathan on the other hand....I told him I would buy him a toy if he jumped off (positive reinforcement). He did good until he got to the end of the board and then didn't want to jump....

a nice parent got on to help him out...by the time I got over there I told her to just throw him in and she did just that! Nathan's teacher caught him and he was only underwater once and for only a second. I am hoping today (or by the end of next week) he can jump off the diving board by himself with no help!

That's a little of what's going on with me and my family....only more fun to come!

Quilting

I have a cousin who is expecting a little baby soon. She has loved my quilts for ages ( ahh I love fans!) But she has wanted to try her hand at quilting too. So she decided to make a baby blanket. They are huge Western People (I mean come on her husband has won 5 different saddles!) So I thought her fabrics were amazing! She also did a VERY good job considering it was her first quilt she has ever made (I think so anyway).

She asked me if I could quilt it for her, and I couldn't say no.

 I am not sure what pattern she used, but she had this awesome brown minki for the back. I thought I would have a harder time quilting it because of it, but it wasn't much different than normal.

 She asked if I could do a star and swirl design. So I tried it.My good sewing machines are on the fritz, so I have a VERY small little Kenmore that I am sewing on, (so that is why it's not perfect....yeah it's the machines fault) but I thought I was able to achieve a very nice look.

I thought that back looked awesome! You can really see the design on the back.I used a varigated brown thread which went very well with it.

Overall I think Kayla did an amazing job on this quilt! Her little boy is so lucky!

More Time

I think right now if I could ask for anything it would be more time. More time to finish housework. More time to cook better meals (non frozen meals). More time to quilt. More time to help family members.

Unfortunately time is not on my side! Unfortunately my quilting list has gotten longer (only by a few things) and my time for quilting has gone down.

Yesterday I finished 5 different little baby quilts. I didn't do any patchwork, but still the quilting and then binding, it takes some time!

We recently had a baby boom in our ward and so I made some baby quilts for all of them. I barely had time to get a picture of them. We have had 4 babies born within the 20 days! Thankfully no one else is pregnant so I am good for awhile! (I think my biggest problem is I wait until the LAST moment to do them, so I am always rushing!)

I am also working on a Moda Bake Shop tutorial. I just need to quilt it, bind it and then write up the tutorial for it. Unfortunately I am going out of town this weekend for a family reunion so I will have to work on it next week. Here is a little teaser....

 

Then once this quilt is done, I am going to work on a quilt for my cousin. It is a wedding gift from my Mom and I, and she is getting married on the 18th (not 100% sure, but some where around that time) so I need to hurry and get that done! 

I need more time!

Saturday - The trip home

Finally it had come to the time to go home. I didn't drive up, but ended up driving all the way home. We left about 9am and didn't make too many stops. We stopped though right before we were leaving California and at a Big Boy. 

 I had always wanted to eat there, but once there decided to just have a chocolate milkshake...lets say I have had better. But it was fun to sit down and eat.

 Of course we had to get pictures with Big Boy!

 The boys weren't too happy, but knew by now Mom wanted to take pictures and that it was easier to just do it.

 For the last few days I was carrying Zayne in a baby sling. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE stopped and oggled at him! I am getting the feeling that there are not many babies in California or Vegas. Or they never saw a very blonde and pale woman with a dark baby!

 I did get to sample some onion rings that were very tasty!

 The boys were so well behaved! I was so proud of them! I think they might be getting the hang of it.

 I sure do love my little nephew! We did end up stopping right before we got into Vegas to get my Sister some used playing cards. It ended up taking her longer, but it was kinda nice to relax for awhile.

Then once we were past St. George we stopped at a rest area for a bit. The kids ran around (a much needed stretch) and then I was trying to show them how to do cartwheels (pictures of me doing the cartwheels are too embarrising). Then off to home! We ended up getting in VERY late and then to top it off, Brandon started throwing up that night. Not very fun, but I am glad that if we was going to get sick, it was at home. 

We all had  GREAT time on our trip and it was a nice vacation. Now we are still trying to get into a routine again and get into the swing of things.

Friday - Trip to San Diego

On Friday we were going to start heading up toward the LA area to visit my Mom's cousin, Jan and then we had a hotel up there as well to spend out last night in California. My Sister wanted to go to the Zoo, but we wanted to go to Knott's Berry Farm. So I took Mom and we headed up to Knott's (up by LA) and Jenni took Dad and headed toward the zoo. 

 My Mom and I took this advantage and went to several quilt stores on the way up! It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit, I was tired out by the 4th one! I will blame it on the "no money" and getting "hot" and "thirsty". I did find these cool quilt hangers! They were awesome! All made out of wood. I had to take a picture so Trav could see them and maybe make me some!

 I guess the zoo wasn't as fun as they would have hoped, I think it was due to the numerous hills. So we ended up getting to Knott's Berry Farm at the same time. We started out with Jenni and I taking Cali and Brandon on this awesome wooden roller coaster. We waited for an hour but it was sure worth it! Brandon was so scared that he wanted to leave as soon as it was over!

 Meanwhile everyone else went to go ride on a train. As soon as Nathan saw that they had a train at the Park, he wanted to go.

 There were SEVERAL more rides that I would have wanted to go on, but everyone was beat! All tired and ready to call it a day. So we stopped at some gift stores on the way out, and started to head toward dinner.

 The whole park was a Western Theme. It was pretty cool. They did have the employees dressed up and even had some rein actors.

 Knott's Berry Farm if you don't know is themed after the Charlie Brown gang.

 We then met up with Cousin Jan and went to dinner. Nathan had a hard time with the building because it had white plastic snow on top. He couldn't understand why they called it snow when it clearly wasn't. After dinner we headed toward our hotel where we all crashed for the night.

I did want to share pictures of our first hotel that we stayed at. At first I wasn't that impressed, I mean no heated pool...but then I came to appreciate all of the beautiful flowers and greenery around the area. These plants and trees were all out side our door in the patio area. It was so beautiful!

Thursday - Trip o San Diego

Thursday was a VERY long day for me!

 We first started out day out at Sea World. The first thing we did was watch the dophine show. There was no room anywhere else so we were stuck in the "soak" are. I bought the boys ponchos but they didn't watch it at all and just hid in the poncho. It was cool, but kinda long. They had a little kid area were we rode a few rides but the boys had had it, they wanted to leave.

 Everyone else stayed the rest of the day at Sea World. They ended up having  lot of fun.

 So where did we go? We went to Balboa Park to the Natural History Museum. They had a dinosaur exsibit that we walked through. The boys really liked it, but there wasn't much to see so it was over pretty fast.

 They would run from one area to the next, typical right?

 Then on the other half of the floor (the building was split into 4 different levels) there was a peguin are. The boys actually spent more time looking at that than the dinosaurs.

 They had a cool thing that you could use to walk like a peguin and then slide like a peguin.

 We then left and headed back to Mission Beach. Right next to it was a small little carnival that looked like a lot of fun. I didn't want to go back to the hotel yet with the rest of the afternoon left, so we went there. Kimball fell asleep on the way and was none too happy when I woke him up.

 We went on a ride called "Tilt-a-world" Kimball loved this! It was just right for him. Although at times I as worried that he would fall out!

 We then went on a ship ride. It was okay, but we had to sit inside of it and it was rather hot.

 We then went to do a Bummer Cars thing, but it as an air ride. I did talk the lady into letting Kimball ride, he LOVED it! If you couldn't tell by his face.

 It was rather loud, so luckily I had ear plugs for the boys.

 We then went on this little boat ride, mostly because it was one thing that Kimball could ride on. We then went on the Tilt-a-world again. There were several more rides that I would have LOVED to go on, but it just wasn't possible with just one adult. Brandon was tall enough to go on all the rides, and I could have talked him into doing them too, but I didn't have someone to watch Kimball and Nathan. Oh well, I will have time when they are older.

 We finished the carnival off with Brandon going on this. By this time, Kimball and Nathan were done. So we got a Happy Meal for dinner and headed back to the hotel.

 We spent an hour swimming for the last time in the pool. We were trying to wait for everyone else to get back but they took a lot longer. The water was still pretty cold, and even though I got the boys to swim longer, it wasn't much fun. There were also other people who were in the "hot pool" so Nathan didn't really want to swim. Although it was pretty funny, they were drinking (against the pool rules) and Nathan said very loudly, that they were "bad" people because they were drinking alcohol. LOL

We then went up stairs to finish out our night and maybe get a early start to bed, but then that's when everyone got home. I didn't feel like swimming again, so I kept Zayne and we played for  bit. It was really fun, and it was nice to only have to watch a baby for awhile instead of 3 very active kids!