hello sunshine

Recently we've been enjoying the amazingly summer-like weather. Everything is blooming on the farm and I can't get enough of the blossoms.  

 Gavin is obsessed with "helping" to mow the lawn. You have to walk at a turtle's pace, but he will stick with it for the entire lawn because he loves it so much.  

 I've been enjoying some new sewing projects -- this is a quilt I made for my cousin Jen in D.C.

 

 Can you tell which one my children will willing pose for the camera and which one will not? Yep Ike's a bit camera shy these days- but Gavin is pretty obliging. 

 

 With all of the nice weather I've spent a lot of time watching the boys jump on the trampoline while I read. I read The Choice by Nicholas Sparks, which I mostly disliked. Biggest reasons were that I felt like it was manipulative in the sense that he pulls the "your true love is in a coma and you have to decide whether or not to unplug her," card. I mean of course thats going to cause a reaction in your reader, but the surrounding story just had no finesse, basically the writing was poor. Jandee rating is 3 stars for this one (although lets be honest Travis Parker sounds like a catch). 

 Oh yes & Star says, "hi"

 

some things we've been up to.

Not necessarily in order:

**Made home made Root Beer. Its a bit strong, not quite as good as the kind I grew up drinking at Grandma's but it was my first attempt so hopefully next time is better?

**I have been addicted to quilting lately. Here are some recently completed projects.

I finished the embroidered sections of this quilt (all the picture scenes) about a year ago when I made a version of this quilt for my mom for Christmas 2010, but I just barely finally got around to doing the piecing on mine.

This one was for my friend Mel that is welcoming a new little girl any day. Can't wait to meet her.

Made a quilt for Valentines this year (the colors are definitely off in this pola, sorry). I love this quilt to the top of the Empire State Building.

**Both boys are loving lots of "rides" lately. When we're too lazy/busy to saddle up the pony, Dad is a good substitute.

**I've been enjoying these Orchids Jordan bought me for my Birthday/Valentines. They smell amazing.

**The sewing machine and I have been besties lately as I've been refashioning lot of my old shirts & also converting sweaters into cardigans.

**Still loving cat naps with Ike on the couch

**Am still obsessed with Dowton Abbey. Was so excited when my copy of season 2 arrived and saw the Christmas Special. Yes I may have even watched this cheesy you tube "short" about Mary & Matthew.

mommy days

My days are pretty unremarkable, like most moms it is pretty much Groundhog's Day with routines of diapers & pickles & tying shoelaces & singing elephant songs & chocolate chip cookies (those are what my routines are mostly comprised of). I loved this article (suggested by my friend Annie) about mothering & how the minutes of each day can feel like eternity -- in fact an eternity where someone is slowly ripping off you fingernails. Yet it is interspersed with magical moments of course that make it all worth it -- but then quickly followed by torturous moments nonetheless. Now that I've kind of adjusted to the idea that this is what mothering is all about: it is never perfect, it is always difficult, and it is sometimes fun, I can appreciate that those fun moments are more fun because of the difficulty preceding them.

This week is a pretty good example of those ups and downs so far. A simple trip to the fabric store on Monday resulted in a debacle of epic proportions for Gavin. He didn't want to play with his toys or his cousin Paylsei who met us there. He didn't want me to hold him. He didn't want me to put him down. He didn't even want the sucker I tried to bribe him with. I repeat THE BOY WAS REFUSING CANDY. He mostly just alternated between howling, screaming, attempting to head butt me, and generally just falling to pieces. Gina can attest that it was as if all the calamities of the world had rained down upon his head because I made the major misstep of trying to take him to a store that wasn't the park. As I left the store (which I never could have weathered if Gina hadn't been there in the first place), all covered in snot -- I did what any reasonable mother would do. I called my husband at work and told him that I think our 18 month old child may already be showing severe symptoms of ADHD. Mostly I was joking -- if I had to say I guess I would approximate that I was 78% joking and 22% serious. Of course Jordan did his bit as a good husband husband and reminded me that Gavin's intense individuality & precociousness is something we adore about him, although it also means he can be very high strung. We swapped a few funny stories about past debacles and of course by the time I was home I was feeling much better about my life. It did not hurt that the little boss had fallen asleep in the carseat and like all small children looked perfectly cherubic as I eased him out of the backseat and snuggled him for the next forty-five minutes of pure bliss.

Of course the nightmare of the day wasn't over & he was pretty whiny the rest of the day that he was awake. By this time I had figured out that the boy wasn't feeling well. I'm blaming teeth, but I guess it could still turn out to be just another cold. Don't worry though, he was still feeling well enough to get out all of the ashes from the fireplace and smear them all over himself while I made dinner. However, despite not feeling his best he woke up yesterday and decided to be a charmer all day. He was snuggly and jovial and while watching Sesame Street he learned how to say "cheese" for the camera (Thanks Elmo!), which I immediately exploited by taking a hundred pictures of him where he actually looked at the camera. At this point I called Jordan during nap time and said, I take back everything I said yesterday -- Gavin is an angel. But thats just the ebb and flow of mothering right? Somedays they are angels, most of the time they are not, but they are always ours. Or in this case mine, and that is what I really love I guess. Gavin is mine, as partially evident by his extreme curiosity & inability to sit still and by his extremely large dimple on his left cheek.





Now perhaps right now you are wondering why I have completely neglected to write about Ike in the past three paragraphs. It is purely because he was a school for the whole fabric store debacle, but believe me, Isaac has his own highs & lows. They are COMPLETELY different from Gavin's of course, but equally challenging and wonderful. If you actually know me in person, then you know that Isaac has his own challenges -- ones that come with labels and definitions and a whole lot of therapy -- but what you may not know about Isaac is that his is the gentlest soul that ever lived. Even if he could understand the concept of money, I'm pretty sure you couldn't pay him to hurt another living thing because he is incapable of intentional malice. Even when it would be warranted. For example both the boys love the bath time. Especially because our current bath tub is roughly the size of small swimming pool for them. Usually they are bathed together and then the song and dance begins. I bring the bath toys and one by one Gavin takes them from Isaac. Of course being the responsible adult I spend my time trying to make Gavin "share" with Isaac. But Isaac is all too happy to cede anything to Gavin that he may want. Also my intervention ultimately backfires when I try to give Isaac back the toy that Gavin has ripped from his hands and Gavin immediately starts trying to hit Isaac (yes I have a hitter) -- of course Isaac just bears all fo the hitting by completely turning the other cheek and when I get upset at Gavin for hitting his brother & scold him, Isaac starts to cry because I am angry and Gavin is crying. Of course he doesn't cry when Gavin hits him, only when Gavin is upset. Like I said, the gentlest soul that ever lived. And just in case you were wondering he is mine too.




And because I just admitted that I love that they are mine, now perhaps it will make a shred of sense why I have become oddly competitive with a ten year old girl. Or not the girl I guess, but more accurately Target. Lately Gavin has decided to designate one of his blankets as the official "blankie." Yep he needs it to go to sleep and if I let him he would probably drag it around the house all day with him -- I've even caught him given blankie kisses. Well this is all well and good (actually I think its kind of adorable) except for one minor fact. The "blankie" is not one of the probably eight quilts I have made for my little boys by of course a polka dotted fiend from Target, given to him by my niece when he was born. Now of course I love my niece, and if I'm being honest I love Target -- but for some reason (actually there is probably nothing reasonable about it, its probably complete insecure nonsense) I just want the chosen "blankie" to be one that his mother made for him. I mean after all his mine right? Mine. Mine. Mine. Possessive much? So of course this week I have attempted to replace "blankie" by making Gavin a new quilt -- hopefully soon to be the new "blankie." And I'm not playing fair. I have used the softest softies I can find, I used polka dots in a nod to the old blankie, an of course I appliqued a giant elephant on it since Gavin is currently in an elephant obsession. Right now Gavin thinks this quilt is perfect for playing hide & go seek, and that is where is we are at. I'm not going to rush him but I'm still crossing my fingers that this becomes his new lovie. Mature right?

Christmas Quilt (2011 edition)

I am very pleased with my Christmas Quilt this year. It has lots of white in it, which has kind of been my recent addiction (as far as quilting goes). I used this free pattern from Moda Bakeshop and it came together really easily & quite quickly.

Done before Thanksgiving this year, that must be a record for my procrastinating self.

what have you done for me lately.....

Anyone else still know all the lyrics to that Janet Jackson song? Nope, just me? I haven't been doing much for this blog lately, but here is a mammoth post to make up for it. The latest stuff going on around here:

Gavin & I went on a lovely fall hike with Katherine & Caleb. Can you believe my nephew's cute little grin?



I couldn't believe the oranges and reds on our walk, came home with all sorts of photos of just trees. The colors have been so vibrant this year up the canyon, can't wait to see how they'll change in the valley. Isn't Autumn the best?

Speaking of Orange -- Jordan took his annual boys trip to see BYU play the Texas Longhorns. Pretty sure that football, high school buddies, and lots of good BBQ is nirvana for the hubs. (Do you love how they all wear their matching "lucky" shirts to the game?)




Speaking of the hubs.....he recently finished an amazing painting (which will gets its very own dedicated post in due time), but if you want a sneak peek, you can see it on the website he is building for himself --just because he's skilled like that you know. Check it out: www.jordanjonesart.com. This is just the bare bones version he put online, but I'm pretty impressed seeing as how it took about two hours to pull together. Oh yes and I can't even tell you how much I love this painting -- its my favorite thing he's ever done.

Speaking of paintings, I haven't really done anything since the move so I started a little painting planning it to be part of a Christmas thing -- only I made the mistake of sketching out my grid with a quilting red pencil instead of a regular red pencil and the pencil bled through after the painting was done (it actually came through about 48 hours later, which was odd), so now I'm going to rework the whole thing, but here is how it looks for right now (sorry for the crappy photo, sometimes I can't be bothered to go get perfect lighting).


Speaking of perfect lighting -- was lucky enough to have it for some recent family photo shoots. Am slow getting most stuff up on the blog, but I posted this one of my sister/cousin Gina's family on the photo blog. Aren't they the cutest?

Speaking of families, Mom and I hosted a shower for my sister-in-law, Hena. So excited about the upcoming arrival of my new niece!

Hena is doing an owl motif in the baby's room so this is the quilt I made:


Speaking of quilting, I have started my annual Christmas Quilt (and its only October, I'm sure you are so proud), so there have been a lot of this around the house:




I promise to post finished photos when I'm all the way done.

And ironically, I realized I never posted last year's Christmas Quilt. Perhaps this was because I actually finished quilting it in March I think? This neat thing about this quilt is that I was able to use my friend Stacey's machine to quilt it. Stacey has one of those amazing machines that most quilters dream about. You know the one that costs as much as a new car and takes up a whole room, which is fitting because Stacey is seriously talented at machine quilting so if you need to have some done for you --she's the girl to call. If you are interested in having her do something for you, just email me and I'll give you her info. I'm nowhere near as adept as she is at it, but it was fun to try out her machine and do a more intricate pattern. And I like how it turned out:


And finally to wrap up this mammoth post (I delivered right?) Here is a picture for all you Kevin lovers --you know who you are--My brother Nik is convinced we can train Kevin to be a riding animal for Gavin:

a star is born

Could you almost eat up this little baby?

Seriously handsome right? I'm completely impartial when I say my new nephew Caleb is one breathtaking baby. I've loved snuggling him at our family BBQs. And of course I had fun making him something to snuggle in (yes the obsession with large applique animals continues). We love you Caleb!

scrap quilt

Finished this quilt recently, which was made from leftover "scraps" from this quilt. .....so yes indeed I have been hanging on to this fabric since 2007. It felt good to finally get it finished, now I'm just started to delve into the fabric I amassed on girls trip. fabric makes me happy.

sewing addict

So "Girls Fabric Palooza" is in about one week. Pardon me while I do a little happy dance to celebrate that fact! As you may have noticed on the ole blog -- every spare minute my children are sleeping I have mostly been sewing. Also I have mostly limited myself to projects that I had underway, rather than starting new projects when I have heaps of half finished projects (this is a problem of mine). So here are some more recent completions. I am on a roll! The only problem is that I may be burned out on sewing by the time I return from California with all of my new fabric -- but hey at least I'll have a place to put it since I'm cleaning out all of my "in progress" shelves.

Made this quilt for my Sister-in-laws Birthday. And yes apparently I was too lazy to actually take a decent photo of it before I mailed it off.


Finished this Halloween quilt that I started in September '08. Yes it has only taken me almost three years to finish this puppy.


Made this quilt for my cousin Alaine's baby shower. Just when you think I have done my last sock monkey quilt......wrong again. I embroidered the center monkey on this, which was fun.


Finished this quilt using this pattern. Am in love with this fabric.

some things

• Isaac likes twirling.
• Jordan likes March Madness (alas we are already missing Jimmer)
• I like working out, and then eating three times the recommended amount of calories.
• We are all officially "done" with winter -- if Mother Nature could just take the memo that would be great.
• Gavin (a.k.a. Mr. Blue Eyes) likes going for rides in the stroller.



• I've been working like a banshee on all of my sewing projects, the countdown is now under 30 days until the girls fabric shopping extravaganza....our husbands definitely don't understand just how cool this trip is going to be, but I couldn't be more jazzed about it. Plus its helping me get things done. Things like this......the quilt I was making for Isaac for "Christmas." Good thing he doesn't care that its March right? I'm really happy with this big boy quilt. I did peaks on the binding because Isaac loves sticking his fingers into them, but it took forever.

• Also I finished this one for my cousin Kelsie, whose little one is just about to make her appearance. Clearly the obsession with silky ruffles continues.
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