Did I Mention...

We're having a GIRL!!!

And we are so very excited! When we found out during the ultrasound back in November, Dallin said he knew all along. I don't know why it's taken so long to make an official announcement. I kinda just figured everyone knew. 

Big thanks to my amazing sister for hooking us up with all kinds of cute and fun girl stuff. And to my parents for sending it out our way. They've saved us so much money... or really, our poor girl being stuck with boy stuff. 

I can't wait to play dress up. There's just something different about girl stuff. Maybe it's just because I'm a girl. 

We're expecting baby girl in the middle of April. 

Hooray!

And congratulations to my baby brother and his wife who just had their first baby. A boy on January 21st. Mabin Call Lucas.

Ruffles and Lace and Baby Jesus

I've been done with these projects for a while now, but thought I'd go ahead and post them anyway.

First, the duvet I made--Ruffles and Lace.

I bought 2 King size flat sheets and cut them to the size of the comforter. Then I measured, spaced, pinned, and sewed on rows of ribbon and lace, creating the ruffles as I went. It took a lot of pinning and a lot of patience. I even had to redo the last 3 rows because of some sewing machine problems. Not fun. But after the ruffles and lace were on it was easy to sew the 3 sides together. I used some iron on velcro to close the bottom of the duvet, but after several washings, the velcro is starting to come off. I may eventually sew on velcro or revert to buttons or ribbons. I've loved the end result though and my duvet makes me happy every time I see it.


The next project was one I finished just in time for the Christmas countdown. I want my kids to focus on the real meaning of Christmas-baby Jesus, as we count down the days. So, I've wanted a magnetic Nativity advent calendar, but have never been able to find one, or anything close to it that I liked so I decided to create one on my own.

I started with a frame I liked. It was a shadow box frame, so I had my husband carefully hammer out the glass. Then I used some magnetic paint I bought at Michaels craft store and I painted the back of the frame. The paint is really thick and had to be sanded down. But I liked the textured, wood like appearance it gives to the background. Then using acrylic paints I painted the background of a stable, which counts as my 1st day of the countdown. I know I have no skill or understanding of painting or art, but I was happy with the result of my painting. After painting, I used a spray on clear gloss to protect it.

Then I used some cardstock paper to make everything. I wanted to keep things simple looking. I found some animal pictures I liked online, printed them, and free-handed the redrawing of them. I'm sure it would be easy to have traced them as well if they were the right size. My pictures were small. I ended up using 1 Mary, 1 Joseph, 1 angel, 1 donkey, 1 cow, 2 shepherds, 3 sheep, 3 wiseman, 3 gifts, 1 camel, 5 stars, 1 manger, and 1 baby Jesus. That equals 24. After I cut and glued all my pieces together I had them laminated and cut again. Then I put a sticky magnet on the back of each one. I keep the pieces in a ziploc baggie.

The kids had fun taking turns picking out pieces to put up. The only rule was that baby Jesus had to be the last piece up on Christmas day.

My very own unique Nativity advent calendar.

Monster Pants

It seems like Dallin's jeans never last very long. He's always getting holes in the knees. I'm sure it has to be a boy thing.

I have a hard time finding patches that look right, match or last. So to have a little fun, I've turned the holes into monsters. I've seen this done by others and figured Dallin would like it.

I used felt for the mouth parts and sewed the teeth to the mouth background. The rest had to be hand stitched because his little pant legs don't fit around the sewing machine.

  

After making Dallin's monster pants, I put him in some old holey church pants on Sunday since we didn't go to church because we were all sick. Dallin come up to me and said, "Mom, I know how we can fix these pants, we can turn it into Jesus or a temple."

I'm not sure I feel so good about that. 

Christmas favorites and not so favorites

Dallin's homemade bike trailer.

My top favorite Christmas moments:
Having Dallin tell the story of the Nativity on Christmas Eve.
Dallin teasing Robby with his new recording microphone. Dallin would call Robby stinky and such and then play the message for Robby, who would then chase him around the house.
The beautiful sacrament meeting at Church.
Dallin and Ezra unwrapping gifts.
Having tons of time with my awesome husband.

My not so favorite Christmas moment:
Eating all the chocolate out of my stocking plus some in a day and a half. Trust me, it was a lot of chocolate. I get sick when thinking about how many calories I consumed.
So, realizing that I have a serious addiction and problem with chocolate, I've come to a conclusion. My relationship with chocolate needs to end. Cold turkey. I have decided to quit chocolate for an entire year. Seriously.
Starting tomorrow. (well right now, but I've already eaten tons of chocolate today that today can't count)
I will not eat anything chocolate for an entire year.
I will be strong. I will resist. It will not control me.
I know you doubt me. Sometimes I doubt myself. But I plan to do this.
I'll let you know how it goes.

Dallin's Birthday

I can't believe I have a 5 year old now! Dallin's party was awesome at the Living Planet Aquarium. The sunken ship room was so fun. His shark cake and cupcakes fit in perfectly. I think he had a pretty good day. After his party we went to the Festival of Trees and then that night we saw the Muppet movie. Dallin loved the movie. 

Thanks Esther for taking pictures!

Summer Cousin Fun- Part 2

Some pictures to catch up on summer cousin fun. The Zoo. The water fountain at the park. Bridal Veil Falls.

My favorite moment at the Zoo this year- Seeing a Gorilla poo and then watching him eat it. Seriously happened. I was disgusted.

Spiderman!

A few weeks ago my kids were outside playing while I was making lunch inside the house. I asked Dallin where Ezra was and he told me Ezra was in the garage. I asked Dallin to tell Ezra to come inside and eat. Ezra wouldn't listen. After a few minutes of yelling and waiting, I decided to go get him myself. I found Ezra sitting in the garage playing with something. As I walked towards him Ezra lifted his hand and said, "Bee." -Which is what he calls any crawling, creeping, bug like thing. When I looked at his hand a little closer he held something big and black with lots of legs in between his thumb and index finger. I immediately thought it looked like the body of a black widow and I smacked his hand to get it out of his grasp. Ezra started crying from the shear shock that I smacked him so good. I picked him up and looked around for where the "bee" might have landed. There it was on a bag in the garage rolled over on its back with a huge red hourglass on its abdomen.

I freaked.

I ran inside with Ezra and called Dave who was teaching at BYU just to let him know what was going on and that he might have to run home to escort us to the hospital, since he had the car.

Ezra's hands were filthy from playing in the dirt before he ventured into the garage so I washed his hands thoroughly inspecting for any sign of a spider bite. I asked if he had any owies, but after recovering from the shock of me hitting his hand, he was happy and acted like nothing was wrong and began eating his lunch.

I called his pediatricians office to find out what I should do and what to look for. I was told that if he got bit he would have a red spot that would be very tender to the touch. And if I found one I was to rush him to the ER immediately.
I took off all of Ezra's clothes and inspected him just to make sure I wouldn't miss anything. He still seemed fine.

Then I decided I better go and catch the spider for proof, just in case. I grabbed a jar and when I caught the spider I realized he only had 4 legs!

Ezra must have had that spider in his fingers and pulled off 4 of his legs. I couldn't believe he could get away with that and the spider wouldn't have bit him.


To make a long story short, I never found any signs of him being bit. The spider is still in that jar and currently has 3 legs as one of the other legs was barely hanging on.
I am sure that it is a miracle that kid survived pulling of a black widow's legs without getting bit. Someone was definitely watching over my child.

--A week later, Ezra picked up a bee in our house and he got stung.

I am now trying to teach Ezra that even though mommy likes bugs and I pick them up more often than I should that there are certain bugs we do not pick up like spiders and bees.

Summer Cousin Fun- Part 1 Hiking

I love that our kids are on a bridge with a sign posted "Bridge Not Safe"

My family and I that live in the Utah/Idaho area have started a tradition of a yearly family camping trip. This is our 3rd year in a row. And while I didn't get any pictures of our actually camping, I did get some of the hike we went on.

We didn't have a hiking backpack for Jordan. So Heidi and Jodie tried to manage him in an umbrella stroller. It was hilarious.

This is my new all time favorite video. Wish you could have seen this poor kid carried in the stroller in person. Even better.

Do your kids always have to have 2 rocks too? One for each hand. Can't manage a hike without them. See how happy those rocks make him! He'd scream his head off without them. Yet he'd throw them every couple of minutes. I hate that game.

Dave took part in the Jordan action for a while to give that kid a break from the stroller.

Camping with the family was a blast. Can't wait to do it again.

Major Catching Up

Yep, major catching up is in order. I would probably have to make a new post every day for the rest of the month to catch up on what you have missed out on. Where to start? Summer fun with siblings and cousins. Zoo trips. Baby news. Bike trailers. Spiders. Birthday fun.

I guess I'll start with my favorite. Baby news. Just in case you didn't know, my usual excuse of absence from the blogging world is that we are expecting, --- baby #3 April 14th. We are so excited, crossing our fingers for a little girl, but I would be just as happy about a 3rd boy, because I love my boys so much as they are the best boys in the whole wide world. --I tell them that every day. And they have been so good to me, letting me nap, not complaining about all the chicken nuggets and mac and cheese they eat lately, watching lots of TV, helping me to exercise, and giving me lots of loves. My husband's been pretty awesome too, he always takes good care of me.

Yeah, I'm lucky, I know. I have the best family ever and am so excited to make it even better with our next little addition!

Tomorrow-summer cousin fun!

Summer Happenings

Eating apples while watching the rain.

Showing off my flesh wound. Totally tripped while running and my knees ate it hard.

Baseball buddies.

Love this one with the turkey. Ezra was not happy.

Totally looks like Dallin's trying to choke Ezra.

Eating fresh picked peas!

Train ride at the zoo.

Robby and Mikey at the zoo.

So cute. Cousins holding hands.

And here are a few pics of my most recent projects. Done by me.

I totally put in this new faucet by myself. And it wasn't easy.

And I installed these fans all by myself too!

And they were a breeze to put in.

Haha! Sorry it had to be said. It's totally my mom's kind of humor. You can blame her. I do.

And I helped with these. We put up 3 of them. Could have done it by myself, but I thought I better let my husband do something around the house to feel important.