Save Your Scraps

I got the idea for these Quilted Notecards on this site,
http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/06/tutorial-quilted-notecards.html, which I thought was really cute. This is such an easy project for anyone, and what I really love is that there is really no way to mess them up. I knew there was a reason I would save all those little scraps of material when I do my projects. The internet is amazing and people are so creative. You can find ideas to use scraps of almost anything to create something else. I love it.
Here's my first 10 cards I put together for a pack to take to the Jackson family reunion as part of my stuff to contribute for their auction.

Here's an upclose of a couple to show the zigzag.

Here's what the inside looks like.

Cloth Baby Toys

I had made this Cloth Block and Cloth Baby Rings for Dallin's First birthday. Hopefully he's not too old for these yet. It was so hard to figure out what to make for a boy. Girls are so much easier to make for. Anyways, for the Cloth Block I used this website, http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/03/as-promisedcloth-blocks.html, and then I also added a couple little rattles in the middle so it would make noise when you shook it. For the Rings I used this site,http://makeitandloveit.blogspot.com/2009/03/cloth-baby-rings.html.

Here's some vegetables I bottled this week. I'm so lucky to live by the Superstition Ranch Market. I got a ton a stuff for only $18. So I bottled them. I always thought the mixed vegetables looked cool in the bottle.

This is Kade waiting for me to cook breakfast. Unfortunately, he wasn't feeling good and ended up throwing up a little later. It was wierd though because it was completely clear, it seemed to be just water, which I guess that's all he had had that morning so far. And then after he threw up, he was completely normal and went off to play.

Organizing our Food Storage

Last week, I was finally able to find space for my food storage where I can actually get to it easily to use it; instead of having to sleep on it as we did in our last apartment. I only needed a couple shelves out of our hall closet to put my bottled food and one of each food in the #10 cans and PETE containers, then I can refill them when necessary.

This picture shows under our staircase. A lot of houses have hall closets under their stairs, which we do, but then our neighbor told us we should knock out the dry wall in that closet right underneath the slant of our stairs. So Glen knocked it out and now we have all this space to store our bulk food storage. I love being able to see and get to everything. So anyone with stairs, you may want to look into that for a cool space to store food.

Also under our stairs we filled up our water barrels and tucked them in there. It feels so good to finally have them full. I don't know if you can tell, but the barrels are on furniture movers with the wheels. Tim and Cara gave us the idea, which is brilliant because otherwise once you fill them up with water there's no way you can move them, this way they seriously come out so easy. So just an idea for anyone who wants to fill up barrels. Just don't make our same mistake and leave your barrels while filling it up. Long story short, here we just had the flood in our home, from the empty townhouse we share a wall with, back in June, then we were filling these barrels up inside the house, sometime in July, and not just once but twice it flooded. The first time, it was near the kitchen and living room on the tile, I got distracted, luckily Cara was at our house and she asked how the barrel was going. I panicked and ran in and started yelling "TURN OFF THE WATER!" While Cara went to turn off the water, Glen grabs the hose and kinks it and throws it in kitchen sink...while the water is still on...therefore, the hose unkinks and water starts spraying everywhere in the kitchen. I could not believe it. We all tried to hurry and soak up all the water and tried to save the new baseboards we have put in, and finally had that barrel done and pushed back in the closet. Then for the second barrel, we tucked it in the closet first and then started to fill it up. I didn't want the flood to happen again so I sat there for a minute or so and then decided it was going to take a little while and so I went to help my kids and Cara's kids get some food, and guess what happened? Yep, overflowing water all in our stairs closet. Again, we had to find more towels and clean up, take both barrels back out to put several fans to let it dry completely in there. Oh, Glen was sooo frustrated. We were exhausted after that and had a million towels to wash. It gives me a really good laugh now. I think for our emergency preparedness list we need to add "Build Noah's Ark!" Anyways, that wasn't a short story at all, but it was fun to write down that great moment!

After putting all the food storage away and other house stuff from moving, we had a ton of boxes. So last Friday when I had eight kids under 4 yrs. old, I thought I'd let the boxes keep them busy. I tried helping them make a house, which Caylin enjoyed and colored a box for a TV. But Dayson, Konnor, and Kade were more interested in stacking the boxes and knocking them down! Boys will be boys!

Here's just a few random pictures from last week. Glen was holding Bryson while getting in the freezer and Bryson reached in the door and pulled out a popsicle! The camera just happened to be right there, I had to take a picture! He's so stinkin' cute!

Glen was with the 12 yr. old scouts and they had to practice on a bar of soap for wood carving. This is what Glen created. We have no clue who it's supposed to be, but I thought it turned out really good.

Toad

We were leaving Amy's house late Sunday night, and just a little bit down the street a big toad was in the road. So Glen had to pull over, pick it up and take it back to Amy's to show the rest of the fam that was there. I used to see these all the time in Ajo growing up, and our wonderfully smart dog, Hooch, would eat them and get really sick. We would find his throw up everywhere. Ok, you didn't need to know all of that. Anyways, I haven't seen them in ages, so it was kind of fun. As you can tell below, Kade was not too thrilled.

Scherenschnitte

For Amy's birthday I decided to try a scherenschnitte, or in my terms paper cutting. This is the website I've been looking at about it, http://papercutting.blogspot.com/. I've been into silhouette pictures lately and so I thought I would try something new, and especially since Dave is leaving for a year, I thought she might like it. I first took the following picture of Amy and Dave, printed it out, traced them, and then cut them out with a x-acto knife on black cardstock. Then, I put their picture on top of the second picture below to get the whole floral design, and then added "Love" in the middle. I cut it all out and then put it on scrapbook paper for the background. Sorry my picture turned out a little dark. If you're an artist you can really make up a lot of cool designs of your own, but I'll probably stick with templates.

Arizona Natural History Museum

I'm a Cub Scout leader now, so on Saturday Glen and the boys joined the scouts and I at the Arizona Natural History Museum. http://www.azmnh.org/Home.aspx. Unfortunately, we only took a couple pictures, and they didn't turn out very good. But we did have fun. They have an exhibit of Mars, Indians, panning for gold, a couple other things, but the main one was the dinosaurs.

Cloth Baby Shoes

I made my first pair of cloth baby shoes for my cousin's baby shower this past Saturday. This is the tutorial I used http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/blog/cloth_shoe.pdf. It was really fun, easy, and a cheap way to get baby shoes. I'll post the picture of the pair I made as soon as I have it.

Bryson's First Haircut

After the birthday party, we decided to give Bryson his first haircut. The kids didn't get to bed until midnight. I felt bad, but we had to get it done.

BEFORE SHOTS

MIDDLE SHOT

AFTER SHOT- although by this time it was late and he doesn't look too happy!

He's really not happy! He has a green tongue from a sucker we had to give him to keep him happy while cutting his hair.

These next few are after his bath. He was being so cute and cuddly with these pillows.

I love his teethy smiles! Isn't he cute?!

Bryson's 1st Birthday!!!

I can't believe Bryson is already a one year old! His birthday was August 8th. I remember being excited that he was born on 8-8-08. Although his birthday was on a Saturday, I was getting ready to speak in the adult session that night and couldn't think of anything else, so we did not do a single thing for him that day except sing him the "Happy Birthday" song. I felt bad, but luckily I don't think he cares when we celebrate his birthday. So we did a little FHE party for him last Monday, 8/10/09. Here's pictures of what we did.
Going swimming!

Here's some of the fam swimming. Nelson, Kelsey and kids, Esther and kids, Tim, Cara and kids, and Mom.

The Cute Birthday Boy!

Bryson's dump truck cake. I was trying to find a cute easy cake to do, and this is what I found on the internet. I thought it was fun. I borrowed Tim and Cara's dump trucks and then crumbled cake, cookies, and pudding to put in it.

Emma ended up helping Bryson blow out the candle.

Everyone watching Bryson.

His classic BIG eyes!

Isn't he CUTE!Yummy worms.

Cara gave me the idea of putting worms in the "dirt." The kids had fun eating cake and digging for gummy worms.

Looks like Bryson's getting Amrie with cake.

Kade loves the babies.

Our baby Einstein. His hair after being cleaned up. He definately needs a haircut.

Opening Grandma Nelson's card with a $1 bill for being one.

Bryson trying to eat the bubbles from Carson and Amrie. These bubbles you don't have to pull the wand out, you just squeeze the bottle a little and the wand pops up so you can blow. I thought that was clever.

A cute outfit and fishies from Emma and Elias.

Kade needed a little attention!:0) I think he makes a great present for Bryson.

A classic nursery toy from my mom and dad.

Monkey backpack from Holladay kids. Cara knows I need a way to hold on to my kids.

The next day he got another classic nursery toy from the Keeler kids. You pull the lever down, the middle spins while making different animal sounds. I love the classics.

Cara doing the YMCA with Bryson.

Thanks fam for celebrating with us. You made it fun. We sure love our Bryson boy!