My Latest Project

After getting so many comments of Maddie's 1st day of school outfit. I thought I'd take the plunge and make some more to sell on ebay. After spending a few days browsing and watching ebay sales I decided I'd make some holidays outfits too.
Gobble...Gobble... Maddie absolutely loves posing for pictures. She is very photogenic. This was the last outfit she wore for picts and she was getting a little carried away with the head thing.
This outfit is a 24mo. and a friend let me borrow her daughter for this mini photo shoot.

This outfit and Maddies are identical just different sizes.


I had some left over lady bug fabric that I thought would be cute. This outfit was the 1st one I did when I started this little project. It was not my favorite. Seeing it on Maddie however I think it looks pretty good.

This is Maddie's favorite. She's hoping it doesn't sell so she can keep it.
Isn't she just to cute! Those are little ladybugs walking up the pants.


This is another Thanksgiving outfit. After looking at the photos we realized the rock she's leaning against is a little dark and you can't see the dark maroon fabric that is the lower layer underneath the striped fabric.

I haven't posted this outfit yet. I want to get another picture so you can see the pants more clearly along with the shirt. In every picture her arms were folded or the shirt was creased so you can't see the 3rd square very well.


This is my one and only halloween outfit for the time being. Emily is always a pain when it comes to taking pictures. She is so not photogenic like her sister. Maddie must have gotten all the photo genes from us and there were none left for little sis.
This outfit is also a 24mo. but as you can see is still a little big on her. She wasn't wearing shoes either at the time of these photos.

I do have another way way cute halloween outfit. The shirt is completely done, and one pant leg. One of my special feet to help me make pleats in the fabric broke. Leaving me with one pant leg needing to be done. Hopefully this weekend I can either get it fixed or repaired to finish my oh so close to being done best outfit yet.

All of these outfits come with matching bows and matching belts for those pants with belt loops.

Now you can see why it's been so long since I posted last. I recently bought some Christmas fabric. Can you believe it's out already??? I'm anxious to get started on them.

Newest additions to the family...

Introducing...Hopper and Fuzz Ball.
This past week we have made some major improvements in both our front and back yard. During the many, many hours spent outside moving dirt, rock and wood chips we have found a few pets.

Maddie's 1st day of Preschool

Today was Madelyn's 1st day of Preschool. Several of us moms have gotten together to do preschool again this year. Maddie has school on Tue and Thur. from 8:30-11:30. There are 5 girls and 3 boys. All but one will be going to kindergarten next year. My kids kept asking for me to take a picture of them from behind. I'm assuming to show off their new backpacks this year.
Today Maddie learned about her body. She was traced and then she glued on different pieces to represent the body parts/organs she learned about today.
The yellow sponge represent her brain.
It's hard to see but there are 2 styrofoam balls for the eyes.
Marshmellows for the teeth.
Plastic bag taped to a straw that she could make the pretend lung expand and colapse by sucking or blowing into the straw.
Egg carton for the spine.
Red balloon for the heart.
Pink felt for the stomach.
Braided red yarn for the muscle.
Hard long pretzel for her bones.

She had fun and is excited for school again on Thursday.

Hunter's 1st day of school.

What a great 1st day of Kindergarten picture. He looks like he just got trapped in a pair of headlights. LOL I took many many picts and these were the best of them all. The 2nd one looks like he's ready to be searched. Oh well!!!

So Hunter is in the afternoon kindergarten class. School starts at 12:15 and ends at 3:00pm. He did very good. I took him up to the playground which is in front of his classroom. He asked me to stay and watch him play. After several minutes of playing he came back to me , held my hand and asked if I could stay all day with him. I must have given him a good little pep talk as he took off playing again. When the teacher came out and blew the whistle he came running back to me. I helped him find his line and stood next to him until his teacher started leading everyone in. The little girl in front of him was in tears, her mom was in tears and this mom almost lost it but she held out till she got to the car. He's definetly not my baby anymore. I've come to the terms that he's not a toddler any more either. He's most definetly a little boy who's growing up too fast. But who's kids don't right??? He was excited to get to school today so yesterday must have been pretty good for him.

Is it $50 worth?

I don't think I'm very creative. I can't come up with cool ideas but when I see one I feel like I can generally copy it. I saw these outfits on ebay a few days ago and just couldn't believe that they were being listed for $49.99. There was one outfit about to end and the price was up to $75. Who spends that kind of money on 1 outfit that will be too small for their child in about 9 months? Anyways I spent the $3.00 on the fabric I used, $2.50 for the shirt and another $2.50 on the pants at Stepping Stones (thrift store). It cost me about $8 and it took me about 5 hours. 5 hours is a little long being I did this project on a sewing machine I had never used. It took me a while to figure out the tension using an awsome foot pedal that gathers the material. Regardless I love the outfit. I originally made it thinking Maddie would use this as her 1st day of school outfit. Seeing it turned out just as cute as those on ebay I'm wondering if I could sell it. Even if I only sold it for $30. I am definetly going to go through the fabric I already have and make another one.

Are you ready for school?

aOne morning last week all three of my children were up at 5:30 AM. Kory and my brother who is living with us got up shortly after and left for work at 6:00AM. I packed everyone into the van and we headed to Wal Mart. Everyone got to choose their own donught for breakfast and we did our school shopping. Being at Wal Mart at 6:15 AM was great. The store was almost empty, it was quiet, I could hear myself think, and we each had our own little personal space. Best of all there were no lines when it came time to check out. Maddie is going to be in Preschool one more year. She was asked to bring a little notebook, a pencil, and a gluestick which we forgot to put in the picture. She wanted a new box of crayons and at $.33 box why not.
Hunter's list of needed things were a little different. He's going to Kindergarten this year and is so excited. His favorite item was a Spiderman folder to keep his papers in. He also needed a pencil box, a box of crayons, and a pair of scissors. The part that broke the bank was that he also needed a package of multi colored construction paper, 4dozen pencils, 1 liquid glue and 2 glue sticks, 2 boxes of wipes, Anti-bacterial wipes, and a box of klenex all of this was to share with the class. $30 later we were finished with our school shopping. I'm glad I only had to buy class room supplies for 1 child this year. Next year for 1st grade I noticed they wanted the same as kindergarten with a few differences of 5 packs of glue sticks and 6 boxes of wipes. I'll have to start stocking up earlier next year.
Hunter also had to have a few shots to start Kindergarten. I went in thinking he was going to get 2 shots. We came out with 4, 2 in each arm. Thanks to our Pediatrician's office that we no longer go to. This was the 3rd time that Hunter had to get an extra shot becuase the same shot was given too soon. He did really good. He doesn't need any more shots until he's 11/12 yrs old. One child down, 2 more to go.
He's pretty proud of his shots. He will not take the bandaids off because he wants to show everyone that he got 4 shots.

Sheep's Bridge

We recently returned home from spending some time in Utah with family. The first few days we were there Hunter and Maddie both particitpated in a rodeo for 18 and under. I can't get the pictures transfered from cd to my computer for some reason. I'll have to post those when I get it figured out. I was quite impressed with my little cowgirl. After a couple of days in Kory's home town we then went to Hurricane to my mom's. While there she took us to Sheep's Bridge or as Hunter continues to call it London Bridges. There were plenty of rocks to climb on.
Lots of sandy beach to play in.
With plenty of frogs and tadpoles to be caught and released.

We found a nice shallow place that the kids could play in. The river was peaceful at this spot making it a good starting place with the innertubes.

Being we didn't have any life jacketts for the kids Aunt Hanna was great at keeping close to the kids.
They loved the current of the river and the mini rapids they were able to go over.

They were all a little nervous to begin with but after several hours they were going down by themselves. Of course Grandma, Mom and Aunt Hanna were close by.

Sheep's Bridge is a favorite spot that the youth go to often. I wish we had a place like this close by.

St. George Splash Pad

While at my moms, we ran into St. George to check out their new Water Park. It just opened this summer, it's next door to the Tabernacle and the best part is that it is FREE. It has a little river that winds around that the kids are able to walk through, climb over rocks and play in the mini waterfalls.

On the other side is a mini splash pad where lots and lots of water shoots up out of the ground.

The kids had so much FUN here. Thankyou Grandma.

Grandma Christensen's

While in Utah Emily became quite attached to her GG (Great Grandma Grow). Everytime GG came over Emily ran to her chatting ruf, ruf (dog) and he,he (horse). Being it was over over 100 degrees everyday we were there Emily had a hard time finding someone willing to take her outside during the middle of the day to see the animals. Her GG came to her rescue. It didn't matter how hot it was she always took her out. Thankyou GG.
The last day we were at Grandma's we pulled out the slip n' slide.

Emily got a little to close to the water. She ran to Grandma for comfort.
Maddie and her favorite aunt, Aunt Hanna.

Project Complete

Many of you have seen these bags around. Last time we were at my inlaws (in Utah) I saw a lady with a purse similar to this at church. Last week I attended a baby shower for our bishop's wife and she was given a diaper bag similar to this made out of Capri' Suns. I've seen them a few other places and decided to try making one. You can find them all over the internet. I found a lady who made a back pack for her child out of capri suns back in 1992. I was impressed. This is a diaper bag for Kory's sister who will be having her 4th girl in October. I wanted to get her something a little different.

It has 2 pocketts on the outside of the bag. On the inside I put a total of 6 pocketts. The print is hard to see in the pict but it's a lady bug print. It took me 1 day to sew the inside fabric, 1 day to sew the actual bag together, and then 2 wonderful days unpicking seams and re-sewing thanks to sewing machine that skips stiches and doesn't feed the cloth through. I'm so glad it's done (so are my kids). I think I'll make another one but I NEED a break from the good ol' sewing machine.

Reaping from the garden...

Friday afternoon we picked our 1st yellow squash and zuccini. Since then it seems these fresh vegetables are growing an inch a day as we've been able to pick them on a daily basis since. It's a good thing we enjoy squash cause we've got lots!!!