Happy New Year!

Unlike my daughter, I can totally grasp 2014.  2013 was a good year.  Not much exciting happened.  Nothing horrible happened.  It was perfectly ordinary with only minor ups and downs.  And that's okay.  I always the the start of new things.  The beginning holds so much promise. So much hope. Could this be the year that I lose the last ___ pounds? My child finds the book that turns them on to reading forever? The year we finally take that vacation?  It's going to be a great year.  :)

Our family always rings in the new year with some of our favorite people.  We meet up with the Stringham clan for food and games.  This year the adults opted to start the party early and catch an a matinee of Catching Fire.  (SO good.) A quick jaunt home to grab the kids and the food and head back to their house.  Turkey sandwiches and yummy finger foods.  (Heard of Cookie Butter? Try it.  You'll thank me.) Lots of games and giggles.  The kids had a good time too.  Wii. Princesses and Fairies.  Mulan.  So happy to have wonderful friends to celebrate with.

We failed to get a "before" picture, but this is the "after." They were still going strong (albeit tired and prone to whininess) at midnight.

Chloe surrounded by two of her favorite people her big Sis, Lyndsi and friend Dane.  Now if we can convince the two big kids it's OK to be friends.  One day they'll believe us.  ;) They did play the Wii together.  That's a start!

So lucky to have these amazing friends!

Life Update

Because I know you all wait with baited breath to find out what's going on in my life. ;)

We're closing on our house next week.  Yippee!!  But-we're still waiting for a date on both signings. Boo!  But-it's next week sometime.  The house looks like a big disaster thanks to all the boxes.  An even bigger (and much less sarcastic) thanks to my man for packing them.  He noted the other night that he would be single-handedly moving us because his wife can't manage to put down that sweet little monkey long enough to help pack a box.  Secretly, I think he's proud of the fact that he's done it all. Shhh...don't tell...

See why I can't put her down?  She's so squishy and cute and snugly!

I, unlike lots of other people, am loving all the snow.  Of course it helps that my kids are off track and I have a new baby and therefore am home bound.  I can snuggle my babe and look out my big windows from my couch at all that beautiful white stuff.  No bundling the kids up for school (which is good because most our winter wear is packed up and buried in storage). 

Other than being a little tired, my post baby self is feeling pretty darn good.  I'm happy.  I have energy.  I can button up my jeans.   Actually-I could button up my jeans 2 days after being home from the hospital.  And guess what?  I'm not one bit sorry and am quite pleased with it.  This is my 4th baby.  I would've thought my recovery would've been longer and a little harder than it's been especially with the added stress of selling our home, buying a new one, getting 6 people ready to move (oh wait-we've already established that as the man's job) and the holidays-Thanksgiving, Black Friday (what?  you don't consider that a holiday?) and Christmas.  By the time the new year rolls around, you may be finding me lying on a couch weeping to a therapist, though ;)

And speaking of the great holiday (at least in my opinion) called Black Friday-I definitely had a successful one!  I went with Cami and her mom and cousin.  Cami was a rookie.  She wanted to go to Toys 'r Us.  Me, being the more experienced Black Friday-er should've warned her of the horror that store can be, but I had only heard the stories.  I guess I wanted to see that particular brand of madness first hand.  Never. Again. The finding what you want part was just fine.  It was the line that would put Splash mtn's on the busiest hottest day at Disneyland to shame. Thankfully Cami decided it wasn't worth it and we left.  She was rewarded by finding the same item for the same price at walmart without having to ad-match.  We had lots of good fun at both the Payson and Springville WalMarts.  I was thrilled to come home with everything on my must-get list, everything on my it'd-be-nice-but-I-don't-stand-a-chance list and a few other fun things as well.  I think we put in a solid 12 hours of shopping.  Still not quite ready for Christmas, but I'm getting there.  Fortunately I can do almost everything else online.

Perturbed by Patterns

It is 1:30 in the morning but I was so excited about my latest project that I couldn't wait to blog about it. You will have to endure potentially incoherent sentences, but the pictures will tell the story, too.

Last night I sat down after I put the kiddos to bed and pulled out the shirt for Jeff's Halloween costume. I had it all cut out and ready to sew. After reading the directions several times and hoping to find some hidden information anywhere to help me decode the instructions, I gave up. No big deal. Halloween is still a month away, right? I'll just pull out some doll clothes I want to make for Lyndsi for her doll for Christmas. There is already an adorable little Christmas night gown cut out. I thought I'd finish it and lessen the chances of losing pattern pieces. A short search for instructions took place before I could actually start. (Imagine finding the directions in the pattern envelope. Shocking!) Yeah. Couldn't figure that one out either. I gave up and enjoyed a little bit of a movie before I went to bed. This afternoon I decided to attempt another project-a child's apron for a birthday gift for a party McKay's going to this week. I found a cute little apron online complete with pattern and instructions. This should be way easy, right? Nope. Couldn't figure that one out either. I couldn't even get past putting the pattern together. What in the world is going on here??!!!! I have made things way more complicated than a simple man's shirt, doll clothes and apron for heaven's sake! ARGHHH! I have concluded Jeff mistakenly packed my brain and took it with him on his business trip. (Jeff, could you fed-ex that back please? I need it!)

I really did need to get that apron done, though. It was the inspiration for the entire birthday gift. Besides the apron, McKay is giving her a sugar cookie mix, frosting and sprinkles, and a cookie cutter. Do you see the theme? The apron is quite important here. Luckily, Jeff only took the left side of my brain-the problem solving side. (Hopefully he'll do some upgrades on it while he has it.) The right side is still here with me and it can be quite good at improvising. I just learned to make a hostess apron and thought it would be easy to adapt it for a child, add a bib and there you go! The only problem was I didn't know how to do the waist band with the top part of the apron. Thanks to Annette (you were really helpful), I figured it out and spent the rest of the night creating this darling apron that I am almost sad to give away. (NOTE: It is pink and white not red and yellow. The lighting at 1 a.m. is not the best for beautiful photos.)

I also made her a set of bows:

And some for another cute little friend:

Feelin Groovy

Feelin good today, despite staying up too late last night (again). What can I say? I was happily crafting with no hubby reminding me that my body needs more than 5 or 6 hours of rest a night. What kept me so happily entertained? Well, it wasn't prime time/late night TV. That's for sure. (Although, WE had a fun show called Amazing Wedding Cakes that was sort of interesting.) I was learning how to make bows. A few years ago one of the little girls Lyndsi danced with always had these super cute bows that her mom makes and sells (Google Bows and Bobbies). She ended up making all the girls in her tap class bows for their Christmas recital because the ones that the seamstress made to go with the costume were hideous. The new bow was so stinkin cute, I had to figure how to make them. Well girls. It's been almost 3 years since then that I've been on my quest and I think I finally figured out how to make them. I found a website that had some easy to follow instructions and voila! Beautiful bows. (I also just figured out how to add text to my pics. So cool.) BTW-Sophie's cute Halloween bows are some I bought from Bows and Bobbies.





















Also, I was going through some photos on my camera and realized I had a couple of fun pictures of the expo. This is me and my sweet niece, Gabby. Then comes Ranae, me and my "edward" stamp, Cami, and then my SIL Lisa, Gabby, and me. It was a very fun day spent with the best girls.