Quilts for my Boys

For Christmas this year I decided to make quilts for all my boys and Jeremy.  Well, actually, I decided not to make one for Tad, since I had already made one for him this year, and I did not make one for Dallin because I have plans to make a special quilt for him for a big day he has coming up in 2012.  Dallin got a minky blanket for Christmas, just so he wouldn't feel left out.  These are some rather poor pictures of the quilts I made for the rest.

This is Jeremy's quilt.  He told me he didn't care if it had flowers all over it as long as it had minky on the back.  I obliged, and there are a few flowers, but I tried to keep them to a minimum.  The minky on the back is cream with brown circles.  You can kind of see it through the bottom part of the quilt.  I had to fold this quilt over quite a bit to get a picture on my clothesline.  It is a good sized quilt and I will never attempt to quilt such a large one on my machine again. It was really tough.

I stayed up until 3 am while Jeremy was on a business trip to Tucson in order to get this pieced without him seeing it.  A few days later while I was quilting it, he walked through the front door at 10 am and spoiled the surprise I had worked so hard to maintain.  I was angry the rest of the day.  I'm glad that he seems to love it so much.  I guess it was worth it after all.

This is the quilt I made for Thomas.  When he unwrapped it he was mad that it didn't have minky on the back.  I think he is still holding a grudge, but, as you can tell the quilt has already gotten plenty of use and needs a wash.

This is Jack's quilt.  I originally started making it for Tad, but Jack loved it so much that I decided to finish it up for him instead.  It is a cute sort of "I spy" quilt and Jack loves looking for the different things in the blocks.

This is the quilt I made for Drake.  He insists on snuggling up with me or his dad under it every night on the couch and then he has to take it to bed.  Drake, of all my boys, appreciates a good quilt.

I'm glad all of these are done and I think I will be taking a break from quilting for a month or two.

Six Months

Six months?!?!?!  I can hardly believe we are halfway to one year with this little guy.    Time - please, please, please slow down!!!

My Birthday Present

This is what I told Jeremy I wanted for my birthday this year.  Didn't he do a beautiful job building it for me?  This now hangs in the entry hall of our home and will provide a fun decor opportunity year round.  Right now, I love the hooks for hanging stockings. (We, unfortunately, are fireplace free at this house.)  As you can tell, we have an empy hook.  I thought for sure that I would get Tad's stocking made before Christmas this year, but as I am looking at my "to do" list, I am pretty sure it won't happen.  It looks like he will have to get by with one of the old cheapos from days gone by.  Next year Tad.  I promise.

Love it!

Christmas Advent Quilt

My sister really enjoys piecing quilts.  She has inspired me over the last couple of years to pick up the hobby as well, and I must admit it is quite addicting.  Last year, she made a cute Christmas quilt.  I decided that I would like to make a Christmas quilt for my family this year.  I could just picture my boys snuggling up on the family room couch under a cute holiday quilt.  Then, I ran onto this pattern for an advent calendar quilt, with pockets pieced right into the quilt.  I knew I wanted to make it this year.  I armed myself with a Ready, Set, Snow charm pack by Moda and some yardage and got to work way back in August.

This was actually a fairly easy quilt to put together.  The worst part was appliqueing the numbers on the pockets.  If you are good at applique it would probably be a snap, but it took me FOREVER.  While I was in the middle of it, I told my sister that I wished I had just stenciled them on with some good fabric paint, or cut the numbers out of felt and used a fabric glue to apply them.  Now that it is done, however, I am really glad that I took the time to applique the numbers.  I love them!!

It is nice to have something substantial to hang on the wall during the Christmas season.  My boys will love getting their surprises out of the pockets every day.  Maybe next year I will make that dream Christmas quilt for them to snuggle up under on the couch.

Five Months

My beautiful number five is now five months!

Crying Over Spilled Milk

The other day I went to upload my photos from my camera to my computer.  There were some great ones.  Drake had just turned two and I had taken a bunch of cute pictures of him with his cake and opening his presents.  We had also just had Halloween, so I had taken loads of pictures of my kids in their costumes and at their school Halloween parade.  When my import was finished, I found that every picture had been deleted except for these. . .

This is all I have left to remember my child's second birthday and Halloween 2011.  I am sick inside.
The picture of Tad - was NOT taken by me, so I figure whoever took it, did the deleting. I really got after my kids, so I don't think they will dare touch the camera again for awhile.  At least the picture of Tad is cute.  It would have been an even bigger tragedy if I had lost all of those pictures for something like a picture of the TV screen, a transformer, or an elbow.  Kids!!!!!!

It's Autumntime

A few pics from this year's fall "leaf lookin'" excursion. 

I love Autumn!

Four Months

Tad is now four months old.  I enjoy him so much.  He is a really good baby and entertains the whole family with his huge smiles, cute laughs, and fun "talking".  We love him and can't get enough of him!!

Chores

This is pretty typical of what happens at our house if the boys are left on their own to do chores. The other day I asked the boys to clean their room. When I went to check on their progress, their room was still a complete mess and they were nowhere to be found. I went outside to look for them and found this on my back porch.

I walked a little more and saw this.

Yes.  That is Jack riding his bike in his underwear.  Dallin and Thomas, I can only imagine, are scheming about how they are going to get out of this one.  As usual, the room got cleaned by three very sad little boys.  I'm such a mean mother.  But, I must say the artwork is cute!

First Haircut

My little Drakers finally had his first haircut. It is always a little hard for me to let this happen, but Drake is almost 2, so I was actually kind of glad that he finally had enough hair for a little trim.  I took him over to GG's (his grandma) salon and she did the honors.

 Before the cut.  Thin, wispy hair, but a little scraggly.

 During the cut.  He was really good!

After the cut.  Looking much more grown up.  It's good I have another baby, or this would make me a little depressed.

Bookshelves

My oldest boys' room is a constant struggle to keep clean and organized.  I want them to have a lot of books, but we had this book basket that was always overflowing and driving me crazy.  It was a big basket, and it seemed like the only books that were ever read were on the top.  I saw this idea, of using Ikea spice racks to shelve books on the wall and thought that would be the perfect solution to my book storage problem.  However, the nearest Ikea to me is in Tempe (three hours away), and they do not sell these puppies online.  Well - - my awesome sister-in-law, Margaret, heard that I wanted them and so she went to Ikea, bought them for me, and mailed them down here.  Super generous huh?!?  I painted them white and Jeremy installed them for me in the boys room and they really are a great solution to our problem.  I was surprised that the racks held all of our books from the overflowing basket and they are sooo much easier to access now.  I think they look pretty good too.  Thanks Margaret!  I don't know if you read this blog, but the world needs to know how grateful I am for your generosity!

P.S. She sent me two more racks as well, for the little boys' room.  We love them!

Three Months

The last three months have definitely gone a lot faster than the three months before.

I love this boy!!

Seven!

Dallin had his seventh birthday last week.  He didn't get to have a party this year, but I let him invite a few of his best buds from school over to play and have pizza.  It was way less work and I think the kids had just as much fun.  His birthday celebration went on for several days as we had his friends over one day, a family party the next, Grandma and Grandpa came from Utah and brought more presents the day after that, and then on Sunday he received more presents from GG and Grandad.  He had a great week and loved all the attention and gifts.  Dallin is a great kid with a real zest for life.  He is a great friend, big brother, and son.  We love him and are glad he is part of our family.  Happy seventh Dal!!

First Day of Preschool

Jack started preschool this week. He is going to the same preschool that Dallin and Thomas attended and I know that he will have a great experience and love going there just like they did.

On his first day, I pulled up and he said "Thanks for the ride mom." He was ready to march right in and get started - no worries in the world. When I picked him up the first thing he said to me was "Hi mom. I had fun!" It looks like he's off to a good start.

2 months

I just had to share these pictures of my adorable baby who is now two months old. We love him to pieces and feel so blessed to have him in our family.

First Day of School

Dallin and Thomas started school last week. Dallin is now a big first grader and Thomas leaves me everyday for Kindergarten. (Weren't they just babies yesterday? How did this happen?!?)

They both have nice teachers and are loving school so far. I'm sure another great year is ahead.

Tad's quilt

I started a quilt for Tad months ago, but before I even got finished piecing it, Jack was completely attached, so I decided to save it and finish it for him later and make a different one for the new little guy. I finally finished it yesterday. The piecing went really quickly, but it took me forever to get up the motivation to get it basted, quilted and bound. I quilted it in straight lines from top to bottom on my machine and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I think it is a cute little quilt for a baby boy.

This is the front.

And this is the back.

Deja vu

I was in the kitchen the other day with Jack and had a deja vu moment, so I had to snap this picture. This reminded me of a scene a few years ago that also prompted a Kodak moment.

I guess some things never change.

Swimming Lessons

Dallin, Thomas, and Jack all just finished a session of swimming lessons. All of them did really well and passed their levels. They loved being able to go swimming every day for two weeks and they had really nice teachers.

The boys before their last day of lessons.

Jack in the pool.

Thomas came over to say "hi."

Dallin's teacher was really good and he had a blast with Dallin. Dallin was a little daredevil and his teacher could throw him around and help him do all sorts of tricks. Needless to say, Dallin LOVED it!!!!! Here he is getting thrown up for a swan dive.

This was the big finish. A bit more of a belly flop than a dive, but he still came up smiling!!

It was a good couple of weeks.