Happy Valentines!

One of my favorite mediums to craft with has to be wool felt!  I love the way it cuts so crisply and how easy it is to sew.  My sister Karalenn does too, so we've made several fun felt calendars in the past- like our Christmas one here:

and our Halloween one here:

 well, this time we decided to make one for Valentines day- but instead of making it a countdown to the holiday we decided to make it a mailbox for our families.  Every day the kids love to run to the calendar and check their special pocket with their name on it to see who's written them a love note.  They range from really sweet to pretty darn funny- and they've been so much fun!

Here's the calendar I made for our family, designed by my sister Karalenn:

and here are some of our favorite love notes we've written and received:

4 months down, 5 to go!

A few new things for us:

Here we have baby #4- a very hungry, perfect, wiggly little bean- due 11/11/11 (coolest due date ever!)

 

Those first few months weren't pretty, but the morning sickness has subsided and now we can focus on other things, like finding something that will actually fit this body of mine that doesn't make me look like I'm wearing sausage casings or a tent (don't you love the in-between stage), oh, and I guess we've also got to start getting ourselves packed up for the big move- 15 minutes away!  We have such mixed emotions about this move- we're so excited one minute, and then the next so sad to be leaving so many people we love, but the great thing is we're still close enough to see our friends (even if it won't be carpooling to cubscouts, soccer, or school!)  It's amazing what 15 minutes drive-time can do, new school, new district, new ward, new stake- and all of this with a new baby~ we're in for an adventure!

2 years and 2 months later.....

With my love for most old-fashioned needle arts, it's no secret that I have a little old granny that resides within my body- generally she quietly sits twiddling her thumbs, hidden inside biding her time until the day when she will start dying her hair wacky shades of blue and cackling over donuts with friends each morning down at Chuck's (oh sweet Chucks) because she and I will have little else to do, but for now- I let the old biddy out for an hour or two each night while I work on whatever cross stitch that tickles my fancy for the moment as a way to unwind each night.  You may remember when I posted a little over two years ago that my sister and I decided to tackle a few designs by Scott Gustafson- these are crazy hard, super detailed projects that are 18 inches wide and 22 inches tall on 25 count fabric (625 stitches per inch)- don't do the math, it's crazy.....  Anyways, my first of the projects is finished, I put off the laundry yesterday long enough to complete my Princess and the Frog design (which I started before I even knew Disney was recreating the story- it's always been a favorite of mine).  So here are a few shots of the finished product- it's not framed yet, so please excuse the rumpled look to it-

Here's a shot of the process-  this is two pages of the design, and there were 36 of them to do:

 

and here's the final product:

 a close up:

a few more close ups:

4th of July- Picture HEAVY!

And when I say picture heavy, I really do mean it!  We had many, many hilarious-pee your pants funny moments:
*Lucy shooting like a torpedo in the water
*Diane trying to catch the frisbee and ending up doing a perfect ballerina impression
*Me trying desperately to get Jana's trunk open only to find out it was someone else's car

A few scary moments (involving our stinkin' dog):
*Hazel climbed a 15 foot ladder to the roof of the cabin only to slide down the slippery tiles and fall all the way to the ground (which was also kind of funny because I got to see the look of shock on the man's face who was up there pressure washing when he saw Hazel up on the roof with him-  "Doggy- No, no!  Get down doggy!")
*Hazel getting lost on Lopez, chasing cars on the a main road, and us having to drive all the way to the south end because a kind woman found her and kept her until we could get down there.

And so many wonderful memories with my dearly-loved In Laws and our wacky kids.  Here are some of the things we did:

We spent time with our cousins:

We spent lots of time at the lake, fishing and catching tadpoles:

We spent even more time down on the beach:

We played in the water:

The boys built a "Boys only" Fort:

So of course, the girls built one for themselves too:

K worked on some of his cubscout requirments:

I made the kids pose for me waaaaaaaaay to much:

(see how happy she is about it)

(once again, thrilled)

The kids were in the parade this year- they loved throwing the candy:

While we watched and caught the candy on the sidelines:

And we spent time with these two special someones:

(mmmm- smores!)

Happy 4th of July! 

Snake Hunting

We've found a fantastic park over near us that the kids love because it's crawling with snakes, and for my odd children, it's heaven!  Last week when we were there, J found an especially big one and thought she'd share it with a 12-year-old boy who happened to be walking past.  He wasn't especially fond of the idea, I believe he said something like, "Dude!  Girls aren't supposed to touch snakes- and your sister's doing it in a tutu- what's wrong with you!"  That was just the sort of encouragement J needed to find 8 more before we left for the day.  Here are some pictures of the day's catch:

 

Catching Up- K's Baptism

I can't believe I have an 8-year-old!  How is it possible that time has gone by so fast?  I started my planning for his big event by sending out these:

(I've changed the info of course!), and by assigning food for the family to bring.  We also have been making our family home evenings all about his preparation for the last few months to get him all ready for the big day.  I was so happy my parents could fly up for the weekend (even though life was very crazy for them at the time), and we also had all of Foo's wonderful family and some very dear friends come to help us celebrate this big step in our K's life.

I've been to many, many baptisms, I've spoken and felt the spirit at many, many baptisms- but I've never felt it so strongly as when I watched my newly-turned 8 year old enter the waters and receive the Holy Ghost for the first time.  What an amazing day!  Congratulations to our K for his decision and next big step!  Here are some pictures from our day!

Here's K and Foo before the service:

Kaden wanted to sing with his cousins for the special musical number- M was up there pulling faces the whole time:

The extended family:

And while we were trying to get a picture of just our family I came across this one on my camera- I thought it was "Classic Kristie" (you have to say that like J.T. on SNL)- me thinking something was just absolutely hilarious (probably something annoying I did) and everyone else looks thoroughly bugged and ready to get the heck out of there:

Yep, at least I think I'm pretty funny-
But we finally got a family picture where everyone is looking near the camera at least and smiling, notice Foo having to pin M's arms up in the air to get her facing in one direction long enough to take a picture.