Monday, May 18, 2015

Buzz, Spiderman & Rain

Yup, more rain here. I don't think we've had this wet of a spring since I moved to Utah. Although it could be that this year I noticed, since we're trying to re-shingle our roof. We were supposed to start tear off Thursday, but it rained all  weekend. We're just hoping we can get the tear off done before we head to North Carolina.

Because of the lack of tear off, we've been working hard on other projects (never ending battle, eh?). Dave's still been working in the yard, it just goes a lot slower with all the rain. He got the rocks laid on the side of the gazebo, and I love how they turned out. I'd take a picture, but with all the rain, it just isn't turning out well.

The boys have been obsessed with playing dress up lately. My mom was cleaning out her costumes, and we inherited quite a few of the manly ones. As a result, Logan's begging for a Buzz Lightyear costume has increased. So I  pulled one together for him. He has been telling me for months he wants to be Buzz for Halloween and Dustin wan't to be Woody. I'll make gloves and a hat when it's actually Halloween, but this should tide him over for now.


I also made a Spider man dress up while I was sewing. I've been designing a Batman blanket for when Dustin moves into the bottom bunk in Logan's room, and Logan has been telling me he wants the Batman blanket and Dustin can have his Spiderman one. Part of me thinks it's because it is something new, but the other part wonders if it's because he has a Batman Costume. So I decided to make a Spider man costume to see if it would help.


They've both enjoyed it, so it was worth the $5 it cost to make (actually, I think it was less than that, since I only had to buy the red material). I made it big so they could wear it for a while, but I'm now wondering if it's too big… Hum, who knows how long they like to play dress up?


Monday, May 11, 2015

Mother's Day & LOTS of Rain

This weekend was a slow one. It rained a ton, so we didn't get a chance to do much which was exactly the break we needed! Friday Dave swung by Lowes and picked up rocks to pour around the stepping stones and where the fire pit is going to live. It was raining, so he bought them with anticipation of hopefully laying them Saturday. We went to the temple Friday night, and it was so nice! Traffic was horrible getting there, but it was so nice to get to go. We sat at talked in the Celestial room after for quite a while before heading home.

Saturday I had my last quilting class of the year! Well, technically the last one is in June, but I'll be in North Carolina for that one. So this is the last one I'm going to attend. I've been waffling back and forth about signing up for next year's class or not… and Saturday made my decision for me. My mom was spring cleaning out her sewing stuff/stash and I probably ended up with 7 projects! So really I'm set for the next 7 years. Some of them are just collections of material in complimentary colors, but some are completed squares just waiting for someone to make them into something! So I went through them all, and have my work cut out for me (although I probably won't start anything until late June). We also ended up with food and a few other odds and ends.


 The boy's favorite things we inherited were costumes! They spent all weekend being a fire fighter, cowboy, and viking! Their favorite is the viking so there's a lot of fighting over the hat with horns. Logan will tell you he's Lyle the Viking and when Dustin wears the hat he's Bob the Viking. We even went on our walk this morning dressed as fire men (both boys had a hat).

Saturday Dave's parent's also kidnapped the boys for the day. They were supposed to go to the zoo, but since it rained all day long, they only made a brief appearance there, then went bowling. They had so much fun. Dave prepped his lessing while I was at quilting, and when I got home we relaxed.  That night we braved the rain and went to the mall to do some Mother's Day shopping. The boys both picked out a gift for me and we spent hours in the Lego store! They (and Dave) were in HEAVEN! So many toys to play with!

Sunday we had a relaxing Mother's Day. We had Raspberry White Chocolate Chip muffins for breakfast. Dustin went to Nursery. I dropped him off, and I only had to go calm him once. He stayed the rest of the time just great! Logan had to go potty 3 times during church, and since Dave was teaching, I got to take him each time (he threw a fit when the youth tried to get him to go in the men's room instead of the ladies room where I take him… guess we'll have to work on that). We decorated cup cakes for our dessert (I wanted German Chocolate Cake, and I knew the boys wouldn't eat it, so I got a can of frosting for them and a variety of sprinkles and German Chocolate frosting for Dave and I). Then I got to do some sewing!


I finished this bad boy! It's for the nursery rhyme quiet book, and it's supposed to be the 3 little kittens. In the basket are 6 different sets of mittens. So they have to find their mittens, match them, and hang them on the line. It turned out cute! I have 8 scripture pages done, am waiting to receive 8 from the exchange, have 4 nursery rhyme pages done, and am waiting on 1 more from the exchange. So I think I'll try to get 3 more nursery rhyme pages done before the reunion as well as making 2 - 3 book covers for these. Eventually I want a Book of Mormon/Church History, Old Testament, New Testament, and Nursery Rhyme quiet book. But for now I'm just working on 3 and I will mix the church ones into one or two.

Oh, random, but we got the boys an Electric Toothbrush a few weeks ago. After finding a $10 coupon online, I got it for $30. They both throw major fits every time we brush, and now they fight over whose turn it is to brush. They don't do a great job brushing, but it's a lot better than before. And the brush times them, so they know how long to brush for. I got a set of knock off toothbrush heads 12 for $9, so we're set for the next year or two! I would highly recommend one for anyone!


Also, since it was Mother's Day, I can finally share this project!!! I've been secretly working on it for months. I kidnapped a quilt my Grandma Yoder made for my Mom about 40 years ago. It had a few spots where the material wore through, so I patched up those spots with new material. You can see the piece above that was torn.


This is one that's done! It was a lot of work, but it turned out great! The piece above is a different one that has been patched. My mom just loves this quilt (because her mom made it for her), so I wanted to make sure she could enjoy it for years to come.


There was also a tear in the back that I patched up. I forgot to take a picture of that one fixed before I gave it to her, but it worked out well too.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Ducks, the Yard, Sewing & Playing


Last blog post I didn't have any pictures of the boys (I haven't been taking many lately), so here is Logan feeding/chasing the three "daddy ducks" that have been roaming up and down our street. He loves when they visit our yard. Sorry Dad, it's the only one I had this week!

Last Thursday night we had our first date in a long time!!! Dave's work was doing a movie night so we got to go see the Avengers. It was better than the first one, and Dave loved it. It was so much fun to get out and see a movie without the boys. They also did free popcorn and drinks too, which was nice since we never get those when we go.

I brought home the left over popcorn and the boys ate it for breakfast. I went to the bedroom to get something and when I came back into the kitchen Logan was chowing down and Dustin had dumped his cereal on the ground and was eating the popcorn Logan had poured onto his tray. Man those boys are already getting into trouble together!

Friday after Dave got home from work we went to Lambert's Nursery and got the plants for our garden and some flowers as well. Logan and Dustin loved helping pick things out and wanted to smell all the flowers! When we were in the check out line one of the workers was writing out my bill to make the trip to the cash register quicker (it's an old school mom & pop shop with zero technology). Logan decided to untie her apron. This is his favorite thing to do when I'm washing dishes, but I was surprised he would do it to a stranger!

Saturday the boys and I planted the garden and flowers while Dave ran around to a few Home Depots to get a stump grinder. It took Dave all day to grind the 3 stumps! I did most of the second one to give him a break, but man it was tedious and exhausting!

This week has really gone by in a haze. I've been throwing everything together so we can shingle the house next weekend. Well, we are just tearing off the shingles and paying a guy to put the shingles back on for us. Yes, we probably could figure out how to do it ourselves, but this is just not the year for a major project. I'm praying like crazy that it doesn't rain next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday so we can get these bad boys off and the waterproofing layer down. It's been raining all week here.

Oh, I've also been sewing quiet book pages! I joined a quiet book page exchange a few months back, and we just switched pages. We ended up with some bible stories and some nursery rhymes, so now I'm going to make a book for each. So I've been making extra pages so I have enough. I'm more excited for the scripture book, but the nursery rhyme book will be fun too.

Christ Calms the Storm (finger puppets in a pocket)

Joseph's Coat (puzzle & snaps)

Samson & Delilah (hair braiding)

Adam & Eve (color matching & buttoning)

David & Goliath (button & make the rock hit him)

Swallowed a Fly (she eats the finger puppets & zipper belly)
I love how these are turning out!!! I hope to have at least one book done by the time we go to North Carolina. If so, I'm going to hide it away so the boys don't play with them before then.

We've also been playing with friends a bit this week. We went to Sugar House park with Logan's friend Briggs (short for Brigham) and his sister Calli that is a little older than Dustin. It was fun to see the four of them explore the park together. They moved en mass from the river to slide to tunnel to swings, etc. Next year Logan is going to go to Pre-School with Briggs two mornings a week. He's excited to go with his friend, although I'm sure he'll make more friends too.

Wednesday morning Abby, Madddy and Edison came over to play. They tore the house apart, but had lots of fun doing it. Logan misses having Abby and Maddy come over every day, so it was nice to spend time with her. We do get to play with Devonsch a few times a week though (and he is calming down a bit, which helps).