Logan's 4 Birthday!

Logan had his 4th birthday last weekend! All week he was excited and counting down for the big day. Since it was a Saturday we woke up, ate powdered doughnuts (Logan's request), and opened presents!!! It's great to have Dave home so we could celebrate all day. Both boys were excited that Logan got a Duplo Superman set. They've been fighting over Batman for months now, so it's great to have two super heroes! They spent hours building houses and hideouts with us.

Logan also got a bag of used Mr. Potato-heads. They LOVE building different guys and have each nicknamed their favorites. Logan likes to make a pirate and calls him Trey. Dustin takes one of the little potatoes, puts eyes and shoes on and calls it Tot (like a tater tot! it kills me). They will build these guys for hours on end. I love new toys!

Logan wanted Sully cupcakes for his birthday. So I found some Monster's stickers at the Dollar Tree, and attached them to toothpicks. The frosting dyed everything blue, so I insisted the boys eat them without shirts. Bathing is far easier for me.

Friday night Dave and I got to go on a date to see Jurassic World. It was pretty good, I would rank it after Jurassic Park, only because I didn't love the main characters as much as in the original.

Saturday afternoon Dave built us a new shed door. I looked into buying a new one, but after finding out it would be $800, we decided building one ($80) would be a better option. The ones that came with the house were inside doors, and getting pretty beat up after years of outside wear. And of course after we finished the door, I realized how bad we needed to paint the shed!

It looks so great now that I want to make new curtains to go in the window. I won't, but turquoise curtains would look so cute! I've only finished painting one of the sides, but hope to get the other three sides done by the end of the week.

The boys jumped on the tramp while Dave and I hung it up. They love bouncing!

This week we've been busy. Today I took Logan to get him signed up for an online preschool funded by the state. He loved playing on a computer (the assessment test), and I am excited for him to start (statistically graduates of this program test 3 times higher than those that go to regular pre-school on average). I was a little worried about starting him in Kindergarden next year because he will be the youngest in the class, but I think this will give him the knowledge he needs to start in a year. They focus on letters/reading, but also have Math and Science.

In Which We Sew & Run

Look at what I finished this week!!! It's machine quilted and bound! And I love it. It makes me smile every time I see it and think of the ladies who made it.

I tried some new quilting patterns on this quilt. This one is a swirl pattern to match the waves.

On this one I did circles. They remind me of little pebbles or sand. I used this on all the sand in the quilt, and a few other squares too. It took awhile to really get good at this one, but I'm glad I tried it! It will be a fun one to have in my repourtour.

Then I tried some waves for all the blocks that have water (well, except the two waves that got swirls).

And I finished it off with some clouds. They were really fun and whimsical. I think it would be a fun one for a baby quilt.

And I can finally see the material on the back! I love it, wouldn't it make a fun Lava Lava (wrap around skirt)? I love how the blanket turned out, and so do the boys… Logan has to use it every time he needs a blanket. He's already spilled juice on it, but fortunately it washed out. Sigh, little boys!

Saturday Dave had his second half marathon! His first one was last year (July 24th). He ran that one in 2 hours and 19 minutes. This year he ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 2 minutes! For his division he was 64th out of 315 men. So he's faster than 80% of the guys in his age group! We had fun watching all the runners, waiting for Dave. Logan told everyone that ran by "Good job, you run really fast! Where's my Dad?"

Here's Dave headed the last .1 mile to the finish line. It was a beautiful morning. Dave said when he got up to the top of the mountain the moon was just setting  and the sun was coming up.

Friday night we got a hotel in American Fork, because Dave had to be dropped off at 4am! And I didn't want him to have to drive 45 minutes all by himself that early in the morning (and loose that much  more sleep).

So we drove down as soon as Dave got off work, checked in, and went to see the Minions movie. The boys loved it! I've never seen Logan laugh so hard, it was hilarious to watch him watch. Dustin loved the songs! He danced to every one. Then we went out to eat and headed back to the hotel for swimming. The boys had a blast and Logan was brave enough to swim around all by himself (with his water wings). I think next year we'll get him in swimming lessons so he can really enjoy the water.

And here's a pic with his metal! The boys fought over it so much, Dave had to get out last years metal so they both could have one to wear.

He did a great job! We're looking forward to his next half marathon in September. I don't know how much time he'll shave off between now and then, especially since his toe is hurting after this race. But we're excited to cheer for him again. Logan told Dave he wants to run the next race with him. But not down the mountain, because that would be a long time. And he might have to walk some too.

Saturday night we had a Stake BBQ to admire our float from the 24th of July parade. They had a bounce house with water for the kids to enjoy, food, and did a drawing for the pieces of the float. I won some material which I will probably use to make bags to organize the kids toys (why do I always need more of those?)

Sunday we had a movie afternoon (so Dave and I could get in a well deserved nap), followed by hide and go seek. You may think Dustin is crying in this picture, but he's not. He's "hiding". He thinks if he covers his eyes you can't see him. It's pretty cute to see him "hiding" in the middle of the room, covering his eyes and saying "peep" so you know where he is!

And the iron in the back ground is an indicator of the next quilt I'm about to finish. It's been in process for 1.5 years… So it's about time I finished it! I'm sure pictures will come soon. It needs to be pinned, quilted and bound. Then I'll only have two more quilts in my stack to finish (one for Dustin's birthday in November, and one for Christmas).

The 24th & Ducks

We survived last week!!! It was a rough one. Dustin was sick up until Wednesday. Logan was really ornery for most of the week. And I was sleep deprived again. It's starting to be the story of my life. I guess that's what we get for having kids ;)

Thursday Dave had a half day of work! So we went to the library to get some new books and a few movies for the boys for the long weekend. It was also the Library's book sale, so I picked up 10 books for me and 4 for the boys. They were 10 cents a piece, so I really couldn't go wrong! I've read one already and loved it. Logan and Dustin have also loved the 4 books I got for them, so we already got my money worth. After that we swung by the lazy river behind the library and swam until a half hour after bed time. I love that we have free access to water whenever we want to swim!

Friday we did a little yard work in the morning. The boys and I picked raspberries, tomatoes, zucchini (Logan's favorite to pick). We got TONS of all. Then we did some weeding while Dave finished up the mowing, weed whacking, and re-lining a flower bed with weed barrier. My friend Tenille dropped by after lunch to share some quilting patterns with me (we've been collecting this year's Utah Row by Row patterns). I then did pedicures for the family. I was doing mine when Dustin came over and said "Mom. Toes. Peeeeese?" So he ended up with 2 blue toes. Logan and Dave just wanted trims.

That evening we went over to Dave's brother Jon's house for a BBQ and swimming! They had a killer kiddy pool that all the cousins loved. Everyone was there, and we got to visit until past bed time. Saturday Dave started the day with a run, and we took a casual rest of the day. We went to the park, played duplos, watched a Transformers movie, only fun stuff! Sunday was the same. After church we just cooked dinner and relaxed until the AC died… it was 95 degrees out so I thought we were going to die waiting until the repair guy came Monday at 3.

Fortunately at noon Monday storm clouds blew in and the temperature dropped back down to 70 degrees. So we survived pretty well until it could be fixed. We spent the morning at Lowes pricing out new shed doors, so we were in the AC until it cooled down (when we woke up at 7 it was already 78 degrees, so I thought an air conditioned place was a necessity). I decided a "new" door was too expensive (it was going to cost $700 since the opening is a custom size), so I've conned Dave into making me one. I'm sure he will do a great job!

For FHE we went to Murray park and fed the ducks! They have a running/walking trail that follows a river, so we walked along that. Every 10 feet or so Logan would insist on running down to the bank and search for ducks. We fed three different batches of ducks. My favorite was a Mom with 7 little baby ducks! But we enjoyed feeding all of them. By the end of the trip Dustin realized he wasn't supposed to be eating the bread, and he was supposed to throw it. Which increased his enjoyment substantially.

The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day

I'm having a hard time remembering what we did for the past week. Somewhere in there we played with some neighbor kids. Friday the boys spent the day at my friend RiKelle's house while I helped my mom pack up some of the moving van. Friday night we all headed back to help finish up two of the three vans with Dave. I don't know how much help the boys and I were, but Dave helped with the furniture and big things. 

Saturday night Dustin came down with a bad cough. Deep in the chest, honking like a little pitiful duck cough. Sunday I kept him home from church while Logan and Dave went (Dave had to teach Sunday School and Elder's Quorum). When Dave and Logan left it was so pitiful! Dustin stood at the door crying "DAAAAAAD!!! and knocking. We had a slow, casual Sunday to try to help Dustin rest and heal.

He was still sick on Monday, and it was just a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day for all of us! Dustin's cough only got worse, so bad that he would cough and cough until he threw up. The past two nights he woke up at 1 and two and didn't get back to sleep until 5 or 6. So I was totally exhausted. Dustin too. Logan was ornery from not being out of the house for a few days. We slowly survived the day (Dustin took two 15 minute naps, I didn't get any!). By 6 we were dieting for Dave to get home. But he had to work late. So we put in the third movie of the day and just waited for bedtime.

Just as I decided it was late enough to put the boys to bed (7:30) there was a knock on the door. The guys in the basement had a flooded toilet (which apparently had been flooded all day). Why they didn't tell me earlier in the day was beyond me. So I went downstairs, cleaned up the 1/2 inch water and ascertained the problem (between the bowl and tank), and headed to the store to buy what I thought I needed, and called Dave to get him to head home and my Dad to verify what I was buying. By the time I got home with the parts, Dave was home too. So I sent him down to do the install while I got the boys to sleep.

An hour and a half later, the boys were finally asleep, so I headed down to help finish up. Well, the bolts holding the toilet together were rusted on and stripped, so Dave hadn't been able to even take it apart! We were able to saw the bolts off, and finally get to the root of the problem by 10:15. BUT more than the 3 pieces I bought were broke, so we needed more parts to fix it. The hardware stores closed at 10, so we were out of luck for the day.

We cleaned everything up and got to bed by 11:30. We woke up at 6 the next day (with Dustin and Logan both getting up in the night me being up again from 1 to 5). We were able to get the toilet fixed and put back together by 7:30 (before the boys woke up) and Dave headed into work. Fortunately the boys were less ornery Tuesday (had to be a blessing, because they were sleep deprived to the max by now).

I had to go to Walmart to get some dishwasher soap (did I mention we had run out of that too?), so we all decided to get a treat while we were out. The boys picked out a pack of fancy socks. Logan got super heroes, and Dustin picked Star Wars. I picked nail polish, and I got Dave a channel locking pliers (the same one I have and he had been coveting during our plumbing fiasco). The boys wore all 6 pairs of sock throughout the day, and wouldn't stop dancing around for me to take a picture (and yes, we have spent the past 2 days in PJ's, but we did change into clean ones for bed).

Dave got home from work on time and let me sit and read while he played with the boys. They went to bed relatively well, and actually slept through the night and up to 8:30 this morning (another blessing!). So I'm feeling a lot better today. I don't do well without sleep. Now if we can just survive today, Dave has a half day off Thursday and all day off Friday for the 24th! So here's to a long, horrible beginning of the week!

4th of July & Camping

I feel like the past few weeks we've just been in survival mode! I guess that's what happens when Dustin gets 3 teeth in a few weeks. I don't do well without sleep, so what can you do? For the 4th of July Dave had a half day Thursday and a full day off Friday. Thursday as soon as Dave got home we went to visit our friends the Terry's. They were here from Indiana, and we met them at her family cabin up Provo Canyon. It was great to get to catch up and spend the afternoon with them.

On the 4th we had a casual day with waffles for breakfast, and Fireworks throughout the day! Logan LOVED them! My parents had a dinner and cupcakes for the summer birthdays, followed by a firework extravaganza! They one kid at a time pick out which firework to light next, and even Dustin loved watching them blow up (although we weren't a big fan of the loud noises). 

By the time we got home the neighborhood was lighting their fireworks, so it was impossible to get the boys to sleep. I gave up around 9:30 and we all climbed up on the roof to watch the show. We Dustin fell asleep on the roof around 10 and Logan's eyes were getting heavy around 10:30 so we called it a night.

I've been doing a lot of sewing in my spare time! This quilt top is from the Yoder Reunion, and I've got it about 66% machine quilted. I'm dyeing to get it done, but it's slow going since I'm experimenting with new quilting patterns. It's going to be great once it's done though. I also just finished and got paid for hemming some pants for a lady that's friends with a friend of mine.  It's mindless sewing, but doesn't really take too long to get done.

Dave has been lamenting not going camping this summer (it's been WAY too hot!!!). So we decided to do a family "campout" Friday night. Mike texted asking if we could babysit Friday, so we decided to do it with a few cousins! While Dave was building a fire the kids had a blast jumping on the Trampoline. Even Dustin and Tim (who I thought were too small to jump with so many kids did great).

They probably played on the tramp for an hour before it was time for Smores! Tim and Dustin had fun collecting the balls (and Dustin would try to bounce on them).

They were all great with the fire! Nobody tried to touch it, and the only one to light their marshmallow on fire was Dave. To which Sarah responded "Don't worry Uncle Dave, I like it that way. I will eat it."

We had a great night! Getting the five of them all to sleep was difficult, but eventually we got them all down.

Other than that the boys and I have had a lot of fun playing at the park, lazy river, or just in our back yard (but especially when friends come with us). We've also started letting Logan pick part of FHE. The first two weeks we tried this he got to pick the activity (he chose running through the sprinklers and game night). This week he got to pick the lesson (he picked the Holy Ghost).