Working again! And so Much More!

I've been racking my brain for something blog-worthy to blog about; and I wasn't thinking of the best thing!

For the past few weeks Matt has been working full time again! We're not sure how long it will last, but we are very thankful for the full paychecks coming in. God really has been taking care of us. I am very thankful for it.

There are some things I would like to get pictures of, but since I don't know when that will be; here is a little update on how our life has been:

A few weeks ago Ruby and Anthony found my sewing scissors (I did leave them out :(, but used this incident as a good excuse to get some new sewing storage containers!). When I found them with my scissors, Anthony had very short hair right in front. So now his haircut that I liked some much is gone; and he now has a buzz. I'm very thankful that Ruby didn't decide to cut her hair. I think they knew that was a bad thing to do. Isn't it odd how they will do one bad thing, but not do another because it's bad? I'm glad they used their children type logic in this instance though.

Bro. Lee & Sis. Cherrie are leaving us. :( We are sorry to see them go. For a good bye party; had a BBQ at our house on Sunday, and a singing later. It was a very nice day. I really enjoyed having the brethren in our home. there were a few visiting brethren at church, and then even more came for the singing. It was wonderful to hear the brethren lifting their voices in praise to the Lord in my home. The time I spent in my kitchen was great because I had the brethren serenading me!

Next week is my 8th wedding Anniversary. Matt & I decided that since we would have to take the baby wherever we went that we would make this year a family celebration. We've made reservations at the coast; and we are all going to spend this weekend at the coast. Matt's Mom is supposed to meet us there. I'm really looking forward to it!

I have had a few sewing projects that I've been working on. I really enjoy sewing, but don't usually take the time to sew. It really is hard to do with so many small children. Lately my house has been neglected a little so I can work on these projects. Sis. Cindy F. has been sewing some purses. She showed me how to do it, and I decided I would like to try. So far I have made a purse for Sis. Alyssa E. and a diaper bag for Sis. Cherrie B. I didn't get pictures of the purse, but I did of the diaper bag. I might post them later. I'm thinking about trying to make more and sell them on the same website as my quilts (of course none of those have sold yet... but maybe they will). Sis. Bridget D. also saw the purses and wanted to learn to make them to. After Sis. Cindy showed me; I have showed Sis. Bridget. It has been nice to spend some time with Sis. Bridget, and she has made a cute purse also.

For the Oregon camp out they always make a quilt to raffle off. This year they decided to send the quilt around to the different assembly's that are usually represented at the camp out and have them each add a border to the quilt. We are the last assembly to receive it, and I have been working on that too. For our border we traced the hand prints of our children; and I am sewing them on by hand.

So, with getting ready for the singing, going to the coast, and all my sewing projects. Plus Matt has been working so I don't have him to help around the house and with the kids so much; my life has been VERY busy. But it is a happy kind of busy! Just remember that if any of you happen to stop by! My house really isn't at it's best! Maybe I will concentrate more on that next week...

Happy 4th Birthday Anthony

Of all my children, Anthony is the most quirky. He definitely dances to his own drummer, that's for sure! I think it's the aspects of his personality that make him extra special also make him the most aggravating sometimes! He seems to be very creative. I've blogged before about pattern making. He's also very creative in his play. He'll take ordinary things and say that he's making things like a Birthday or a circus. He'll also bust up laughing about the weirdest things! I've applied to get him into head start. I think this might be good for him. Here is a picture of him being his little quirky self!

I would like to draw your attention to his hair cut. I've always thought this kind of hair cut looks really cute on little boys. For some reason this haircut won't work on Christian, but I gave Anthony this haircut and I think it looks very cute on him! I call it the "mushroom" hair cut.

For Anthony's Birthday we went to Shari's. On the weekends kids eat free; which is an awesome deal for us with all of our kids! On the actual day of his birthday we just had cake and presents by ourselves. Anthony got to pick out his own cake. I thought he would want a dinosaur cake, or something else that seemed more exciting for a boy his age, but this is the one he wanted. He definitely knows his own mind. Which is good, except for when what he wants is contrary to what I want.

Wow! My oldest is 7!

It is hard for me to believe I have a 7 year old! Christian is in first grade. He seems pretty smart for his age, but maybe I'm his mother and a little prejudice! I am amazed at the big words he can read. There are 6 students in his class that have harder spelling words than the other kids; and he is one of them. When we practice his math skills, he comes up with the answers pretty fast. I'm pretty proud of him!

As the oldest of 5 I feel like we expect more out of him. In some ways I feel bad about this, in other ways I feel like it is good for him. He's pretty good about helping around the house when he's not at school. Yesterday he gave the baby his bottle and I think that was one chore he didn't mind doing! I'm just amazed at how grown up he already is. I feel like he's a pretty good boy & I hope that we can do our part in bringing him up to be an excellent young man.

Christian's Birthday was actually last month, but it has just taken me this long to get the pictures on my computer.

Christian was actually pretty sick on his Birthday; so we celebrated it late. We took him to Chevy's for his Birthday. Here is a picture of him eating his ice-cream:

They gave him a cool hat that he got to keep and sang him Happy Birthday. It was a nice family outing together. We all enjoyed it. As the oldest of 5, I think Christian isn't the center of attention very often. I think it was nice for him to have this time in the spotlight. Our camera went dead so I didn't get a picture of him with his hat at the restaurant, but I just took some later:

Christian also had a party with Levi M. All the brethren here came over for cake and ice-cream. The boys opened their presents and then we all went skating. It was fun to spend the time with the brethren. I really enjoyed skating! Last time we all went I didn't get to skate because I was pregnant. My feet and back were sore, but I had a good time, and I think everyone else did too. Christian tried roller blades and did pretty good I thought.

HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY CHRISTIAN!

Finally put more pictures on my computer!

I finally got around to putting my pictures onto my computer today; so now I have some things to blog about! I have pictures of Christian and Anthony's Birthdays, but they will have their own special post. Now for this first picture...

Most of our tax return went into paying off some bills, but we did take a little bit to buy a few things we've been wanting. We took a trip to Wal-Mart! In the big city we live in there is not a Wal-Mart very close; so we don't hardly ever go there, but we went with some tax return money and bought some things for ourselves. This bed set came with the comforter, bed ruffle, shams, complete sheet set, and the 4 decorative pillows for only $64 on clearance! For a King sized set I felt like I had scored an awesome deal! We also had to buy 2 more pillows so we could make use of the pillow shams. Here is the new look in my bedroom. I'm very pleased with it:

Here are a couple of pictures I just had to take. It's just one of those Awwwwe moments!

I handed the baby over to Matt so I could do something and they both fell asleep.

Don't they look comfortable!

Selling Quilts

Awhile back I answered an ad on Craigslist. They were looking for people in my area who made unique, homemade baby items that they could sell on their website. To be honest I wondered if they were for real because you do have to be a little cautious, but I decided to answer the ad and see what became of it. I sent them pictures of these quilts that I make. (To give credit where credit is due, I want to thank Sis. Cindy for showing me how to make them.) They are incredible soft and easy to make. One side is soft flannel, and the other side is a soft fur material. The more boy type quilts have a triangle edging like this:

And the girl one's have a ruffle edging like this:

After a few contacts back and forth they decided to try selling my quilts on consignment, and I decided that the amount of money I would get from them would be worth it. To tell the truth it's not a whole lot, but I enjoy making the quilts and it's nice to make a little bit of extra money. By the way they do have the above star blanket for sale, but minus the pillow because that was not part of the deal.

From what I can gather a couple of moms got together and decided to start this website that exclusively sells unique, homemade baby items. I even got to meet one of the moms, and they seem like very nice people.

Anyway, I've been checking the site periodically since I signed the selling contract and they received my quilts; and finally today they had my quilts posted! They can be found under the toys and accessories section. I'm also in their featured designers section! This is kind of exciting for me! We'll see how these one's sell. If my quilts do good, then obviously they will want me to make more.

The website is: http://miminkoapparel.com/index.html I will try to figure out how to make a link to them on the sidebar of my blog.

Anyway, wish me luck on my new endeavor!

It's bound to happen...

This morning Matt and I didn't wake up until 9:30! Matt wasn't feeling real good; so he planned to stay home from church with a couple of the kids. I thought I had time to hurry up and go. I told Christian and ruby to hurry up and get ready, and we would just go through a drive through for breakfast. The baby was needing to eat; so I thought I would take care of that really quick. I sat down at my computer chair (which doubles as a rocking chair) I looked at my computer and it said it was 10:33! Yep! We forgot to set our clocks back. I guess it's bound to happen to someone, but why did it have to happen on the one Sunday morning when we slept in too late?

The ironic thing is that the baby woke up at 7 to eat, and I thought I had some time to sleep a little bit longer. If I'd have gotten up then it was actually 8! So if anybody is wondering why we didn't make it to church today...

Donate to Church by Shopping at Albertson's

Every year the assembly in Jackson, Wyoming have a ski weekend for the young people on St. Patrick's day weekend. If you link your Albertson's card to their organization a percentage of what you spend gets donated to them & they use the money for their ski weekend. We shop at Albertson's all the time and I just linked my card today. Even if somehow your card is already linked to them, for some reason you have to relink.

Anyway, I thought I would make a post about this so that anyone that had an Albertson's card could link it to them, and help them out.

You can go online to albertsonscp.com to link your card number to their organization number. I tried to do it online and couldn't figure it out so you can also call this number: 877-932-7948. Their organization number is: 49000113535.

If enough people do this they can get up to 4% of what we all spend at Albertson's!