Hoot

This year I am trying to give only homemade gifts. It is giving me a great reason to sew, it saves money, and I can use up some of my excess fabric. (Is their even such thing as excess fabric?) So far I’ve done okay, but not great. Mostly because I just run out of time and energy to make it all.

But a little while ago Emma was invited to a birthday party, and I had the idea to try and make an owl pillow, similar to one that we had seen at Target and loved. I used only fabric and scraps that I had on hand, and appliqued most of the pieces on. I was so pleased with the outcome!

Emma was in love with it also, which made her so excited to give it to her friend! And it also made her really want to keep it for herself. Maybe she can help me make one in her own fabric choices. :)

Playing Catch

Adam took some action shots of the kids playing catch. You can tell a lot about their personalities by their throwing form. :) Or at least I can.

Sydney didn’t play catch (in case you were wondering), but she’s still awfully cute! All these pictures are still from March, that’s why everyone is a bit bundled.

Back in March…

One evening, back in March, Ben came down with a fever. By the next night I noticed he was having a hard time breathing. Adam slept by him that night to keep an eye on him. The next morning when I went down stairs (around 8am), our neighbor was just leaving – he and Adam had already given Ben a priesthood blessing. Apparently Ben was still really struggling to breath during the night.

So Adam took Ben over to Urgent Care, where they checked his oxygen levels, gave him a breathing treatment, and said to come back at noon to make sure his O2 levels were normal.

So I took him back at noon – they found his levels were even worse than in the morning and told me to take him to the hospital. What?! So me, Ben, Spencer and Sydney headed to the ER. (Side note: I really hate having to take a baby into a hospital – there are a lot of sick people there! Ben included). I called Adam and he was able to meet me there thankfully.

Here’s Ben in triage. Sweet boy! Everybody checked him out a bunch, and they took x-rays of his lungs to check for pneumonia. (That’s when I left to take the little kids home, and to be there for Emma when she got home from school.) They decided he was sick enough that he needed to be admitted.

Well as it turned out the hospital was already at full capacity, so they needed to transfer Ben to a different hospital. And since he needed to be on oxygen, he had to go in an ambulance! So here’s Ben rollin’ down the road.

He ended up staying about 2 1/2 days in the hospital. His official diagnosis ended up being RSV plus a bronchial pneumonia. Adam and I traded off staying with him and the other kids. He missed his family so much.

Everyone (mostly) was so nice to him (why cranky people who don’t know how to talk to kids decide to work in the children's ICU is something I will never understand). Overall he was taken such great care of. He could eat all the food he wanted, watch any movies, and he even had an XBOX to himself. He actually recovered really quickly and only missed 4 days of school (with a weekend in there too). I hope to never have to go through that again!

Hurray for sewing!

I’ve been having so much fun sewing lately! Just before Sydney was born, we turned the main area of our basement into my sewing/craft room. I know – too fun! Someday (maybe) I’ll post some before and after pictures of it. So, as Sydney has been getting older I have had a little more time to work on projects.

The first things I started on were bags/purses. I really want to learn how to sew well, and take the extra time to construct things properly, so that they will actually be usable/wearable (unlike many of my projects in the past). So I thought some simple bags were a good thing to start with.

So here is the first project I completed (post baby).

A blue denim bag, with corduroy lining. I made a little flower template and appliqued it onto the bag.

Emma quickly loved the bag and claimed it for her own. :)

This and that

I am so far behind in updating the blog. So this post is just a few pictures of different things.

Back in February, Ben’s first grade class (along with the other two 1st grade classes in our school), did a performance for all the parents.

Spencer enjoying the show. And Ben and his friend - who, I have been informed, is the smartest boy in the class.                    

Doing the Donut Dance.

Grandma with Sydney, and Pa with Spencer.

Emma and Sydney. My girls.

The Good Stuff

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Cute Kids!

I know I said something about some basketball pictures and some capitol building pictures – well that’s not happening anymore. I’m too far behind. So instead I’m moving right into the “photo shoot” with the kids.

I didn’t get anyone ready for pictures. They wore what they happened to have on – in Emma’s case her pajamas. And no one got their hair combed. And in Ben’s case – no hands washed either.

I did put down this blanket to use as a backdrop. And since I have no idea what I’m doing, I think it actually turned out pretty well.

I can’t get enough of that toothless smile!

I can’t get enough of this one either!

The bigger kids did great sitting still for the pictures, and I think they even had fun doing it.

Spencer wanted his picture taken, but only on his own time, and in his own way.

I would have loved to have all four kids together in a picture. But for obvious reasons, that was not going to happen.

And after all the big kids, it was baby time! Sydney was a very sweet model.

Somewhere along the way I switched to portrait mode. Before that I was trying to do the settings on the camera myself. At this point the auto modes are what I prefer. Someday my brain will work a little quicker again and I can figure out the manual settings. :)

Even Zoe tried to get in on the action.