Christmas Eve

Well, this is our version of the Christmas Story. Dixie has a bath mat tied to her so she can be a sheep. She didn't seem to mind much. Tyler played two parts. We'll need to improve on our costumes next year.

It's Sew Cool!

Sophie saved Capri Sun pouches in addition to Emma gathering them up from friends at lunch. She sewed it together on New Year's Eve. I was tired of her watching so much television. We know that all her friends will want one when they see it!

A Quilting We Will Go

Fun quilts that I have recently done for customers.

Emma's first quilt

Emma made her first quilt for her friend, Holly. Emma sewed all the squares into rows and after sewing 4 of the rows together she asked me to help her. She quilted it on my quilting machine and I did the binding. She had a lot of fun making it.

Quilting Mania

Emma sewed an I Spy quilt for her dear friend's birthday. She wants to quilt it also so she practiced on a plain one first. Here is her first quilted project! She did great. That girl has personality!

Sophie's Big Weekend

Sophie celebrated her 12th birthday last Friday. For her date with mom and dad she choose Red Lobster where she tasted lobster and crab legs for the first time. She loved them as well as the coconut shrimp. Saturday morning she got up early to participate in her All District Orchestra auditions. Then we went and bought some sushi for lunch. Tyler and Emma were not big fans of it but Sophie thought it was heaven. I made her a cupcake birthday cake and she helped frost it. Sunday she was visited by the Young Women Presidency and welcomed into Young Womens. She is pretty excited to go on Wednesday. There are 14 beehives! At school on
Monday she found out that she made All District Orchestra. Not only that, but of the 35 spots in the orchestra she made 8th chair! Also of note, Sophie is in 6th grade and this is the 7th grade orchestra! Way to go Sophie!

It's official!

Kayla received a beautiful diamond ring this weekend and will be marrying Mitch Davies this July. We are so excited for her and Mitch. It seems that they make each other very happy and that is what marriage should be.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are Out!

In case you haven't heard...ZACH GOT INTO BYU!! He starts in July for summer block. I'm glad we thought of that strategy to help get him in. It worked! He's really excited and Steve is excited that it is the cheapest college tution for him! Hooray!

Record Snow Day!

Well, Emma got her wish... lots of snow! School was cancelled on Feb. 12th due to record breaking snowfall, a whopping 12.5". This broke the record since records were kept over 100 years ago. I'm glad we had some old snow clothes and boots that fit the girls. They each made a snowman. Aren't they cute? I am glad it's melted so I can mop my floors and be done with Dixie carrying in snowballs on her hairy feet!

I Spy...

I volunteered to be in charge of Sophie's class's Silent Auction Basket for their spring fundraiser. Or course I choose the I SPY theme so I could make a quilt and bean bag toy. I really do love I SPY. Everyone needs a quilt like this or one similar!

Quilt Mama Mania

I recently finished my first sampler custom quilt that was for a friend. Since all the blocks are different, it needs alot of different quilting but yet it needs to flow together. This is Vicki's quilt.

Emma's baptism

Emma was finally baptized on Feb. 6th. She turned 8 in Dec. but wanted to wait until Kayla was able to come. Sophie played a descant on her violin while everyone sang "I Am a Child of God." It was so pretty. Steve's parents came as well as cousin Jessie Beck. Zach invited his girlfriend, Holly, who wants to take the missionary discussions. Sophie said that we must continue the tradition she started on her baptism and eat at Pei Wei. So that's exactly what we did. On Sunday when Steve introduced Emma as being recently baptized, he invited her to sit on the stand like he does with all the newly baptized children. Emma said she'd rather sit by Kayla. What a wonderful weekend!

More quilts

During the two weeks before Christmas I quilted 7 quilts. One of them was the crazy patch batik that I made for my son,Tyler. It is quilted like the light blue one below it. I really had fun stitching the sail boat quilt. It was something new that I tried. The customer loved it and I was glad. I received 6 more this week plus one that is on the frame for the second time. What a great life I have!

15 Minutes of Fame

We all secretly wish for our 15 minutes of fame. Well, Tyler got his Saturday night at an amateur club with his band that was born in our garage. I really wish they had somewhere to practice where no one would hear them. Just before their "gig" a realtor came over and asked them not to play for the next two hours while she showed the house two doors down that was for sale. If they did she would bring them a pizza. They said, "No thanks". They were serious about getting ready for their gig. I hope the house will sell before they start practicing again. That won't be until Tyler passes off two more merit badges and has his Eagle project planned. I guess the realtor will have some time...

Technology - Bah Humbug

I just have to get this out of my system and then I can go on... I hate technology. Not all technology, just the progress of technology. I guess I should have lived in pioneer times. This Christmas made it very evident how behind the times I really am. Yes, I take credit for all the things that didn't work properly. Here is just a tip of the ice berg:
1. Tyler got a DVD set of Ocean's 11,12 and 13 except it was in HD DVD format and we don't have an HD DVD player. (Apparently few people do.) Of course I thought it meant HD TV which we do have. I sent it to my brother who is trying to sell his HD DVD player.
2. The set of cymbals for Rockband were not compatible with our new Rockband. They only work with Rockband 2. I sent those also to my brother who does have a Rockband 2.
3. Another Rockband problem is that there is a lag in the response time because wii's are slower and that we have an HD tv. (Who bought that cursed tv anyway? Not me.) This we will have to live with unless we buy an PS3. Yah right.
4. Sophie got Zoo Tycoon with several expansion packs that had 3 setup disks. It came with two copies of disk 2 and no disk 3. I did know that this was a problem but it was supposed to be fixed when we received it. This was fixed with a phone call and Sophie checking the mail every day for a week.
5. Steve got a an ipod and some great head phones so I can listen to books while I quilt. The first book I tried to download gave me an error message. Zach id all the coputer magic tricks that he knows and it still wouldn't work. I checked with the library and they told me who I needed to contact. I came home and tried it once more and it worked! Now, what was all of that about!
6. Now my computer is the only thing that needs troubleshooting because it has frequent temper tantrums and it shuts down by itself. My local tech support (Zach) does not know how to fix it. If I could fly my brother here I bet he could fix it.

We did have a wonderful Christmas, especially having Kayla home. We got to meet her boyfriend and his entire family on New Year's Eve. Stay tuned...