Babysitting

This weekend Nick and I tended Jenn's kids while she and Joseph went with the Young Women to the Temple.

We had a great time playing! I was very impressed with how Jenn & Joe are teaching their kids. We were getting them all breakfast, and the twins had started eating their cereal as soon as it was poured, but once Ryan's was poured and we were ready to say the prayer they both stopped, put down their spoons, folded their arms and bowed their heads for the prayer. It was so fun to see that even two-year-olds can understand what prayer is and were willing to stop eating in order to take part in the prayer.

The weather was nice, so we played outside most of the day. Ryan and I planted some seeds in a pot - hopefully they will grow into flowers. Here is a little video of the kids swinging. I love Emmy's "weeeee"!

TAG

My friend Julie tagged me several weeks ago, but I haven't been checking blogs much, so I just saw it (sorry, Julie!) So, here is the 6th picture in the 6th folder of my pictures:
My 6th folder is from teaching Kindergarten. Here is a picture from the second-to-last day of school when we had a school sing/dance. We did a dance to "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" and the kids dressed up like Wizard of Oz characters. Obviously the boy on the right didn't give the notes to his parents about dressing up (unless they thought Spiderman was a character in the Wizard of Oz)!

CURTAINS

Yesterday I started the project of making new curtains for our kitchen door. It was supposed to be a quick project that I could practice using my serger on, but there were a few bumps in the road. First, I cut the fabric too short (it doesn't help to measure twice and cut once if you don't measure right either time!) Then I found that the top rod was hung just a little crooked, so that complicated things, but, in the end it all worked out! I finished them up quickly this morning, and here the are:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Bowling

Thanks, Matt & Kristen, for inviting us to go bowling (I obviously need to go more)! We had a great time.

The whole gang (me behind the camera).

Matt helping Dallan bowl. He almost beat me!

Dad getting ready to roll!

Kamdyn couldn't bowl, but he had fun hanging out with everyone there!
Who knew they had bottom-of-the-shoe polishing services at bowling alleys :)

Nick celebrating his strike.

Dallan giving a high-five after knocking down all the pins!

Happy Birthday Zoey!

Today marks the 6th birthday of our niece, Zoey. She was stillborn, but has always been a big part of our family. We miss you and love you.

I am so proud of my sister and her family for their strength and all they have done to remember Zoey through supporting others who have also experienced loss.

Projects

It has been a while since I've put aside time to make anything remotely crafty. Luckily for me, I had to make a poster/calendar for Relief Society activities, so I was forced to make something creative! I'll admit, I may have gotten a little carried away, but here is the result of my labor:
There are pockets for large & small handouts, then there are post-its so that anyone can add/delete an activity on the calendar. I double-up the post-its so that you can write the activity and time large on front, then on the post-it behind it, there are directions/addresses/phone numbers, etc. which sisters can write down on a post-it to take home if they need to. Hopefully it will actually be helpful. If not, at least I had a great time making it :)

While at Michael's shopping for supplies for another church activity, I saw that the Home Fabrics store was having a closeout sale. I LOVE that store and usually try to stay away, but since Nick and I have been wanting to re-cover the seat cushions on our couch, I made him go with me to pick out some fabric. If you've never been there and you like to sew, you should check it out. We did find fabric for the couch (I'll put photos up once I actually cover the cushions). We also found some really cute fabric that I thought would be fun to recover the throw pillows on my mom's couch. I wish we had a before picture of what her original pillows looked like. It is a big improvement. We call it the "burning bush" fabric! I think the pillows turned out quite nice. Hope you like them, mom. For my Christmas/College Graduation present my mom bought me a serger. Not only has she taught me to love sewing, but she has also made sure I had all the right equipment to be able to do things well. Thanks so much, mom. Every time I sew, I think of you! Things have been so busy since Christmas that I haven't had time to do anything with it yet. This morning I went to my complementary class and learned the basics of how to use it. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! It makes things so much faster and easier when you don't have to sew every seam, then go back and finish all the edges. Plus, it will do a beautiful rolled-hem. Ahhh! On the day you take the class, you get 15% off anything you buy. Of course, even though I wasn't planning on it, I bought some fabric. I don't want to do any important projects until I have really learned how to use it well, but they said that you could make a pair of pajama pants in an hour from cut to finish, so I'm gonna do it! Then, of course, I found some other cute fabric that I bought for projects later on down the road.