Arya's birthday

Everything is exciting on your birthday when you are three!

This is a little pillow that Savannah made for Arya. She loves it! This is Arya's 'ipad' so that she will leave my iphone alone!!!

Arizona

Jared took a job in Arizona back in April and he will be there for a while. We have enjoyed going to visit him. We love the pool. Alanna learned to swim without her floaty.

Arya has the right idea. She is my kind of girl; baggin' the rays!!

The kids LOVE swimming!

We were able to go to the Gila Valley Temple open house. (It was hard to get a good photo after driving out there two hours, waiting for the tour, the tour, going back to the car to get the camera, back to the temple for the photo and then three hours back because I got lost as I was playing on my phone! OOPS!!) We even drove through the Thatcher Cemetery. This is where my Grandma and Grandpa are buried. It is beautiful old cemetery and I have good memories of coming out here with my dad and brothers and sisters.

We also took Arya to Build a Bear for an early birthday present to get her first build a bear friend. The kids all brought their bears for the special occasion.

Quilting-Should have posted this back in March when I wrote it!!

I have been working on this quilt off and on for about two months. I have a wonderful quilting teacher that had guided our little group through each step of quilting. I have made quilts before, but always did it my own way, not the 'real' way. I used a rotary cutter to cut the strips, sewed them all with a 1/4 inch seam, cut all of those into blocks, sewed the blocks together and had a quilt front! (Oh, and I ironed it all every step of the way, which I NEVER do!)

Then I sewed the borders on and realized that my back was a tad too short. I figured this would happen and I had a plan. I did a strip of blocks down the back to make my backing bigger. I really love it!

Then, using safety pins, pinned the backing to the batting, to the quilt front. I machine quilted all of the cupcake print pieces. I had about two little puckers which you can't see at all, but I know they are there! Then I sewed the binding on. I wanted to make a quilt with a binding because I love the look of it. I wanted to hand bind it because I am really bad about lining up the back binding so that it is caught in the stitches as I stitch in the ditch. So, I started my hand binding and I love it!!! It is so relaxing and I get such a great satisfaction about looking back and seeing all of those tiny little stitches. Yes, I can see my stitches if I look hard, but I love the look of it! It has been fun.

I want to sew a nine patch quilt next, but I don't know who I would make it for! Any suggestions?? (Patty and Craig, I would love to make one for a little girl!)

Alyssa's birthday

Alyssa had a very small birthday party for her 11th birthay. She choose a purse theme and the girls all played games about purses, painted purses, and had a ton of fun. Happy Birthday Alyssa!

Alanna's Birthday

I'm so late with my blogging!! Here is Alanna's birthday party from back in May!! She wanted a cowboy party. It was lots of fun with her best buddies. I made them all vests, made Alanna and Arya skirts, and then got everyone hats and bandannas. It's so great to be a kid!!

Pretty Dresses

A friend of mine, Amy, was due to have her third child, so her mother-in-law came to visit and help her and her family. She stayed for a few months because she came all the way from Ecuador. Amy told me what an amazing seamstress she was and I have seen some of her work, but she didn't tell me how angelic this sweet woman is!

In my experience, there are few people I have met that will do anything for another person. I think most people would like to think they would, but in truth, I think most people have their limits as to what they would do for another person. Anyway, I met Amy's mother-in-law and got to know her very briefly. She is one of the most unselfish, kind, and caring people I have met. (No wonder Amy and her husband are such kind people; they have great examples!!)

Before she went back to Ecuador she made my little girls these beautiful dresses. She made them from scratch without a pattern or without seeing my girls. She knew about what size they are and just whipped up these dresses. They both love them. I wish I would have taken a photo of the back; the bows on these dresses are amazing. I am so grateful for Christ-like people in my life and the example they show to me of how I can be a better person by giving of myself with no thought of reward.

Alice in Wonderland Jr.

Meet Violet. She is a snobby Girl of the Golden Afternoon that makes fun of poor little Alice as she is stuck in Wonderland.

This weekend was the Coastal Academy's production of Alice in Wonderland Jr. They start this musical theatre group in November with auditions, are given parts in December, and begin rehearsal in January. In the photo below, Alyssa is the shortest on the right side.

They rehearse for about 5 hours a week for three months, 7 hours a week and then the famous 'tech week' which is about 30 hours of rehearsing and preforming. So many hours of hard work go into this production.

Here is my shy little Violet during final bows.

The props and sets are amazing, the costumes are amazing, and the acting is superb for an elementary school group. Alyssa got the part of Violet, one of the Girls of the Golden Afternoon; a bunch of very snobby flowers. She did the part wonderfully. She is sad musical theatre is over for the year, and is very excited to start again in November!!