Quilt for Baby Girl Dansie

Here is a possible layout (without borders, yet) for my newest quilt for the newest Dansie. There are a few things that had to be included in the quilt and I had blocks leftover from a previous quilt.

First, all the red tumbling blocks come from the quilt I made for baby Benji. I accidentally made double the blocks I needed, so I had enough for whole new quilt. However, the blue tumbling blocks weren't girly enough for me so I chose not to use them.



Second, I needed to include the yellow fabric with the small red and blue flowers because it has been in all of my kids' quilts. But I don't totally love it. Luckily for me, my awesome quilter friend let me raid her stash for some cuter yellows to tie it together better and some fun bright reds because I didn't want to go buy more fabric.

Third, I also had to include some Laura Ashley fabric that my mom bought 30+ years ago in England because it is cool and is in all the kids' quilts. The bright red with small red flowers that are hexagons and the reverse that are the top on some of the tumbling blocks are the Laura Ashley.

Eliza's baby quilt also uses the bright reds with just a tad of yellow. So since they are sharing a room, I thought they would go well together.

I didn't want to make new tumbling blocks, hence the solid hexagons instead. Obviously, there will be a full white border and another fun print border and maybe even some rick-rack as suggested by aforementioned quilter extraordinaire.

Does it work? and what improvements could be done?

Spring

Eliza entered her elementary school's version of "Reflections" with a photo collage titled "Spring." The theme was "New Beginnings." She took all the photos by herself and only needed a little hint from me to use the blossoming trees as her subject. It probably didn't hurt that she was using a pretty nice camera, but I think she did a superb job at picking what blossoms to shoot and how to shoot them.

And so did the judges because she won first place for kindergarten (there were 2 other competitors even.

Great Job Eliza! Mama is proud!

PS: Ignore her dirty lip. She blew a big bubble the night before at a concert and got home to late for a bath. I told her to wash her face before school, but forgot to check it.

St. George Half Marathon 2010

So I decided I better get in at least one half-marathon this year and the more prego I get, the harder it is going to be. So, since Tom's family was coming down for this one, I figured I better go for it.
It was a super cold rainy week. It seriously rained Sunday through Saturday, basically non-stop. Luckily, I got in a 10-miler on Saturday before the storms rolled in. That was my longest run in a long while and it wasn't easy (even though I am not that pregnant-18 weeks makes a difference though). So I didn't really run even once the rest of the week. I intended to, but the rain and my moodiness prevented it. I attempted the treadmill on Thursday before the race, but kids, interruptions, grumpiness and lack of motivation helped me run a whopping 2 miles over an hour.

The rain continued to fall and actually turned into snow Friday night. I was not really looking forward to the race, but I had paid my 35 bucks and would do it. Tom's parent's, sister and family, and Tom's brother and family came to run and cheer. We had 10 Dansies in the 5k and half-marathon and a cheering section and they were all troopers.

Luckily for us all, the moisture subsided by the start of the race and just left chilly air in its wake--nothing layers couldn't combat.

I had plans to run the half in under 2 hours and I made my goal. I finished in 1:54. I only wish they had a prego division. Tom rocked the course, as always, in 1:28.

I love this picture, because I seriously have the most bizarre running form in the world, and this showcases it beautifully.

Here are some of the finishers: Brother Dan, nephew sam (who smoked his first half-marathon in 1:32), niece, Sophie, bother-in-law, Tom, and of course, my Tom.

Post race, we enjoyed In n Out and relaxing with the family on Grandpa's hats. It was a great race as always, and I look forward to the next one.

2010

I guess it is time to publicly declare my resolutions for the year, so that maybe I will be motivated to achieve them. I have being thinking there is a lot I want to do this year and I am hoping that by doing these things I will become a better person: spiritually, motherly, physically, intellectually, etc.

1. Read the Book of Mormon. Last summer, I challenged the young women in our ward to do it with me. And for some bizarre reason, I was just a few chapters from the end when the deadline and ice cream party came rolling around. I got my ice cream sundae minus a cherry and whipped cream (because of the missing chapters), and promptly forgot to finish the Book. How horrible is that? So this year, we'll start again, but I will finish it. I want to read it with companion text to help me get more out of it. Seminary manual? Gospel Doctrine manual? Any other ideas?
2. Keep a clean house. I want my house to a place where the Spirit can dwell for freely. Tom is the nicest person and never criticizes what I do (or don't do) all day, but every once in a while hints that he would like to come home to a cleaner house. I need to be more specific about how to keep my house clean. But here are a few ideas I have: make sure the front room and kitchen are clean when Tom gets home from work. Mop my floors once a week. Make my bed every day. Do some laundry almost every day and fold 1-2 baskets of clothes twice a week (I am hoping that will help me stay on top of it, without it being an all day, horrible, over whelming task).
3. Spend time with each kid individually. I would like to do this weekly. Tom has started doing outings with each kid once a month. I don't need to do an outing, but sit a read a book with them, or paint nails, or drive trains around. Just something simple and fun.
4. Run a marathon and do a triathlon post baby. My sister is doing her first marathon this year and I thought it would be so fun to be able to run with her. So I plan to do the St. George Marathon just a little over 3 months post baby. I signed up for the Kokopelli triathlon because it was cheaper than it ever has been and anyone who knows me, knows I can't pass up a good deal. I signed up for the Olympic distance but reserve the right to drop down to the sprint if I want to since the race is less than 3 months after babe is due.
5. Have a healthy babe. I know I dodn't have complete control over this one, but I plan to do all I can to ensure the healthy arrival of the babe in June. This doesn't mean I can't downhill ski or eat a little bit of junk and drink an occassional Dr. Pepper. But I need to not overdue my indulgences and listen to my body.
6. Don't yell at my kids so much. I don't know what I need to specifically do to accomplish this one, but life is too short, especially childhood, to yell at them over silly things.
7. Go to the temple once a month. We made this goal last year, and failed so we'll try again. There is so much to be gained by going there, and I have zero excuse for not.

So here's to a fun and uplifting year!

Happy Birthday Tom!

Tom turned 33 today!

He is by far the most awesome person in the world: the best husband, the greatest father, and there isn't anyone I would rather spend eternity with.


Here are a few, of the countless, reasons I love him:

• He is the most selfless person in the world.
• He is super hot on a road bike.
• 
• He has a great, albeit bizarre, sense of humor.
  
• He is an awesome marathoner. (7 or 8 marathons to his name)
• He has great work ethic.
• He cleans the house.
• He makes a mean alfredo and hollandaise sauce.
• He is so kind to his parents (and mine).
• He is patient.
• He always puts his family first.
• He honors his priesthood and strives to be like the Savior.
• He lets me sleep in every morning and gets the kids going.
• He watches enough sports to be manly, but not too much that it's annoying.
• He watches chick flicks with me.
  
• And he looks great in a mullet.

Basically, there are too many awesome qualities that this man possesses, so I won't bore you with them all.

But I just wanted to shout out a Happy Day to my rad guy.

It's a . . .

. . .I have no idea, but we are super excited to be welcomimg a new one into our family sometime in June. This ultrasound was taken a month ago, when the babe was merely the size of a lime. He/she is now the whopping size of an orange.

We are all excited and can't wait for the new one to join (and proabably complete) our family.

PS: I finally got my pictures from the past 3 moths uploaded and will hopefully post some of the highlights of our life in the coming weeks.

Thump, Quack, Moo

Man, I haven't posted for a while. Life has been crazy! But fun. The last thing I started posting about was Porter's storytelling festival back in November, so I guess I ought to finish the post.

Porter entered last year and won for the first grade with his telling of "I am a Seed." This year he progressed to a longer, more involved story, "Thump, Quack, Moo." He did marvelously and won again! We were so proud. He was by far the loudest and most confident second grader out there. He practiced every day and really worked hard on his voice and hand motions.