Craziness.....

     So, my goal of writing every sunday didn't happen for basically the month of February...it has been just a bit crazy in this household, to say the least!  We tore out our kitchen (still no kitchen), the girls had pink eye, ringworm, the stomache flu (twice), lost tooth, ear pierced, talks in church, Valentines Day and Leap Day.  (You would think with one extra day this month I would be able to catch up a bit instead of get further behind...but that was not the case!)  To catch up a bit on us, here goes...
     Back in July, GP changed out my dishwasher that wasn't working with a pretty neat dishwasher.  The pretty neat dishwasher leaked though.  I happened to look up at my ceiling below the kitchen and wondered what the bubbles were that were forming.  Ran back up stairs and noticed our flooring was coming up a bit...that was when we figured out our kitchen was flooding from the dishwasher...the return water no less. :(  My Mom was here and bravely popped the bubbles downstairs while I bravely held the buckets.  I think she ended up getting more on her then in the buckets.  Pretty stinky!

     Fast forward to February...we finally had some time to change out the floor.  So as we were taking out the bottom cabinets we noticed they had molded pretty badly and were crumbling...which meant new cabinets for me!  I have been wanting new cabinets...but because it was not in our budget to get new cabinets, we had to purchase premade and unfinished.  It's all good though.  Since we took out the top cabinets, we (me mostly) decided to get rid of the little overhang above the cabinets that was a pretty fashionable 80's style, but not so much now.  We have finally finished the drywall, taped and will be texturing and painting this week.  I am kind of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel...kinda.

     This means though, we have half of my kitchen upstairs and the other half downstairs.  I am also doing most of my cooking in the microwave, toaster oven and woodstove.  GP is not complaining to much when the sausage comes out a little rubbery from the microwave...because he knows the only way to really fix this is to finish my kitchen.  I asked Karlee the other day to throw something away in the kitchen and she asked, "The broken kitchen or the one downstairs?".  One positive thing...I have lost 4lbs running up and down the stairs.

     The girls are doing great!  Besides all the little sicknesses...it was a pretty fun month.  They had fun getting their Valentines together and coming home with lots of candies and goodies.  They celebrated their 100th day of school and had a fun Leap day where they dressed up as their favorite book character.

     Karlee dressed up as Fancy Nancy and Shelby dressed up as Pinkalicious.  Shelby firsted wanted to dress up as a horse, but when I showed her how we could make ears and a tail...she exclaimed she would be way to embarressed to have a tail on her bum, what would people say!  They also only had a half day of school, which of course always makes it the best day ever.  Notice the close cropping of the pictures...there was an itty bitty corner in my living room without any kitchen stuff.  I had to put my body at a weird angle to try and maneuver around to get these pictures...Shelby asked me how I did the crouch thing trying to get their picture...she said I looked pretty tricky.

     Karlee lost another tooth.  I went to put that tooth in the jar with her other tooth, but I can't find the jar...I am hoping I didn't use that jar to put food in. :(  Hopefully when the kitchen is back to normal I can find it.

     Shelby is really thriving in school.  She loves doing homework.  She had the letter "h" to work on and when she finished her homework she gave it to me to sign off.  This is what I saw.

She felt that the letter "h" was a little boring so she needed to make it a little fancy.  Just love this girl!

Ramona

The first time we saw Beezus and Ramona, we have said that Shelby is our Ramona.  She finds herself getting in odd messes/siuations, likes to do things her own way and is pretty witty.  Lately we have been struggling with her hair.  It grows VERY fast, but it is very fine.  Needless to say, we have a pretty crazy rats nest to work out every time we brush her hair.  The longer her hair was getting, the tougher it was and we were both dreading the hair brushing routine.  So, the other morning, after about 10 minuites of trying to brush the rats out and many tears later...I put the brush down and exclaimed, "I am afraid the Rats have won the battle and have taken control of your hair!"  We put her hair up in a messy bun and I suggested a hair cut.  We both decided that maybe Rapunzel in "Tangled" was the cutest when her hair was short and brown and not long and blond. 

So, the next morning when we had a bit more time, we cut her hair.  I was a little nervous that she would be sad when we started cutting, since we took off about 10 inches.  But with every snip, she got more excited.  When it was done, I blowed dry and brushed her hair...with out a single rat showing up.  She was so excited and yelled, "We won the war today Mom...no more rats AND I look just like you!"

Well, with the hair cut, we decided she really looks like Ramona now.  The girls were playing in their room, and I heard Shelby say to Karlee, "I am glad you are my Beezus." 

Me too.

Yay for being a girl!

 Last Monday, since it was MLK Day, we got to have a day off from school.  This always makes it a good day...especially when it is a monday and no alarms needed to be set!  So the girls and I had a beauty day.  We soaked our feet and hands, scrubbed them good and polished are toes.  I love spending this time with the girls.  It is so much fun to hear their stories, telling me about what is going on in their lives (Which is actually quite a lot!) and just laughing.

Some funny things the girls have said this week...
*Shelby was having a hard time putting on her tights and couldn't get them up over her knees.  She lamented that she looked like a penguin, took off the tights and threw them at Karlee.  Karlee then said, "You better stop whining Shelby or you will get your tight wearing priviledges taken away!"  I had to laugh...because I have NEVER thought wearing tights were a privilige!
*I was cooking dinner and things got a little smoky.  Shelby came in and said, "Mom, I learned all about fire safety in school, do you need some help in here?"
*Shelby said at the dinner table, "I learned at school it is never okay to eat humans."

Finished one quilt completely and will be putting up the boy version to quilt this week.  That one will go a bit faster.  The extra hand sewing with the yoyo's took a bit longer with this quilt.  Now to just think up a name for this pattern?!?

I got an email from my distributor and she said stores were asking for new Seasons in Patches patterns, so I am going to focus on getting some spring ones done this week.  Have the designs done...just the construction part to do.  Luckily these little quilts come together so quick!

Some things I am working on...

My goal is to update my blog once a week...but when I was thinking about the things we did this week, I realized just getting back on schedule after winter break and having to adjust to waking up at the 6:00 a.m. alarm, having homework, church meetings etc...we didn't do too much else!  We were all so glad for Friday to hit and I think we all went to bed a bit early that night.  We did get a few things done on Saturday...but as of yet, Christmas is still not all put up.  Sunday isn't over yet though...I have a pretty good feeling it will get done tonight!

One of my other goals is to work at least 30 min every night after the girls are in bed on some of my unfinished projects and patterns I am working on.  Here are a few of my projects!

 This pillow was not really a project, but I wanted to use a quilting technique on another project that I haven't really used before, so this was a practice run.  It turned out better then I thought so I made a pillow out of it.  I quilted some fabric for the back and it ended up being a cute little pillow.  Not really my colors...so its up for grabs!

 A new pattern I am working on for The Heart and Home co are some quick and easy baby blankets made from charm squares.  I made a girl and boy version.  I added ricrac for the boys and after they are quilted I will add yoyo's to the girls.  Hopefully by next week they will be quilted!  Need to get a new pattern out!

This last one is a project I started when someone (since it has been so long ago can't remember who) was having a baby girl.  Finished piecing it and hope to have it quilted soon as well.  Maybe I will be ready for when someone is having a baby girl the next time.  ;)

I'm still short!

Shelby likes to be like her big sister and we started a few years ago with waking the birthday girl up by singing Happy Birthday and bringing breakfast in bed. The night before, Shelby kept reminding me that we did that for Karlee on her birthday and not to forget to do this for her. When I kissed her good night, she whispered, "You can bring me cereal, the marshmallow kind, k?". So we woke her up and she was pretty thrilled. The girls don't usually last too long in bed, but really like the tradition! They also know we have presents waiting at the table...so we usually move there pretty quick. She had gotten out of bed and the first thing she did was check how tall she was...and when she found out she didn't grow, she was pretty suprised and exclaimed pretty dishearted, "I am still short!!"

Shelby opened presents from us and from Grandma and Grandpa Jensen. She has been wanting a pillow pet for ages, but I have never gotten her one, so she was pretty excited and thrilled to open that present...Karlee was almost as excited as she was!

Later that night, we had a family birthday party and Grandma, Da, Ethan, Bry and the Butners came over. Shelby wanted French Toast for dinner...so that was pretty easy for me, except I did almost smoke everyone out when I cooked the bacon.

She wanted a Tangled Birthday cake...but I revised it a bit and made a cupcake cake. Shelby was pretty excited to see it...but later that night she asked me if I was going to make her "real" cake the next day, "Because, Mom, those were only cupcakes".

 When I put them to bed, I told about the story of her birth and the events of that night. I think that is my favorite tradition we do on the girls' birthdays. Nicole is always on my mind, especially on their birthdays...I am so grateful to her and because of her, I had a little girl turn 6! It is amazing how time flies, it does seem like just yesterday I heard her first cries and held my little Shelby for the first time.

Christmas 2011

The girls have been anxiously awaiting Christmas Eve all week, because thats when they know the fun begins! Some of my family traditions for Chritsmas are a nice family dinner and a nativity program and that is something that I have carried on with our family and hope that my girls will carry that same tradition on to theirs. The girls helped make alot of the dinner and were so excited to set the table with the Christmas dishes. Shelby ALWAYS takes a long time to eat, but she was actually done before almost everyone because she new what was coming next! Karlee asked what time it was and I said it was almost 7...she said, "Mom, it is way past our bedtime, we better hurry up!" Usually they are not so worried about bedtimes! We finished up dinner and dressed the girls up for the Nativity.
Karlee was Mary. She takes this job really seriously and was so cute holding Baby Jesus.

Shelby was our sweet Angel. Later, when we read a story about the Animals Christmas Eve, she got really excited when they talked about angels and exclaimed, "Thats what I am!"

The girls got to open one present which is always new jammies. They love jammies and are actually pretty excited to get these! The girls sprinkles reindeer food on the snow and we read the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" I was on the last few lines when they hear sleigh bells and Karlee had me finish the book fast so we could turn off the light. The girls both wanted us to get our things done quick because they knew Santa couldn't come until we were all in bed. I love that my girls still believe...it makes everything so magical and I love the memories that we are creating!

We had to wake the girls up....yes my girls love to sleep! We had church to go to, so we woke them up about 6:30. Karlee jumped right up, but Shelby had a little tougher time waking up.

The girls were pretty excited to see what Santa brought and what was in their stockings!

Karlee got a Walk & Giggle doll.

Shelby got a Leapster. Karlee got one a few years ago and she still plays with it quite a bit and doesn't share too well with Shelby. Shelby wrote in her letter to Santa she wanted a Leapster because "Karlee doesn't share hers".

We got the girls ready in their new Christmas dresses and went to church. They had a beautiful musical program. Really made a special start to the rest of the day!

We then had everyone come to our house for Christmas. It was so nice to have everyone come over and have the whole Pearson family together. We also got to have Joe and Twila Butner, Cole's parents, and Ray and Jeanette Sanborn, Betty Lou's sister and brother in law there as well.

A Prince's Castle

Halversen Photography Preview: Temple

I think I am going to make to use this idea with each of my girls favorite temples...came across this and had to share!