two (easy) dresses!

My friend JayeCee got me in the sewing mood when a couple weeks back I told her I'd teach her how to sew. She bought a sewing machine, some fabric and I helped her cut out pattern pieces to make her 2 girls each a dress. I sent her home thinking I'd come over and walk her through the process step by step. Four days later, she calls me and says the first dress is DONE and she's coming over to show me! It turned out so adorable and I couldn't be a prouder teacher! Ok, I really did nothing other than help her cut out her pieces. She is the best sewing student there ever was! But then, get this. A few days after that, she finished the second dress and that, too was adorable and she is awesome! And so I thought I need to stop being bummed that I never have time to sew and just crank out something, anything! JayeCee did it and I could too.

I got in my fabric stash and found this fun black and white paisley fabric that my sister Trina sent me last summer. It came with the stretchy shirring at the top already and we thought it would make a good pregnant dress for me to wear to our little brother's wedding. Then she ended up finding another dress that I actually wore instead. Well, I put that cute fabric to good use and made 2 dresses from it- one for Preslie and one for Quinn! I think I got Trina's money's worth!

Since it already had the shirred top, all I had to do was hold it around Preslie to measure it, pin in place, sew it into a tube, hem the bottom, then add straps!

I had to do a little more for Quinn's dress because she is so much smaller and the shirring was too tall. I cut part of the shirring off and picked out another row of it to make room for a hem on the top of the dress. Then I cut off the bottom to my desired length and hemmed. I made thin straps with the remainder off the length that I cut off and voila! Cute and simple.
I call it the mini maxi dress!

Both dresses took me 3 days of just working on them a few minutes here and there. This kind of fabric with the stretchy stuff already done for me was a great way to go. Anyone who can sew a straight line can make a dress like this! And yay for matching dresses for my girls. There is no way I'd be able to find matching dresses at the store in girls' size 12 and baby size 12 months. And no way I'd be able to beat the price: FREE (Thanks, Trina!)

St. Patrick's tradition

Saint Patrick, who died on March 17 in the 5th century, must have been quite a guy. This is how we honored him at our house...

When the kids woke up, they found a rainbow

They followed it to the end and found a leprechaun hat filled with gold wrapped candy.

(I had no idea how delicious Werther's Chewys are!)

We all wore green, except Dax who wore his usual brown uniform. He guest taught 2 cub scout dens about Wildlife Conservation and helped them earn their belt loop.

A whole year ago, we found out we were going to get a sweet little baby girl. We had no idea just how lucky we would be to have her.

daylight savings drag

Is anyone else suffering from losing an hour on Sunday? Check out Preslie doing her homework Monday after school...

And why is it when little kids are tired, they have more energy than normal. Like today when I was doing my online banking and I yell to Mack (who was in the other room being too quiet), "Mack, what are you doing?" and he responded, "Oh, I'm just having fun."

When I went in his room to check on him, there was a warning path waiting for me.

Little styrofoam balls were everywhere.

Stuck to everything.


Including Mack. Who was having the best time. I am actually sorry I ruined his fun. I feel bad that I got mad at him. He wasn't trying to be naughty. He was just, well, having fun.

The static on these little babies made them very difficult to clean up. We'd try to scoop them back into the bean bag, but they'd just stick to our hands. And arms. And all over the vacuum.

But yay that it was warm enough to send my helper outside to ride his bike while I cleaned up the rest of the mess. I love this weather! It's finally spring!

thrifty thursday

Ever since I moved to this town, I've said that this place needed a thrift store. A few months ago, one opened and I love it. I went there today and scored a couple great finds. One thing I picked up was this cute and bright t-shirt for Quinn that was in perfect shape and only $1!

I thought I had some leggings to match but when I got home, they weren't the right color so I pulled a navy blue t-shirt out of my scrap stash and went to work. I grabbed a pair of pants that fit Quinn well and layed them on top for a pattern, and cut out my pieces.

I sewed them together (using some sewing instructions for some other pants just to be sure I didn't sew the legs shut or anything!) I ultimately decided I wanted them tapered and altered them accordingly. I think they turned out pretty well. A cute $1 outfit!

Bieber fever

Last Friday, we hosted a party at our home for Preslie and her friends. Preslie and Sierra are QUITE the party planners. The day of the party, the girls were over at Sierra's house and her Mom helped them make a Justin Bieber dummy (It was his birthday this past week and that is good enough reason for a party).
I need not even mention that the girls went NUTS for the Biebs. They all had to be touching it when they watched their movie. And when Dax held up Justin Bieber and asked who wanted to dance with him, the 4 girls dove onto the dummy and ripped it to pieces.

hear ye, hear ye

Hey everyone! I am 30 now! So I know stuff and can be taken seriously! Yes!

I don't know a lot of stuff, but I know some stuff. And one thing I know is that everyone should have a birthday once in a while so they can remember that people like them! My birthday was that kind of day for me! A lot of people happen to like me! Yay.

I got calls from 5 siblings, 1 aunt, 3 parents, and a couple friends. Plus had a nice lunch with 2 of my neighborhood girlfriends, got some sweet b-day cash, a few exciting gift cards, a night out with my husband, 68 happy birthdays on facebook, and these delivered to my house...

I love them! They are giving me spring fever!

Other stuff I know: 18 days with sick people at my house is too many days. I am ready to be freed from my boogery, feverish, chilly, pain reliever administering prison! I have tried my best to selflessly dump all my money into doctor co-pays, but now I'd really like to use it for something fun.

Um, what else, OH YEAH. Kids can be so mean. They were mean when I was a kid (I can use the phrase "when I was a kid" now), and they are still mean. There is a super mean kid in Preslie's class at school who tries to make many people's lives as miserable as he can. I actually feel bad for the kid because his life is probably the most miserable one of all. He just doesn't have it so good in the home department and I think he's trying to find his value in belittling others. It is really sad. I just hope that someone, somewhere down the line can help shuffle the cards stacked against him and I hope that Preslie and her friends can learn a great lesson from being in his class and never make fun of another kid because they know how much it can hurt. My young women's president when I was a laurel shared a poem with me one time that I like...

To those who have been done dirt:

Be thankful even unto your grave

That you were the one who received

Instead of the one who gave.

And the last bit of knowledge I wish to impart is to all those in the blogosphere that don't have it in them to read the 4th and final Twilight book... Just ask someone who has read it to summarize it for you. One of my closest friends is reading Breaking Dawn (something I cannot bring myself to do), and is so kindly giving me a play-by-play of what is happening in the book minus all of the author's cheesy goo. IT IS AWESOME!

What a great husband friend!

my lips hurt real bad

It's been a day full of service. I was on my way out the door this morning to get a few things for a dinner I was going to make for my neighbors when the phone rang. It was Preslie.

"Mom, can you bring me some chapstick? My lips are so dry and they are cracking."

Since I was already headed out, the grocery store is a block from the school, and it reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite, I took the girl some chapstick. I would have never called my Mom to bring me chapstick at school. I don't know if I am glad Preslie thought to do that or not. I digress..

So I grilled 16 hamburgers and took 11 of them to my neighbors. It is our pediatrician, his wife, and their 9 children. The Doc has seen every one of my kids once or twice in the past 2 weeks including a couple of house calls. He is the nicest guy and a such a competent doctor. (He is also the guy who saved Preslie last year when she had pneumonia.) I wanted to return the favor.

Then I fed my own kids and a friend and then watched my next door neighbors' little girl while they went to the cannery. She is such an easy going darling kid and it wasn't hard at all, but still I am glad I could help out.

I like doing things for people. It lifts my spirits in the best way. A lot of times I feel like I don't ever do much for others but then I think to myself, Hel-LO! A baby is a full-time service project as are toddlers and even older children. I do find joy in being a mother and a wife and I need to recognize the service I do in those capacities and probably find more ways to serve those in my home.

So whether it's bringing a child chapstick or doing something you know will make your Man happy, those little things will make YOU happy too!


Edit: This is Dax and I am adding this link