Quinn at 9 months.

• has no teeth
• doesn't crawl
• does scoot by digging her heels into the floor and simultaneously scooting her bum and leaning forward onto her hands- sounds awkward and it is, but it works!
• jabbers mah-mah-mah, dah-dah-dah, sometimes bah-bah-bah
• jabbers while twisting her tongue sideways
• so good-natured and sweet
• can give kisses on command (open-mouthed with tongue out)
  
• loves her sibs and her dad, but loves Mom the most!
• is not sleeping through the night
• likes to eat baby food, water, table food, and any little crumb, leaf, paper, styrofoam ball she finds on the floor.
• is growing bristle-y curls on the back of her head!
• turns pages of books while doing a cute moaning noise
• can clap her hands to "Patty-Cake"
• makes an Indian sound with her fist to her mouth

Quinn is a doll and a joy to have in our family. We just love her to pieces and think she is so adorable! I can't believe we are already on the home stretch to 1-year-old!

building character

Hunter came home from school and said, "Mom, you know how I was saving up for a Nerf gun? Well, I can't get that now because there are these kids who need school supplies and don't have any so our school is collecting some to send to them. I'm going to spend my money on that. Can we go to the store today?"

This, my friends, is payday for a Mother. I just hugged and kissed that cute Hunter face. I love his sweet and compassionate heart. I am so proud that he instantly put off his own desires to provide for someone else.

Preslie also needs to be recognized for reaching a huge personal goal a few weeks back. She started earning and saving money last July to buy an American Girl doll and I was just as excited and giddy as she was when she finally reached the $100 it took to purchase the doll.

It takes a lot of strength to save that long and not just buy other things that come along. There were many times that she wanted a cute pair of shoes or this or that and she had the money but held onto it for something she wanted more. I am proud of her for learning to delay immediate gratification. It is hard to do and something even many adults struggle with.

*proud Motherly sigh*

bunny fun

The kids and I got the eggs colored on Friday so the Easter Bunny could hide them when we went to bed that night.

Saturday morning, the kids acted like it was Christmas; sneaking around at 6:30am, trying to find their Easter basket and begging to wake up Mack. I barely was able to finish saying "Go watch a movie until everyone is ready to wake up" when I hear Mack's raspy lisp from his bed, "Is it Easter?" and Quinn starting to crying in her crib. OH, well! We had lots of fun. The kids are very impatient when they can't find their basket quickly. They never grew up in my house where the Easter bunny took great delight in hiding the baskets harder and harder every year and it potentially took all day to find your basket, especially if you were kinda naughty that year. (The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus must've compared notes)...


Our Bunny is a smart one and brought us just what we needed.
Quinn: tub of Cream, tights, and socks
Hunter: summer shoes, church pants
Preslie: sandals, undies
Mack: socks, sidewalk chalk, sunglasses
Dax: garlic bulbs for his garden, chocolate
Tristie: mascara, makeup brushes

I love doing a Saturday Easter and a Sunday Easter to separate the bunny festivities and the celebration of the Savior. Sunday is a challenge with toddlers and babies, but I was able escape to primary and enjoy a beautiful lesson and songs about Jesus Christ. I believe everyone there felt the uplifting love of our Heavenly Father his Son thanks to an inspired and faithful Primary president.

Here are a couple cute things Mack said in our conversations and preparations for Easter...

"Last year, the Easter Bunny gave me two boats! Hey Mom, can you call the Easter Bunny and tell him to bring me a DS this time?"

"Mom, Easter isn't really about Easter Bunnies. It's about Heavenly Father."

Love that kid.

Mack's cracks

I opened the front door and found Mack lying on the porch...
"It's so warm out here."

I put Mack on the toilet before bed the other night and he said, "Mom, I already went on the downstairs potty." That would be the one in the unfinished bathroom, you know, the one without the plumbing...

The next morning Mack was playing computer and I was nursing Quinn when she and I dozed off. I came to when Mack came to me saying, "Mom, there is steam in the hall and in Preslie's room." I got up and realized the "steam" was actually smoke and there was definitely something burning in the kitchen. I ran through the billowing, sickening smoke and found the microwave set for 88:00 and a burnt black bag of popcorn inside. I unplugged the microwave and took the whole thing outside. My house is finally starting to air out now 3 days later.

Mack has been way too consumed by movies and computer games lately so I told him he could not watch anymore movies or play anymore video games today. He yelled back, "Mom! Why are you so mean to your own son!"

Wow. SO much energy! Once he is 4 and old enough, he is getting signed up for every sport available. The kid needs activities because if I don't give them to him, he will find them on his own and they are usually ones I don't prefer. It is exhausting keeping him engaged in positive things all day long. If I let my guard down at all, he is in the pantry eating sugar out of the bucket or cutting up Preslie's art projects or walking in the muddy flower bed or petting and patting the baby's head like she is an animal. He wants to do anything and everything there is to do. He begs and cries to get on the bus and go to school with Preslie and Hunter every day! He constantly wants to have parties with his friends and if he sees anyone outside, he runs out to play..."My friends are outside!" I just love the kid. He makes life so much fun.

art show

Another fabulous Spring Art Show at the elementary. Preslie performed a tinikling dance with her class. That is where they dance between 2 bamboo poles that are beat on the ground and then together in a rhythm.

Hunter's class did a reading and sang a darling song for us. Both he and Preslie love art class and we are fortunate to have it and a great art teacher at our school.

My Mom is also a super talented artist and used her mad crochet skills to make Quinn this dress, hat, and booties for next winter. So cute! She looks like a baby doll!

Shout it to the world!

He Can RIDE a BICYCLE!

My Hunter boy is a

S U P E R S T A R!

This goes down in history as one of my most proud Mom days. There is nothing like teaching your child to ride a bike and seeing them take off by themself for the first time! Times that feeling by 10 because this day has been so long in the making for this boy.

I LOVE you HuNTeR! You ARE so awesome!!

April's projects: altered skirt, baby pants, and shortened sleeves!

I have been doing lots more sewing lately and I'm just eating it up. I love projects. I am finally feeling like I am getting good enough at sewing to do just about anything I want to do. It is fun and very rewarding. Here are the projects I've completed this month:

1. My 25 cent skirt:


I found this skirt at a yard sale and liked the bold print but the price tag is what really sold me. It was very many sizes too large but for a quarter, I thought it would be worth trying to take it in. I wanted to start on it within a day or so because when I get on fire about a project, it quickly dies out...hence my basement full of unfinished projects. More on my crafting A.D.D. later...

The first thing I did was unpick the waistband, remove the drawstring and elastic, and iron it flat.

Then I grabbed another skirt I had that was similar and that fit me and laid it over top for a cutting guide.

From the edge, I measured in the same amount on both sides of the skirt and made marks with a pencil and ruler and then cut away the unwanted width. Then I sewed down both sides and then zig-zagged the edges for anti-fraying purposes.

Then I folded the waistband down the way it originally was and sewed around it to form a casing for the elastic and drawstring. I left a small opening so I could thread the elastic and drawstrings back through it. I cut the existing elastic to size, threaded it through the waistband, sewed the elastic together, stitched up the opening in the waistband, pressed the new side seams I just made, and ba-da-bing: I had a new skirt for 25 cents!


2. Baby outfit from scraps:
This outfit started from the scraps of fabric I had leftover from a fun project I did last year for a friend. She has 4 daughters so I challenged myself to make 4 matching (but not identical) dresses.

I have this pattern for Ruffle Pants by Sandi Henderson and had never made the pants so I grabbed this darling flower fabric I had left over and made the ruffle capris in size 12-18 months thinking Quinn could wear them this summer. They turned out so adorable but I could not pull them over her voluptuous thighs so I made a little shirt to match using Sandi's peasant top pattern and gave the outfit to my friend's baby.

This outfit was easy and cost me nothing but a little time and some supplies I had lying around my basement.

3. Ruffle Pants, second try:

I really wanted Quinn to have some ruffle pants, so I dug around and found this fun old piece of fabric my mom gave me like 10 years ago. I altered the pattern to accommodate Quinn's chubbs and made these ruffle capri pants for her. Then I remembered that I'd made a hat from that same fabric when Preslie was a toddler and dug it out. Now for a top to match ... hmm. That is a project for May.


4. Long Sleeve shirt to short sleeve:

Preslie needed a short sleeve shirt to go with a skirt that was given to her so I tried my hand at altering. It worked! I completely removed and unpicked the sleeves, and using another one of her t-shirts for a pattern, cut the desired length and shape of the sleeves, hemmed them, and sewed them back onto the shirt.

Not too shabby!