Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We had a family party on the 23rd with a nice big dinner and for the first time we had the grandkids act out the nativity. I didn't take any pics with my camera, but the kids were pretty cute. Molly was Mary and she wanted to hold the baby Jesus, but she didn't want to put the baby in the manger...oh well! They lasted just a few minutes, but they sure looked cute in their costumes.Shay, Major, Mitt, Lexie and Molly in the pjs grandma got for them
what cute girls!
with Grandma and Grandpa
the girls with Great Grandpa. Molly for some reason is afraid of grandpa, so this was as close as she would get.
The stockings all finished. I love how they turned out. My mom's friend finished them for me and they are just beautiful! One more to do next year now.
Molly didn't really get that Santa brings presents, but she would open gifts when we told her to and she of course liked it!

these are a bunch of barn yard animals
me opening up some soft pjs!
I decided to share this one of Justin because maybe it will encourage him to not be such a goofball in pics!
pots and pans

We were seriously spoiled this year (like every year really, right?). A couple of gifts that I was really excited about were some new gingher sewing scissors (mine have been used on everything and are so useless) and a box of 20 spools of thread in all different colors. Those are really basic things, but they will come in handy! I also got an adorable diaper bag from my in-laws and I know it will get its use soon. Justin pretty much got clothes, which was what he needed.

We were lucky to have all of the family over on Christmas at some point in the day and a group of us went to see Sherlock Holmes that night. We liked it! It was different than your average movie and I thought all of the main actors did a really good job.

Weekend in WY/ID

Congrats, Mark and Ashley! The happy couple was married Friday, Dec. 18th in the Rexburg, ID temple.


Molly was obsessed with Ashley! She wanted to be held by her all day-during pictures, at the luncheon and at the reception. We had to apologize to Ashley because we felt so bad!

the luncheon
the cake
The three of us
Molly and Laney had fun playing together when Molly was nice and wanted to share!

After the reception we headed back to Justin's parents home in Star Valley and stayed a few days there.

Molly loved this bell that sang a Xmas song.

We made chocolate dipped pretzels! Yummy!

And Justin's mom convinced him and Brad to make a snowman in the yard. We took Molly to see the elk nearby, relaxed and watched a bunch of Christmas movies. We had a fun time!

Figgy Pudding

Here's a table runner I finished up this past week. The fabric line is called "figgy pudding" and I just love all of the fabric. I already had a pattern and it made up quick and easy!

I added little holly berries to each corner.

Justin has finished one final and is currently in the middle of taking another. His first two (including the one he's taking now) are take home finals, which means he was emailed the final at 8 am and he has to hand it into the law school at 5 pm. That's a 9 hour final!! Doesn't sound like fun to me! He has one more on Thursday, but luckily it's in class so it's only 4 hours.

After his final I'm picking him up and we're driving straight to WY. Justin's brother Mark gets married on Friday in Rexburg to cute Ashley. We'll stay with his parents for a few days following before coming home to celebrate Christmas here.

I have ten weeks left of pregnancy (or around there). I can't complain because I feel great the whole time pretty much (I really feel bad admitting that because I know so many people who don't have it easy like me). Everything seems to be going well and baby is right on schedule. I'm enjoying as much sleep now as possible because I know those days are sadly coming to an end.

Molly is spunky as always. She plays a little game with Justin where he'll say, "I love you" and she'll say, "no, I love you!" and on and on they go with more emphasis each time. It's so cute. She's into carrying around puzzle pieces. We're not quite sure why, but she thinks it's great. She'll push them in her stroller, bring them to the store or anywhere else we go. She can tell you that there's a baby in my tummy, but I don't think she understands more than that. I'm a bit concerned that she'll be jealous of the baby and won't be too nice to her, but hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised?! Time will tell.

Fun weekend

This weekend the girls in the family headed to the Little America for an overnight stay! We met at the hotel, rode trax to Gateway, ate dinner at Rumbi and did some shopping. We got hot chocolate and a cookie at a yummy cookie place before getting back on trax to return to the hotel. Then we enjoyed some hot tub time before going to bed.

The next morning we enjoyed the breakfast buffet and it is delish! So many choices that there is no way you can leave hungry or unhappy!

I should have had Nat sit on the end! If you didn't know I was pregnant, well here is evidence!

After breakfast we headed to Modern Display and trolley square for a bit more shopping before heading home. It was so fun and we decided we need to make it a tradition! Thanks to my sweet husband for spending some quality time with Molly so I could have some girl time!

Saturday night our plans fell through but we made up for it. After putting Molly to bed we watched the movie Elf while making a faux headboard! I got the idea from my friend Sydnie. It was pretty inexpensive and didn't take too much time.

Molly saying "ta da!"

Sydnie's blog has all the instructions, so I decided to be lazy and not show you how we did it. But essentially you get some wood, cover it first with the thickest batting you can find (staple gun it), cover that with home decor fabric, then add nailhead trim! Viola you're done!

Drawer re-do

Sometime this summer I went to a salvage yard in downtown SLC with my mom and sister and I picked up this wooden drawer in the hopes to make it into a necklace holder! I bought some scrapbook paper but I really didn't love it, so this project has been slow in coming. But I finally found paper I like and now it's done!I painted the drawer, drilled holes for the knobs, screwed them in and glued the paper in. It was really easy and pretty cheap as well!
Here it is sitting on my dresser. I have a jewelry box, but the long necklaces just don't work in it since it isn't tall enough. That's what I wanted to achieve with this!

Thanksgiving 2009

We went to St. George for this Thanksgiving with Justin's family. We had a lot of fun!

We had Thanksgiving dinner for the 2nd time at the Switchback Restaurant, just before the entrance to Zion National Park in Springdale, UT. It was a yummy buffet!

Here's all of us except Justin's sister and her family who couldn't make it with the triplets.

They had lots to choose from and the flower arrangements were beautiful.

After dinner we walked over to this elk farm. They had buffalo, cows and horses as well.

They would walk right up to the fence, it was crazy!

We also went shopping, the boys golfed, we ate at some other yummy places, had the longest pedicures ever (2 hours at a hair school! But the price was only $12), played games with the fam and just relaxed! We had a great time.

Thankful

to be reminded to do a thankful post since everyone is doing it! Ha!

thankful to be going to New Moon tomorrow with my mom and sisters

thankful to be going to St. George on Sunday for the week with my in-laws

thankful for my cute short haircut that I love (and the three lovely hours where I sat in a chair and did nothing!)

thankful that I finished cleaning for two people this week...only two more the week after Thanksgiving and I'm totally done!

thankful that we are all healthy (no h1 n1 for us yet!)

thankful that I'm having an easy pregnancy

thankful that Justin is loving law school

and for much, much more, but that's a start for things on the surface

turkeys and owls

Yesterday I hosted a play group where we made these cute oreo turkeys.

I got the idea here. Mostly it was moms making these, but all the kids of course were enjoying the candy! Me too!

My mom has a habit of buying quilting, crafting and cooking magazines when she sees them and I always have to check them out as well. In a recent edition of Quilting and More (I think that's the right one) I saw this most adorable pattern for a pillow. The kicker was that it was in the same fabrics as Molly's quilt that's hanging in her room. Of course I had to make it! And the pattern was included in the book, so why not?

The final result! Isn't it sweet? The writing says, "You're a hoot!" if you can't tell. Sorry the lighting isn't the best for these. Now my mom thinks I need to make some owl pillows as well-sheesh! The project list goes on and on!

Need I say more?

Projects finished

Remember the cute skirt I made for Molly a while back? Well I finally got around to the top! She wore it last Sunday and of course it looked adorable!

I used google images to find a flower outline I liked. Then I printed it off, cut out fabric in the same shape, ironed it to the fusible stuff, and made a couple of centers! Viola! It's done.

Okay, skipping Thanksgiving since Christmas stuff is everywhere already, I have finally gotten around to finishing these projects that have been in the works for about a year (no kidding).
I didn't have anyone to hold the quilt, so it's laying on a mattress. Just picture the same border on the bottom on the top :)

Here's a close up. I used 1 1/2 panels and some fat quarters to make this. I had it quilted in Star Valley actually for a bargain price! I'm quite pleased with it and plan to use it as a throw on the couch to be used and loved.

Now onto the really long and tedious projects! My Christmas stockings! Now I know you probably say, um, they're not really done and I know that, but they are mostly done!

Please tell me how adorable they are because I probably spent 20+ hours EACH on these!! You may also notice that they have little charms and buttons. It was kind of funny stitching 'mom and dad' on mine and Justin's stockings, but obviously that's what we are and I plan on keeping these around, oh forever!

My mom's sweet friend is going to help me with the backing to make these into true stockings. Her daughters make these stockings every year for a family of their choosing! Can you imagine? They are truly angels! And they were very nice and let me borrow the patterns. Next year I'll borrow another girly one for baby girl. At least I only have to do one at a time now :) I'll have to post another pic of the final final product!