Swiss Days Adventure!

I made it to Swiss Days, although I ended up going by myself! Natalie was going to meet me there, but she ended up in Evanston :( oops! We guessed the wrong loop on the freeway, but she said Mitt had forgotten his shoes anyway. I still feel bad about their pointless car drive!

Well, my parents drove up with me in their car because they were going to stay the night in Park City for their Anniversary and were going to do a couple of things in Midway anyway. By the way, Happy Anniversary mom and dad!

So what ended up happening was my dad dropped me off and took Molly, so I just roamed the booths alone, which was totally fine with me. It would have been difficult to get a stroller in to see some of the booths, so it ended up working out. There were a lot of really cute things, but I decided I could either *make them myself (and when I say make it doesn't really mean I would but just that I could possibly figure it out without paying their price) or I couldn't justify paying their price! I did end up purchasing one thing. Here's a pciture:

It's a small message board, 16x16 and it's dry erasable and magnetic. Now the frame I bought is ivory, but it has a brown and green background. They say it will be finished in up to 4 weeks and I will pick it up in Murray. I'm pretty excited about it. I don't know where I will hang it, but I figured with my bday coming up, I would buy myself an early bday present! They were on sale at Swiss Days and their website is alaboard.com if you'd like to check out their stuff. Anyway, they have calendar boards and some kids ones that are cute too. They had ribbon tied on their boards with like halloween decorations and stuff and they looked pretty cute. Plus Justin hates all the stuff we put on our fridge, so we can move announcements and that stuff to the board or put up pics, whatever.

The past week

Lately we haven't been up to a whole lot around here. Just kind of the usual. But my parents are going to remodel two rooms in the house-so they've been busy!

First things first, the wallpaper in the kitchen has to go! Yesterday I helped my mom with one wall and man, is that tedious!! We used a steamer, but then my mom bought a kit that helps remove it, so we're going to try that next. Once all of the wallpaper's off, they are going to hire a painter and possibly paint this wall here red? That's what they're possibly thinking. And yesterday a hutch was delivered that will sit up against this wall.


Earlier this week I made this crayon roll. I realize that Molly can't color or draw yet, but I wanted a project and this pattern was in a quilt magazine my mom bought. It was really simple. Now I just need to put some crayons in!

This is the lining.

Above is the outside and on the left is how it got the name crayon roll.

I'm trying to go to Swiss Days today in Midway, so hopefully that will be fun. I've never gone, but always wanted to.

The Wait is OVER!

The last two law schools we were waiting on have both contacted us and both have a full class, so unfortunately Justin won't be attending law school this fall. Of course it's a disappointment but life happens and as we all know, things don't always go your way.

On the upside, here are a few reasons that we're happy:
-no packing!
-no moving!
-no long car rides or plane rides to unknown territory
-no unpacking!
-no debt
-no having to figure out last minute housing, loans, buying books and figuring out a new schedule, campus, town and state
-our family is here
-we have lots of friends here
...and the list could go on and on.

Justin plans on retaking the LSAT either in October (if he feels ready) or in December and then applying again. This no doubt has been a learning experience for both of us and I really admire Justin for all of his hard work. This hasn't been something easy for him (the whole waiting for an answer), but he has handled it so well and I have no doubt that he will be a great law student. He has so much potential and he's such a hard worker and any law school would be lucky to have him. We know that things happen for a reason, so here's to next year!

Boating

Yahoo, we went boating yesterday! We had so much fun. We went to Pineview with my Uncle Randy. Nat, P and Mitt, Emily and Zack and Justin and I went. My mom watched Major and Molly at Nat's so we could all go. Everything went great until we accidentally hit the prop on the old road that is now partially covered by water (like 2 feet!)! Crap! Luckily most of us were able to get in and have a few turns, all except Nat and Mitt.

Me on the kneeboard...haven't done this forever! And I definitely took a couple battle scars for it.

Me on slalom.

Justin getting ready to go.

Justin on 2.

It was such a beautiful day, thanks Randy for the fun!

M for Molly

This is about as close to scrapbooking as I get:

I found this chipboard letter "M" at Roberts on the 75% off table. I bought an M and a P thinking that I could surely find something to do with them. I don't pretend to be a scrapbooker, but I wanted to do something for Molly since really she doesn't have a "nursery" so to speak (she is in our room in her crib). The paper was also half off and matches really well with Molly's quilt. So this is the end result! The ribbon I had lying around, so that was an added bonus.

Back home

It's nice to be home, isn't it? We got back this afternoon from Star Valley. As always, it was fun to be there. The best thing was the weather. It was so beatiful and about 80 degrees...perfect! Here's a quick rundown of what we did:

We arrived late Saturday night, so we pretty much just headed to bed. Sunday we went to church and then invited grandma and grandpa Pendleton over for dinner. We had dutch oven potatoes and chicken. For dessert we had dutch oven peach and blueberry cobbler that was delicious!! Thanks to Val and Shelley for their hard work in preparing it--it was yummy!



Monday night we went with part of the family (Val, Shelley, Scott, Mark, and us) to see the Bar J Wranglers. If you haven't seen them perform, you should check them out sometime! They perform in the summer months in Jackson Hole, but during the winter, they travel to places around the US. We had a nice bbq dinner there first and then the show is about an hour and a half. They sing cowboy songs and joke around with each other and it makes for a really fun night. http://www.barjchuckwagon.com/index.htm We decided it would be difficult to take Molly, so we found the first non-related babysitter for her! We called a girl in the ward and she watched her and said she was great! We felt a bit bad since she watched her for about two hours, then probably watched the Olympics for three while she waited for us! The drive is about an hour, so we ended up getting home at 11 pm.

Yesterday I helped Shelley re-decorate their family room. They have several cabinets on either side of their mantle, so that's primarily what we we working on-filling those. Before we came to Star Valley, she found some things at Tai Pan, but that wasn't enough, so we headed to Hastings/Ace Hardware in Afton and found a bunch of cute things. I love decorating, it's always a challenge, but fun when you're able to find the perfect pieces to match your overall idea.

At night we watched the Olympics. It's nice that they have Tivo or whatever so that we could rewind and fast forward. I don't know about you, but for the next Olympics, I'd like the time to be closer to ours so that you don't end up watching it until midnight every night!!

Headed out--

We're headed up to Star Valley for the weekend. Justin was given three days off in a row, so we figured it'd be a good time to go. Grandma and Grandpa Pendleton always miss Molly since she's the only grandchild (only for another month or so...see Brooke's blog) and unfortunately it's a bit of a drive. While there, we've been promised a fabulous dutch oven dinner and a good time as always.

Wouldn't you like this cute luggage? I sure would!

(image from overstock.com)

Have a good weekend!

Placemats

Here is the final product of my reversible placemats. I am so pleased with how they turned out--even cuter than I thought! Now I just wish I would have made more than 2! Oh well.

They match so perfectly with my plates!

So you get an idea how they look on the table ;)

I never knew I could be so excited about placemats :)

There She Goes!

The little crawer in action:

Down to 2 and STILL waiting

So we're down to two law schools. We heard from the University of Arizona today and they said that they have a full class, 150 students. My favorite line of the letter was, "I recognize that being on the Waiting List is an unpleasant experience, and I appreciate your patience." Huh. Yeah right! I highly doubt (in this case, the asst. dean of admissions) has any idea what it's really like waiting around for three months for a little yes or no!

Recently I've been looking for housing where Justin is still waiting for an answer just in case we have a last minute yes from anyone. Even though my efforts may be frustrated here (and we may get to enjoy the fun of the admissions process yet another year) I guess it has given me something to do. I have found a great apartment complex in NC and I've contacted a student at William and Mary if we should have an opportunity there. But if not, at least we were prepared.

I really wish we could hear a final yes or no from the other two schools by the end of the week. So pray for that! A quick answer, whatever it may be. I hope you can sense here that I'm really not bitter, but like the apt asst. dean of admissions has said, it isn't a pleasant experience.

On a happier note, I finished Breaking Dawn today. Great plot for the last book and a good ending to a fun and entertaining saga of books that I'm sure I will read again. Thanks to Stephenie Meyer for peaking my interest in vampires ;) Oh and Molly is crawling and getting quite quick! We are going to have to be even more watchful and protective of her! She's still not faster than me, but it's probably only a matter of time. That's all for now.

Watkins Family Reunion

We had our Watkins reunion this past weekend and as usual celebrated my grandpa's birthday. There is quite the posterity on this side, over 170 descendants I believe! We had dinner first, followed by dessert and birthday cake.

the lighting of the candles
Can you guess how many candles/years my grandpa is?! Sheesh! You can't even tell it's a cake! He turned 92 this year!

After dinner there is always a parade and program. My grandma loved parades with the kids walking around and Emily claims she participated until she was 18! Ha ha. She probably did. I remember as a teenager being so annoyed we had to be in the parade since it was basically for the little kids. But still to this day we have a parade in honor of my grandma. We asked my grandpa after the parade was over if grandma was glad we had the parade. He said yes, she was glad we had a parade :)

Some of the parade goers: My cousin's daughter Emily, then princess Clara, her mom Wendy and Eliza.

Major was loving the parade and Mitt was trying to keep Maj in check!

Next was the program. We first talked to my grandpa and asked him some questions about his life. Then we had a performance. Here in the picture are Mckenna and Danielle doing Irish dancing. They were AMAZING! They have been dancing for a year and a half or two years I think and just went to a competition where they earned several first and second place medals! It was so fun to see them perform. I thought their hair was real until I saw them taking it off as a wig!

My cousin Wendy and her baby Eliza with Molly and my dad. Molly loved Eliza! We had a fun time and it's always so nice of my aunt Laurel and uncle Mark to have the reunion at their beautiful home where we can all fit and have fun!

Next to do:

Ever since I found The Chickpea Sewing Studio blog and saw her tutorial on how to make some placemats, I've been wanting to make some to match my green dishes. To make the tutorial even easier, The Sewing Republic has made a video of how to whip these up in no time! They also have other video tutorials for simple sewing projects, so check 'em out! Here is what I picked out to make the reversible placemats: some fabric from Heather Bailey's freshcut line and a matching polka dot. Cute, right?! I'm excited!

Flirty Skirty Apron

I finished my apron! I think it turned out pretty cute. And I even happened to match the apron today :) precious, huh?!

Here's a close up. It was pretty quick to make and I was so proud of myself that I was able to follow the pattern and decipher it all by myself, no help! My mom has been out of town this week and she's usually who I ask all my questions to, but I thought I could handle it and here's the proof!!

Molly madness!

This is a quick update on Molly. She is about to start taking off crawling any day now. She'll take a couple of steps crawling, then she lays down as if she's tired, silly girl. She likes to wave and she's eating anything she finds in the carpet, including the many potato bugs we seem to get on a daily basis (arg!). On a side note I killed the biggest spider I have ever seen down here (which is really saying something). It was seriously bigger than a quarter! YUCK!! It freaked me out pretty bad. I thought about taking a picture, but there was no way I was going to run to the other room and chance the thing escaping!! I could not have slept here last night if that was the case!

Ok, back to Molly so I have some things recorded about her as a baby. Molly LOVES stuffed animals. She always has. When she sleeps, she always has to have this lamb or her tigger and she falls asleep holding one of them or laying on top of one of them.

We're still going through her crazy hair phase as you can see, and she loves puffs! If I try to take her animal away, she gets so mad, so I figure as long as she doesn't try to eat her food and her animal, she can have both :) This was taken last Sunday. Thanks to my cousin Mary for the adorable outfit! There are matching shoes to go with the dress, but her feet are so small that they may not fit for a year... anyway, we tried these little shoes that are for a 3-6 month old! ha ha!

9 month pictures:

We waited and waited for Molly to sit up before we went and had some pictures taken again. We had some coupons for Target and figured that would be as quick and easy as anything. They turned out pretty cute and were super cheap. I took pictures of the pictures, so they look MUCH better than this in real life, but you get the idea!!