Cousins

Shannon, Me and Dianne

The girls with our girls

Shannon and Corey renewing their vows

Two weekends ago my cousin Shannon and her husband Corey renewed their wedding vows in celebration of their 15th anniversary. It was a really touching event and I was glad to be there to support my cousin. When I was young, my two cousins and I spent our summers together in the thriving metropolis of Needles, CA with our grandparents. We were all only children and these two were the closest thing I had to sisters growing up. My cousin Dianne just moved to Kingman so this is the first time the three of us have all lived in the same state. I'm excited and hopeful that we will be able to resume that closeness we had when we were young.

Recent Projects

So I've really taken to this whole sewing thing, and have been having lots of fun doing new projects. Here's a sampling of what I've been working on:

I made this cute sailboat quilt for my friend Katherine's baby boy who is due next month

Close up of the sailboat quilt

A cute coordinating little taggie lovey blanket.

The back is super-soft fleece-type material that is heavenly.

A cute little dress made from a onesie, with matching headband

The set of onesie dresses I made for my friend Brittanie's baby shower.

Baby quilt I made for my cousin Tara's soon-to-arrive baby boy.



The material has various vehicles and road signs, and the back is cars, busses and motorcycles.

Cabin!

Every year Bryan helps out with our stake Girls' Camp as a shotgun shooting instructor. This year he had to be there on Thursday afternoon and they asked him to help tear down camp on Saturday morning, so we decided to go up to the cabin and enjoy the cooler weather. We had a nice relaxing weekend hanging out as a family, and the kids loved being able to play outside all day long. I absolutely love the Arizona mountains and am still amazed at how green and beautiful this "desert" state is.

Annie's First Day of Nursery

May 30th was Annie's first day of nursery at Church. She had actually gone in with Ryan a couple of weeks before and they let her stay, but we took a picture to commemerate her official first day. She absolutely loves it and goes right in, sits down and starts playing with the puzzles. I'm sure it's a little easier to adjust with her big brother close by. Mom is thrilled--it's nice not to have to wander the halls with her for two hours since she usually can't sit still. Yay for nursery!

Camp Snoopy!

The last weekend of April we went to Southern California for a long weekend. We thought Ryan would enjoy Knott's Berry Farm and we were right--he loved it! We got to have breakfast with our friends the Barnes', play at Huntington Beach and generally enjoy ourselves. Then there was the small issue of me killing the battery of the suburban, but that's a whole different post...

What I've Been Up To

So I obviously haven't been busy spending my time blogging, but I have found a fun new hobby--sewing! I started doing some really basic stuff a couple of years ago and a couple of months ago I made a really simple patchwork baby quilt for my cousin. When I was doing that, I had to enlist the help of one of my good friends to help me finish it, and somehow she convinced me that I could quilt and do all kinds of cool stuff. So I went out and bought a really basic quilt pattern, and made the baby quilt below for my step-sister's new little girl Amanda. It was the first one that I did completely on my own and while it wasn't perfect, it came out really well.

Also, whenever I go into Joann's it seems there is some cute material that I think would look cute for something for Annie. I've made one dress for her, but I decided to try just using the material as a skirt and add it to a t-shirt, and I thought it came out really cute.

Right now I'm working on a really cool sailboat quilt for another friend who is having a baby boy this summer. After all these years, it's fun to finally have a hobby!

Spring!

At the beginning of the month I decided it was time to have pictures of the kiddos done, and they came out adorable! I can't believe how much they look alike or how big they're getting, but the pictures are proof!

Hooray for Annie!

I am seriously behind in the blogging arena, but I just had to report that this past week, Miss Annie finally hit the long anticipated 20 pound mark! Yes, she is 17 months old, but that's OK, we're just glad she finally got here. Two more pounds and we'll finally be able to take her off of infant formula. Yay Annie!

February (this is for you, Ana!)

I don't know where this year is going! It's almost April and it's been nearly three months since I've posted on here! Where does the time go?

Anyway, I thought I'd do a little catching up.

February was a great month. We went to California to visit my parents for my Mom's birthday and had a wonderful time. (Somehow I did not get any pictures that trip, except one of Annie eating an Oreo. Not sure how that happened).

For Valentine's Day, I thought it'd be fun to do a little project so Ryan's friend Noelle came over and they decorated cookies. It was messy and fun and they created some cute little masterpieces.

We were also able to get in one trip to the zoo with our friends the Albertsen's. Ryan absolutely loves all the animals, and it's a great activity this time of year.

On the last weekend of the month, Bryan and I did a 5K to benefit the zoo. Yes, you read that right, Bryan and I, doing a 5K. We had a great time, and the kids enjoyed it too. Since it was early and so cool out, we were able to see the cheetas for the first time, which was pretty cool.

New Year, New Me

If you know me at all, you know I love being a Mom. However, my love of motherhood does not preclude my frustration with the lack of structure that happens when you have two kids two and under. I have always done well with a system--schedules and deadlines and lists. So since I've become a stay-at-home mom, I've struggled, to say the least. I am often "busy" all day, yet somehow at the end of the day I feel like the house is a wreck, I haven't gotten any real exercise or spent any quality time with my kids. It doesn't seem like I should have these problems without a job to worry about, but yet, here I am.

So this year I decided to at least attempt to do something about it. I came up with a general schedule for each day that allows time for me to go to the gym (which, by the way, the kids love), time to just play with the kids, and time for housework. I also came up with a list of things I want to accomplish in terms of housework every day. This way, once those things are done, I don't have to feel guilty about sitting down and reading the kids a book, or heaven forbid, reading a book myself. I have come to accept the fact that I will probably not ever have my entire house completely spotless at the same time (at least until my kids are in school or I get a housekeeper again, the latter of which is not likely), and I am OK with that.

This chapter of my life, with little ones home, is already going by far too quickly for me. I don't want to look back later and feel like I didn't fully take advantage of the blessing it is to be able to spend every day with my kids. So we'll see how this new system works. Wish me luck!