Thank You UDOT!

I had to run to Provo today, okay, not run, but you know what I mean. As I was driving down Provo Canyon I nearly fell off the road looking at the gorgeous display of blue flax. When UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) redid the canyon road apparently they reseeded the scarred hills and roadside with blue flax. It is absolutely stunning. There are miles of blue on the west side of the road covering the hillside. I love it. Thanks UDOT for making that gorgeous canyon even more amazing, even though I seriously almost caused an accident!

Only a few days left!

This is my friend Natalia. I met her at our Heber Valley Quilt Guild meetings. She is a super amazing quilter and a fun fun person. She has a long arm quilting machine, she did the quilting on one of my big quilts and I love it. She also owns her own online fabric shop. She is having a customer referral contest and I told her I would love to play. This contest is only for the month of May, so I only have a few more days to play. The winner gets 3 yards of fabric and a pattern. I love fabric, truly I do and it is getting worse and worse!

What I would love you to do is go visit her website. Her site counts how many referrals my blog gives her, so go check it out. You don't have to purchase anything, but you may be tempted! Anyway, see for yourself - www.piecenquilt.com

Thanks folks! And wish me happy quilting! I am going to a quilting retreat next week - HOORAY!

It is BBQ Season!

Out with the old . . .

And in with the new!

My parents gave us a new BBQ for Christmas. Matt put it together about a month ago and it has been wonderful. I love cooking outside, especially in the summer so I don't have to heat up my house. Thank you Tori and Jared for the first one, I am not being ungrateful, but I am excited about our new one. Tori and Jared gave the first one to us a few years ago when they were having a yard sale. Tori knew at the time we were using one of those little tiny ones that you hook up to a small green can of gas that most people take camping, not BBQ hamburgers on at home! So thanks Tori & Jared, and thanks parents!

I made some jerky the other day with the new meat slicer I gave Matt for Christmas. It worked great and my neighbor gave me an idea - I am going to go to Smiths today and buy a huge pork loin, slice that baby up, and grill us some delicious teriyaki pork . Mmmmmm, that sounds so good. I love it on rice, dang, I better go get some breakfast!

The girls were actually very helpful while Matt assembled the new BBQ. Kendal kept taking away the screwdriver, and Kelsey lost a few screws down the deck cracks. I stayed out of the way. Actually, I read the instruction manual to Matt. Funny funny funny to me.

Tough Girl, Smiley Boy, and No More Sweaty Neck!

Kendal turned 4 years old last week. Holy cow! How time does fly! She had a super day and I am so glad that she did. She is pretty easy to please! She loved all the streamers and balloons. She loved that they were hers. Matt LOVES surprises and birthdays so he wanted us to wait until he got home from work before Kendal could open her presents, which turned out to be around 9:15. No matter, she still loved her new scooter and rode it around the house since it was too dark outside!

We finally got around to blowing out candles a few days later. She loved it. She loved her cake even though it wasn't anything from anything, she absolutely loved it because it was hers. She did get a little frustrated with the trick candles though and asked for sissy's help! She is a super sweet girl and we love her.

Oh, the poor thing, I almost forgot. She woke up early on her birthday and so I had her go downstairs to our UNFINISHED basement that Kelsey insists on sleeping in, to wake Kelsey up. I heard in a sweet little whisper "Telsey, wake up. Telsey, sis, wake up." Then as she got no response from that sister of hers, it became a little louder. Then I heard a big bang and Kendal crying. I figured Kelsey pushed her off the bed and I was ready to give that 7 year old of mine a piece of my mind when she came running upstairs and told me that Kendal had a bloody nose. I grabbed some toilet paper and ran downstairs and boy did she have a bloody nose! All over the place.

I asked Kelsey if she pushed her off the bed and she denied it. I asked Kendal and she said that she fell off and bonked her nose. The truth will go to the grave I guess. Anyway, Kendal cried for about 30 seconds and I cleaned up the blood. Kendal is a tough tough little girl. I am not sure if it is because her brain waves are all messed up or because of her "decreased sensitivity" due to her meds, but let me tell you, she is tough. It takes a lot of physical pain to make her cry. I am making a short story long, sorry. I think Kendal broke her nose.

Look at the picture of her smiling with her new scooter. That was the day it happened. It looks much worse now and there are some definite bumps on the side of her little nose that were not there before! My poor little Kendal, broke her nose on her birthday.

Now on to Emmitt. Matt took the girls south today and they played wild at the ranch all day catching lizards. They had a great time. So did Emmitt and I. I got to sew a little, I mowed the lawn, I pulled weeds, I did some MAJOR laundry, I cleaned the kitchen really well, and I loved on my little man. I was also able to capture his sweet little smile that I have been getting for a few weeks now. It melts my heart. Here you all go, you can see it now too.

Here is Kelsey's BEFORE picture. She got her hair cut the other day. Kendal got hers cut on her birthday, and Kelsey got hers cut the next day. She has been begging me to get it cut for about a year now and I finally relented. Just so you know, I did not tell her that BEFORE pictures are supposed to look miserable, she must have just known that you are not supposed to smile.

Here is the after picture. She loves her new hair cut so much. Her dad, who happens to be heartbroken with the new do, asked her why she wanted it cut. Here are her reasons:

1 - I get a sweaty neck when I sleep dad.

2 - I get so cold when I get out of the tub with wet hair and it lays on my back.

3 - Emmitt is going to be old enough to pull it soon, so I better cut it off.

4 - She will never admit this one, but I know it is true - she thinks she won't have to do her hair anymore, or I mean, have it done anymore if it is short - WRONG!

Either way, she loves it and it will be a great change for the summer.

There is our update. Oh yeah, Matt is running wild and crazy and SUPER busy being a vet - 'stamping out disease and saving lives.' Something like that anyway. Me, I am busy feeding a baby, keeping the yard watered, trying to sew and quilt when I can, and looking forward to a wonderful summer when the girls get out of school. Only 4 more days!

My Princesses

We have been enjoying a few of the Star Wars movies lately. Yes, even I watched Anakin and the Princess kiss and then be turned out to the monsters - and enjoyed it. Anyway, I was in the house feeding Emmitt and I looked out the front bay window and I saw my princesses with their light sabers. So cute.

I do need to see Episode 3 when Anakin decides to TURN TO THE DARK SIDE. Anyone living near me, feel to free to drop that off at any time after I get the other half of my lawn mowed!!

Summer is here I think, I hope

We blessed Emmitt in church this past Sunday. Most of Matt and I's siblings and their families came up for the day. It was so much fun. The girls had been looking forward all week to when cousins and grandpas and grandmas would be at our house. Thanks Cranes, Talbots, Elwells, Chappells, and Rowsers for traveling to be with us.

Emmitt's little outfit turned out okay. The cutest part was the little tie. I think I will be making a bunch of them for upcoming Sundays. Anyone with a little baby boy? I will make you one too! The only thing truly special about his little monkey suit is that it has my grandma Lela's buttons on it. 5 of them, like the buttons that have been on something else before. I had to cut little pieces of fabric and thread from the back of all of them. Reuse - that was my Grandma's motto I think!

After Sacrament Meeting we all came to my house for a little chicken cordon bleu sandwich in the sun. It turned out okay I think. I was too busy barking orders to my sister in laws, mom, and friends to notice. Thanks ladies by the way!

The kids had a super time. They kept the Sabbath Day holy by running through the sprinkler, jumping on the tramp, and playing in the sandbox in swim suits, underwear, or nothing at all. It was a warm warm May day and I knew they would want to play in the water - heck I did! I told Kelsey to run inside and get our drawer of swim suits. I figured we had enough to outfit all the girls. Kelsey took the suits onto the front lawn and the girls were throwing clothes off faster than a cheetah after some lunch! It was precisely 2:08 in the afternoon and our ward happens to get out of church at 2:00, so many folks got a nice little naked girl show on the front lawn as they drove home!

The kids and I spent a little time on the deck after dinner tonight. It was fabulous - the deck and dinner. I bought some corn on the cob with expectations of it not being so good because it is so early for good corn, but we were pleasantly surprised. It was so good! We all wanted more! Maybe it tasted good because it was the first corn on the cob we have had this year, but either way it was great. Kelsey lost her 8th tooth last night and she was so excited to eat corn on the cob. She couldn't eat it very well last year with all her loose or missing front teeth.

Chillin on the deck. I took out a magazine to flip through and Kelsey was reading her new IVY and BEAN book I bought her today, so Kendal went and got a Junie B Jones book to read. So funny. She picked a big girl book with no pictures and actually sat there and 'read it' for quite awhile.

I told Kelsey that this summer she needed to read at least a chapter a day in a chapter book like Magic Tree House, Junie B Jones, or something like that. I saw some IVY and BEAN books today and bought them. She loves Ivy and Bean. She read the first chapter tonight and asked me if she could "please read one more." She loves to read and I am happy about that.

I put some shoes on Emmitt for an hour or so this evening, thanks to Tori and Tacey! There is something so adorable about baby shoes. I love them. They are useless, but darling.

I can't resist

I can not resist posting these pictures of my Vogue model from today. She cracks me up!

Notice the no diaper bum. I told her we ran out of diapers today. She has peed her pants 3 times already. I wonder when I will get the really good present!!

My sweet and fashionable Kendal

My little Kendal turns 4 in a week or so and she is still not potty trained. I am so tired of it all. I asked the neurologist at Primary Children's Hospital when we were there in March if it had something to do with her medication because it is a 'sensory inhibitor' drug. He told me that it was hard to tell, maybe she is just stubborn or maybe it is because even though she is physically almost 4, she is not mentally or socially almost 4. Well, that was not helpful information! Anyway, I have been VERY patient about it all, but it is time to move on.

We went to King's yesterday where she picked out a great toy that I was going to use as bribery. She picked out a Belle cell phone. When we got it home I prepared myself for the meltdown that would occur when I told her she couldn't open it until she used the toilet. It happened once, twice, and a handful of times again, but she understands the concept. She still doesn't want the cell phone bad enough to use the toilet - YET!

Today I was getting ready to change Emmitt's diaper. She wanted to help. I told her she couldn't help change the baby's diapers until she was wearing panties and not diapers anymore. She ran in her room, put on some panties and came back out to help change Emmitt's diaper. Here is what she looked like. Cracked me up!

I love the back view, she didn't even get the Dora panties up over her little hiney! I looked out the back window earlier today and she still had this get up on, but in addition to it she was pulling her little Dora suitcase with wheels down the sidewalk. I wonder what people think of us!

A few hours later she was playing in the basement - unfinished basement with bags and boxes of clothing and toys. She came upstairs like this - Kelsey's snow boots, Kelsey's new flip flops on her hands, and the life jacket. The pink IFA hat was added to her outfit and covered up her super cute curly pigtails earlier in the day. She is full of fun.

My friend Jen used to comment on her different outfits throughout the day. I didn't think too much about them until now. Maybe she will be my fashion star. I doubt it.

Big Dummies

I hate to complain again about how un-smart some people are, but look, they did it again!

Matt ordered more vaccine, 3 bottles this time ($630 worth) and they packaged it so crazy again!

In this HUGE box there were 6 ice packs and Matt's three tiny tiny bottles of vaccine. They next dayed it this time though instead of 2nd day shipping, so it did arrive cold. Thank goodness!

One more thing. I went to pick Kendal up from school the other day and Emmitt was in the car with his face covered a little with his blanket. When Kendal got in the car, I uncovered his face and Kendal said "Oh mom, he is dis so tute!" I said, "yes he is super cute" and then she said about 4 more times on the way home (a 5 block area) "He is so tute!" She loves that little brother of hers!

I won a hundred dollars!

2 of my quilting friends, Deonn and Debbie, and I made a challenge quilt for the Home Machine Quilting Show in SLC last weekend and we won second place. That means $100 for me since 2nd place is a $300 deal. It was super fun. We spent 2 nights up until 2:00 am and a few other days worth of working on it together, then of course our own time to work on it individually. Let me tell you, it was a challenge! The fabric!! Yuck!

They give everyone the same fabric to use and the same rules. Here are the swatches of the fabric everyone received that wanted to participate. We could add 4 more fabrics if we wanted, we were supposed to base it around the theme of PUMP UP THE COLOR, the perimeter couldn't be over 140", and you had to use some of every fabric they gave us. The line of fabric was pinkish purplish, green, red, and brown. EEEWWWWWW!!

I think we did a great job in making THEIR fabric look good! We called ours 'Ellie's Scrapbook' and we added a lot of fun embellishments. It was a good time and I am glad we participated. The quilts were auctioned off and the proceeds go to digging a well in Africa. I think ours went for a little over $100, I am not sure.

Here are a few of the other challenge quilts. It was VERY interesting to see what everyone else came up, since we all had the same fabric and the same rules. The quilt to the left of ours won first place, even though it is WELL beyond the 140" rule. Dang them! Oh well, it was super fun staying up late with crazy quilting ladies working on a project.

Jen's Hot Fudge Sauce

So one of my best friends, Jen, sold her house and left town on me. But before she left, she brought me some last minute fridge and freezer items from her empty home. SMUCKERS hot fudge sauce was one of them. Let me tell you all, I have a love affair with chocolate, no matter the form. When I used to tell Jen that I would buy a bag of chocolate chips with intentions to make cookies, but somehow the bag was gone in 2 days, she would become ill for me. Apparently her taste in chocolate is a little more sophisticated than mine, which became VERY apparent to me the other day with the hot fudge sauce example.

Emmitt is now 6 weeks old and my clothes don't fit. I can get them on, but it is not a look I want to sport in public - skin tight if you know what I mean. So I have been trying to be so good with my little binging sweet tooth. After looking out my kitchen window for the 16th time in a day, and NOT seeing my friend Jen's house but instead whomever bought her house, I cracked the lid on the hot fudge sauce. There was ONE tiny little finger print in the top of the fudge - the bottle was full. Well, it was seriously gone in about 3 hours. I kept dipping in a spoon for a little treat every time I looked out my window at Jen's old house, but then Kendal saw me and I had to share. Luckily, it was 2/3 gone by then so she didn't get too much of a belly ache!
Jen, here is my poem to you:

I miss you more than chocolate chips,
your absence is dangerous to my hips.
Please come back and visit soon,
or I may take a bite of the (chocolate) moon.

Mrs. Durfey, eat your heart out! I knew I was a poet!

Cheap Thrills

The other day I was taking care of the wood pile tarp and I asked Kelsey and her friend Katie to help me fold it up. The wind was blowing and when we were folding it up, the girls were nearly taken into orbit. They thought it was great so they wanted to keep playing with the tarp/parachute.


Who would have thought that a tarp could keep 3 girls busy for over an hour on a windy afternoon?
I took these pictures out of my bedroom window. Look how clean they are!! Some nice kid came and washed all the windows of my house from the outside for $35. Money well spent. They haven't ever been washed in our 6 1/2 years of living here! Now, the inside. . .

My Moods

I will not wish any of you a happy 5th of May, well, yes I will. The only significant thing about this day to me is that it is Candace Dickie's birthday. She was an old roommate from the Snow College days, so Happy Birthday Dickie - happy 5th of May! I will wish you all a wonderful 4th of July when that rolls around since I am a patriotic AMERICAN, but I will not say any about Cinco de whoopdedo Mayo.

Since it seems I am in a bitter mood, I will give you some more orneriness. We got a little flyer in the mail that said something like this the other day - 'Transfer a prescription to Walgreens pharmacy and receive a $25 gift certificate.' I usually don't think too much about these kind of things, but I did this time. When I did our taxes for this past year I realized how much stinking money we spend on health care and medical expenses. So I went to Walgreens pharmacy yesterday and asked about how much Kendal's prescription would be there. If I can get it cheaper than what I am now, I am all for it.
So the lady looked it up for me. For 6 weeks worth, that is what I get now, her medicine that she takes night and morning to keep the seizures away would cost me $743.00 at Walgreens. The generic, which we have strict orders not to do, is $566.00 there. Right now I shop at Smiths pharmacy. Their 6 weeks worth is $598.00. Isn't it all a bit ridiculous? Does her medicine REALLY cost that much to produce? Gimme a break! Anyway, before you all start feeling sorry for me I have to tell you that we do have insurance, as crappy as it is, and after we meet our pharmacy deductible (which isn't hard with Kendal!) we pay around $130 for her medicine.

Okay, now my REAL mood. It has been a wonderful day. I have been able to sew for a little while and do some yardwork. The dirt pile is gone! And, if that was not enough, I am so in love with my little boy. He is so sweet, he just melts my heart when I look at him.

From the words of the sappy Bella, "I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." He is such a sweet, good, and easy baby. We are so blessed to have him in our family. We adore him, and I adore him more than anyone else because I know him the best. I think I know him better than he knows himself. He is wonderful.

A disclaimer about the pictures though - I am not nursing him in this one and I would like to say that the bulge under Emmitt is just my shirt but that is not the truth. I bought skim milk yesterday instead of my usual 1%. Now the pounds will MELT right off! And the picture above . . . I see the crows feet eating up my face. It bites to get older! I have to post these pictures of me and my little man though, because there won't be a truly acceptable picture of myself with him for about another 6 months. But like I said, "Unconditionally."

One more thing - I bought this computer in the good ol' U S of A and it's spell check has no idea what CINCO is! Funny.

Hay and Water

My little Emmitt loves his sleep. Lately he seems to love it more than food, imagine that. He must be his father's son because nothing comes before my dinner!! Anyway, I fed him last night around 7:00 and then put him in the swing while I finished cleaning up the girls' dinner mess. He fell asleep and I kept expecting him to wake up around 9:30, eat again, and then go to bed for the night. (by the way, he has slept through the night for the previous 3 nights)

Well, he didn't really want to wake up so I took advantage of that and played on the Internet and did a few other things that just needed to be done. At 10:00 I got him out of the swing, tried to tell him that he should be hungry, and put him in his bassinet. Now normally when I put him in the bassinet, he wakes up immediately and protests. I was counting on this reaction, but it didn't happen.

So I turned off the light, crawled in bed, and decided he would let me know when he was finally hungry. I figured that would be around midnight or 1. Well, at 2:00 I awoke feeling very 'full' and decided to see if he was still alive. Yes, he was and he was having wonderful dreams, so I let him be. At 6:30 I finally woke up the little lazy bones and told him he was hungry, plus I was truly worried about his diaper that had not been changed since before 7:00 the previous day!

I laid him on my bed and while he did his 'wake up stretching and grunting' I opened up that diaper expecting a disaster, nope. Just very soggy. So I decided to put a fresh one on so the poop would have somewhere to go when it happened while I fed him. Just as I was lifting his little bottom up to slide the new diapers under him, he tooted at me. 2 harmless little toots. But then it happened and I was not fast enough. He shot poop all over me! I had on a white ankle length night gown and there was a HUGE splash of poop about waist high and then it started to run down the night gown in little poop rivulets.

Matt was getting in the shower and I yelled at him to come and help me. He saw my night gown and let out a burst of laughter, until he saw the carpet, the wall, the bassinet behind me, and the bedskirt. Well, actually, I don't think he noticed the bedskirt. Then, the veterinarian that comes home at least twice a week with cow crap all over him says "Sick, that is just sick. What do you want me to do? I can't touch that poop." I said to him what he tells me when I freak out about cow crap all over the place - "It's hay and water honey, hay and water, that's all. Oh wait, it is JUST MY MILK!! Get me a rag please!"

Well, the poop is cleaned up and he finally ate. I get to wash sheets and a bedskirt later today, and break out the good carpet spot cleaner! I guess I had it coming. I have been telling everyone that he has only peed while changing his diapers 2 or 3 times.

Ask and ye shall receive

I must apologize for my lack of blogging but I have been doing something VERY important. I have been reading Midnight Sun online. That is how I have been spending my 'computer time.' Midnight Sun as you Twilighters know is the book Stephenie Meyer started that has Edward's perspective of it all. It is a good read and I am ready to castrate and then hang up and whip the blankedy blank blank blank that stole it from her, sort of published it online, killed Stephenie's attempt at another great book, and really ticked me off.

Stephenie only got 264 pages of it written before it was all over the Internet without her permission. It is wonderful for Edward fans to read the sappy sappy heartbroken vampire's story to it all and I am sad it will never become a real book. For those of you that have not read it, do it. Here is the official website. I really wanted to print it off so I could read it whenever I wanted, but I couldn't figure it out. That whole copyright thing! Anyway, you can save it in your Documents file or just keep logging on to read it. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/ Click on the Twilight Series Tab and then on Midnight Sun.

What else have I been doing? YARDWORK!! Everyone say it with me, YARDWORK!! Spring is here. It has not snowed for a good 5 days or so, so it must be spring!!





These pictures are from yesterday. I was very hesitant to even post this picture of Kendal with her Pepsi, but she was so stinking cute I just had to. Matt and I have an on-going and ever-going disagreement on pop. For all of you city folks, that is another word for your 'soda.' (I have a problem with a few words in our English vocabulary and SODA just happens to be one of them.) Anyway, Matt loves his Pepsi and his Mountain Dew and I clearly and absolutely despise them all. Kendal found this lone Pepsi in the back of Matt's truck yesterday when we were shoveling dirt and had to have it. I can't believe I relented and opened it for her, but I did.

Here is the pile of dirt on my driveway yesterday after I had already removed about 1/2 of it. There is still a little pile of dirt on my driveway today. I didn't get as much done today as I would have liked to. Oh well. I asked a contractor guy that lives just down the road the other day where I could find some dirt. He told me he knew of a guy digging a basement. The next thing I know, the contractor guy is on my front porch with a load of screened, beautiful topsoil. Ask and ye shall receive! He told me Matt wouldn't want me to dirty up his (Matt's) truck bed so he decided to bring me some! How nice!

These pics are from today. Emmitt was so good and asleep in the house for about an hour and then he wanted no more of that! I brought him outside with us and he was super content. This was his first yardworking experience and it was a good one! How can you beat an overcast spring day, being outside, mom's voice within range, and sister reading DORA to you?

Just a little side note: today when I was shoveling that gorgeous dirt into the wheelbarrow, I happened to get a good wiff of it. It brought back so clearly memories of my grandma's house. The first wiff was pretty vague - just Grandma's house. Then I got a second wiff and it all came back to me - playing in Grandma's tator pit. Oh that earthy smell! We had some good times in the tator pit. The wonders of growing up in the country!

One more thing. This beauty was parked outside our house for the night and part of the day a few days ago. It is HUGE! Matt's vet school buddy Ellis stopped by on this way from the racetracks in Arizona for the winter to playing with horses in Montana for the summer. Ellis and his also-vet wife Mandi are in Ogden with that HUGE truck and trailer at some national cutting horse event for 10 days. It was a short visit, but a nice one. Ellis is a great old friend from the Oregon and Washington days.