I was able to attend my quilting guild's retreat this past weekend for a little bit, although I wish I could have been there the entire time!  We have such a great group of ladies in our guild and I love being with them.

 Here is my little area of the good times.  Kelsey came with me on Saturday afternoon.  Matt took Emmitt and Kendal down south to the ranch to get some harrowing and irrigating done, so Kelsey and I had a weekend together.  I did get to sew with the ladies on Friday from 6 to about 1 am, then I headed home for some sleep!  Saturday morning we went to her Achievement Days activity, a mother and daughter pampering get-together where she gave me a sweet pedicure and we had a wonderful lunch together.  She is a sweetheart.  She spent 4 hours with me at the retreat Saturday afternoon, but she took her dad's laptop to keep her busy while I sewed!

I received this in the mail on Friday.  I had planned on just missing out on this spring and summer's civil war reenacting events due to my largeness, but then I felt badly about ditching out on my friends and all the fun, so I ordered a maternity corset pattern.  Wish me luck!

T Rex

 The other day I was here on the computer and Emmitt was watching a dvd about dinosaurs in the same room.  He is quite fascinated with dinosaurs lately thanks to a few library books and dvds.  He knows his dad's favorite dinosaur is the Triceratops, and mine is the Pteradactyl.  He says their names perfectly too, it is too cute!  He prefers the T Rex because it "eats red meat."  He knows what they all eat and is quite the little dinosaurologist, I mean paleontologist.  
Anyway, he was watching a movie and it was explaining why the T Rex's body shape was the way it was.  I giggled when I overheard it.  So, the T Rex had a monster sized head compared to his body.  That put quite a bit of weight on the front end of the creature, which needed to be balanced out somehow.  That is where the tail and strong back legs came in.  The T Rex needed a long, heavy tail to keep it all happy, upright, and balanced.
I could not help but think of my body as of late.  I have this monster sized tummy in the front, and that must be why my body feels the need to compensate with my back end to keep me balanced!  It makes perfect dinosaur survival sense, as well as perfect pregnant lady sense!  Well, okay, so it is a stretch and a mighty horrible excuse for my rear, but it makes me feel better!  I laughed inwardly as I listened to the movie teaching my son about dinosaurs and that I could find a connection with myself and those ancient beasts!
   

Okay, quilting thoughts now.  I am going to piece the backing of this one tomorrow so I can send it off to be quilted.  This quilt started in 2006 and many of the blocks are made from quilters from all over the state.  I of course had to make many many many more blocks to make it into a queen sized quilt, and so I guess that is what I have been doing for the past 6 years!  I am excited to get this one on my bed!

 I threw this quilt together yesterday.  I bought 1/2 yard of a bunch of civil war era reproduction fabrics last week, cut them up Monday, and sewed them together yesterday.  I need it to work on at a civil war school day event we are doing in May in SLC.  I think I will take the wooden quilting frames and the whole shebang.  It should be fun.  It is a little larger than what a soldier's cot quilt would have been 150 years ago, as it is 72" by 96".  I suppose that it will fit a modern twin bed nicely though!  I purchased the backing fabric today and I am excited to get this sweet one finished.

I used to think civil war era fabric patterns and colors were hideously ugly, but I must admit, they are surely growing on me.  Most of these are from one of Judy Rothermel's collections.  Definitely not the trendy new Riley Blake patterned fabric, but I do love it!

This is what I have been working on today.  Well, and I painted baseboards, and sprayed weeds, and went to a soccer game, and raked the nasty veggie garden, and took care of my sick little Kendal.  It was such a gorgeous day today that I felt badly about being in the house sewing for a few hours.  Apparently Emmitt gave Kendal his sickness because we had a horrible night last night and a crumby day today with the poor girl.  Being inside with her made sewing doable on such a gorgeous yard working day.  This quilt is going to be a surprise for my mother in law.  SSSHHHHHH!  Each flower is a granddaughter, and the grandsons get to be birds I guess.  Kelsey still needs to draw them up for me.  I think it will turn out so fun!

 My sweet little man was sick yesterday, last night, and has carried over into today.  He just wants to lay on the big dog, drink milk, and watch Bob the Builder this morning.  He is holding the ear thermometer and is seriously so sweet and cute.  I hope our afternoon is going to be better!

 A few happy thoughts - I got these two quilts back from the quilter last week.  The top one is my round robin from 2006.  Pitiful, I know!  This past winter I was on a finishing kick, and a few tops got finished and sent off to be quilted!  I made the three tulip pots in the center, a lady name Michelle did the broken dishes border, Shantelle added the tulip applique border, and Cat added the last piano keys border.  I was feeling badly that Baby Agnes (that is what we call our baby girl because it makes Kelsey so angry!) was only going to have one quilt made by mom and that one was not a girly quilt - it is the blue and gray civil war quilt.  So I decided maybe this one will be hers as well.  Its a bit big, but she will grow!  I need to just add the binding now - yippee for completed projects!

This quilt is from maybe 5 years ago.  When my friend Natalia started her online store, Piece N Quilt, she had a referral contest that I won, which means I won a bunch of fabric from her site.  The fabric I won is from the Cotton Blossoms fabric line and this is what became of it.  I made a bunch of half square triangle blocks, and Kelsey laid them out in this pattern.  I sewed them up, added a border, and now I have another quilt to bind!  I had the quilter use a loftier batting so it is nice and snuggly and will be used just as a throw on the couch I think.

Where's Waldo?

I think it is sort of silly that my kids are out of school for an entire week for Spring Break.  Where I grew up, I think we just had a 3 day weekend and called that 'Spring Break!'  Either way, I must say I have enjoyed this week with the kids home.  When we went down to my parents' home for Easter Weekend, we stayed a few extra days since the kids did not have school.  I invited my friend Amanda and her kids to come down on Monday and Tuesday and play with us.  Monday was a fantastic day at Capitol Reef National Park - a gorgeous 80 degrees.  The kids played and played. 
You can see our kids in the lower half of this top picture if you look hard.  But, can you find them in this picture below?  They are there and loving the climb, those little thrill seekers!

Thomas, Kelsey, and William were really great with the smaller ones, Kendal, Lydia, and Emmitt.  Our kids get along well thank goodness. 

Capitol Reef is such a fun place to play.  We didn't have any great agenda for the day, just to enjoy the sunshine.  The kids did not want to go on a monster hike, and  I was so okay with that as well!  We mostly just played around on the rocks, had our lunch picnic, and then the kids played in the river.  I didn't get any pictures of that adventure, but the kids loved it.  Yippee for the sunshine!

Thank you Jones family for a fun fun few days of our Spring Break.  I have been busy since cleaning the rest of the week.  I guess I am nesting.  You should see my basement, the unfinished part, it looks amazing!  We have a lot of junk!  The garbage can is overflowing, and I made a few deliveries yesterday of infant baby boy clothing, and have a few more deliveries planned today to the DI and also to my sister.  I love sharing clothing! 
Just one more note:  I am such a pack rat.  A portion of that full garbage is all the notes from Snow College and Utah State University I took and carefully packed away in file folders and boxes.  I am not sure why I thought I needed it all, but it is a good thing I am feeling like throwing away things because now I am throwing!  Well, all but the chemistry, geology, and biology notes and textbooks.  There are just some things I can not part with!  Happy Spring Break!

Big as a House

This is me last week.  I just had a thought, "why do they make maternity shirts with horizontal stripes?"  That is actually kind of silly.  I am not sure why I am posting this picture of myself, since I feel as large as a house, or at least a condo or maybe even an apartment complex, but for the sake of documenting, here I am.  I am one of those ladies who thinks other pregnant ladies are just the cutest thing I have ever seen, but when I am pregnant, none of those 'cute' thoughts are even considered.  I look and feel like a beast, not a cute pregnant lady with a basketball in her shirt.

I think part of my problem with my pregnant self image is that my behind gets pregnant as well as my tummy.  Yeah, not so good.  One sweet friend of mine just said it was my body's way of balancing itself.  I guess so!  Either way, I must not feel too hideous because there is a gift straight from God in that body of mine.  How grateful I am to be able to be a mother in Zion and have such sweet children given to me to take care of and teach.  I have around 11 weeks until this little divine spirit arrives at our house and I must say I am super excited.

My sister asked me over the weekend what I was expecting this baby to be like.  There is no way to know, but I did say that I thought it would be great if she has darker hair and eyes like my Kelsey.  Kendal and Emmitt are my blondies, and it would be fun to even out with another brunette.  When I answered my sister in this way she said, "No, I meant her little personality.  You have such extreme personalities with your kids already, it just makes me wonder what this one will be like."  I had never even thought about this baby's personality or temperament.  Kind of funny.  Will she be a neat freak like my Kelsey or more of a 'structured slob' like my Kendal?  Will she be a lover and a snuggler like Emmitt, or will she prefer not to let me hold her like a baby when she no longer is one?  She is definitely the most well-mannered baby to carry, with only a few little pokes and strokes to my insides, but, I still have 11 weeks of her growing body to get cramped, and then have her retaliate with a sense of claustrophobia she may have inherited from her mother!

E is for...

E is for . . .
Eating a roasted hot dog on Easter weekend.

 A is for . . .
Ascending the clay hill in the wind just so you can roll your Easter eggs back down the clay hill and watch them disintegrate into just a yellow yolk by the time it makes it all the way down.

S is for . . .
Sit and slide all the way down the hill to gather up the eggs that made it to the bottom without too much damage, just to do it all again!

(Mister Moose is a 4th grade mascot for Kelsey's class.  It was her weekend to take care of him and take him on an adventure.  Therefore Mister Moose accompanied us for the weekend and partook of the fun.  I think it was 41 degrees!)

T is for . . . 
Take them off and dump them out every 10 minutes.  Sweet cowboy boots, gotta love them.  He sure does!

E is for . . . 
Easter Egg hunt at Grandpa and Grandma's house!  Tori made up a sweet treasure hunt this year with some fun clues and a great map.  They loved it.  
 

R is for . . . 
Really cute kids.  My kids had a ball playing with their big cousin Brogan and loving on their baby cousin Brig.  They loved staying in Grandpa's cabin, and spending time with cousins, aunt  Tori, grandma, grandpa, and getting away for the weekend.  Thanks mom, dad, and Tori for a fun Easter getaway!

EASTER - one of my favorite holidays.  Not only for remembering the wonderful resurrection of our Lord and Savior, but for the fun family times as well.

I love getting paid for doing things that I love to do!

 I love getting paid for doing things that I love to do!  Today Amanda, her daughter Lydia, myself, and my Emmitt went to a school about an hour away to do two civil war presentations.  I dressed Amanda for the students, showed them Lydia's and Emmitt's clothing (they just love that a cute little boy wears a cute dress and petticoats!), dressed a student in Kelsey's clothing, and then we dressed two boys in Federal and Confederate uniforms.  We talked alot about the 1860s and answered many questions.  We finished off with music.  Amanda played her hammered dulcimer and we all sang Goober Peas and a few other fun songs.  The students loved loved loved it and the teachers were very appreciative.  So appreciative, they paid us.  We were not expecting that from the day - what a bonus!
Then I went to quilt guild tonight and received more money!  We had a fun Design Challenge issued a few months ago and I made my blue and gray quilt for the challenge.  The challenge was to make a two block quilt with two quilt blocks you hadn't ever seen together.  I have been wanting to make a blue and gray civil war quilt, so I did.  I like how it turned out.  I won 2nd place and a little cash as well!

I also had to turn in my round robin assignment for the month.  I was a little nervous about working on this block because it is so very out of my comfort zone with its modern fabric prints, but I think all is well.  I added the white border, the orange and white churn dash border, and the little embroidery.  I also received my next round robin assignment for this month . . . hope it turns out!

Not too much has happened around here that is blog worthy, but we have been very busy!  Emmitt is loving the nice weather - it is hard to keep him in the house anymore!

 Kelsey had her 4th grade program this week.  4th grade is all about Utah History and she has really enjoyed learning all about it.  Her program was fun and Emmitt kept yelling "Where is my Telsey?" when she was not completely visible!

The kids colored eggs last night and they are excited for the weekend; so am I!  We are going to my parents for the weekend and should have a wonderful time - if the weather cooperates.  It is snowing again right now, but should be in the 70s by Sunday!  Have a wonderful Easter folks!