Emmitt spent his birthday moving pipe at the farm and making furrows at the ranch

A few weeks ago we did the whole Kindergarten Registration thing.  It about broke my heart.  Emmitt turned 5 years old on Monday.  My best boy is growing up.

 The kids were out of school on Monday, so we spent the weekend in Salina.  Monday we all helped out with the gated pipe that had to be moved and put back together at the farm.  It was a gorgeous day, and a great day for a birthday if you are a 5 year old boy.  Emmitt found his own birthday present as well.  He told me it was a dinosaur bone.  His paleontology dreams were buried when his sister told him it was a cow!

I am grateful for the sunshine and the fresh air we were able to play and work in.  Spring is such a wonderful time of year.

 

I am grateful my kids like to get dirty, well, some of them.  I am grateful for my beautiful family and my extended family as well.

 

It was a wonderful day and much needed family time.  We rarely get to do much with everyone involved, even though there are only 6 of us.  We enjoyed each other's company and I especially enjoyed the sunshine.

 

 

a fresh coat

 I really really really dislike painting.

I spend so much time thinking about how awful it will be, that I am tired before I even start!

But this paint job NEEDED to get completed.

I meant to do it 6 months ago, but now is good too.

 

 

When we got new flooring last year, I ripped out a strange and annoying little desk type cabinet in this corner.  It was a junk gatherer and just its location made me angry.

The wall behind it needed to be repainted, as did the entire nicked up wall.

 

So I mentally prepared myself (dreaded) for painting and got busy.

Its funny what a clean, fresh coat of paint can do.

I still have a junk collector, just not such a big one now.

Now I am preparing for the opposite wall to look spiffy next week.

But I still dislike painting!

 

 

So I will leave on this happy note,

Isn't she the cutest thing?

(Oh, and another painted wall behind her from a few months ago!)

our Irish parade day

 Last Saturday the girls and I headed to Salt Lake City for the St. Patrick's Day Parade with our civil war group.  IT WAS A FREEZING COLD DAY!

Here they are trying to keep warm in the bitter cold wind.

I grabbed a few shawls as an after thought, glad I did.

 

 

Here we are last year, the weather was beautiful.  When we finished the parade, the girls wore shorts and we went out to lunch. 

 

 

This year when we finished, we just wanted to get in the car, out of the wind, and turn on the heater full blast.  That is exactly what we did!

 

But despite the cold cold day, the girls were so great.  Especially Kenna.  Her poor little chubby hands were purple from the cold. 

My friend Amanda has this awesome 1880s baby carrier that she rode in for the parade.  

Kelsey pulled her and it was great.   

 





The St Patrick's Day Parade is a pretty fun parade.  There are so many wild, green folks there as parade entries, and in the crowds. 

The parade goes through the Gateway Shopping Center which is really fun.  There were people in every nook and cranny, especially the sunny spots!  My friend Crusan had daughters in the parade and she watched the parade from an overhead crosswalk and snapped a few pictures for us.

 



Excuse my horrible petticoats, and I wish you could see Kenna being pulled behind Kelsey, but that is us.  We have such a fun group of friends that reenact with us.  They are all great.

 

It was a good day, and the heater in the car was wonderful. 

We look forward to next year and warmer weather.  Although I think this was the perfect excuse for me to make myself a civil war era coat, a paletot.  Oh, that would have been fantastic!

 

I love a good chocolate bunny!

About two years ago I made a new friend named Tiff.  I have actually never met her, but I found her wonderful blog and I enjoy reading about her life in Maine, her sweet family, and the things on her mind.  One of the first blog posts I read of hers was about Easter decorations.  Tiff is an incredible interior decorator.  Incredible.
Anyway, on her blog she talked about some ceramic bunnies she bought at a thrift store that she painted brown to make her very own chocolate bunny decorations for Easter.  I love the idea and of course I love chocolate, so I logged away the idea in my mind.

Kelsey wanted to go to the thrift store a few days ago to see if they had some clothing for her nerd day, 'Napolean Dynamite Day' at school.  Of course nothing in her closet was nerdy enough, so she looked in mine.  OUCH!  Just kidding, I know I am not the fashion expert she would like me to be, but she still loves me.  Anyway, I told her to look for some bunnies to paint while she was at the thrift store.  She found these three.

And she painted them for me last night.  We now have some cute chocolate bunnies for our little Easter decoration table now.  So cute.  Thanks so much Tiff and HAPPY SPRING!

round robin time

Its Round Robin time again at my local quilt guild.  Love this time of year!
I get to add an applique border to this arrangement.  The rules say the second border must have some applique and should be no larger than 4.5 inches wide.  The owner of this center block is going to tea dye the entire top when it is completed which will be really fun to see. 
So, any ideas for the applique border I need to add?

This is the block I had last month for the first border.  I added the red and white checkerboard border to this one.  The rules for the first border were that it had to be a pieced border, and also no larger than 3.5 inches wide.

Round Robins are so fun.  They are one of my favorite things about our quilt guild.  It is always so fun to see how the quilt tops turn out and especially the creativity of my quilting friends.

It is sort of a toss up of my favorite Round Robin quilt to date, but this is for sure up there, and so is this one.  Although, I have loved every single one, although they all aren't linked here. 

Getting my Irish on!

A few years ago my dad called and asked if we were having corned beef and cabbage for dinner. I told him no way, I am not Irish. He then told me oh yes I was. My retort was that Mary Lamont, who is an ancestor of ours, only gave me 1/32 part Irish. That was not enough to cook a corned beef.

I was only guessing when I said 1/32, but I looked it up and I was right, Mary's father Robert was born in Londonderry County in Northern Ireland in 1726 and he is my great great great grandfather. His dad named John died when he was only nice years old.  He immigrated to New York. His mother was a MacKenzie named Margarit.

 

So, that was the first year I ever ate corned beef and cabbage, let alone made it. 

It was fantastic!

 

Friday night my friends Caleb and Amanda played with their band at an Irish Restaurant and Pub in Park City.  I went and listened to them for a few hours and again enjoyed some delicious corned beef and cabbage.  It was so so so good! (The music and the food!) 

 

 

The new format for familysearch.org is incredible.  Just this morning I found this picture of another Irish ancestor, Henry Chesnut. He is my mom's great grandpa. 

 

He was born in 1830 in Kilkeel, Ireland.  His mother was Ellen McDonald.  Henry, his siblings, and his parents immigrated to Utah.  He married a Scotish lass named Grace Knox.



So this St Patrick's Day I am sure we will be having corned beef and cabbage again, because for pity sakes, I am a whopping 3/32 Irish!

My 1/16 dash of Irish from the Chesnuts and 1/32 pinch of Irish from the Lamonts is enough for me to celebrate.  I know that isn't much for the pure Irish folks, but its enough for me to enjoy the holiday and for the girls and I to march in the St Patrick's Day Parade in Salt Lake City again this year with our 1860s friends.   

 



 

oh how we love homework

We have been experiencing some very nice spring-like weather here lately.

So when Kendal gets home from school, she and Emmitt want to be outside.

Yesterday I told her that when they came in from playing, it was homework time.

Kendal isn't too fond of homework time.

An hour and a half passed after she had been home from school, and Kendal still hadn't darkened the door.  Usually some after school hunger drives her inside.  Not the case.



I went out to see what was keeping Kendal and Emmitt so engaged that her hunger could be forgotten.

They were in the chicken coop with a dust pan, broom, cardboard box, and face masks.

CLEANING!

 

The prospects of doing homework must have been truly awful to think it was a good idea to clean out the chicken coop without being asked to do it!