Christmas Break Day 3 - Christmas Eve

 On Christmas Eve day, we loaded up and headed south to Salina.  We needed another load of firewood in a bad way, so we headed to the ranch.  Matt's brother Mark and his boys joined us.  They needed some firewood too.

There was a lot more snow up there than I expected.  I guess since we still don't have any here in Heber City still, I didn't think there was snow at the ranch!

The kids were great.  We worked from 11 to 3 loading the wood Matt and Mark cut into the 4 wheeler trailer and then taking the 4 wheeler off the mountain to the trucks and the large trailers waiting below. 

We brought a nice load of wood back to Heber City, and Mark got a nice load also.

When 3 o'clock hit, the air cooled off and the sun was starting to sink further in the sky.  We loaded the last load and headed to Denny's.  The kids ate like they hadn't eaten in awhile.  It was great.

 We made it home Saturday night around 8:00 and the kids were beat.  A bathtub and pajamas refreshed them and they remembered that Santa was coming!  They all slept downstairs and fell asleep very quickly.  Working hard all day was a good idea!

It was a fun day with cousins, and a fun way to spend Christmas Eve.  Since there is no snow here, it was nice to feel a bit of a white Christmas!  I told Matt that the only way to spend Christmas Eve any better than what we did, was if we were helping Santa in his workshop.

Christmas Break Day 2

Today I worked on a civil war cot quilt I need to finish for a Christmas present.  It is going to turn out nicely.

 

 We also made some shortbread cookies to take to some of the neighbors.  I didn't make enough because lots of neighbors didn't get any.  I guess that means we ate too many!  I found the recipe at Feminine Farmgirls's blog.  MMmmmmm!

 I also got to see my nephew Brig and FINALLY give him his new quilt I finished for him just today!

 He is such a cute little man!









The kids and I also met Matt at SLC's Temple
Square to see the lights.  We have not done this in about 5 years, so it was time.

 It was a chilly night, but we all stayed warm and had a good time.  The kids loved it, but I think Matt and I enjoyed it all more than they did!

After the lights, we went to McDonalds for a dose of hot chocolate.  I think this was the highlight of the day for the kids!  Pitiful isn't it?  It was a great day with so much going on, the kids forgot to argue with eachother!

Christmas Break Day 1

 I have been cleaning and spiffing up my sewing room today.  I noticed Kendal and Emmitt sneaking into the closet and picking out a few pieces of Dora the Explorer fabric that they were laying down in the hall and playing hopscotch with.  I told them that was fine, but no big messes.  Well, this is what I came out to in the living room a little while later.  My sewing room looked great, but all my novelty fabric stash was all over the living room floor!  They were having a fantastic time!  I must have really been into my cleaning not to see them sneaking all that fabric out of the room I was cleaning!

 About an hour after we got all that cleaned up and put away, I was pinning a quilt in the front room.  I heard Kendal yell "Eugene, please, help me!"  I turned around to see Kendal as Rapunzel with a long green fabric scrap for hair, and Emmitt as Eugene climbing up to save her.  They crack me up.  When I told Kendal that whatever was in the box was a breakable Christmas present from Grandma and Grandpa in Missouri and that it could not be her tower, the two immediately began making a couch cushion tower.  That is what they are doing right now.  I can hear them now, and I hear the farm horses and cows have joined them in the tower.  I hope it is the plastic horses and cows!

County Chess Tournament

Saturday my two girls played in the county-wide chess tournament.  It was a K-12 tournament, and there were kids from all 5 elementary schools in our valley there.  Kelsey played in the 3-4 grade division, and Kendal played in the K-2 division.  

Here is Kelsey during one of her matches.  Everyone got to play 5 matches.  It is so cute to see all the concentration in those rooms!

Here is Kendal playing in one of her matches also.  Gosh, they are so cute!

Kendal had a killer fever all day on Friday, all night, and into the morning.  When she finally started feeling better, all she wanted to do is play chess between matches.  She loves to play and is definitely getting better!

Here is Kelsey and her friend Liz.  There were only 7 girls in the entire tournament, K-12.  This is definitely a boy dominated event!

Here are the kids that won trophies from Kelsey's elementary school.

Trophies were given for the top ten in each division.  Everyone else got medals.

Kelsey tied for first place in her division.  She won 4 matches and had a draw on one match.  There were 26 kids in her division.  Here are all the first place winners.  That sweet little Kindergartner in the front is almost the same size as his trophy!  Can you believe that kid in yellow is in the 10th grade?  I swear they get smaller and smaller!  

It was a fun way to spend a Saturday and the girls had a ball.  Matt took Emmitt to the ranch to move cows off the mountain, and they had a great time too.

my chopped bargello quilt

 I took a bargello quilt class at Quiltfest in 2008.  It was a super fun class for me, even though I have an angry look on my face!  This is me part way through my bargello ordeal - I had a huge tube of fabric strips. 

 This is how it ended up looking.  I loved it, but it was too long and too narrow.  I intended on adding another panel to it, so I would make it twice as wide, but I could not find all the same fabrics again.  So I folded it up and put it in my sewing closet. 


 I pulled it out the other day.  Kelsey's 4th grade class is doing their service project this week.  They are tying quilts for the Children's Justice Center.  The lady that was over the project, brought me a whole mess of ugly 4 inch blocks for me to piece together into a lap sized quilt top so the 4th graders could tie it.  I didn't want to piece all of those squares together, I know, LAZY!

 So I chopped my 3 year old bargello quilt top in half, since it was too long and skinny in the first place!  Then I added a few borders from some of the fabrics I collected to make that non existent second panel.  It turned out to be a nice sized lap quilt top.  The 4th graders tie their quilts in 2 days.  I am going in to help - hope it turns out well!  Now I have another half and enough border fabrics for another one too!

My sweet cowboys

Apple War

We had Thanksgiving this year at my in laws house, even though they were not home.  It was great.  All the Cranes got together and had a fantastic dinner and day.  I only got a picture of the "9 and under" table, not the prettier adult table!  Oh well, the kids had a good dinner, but they didn't appreciate it as much as they should have, but the adults made up for them.

The kids wanted to go back outside and play after dinner, so they did.  I went out on the back deck to find this:

 Judd, Lainee, Ainsley, Paige, Lilly, and Kendal behind a fort of leaves, plastic kids deck chairs, signs, and a rake for good measure, and

 Ashley, Kelsey, Aly, Ayden, and Larry behind a fort of more leaves, more plastic chairs, but with the added protection of a snow shovel and plastic crate.  

They were having an apple fight.

Full sized, picked fresh from the tree, apple fight.

 Their trenches were dug in pretty close, but that is because most of them (excluding the boys) can't hit a thing to save their lives!  I was watching this little cousin apple war with interest.  Nobody was getting hit although lots of full sized, not crab apples, were being launched, so that means they were not hunkered down using their protection.  I was guessing how long it would take for someone to get hit and hurt for them to realize they needed to actually use their amazing forts for cover.  

It didn't take too long.  I mean, look at Larry, he looks like he is pitching for the big leagues!  I watched him hit Paige in the leg, and she gave him a dirty look and just gathered more apples.  Then I went in the house to finish the dishes.  Soon Kendal came in crying.  Of course.  She was not using the protection the fort was trying to provide.  I loved on her a bit and she kept crying.  I asked her where she got hit and she told me her tummy.  I lifted up her shirt and there was a perfect, beautiful, round and raging red welt in the shape of a monster apple dead center on her tummy.  I bet that hurt!  I saw Ashley later and asked her how she got that goose egg on her forehead.  Apple fight.  Emmitt went out for a bit but came back in crying.  He said he got hit in the shoulder.  At least he learned to find safe ground, the rest of them just played and played apple war all afternoon.

  It was a fantastic Thanksgiving. 

My kids make a lot of blanket and couch cushion huts in the winter, but the other day when it was a balmy 28 degrees outside, they decided to make a fun little cozy bed on the front lawn.  (Emmitt is burrowed in the center.)  Crazy kids.  Winter seems to last way too long here in Heber City, but things have been quite nice so far this season.  (knock on wood)

Finished!

 Finally finished!  Kendal was able to take Mrs. I's quilt to school today.  She has been so excited to take it and would get angry with me when she would come home from school and I still hadn't finished it. 

Kendal said they had storytime on their new reading quilt today.  That makes me smile.  She also said that the boys don't like the Princess and Dora squares.  Too bad boys!  I gave them firemen, fish, aliens, dinosaurs, and cowboys!