Third Time's The Charm or Growing Up

This is what Kate looked like the last two times I tried to feed her cereal. It was like she was saying, "Augh! There is stuff in my mouth! That's weird. Oh no, I swallowed some! I don't think I'm suppose to swallow stuff, but it was in my mouth." I think she might have gotten 1/2 a teaspoon down.

Yesterday I tried again for the third time and she ate! There was still cereal all over but some of it went down -- on purpose even. Aleah had given her eating lessons earlier in the week. She would show Kate her spoon and then put it in her mouth saying, "Look, this is how you eat!" It seemed to work or something. Kate even tried to grab the spoon. She is growing up!

These last two weeks have been full of milestones. She turned 6 months old on the 19th. She all of a sudden likes grabbing and playing with toys. She also figured out yesterday, after 2 weeks of sitting in the exersaucer, that she could bounce up and down in it. I can put her down for bed awake for naps and at night but she still insists she needs to eat twice a night. Still some work to go but she is a sweet baby and usually very happy.

The Hansens loved making her laugh and smile. All the more fun because it is so easy.

I Love My Cousins!

That's what Aleah said when the Hansens were leaving this morning. They aren't our real cousins but Brian and Nels worked in neighboring labs at BYU and we went to Texas A&M at the same time. We have managed to keep in contact with them and have spent Thanksgiving with them while we were in Indiana. It was too long of a drive this Thanksgiving. ** side note: we visited our really-real cousins (they have all girls too) for Thanksgiving, but thanks to a broken camera have no pictures, much to Grandma Shirley's dismay.** Anyway, the Hansens decided to come out the day after Christmas and spent the weekend with us. We had a great time. The kids all played really well together. Emily and Haley were especially inseparable.

Colleen, the ultimate Daddy's Girl, ditched Brian and wanted to sit on Christina's lap all the time. The craziest part was the amount of dishes we went through every meal. We filled up the dishwasher after every meal! We look forward to descending on their house this spring on the way to NY.

Erica and Anna's Wedding Quilts

While I was in Utah for my sister Anna's wedding I stayed with my sister Erica and snapped a picture of the quilt I made her 7 or 8 years ago. When Erica had gotten married she and my mom had made a dust ruffle, pillow cases, side table skirts, etc out of sheets and there were left overs my mom had and was planning on making into a quilt at some point. Well, I had just gotten into quilting but was poor, VERY POOR and begged the scraps off my mom so I would have something to play with.

I knew I didn't dare make an intricate quilt top - it wouldn't get done and I was just starting out - so I decided to go for large squares interspersed with 16-patch squares. Not too bad although I still feel bad that Erica got my first attempt because (not meaning to sound totally egotistical but...) I have gotten way better.

Case in point, my sister Anna's duvet cover. How lucky is she!?! The top is pieced from decor/upholstery samples my neighbor gave me (thanks!). This kind of quilt is called a value quilt - where 1/2 square triangles are placed together to make a secondary pattern. It is hard to see but there is a 12 inch border around the blue in dark brown corduroy. The corduroy is so fine it almost feels velvety.

The back of the duvet cover has a lighter brown fabric embroidered with flowers, leaves and swirls with the dark brown border again. I love that fabric and made a dress for Emily out of the leftovers (the result of doing my yardage calculations wrong - I checked my math three times but made the same mistake all times! - happy mistake). I told Anna that if she didn't like it she had to give it back - no hard feelings - because I LOVE IT!

I also love this picture of my Dad and Kate at the wedding reception.

Guess What I got For Christmas?

Happy Faces Everywhere!

New Favorites

This week we ran out of things to watch on Hulu so tried something new. Community. I had seen the previews and thought it would be dumb/inappropriate but It Is Hilarious! Check it out.

Another new favorite is Castle. Cocky Crime Writer shadowing Female Cop for book inspiration and solving murders in NYC at the same time.

On a more "classic" note, we got The Hallelujah Trail from NetFlix this week. We watched this all the time as kids and I still think it is the funniest thing ever. A must see. Aleah started singing, "Stand up and march to Denver, No more wine or beer!" at the top of her lungs in the grocery store after watching it. Ahh...I'm just going to try to tell myself it was a good chance to talk about the word of wisdom, the effects of alcohol, names of different types of alcohol (wine, whiskey, rum, beer, gin, fire water) and poking fun at westerns that stereotype uh native americans and documentaries. Good times.

What are some of your favorite shows?

Snowed In

Yesterday Brian and Emily came home early because of a winter storm warning/blizzard watch. It hit last night (not enough wind to be a blizzard - I think it would be cool to be in one - Long-Hard-Winter-Wanna-Be-For-A-Few-Hours). Anyway, there is about two feet of snow. Brian stayed home from work - I think everyone everywhere did - and is digging us out with the help of our neighbor Mike. Mike's wife convinced him to get a snowblower this year. Nice for us! :)

Family

Here are some pictures of my trip to Utah for my sister Anna's wedding. I loved hanging out with everybody.

Anna and Scott at the Draper Temple.

notice the cold windswept look

I LOVE this picture of Chris. :)

Eric warming up with my gloves

Erica and Neil dancing at the reception.

Blake with niece Margaret. Blake was SUPER nice and watched Kate

while we were in the temple.

Kate and I.

As multiple of my siblings have said, we like each other we just don't do anything about it. So, starting now I am going to do something about it. First, I am going to talk to each of my siblings EVERY month. Crazy, I know. And I think it would be fun to have a sibling gift exchange. It would give us a chance to think about each other and do something nice. I thought we could have a $10 max including shipping.

But if you want to skirt the shipping issue you could get a gift card or talk to a spouse/family member. For example, if you want to get me the $7.99 rosette maker you can send Brian the money and he can pick it up from our local hardware store for you and even gift wrap it. What service!

Well, without further comment Brian will draw names.

Leila to Chris

Erica to Eric

Josh to Blake

Chris to Josh

Neil to Anna

Anna to Neil

Blake to Erica

Eric to Leila

It was random. Really, Anna/Neil. I hope everyone thinks this is a good idea - if not...well...tough...or give me a call. Love you guys!