The living desert

I was lucky enough to be a chaperone for Ruby's field trip out to the living desert. 

Not only did we get to see the giraffes, the kids got to feed them.

At the wild life show we were sitting right in front of a box. The workers came over to warn us that the box had an owl in it and at the beginning of the show it was going to fly right over our heads so we needed to stay seated. I am not kidding when I say it flew right over MY head. It kinda freaked me out. You tell me... do you want this bird right over your head? 

This was the group of kids that I had. They were all super cute and LOVED posing for photos. Luckily for them I LOVE taking photos. 

What happened ...

Well since you asked...

All 5 of us (plus 2 dogs) were in Ruby & Lucy's room for family prayer before bed.  After the prayer we got up to leave and realized that the door was locked.  I kinda started to freak as I did not have a cell phone on me and their room in on the 2nd story. Within minutes Eric fashioned this tool from a CTR ring and opened the door.  I have to wonder if he has Macgyver blood lines or a criminal record that I am not aware of. 

What's in your kitchen?

Apparently Haley thought this was an appropriate location for Nina while she cleaned out the cage.  Yes that is poop in the bottom on MY pot. 

Say WHAT?

1/21/09 "You mean we are moving to a different State???  I thought we were moving to Oregon?" Ruby

1/9/09 "Hey Mom, do you think we could hit a black diamond run after lunch?" Haley after 3 hours of learning to snowboard for the 1st time ever. 

12/30/08 "Sisters don't cost anything, but a DS costs a lot" Haley

12/29/08 "Please be VERY careful with this, it was made in China!" Ruby

12/23/08 After listening to Josh Groban's I'll be home for Christmas, Eric was explaning why some people serving in the military cannot be home with their families for Christmas. Lucy said "I'ts a good thing they don't send you Dad, you would get beat up".

12/17/08 While walking through Target Lucy motioned that she needed to whisper something to me.  I bent down and she said "I feel sorry for that lady... she is about to die".  I looked over to who she was talking about and it was a lady about 70 years old walking with a walker that looked great.  I asked Lucy why she thought she was going to die and she said "She's so old her legs don't even work anymore". 

11/03/08  "Mom, you and Dad can't leave us with Grandma... she will try to kill us again."

I said "She didn't try to kill you"

Haley starting to cry said "Seriously Mom she forces us to drink a HUGE glass of milk with every meal and I can't take it again." Haley

8/25/08- While in the bathroom stall with Lucy at Disneyland she in her normal very loud voice said "Mom, why do you have hair down there?"

I quietly replied "Everyone gets hair down there when they get older".

To which Lucy replied "That must be sooo cozy!"
I could hear the lady in the stall next to us start laughing.

8/13/08 I was cooking chicken enchiladas with Lucy sitting on the counter stirring when Ruby walked in to see what we were making. Ruby said "Oh, that looks like sludge" I believe she was referring to the cream of chicken in the pan. Then Lucy added "look at the vessels"... I prefer to call them onions. Ruby then said "You put peas in this?" I told her they were green chilies. Then as if I was not in the room Lucy turned to Ruby and said "I don't know why she makes these yuckie recipes!"

8/13/08-cont While eating the yuckie dinner cooked above Lucy bit into a cooked carrot and said "Mom, you should have more lessons of cooking because this one is bad.

My American Girls

My girls had a HUGE surprise today. We drove out to LA to go to the American Girl store and restaurant with some friends we met in New Orleans.

It was quite the sight to see soo many excited little girls and their Moms in that store waiting for the lunch tea party to start.

If you don't have an American Girl doll, they have loners so you don't have to dine dollless.

These are the special seats you use so your doll can sit right next to you.

So who were our friends from NO... Ms. Dori and Melaina!!!! It was so good to see them.

We had gorgeous weather and ate outside on the balcony. All the girls and Moms had a great time.

Expecially Haley who had her BEST friend Melaina at her side. The napkin rings are hair bows that you keep- so cute.

Little Lulu and her doll (that she refers to as the FAKE American Girl doll).

Toothless Ruby and her daughter (as she calls her).  Ruby was adamant that her daughter needed to wear a specific dress.  The problem was that dress was for a real baby and HUGE on the doll, so we had to do some last minute sewing alterations and add a ribbon belt. 

I know they are going to be talking about this trip for a long long time.

Tooth pulling 101

1st tie dental floss around your tooth with a really tight knot.

2nd tie the other end of the floss to the back of a Jeep.

3rd tell your Sister to "hit it".

4th look all over the ground for several minutes and wa-la!

It may take some time to find it, but you eventually will.

Inspiration

Sometimes I get sucked into the world of quilting blogs and other times I just go to flicker and search through all the quilt images, it's addicting. Whenever I see one that I like I drag the image to my desktop (I love my Mac). The left side of my scream was getting full of these photos, so I decided to post them. Here are a few quilts/ color combinations and patterns that inspire me.

I love the mix of colors and patterns in the fabrics used.
This is the same pattern I used for Lucy's quilt. I would have never thought about a black background with bright colors, but I absolutely LOVE it! I may have to make this for her when she's a little older.
Here are a few tree quilts that I like. The circles for the tree are cool, but the quilting pattern is what rocks the quilt.

I LOVE this concept, but have a vision of this as a baby blanket with great textured fabrics as the leaves. I can't wait to make it.

I love this tree quilt. I love funky, happy quilts. This type of quilt makes Eric's face contort, so it will never live at my house.These quilts below look complicated, but are super fast easy patterns. The use of color is brilliant to make the overall pattern look really complicated.

This is a quilt that someone has just started, but I love the pattern/ colors and fabrics. I studied this photo for like 20 min the 1st time I saw it. I have always known that fabric/color selection is what makes a quilt average or amazing, but I have only recently recognized that it is a gift that few people have, I do not. I am determined to get better, so I study photos like this.

This is an antique quilt that I found on Ebay. My favorite antique quilt shop was doing a 12 days to Christmas selling 12 quilts on Ebay ( seller ID fourthcornerfinds). The minimum bid was way over my budget so I will have to make it if I want to own it. I love the simplicity of it and I love the subtle stripe pattern in the solid pink background fabric.

I saw this quilt this summer at the church museum in SLC. It was stunning from across the room, but when I looked at the details up close... I felt completely unworthy to consider myself a quilter.

The pieces were so small, this photo can't even do it justice.
At the opposite end of the quilting spectrum and closer to my reality- I love the simplicity of this quilt. What a great way to show off wonderful fabrics that you love.


Don't you just want to start a new quilt now?

Snow boarding

The entire time we were driving up the mountain Lucy was saying that all she wanted to do all day was eat snow. With Eric's help locating "clean enough" snow she ate all that we would let her... and whatever she could get when we weren't looking.

Haley coming down with Dad.

At the end of the day Haley was convinced that she was born to snowboard and wants a snowboarding birthday party (her birthday is in July), and she wants to live on the mountain.

Lucy was still eating snow and wondering why it took me so much longer to get down the run then her. Her favorite part of the day was riding on the flying chairs.

Ruby loved snowboarding and was really good at it. She was excited to see so many "fashion girls" with cute snowboarding outfits and boards.

Eric picked up boarding quickly and really enjoyed the day. He had a perma smile from watching his kids cruise down the mountain having a blast.

I had a great time, and can see why snowboarding has taken over skiing. I still need to clock in a few more hours to be as good as my kids. Ultimately was thankful that none of my wipe outs had done permanent damage and I was still able to walk to the car without assistance. I am however sitting on a very large pillow as I type this.

Reunion at the park

Eric has three older brothers, two of them live here in CA and one lives in Utah.  We see each of them fairly often but it seems like all four are never together at the same time.  So since Alan and his family were in town for New Years, we had a reunion at the park so everyone and their kids could get together.

There was an intense game of kickball. Some unnamed witnesses claimed that Alan literally ran over his young son Drake to get to 3rd base.

Super cute cheerleaders

We all had lunch and chatted

Then there was a fierce game of dodge ball with Grandpa Ken trying to take out his sons.

Unfortunately he was aiming for Eric and hit Lucy right in the face.  Not 1 minutes later the same thing happened to Ruby. I took a photo of Lucy where you can see the lines of the ball on her forehead, but I wont post it and make Grandpa feel bad.  I will say that Grandpa has got some guns!

Then there was picture time.

The four brothers- Eric, Alan, Greg and Wayne.  From looking at this photo you would never imagine that as boys they would shoot real guns at each other through the wall that separated their bedrooms (Eric says it only happened once).  I am so glad we have all girls!

All the kids
Our little fam