Rock Query

July

2011-08-25T12:35:00.013-07:00

Gabriela was holding this candy for a whole 2 minute car ride and when we got home I asked what she did, and she said, "oops, I forgot. I didn't realize I ate everything." She apparently wasn't paying attention and absentmindedly ate through the wrapper, and ate 1 starburst (wrapper and all), and nibbled on the next one! Crazy kid.

We got a few good monsoons this month!! You can see in the background, the trees blowing over and you can't see the sky because it's pure rain. It came in sideways and we had some sweet lightening and thunder. It was awesome! I'm so glad my girls love it as much as I do :)

We went to the temple this month and brought the kids with us. It was a little toasty, but they were good about it and loved seeing all the different kind of flowers and greenery in bloom (sorry no pics of that...you'll have to take my word for it, that it was gorgeous!)

At the end of July, Danny was presenting at a conference in Sedona again. His work was paying him to be there for 4 days, so I decided to go with as an early 15 year anniversary trip! My sister watched the kids and we were kid-free for the first time in 13+ years!! It was so nice to have some down time with just the two of us. Very refreshing and serene.

We hoped to hike every day, but only got out twice. I hope they ask him to go every year :)

Gabriela has been asking to help with my quilts for a long time now, but there's not to much she can do. This was the perfect one for her to help with and she did a fabulous job remembering which pattern goes where!

Ronan is now 16 months and finally started walking!! He has just learned Ring-Around-the-Rosie and loves it. He sings "AAAAA-shes, AAAAA-shes" all day long. Too cute. While the kids are out playing, Gabriela decided to try and teach Ronan how to do somersaults and his head on the ground is all he can do so far :)

June

2011-08-25T12:04:00.012-07:00

I found a couple coupons and a good sale, and purchased an underwater camera for the family. It's the Kodak EasyShare Sport, and it's so fun and the kids love it! I've got some video of the little ones swimming...

I took on a big challenge in making a REAL picnic sized quilt (that would fit our whole family) after making that small one last month. I like how it turned out, but this is only the top...it may take a while for me to put together the back and then actually quilt it! yikes.

Here is just a cute picture of Ronan chillin', playing with Danny's phone :)

I'm finally getting vegetables! Although, they are SO small (that's Danny's wedding ring & then a quarter in the other picture for comparison). They are mini red & mini orange bell peppers, but they are so mini. Also there are yellow pear tomatoes in that bunch. They taste good, nonetheless.

Ronan did not have a very good start to his day turning 15 months. We were getting ready for church (I'll spare you the long story, who was where, and whatnot) and just say that he pulled the flat iron down on his foot. We took him to urgent care and while the doctors and nurses were great, he's so shy that he just screamed/cried for a solid hour. The gave him some hydrocodone and sent us home with bandages, wraps, & ointments.

We got to the pharmacy and you could tell the medicine had kicked in. He looked up at the ceiling and said "ball", then looked around, smiled, giggled, and said "ball" again. I think he might have been hallucinating :) He had an otter pop in his hand, and when he finished it, I took it out of his hand and that's when I noticed that his hand was burned as well! We had all missed it. I called them back and they said just to do the same for his hand as his foot. We got some awesome cream that did wonders for his burns. We are so grateful that he kept his glove and sock on for the next 2 weeks!

May

2011-08-25T10:29:00.011-07:00

In May I found a book & an online tutorial showing easy summer dresses, so I thought I'd give it a try. The word "shirring" made me put it off for months, but after I did it, I realized I had nothing to be scared of! It was super easy, so fast, and so cute! My girls ♥ them. I even made one for their cousin because we like matchy-matchy ;)

Ronan continues to climb and get into anything and everything he can. I'm exhausted.

I flew up to SLC for Quilt Market Spring 2011; then stayed with my sister, Cajsa; then my parents came up a week later w/Ronan for my cousin's wedding. It was a wonderful 10 day vacation by myself!! Quilt Market was awesome. Being at Cajsa's where I had 3 days where I didn't have ANYTHING to do was awesome! Going to Manti for my cousin's wedding and seeing my baby again was awesome. It was a great vacation and a much needed one at that!

We went to a children's museum with Cajsa & Adison, and my parents. I was really impressed with this place and so was Ronan! Everything kept his interest and I was ready to go before he ever was. It had little replicas of a school house, a teepee, a Chinese house, the Oval office (he wasn't impressed), a fire truck, a nursery/hospital, giant chess game, fishing, a royal court, and so much more!

It makes me want to try my hand at boy dress up clothes. All we have right now are a bunch of tutus :)

On our last day, we headed to my Aunt & Uncle's house in Pleasant Grove and had a delicious Peruvian dinner! My cousin's kids were there and they had fun playing with Adison & Ronan. (I really miss grass)

Time to fly home & I had to lug Ronan (who still isn't walking yet, but took his first steps during the vacation!), a suitcase, his car seat, my camera bag, & diaper bag around with me. I missed the $5 carts and so I walked all the way to the gate carrying all of these things by myself. I looked like a mess. It was a mess. I had to stop every 25 feet to catch my breath!! Right as I got to the gate, a kind employee offered this wheelchair to walk through the terminal and to the outside gates. Yay! We made it in enough time and Ronan loved the ride.

Ronan is now 14 months and so far has take 3-4 steps. He's right on track :) Still getting into trouble (he found markers). And, if you look close, he found a sticker and stuck it to his chest (under his onesie) before he went to bed and I didn't find it until the next morning. I don't think his skin likes stickers :(

April

2011-08-21T21:34:00.011-07:00

Brendan & Isabel turned 13 & 11, in the beginning of April, and we had a big family gathering. Bren got to go on a scout camp-out for his birthday, so we celebrated when he got back, on Isa's birthday. So fun for him :) It was a little weird saying that I had a kid in junior high, but it's even way weirder saying that I have a teenager! Thankfully Bren's a pretty chill kid. Let's hope that lasts. If not, we know a good group home we can send him to! Just kidding.

My sisters borrowed my camera and caught Emalyn sneaking some popcorn in the other room. How cute is she?!

It was finally time to cut Ronan's hair and Cajsa helped me with it. I forget how much a haircut makes my babies grow up! What a handsome toddler.

Some of the things Ronan continues to get into. This crazy kid does not like his toys. At all. Instead he likes emptying contents of drawers, cabinets, and boxes. We were cleaning out our DVD collection and our VHS box (do they even make these anymore?) because none of the movies match their cases. The other picture shows our daily battle. He pulls out all the lotions, hair supplies, toiletries, flat irons, brushes, etc, and plays with them all on the ground. Emalyn decided to make him look cute like a lion and stuck her tutu on him. Nice.

Here are a couple of projects that I did in April: a hooded towel & matching burp cloths, carseat cover, and then a small picnic quilt. I'm so excited that they turned out so cute!

Danny's parent's pool was finally warm enough to swim in, and Ronan took to the water quite well. Ema was pretty nervous, so she only played on the step the whole time. We'll work on it...

Thanks to my mom, the kids were able to dye eggs for Easter. I totally forgot and didn't have any supplies on hand. The kids had fun and loved eating their creations!

Ronan is now 13 months and is standing up more, although, still not interested in walking. I don't really mind, but my back does :)

I haven't gardened here in AZ yet, and I finally decided to give it a try. Since we're renting, I figured plants in pots are my best option for now. So far things are going well and I'm getting some produce!

March

2011-08-19T13:28:00.013-07:00

I made this quilt using the New Wave Quilt tutorial from Oh, Fransson! I used all solids for the front, and remaining scraps with a coordinating print, all from Melanie's shop. I love the way it turned out!!

Ronan LOVES to climb. We found him scaling my parent's pantry in search for food (I swear I feed him). And following ever so closely to his wild & crazy sister, his favorite thing to climb is dressers. He does get on top, especially his.

Emalyn's eyes are changing. They used to be a beautiful blue, then they turned grey and they were still gorgeous. Now they are almost a green, with flecks of brown in one eye. I'm not saying they aren't beautiful anymore, because they are amazing with all the ranges they have been, but I do miss those blue eyes!

Ronan turned 1 this month! I can't believe I now have a toddler instead of a baby :( The fact that he's not walking yet is totally ok with me. He loves to play outdoors, and can do so for hours.

We celebrated with Danny's family and Ronan got money for his bank account, a popsicle, and a couple (non-noisy) toys...thanks Sean!

Next we celebrated with my family and he didn't quite know what to do with the candle or his cake! He had fun poking at it, so we fed him a couple pieces and he ate it, but he wasn't super excited. He had more fun making a mess of it, which is so fine with me! :)

Here Ronan is sporting his band-aids from his 1 yr shots. He's smiling here, but mostly he's fussy after shots. I hate that part. Holding him down in the doctor's office and looking at you like, "what's going on?" and then feeling the pain, crying, and looking at you like "why are you doing this to me & why aren't you holding me?!" Only a couple more and then we're done for a long while...

February

2011-02-15T00:13:00.027-07:00

I tried to make some burp cloths for quick & easy baby shower gifts and they turned out really cute! I also tried working with laminate for the first time and made a lunch bag (which I still haven't finished the closure), and a nursing cover for my friend.

Gabriela got her first toy gun from Danny's parents at Old Tucson, and she was thrilled. We gave it a try, but it wasn't too long before we had to hide it :) Oh, and I made her this skirt. When I first made it, it was way too long and it looked pretty bad. Shortened it up and much better.

Poor Ronan :) We went through our clothing boxes, putting away too small clothes, and getting out new ones, when we found this treasure! Isa wore this for her first Halloween and Bren had a "Steve shirt" and they went as Steve & Blue. It was dang cute back then! We thought we'd try it on Ronan and it obviously doesn't fit, and he obviously was embarrassed.

I know this looks really gross, and it kind of is. But, it was too funny to not take a picture. The kid is obsessed with peeking in the garbage can to find things, and putting things IN the trash can without us knowing (I'm sure we've thrown away several toys). I keep this trash can cloroxed often on the inside and out because he's always touching it. I had just put an almost empty Healthy Choice lunch bowl in the trash (resting on top of empty cereal boxes, nothing gross like chicken guts), when he peeked in and saw food. He ate the rest of the spinach that was in the bowl!

Here he is at 11 months, still not walking and still putting everything in his mouth. I love his chubby body!

January

2011-02-15T00:13:00.021-07:00

Over Christmas/New Year break, my sister's family came down for the holidays to get away from the snow, only they brought it with them! Our kids were SO excited and had to play in it, but their cousin Adison didn't understand why it was so exciting; it's just snow :)

After playing in the snow, it was time for some down time...relaxing in front of a movie. Emalyn & Adison are both finger/thumb suckers w/their blankets. It was cute how in-sync they were.

Ronan is playing in a new castle the kids got from my parents for Christmas, and it keeps him entertained for long periods of time. He wouldn't let go of the sword either. This thing actually helped him practice getting his balance while standing. It would fall over with him when he put his weight into it, so he quickly had to adjust :)

While I was holiday shopping, I found some cute Amy Butler towels on clearance and decided it was time for new hooded towels for the kids. I also made one for my niece (the white one w/fabric trim) and I love the way it turned out!

On the 13th, Emalyn turned 3 years old! She is a sweet, sassy little girl, who is finally starting to outgrow screaming and trying to actually talk to her over-eager 5 year old sister instead. Gabriela loves her a little too much, a little too often for Ema's liking :)

Also in January, I got to help my good friend, Melanie, from Above All Fabric, man her booth at the Tucson Quilt Festival! It was an awesome event, her booth was gorgeous, and I had so much fun (despite sore feet at the end of the day)!

At the end of the month, Ronan turned 10 months old, and is quickly taking after our crazy Gabriela! He gets into everything, tries to eat everything (including rocks in our backyard), and doesn't really have an interest in toys.

If you go back to the beginning of this blog, you'll remember Gabriela pulling a filing cabinet down on her at 11 months old. We started this blog because our families didn't quite believe all the crazy things she was doing at such an early age (and neither could we!). We needed to document it all. It looks like we'll be doing the same with this kid...Ronan pulled the drawers out of the night stand and it fell over and the drawers landed on his legs, but no marks, just scary looking when I came running in. He was sitting right in front of the alarm clock and had it not been plugged into the wall, it would have kept sliding down and clocked him in the head :) I don't know if I can go through this again!

December

2011-02-14T23:17:00.012-07:00

I keep hoping time will slow down and that Ronan will be a baby a little bit longer, but it's just not happening :) Only a week after finally sitting on his own, this kid's ready to get a move on and pulls himself up to standing. He's so proud!

But along with the excitement of standing, comes the frustration of getting stuck and not knowing how to get down, and interrupted naps & sleeping. It took him a week or so to work it out on his own...it was a long week though!

I started a few too many projects at the last minute. Pajama pants for all SEVEN of us, a Christmas quilt, and a couple of other catch-up projects. I did get the pants done for all the girls, the boys are still waiting, and the quilt is already put away to work on for 2011.

We spent Christmas Eve with Danny's family and my favorite gift was a pair of Adidas shoes for Ronan! I love shoes. Danny's grandpa (known to everyone as "Sir") was teaching Ronan how to whistle and he was quite fascinated! Ronan would imitate by putting his fingers in his mouth, and then when Sir would put his fingers in his mouth to show a new whistle, Ronan would blink really fast in anticipation. It was pretty cute.

Christmas day was spent with my family and the kids had so much fun playing a new wii game with their cousins! There are now 25 of us, so it was a fun, FULL house. I loved it.

Ronan turned 9 months old right after Christmas.
His stats: 23 lb 5 oz, and 33" long.

I've been wanting to make this quilt for Ronan for forever and finally finished it for him. I'm so happy with it!

Then, after all the craziness died down, we went and got Emalyn's ears pierced at her pediatrician's office! She was so excited and didn't even cry. All the way over she said she wanted diamonds and we told the nurse that's what she wanted (we even pointed at the picture), then the doctor came in and did them and when we looked in the mirror, we were a little disappointed to see they were silver balls instead. That's when Ema was upset and said, "I didn't want balls, I wanted diamonds!" The doctor offered to switch them out, but I think it would have been too traumatizing, especially since we lucked out w/out any tears! All Ema could say for the next week when people asked about her new earrings was "the doctor shot me and gave me balls instead of diamonds!" We promised her diamonds for her birthday to help with this atrocity :)

8 months

2010-12-02T15:13:00.008-07:00

He's FINALLY sitting up! Still not too stable though, but we're working on it :)

November

2010-11-14T15:37:00.005-07:00

So this is me trying to feed my kid, yet again. We gave him 3 or 4 Cheerios and he only choked once. Not too bad, but again I think I'll wait a little longer for those, and maybe try the Puffs (they seems to dissolve quicker).

Ema got into the girls' play makeup and did quite a job! Gabriela actually looks decent...guess she should have helped Ema :)

Ronan has outgrown all his pants and we're onto the next size so I had to go shopping, now that it's FINALLY getting cold! We scored these fun pj's from Old Navy for only $4 (along w/a few other awesome clearance finds...swim trunks for $1.05!). It's kind of funny that I still run on "auto pilot" when I got shopping and go straight for the baby girl section. I get there and it takes me a second to realize I need baby BOY clothes! It's not as fun to shop for boys clothes, but it is better than what it used to be :)

October

2010-11-14T11:51:00.014-07:00

Since Ronan was almost 7 months, I decided to go ahead and try some real food. We started out with avocados, and Gabriela helped me out. He wasn't too thrilled, but I think that was due to how he was being fed, not what :)

A week or so later I thought we'd give it another try and we did oatmeal. He only took like 2-3 bites and was done, then stuck his tongue out at us. Eh, less mess for me. If you don't know already, I'm not big on baby food, and neither are my kids. Kind of nice that way.

October was unseasonably warm, so we were still able to go swimming a few times this month. Because it's SO hot in Arizona, and babies aren't supposed to wear sunscreen before 6 months, we kept Ronan indoors for the most part all summer, but when it dipped down into the low 90's, we slapped on some sunscreen and went in as often as we could! He LOVED the water!

Gabriela turned 5 this month, and we celebrated with family over at my mom's house. With lots of extended family it's so much easier to just do cupcakes and thankfully Gabs loves it!

She was very excited to wear her birthday/princess crown all day. I even curled her hair for the day and she was thrilled to be looking so pretty, in fact, she decided that she had to wear a pretty dress to go along with it. Of course she thought of the dress she wore to Tricia's wedding :)

She loved her presents, but mostly having all her family around; she really gets excited for family gatherings!

My birthday is the day after Gabriela's so we had a couple pictures done together, courtesy of Isa. Love that she picked a cooler for me to sit on! :)

To end October, we had a 4 ward trunk-or-treat. It was a little chaotic for the adults, but the kids never knew it and had a blast. Bren & Isa invited their good friends (who are brother & sister) that have been in their same classes at school since we moved back. They even followed us over to the new charter school, BASIS Oro Valley! Sadly they'll be moving to England over the break and my kids are pretty bummed.

Lissa's holding Ronan [Yoda], Bren was an Assassin, Isa was a pirate, Gabriela a witch, & Emalyn a doctor.

6 months

2010-09-26T22:46:00.013-07:00

Today Ronan turned 6 months old. I love that he loves to sleep in! He is a cuddly baby and we love him tons!

Here are a few pictures from today. You wouldn't know that he really is a smiley baby from these photos, but he is! He cracks up every time his siblings pay any amount of attention to him. He loves 'em.

Here you can see his chubbiness is catching up with him. He was getting stuck in his crib on a daily basis! Time to put the crib bumper on :)

This kid has loved to stand since 2 months old, and quickly moved onto jumping in your lap! We were in Utah in July for a family reunion and put him in a jumperoo and he was thrilled! We finally got one and he's been in it for over an hour...I've never seen him so excited for so long! He's in heaven, and so are we, watching him laugh at himself. Too cute!

The girls are liking the jumperoo just as much! This morning they couldn't wait to jump with Ronan...I'm hoping it'll tire them out and they'll be ready for nap time :)

August

2010-09-14T17:58:00.023-07:00

We rearranged the kids' bedrooms again and tried Ema on a twin sized bed. After 2 falls, landing & getting stuck between the bed and the dresser, we decided to go back to her toddler bed. Poor kid!

Tricia got married on the 14th and the night before, all of my sisters spent the night together in one hotel room (6 grown girls on 2 double beds! oh, and ronan co-sleeps, so really 4 on one bed!!). It was an awesome night, no one got any sleep (sorry Tricia!), but we had a blast nonetheless. Here's the highlight of the night, playing with the "bump it".

I finally went through my deep freezer and found all this milk from when I was nursing Ema. It was too old to use, and it was so hard to let it all go!

Here's Ronan at 5 months. I figured out why he's not as roly-poly as my other kids, even though he weighs more, it's because he's taller than every one of them! It'll be interesting to see if he stays that way!

Emalyn thought Ronan would look pretty with her sunglasses on him. I think he looks like Elton John :)

We got some rain (not too much this season) and the kids were excited to go out and play w/Ronan in the rain. Here are some cute pics...

And, lastly, here's Ronan all dressed up in his new church clothes. The kid's only 5 months and is now in size 12 month clothes. Crazy!

July

2010-07-26T23:37:00.004-07:00

Coming soon...

June

2010-07-26T23:26:00.006-07:00

June was made up of just taking it easy, enjoying our summer vacation! I did end up making a few projects though...

One of my favorite fabric designers, Patty Young, came out with a new line of fabric that had dolls printed on them, to make your own! My girls love them!! I also made new, simple library totes for the summer. And, lastly, a doll bedding set for my niece, Adison (although I think her mom likes it more! :)

Cajsa & Adison came down for a week & a half and Emalyn enjoyed having someone younger than her to play with, so SHE could direct the play. I don't think Adison minded too much :) I love getting the girls together to play; I have wonderful memories growing up w/my cousins and hope my kids will be able to continue that.

♥♥ LISSA BRITT ♥♥

My youngest sister, Lissa, just turned 16!! She is an amazing person, and I love her to death. Really. We celebrated her birthday twice, first with family on her birthday (and got an amazing cookies 'n cream ice cream cake that looked like it was engulfed in flames!), and then we threw her a surprise party later that week...and it worked!

She got to blow out candles again and then got thrown in the pool to celebrate :) What an awesome group of friends!

Without getting overly mushy, I just have to say that Lissa is a beautiful person, inside and out, and I LOVE her!! I am so impressed with the person she's become and she never ceases to amaze me. Lissa has helped me out a TON over the last 2 years since we've been back in Tucson, and I am so grateful for her...♥MUAH♥!!

3 months!

2010-06-26T22:44:00.013-07:00

Ronan found his thumb. Gabriela did this at this age too, but only at night and started sleeping through the night longer; she went from a 5 hr stretch to 8! Then after 3 weeks or so she quit sucking her thumb...we'll see if this becomes habit forming or not. Ema did the same thing at the same age, which helped her sleep go from 5-8 hrs too, only it was her middle 2 fingers and she's still sucking them :)

Just washed...we're drying out all the folds/rolls/chub :)

Mini photo shoot because he turned 3 months old today! He saw the phone lying on the bed and suddenly my camera was not interesting anymore. It was so cute to watch him try and get it! He's getting close...he's always been a wiggle-worm and always tries to snuggle closer to me at night. I love it.

Right after bath, right before bed.

Danny saying goodnight to Ronan.

Ronan was cracking up!!

What cuties. I love them.

2 months!!

2010-05-30T17:41:00.003-07:00

I know everybody says it, "I can't believe it's gone so fast!", but it really has! He's growing like crazy (despite his constant spitting up if he's not burped well - I've never had a kid spit up - this is so weird for me).

On the flip side, I told Danny the other day, that I can't believe we've only had him in our family for 2 months, and we both agreed that it feels like we've always had him. We definitely feel complete with this last addition.

Poor guy got his 2 month immunizations and had a hard rest of the day. He didn't tolerate them very well and was pretty fussy. Don't blame him!

His 2 month stats are: 14lb even (97th percentile for weight) & 24.25" (90th percentile for height).

Stylin'

2010-05-30T15:38:00.006-07:00

We were running errands and I had the hood on his head, rather than bunched up behind it, while in his carseat. When we got home, he somehow managed to cover his entire face with it. I let it go since he was sleeping and it kept him asleep for quite a bit longer!

Ronan got this outfit for Easter and he filled it out so fast! We'll see how many times he gets to wear it before he outgrows it :) Oh, and he got these shoes from Gymboree as a baby gift and I love them! Even though babies can't walk, I LOVE shoes. I may/may not have a shoe addiction ;)

Emalyn and Gabriela love their brother to death. Literally. I asked Ema to be careful, give him a quick kiss and move away, and this is the look I got. Nice.

And here are the girls in their Easter dresses. Ema wants so much to do everything that Gabs does, and is constantly copying everything she says. We are using that to our advantage to teach Gabriela that she plays a part in teaching Ema too. She fully understands and sometimes teaches her things she KNOWS she shouldn't do and stands by to watch Ema get in trouble. We figured out her game pretty quick, but she was pretty proud of herself for trying.

1 month already!

2010-05-02T18:48:00.003-07:00

He loves to sleep still and is so cute doing it! :)

A photo shoot for his one month (he's kind of wiggly), oops!

I don't have too many in color, because his poor coloring is still tinted yellow due to breast-milk jaundice. We're hoping it'll go away soon...he's hanging on to it longer than the others.

Cute little baby parts.

We love to stay close!

Our boys

2010-04-30T19:36:00.008-07:00

Brendan tuned 12 this month and in our church, it's kind of a big deal. He leaves the "little kids" program, called Primary, and enters the youth program, called Young Men's. He's joined the YM's basketball team and is loving it! I've yet to see him play, but Danny has and says Bren is really enjoying it and the other boys are good sports ;) Another important thing that happens at 12 for the boys, is receiving the Priesthood. We are so proud of Brendan and all of his hard work and accomplishments to be worthy to receive the Priesthood. He was able to pass the Sacrament for the first time the Sunday that Ronan was blessed.

Last Sunday, Danny was able to bless Ronan, and it was a beautiful blessing. Ronan was pretty peaceful through it and even threw up a sign to show he was "chill" while I was taking pictures :) We were excited to have both our families there for it. Since there are so many of us now, we had to divide families up to take pictures...

Danny's family...

My family (minus 9)...and Gabriela...we couldn't find her and later realized she ran off to class! Can't discourage that choice :)

Free (cRaZy) Zoo Day

2010-04-30T19:27:00.003-07:00

Tucson's Reid Park Zoo had a free zoo day last Saturday and it was insane! We haven't been to the zoo here in over a decade (at least!) and thought it would be a fun outing w/the kids. The crowd made us doubt our sanity, but it turned out to be fun overall and more importantly the girls had a blast!

Gabriela wanted to get a closer look at the giraffes and started to climb in. She saw nothing wrong with her idea...that girl is crazy :)

Hair

2010-04-30T19:20:00.003-07:00

Ema seems to have the best of both worlds, curly and straight hair, depending on the day. Here she's sporting the "sweaty" look which produces tons of cute curls.

Just recently, her aunt Tricia helped her achieve the "Wesley" look. We think it's fab.

3 weeks

2010-04-19T09:47:00.003-07:00

Here is Ronan at 3 weeks. I can tell he's filling out and I'm so sad! All my kids had rolls by 6 weeks, and it's coming too fast for me. We are thoroughly enjoying him though! He's a great baby, loves to eat and sleep. He also loves his sling :) Oh, and I made a couple cloth diapers the other day, size Newborn/Small, and I don't think they'll last very long, sigh...

Spring

2010-04-19T09:44:00.001-07:00

It's warming up here in Tucson and the girls have had fun playing in the sprinklers in the backyard. Cajsa & Adison came for their spring break and my girls had a blast playing with her. I think Adison had fun too, despite Gabriela's overwhelming presence :)

Birthdays

2010-04-19T09:38:00.003-07:00

Brendan turned 12 right before we left for California and Isa turned 10 while we were there. It was a good thing she likes Flan because that's what she got for her cake :)

California Dreamin'

2010-04-18T12:43:00.009-07:00

Ronan did a whole lot of this...

while the rest of us enjoyed this...

a day at the beach with cousins, aunts, & uncles...

a (not so) quick trip to see the Hollywood sign in LA (and a really bad shot of Capitol Records that we happened upon due to insane traffic) because Danny hadn't seen it before...

a stop in Pasadena to see Abuelita...

a walk on the pier where Tricia got engaged!!...

hanging out at the pool at the condo...

one last walk on the pier with the kids to see the sunset on the ocean...it was FREEZING!!

2 weeks

2010-04-18T12:25:00.007-07:00

It's always so hard for me to narrow down which pictures to post, so I end up making a lot of collages so that I can fit as many in as possible :) Also, someday I will make a book from our blog and I want to have all these in there. Oh, and since this is our last baby and it's my favorite stage, I'm finding I'm taking way too many pictures, but...oh well.

Love the smirk!

Cute up close of him awake & sleeping...I know, obviously :)

More Pictures

2010-03-31T20:08:00.004-07:00

In the outfit I made for him a little while ago...

Ronan was wide awake during a diaper change and thought I'd take advantage of it by snapping a few pictures :)

Introducing Ronan

2010-03-29T16:38:00.006-07:00

On Friday, March 26, Ronan Daniel Rock joined our family at 2:31am. He weighed in at a whopping 9lb 4oz, and was 20.75" long. I am so glad I was able to be induced and didn't go another week! More pictures to come...

Fun Times

2010-03-29T13:45:00.010-07:00

Danny gets to do this at bedtime...

while I get to do this....

...quilting & waiting for the baby to come :)

Odyssey of the Mind

2010-03-08T11:16:00.003-07:00

Brendan has been a part of the OM team for his 6th grade year, and really likes it. They just had Regionals on Saturday and his team took 2nd place, which qualified them for state! We're pretty excited and they will compete on the 17th of April, here in Tucson. Last year state was at Grand Canyon University, but this year we got lucky and won't have to travel!! That'll be SO nice w/a new baby at that point :)

Isa's Concerts

2010-03-08T11:09:00.002-07:00

At the end of February, Isa had 2 concerts, a school district orchestra concert, and a 4th grade Rodeo concert. She played very well on her cello (I remembered to put her in pants this time instead of a skirt!) and did great playing her recorder and singing cowboy songs.

All the 4th grade kids got their pictures taken and put on a "wanted" poster (Isa's is just above her head). Gabriela had so much fun watching Isa and all the kids put on their Rodeo performance. There was square dancing, singing, and speaking parts. They all did great!

Dentist

2010-03-08T11:02:00.002-07:00

At the end of January, we had all 4 kids go to the dentist in one afternoon. I'm so grateful for my older kids that were able to help with the little ones! It was probably a zoo for the employees, but they entertained the kids and the whole visit went really smooth. No cavities!!

Also, this was Emalyn's first visit, but she came 6 months ago to watch Gabriela, so it was familiar to her. She did great and let the hygienist clean her teeth and stayed still. She had to hang on to her Ariel polly pockets though :) Gabriela was a little concerned that Ema might get nervous, so she stood by her through it all. What a big sister! Emalyn was pretty excited to get her prize package at the end as well.

Haircut

2010-02-16T18:34:00.002-07:00

She did it again. Isa cut off her hair and is donating it to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths Program. We did Locks of Love two years ago, and she loved her short hair! She grew it out again and loved having it long, minus the tangles. We may keep this cycle going; we all really like it long and short. She wears both so well!

Dress up

2010-02-02T19:24:00.005-07:00

The girls were playing particularly well today and when I called them in for snack, they came in like this. They had "dressed up" all by themselves. (they did ask me to do their hair about 30 min earlier exactly to their specifications!) Funny girls.

On Sunday, I tried pigtails once again and we were successful! Ema said "ouch" a couple of times, but loved the end result and kept telling everyone "look at my pigtails!!"

My latest quilt...it was a fun one to do, but the pattern could use some fine tuning :) If you look close (or enlarge the photo) you can see Gabs peeking out from below. Didn't notice until I was editing.

Other shots of my quilt...

For Sale

2010-02-02T19:00:00.002-07:00

I'm trying to upgrade my sewing machine, so I've listed my awesome Bernina Activa 230PE for sale on craigslist. The upgrade that I want will help me to do precise free motion quilting, so I can feel more confident selling my quilts! Here's to hoping it goes fast!!

Fishing

2010-01-22T18:50:00.006-07:00

Emalyn loves water and when she found that there was 4-5" of rain water in our recycle bin, she kept herself quite busy (unknown to me). Gabriela was outside playing with her, so I should have been more diligent checking in on them. I was pretty grossed out when I found Ema dripping wet. I think Gabriela might have given her the idea to dunk her head in, because I heard some screaming a few minutes earlier :)

{the picture on the right was me teaching her to say "yucky water"}

So, I stripped her down and she bolted right back outside while I was getting new clothes. Thought I'd let her have 15 more minutes to play before her bath and nap time; she was having so much fun!

Here she is fishing. She was pretty excited when Gabriela suggested that she should catch her, and she did!

Family Pictures

2010-01-14T17:54:00.014-07:00

All 23 of us!!

Henry & Karen Montaño

Lonny-37, Elena-31, David-29, Cajsa-27, Stephanie-24, Patricia-21, Cristina-18, Lissa-15

Sisters!!

Top: Elena, Tricia, Cajsa

Bottom: Cris, Lissa, Steph

Lonny & Richelle King

Shayna-15, Bryanna-12, Jynna-8, Aliya-5

Danny & Elena Rock
Brendan-11, Isa-9, Gabriela-4, Emalyn-2

Brad & Cajsa Taylor
Adison-1

Chris & Stephanie Sowards

Emalyn turns 2

2010-01-13T21:02:00.005-07:00

Another year has flown by and our baby is no longer a baby. Emalyn (pronounced emma-leen, just as a reminder :) is a healthy, happy, blue-eyed toddler who loves to be outside and always wants to do things on her own terms. [remember she didn't start walking until 17 mo!] We are so glad she's a part of our family!! ♥

Ema saw her presents and had a hard time waiting for everyone to show up; we made her cry. Guess we should have waited a little longer to pull them out :) She loved all the puzzles and later was found sitting on top of the table trying to put together 3 different puzzles. After cake, her favorite thing to play with ended up being the gift bags (notice the leftover Christmas bags) and tissue paper, and kept saying, "happy birthday to me, MY presents!"

Ema could hardly wait for cupcakes while we were making them, frosting them, and arranging them. She was so excited to get her hands on it! She's a pretty tidy eater, which makes me pretty happy :) In the last 2 photos, we told her to smile and this is what we get from her [you'll want to enlarge it to see her cRaZy eyes in the last one-too funny!]. She's definitely NOT into impromptu smiles for the camera (or for anyone, for that matter).

Last, but not least, a fun game of chicken. Actually Tricia wanted to just see how much weight she could squat. It was quite amusing, but Emalyn wasn't too sure... Oh, and speaking of "actually", Ema came up to me as everyone was getting pajamas on and brought me Gabriela's dress. She said "my dress, on (meaning she wanted me to put it on her). actually, Ela's dress." I was surprised and impressed at the same time, because she absolutely knew what she was saying, with the appropriate tone and everything! [as a side note, Isa did the exact same thing when she was 2 1/2 and it blew me away, but her sentence was "actually mom, no" with hands on her hips and head cocked to the side] Girls.

Out with the old, In with the new...

2010-01-12T11:07:00.006-07:00

Last night's/this morning's latest project. I made a boy newborn outfit. Come to find out, among all my assortment of fabric, I really only have 1-2 that classify as "boy" fabric! Time to refocus my buying/stashing :)

I got this pink travel lite pack 'n play for the girls because it was 20% smaller and great for traveling. When I started going through things in the garage, I realized that I didn't really want to put my baby boy in an all pink thing. So, I began watching craigslist for something similar and last month found the brown/blue one!! Someone had used it only a handful of times and then it was packed away (no smoke, no pets, and she's a clean freak like me!). I was able to buy it for exactly what I sold the pink one for, yay!

Our swing & full sized pack 'n play that we have is part of the Graco Cherry Blossom collection, which of course is all brown/pink and flowery. They both were such good deals at the time of purchase, that it didn't even cross my mind to find something gender neutral. We needed something then, and that was it. So, I called Graco and I was able to order replacement pads and covers for the swing for $20! The mobile toys are another $15, so I figured I wouldn't get those and could make or rig something up myself and save the money. Love the new stuff!

This, however, perplexes me. It is a fantastic PNP, but now has a small hole thanks to a pirate named Gabriela. I thought about doing the same thing as the bassinet and selling it all and looking for a gender neutral/boy PNP, but with that little hole, I don't know how much I'd get for it?? Ug. Anyone know how to repair netting/mesh? Hmmm, I have a few months to figure this one out...

Ringing in the New Year

2010-01-03T20:28:00.006-07:00

New Year's Eve was pretty low-key since we were all suffering from colds and the plan was to just stay at home. We were still trying to recover from lack of sleep from Christmas and our Polar Express trip! My sister & her family were in town, and since they had already been exposed to all our germs all week, asked for us to still come over to my parent's house to celebrate. The plan was to play games 'til midnight, but since we were all so tired, we all plopped ourselves in front of the tv's! Half of us watched Harry Potter 6, and the other half, the Discovery Health Channel. The babies went to bed by 8pm :) We all gathered in the kitchen at 11:55pm, and filled our glasses with sparkling grape juice and cider. We watched the ball drop on tv, cheered, toasted, and then went home! Everyone went straight to bed :)

On New Year's Day, we all went to the Sonoran Desert Museum (the majority of us hadn't been there in years!) and had fun seeing all the animals and exploring.

Everyone enjoyed trying the bat ears on :)

The girls had fun at the tortoise exhibit, despite the fact that there wasn't a live tortoise to see!

These were the highlights that the little ones kept talking about: digging for dinosaur bones, seeing javelinas, a "coon", and a coati. There were several other animals that were pretty cool, but these are the ones they talked about all the way home :)

December Wrap Up

2009-12-31T19:14:00.009-07:00

A new line of fabric came out (that was boyish) that I couldn't wait to use, so I made up a crib quilt! There is an overabundance of girl fabrics, and not too many specific to boys, so now that we're expecting a boy, I've had to readjust my brain to seeing boy stuff as cute too! This is one of my fave's and so quick & easy!

Emalyn has started dressing up and playing with the older girls. She's still more of an independent player, but on occasion joins in next to them :) After Halloween hit, she's totally gotten into dressing up, more than just shoes!

Isa had her first orchestra concert at Donaldson, and did a great job playing the cello! The next week at Danny's family's Christmas devotional, Isa & Bren played "Jingle Bells" together while Gabriela sang. It turned out great! Then, while Danny's aunt was playing a Christmas song on the piano, Gabs decided she wanted to "help" her. Thank goodness Melissa is a pro and it didn't even phase her!

Christmas Eve was spent at Danny's family and the kids got to open their presents from them, as well as play with Melanie & Pete's new toy, the Wii!!

Christmas Day was spent with my family, and it was fun to have a huge houseful of people around! Almost everyone was there [7/8 of my siblings with their families] and made for a long, but fun morning opening presents! My parents got the Wii too, so the kids were in heaven, occupied all day again :)

Right after Christmas, we surprised the kids with a trip up to Flagstaff, AZ to play in the snow and take a ride on the Polar Express!! It was done up just like the movie, it was so cute! We got tickets to the train, waited anxiously, boarded and found our seats, and then they read the Polar Express book while they served hot chocolate and cookies {and yes, they sang the song, Hot Chocolate!}. They all dressed their parts, and ALL of the kids on the train wore pajamas (some adults too). We got to Santa's Village, all lit up with lights, and then Santa boarded the train and passed out presents to all the kids - they each got a silver bell! On the way back to the station we sang Christmas carols/songs and the kids rang their bells all the way home. It turned out to be such a fun night, and even my mom & teenage sisters loved it!

More pies & stuff

2009-12-01T18:56:00.003-07:00

I'm a little slow with posting, but here are the other 2 weeks of pies, apple & pumpkin. The apple turned out great and I loved my crust! We had a church activity a month ago on making your own crusts and my first came out ok, but this was substantially better! I added crumbly topping, but put it on too soon, so it turned into almost one solid piece :) but still quite tasty! Lissa & I each made a pumpkin and they turned out great, except we used pre-made crusts and they got a little crispy (didn't care enough to put foil around the edges). Everything was edible and we had fun eating it all BEFORE Thanksgiving.

This was just a cute picture of Gabriela. She asked me what it said, and I told her it described her! She was pretty excited.

Lastly, here are my most recent accomplishments. A quilt that I started in July, but haven't finished until now because I couldn't decide what I wanted on the back. In the end I just went with simple and it turned out pretty cute! [Background story: Emalyn LOVES the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle, and we read it for months before every nap & bedtime, so when I saw this fabric I knew I had to make her one! I couldn't find a quilt pattern that I liked, so I sketched one out myself, measured and remeasured, and then did it myself. I'm pretty proud of this one! (go ahead and click on the picture to see it larger)] Then for Christmas, Danny bought this cute owl pattern for me, but I couldn't wait til then, so I made a couple :)

Painting

2009-11-24T10:56:00.003-07:00

I do not like to let my kids paint, and this is why. I can't remember the last time I let any of them paint, so I decided to go ahead and try [my friend just let her kids do it, so i thought i'd do it too]. I quickly decided this is a "grandma's house" activity only :) I have a rainbow colored slide outside, freshly painted shoes that look "so much prettier", and a new painting shirt (i know, that one was my fault, i should have put an apron on). My poor art box is not going to be getting much use...

Little Monkeys

2009-11-05T12:02:00.002-07:00

Gabriela loves to climb our tree, and Emalyn is more cautious. She wants up, but doesn't want to climb :) This was the first time I was able to put Ema's hair in pigtails, and it makes her look so much older! Her blue eyes, are not as blue anymore, they've settled on a more grey-blue, with some flecks of brown. I still think they are just as gorgeous [go ahead and click on the photo to enlarge].

Pie Month

2009-11-05T09:08:00.003-07:00

I recently learned how to make homemade pie crusts and thought I'd give it a whirl. I have never done this in my life before (making a whole pie from scratch), and it was quite evident throughout the whole process. But, in the end, it was edible, and that's what's important, right?? I figured with the holidays coming, I'd try out a couple and see if they are worthy to grace the Thanksgiving table in a few weeks. My goal is to try one each Sunday until then. We'll see how it goes...

Announcement

2009-11-04T12:51:00.004-07:00

So here is the official announcement...I'm pregnant! Our family has known for quite some time (since I was 4 weeks-with 5 sisters I have to tell someone besides Danny), but we wanted to wait until after the first trimester to make the official announcement. Mostly because I was playing soccer and didn't want them to kick me off the team :) Then it was only a few more weeks until the Ultrasound, so here are the pictures...

We're pretty excited to finish up with another boy. I knew that this one was a boy, and it was nice to have it confirmed {although I didn't share that with the kids so that they didn't get their hopes up; Danny made that mistake with Gabriela :)} Emalyn shouted it out in the Ultrasound room just as we were getting started. The tech was showing the kids the brain and the heartbeat, and Ema shouted "boy! boy! boy! boy!", totally out of the blue, while pointing to the tech's hand holding the transducer on my belly. I thought she was calling the tech a boy (which she didn't look like at all), until I saw where she was pointing. About 5 minutes later it was confirmed and the tech was impressed with our intuitive 21 month old :)

I'm currently 19 weeks, 4 days, and I am due April 1st. The sonogram measured the baby a few days ahead, which would put me due at the end of March, but I won't get my hopes up :) He was VERY active, which made it difficult to get good measurements, but he slowed down a little at the end. He was pretty shy as well and kept burying his face in the placenta and wouldn't let us see his face (thank goodness he wasn't shy about showing off his bladder and boy parts). We managed to get a profile shot right at the last minute after laying on my right side, then my left, then my back again, then my right again...Bottom line, he looks as healthy as can be and we're so grateful.

Halloween

2009-11-03T11:22:00.007-07:00

The kids had a fun Halloween and scored (too much IMO) on the candy. Brendan was a Lich (see wikipedia for those of you who are not well versed in D&D), Isa was Bo Peep risen from the dead (apparently you can't be something cute on Halloween), Gabriela was a witch, and Ema was Batgirl. [You'll want to click on the picture to see the details better, especially Isa's face]

We started of the night at my parent's house with full-sized candy bars, then on to our church trunk-or-treat. They had a little carnival going and the kids had a blast. The adults got a special treat {homemade caramel apples} and they were SO GOOD! Much better than candy :) Then we finished the night off w/a stop at Danny's parent's house, and soon after the younger 2 were fast asleep! Such hard work looking cute for candy.

Gabriela turns 4

2009-10-24T11:03:00.007-07:00

Four years ago, Brendan and Isa were in school all day, and I was bored at home for 8 long weeks counting down the days until Gabriela was due! She was a super-awesome baby, who allowed me to still volunteer a couple days a week the rest of Isa's Kindergarten year (she went right along to every field trip and activity quite comfy in a sling). She became the class mascot, and her first belly laugh was in class one day while Mr. Barnhill was having "rug time" w/the kids. So cute!

Gabriela has developed into a very spirited, fiery, little girl, who doesn't seem to have an "off" button {we joke she's got adhd on crack} She has challenged me in every way possible (check out my early blogs), but I love her and am so grateful that she's a part of our family. Her dimples continue to work magic on anyone :)
She kept telling everyone that she wouldn't be 4 until her party, even though we explained that technically she already was 4 based on the time she was born (way over her head apparently).

Emalyn enjoyed her cupcake very much :)

Even though we didn't get a picture of everyone, we were able to celebrate her birthday with all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We're so grateful to have almost all of our family close by (she got to see her far away family through skype, so it was a great night). What a beautiful girl!

Potatoes

2009-10-06T10:24:00.003-07:00

The other night at the dinner table, Emalyn kept asking for more potatoes. I was quite impressed because she usually doesn't like them. I don't know how 5 people at the table managed to miss this, but instead of eating the potatoes, Ema was using them as earplugs. Nice. [You can see in the last photo the potatoes sticking out of both ears, yum-o!]

September

2009-10-02T10:49:00.005-07:00

This is all I have of September, and Danny took the pictures. I've never gone so long without taking pictures! It must have been a pretty boring month :) Danny took the kids on a ward campout to Mt. Lemmon and they had a blast! {Emalyn & I wimped out and had a slumber party with my sisters at their house}

October is always a busy month with tons of birthdays and the holidays coming up, so I should be back at the end of the month with more fun pictures...

August

2009-10-02T10:14:00.008-07:00

The first week in August brought the start of a new school year for us, and a bit of change. Isa started 4th grade and loves it! She has the same 4th grade teacher that I had (Ms. Leonardo) and we both love her!! It was so weird for me to sit in the same classroom w/the same teacher (22 years later) on back to school night!

The other change was Brendan entering middle school, 6th grade. Since we're not at all impressed w/the middle schools around here, we started looking into charter schools. The more research we did, the more we realized we just didn't feel right about anything, until we thought about homeschooling. I was pretty intimidated with the thought of it (I have several friends in NC that did it and developed their own curriculum), but it still seemed overwhelming. I had several people in the community tell me about AZ online virtual academy, which is basically an online charter school. We looked into it and decided to do it. We love it! Brendan has a teacher, a curriculum already set up day-to-day, books & workbooks for each subject, & tons of supplies for science experiments and art projects throughout the year! It was so great to have everything done for me, and he's doing great. He's very disciplined and plowing through really well. I'm so proud of him! He doesn't like pictures of him so much anymore, so I don't have one of him to put on here. I'll sneak one soon...

Isa and Gabriela got their haircut at the salon in preparation for the new school year, and Gabriela had a blast being a "big girl".

With everyone back into a routine, I'm able to pick up more sewing/quilting time again. I wanted to make Cajsa a baby gift, but couldn't ever settle on what to make. After I saw this pattern for a baby ring stacker, I knew this was it! It turned out really cute and Adison enjoys it now.

I stole this picture from her blog :)

My parents went up to Utah and brought back down tons of tomoatoes & cucumbers from Cajsa & Brad's garden. They were SO good! They also brought with them a HUGE zuchinni from one of Cajsa's neighbor's garden. We made 4 batches of zuchinni bread and had fun experimenting with different add-ins (chocolate chips & pecans).

With the camera flash these loaves look a little flourescent orange, weird. They weren't. They were so good we ate all 4 batches within a week (the plan was to make them all at my parents house so that they could eat most of it :) It worked)!

Trouble with a capital "T"

2009-10-02T10:02:00.007-07:00

Emalyn's hit that age where I can't take my eyes off of her for too long, or else. Here's a couple of things she's been into lately...

She loves to get into the pantry and empty out the contents of the powdered sugar, regular sugar, and brown sugar on a pretty routine basis.

She has discovered how to text...nothing more to say.

And, she loves all things water. Loves to swim, loves to play with water in her play kitchen, but most of all loves to climb in the bath or shower dry or wet. All the time. This time she heard Gabriela taking a bath and ran right in to see. A couple minutes later she was squealing with delight and when I checked, she had climbed in and was having a grand old time, soaked pajamas and all.

Rainy days

2009-10-02T09:57:00.002-07:00

We love monsoons. We didn't get too many this year, but when we did, we made sure we played as long as we could in the wind & the rain. We'd turn out the lights and watch the sky light up with a spider web of streaks of lightning, followed almost instantly with thunder that made the girls "oooh & ahhh" every time :)

13 years

2009-08-24T10:19:00.009-07:00

Our Engagement
Our Wedding Day
08-24-96

13 years later!
(a little less hair, and few more wrinkles)
So much to be grateful for!!
4 beautiful, healthy, intelligent children,
&
A wonderful husband/best friend that I'm so blessed to be married to for all eternity.

Birdie Quilt

2009-07-17T12:35:00.013-07:00

When Melanie and I went to Quilt Market, we saw this cute Birdie Quilt pattern and KNEW we had to whip one up! She was getting a new line of fabric in that we knew would go great with this one! So, I decided to try my hand at applique and give it a whirl. Oh man was it time consuming!! I LOVE the way this quilt turned out, it's definitely a favorite, but I don't know that I could ever make it again!
step 1. build a block

step 2. assemble all the blocks

step 3. sew all the blocks together

step 4. make a quilt sandwich & pin

step 5. quilt it, then bind it

step 6. hang it on a clothes line for cute pictures

step 7. make another quilt with the scraps!

This is a baby sized quilt and I love, love, love it!

It went much quicker this time around with only 1 block to applique!

Emalyn approves and loves the quilt :)

One of my favorite pictures!! Cute quilt, cute baby, cute cloth diaper I made.

July

2009-07-17T12:05:00.011-07:00

We went out with the Price's to watch the firework show a couple miles from our house! I was so excited that we didn't have to travel far away to see them this year, mostly because it was past Emalyn's bedtime and she was a bear :) The show was great, but we missed setting off our own fireworks like we did in NC. [That was an awesome show 2 years ago Matt!] Gabriela loved it, and Emalyn was trying to figure it all out. She kept saying "boom!".

One day when we were making our bed, we found a little handprint left behind. I have no idea what it was that Emalyn used for her artwork, but luckily it washed out just fine. I love little handprints :)

Emalyn LOVES baths and showers, so when she heard one being started, she dashed in before anyone else could and came out all wet!

Emalyn has become a little more brave lately trying new things, so while I stepped out to get more water for the plants, she decided to take it on.
Yesterday was Ema's 18 month checkup and she only got 1 shot. I didn't worry about motrin or anything because I figured it was just one. I was wrong. She has been the most sensitive with teeth and shots by far out of my kids, so really I should have known. Poor Ema woke up 4-5 times last night crying. She would just lay there and call for me, so I knew she just wasn't feeling well. We cuddled each time til she fell asleep and at one point she laid next to Danny in bed. The bandaid was off after only an hour after the shot, but she keeps telling everyone that will listen, "owwww-weeeee" and point to her leg :)

Yesterday we went to a local toy store that has a summer reading program and the prize Gabriela picked out was tatoos (sadly their selection was too old or too young for her so this is all she liked). We got home and she couldn't wait to share with Emalyn.

Ema was pretty excited, although the personal boudaries came in to play once again. When we asked where the butterflies were, she calmed down :)

Lissa's Birthday

2009-07-17T11:02:00.005-07:00

My sister, Lissa, turned 15 in June. We celebrated by waking up nice and early and taking everyone to "A Mountain" (and/or Sentinal Peak). The U of A students paint it every year and it's quite a fixture in Tucson. The kids did great and had no problem scaling the rocks. We even got Emalyn up there.
Going down was a little more difficult...
A nice shot of the "A" and our family.

We went out to eat at Macayo's and Lissa got a little box of goldfish in a tiny box (which Ema gladly helped open & eat), and then proceeded to open a giant present within a box, within a box...about 7 times over, and finally got to the ipod in the center for her birthday.

Lissa is so awesome and we're glad she spends so much time with us!! We all love her, especially the kids, because she's so patient and actually plays and reads with the kids. She takes an interest in everything they do and we love her for it.

Matchy-matchy

2009-07-17T10:13:00.008-07:00

So a while back I made Gabriela a skirt that I loved, but she couldn't stand. I had enough for another, but decided to turn it into a dress for Emalyn. I blogged about that and it turned out so cute! She loves it and wears it all the time, yay!! Gabriela decided she wanted one too, just not a skirt again. I was hesitant to make another, but after some time, she kept insisting and so I made one for her. She loved it the first day {the day I took pictures} and that's about it. So, it looks like Ema will have another one waiting for her to wear in a year.

Ema has ALWAYS had personal boundary issues with Gabriela. Every since she was born, Gabriela loves her to death, literally. She's very aggressive with her affection and Ema screams every time Gabriela even starts to get close. Some days it's funny, others not so much. Don't worry, we're always practicing appropriate affection; I just don't think Gabriela wants to do anything that requires less than every ounce of energy she's got in her.

By themselves sitting pretty...

Trying to take a picture of my canvas/fabric project. Again you can see Ema's not excited about a kiss from Gabs. {you have to enlarge it to see her face and body language - classic}

Emalyn is a girly-girl. Isa & Gabs not so much. Sure they love to dress up just like any other little girl, but never did they start so young! Ema has been scooting around in my heels for months, while wearing a purse, necklaces, sunglasses, and holding a cell phone. Oh man! It's quite a sight to see her scooting around with her lead foot in a shoe, all dressed up. That first picture shows her scoot. She goes around like she doesn't have a left leg, she uses her right foot and her left hand. Funny girl. She finally started walking full-time about 2 weeks ago, just in time for her 18 month appointment!

She definitely loves to imitate and has caught on to the beginnings of imaginary play with the girls. It's too cute. Can you tell I spend a lot of time on the sewing machine?? She knows exactly what to do!

Dancing Queens

2009-07-17T09:53:00.006-07:00

Isa tried out tap/ballet this year and LOVED it! At the end of the school year, it was time for a recital and she was so excited to wear a costume and perform on stage. {I think at that age I would have cried because I was super shy; not this girl! she ate it up!} She did wonderful, and a couple times during the dances, she'd motion to the other girls to either get in sync or show them the next dance step! It was pretty funny. I've got a short video clip that I hope to upload over the weekend.

Gabriela started dance in January. She was begging to do dance like Isa! The YMCA has a program called "Little Dancers" and she loved it! Right at the end of the school year, we walked into class and found her cousin, Aliyah, in the class!! Gabs was so excited and made it easier for her to perform in her recital.

Here's the dress rehersal, to "My little Sunshine". All the parents were able to come in and watch and I think Gabriela was too busy people-watching to focus on her dance. I was nervous this was indicative of the night to come...

I managed to get a couple of pictures of the few moves that she actually did. The majority of the dance she just stood there and people-watched. It was pretty funny, and I have a little video clip of that too coming soon. The audience just laughed, because at one point, she found me and just grinned and waved. She was so excited to be on stage!

Last Days of School

2009-07-17T03:53:00.005-07:00

My sister Cristina graduated high school (yay!!!) the day before my kids' last day of school. We all attended her graduation ceremony and barely made it through with Emalyn. Her bedime was when the ceremony started :) Luckily we had 7 extended family members to pass her around to the whole time. I think she made close to 5 rounds with everyone. Afterward we took pictures with the grad. You'd think it'd be easier to take 1 group shot, but really, no. It's not easy anymore with as many people as we have in our family.

Brendan finished elementary school and had a short little ceremony for the 5th grade classes. Mr. Moss was an EXCELLENT teacher and Brendan has been blessed with the best teachers each year of school. We are so grateful each year for the teachers he gets. I just can't believe I now have a child old enough to be in middle school! I'm so old. Oh, and there are two little photos of Isa and her teacher Ms. Palmour, and a play they put on for all the parents. They performed Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First?" [You'll have to click on the photo to enlarge it, as with any of them] She did fantastic this year and continues to enjoy school, but still misses her friends {and old teachers} in NC. [So do I] We are already down to the last 3 weeks of summer, so we are starting to gear up for another good year. Time does not seem to be slowing down...

Quilt Market!!

2009-07-17T02:05:00.020-07:00

In May, I got to attend the Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, PA with my friend Melanie! I was SO EXCITED to go!! I've read about this event for a couple of years and it was a dream to one day be able to attend. But sadly, it's not for regular people. It's for those that own their own business and purchase large amounts of fabric. Luckily I was able to go as her assistant!! We were there for 3 full days without our children (1st time away from all 4 for me), and we got to stay with my wonderful aunt Kathy & uncle Tom (and the rest of their family of course).

The first day there, was a FULL day of appointments, and simply taking it all in. We started at one end of the convention center and worked our way to the other end stopping at every single booth! We found my cousin-in-law, Chelsea Anderson, and her booth, as well as her aunt-in-law, Lila Tueller (wow, did you catch all that?!). We were able to hang out each day and get caught up and take in the city. That night Moda put on a dinner on three boats that went up and down the three rivers. It was beautiful!!

In the main photo, I'm standing with Chelsea, and her MIL & aunts that came to help them out. Melanie & I are in front of the boat in the corner picture.

After we got back to my aunt & uncle's house that night, I realized I didn't have my camera flash anywhere! I searched the car again and nothing. The only thing I could think of, is at dinner on the boat, my purse fell over under the table and when I set it up, I didn't see anything next to it, so I figured nothing fell out. Wrong. So the next morning when we got to the convention center, we found out the name of the company, made a call, and found out they had it!! I was so relieved! But, we had to walk 2.5 miles one way to get it (which normally isn't a big deal), but I had dressy shoes on :( Needless to say, I got blisters, BUT I got my flash back! We walked from the very left of the photo to the very right, over the river, and through the woods (well, not really woods, but fences).

It was a great way to see downtown Pittsburgh in all its glory! :)

Here Melanie & I try our hand at free motion quilting! So much fun, but I don't think I'll be employing that technique anytime soon.

Here are some really cute quilts we saw. {There were probably hundreds of cute quilts, we just couldn't take pictures of all of them) I love making quilts that are "fun", with cute fabrics and these inspired me!

Other cute items made with the designer cotton fabrics. A hopscotch mat, another gorgeous quilt (don't mind me in that picture, I didn't know I'd be in it, and I really do love that quilt even though it looks like I don't), a skirt, and my FAVORITE non quilt item, the coat in the middle! I love it!! Someday I'll acquire enough skill to make it...

Booths! Here are some of my favorite designers' booths. This was Amy Butler's...

This is Patty Young's...

This is a combination of Paula Prass, Laura Gunn, & Pink Fig.

Lila won the best new both award this year!! We were so excited for her!!

Here I am with my fabric celebrities!! It was so cool to meet them in person! [Top to bottom, left to right] Amy Butler, Lila Tueller, Chelsea Anderson, Patty Young, Sandi Henderson, Paula Prass, Heather Bailey, Chelsea-Lila-& fam, & last but NOT least, Laura Gunn!! It was unbelievable to me to see such incredible talent among this group of women. It was an amazing weekend and I'm so grateful to my family who helped watch my children so I could go. Thanks again!!

New camera lens

2009-07-17T01:37:00.009-07:00

So, I got a new camera lens for mother's day. I'm not really sure if Danny knows that's what he got me or not :) He did so well with breakfast and coupons and pampering me all day, it probably didn't register because it came in the mail a day or two later and it went straight onto my camera. It's a 50mm lens, and I had a blast playing with it...

Who can get mad at the girls playing with their food when they look so cute doing it?!

Ema's hair is just long enough to put little clips in. {This series of photos amazes me because Ema is being so patient with Gabs-so NOT the norm as you will see later on in another post} Must be a novel thing.

So, here with my new lens, Gabriela is in focus, the rest has a soft blurring effect.

Again, she's in focus...

...and now the sewing machine feet are in focus and she's a soft blur.

Love the new lens! Thanks Danny!!

Emalyn's Walking!!!

2009-06-18T21:41:00.003-07:00

Mother's Day

2009-05-13T19:38:00.002-07:00

I had an awesome Mother's Day, which started off with sleeping in, ahhh. Next I was treated to homemade crepes from Danny and the kids!! So delish! :) The kids then brought in their handmade gifts, my favorite being the coupons! I put each of my favs on top (you might have to click on it to enlarge it and read them).

Then came mother's day photo shoot. We've done it the last 2 years, so we did it again. Kids weren't too excited to take pics in 100+ degree weather, can you tell?? :) It was a fantastic day being pampered. I think Mother's Day should be more often, don't you?? ;)

Diapers!

2009-04-30T09:45:00.007-07:00

My very latest project has been keeping me up all night. Literally. I have wanted to switch to cloth diapers for a long time now (several reasons really, one of them being that they're cute & the other having a new, fun sewing project!). So, after weeks of research, I've decided to make AI2's (all-in-twos: for those that don't know the lingo yet - it took me a while). I ordered 3 from different companies to compare [tallulahbaby.com, urban-fluff.com, softbums.com] I also ordered a pattern [verybaby.com] to make my own, and that's what came first in the mail on Monday. Since then I have made 3 diapers, one each night into the wee hours of the morning. I made size Medium for Ema, and then a small & newborn just for practice and possibly give away. {the newborn diaper is SO CUTE! i could make a ton. it makes me miss that age...}

The brown one from tallulah baby came next and i love it!! I should be getting the other 2 today. I can't wait for the mail to get here! Oh, and I made a bunch of soaker pads as well to add in for extra protection.

Ema loves the diapers too. Goodbye diaper rash. [She was saying "cheese"]

p.s. I made these w/in the next couple months and they were great! A few months later I had someone order these from me and I sold them :)

Little girls

2009-04-30T08:54:00.004-07:00

I was working on the computer one morning and Emalyn was playing in the pantry just to my left. I don't know how I missed the sound of her bringing a 5 lb bucket of sugar onto the floor!
She managed to get the lid off and get a little taste.
I love this face! I asked her "what did you do?" Classic.

Later, Emalyn got into the blackberries and Gabs got as far away as she could :)

Emalyn is now 15 months and continues to crawl/scoot. She is quite vocal, MUCH more so than any of the others. Guess you'd have to be being the littlest.

Ema LOVES to be outside and can climb up the slide and go down. She likes to push the shopping cart, but after a few steps and realizing she's walking, she stops. and is done.

More projects

2009-04-30T08:43:00.006-07:00

Cajsa bought a small pillow for Adison and when she came down to visit she had a job for me; to make pillowcases for it. We went to Melanie's house, picked out some cute fabric, and came up with these! I ended up buying my own little pillow as well, so I could make some cute pillowcases for Emalyn :)

Oh, and speaking of Melanie's house, I went there to make these cute cover-ups for swimming. (ok, just this one is cute, the one below kind of failed - it was my rough draft)

This was supposed to fit Gabriela, but I bought a cheap towel that was smaller than the rest. Positive note, now Emalyn has one (even if it is kind of ugly - Gabs picked out the colors).

Easter

2009-04-30T08:35:00.004-07:00

For easter we went over to my parents and colored egss with my sisters. They are starting to get "too old" for such things, but it was OK with the younger kids :) Oh! don't forget to click on the picture of Lissa holding the eggs - Danny wrote secret messages...

After all the eggs had dried we did an easter egg hunt w/those eggs as well as the plastic ones filled w/candy (thanks mom!). [I don't buy candy - I know, I'm mean] Anyway, we let the little ones start first and they were off to a great start and then realized what they had in their basket and were done after 1 or 2. We let the older ones go and they all caught the excitement and started back up again. At the end we had to spill it all out and divide it up evenly (well, no candy for the baby).

p.s. they all got new church clothes for Easter too. i totally forgot to get a picture! i'll see what i can do...

Isabel

2009-04-30T08:24:00.005-07:00

I forgot to add these photos in, because they were on my other camera! My MIL treated the girls to Isa's birthday lunch at the Chantilly Tea Room. Isa & Gabriela LOVED it! A real-life tea party!
Some shots of us :)

On April 11th, Isabel turned 9! We started out the day with crepes filled w/strawberries and whip cream. Later that night, we went out to eat with the Montaño & King clan, and at the end we sang to her as the waiters brought out her dessert! Isa is a beautiful, easy going, very social, and friendly girl, who loves to sing, talk, dance, do anything outdoors, and play w/her younger sisters. We are so proud of her and love having her in our family!!

Brendan

2009-04-30T08:18:00.003-07:00

On April 8th, Brendan turned...11. I can't believe we have a kid that old!! We love him to death, and are so glad he's our oldest. He is a great friend, leader, and older brother. He loves to read (keeps the library going single handedly), ride his bike, play strategy board games, and the x-box. For his birthday, we started out w/his favorite breakfast, pancakes & bacon. Later that night we had the Montaño & King families over for cake. Bren got scout stuff; he is now officially in Boy Scouts! We are so proud of all of his accomplishments and hard work.
He keeps us laughing :)

Swimming

2009-04-30T08:13:00.003-07:00

Cajsa (& Adison) came to visit the first week in April, and it was SO FUN to have someone to play with during the day!! Emalyn said "baby" non-stop :) We hit the pool almost every day, and I even pulled the kids out of school early one day to swim! [It was Brendan's birthday after all]
Trying to get 5 children to look at the camera at the same time, yeah right!

Flower Power

2009-03-20T15:07:00.006-07:00

I'm so excited for this dress!! The other night I decided to make Emalyn a matching skirt since Gabs claims she doesn't like hers. [I made one for Gabs a couple weeks ago, scroll down for that post - I had to bribe her to wear it and she complained the entire time she wore it!!]

Anyway, I didn't want it to be exactly the same, so I decided to make it a summery dress. I didn't have a pattern, just whipped it up in one night, thanks to my new serger! Super cute!! Now I have to wait until she's walking to let her wear it. Her other dresses get SO DIRTY from crawling all the time!

Oh, here are some inside-out photos so you can see what a beautiful job the serger did! (go ahead and click on them to enlarge) I had to take a shot of both machines, because they worked so hard as a team for this one :)

My projects

2009-03-09T11:32:00.006-07:00

This first one is of my camera strap (so hard to get a shot of the strap w/the camera it's attached to!), a nursing cover (I thought the fabric was pretty funny), and a foam pad for Gabs to lay down on in our tiled family room.
This sock monkey quilt was a gift for a new baby, and I liked it so much I made one for me too (although it's sitting unfinished calling my name every night...)
I got a new ruffler foot for my sewing machine and I figured out how to use it! I made this doll blanket to see if I could get the hang of adding a ruffled border instead or regular binding and it worked!!
This was a table runner I made for Isa's class auction. Each class at their elementary school was in charge of a gift basket and each had a theme. Isa's class was "Mexican", so I found these fabrics pretty cheap (I'm SO not a fan of the southwest look) and made it for them. Bren's class was "chocolate", but I can't seem to remember if I did anything? hmmm...
Cupcake pincushions that were made at my friend's sewing party! I made the little one first and it was definitely a "rough draft", so I went home and made another one and it turned out a lot better.

My cousin Gina wanted me to make a carseat cover and I really hadn't seen/heard of this kind of thing. She found a picture for me to follow and I tried it. The first was my rough draft (sensing a theme here?? I could fill a closet w/them!) and the bottom picture is the one I made for her. Turned out pretty cute! Back to my monkey quilt :)

New Skirt

2009-03-08T21:21:00.002-07:00

I made Gabriela a new skirt last week, thanks to my NEW SERGER!! Really, thanks to North Carolina & her tax return :) When I told her I wanted to take a picture of the skirt, she insisted that I take it while she jumped! I just held the button down and snapped away...not the best quality w/a flash, but oh well. It turned out pretty cute.

Achievements

2009-03-08T16:24:00.014-07:00

Here is Brendan's last pinewood derby! He had a blast building it with help from his Grandpa Rock this year. Brendan came in 2nd place in his age group, and 3rd overall. He was a good sport and really enjoyed it.

All of the 3rd graders this year had to do a science project, so Isa decided to see how long it took different types of cheese to mold. Unfortunately she has a forgetful mother, who was preoccupied with managing 4 children after school on her own until bedtime every night (Danny's new 2nd job keeps him until 8:30pm and then it takes 40 minutes to get home). So, a couple days before it was due, we realized we still hadn't bought any cheese, so we changed it to apples and how quickly the different types brown :) Since we had 6 different varieties, and 3/4 of each apple left, I cut them into thin slices and Isa passed them out in class. Her presentation went well and was a hit! [We finished the board the morning of. Whew!!] She got 100% on her project and I was pretty proud :)

Gabriela's achievement was that she didn't lose any teeth this last week! Poor kid got smashed in the face 3 times in one week. Things tend to happen in 3's we've found, but we were hoping for more variety, not all in the same exact spot!! First, was when we were in Utah last week; she was running down a ramp, tripped and landed flat on her face. Her lips and nose were swollen, scratched, and bruised. Then on Wednesday she was riding in a neighbor's wagon (with another little boy) w/a broken wheel and the older brother who was pulling turned too quickly and over it went. Gabs face planted and the little boy got a good-sized bump on his head. There was blood this time, and sore teeth, but luckily her teeth weren't loose. She cut up the inside of her lip, and had a scratched and swollen nose again. Lucky #3 happened on Friday when we were shopping for our own wagon. Isa and Gabs came out of a toy aisle at Target, stepped into the main aisle, and a man and his wife were coming with a cart full of things. They didn't see them and BAM, right into her poor face again!! She had welts right away, and criss-cross patterns all over her forehead, nose, & cheek.

The girls LOVE their new wagon and Emalyn doesn't like to get out at all! She stayed in it all Friday and Saturday.

Saturday morning was weed pulling time. Ug. So, as a treat after the front yard was done, we went out to Jamba Juice. Mmmmm, tasty! Bren & Isa split one, Danny & Gabriela split one, I got my own, but had them pour a little into a tiny cup for Emalyn. She loved it! I can't wait to pull weeds in the backyard next week, just for the reward!!

Emalyn

2009-03-08T12:04:00.008-07:00

So, my sister Cajsa, had a baby a few weeks ago (Adison) and I was able to fly up for a week and a half to visit her. I took Emalyn with me and we had so much fun hanging out!! Cajsa and I went shopping (some window, some actual purchases) and I got some great deals on clearance clothes. I got this little sailor outfit (kind of corny I know, but as separate pieces it'll be great). It was quite an experience trying to run errands w/2 babies on different eating/sleeping schedules!! Serveral people asked if they were both mine, and I would say "thankfully no!" They are exactly 12 months apart - I would die. I now have more respect and empathy for women who have children that close together. I had them for only a couple of hours by myself and it got pretty crazy. Lissa introduced the ipod to Emalyn and she is now obsessed! She is growing up way too fast!! Emalyn is just under 20 lbs (all my others weighed that much at 4-5 months!) and is still not interested in walking. She can stand on her own for a few seconds, but only when bribed :) If you try and "walk" with her, she'll march like a soldier and then just keep both her legs up in the air!! She's got some strong abs. Ema can say a few words, "mama, papa, brendan, blanket, ball, baby, book, up, down, go-go, & see that", and then signs "milk, eat, please, more, ball, baby, book", and understands quite a bit more. I'm sure there are more things she can say/sign but those are the more important ones that I can think of. She is a little bit of a picky eater, but eager to try everything. Her favorite thing to do is play outside w/her siblings.

Adison

2009-03-08T11:44:00.004-07:00

Here are some cute photos I got of Adison while I was visiting. Also, a collage of my little girls holding Adison. You have to enlarge it and check out the top two of Adison's eyes!! I think she knows Gabriela's SPIRIT!!

Antelope Island

2009-03-08T11:33:00.002-07:00

We went to antelope island, only a few miles from Cajsa & Brad's, and really enjoyed it, although it was pretty cold! We saw buffalo (Tricia calls them "bubbalo") and antelope, and then we went on a short hike to the top of a peak. Bren & Isa did great and got to the top where we took pictures (which looked terrifying to me, but Brad assured me it was safe behind them).

We found these buffalo statues so we got some funny pictures :)

Adison's Blessing

2009-03-08T11:13:00.004-07:00

On March 1st, my brother-in-law, Brad blessed his baby, and our family was able to drive up and be there for the weekend. It was a beautiful blessing and there was an abundance of love with both sides of the family there. Adison was gorgeous and content.

Funny

2009-02-16T21:40:00.003-07:00

The weather got really warm, mid 80's!!, so I took the little ones to the pool after Gabriela's dance class at the Y, and swam! Gabriela hasn't been in the water since September, but it only took 10 minutes and she was good to go, swimming on her own. Emalyn was a little cold, but loved it!

Gabriela was quiet for some time, (always a bad sign!) and I found her doing her hair in the bathroom-phew! She was up on her tippy-toes, looking into the mirror, and grinning! What a cutie :)

Desert Museum

2009-02-16T21:31:00.006-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine invited me to go to the Desert Museum w/her & her kids. We all had a blast! I haven't been there for years, & Gabriela & Emalyn had never been, so it was fun to see it all. The kids had so much energy, had a great time, and then SLEPT all the way home!

Girl Talk...or is it?

2009-02-16T21:13:00.003-07:00

Here is a funny video of a sample of the girls daily talk. Let me translate...Gabriela starts out with, "EM-A-LYN!" then Emalyn responds. Then Gabs calls Ema's name again, the Ema responds again. It's quite the conversation! Caution: you may not want the volume too high! :)

One Year Pictures

2009-02-16T19:59:00.006-07:00

We FINALLY got some pictures of her! Poor kid had a black eye for awhile, then scratches because I forgot to clip her nails! They turned out ok.

Little girls

2009-02-06T09:09:00.021-07:00

Here are a bunch of cute photos; I couldn't narrow them down, so enjoy!!

1 year old

Emalyn's first black eye...courtesy of Gabriela :)

I forgot to strip her down for dinner - she thoroughly enjoyed her berries though!!

So one day when we were leaving the house to run errands, I had Emalyn in one arm and hit the garage door opener w/the other. Gabriela ran ahead of me and as the garage door was rising, she grabbed on! I stood there and just watched quietly to see if she would freak out or love it... The door went higher and higher and started to groan and slow as it got to the top. I waited and Gabriela was just dangling (she couldn't see me because I was behind her). She finally said, "mom??" I tried so hard to not laugh and simply asked, "yes?" Gabriela stated, "um, I'm stuck". I got her down and asked how she was and she said, "i was a little bit nervous". The rest of the day she couldn't stop talking about her "fun ride" to everyone she met! What a crazy kid!!

We have an automatic door on the van and she LOVES to go for a "ride" while it slowly opens and shuts!

Gabriela LOVES to be outside and climb :)

She couldn't button her shorts and couldn't figure out why...

She did a much better job dressing herself here, she was SO PROUD!!

Showing me her "pizza feet" from dance class.

Just chillin'

Birthday continued...

2009-02-06T08:53:00.011-07:00

Brendan took Emalyn outside to play while Gabriela and I worked on her cake and getting ready for the party.
Emalyn didn't know what to do with the candle, so Gabriela and I blew it out for her.
Danny's parents gave Emalyn a swing and the kids were all way excited to get it set up! I hope they realize that it is just for her :)
My parents gave Ema this toy that all of the kids loved! Mostly having to do with the noise/songs I believe :) Brendan showed her how it worked and she watched very intently!
She's figuring it out...
She's got it!
Poor Emalyn was SO tired by the end! She usually goes to bed between 7-7:30pm, and we started the party at 7:15pm, so it was nearing 8pm when she got her cake. She was so sleepy; I don't think she was too interested in her cake at that point :) Too cute.

Eye Candy

2009-01-22T23:12:00.013-07:00

So, I have to order all my cute fabric online, because none of the local quilt shops or fabric stores carry any of the popular designer fabric that I like. I went to a quilt show last week in Tucson and a couple of vendors brought in some of that fabric and I had to get a stash! Is this cute or what?! I am normally NOT a pink person, but it was packaged so well and the colors work so great together and it's never in any of the stores here...anyway, I can't wait to make this quilt!!

Oh! Awesome news, earlier this week I found a LOCAL fabric dealer that works from her home, HERE IN TUCSON!! She lives on my side of town and has ALL the fabric I've ever wanted! I'm SO excited...I'll have to start an allowance for myself :) I've got her website button linked here because she has a 1 yr celebration giveaway, so check it out! I just went over to her house to sew up a Sandi Henderson Cupcake pincushion and it was "sew" much fun! (sorry i can't seem to stop using that pun) I'll get a picture up here soon...

Birthday morning...

2009-01-13T23:48:00.006-07:00

After taking approximately 50 pictures today, this is the only one where I managed to capture Ema smiling, first thing in the morning! Then only a moment later, I got quite the opposite reaction. I wanted to see if she would stand on her own (she does NOT like to stand) and was mad I propped her up :)

Yesterday was "de-ja-vu-esque" (like that word? i do :) I decided that Gabriela was finally ready to move to a toddler bed! (See last January's post for our previous try) We built it together and she was really excited. We role played what she would do in the night if she had to go potty, and things couldn't have gone better!! She's doing great and will actually STAY IN BED!
We've really been working on positive reinforcement with Gabriela, and since this day was going to be a lot about Emalyn, I tried to involve Gabs as much as possible. She helped me make the cupcakes and cake for the family party, so she got to lick the batter. She couldn't wait to try a cupcake (we made them at 11am) and it was probably the LONGEST day of her life waiting until 7pm tonight to eat one!!

Ta da!

Faces

2009-01-12T09:52:00.003-07:00

Last night Emalyn was eating dinner and kept making funny faces. The kids would laugh and more faces were made. She totally got it and entertained the kids for a while. I had to get some pics...

Gabriela

2009-01-09T16:11:00.006-07:00

Gabriela started dance today and she LOVED it! Isa already does tap/ballet, so Gabriela's been patiently waiting for her class to start the last couple months.
She did great in class and almost always listened to the teacher! She was so proud to show Danny what she learned when she got home.
Since we have been in our new place, Gabs spends almost all afternoon outside playing. She LOVES the outdoors! She wants to eat, play, draw, read, etc. and it's fine with me. Emalyn loves to watch from the sliding door.

New Years

2009-01-09T15:16:00.009-07:00

New Years Day we spent playing games, lounging in our jammies, and drinking hot chocolate.

(cute matching pjs)

New Years night and the night after, we had movie night w/my sisters and we had a blast. We didn't get a picture of Tricia (I don't know where she went, so I cut & pasted her in), but we had 5/6 girls which doesn't happen often and was photo-worthy.

It's begun...

2009-01-08T19:15:00.006-07:00

And so it begins...Emalyn turned 11 months and 2 weeks and it's like a light switch was turned on. She is so curious and gets into everything. Still quiet and sweet as ever (not as active as Gabs was at that age, thank goodness!).

The girls got a play kitchen for Christmas and Emalyn LOVES it! She opens and shuts the doors constantly, as well as putting things in and out of the shelves. She is also starting to sign, which alleviates a lot of frustrations. She can sign "milk", "more", and "done", and understands "sock", "shoe", and "blanket".

Danny stuck his beanie on her, and she thought it was pretty funny. She took it off and then tried desperately to get it back on.

Gabriela is beginning to be a big help w/Emalyn. She is understanding rules so much better (not that she always obeys, mind you), so she is constantly explaining to Emalyn what she can and can't do. It's too cute. While I was taking pictures, she said, "Em-a-LYN! You can't eat rocks, they are not FOOD! They are ewwwy."

After Emalyn's bath we were lotioning her up, and she reached over faster than I was able to stop her and she grabbed a huge fistfull of Aquaphor (basically clear Crisco). We transferred as much as we could back into the container, and then we rubbed her down again with her own hand. She was a greasy baby!

Emalyn finally found the tupperware cabinet at my mom's house and loves it! It keeps her busy for so long, it's great. Who needs babysitters??

Christmas

2009-01-08T19:04:00.007-07:00

The kids had a fun filled Christmas Eve & Christmas Day visiting both of our families and enjoying food, games, and each other.

Gabriela really enjoyed the chocolate. Everytime we turned around she found more chocolate; I have no idea how much she ate, but I know it was a lot!! Also, I had to add in the cute picture of Tricia & her FABULOUS new pjs! :)

This is a typical hug that Gabriela gives Emalyn, unfortunately Ema doesn't appreciate yet how MUCH Gabs loves her!

Utah

2009-01-07T23:39:00.005-07:00

Gabriela has never been in snow before (once in NC, but not that she can remember) so she was dressed and ready for snow the day we got to Cajsa & Brad's!

The snow came and everyone was excited and ready to play! Snowballs were thrown, snow angels created, and a little bitty snowman :)

Later, we all went to temple square to see the lights and it was beautiful. It was quite cold, but thankfully we still had our cold winter gear from our Utah days and we were ready for it.

The first picture is the house my grandma & her siblings were born & raised in, that her father built in the late 1800's. It's been in the family until just a few years ago! While we were in the Logan cemetary, Danny took the kids over to the "weeping woman" which they remembered. There's some ghost story to it and he used to take Bren & Isa over to it whenever we'd visit the cemetary and tell them each time. We miss the beautiful snow capped mountains of Cache Valley, but not enough to move back :)

California

2009-01-07T23:05:00.014-07:00

We made it out to Coronado Beach in San Diego and the girls loved getting their feet wet. The boys were not so keen on shedding their socks & shoes for cold water and sandy feet! :)

Here are some funny pics: Gabriela wanted to help out "uncle tom" (really it's cousin Mike, whose dad is uncle tom, but she kept forgetting) clean grandpa's car. She had so much fun "cleaning" that Mike didn't mind cleaning her fingerprints later. In the next one, Danny, David, & Tricia all decided that the grandpa's house had too many people in it and slept outside each night in sleeping bags on the patio furniture! The last two are of my cute sister, Tricia.

My mom, Karen, and her brothers, Jim Patterson & Tom Patterson.

My Patterson cousins (above), and Montaño girls (below).

Our entire family! We haven't had a shot like this in a LONG time.

My cute, crazy family :)

Fun with the cousins...

The three musketeers. Playing w/my grandma's dog collection which kept them entertained for what seemed like hours. It was amazing considering these girls don't sit still very long! (you can tell we couldn't even get them to look at the camera at the same time)

Hugo Delin Patterson

2009-01-07T22:51:00.005-07:00

On November 30th, my grandpa passed away and is now happily reunited with my grandma that passed away 6 years earlier. It was unexpected, but we take comfort in knowing that it was his time to go and that he's not lonely anymore.

We went to Escondido, CA for his funeral the first weekend in December, and then to Logan, UT for his burial the following weekend. I have several pictures to be posted soon of all of our adventures as well as the reunion with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins, & siblings.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T22:13:00.006-07:00

It's been about 10 years since we've had Thanksgiving with my family!! In North Carolina we never made it out west for the holidays, and when we were in Utah for 7 years, we spent Thanksgiving with my cousins. We had so much fun leaving our husbands and babies sleeping while we did our black Friday shopping at 4am in the FREEZING COLD!! It was a fun tradition and I will never forget those memories. This year we had about a dozen people over for dinner and then decided to sleep in on black Friday. We figured if there was something still there when we got there, then it was meant to be :) I was experimenting with my timer on my camera so there are several of the same area (almost looks like time lapse photography-but not really). Oh, it was so funny - Gabriela was SO excited for turkey! My dad cut the ham first and she almost died waiting. Emalyn got her first bite of turkey and LOVED it!

My mom got the kids this gingerbread house kit to do Thanksgiving morning while we were all cooking and they had so much fun decorating it. Gabriela had a hard time though, trying not to eat one of each variety of candy!

I am so thankful for my family and I love this time of year that's dedicated to it! I love having my kids home from school and everyone getting together for birthdays, holidays, events, etc. I'm so grateful to be back home. Hope you all enjoy this season as well.

Marhsa, Marsha, Marsha!

2008-12-01T11:04:00.006-07:00

My wonderful Aunt Marsha was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of months ago and so I wanted to make her a quilt to keep her warm through her treatments and to let her know how much we love her and pray for her. She is the ultimate example to me of selfless service. I am so happy with how the quilt turned out; it's my favorite one so far!

"Ginger"

Events

2008-12-01T10:49:00.004-07:00

Gabriela was taking a bath last week and I ran the water and left to go get Emalyn. I was at the other end of the house and TOTALLY forgot about the bath. After several minutes Cristina said Gabriela was calling for me. I listened and heard a "mama?" I then remembered the bath... "aaahhh! the water's still going!!" Cris leapt up and ran to the bathroom and turned it off as she was stepping in puddles. Instead of checking in on her, I got my camera first :) I figured Cris was in there, so she was safe. It had just started to pour over, so we caught it at a good time. Poor Gabriela was a little nervous once it started going over, but otherwise loved the water!
Emalyn is getting close to standing on her own. She keeps crawling funny, with one foot planted on the ground and the other leg on her knee in regular crawling position. Last week I caught her with both feet planted, she raised her bum in the air, pushed up, and let go of the sidewalk for a second! I ran back in to get the camera and of course she wouldn't get up all the way again, but got close.

Cristina & Lissa had their winter formal and they looked gorgeous! Stephanie came over to do their hair and makeup and it turned out great. Cris went w/a date - Richard, and Liss went w/a couple of her friends. Isa & Gabriela were fascinated by the whole process and can't wait to be bigger and dress up! :)

Old Friends

2008-11-16T18:23:00.007-07:00

Yesterday we had a get-together with a bunch of Danny's old friends from high school & church, which the Haymore's graciously hosted, and there was a total of 15 adults and 24 children!! It was quite an event. The kids had a blast making new friends and the "older boys" had fun reminiscing. We forgot to pull out the camera until the end, so we didn't get any shots of the group, but we did get one of these BFF's...

Jess Haymore, Fint Matchett, Christian Price, & Danny Rock