What A Tripp!

Almost over

The first month of 2012 is almost over, and I haven’t shared a whole lot here on the blog. Not to say we haven’t been busy, so I’ll share a few highlights.
I’ve made a few other things (mostly for birthday gifts for the kids’ friends), but this is the gift I made for Kezia’s friend, Emily.

There was a swim meet in town yesterday, and both Kezia and Zephram swam. Kezia did the 100 back, 50 breast and 200 free. She improved her times for the first 2 events, but this was the first time she has swam a 200. That’s a long way for such a little girl. Zephram has never been a very good swimmer, but since the end of last soccer season he has been swimming with the younger swimmers on the girls’ swim team. He has improved A LOT, so after spending most of the day on a 5 mile hike with the Scouts, he showed up 15 minutes before the start of the meet to swim the 25 back and 50 free. He didn’t have a time for the back, but didn’t look like he was going to drown, like he did the last time I watched him “race”. However, he cut his 50 free time in half! Way to go dude!

Yes, Caemlyn is usually mentioned in swim meet posts, but she was off with Justin at the Albuquerque Temple. They were gone most of the day doing baptisms, and going out to eat. She was also the youth speaker (first time!) in Sacrament meeting today. Her talk was on 1 Nephi 3:7. She did a great job and I’m so proud of the young lady she is becoming.

And a little sneak peek of from the curve ball I mentioned in my last post.

Focus 52

I typically make resolutions at the beginning of a new year, but life has thrown us a little curve ball, so I’m a little behind. Though I still haven’t determined just what I’d like to accomplish this year, one of the things I’d like to do is improve my photography. I’ve taken classes and read books, I think the best thing I can do now is practice. Even though I’m a couple of weeks behind, I’ve decided to participate in a 52 week photography project – focus 52.

To facilitate this effort, I’ve started a separate blog just for this project here. Feel free to follow along and leave comments/criticism. Now that I’ve posted my first week’s assignment, and shared it, I’m committed. Eek.

Christmas 2011

I know we’re half way through January, but … better late than never, right?
We had a lovely Christmas.
We wanted to have our traditional chinese food dinner on Christmas Eve, but with the local establishment being closed, we had it on Friday night instead. This made it easier to spend Christmas Eve caroling at the local assisted living facility with several other families from our Ward. It was a very nice way to spend the evening. Before bed the kids got to open their jammies from their cousins.

We got up early on Christmas morning so some of us could be at church at 8:15 to practice with the choir. We even ate a nice, big breakfast together, and the kids were so patient and never complained about having to wait until after church to open presents.

The heat in our building wasn’t working that morning (always happens a few times during the winter), but we enjoyed the music and talks all the same. Funniest thing was when the Stake President stood to speak and, with a grin said, “I’ve been waiting for someone to say this, but I know that many of you are cold, but few are frozen.”
After church the kids had to wait a little longer while the turkey was prepped and put in the oven, then the kids finally got to open their gifts. They were pleased with everything they received, making all the waiting just a memory. I also received several wonderful gifts, most notable were a 50mm lens for my camera and a serger. (I’m still learning how to use it.) We didn’t get to relax for long though, as our feast had to be prepared as the missionaries serving here were coming over for dinner. We enjoyed their company, and they laughed a lot over their beard hats. I hope their phone calls with their families after they left were good.
Attending church and spending the evening with a couple of young men far from home, were wonderful ways to remember our Savior and take note of how truly blessed we are.

Fun Times

We had a lot of fun in December, especially with all of the snow we got. After our second big storm, I took the kids to the park for some sledding.

Caemlyn hosted a party for some of her friends. They built gingerbread houses, had hot chocolate and played out in the falling snow. The boys were all off somewhere, but here she is with some of her friends and the messy table after building their houses. Some kids didn’t make it due to the storm, but they had a good time.

My parents also came to visit at the end of December. We must have been too busy having fun for me to remember to take any pictures. The only ones I have are of them in their new shirts (see below). We went sledding, to the movies, bowling, dog walking and football watching. I’m so glad they were able to come and spend some time with us. We are all looking forward to seeing them again this summer.

Handmade gifts

I like to think of myself as a good gift giver, choosing gifts that the recipient will truly like and use.  Even if I don’t get it right, I try and do my best and often give handmade gifts.  This Christmas was no exception, and I made quite a few gifts.  Here’s a photo dump of most of them…

Advent Bunting, filled with daily scriptures and activities. I loved how this turned out, and so did the kids.

Awesome bag filled with yarn and a crochet hook case with hooks and stitch markers. This was a giving tree gift for a mother in our Stake.

Another giving tree gift (scripture case) for a girl in our Ward. I also made one out of different fabrics for Ada, though I don’t seem to have a picture of hers.

Crocheted beard hat for my nephew. I stole this pic off his dad’s facebook account. And I don’t have pictures of them, but I also made some for the missionaries serving in our Ward since they came to our house for dinner on Christmas day.

Pillows I made for my sister-in-law Valerie. She emailed me an etsy link for similar ones years ago, and I decided it was time to make her some.

Ada got to go to a friends birthday party, so I made another reading pillow.

The week leading up to Christmas I finally got around to making the girls some new dresses (well, a skirt for Caemlyn) with some awesome flannel I had. No patterns used, and I love how they turned out.

My parents came for a visit after Christmas, so we had to have a gift for them. I will admit, that I had very little hand in making these though. I saw the idea on pinterest, so we copied it. The kids drew maps and included the places my parents go most, at least in my kids’ eyes. All I did was provide a little guidance and do the writing. I think the kids did a fabulous job.

Merry Christmas!

Hoping you all had a fabulous Christmas. I’ll be back soon with an update on our busy month.

Welcome December

We had a nice, quiet Thanksgiving at home with just our family, so not much to share. However, we have welcomed December with a pretty good start. We took a drive out the the Valles Caldera to see about getting a $10 Christmas tree. Unfortunately, what we found looked exactly like Charlie Brown’s tree lot. Not even worth the gas we used to drive out there. However, this was the first time we got a good luck at the damage from this summer’s fire. This is the backside of the Mountain we live on. The bald spot near the middle (with the tower) is the backside of the ski hill above our house. Unfortunately, this isn’t the worst of it. Very sad.

We got some nice, early snow and had our annual breakfast with Santa.

That night we also went to the annual holiday lights parade downtown. We froze and got snowed on. No pics.

The younger kids built their first snowman of the season.

I made a wood block nativity, based on one I found online. I love how they turned out.

OK, maybe I made an army of them. lol

And this morning, I finished my entry for the Prudent Baby stocking contest – to win a serger! The main requirement was that it had to somehow use knit fabric. So, I used an old t-shirt of Justin’s and an old red t-shirt of Ada’s. I *love* how it turned out.

I hand sewed on the 33 flowers. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Ada Jane

So this post is going to be all about Ada.  She had a lot going on in November that deserves mentioning.
Ada is a member of the “Girls Rule When They Read” book club, with several of her friends that are in 2nd grade. They started with school and meet once a month to discuss whatever book series the hostess has chosen to read. Ada got to host in November and chose to read the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series. When they met, they spent some time discussing the different books they read, and then participated in a few detective activities. They wrote with invisible ink (milk & lemon juice, ironed to show the writing), and made footprints in the mud and matched shoes to the prints.

Since the group met shortly before Ada’s birthday, they had birthday cupcakes for a treat. (Aren’t they pretty?

As mentioned, in November, Ada turned 7 years old! She’s such a happy girl, and not hard to please. She even requested to help make her birthday cake – a chocolate heart topped with peppermint patties.

I had fun making clothes for her doll, including matching pajamas for both of them, that she loves.

Ada also spent most of November working on a research project at school. She learned about rabbits, made a poster about them and even learned how to make a powerpoint presentation. On her birthday, the group of kids that did this project gave their presentations to the class and parents. She did a great job!

I love my Ada Jane and am so proud of her!

Living Dead

With all of my other crafting going on, and doing it big for Halloween the last couple of years, I told the kids we were going simple this year. We recycled Kezia’s vampire cape from last year for Tyghe, and the rest of the kids became his victims – come back to life. As you can see, they really played it up.

Halloweekend started with tricking treating at the hospital and on main street Friday night. Then we had our ward trunk or treat on Saturday evening. Thankfully we got to take a break on Sunday. The big kids still went to their swim team workout Monday, but they all went out trick or treating around the neighborhood afterwards. Caemlyn got together with some friends and went out in another neighborhood. Does this mean she’s growing up? At least she has some really nice friends (with nice parents) that I don’t worry about her spending time with. With so much going on, even though I bought pumpkins, we never got around to carving them. This kids even put up the decorations themselves over halloween weekend. I was such a lame mom this year, but I don’t think the kids noticed or really cared.

creating

I have been quite busy lately, crafting and creating new things. Most of them have been as gifts, but our home hasn’t been neglected either. Speaking of our home, the biggest things we completed is the boys’ room. Justin pulled down the wall of shelves, patched and repaired, drilled large holes in the ceiling, ran wiring, replaced all of the old outlets and we finally painted and got the boys moved back in yesterday. I think the girls are glad to have their floor space back (where Tyghe has been sleeping) and I’m glad to get the sunroom back (where Zeph has been sleeping).

They actually have 1 wall in their room, and I’m so glad it is no longer covered with shelves. And they now have real lights! No more cords running all across the room, and lame lights hanging down for Zeph to hit his head on. And 1 switch to turn them all on! Something that seems so normal and commonplace, is quite a rarity in these old homes here.

Now that we have the tools, we can put some in the girls’ room and in the kitchen.

I will admit that most of the work in the boys’ room was done by Justin. I assisted occasionally and helped paint – and cleaned up at the end. Most of my time has been on other projects…
baby blanket and hat for Micah and Sarah’s new baby

a hat and darling shoes for a friend’s new baby

a few cute men to finish my sister’s set (Andrea, don’t click on the link)
another book pillow for Kezia’s friend

a notepad holder for Ada’s friend

a cute little bag for another of Ada’s friends

another setting of monogrammed roasting sticks and carrying bag – that I forgot to take a picture of before giving them away…
and a cute yarn wreath that I made up for Christmas. I had to do this early as it is the craft I will be teaching at our Relief Society Super Saturday activity in a few weeks.

I’ve got another biggish crochet project I’m working on, and a craft fair coming up next week that I need to make some things for. Not sure when I’ll get anything done with Halloween coming up, chaperoning another field trip, a choir concert, helping at the school book fair, putting on a Ward Trunk or Treat activity – just this week! I need a nap.