More great adventures!!

So we just got back from a great camping trip!  Here are the highlights:

Thursday night we camped in the White Mountains.  The views were beautiful!

I liked all the Aspen trees mingled with the Pine trees.

With the driving, it took Chelsea a little while to get comfortable...

Eventually she figured it out. 

Friday we  packed up camp and drove to the Petrified Forest

And we drove through the Painted Desert

For our next stop we camped near Mormon Lake (South of Flagstaff, AZ)

Building campfires are ALWAYS a highlight for the boys!
For $1 glow sticks make a great after dark and in the tent activity that the kids always look forward to.

Saturday we went to the Grand Falls (about 20 miles North of Flagstaff, AZ)
You get there by driving on a dirt road in a mostly flat area and then go on a smaller dirt path up over a little hill and then, there it is...a lot of water that looks like chocolate milk falling into a canyon about 200 feet down!  The mist coming off of it was so dirty that EVERYONE and EVERYTHING was muddy and dirty when we left, including the outside and INSIDE of our Expedition.  (Not looking forward to cleaning that up!)

 Gotta love self portraits!

We then drove to Sedona, Arizona via the 89A.
It was one of the most beautiful drives I think I have ever been on.  All the vivid green vegetation next to the red rocks was breath taking.

Last stop on our journey of Arizona: Jerome, AZ. (West of Sedona, AZ)
Jerome once was a busy mining town, but then the Great Depression hit and it was abandoned.  Then it started to slide down the mountain due to the fact that it is set on a slope of about 30 degrees and on a fault line.  It later turned into a tourist attraction, which is what it is now.  I was nervous just driving in the town, I don't know why anyone would want to live there with such a steep mountainside.  So many of the homes were one story on one side and then on the other side it was three story just to accommodate the slope of the mountain. 

On a side note, I won't be listening to the channel 5 weather man any more.  He said that Arizona would have a chance of  "isolated" rain showers on Saturday.  It rained, not a little but A LOT on Thursday night.  Luckily it only rained a little inside the tent...  Friday it rained on us most of the day and then that night it cleared up in time for us to set up camp and then it lightly rained for most of the night, until it started raining harder...  Everything was muddy at breakfast but at least it didn't rain on us until after breakfast ended and we began to clean up.  More rain all day Saturday until we got to the Phoenix valley....But don't worry, that night after we set up our tent so it could dry out it began to rain again...  Isolated showers...right!  Perhaps they were isolated to wherever we were!

But I'm happy to announce that rain or shine we had a really great time!!

Where has the time gone?

It seems like summer just began a few weeks ago but somehow the excitement of back to school shopping and the first day of Kindergarten for Michael is now upon us.  But more about that fun adventure another time.  For now let's recap the last few busy weeks.

We had a fast trip up to Utah for a beautiful wedding in the Mount Timpanogos Temple for one of Robert's sisters.  (If you live in Utah and were hoping for a visit and didn't get one, I'm sorry!  We were only there for one full day and that was for the wedding, we tried to see as many people as we could but, well, you know how it goes.  So, sorry, we'll try to see you next time.)  For the wedding I sewed a dress for me and one for Katelyn.  They turned out really good I think.

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Knighten's home.  The kids sure LOVE swinging from their huge tree.

And they had some great Daddy play time.

On the way to Utah and on the way home we stopped in Alamo to enjoy some time with Grandma and Grandpa Biggs.  The kids played in the BIG sprinklers, played in the dirt, rode bikes and rode horses.  We all really enjoyed the time there.

On our trip we decided to make it a fun trip and see a few things along the way. (We have decided to enjoy the drive more not just see how fast we can get to our destination, so this is how we do it!)

We took a scenic drive through Dixie National Forest.  (Located in Southern Utah)

and stopped at Sunset View Point.

It was windy but beautiful.

We explored the Valley of Fire (Located near Las Vegas, NV)

It was HOT!!

We stopped for a quick view of Cathedral Gorge (North of Panaca, NV) And one day we'll go back for a better look when we have more time.

We had a really great trip!!

Fun times...

So this is what we've been up to lately:

With the summer heat we have been swimming a lot.

It's official, Katelyn finally has hair...okay she's had hair for awhile now but she now has enough to put in a little ponytail!  Yippie!!

And speaking of Katelyn, she loves lotion, chapstick, makeup brushes, combing her hair, shoes, pretty much anything girlie.  Well, she found some "lotion" and boy did she smear it on thick!  Waterproof sunscreen isn't exactly easy to wash off either...She keeps me busy. 

I have had a GREAT time sewing and working on projects.
This shirt of mine went from this

To this and I made a skirt to go with it.  Doesn't she look so cute!!

And I made this shirt for her out of an old shirt of mine.  I stenciled a high heel shoe on the front because she is OBSESSED with my high heel shoes!  It has elastic lace at the neckline and at the waist.  I learned how to stencil on clothes by using this tutorial: Freezer Paper Stencil  So easy and she's right it is addictive!  (Beware, freezer paper only comes in gigantic rolls so if you need some, I have lots to spare come and get some!)

Both shirts were inspired by this tutorial:   90 Minute Shirt Tutorial
The skirt is my own creation.


So I am finally over half way to having a baby!

My official half way point was July 4th, but I'm sure this baby will be late like James and Katelyn so I celebrated the half way point a few days later instead. (This baby is due to make its appearance at the end of November) We still haven't had an ultrasound to find out if we are having a girl or boy and we probably won't. With our other children we just kind of knew what we were having and were right ever time. So we think we are having a boy and we are just going with it.  If we do happen to need an ultrasound we will find out then.  Someday I'll take a picture of my expanding belly...but apparently not today.

Our Love Story

It has come to our attention that some, possibly many, in our family got the impression that Robert and I came to a "mutual agreement" and decided to get married.  This rumor possibly began because we had dated and had been best friends for years before we got married.  But it still wasn't a "mutual agreement".  We would like to set the record straight and tell the story that apparently some, possibly many, haven't heard.

I'll try to make this story as short as a 4 year courtship story can be.

The Beginning:
Robert and I met in high school while he was dating my best friend.  We all hung out a lot together and during this time we became really good friends.  After several months of being friends we began dating (don't worry he and my friend broke up before we started dating) We became best friends and loved being together we were always so happy and had so much fun.  This was our Prom picture from my Junior year, his Senior year. 

The Middle:
We dated for 9 months and then Robert went on a mission to the Germany, Frankfurt mission.  We wrote and kept in touch the entire 2 years.  When he came home we dated and hung out.  Then he decided he was supposed to move back to
Arizona.  So he did.  We still kept in touch and visited each other several times.  During the eight months we lived in separate states we dated other people but we realized after a while that we were so very happy when we were together and hated being apart.This picture was taken after his mission, he came  up to Utah from Arizona to visit me and his family. 

Not The End, But The Beginning of Forever:
We talked about marriage a few times throughout our courtship but we knew that the time just wasn't right for us to get married.  Finally in September/October 2003 we knew were supposed to get married and we knew that we loved each other and wanted to be together forever.  So Robert bought a ring.  We met in Alamo, Nevada at my grandparents house for a vacation and on October 31st, he surprised me by waking me up at dawn.  (dawn is my favorite time of day)  He took me for a drive to a canyon where we could watch the sunrise together.  He wrote a poem and surprised me with the ring and I said YES!! (Yes, it was an offical proposal, that was another rumor going around too...Funny where do these rumors come from?!?)

We were married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple on January 17th, 2004, four years, to the day, after our first date.  We've been married 6 1/2 years now and have been the best of friends for 10 1/2 years and it has been wonderful!!

So no, it wasn't a "mutual agreement"; it was love.

Ahhh....New Fabric!

I have been patiently waiting for JoAnn's to have a 50% off sale on their clearance fabric...I know you may be thinking, they are already on clearance--just buy it! But I'm a bit cheap and try not to spent too much on fabric. Don't worry the wait was totally worth it! I bought some really cute fabric for pretty cheap; $1 to $2 per yard!

I can't wait to begin sewing a lap size quilt out of these four fabrics.  The bottom fabric will be the back of the quilt.  It's going to be a gift, I hope they like it!! It will be lightweight and machine quilted.

I'm excited that I found two more (pink and blue) to match my color scheme I picked out about a year ago. Someday I'll have enough to start my quilt.  It takes awhile to get enough to make a queen size quilt when you only buy remnants or 50% off clearance fabrics. 

I just finished this quilt top and I'm contemplating what to do for the back. I want it to be interesting to look at too so I can flip it over if I want a change. My goal with this quilt was to use up as many scraps as possible but I didn't want to do a traditional square patchwork quilt. I cut all the colored pieces 4 inches wide but I varied the height, it made it kind of challenging to put together but I love the randomness of it.  When it's finished it will be queen size and machine quilted in lines parallel to the colored stripes.  Robert keeps reminding me that we live in Arizona where quilts are unnecessary for 3/4 of every year.

This was the first quilt that I machine quilted (all others before this one I tied with yarn).  I am now addicted to machine quilting!  The fabric puckering and puffing up just makes me smile. The pattern is out of the book called The Modern Quilt Workshop and is called Love Beads if I remember correctly. 

Pool Pictures

Wondering yet how are we taking such fun pictures in our pool?
Here it is, the best waterproof camera case that $35 can buy you on ebay; made by My Aqua Case:

In the past we have spent money on disposable waterproof cameras but always forget to use them or to have the film developed and then there was always the hassle of scanning in all the pictures since everything we do is digital these days. So this year I spent the money and hoped this worked and it does!! We are having such a fun time taking pictures in the pool. And the best part is we can take thousands of pictures and if only 4 work out it's okay because we are using our digital camera, not a film camera.

So if you go swimming a lot like us and love to take pictures but don't want to risk ruining your nice digital camera, perhaps this is the thing you too have been looking for. Okay enough with the infomercial...Enjoy some more pictures. :)

Refashions

So I have a friend who blogs about the refashions and crafts she does and it inspired me to do some of my own.  :)  Here's what I've been up to:

I am beginning to need maternity clothes and WILL NOT pay $50 for pants that won't be worn very long...okay really I won't pay $50 for pants ever!  So I found this tutorial:  Maternity Pants Tutorial on how to turn regular pants into maternity pants, it looked easy enough so since it was 50% off day at Goodwill my three kids and I took a little trip.  I found 2 shorts that were cute, modest and would have fit without the baby bump.  So on to JoAnns to buy stretchy fabric.  It took about 30 minutes to cut off the top and sew on the stretchy band; it was so easy and I LOVE them.  Every crafty pregnant mama should try this!!  (Sorry no picture, I wasn't in the mood to take a picture of my belly today.)

While I was there I also found a men's shirt to try out this tutorial: The Shirt Dress Tutorial  Once I got the pattern drawn up I was able to sew up the entire dress in about an hour!  I LOVE IT!!  Instead of sewing the waist band on top I cut the dress and sewed it in and with that was able to make the skirt fuller.  To make the skirt fuller I cut the entire bottom of the shirt off and gathered it then sewed it onto the waist band.  The shirt I got was strait across the bottom so I didn't even have to hem it!  I removed the buttons from the left over part of the shirt and added them in between the original buttons because for a little girl's dress they were too far apart.  (I didn't make new button holes just sewed them on-Button holes get very time consuming)

I can't wait to do another one!  Sleep in fear Robert's dress shirts because you are next...you know which one's you are...the one with the little stain on the collar and the one with the stain on the sleeve...You will soon be a lovely little girl dress!!

Happy Crafting!!

Califonia Pictures...Finally

I really struggled doing something with the hundreds of pictures we took in California but I FINALLY narrowed them down to the best and here they are.