Guess whose quilt is finally done? Wait for it...
Baby....

(whew!)

This little gem was started this summer and turned out to be quite the process to put together. Alaina wanted to be very involved (imagine!) and took over the job of picking out the fabrics and designing the pattern. Here is our first draft of what she wanted. (At that point, Owen was her favorite name choice.)
Alaina then sewed together all of the main blocks. Once they were in place, I had all three of the kids draw out cars that they wanted me to put on the quilt. They were all very inventive and I had to simplify them the best I could knowing that I'd have to applique them on later. Here are some of their drawings with my scaled down versions. (However, I found it very difficult to scale down flames shooting out of the back of race-cars.)


Once I had them drawn out, the kids placed them where they wanted them to be on the quilt. They loved 'their' squares and in the end they all wanted one of their drawings to win the race. I told them it would be funnier if we had a turtle crossing the finish line first. The twins thought this was funny but Ethan is still a little sore about it, even though his race car is second.

The applique took FOREVER! I was really only ever able to accomplish one or two at a time. Every time the kids got home they were excited to see whose block was finished. Ethan became my biggest fan when I showed off my latest accomplishment each day. (It is funny, the things that make these kids tick.) Finally, after a couple of months of sewing, I finished all the applique. It was my first time doing real applique and I fell in love with the 'wonder under' iron-on adhesive that kept everything in place while I sewed them on. I didn't love all the teeny details that managed to slip by my 'simplifying' stage in the beginning.


In the end, the blanket ended up being at least three times the size I was imagining in the very beginning (more of a toddler's blanket than a baby's quilt, I'd say.) But the kids loved helping me out and still like to point out their designs.

On the back I wanted to do something very simple. (If I realized just how much applique we were going to do, I would have advised Alaina to pick out less busy prints on the front!) So, with all that craziness, I decided that when we needed a break from the chaotic front, we should be able to flip it over and have a nice calm quilt to look at. I found this green flannel which was perfect, but they only had a limited amount. The dye on the second print of the same pattern that came in was more olive green instead of the pretty lime green, so I decided to keep what I had and add rainbow down the middle. I loved how it came out.It is nice and bright without being too overwhelming. I then quilted the top in a simple zig-zag between the applique roads. I figured, it didn't need anything else too crazy to draw the eye to. Here is a little close up of the rainbow. The coloring is a little more yellow than it is in sunlight, but we haven't had sunlight for a few days and I wanted a picture. :)
I thought that this quilt wasn't quite finished until I matched one of my favorite blocks (austin's) with a stuffed softy. After I finished it, Alaina and Ethan really wanted on of their blocks done the same way, but I decided it was time to close shop on the project.
I really did love how all of the blocks came out, but here are some of my favorites. Alaina's racing fish.

And her racing buggy.
Austin's (I think...) fire-truck.

And Ethan's second-place race car with Speedy the turtle.
I even designed a few blocks myself. I dedicated the buggy with the surf-board to Robert.


And I loved my little groovy car until I sewed him up and realized he didn't really fit. Oops. (also those hearts were a nightmare to sew on!)


But now...now, we are ready for our little guy to join us. We'd prefer he waited just a little longer but as it looks right now, he might be coming in time for Christmas. I'd have to say, that would be the best Christmas present. Ever.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We wish we were with ALL of you this Thanksgiving holiday! Since we can't be, we are enjoying a relatively quiet day by ourselves. One of the few benefits of having a quiet family day is that it gives you a little more time to reflect on what you are really grateful for in your life.

I am thankful for my two beautiful Moms and my two awesome Dads. I'm thankful that I have family who are friends and friends who are like family. I'm thankful that after 14 years, Robert has consistently been my truest friend and the great love of my life. I'm thankful to my gorgeous, amazing kids who keep my heart light and my soul full. I'm thankful to my little kicker joining us at the most unexpected time in our lives.

And just one of the many, many, small, extra things things that make me smile everyday would be the love-notes that the kids leave for me and each other. Once, when I told the kids that I needed to take a nap, they quietly got together and made me this card along with a VERY large glass of chocolate milk. (They know me well.)
Another time I wasn't feeling too well (I've definitely had more of those kind of days than I did with the twins) they made me this tie-die card. (This was done under a bit too much direction from Master Ethan, but it was very sweet, nonetheless.
Austin stuck this little scrap of paper on the fridge one day and I got a kick out of its randomness. I also spent the remainder of the day slightly nervous.
Alaina is the queen of leaving random sweet notes in places where I'll find them. When they took off skiing yesterday, I woke up and found this outside my door, on the floor.
This note was actually written for Miss Sara last summer. I thought it was so funny that I left it on the fridge forever. Sadly, I managed to misplace it before it got sent off (bad friend) but I did take a picture of it first. :)
I've also found random notes that she has left for her brothers. I didn't keep them, but I kind of wish I did. They say things like "Let's forget about our argument." Or "I'm sorry I yelled." I don't know if she ever gave those to them or was just writing her feelings down.

Of all her little notes, however, this last one is my absolute favorite. It is just written on part of a post-it note, but I love it!
I am the Beast! So are you!

Happy Thanksgiving.


Here are a few pictures of our Safeway bought meal. (It doesn't get any easier than that!)

It was just the right amount of food...you can see how full these guys are.
But not too full for a nice picture with Daddy...

Or me. I sure do love these kids! We got all 4 of them in this picture. :)

I've decided that I don't do 'pregnant' particularly well. I'm more of a problem maker. Besides being tired, big and round (still half the woman I was with the twins...but still) we've added itchy to the list. Very itchy. Everywhere. Nothing has really helped me out and I now realize why Scotty used to make me scratch his sweaty ol' back all the time. I have awesome back-scratching nails. Or, as it is in my case, head, hand, arm, chest, tummy, legs, neck, feet, face, back-scratching nails. I can't stop. I did talk to a doctor the other day and she suggested oatmeal baths. I immediately balked...thinking how awful a cold, oatmeal bath sounded in the middle of winter, but she assured me that baby would be just fine with hot water. (all this time I've been taking lukewarm showers!) So, I bought the gunk and eased into the boiling hot tub. I have to admit, I did feel a little better. Not only did it help with the itching, it made me feel a little weightless again. No achy back. No weird posture trying to balance baby with the rest of my body. So nice. I started wondering why I haven't gone swimming anywhere...I'm sure there is a pregnancy swim class offered somewhere around here.

And that is when I remembered. I actually did take one of those classes when I was pregnant with the twins. It was pretty silly but it always felt nice to bob up and down in the water for a while. I remember after one class, I decided that I wasn't ready to get back to normal gravity and chose to hang out at the pool instead. There was no one else in the pool with me and the only other person around was some young teenage life-guard slouched in his chair by the edge. After floating around for a while, I started to feel like I should at least attempt a little exercise while I was there. Everyone who knows me, knows what a terrible swimmer I am and so my usual routine consists mainly of one turtle-slow breast stroke, followed by at least two lengths of a lazy, catch-my-breath, back stroke. This day was no exception. Back and forth I went, mostly floating on by than doing any strenuous exercise. At some point I became vaguely aware how alert my little life-guard had become. Well, I thought, he should be. It is his job. Plus, maybe he could tell, by my painfully slow back stroke, what an awful swimmer I was. Perhaps he didn't particularly care to save a large, pregnant lady from drowning. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that he was staring at me a little too intently. Slowly, but surely I made my way down yet another eternal length of water until I finally touched the wall. It's sad, I know, but I needed to take a big break in order to start breathing normal again, even from a mostly-floating back-stroke. As I stood there, trying to catch my breath, I kept glancing over at the life guard, who had continued to keep a keen eye on me, despite the obvious fact that I made it to the shallow end and in all probability, would not be either drowning nor giving birth at that time. After a minute I started to cool down. It's so refreshing when a/c hits your skin and gives you tingly goosebumps all over your body. Strangely enough, I felt a little cooler on one side of my body that the other. Glancing down, it took me moment to comprehend my problem. Only half of my swimsuit was doing its job and covering my chest. The other half had managed to slip down to my belly leaving one lonely boob out in the great wide-open. The first thing I did (and naturally what all women would do) was to sink deep into the water, rapidly adjust my suit, and start hoping that perhaps no one caught my little faux pas. No one, except the leering, teenage boy, watching my slow but steady backstroke for the last 15 minutes.

It must have been better than the nature channel. Definitely not a sexy experience for the kid, but more of a giddy-curious, national geographic moment. (you know the moments I'm talking about...sneaking looks at all those topless African women wearing little more than their thick golden necklaces. Unless, of course, that was just me.) Sadly, after going through all I went through to get pregnant that first time with the millions of doctor visits up in the stirrups, along with the daily giant shots in the bum from Rob/Girlfriends and aggressive Samoan nurses (who always added an extra slap while barking "Relax!") I was immuned to embarrassment. Let's face it, modesty had left the building years ago. So, with a shrug and small smile, I forged out again towards the deeper water in my signature wobbly, unsteady breast stroke.

Thinking back to that experience now, I think I just might keep the water treading to the good ol' bathtub. Let's face it, the last 8 years hasn't exactly firmed anything up. Plus...I don't think I have the energy to manage even my floating backstroke.

Happy Halloween 2011!

We kept our Halloween pretty mellow this year. I entertained the idea of sewing up a Smurf Family costume but good sense prevailed and I decided to grab a bunch of costumes at some consignment sales. The kids were just as happy and I was able to stay sane...so it was, as Alaina would say...a win-win. We did managed to get enough umph to get ourselves over to the trunk-o-treat a church. I threw on a shirt of Rob's at the last minute and cut out some a paper face to stick on it it to make my crafty pumpkin outfit. Even though it wasn't completely necessary, I stuffed a pillow in front and in back to make a more rounded-out pumpkin.
We also somehow made it to the pumpkin farm this year. True, it was just two days before Halloween...but we made it! (The Halloween decorations, however, never made it out of their boxes. We did bring the boxes to the bottom of the stairs and looked at them for a few days before I decided that it would be more work to clean up the decorations than I was willing to put into it. Every party needs a pooper.)

Back to what we did do. The Pumpkin farm had a small maze.
A petting farm.
A Hay pyramid. (note: cheerleader Alaina on the top.)
A hay-ride.
And of course...Pumpkins!
I was pretty beat by the end of the day, and so Robert helped them all carve them up. As usual, things got pretty serious.
And to top that night off, Alaina adopted a creepy crawly for a few minutes. (The boys weren't quite as brave as their pint-size sister.)

Finally, on Halloween, we went over to our friends, the Ackers and got a merry group of trick-o-treaters together. (check out the hand-made lego-skeleton-head -- glowing eyes and all.By chance, Alaina saw her BFF, Molly and her little brother Luck while we were out and about. I loved the jelly-fish costume.
The last Halloween with only three little monsters. Next year we'll have our newest little tag-along all dressed up to the nines. Can you imagine? Four little Jones monsters? What could be better?