I Live to Create

I love to sew! I am so grateful that I learned at a young age! My mom had a friend teach me and my brother sewing lessons. Over the year I had learned a lot. I'd made outfits for my american girl doll and it was finally time to make an outfit for myself. I chose a pair of black sling pants (I think that's what they are called, the ones that went over your foot-totally the coolest thing ever--not!) and a red long sleeve shirt with black stripes on the sleeves. It was hideous! I pretty much only ever wore it camping. I hated it and gave up on sewing clothes from that time on.

From that class I gained the confidence I needed to design my own stuff and be able to make what I want! I think it is the most important skill I've learned. I LOVE IT! I love the fabric store and all the choices I have. Although I secretly wish I could design my own fabric. I always have a picture in my mind of what I want and so I have a really hard time finding something that will work once I go to the store. If I could I would buy one of these and do it myself! Seriously- don't you want one? I do, BAD!

Anyways, I've been surprised at how little fear I have when it comes to sewing. I just know I can figure it out (with help or by myself). Now that I have kids I enjoy it even more! I have made blankets, a tree skirt and Christmas stockings, dresses and bags, I also made my birthday banner . If I can see it, I can make it! Or so I think! But seriously sometimes a pattern comes along and it just tickles me to the bone! I LOVE THIS PATTERN!

My sister in law Dena told me about this cute doll pattern and I had to make one! It was super easy and fun! Paisli loves it! I just want to make a ton of them!


Martha Stewart had these on her show they are Black Apple Dolls and about the funnest thing I've made! I took her pattern and didn't follow her instructions so my arms and legs are a little thin. I would also recommend leaving the top 3/4" of the arms and legs empty so you can sew them to the body together easier (mine were stuffed and I broke a needle.) I wanted to change the hair so I added some pig tails and I love it! I also hand stitched her face and added ribbon for her waist and three little buttons down the side!


The only drawback- if you look close, you'll see her left arm is about 1/2 lower than her right. Gotta LOVE handmade!

I am grateful for my ability to sew, it brings me joy!

To Answer Your Question

I've had a lot of people ask how it's been going with the dog.

Any Questions?

The kids love him, I think he's stinky and I'm sick of having another person drag toys all over the house. Not to mention he is not completely house trained and I guess that's the sacrifice I have to make for my kids to love their pets. I WOULD NOT DO IT FOR ME! But I will do it for them...

I guess to sum it up, I REALLY LOVE MY KIDS!

Honestly- The pets are okay. Seeing how much my kids love them makes it so worth it. Knowing that when the dog runs away he may or may not come back- I'm pretty indifferent, but deep down I come back to reality and think about the fact that we would just be throwing our money away if we lost him. It would be a shame. My kids would miss him. I might miss him.

There are a lot of things I wouldn't miss. I wouldn't miss his gobbly whine (he seriously sounds like a rooster sometimes), I wouldn't miss finding half eaten flip flops and toys in my room. I wouldn't miss him trying to take food out of Paisli's hands. I would not miss not having to clean up muddy paw prints on my floor or poop for that matter. I would not miss that fact that his body doesn't tollerate orange rinds. I wouldn't miss him barking. I WOULD NOT miss him trying to run in the front yard every time the door opens.

I would miss the way he always tries to worm his way under the blanket- it's pretty funny when we first got him he would sneak under the covers at night and cuddle by my feet. I think it's gross so I won't let him do it, but it was weird. I would miss his cute face and the way he stretches after a nap. I would miss seeing him chase my kids around the yard. I would msis him wrestling the cat so she stays out of my hair. I would miss seeing my kids smile because they love him to death.

Then I usually go chase him down the street while he runs away only eventually to trap him in a corner. That pretty much resets all the things I wouldn't miss, it's pretty much the fact that we would be throwing our money away to get rid of him at this point. I hate throwing money away, therefore we will keep the dog. For now!

Clearing my mind

I feel like I'm really busy and I'm not sure what is going on but I don't ever get anything done.

Here's what I am NOT doing:
blogging, dishes, wishing it was winter, taking a nap, laundry, watching my 20 month old (who now pushes here chair all over the kitchen to get what she wants...it's dangerous-AND messy!), enjoying the rain, chasing my dog who just ran away, getting ready for the BBQ we're supposed to go to tonight

Here's what I AM doing:
Helping with art in Berkli's classroom, taking her to and from Kindergarten, going to the zoo with kindergarten on Wednesday, trying to figure out where all my time goes, making chocolate chip cookies that are officially the worst EVER- Not only did I shortchange the chocolate, but they are sticky and tasteless I got on the phone and they got WAY overmixed and turned into sticky dough, trying to organize a three month supply, preparing a talk in church, planning an enrichment activity on food storage- did I mention I am the ward canning specialist! I love it, and yes, I'm a nerd, reading my friends friends blogs, missing old friends, wearing shorts again, planning on homeschooling Berkli, needing to go check on all the clanging in the kitchen coming from Paisli, wanting to take a vacation, laying sod, seeding, going to plant a garden, using too many commas because I'm too tired to make a complete thought, wishing I was doing something crafty, doing the craft for the afternoon kindergarten class too, changing any more diapers today, going to tell my kids to pick up their toys again, wanting to stop this extremely long run on sentance, thinking that spell checker is not catching my mistakes, missing my computer, needing to get up and do something today, planning on watching 24 tonight, and LOST on Wednesday and the Office Thursday, glad Michael's back, and Ryan's gone, "Oh the turn tables..."- if you know that we are friends, wondering if Jack is going to die, thinking it's not likely, so LOST it's not even funny, loving that show, thinking that I am slightly obsessed with those shows, Wishing that I knew how they would end but not really wanting them to end, thinking that I should get back into reality and think about something important, not wanting swine flu, thinking it's highly unlikely to get it, thinking swine flu might be more disgusting than lice-I know it's not "gross but who wants to be know as the person who got swine flu, totally giving up on my punctuation, hoping that someone is still reading, doubting anyone is, laughing at myself for thinking that I am writing something anyone would read, sort of glad that my dog just came back, sort of annoyed that he did, trying to cook off a menu this whole month, realizing that I don't want to, needing to go grocery shopping, hating that idea, loving my vitamix, thinking I am going to stop at any minute, feeling like this was therapeutic in a way, thinking that I don't even want to know how long I've been doing this, the end.

Sneak Peak

We are unofficially the wedding photographers for the Smith fam. It all started when I offered to do Dena's photos for her wedding. I really don't know what I was thinking and the whole time I was just praying that we would get a good shot. I guess we did okay because now it's time for round two.

John's younger sister Heather got married to Paul Talbot this weekkend at the Columbia River Temple. Some of you may recognize her from when she came home off of her mission in the hot pink suit not even 10 months ago...

Congrats guys!

We sisters & sister in laws all made the 7 cousins matching dresses! They looked adorable but it was sort of a nightmare. But I do think it has paid off well, the photos will be priceless!

Letter to teacher

Berkli's Teacher is out of school for family medical reasons. Berkli wrote her the sweetest letter and I had to type it up so you could too!

Dear miss lilse
my tooth was looss I opind a bag of marshmells But on monday my dad know How to get my tooth out of my mouth he rapt a pees of fred arand my tooth and on The door then he closd it and then I Run Then my tooth felld out I got a ballr.
Love,
Berkli

What happened?
For the record- John tied a string to the door and then to her tooth. He slammed the door and she ran with the string and ended up smacking her face on the door, which knocked out her tooth.

I had the video camera, but I wasn't expecting her to move with the door, so I missed it all. I'm pretty sure it was the funniest thing I've ever seen.

It did actually work and she was very happy, it didn't hurt at all! And the tooth fairy left her a dollar under her pillow. John thought we should leave the tooth in a jar by the sink, apparently that's how they did it, but I really think the tooth fairy prefers pillows! Xanden saw her and she was blue. That's all we know!

Someone Sneezed...

Last Week was spring break. We had hopes and dreams and they all fell through. First, Berkli started off the break by missing school Friday because she was sick. She was better Saturday but then I got sick Saturday and Sunday. Berkli got sick again Monday and I was sick again Tuesday. I read the Anne of Green Gables series and the kids watched a lot of TV. Fun huh? We did go to the Movies on Wed. and the Zoo on Thursday. On Friday:

Friday at about 2:30, my kids yelled "Mom, Mom come see!"
So I raced over to the window, and looked out and this is what I saw.

Did someone sneeze?

Boise has been known to have some big wind storms, but Friday there wasn't even a breeze.

It looks small in the pictures, but I can assure you it was a HUGE tree! So instead of all the fun stuff we wanted to do this weekend, we got to chop up some firewood and sweep up the street. It took about 12 hours to clean up the mess. Luckily the Elder's Quorum president & his dad came and helped us cut up the tree for 2 hours on Friday Night.

The crazy thing was that the kids were helping us sweep it all up and take sticks to the backyard. We spent from about 3pm on Friday until 9pm Saturday cleaning up. At the end of the day Berkli said to John "Daddy, this has been the best day ever. I LOVE today, I am SO happy!" I guess when you're helping you're happy- it's really true!

Tender Mercies: No one got hurt. It didn't break our fence. John always parks right where it fell, he even came home for lunch Friday, and if it had fallen an hour sooner it would have landed on his car! Saturday night we had a huge wind storm and it probably would have fallen then, on the car, and then we'd have had to spend all day Sunday cleaning up. We feel so blessed that everything worked out so well! Not to mention- I've hated that old half dead tree since we moved in!

It's official...we've LOST it!

For Berkli's Birthday, she aquired quite the stash of cash. John & I decided to let her pick out a bike. She had some money left over, so I took her to the store to look at fish, but she really wanted a cat. I don't know what I was thinking.

Saturday, we went to the Humane Society, and looked for cats. We found one we liked that was pretty and declawed, but she wouldn't let the kids hold her, well they couldn't hold her anyways because she was too fat. The lady asked us if we had any other pets at home. We told her no and she introduced us to this cat (who apparently was returned because he doesn't like other pets- he's a jealous cat!)

The woman held him upside down, up in the air, pulled his tail, whatever, he didn't care. We decided that was the cat for us! And for the record, it's a SHE not a he, I keep calling her a he and Berkli gets mad at me!

Meet our cat Sparkle!

We went to pay for Sparkle and there was this cute dog behind the counter. I told John to come look and we both decided he was cute. So we asked if we could take him for a walk. And, needless to say, we really liked him. Paisli even said her first words (besides Mommy & Daddy) "Buppy, Buppy" She kept saying it over and over and he was really good with her. The Humane Society is a dangerous place!

We decided what the heck, let's try it, so we bought a dog too! We have 30 days to return either one, but we promised Berkli we would keep the cat over the dog -seeing as how the cat doesn't like other pets.

His name is Titus, but I want to rename him, we just don't know what yet. He's a 6 month old Chihuahua Mutt, so Xanden & I call him Chihuahua. He's really fun and not too big. I like him because he can't knock Paisli over and she LOVES him! Plus our kids aren't afraid of him, and he's really good with them too! They love to pet him and he seems to like them a lot. He plays fetch and goes potty outside.

Meet our unnamed Dog!

I bought this Pink Couch on clearance before we found our cat, I thought it was too funny And perfect for Berkli. It's actually the whole motivation for me wanting a cat. Berkli had been asking for a cat, and I wasn't sure how I felt. Then I saw this couch and I thought "why not?" Now we have a boy dog who loves this pink couch- didn't see that one coming!

So far, it's been 24 hours, and the cat and dog get along great. The cat hid from everyone for most of yesterday, but Sparkle let Berlkli hold him for the first time today. Cats usually take a while to get used to everyone. Berkli was really patient with him yesterday and didn't try to chase her at all, she kept saying "I need to be patient so she can get used to me." Sparkle doesn't seem to mind the dog at all, and she was even playing with him this morning and teasing him.

Chihuahua (or Titus) played with the kids in the yard all day yesterday. Xanden loves to run and have him chase him. Paisli kept saying "Bubby, Bubby" all day yesterday and today at church she was asking for him.

But most importantly, we made it through the night, everyone slept through the night! Titus likes his pink couch and slept on it great. We did lock the cat in the laundry room but we don't want her to wake the kids up at night. So far, it seems like we picked two great animals! We'll see how I'm feeling after 30 days!

Paisli is just getting so much personality! She kept saying Buppy for about an hour in that exact tone, it's too cute! We couldn't resist her love for the Buppy, and we are just glad we got such a calm puppy that is so good with kids!

(He was born on September 13, a day before Paisli's 1 st birthday!)