Crafty Lady

OK, after a long dry spell of crafting and sewing, I got inspired by Leah Martineau's blog post. http://shaunandleahfam.blogspot.com/2009/07/crafts-on-cranium.html

I thought all of those crafts were SO cute, but too ambitious for me. I did find myself at Joann Fabric (for the first time in a LOOONG time) with just 2 of my kids for about 2 hours. I bought enough felt to last me a lifetime (so I'm looking for felt projects now :). But, hey, it was on sale for $2.99/yard so I figured I should get one of each color. You may recognize my nude felt model.


The kids and I also looked at the pattern books for Halloween costumes (it'll be here before you know it). I ran across this pattern: http://www.sewbaby.com/shopbaby/product_info.php?products_id=4042

And since I've been sick of all of my bags/purses, I decided to give it a try. So I bought the fabric required and went to town last night and this morning. It took more than a couple of hours, but not many more. Here's my finished product.





It's meant to be a diaper bag, but it's a perfect tote or church bag (enough room for toys, scriptures, notebooks, manuals, and whatever else you might need).

I also made a matching changing pad, which did not turn out as lovely. It called for waterproof fabric but there's really no such thing that matches any cute fabric - so I improvised and used front and back fabric and covered one side with the clear waterproof piece. The fabric inside just didn't lay flat while I sewed it, so it's very gappy. Fine if you don't look close I guess. Stitching is terrible though. Oh well.



I really enjoyed sewing something for my own enjoyment. I love how the bag turned out and I learned some things in the process. I'm looking forward to making the boys' Halloween costumes and some felt stuff in the near future.

Perfect Game

In baseball, a pitcher throws a "perfect game" when he does not allow any opposing player to reach base. That is very hard! The last player to do it was our very own Randy Johnson in May 2004. But, the fielders have to do their part, because if anyone gets a hit, the fielders have to make sure they don't actually get on base. Even though I knew how this video ended, I still waited in anticipation, cheered, and cried!

It wouldn't let me embed this, but the first 30 seconds are really the best part!

http://msn.foxsports.com/video/MLB?vid=1c1207fe-c291-4ff5-a148-ba014fbac200

Wicked

I was able to go see Wicked last night at Gammage Auditorium. We scoured the ticket providers online until we found some relatively cheap seats in the balcony (they were under $50 when all was said and done). Besides making my mom sick from looking down at such a sharp angle, they really were good seats. We could see the stage perfectly, even if we were too far away to see their facial expressions, etc.
I went with my mom, sister Melody, and her friend Becky Jones. It was a lot of fun! Here we are at PF Changs before the show:


I will admit that throughout the show, I was comparing it to Les Miserables, which I absolutely love, and I was thinking that Wicked was OK. Well, the part after intermission, and especially the ending, was PHENOMENAL. It was absolutely fantastic. This writer was very gifted with the creativity to come up with a story that gives the background for the Wicked Witch of the West and ties in SO nicely to The Wizard of Oz.
I laughed, I cried, I ate cookies!
We ended the evening with Cookiez on Mill, a little dessert shop that serves custom ice cream sandwiches. You pick one of their homemade cookies, one of their 20 ice cream flavors and they make you a cookie sandwich. I had oatmeal chocolate chip with mint chip. It was really good. I think I might make some cookie/ice cream sandwiches with my boys some time.

I HIGHLY recommend going to see this show if you can. It's only playing through Sunday and I have no idea if any tickets are available or not. If they are, you'll be glad you did!

Terrible Twos?

You hear so much about the terrible twos. Some moms say threes are worse. I don't know yet. Kellen has been pretty easy throughout. Bridger is a different child altogether. I wouldn't say he's a "terrible" two-year old in the traditional sense. He doesn't throw crazy tantrums. He does like to do things himself, but I mostly let him, so it doesn't turn into an ordeal.

But, with one thing, he is terrible and cute all at the same time. He is as contrary as they come I think. He is a lover, but sometimes.... Like today. He had been standing on a book and ripping it and Jared told him to get off of it. So he yelled "No!" Jared asked him if he had said no and he said no. So we tell him to get on the naughty stair for saying no. He says (imagine the most defiant tone possible and pointing to Jared and me), "It's not YOURS job, it's not YOURS job, it's MINE job!" Jared and I are trying not to giggle. So Jared says, "What's your job?" Bridger says, "I'm don't know." By this time Jared and I aren't really stifling our giggles any longer. (Don't worry, despite our amusement, we still made him sit on the naughty stair for his 2 minutes and apologize to Jared for saying no.)

And yet, at this very moment, I hear him singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Litte Star (usually to calm Kincade down if he's crying). So sweet...

Yesterday, Jared's mom witnessed one of Bridger's contrary moments. He had fallen asleep in the car, so he wasn't in the best of moods. He was wearing underwear but Jared was worried he would have an accident so was telling him he had to go potty or have a diaper on. Well, he didn't want to do either and Jared and Bridger were really butting heads so I took over. (Not because I'm any better at parenting, but sometimes it's easier for someone who isn't all heated up to deal with it.) I was telling Bridger his choice was to wear a diaper or go potty. Bridger says, "It's NOT mine CHOICE!" right as Jared's mom walks by. I look up and see her face and it's quite surprised, and I just chuckle and say, "That's our Bridger." Jared's family didn't believe me. (And after changing scenery - going to the other bathroom - he agreed to go potty and wear underwear. He did tell me "Don't come in here" while he was going potty.)

Sometimes he will contradict just to contradict, if he's in a mood to. You could say, "We're having spaghetti for dinner" and he'd say, "We're NOT having spaghetti for dinner!"

So, then, again at Jared's parents' house, I am wanting Bridger to go potty again so he doesn't have an accident (the joys of potty training), so he says "IT'S NOT FAIR" but it sounds more like "IT'S NOT FAAA-AY" or something. He says it and it makes it even funnier when it doesn't actually fit in the scenario. Like when we say, "It's time for lunch" (or something equally innocuous) and he just comes out with, "It's NOT FAIR!"

The other day, when Jared's sister Tara had just arrived and we went to see her, Bridger walked up to the house and Tara said, "Can I have a hug?" Bridger says, "No." Tara, says, "Do you know who I am?" And Bridger responds, "Tara." And that was the end of it. He didn't care who she was, he didn't want to hug her. Sorry Tara! I don't control him, I just try to guide him!

Also last night at Jared's parents, Uncle Stan was trying to get pictures of the kids and Bridger was dodging the pictures. After awhile, Stan stopped trying and eventually Bridger just walked up to him, looked up, smiled, and posed for his picture. Everything just has to be on his terms. Here's the cute picture he got:


Sometimes he pretends to be different characters. Usually it's the "masked retriever" (a really cute character from Backyardigans that retrieves books for the library). Today he was the Snow Princess (from the Dora episode). Uncle Kent claims that he said "Bridger" and Bridger said, "I'm not Bridger. I'm Evil Child." I've probably called him evil child, but I've never heard him say it about himself. I'm gonna have to listen for that one again.

One more thing he's taken to saying, which usually prompts more laughter than reprimanding... If we ask him to do something that he wants to say no to - instead of saying no, he says "NEVER!" Just like a supervillain or something. He often jumps to a supervillain pose at the same time. It's too cute to scold though. Oh well, I'm sure at some point it will cease being cute and we'll put a stop to it right away. But in the meantime...we have a lot of good laughs with our Bridger around. If these are the "terrible twos" then keep 'em coming!

(P.S. This ended up being a really long blog post, but I just had to tell all of the funny Bridger stories.)

Our Fourth

I've decided rather recently that I love the Fourth of July! I never thought I cared about fireworks until a few years ago when we actually made the effort to fight for parking, fight for a blanket spot, fight the crowds, and fight to get back home again that I realized I do love them! Ever since, I've made sure we saw fireworks every 4th of July. This is what we did this year:
-Slept in late (sorry, no pictures)
-Jared had to take down Bridger's crib and Kellen's toddler bed that Brandon and Cindy let us borrow (Thanks!). They have been sharing Kellen's little toddler bed ever since Bridger decided he was done with his crib. They have to really cuddle to both fit, so I figured it was time for a new bed. When he took them apart my ingenious (and sometimes childlike) husband saw an opportunity for stair sledding. Bridger and Kellen were apprehensive at first, but Kincade was screaming because he wanted to go. Kellen went a few times before Bridger finally decided to go. Here's a video of Bridger and Kellen having their turn and then Kincade setting up for his. And, yes, Jared did TRY but decided he was too big to actually slide.

-Jared eventually got around to putting the boys' new bed together. I bought a trundle bed, but right now we only have one mattress for it, so they're sharing the top.
-We had swimming and BBQ with my parents, my sister and her family, and some other random ward friends
-We drove to Globe and sat in the Safeway parking lot with ice cream bars, pop-its, and glow necklaces and watched the fireworks.

You'll have to click on that picture with the van to enlarge it to see what Bridger was doing the whole night. It was a really great fireworks show! It lasted about 30 minutes and considering the detours/traffic to get out of Schnepf Farms, I think the drive time was about the same.

Back to the new bed...when we got home all of the boys were asleep, so we moved Bridger and Kellen into their new bed side by side. A short time later I heard a big thud and went to check and there was Kellen, sound asleep...on the floor. So, I switched his head to the other end of the bed and they both slept all the rest of the night. We'll have to get a sideguard or another mattress for the long term though. All in all, it was a very Happy 4th!

For all of the bloggers out there

If you can't read it, here's the link to it: http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/starwatching.png

Tara!

Not me. My sister-in-law Tara. She's back from Ohio (where her husband is a podiatry student) to visit, along with her two kids. You can't help but love Tara. She's a friend to all, an amazing listener, compassionate, kind, and as sweet as can be. I'm really glad she's back for a few weeks. It's so fun to have her here!