Grins

I had to highlight Mimi's great smile-

Yellowstone Photowalk

I'm still working on my Teton and Yellowstone photos, but here are a couple from the Worldwide Photowalk at Old Faithful.

I Heart Faces- Photo Walk

Do you know what a photowalk is? I didn't either until I signed up for this one. we had a group of about 45 people, all with cameras, walking around the 9th and 9th area of Salt Lake. We had a great time and learned a lot form each other and the photowalk leader.

Here are just a few of my favorite images from the walk. I would have liked to have more pictures, but i had to run to Xander's baptism, and left the walk early. I will be going on another photowalk while we are on vacation in Yellowstone. If you want to photowalk, there is a utah group that meets monthly and there is a worldwide photowalk taking place on July 24.

My haircut

I decided this morning that I wanted a haircut-

I called a few places and found one that could get me in:

I Love the length! I'm not sure about the A-line, but i think I like it.

I will be going back to Sherman Kendall Academy.

Mimi can Cook

Mimi helped me make pigs in a blanket last week.

The other kids didn't want to help so Mimi and I made dinner.

Here are Mimi's creations: 

I kept them separate because she had a tendency to drop them on the floor and then put them on the tray.

p.s. I used my bread recipe that I have posted over on Eggs A La Goldenrod

My Flowers in the Cracks

“Some days you’ll need a loaves and fishes miracle, other days it will be enough to see a flower in the crack of the sidewalk.”

-Susie Larson

“we cannot impart something we do not possess.” To teach gratefulness, we must first experience it ourselves. And to experience a thankful heart, we have to first notice the gifts and receive them as such.

As I learn more about the human body and development, I become more in awe at the miracle of life. I have three healthy, strong, smart and creative kids. I am blessed to have a supportive, loving husband. We have a home that shelters us and gives us refuge from the world. We have transportation. We are employed and able to support our family. I am grateful daily that we are able to make our various commutes safely. Our talents and skills bless and enrich our lives and the lives of those around us. I am grateful for these and many other small and large things that happen everyday.

I subscribe to Chatting at the Sky and today her post focused on gratefulness. 

Check out this video

I just saw this video through my friend's site. I liked the song, the kids had a great time dancing to it and kept asking to play it again and again.





from here

Xander's Page

Imogene's Page

A reason to Scrapbook

I will be scrapbooking a bit more now because the Designer of My 4 Princesses has asked me to be part of her creative team. I am excited because I have scrapped almost nothing of Imogene or Mimi and she has a lot of girly stuff I get to use for free. My first pages are done and I had so much fun putting them together. 

I'm not that adventurous, so I tend to keep my pages simple and clean. 

A New (Toy) Tool

Before:

After:

I am in love with a new attachment for my camera- the only difference between the two images above--

(and it's not photoshop!)

A Light Scoop!

I love that the images straight out of the camera are much more usable and I am looking forward to being able to capture more indoor images of the kids. 

A few more of my test shots:

Last but not least

Mimi was feeling left out and the other kids thought she needed some valentines too. So, one photo shoot, one trip to costco and 3 hours later Mimi has her own valentines.

Older Posts- or Catching up on pictures

I have finally gone through my pictures and posted some of them. Here are the links to the posts, I posted them to the date they were taken so to save you from having to search for them here they are in one place:

August
     Baker Anniversary
October
     Pudding
     Halloween
December
     Festival of Trees
     Gingerbread Houses
     Bowling
     Christmas

3 Gigabytes

What could be bad about having a 3 Gig memory card for your camera you ask?
Having to process 633 photos.
Pictures like:

The incredible escaping baby

Imogene and Gypsy

MiMi queen of flour messes

One of the better pictures from a very cold day

Xander  (one of the best pictures of him that day)

And 628 others including 246 of baby lexi.

I feel so free now I have a blank memory card and a goal to take more pictures in the coming year.  I'd like to try for a picture a day, but I may have to do make-up days because I am already behind. I'm not going to stress about it- I just want to improve my portraits and photographs and more practice means better pictures.

Other pictures from the memory card will be making appearances in later/earlier posts, so stay tuned.

Completed Projects

I finished some stitching last night! MiMi's stocking is finished and now needs to be sewn into a stocking shape.

I realized I had forgotten the beads and charms when I was taking this picture so I quickly sewed them on and it is ready to finish off.

Now I can start on the dishtowels that I have been saving for over a year, and the new ones I got for christmas. To practice I stitched up a couple of hankerchiefs.

I used Designs I found on Bad Bird

New Year- Fresh start

 New Year's day we spent the day switching the Pantry with the "Office". I don't have any before pictures to show- I am awful at rememering to take pictures before I start a project. The small bedroom had become really cluttered and the pantry area behind the living room was making me crazy because the kids were constantly getting into the food.

I have already liked the move- it's great to be able to close the door and keep the kids out of hte pantry, and it has given us a place to move the hamper so it doesn't block the hallway.

The Sewing machine was in the family room already because I needed to be with the kids while I worked on projects. So now I can work and have access to all my supplies without running back and forth.

This is still a mess, Adam moved everything for me, so it's going to take a while to organize it into a working system. I am excited to have the sewing machines next to each other again- it's nice when I want to switch between them.

It will look better and eventually we might even get to finishing the basement.

MIA

We have been having so much fun over the holidays that I have neglected the blog. I also have been busy making a heap of christmas gifts. The total included at least 8 little girls aprons, 6 bibs, 2 nightgowns, 2 dresses, 3 purses, 3 soft alphabets in bags, 2 pajama pants, 5 sets of hot pads, 12+ hair clippies, 5 crayon roll-ups, 1 monogram for a lunch box, 3 pairs altered PJs (imogene, xander and jack), and a bunch of gift bags to hold it all. I still have lunch boxes to "un-monogram", some pot holders in progress, a shirt to finish for me, a pattern for a couple of shirts for me, Adam's pj shorts, and I want to embroider little designs on flour sack dishtowels but I have to finish MiMi's cross stiched stocking first. And I need to make some progress on Xander's stocking as he is asking me when I will work on his.

Festival Trees Dec 3

Fall Canning

The total so far-
Peaches 32 Quarts
Pears 32 Quarts
Tomatos Whole 1 pint - I picked every tomato in my garden and this is all I got!! :(

Tomato Sauce 13 pints - I picked the ripe tomatoes from my Mom's garden and got all this. (about 20 lbs)

I still have a tree full of apples, I am planning on making applesauce, and I might be able to get a few more tomatoes out of my garden. I have a few tomatillos growing- so I might be able to make something with them.

Update- Grandma gave me a bunch of tomatoes and I made them into sauce. So, I have another 7 1/2 quarts of sauce.  Our apple tree dropped most of the apples, we picked too late. So we got enough to make a small batch of applesauce, a crisp and amazing apple dumplings.

Baker Aniversary Aug 29