Martha Stewart

You know you are getting to be a more mature woman when your definition of fun is a sweing day! Ha.....okay so we have been having sewing days since the first of the year about, thank to Angela who is our resident Martha Stewart!!! Usually they alternate between Wednesdays and Fridays during the day, but we opted to do this months sewing day last Friday night, so we could all come.

We are getting pretty excited that Marin and Jane are coming back (Jane I hear you are pretty impressive with the sewing machine too, by the way). But we are totally bummed that Emilee will be leaving our presence! They're moving back east for a great job opportunity. Oh how we will miss you....so we have to soak up all your yummy goodness while we can!

Rachel was working on a skirt.... Can we say good lookin? Yes!

Angela was working on the cutest capes for her niece and nephew. Can we say superhero? Yeah!

Emily worked on some CUTE argyle shirts for her boys. I think they look great, but this picture was taken after an outburst of "Shizballs" from Emily! Like I said all was well after all, they were super cute!

Michelley was working on cute cute burp rags and a car seat canopy, sorry I didn't get a great picture of that, way cute material!

Not that we planned it but yummy treats appeared! Can I just emphasize the YUMMY part!!!

Yup, we know how to have a good time for sure!

I opted to make a strap for my camera. I was feelin' in the mood for something easy to do. I know a lot of you out in blog land have cameras. This is a fun and simple way to "dress" up your straps. They slide on so you can take them off if you want to change them.

1. Make a pattern. I just used simple white paper. Fold your strap in half and allow about 1/4" to 1/2" seam allowance. Cut out your pattern.

2. Now line that pattern up on the fold of your material and cut. You can use the same material, or you can choose two coordinating fabrics.

3. Unfold your material and sew up the one side. Remember to put your material right sides together. You can pin if you want....I'm just lazy!!!

4. Ta Da. Now this next step is optional. I added fleece interfacing to my strap. I think it makes them look nicer, and let me tell you....they are way more comfortable!

5. Put the interfacing on the wrong side of the fabric and iron on. Make sure the iron is really hot! Does my hand look weird to anyone else here? Maybe I just have weird lookin hands!

6. Cut off any extra....

7. Now fold down about a half inch to an inch....you may want to hold it up to your strap and see how much extra you have to work with. Sew now....I sewed across three times for a little extra something.

8. Ta da.....

9. Now fold in half....right sides together and sew up the other side. You may want to just sew a little but and make sure it fits your strap first. That way if you need to make adjustments you can before you have to pick apart the whole side!

10. Pull up a couch and fold that puppy inside out!!!! I hear a wooden spoon helps here, but I didn't find that to be so. Just some good old elbow grease an patience!

11. Almost done.....forever later!!! Patience people, patience!

12. Shimmy that puppy up your strap! Here is the one I made sewing night. PS the other one is for you Brit.....surprise!

13. Strike a pose and enjoy your strap!!!!

I am not sure what will be up for next month sewing day but stay tuned!!!!

Chalk it up!

So I guess we can just chalk it up to good weather that we could get out and use our Easter Chalk! Let it be noted that it snowed 4 days after this!!!! Sad, yes SNOW in May....almost June mind you!

Oh well, we enjoyed our chalk for an evening at least....

Although I am fairly certain that most of it ended up here......

PS: Any ideas for this hair of my childs? She is still at an age that she doesn't really want to hold still, ya know? So we are lucky to throw it up in a clip if she doesn't eat it first!!!! Ha

professor katy

Do you want to look smart? Well folks, grab yourself a pair of glasses because they do the trick every time!

Katy pulls off the glasses nicely. Hopefully she will get her dad's eyes, but if she gets mom's at least she'll look cute in glasses.

These are my nerd glasses I found for Katy. Roger and Joanne have a pair of glasses in the toy bucket at their house. I do believe they are an old pair of Rogers. So you better believe when I found a pair of sunglasses in the dollar bin at Target that I bought them! I removed the lenses....very easy because they were so cheap.

Anyhow Katy loves them for reading books and watching Mickey Mouse.....

Deep in thought

Oops, I forgot these don't have lenses!

Wait how do these go again?

Like this?

Ahhh forget it!!!!

I love my glasses!

Uh ohhh, this is the classic girl flirting with someone in the library!

You know the one right?.....

Eat your heart out boys!

Katy was thinking it was so funny to poke at her eye. It's funny that this picture makes me laugh because this is exactly me when I was little....squinty eyes. No joke, when we moved into our house my neighbor Jill thought I was Chinese! I guess I smiled a lot! Funny? I think so!

Thanks for a lesson in cuteness today, professor Katy!

Better Late

I'm surprised we did it but we did! We took pictures of the kidos and got our "vision" framed and ready to go for mothers day within a week!

You are probably thinking that we procrastinated, but I like to think that Mothers Day caught us all off guard this year....because TIME IS FLYING AT WARP SPEED!

Wendy suggested that we have the kids color on the mats. Not only was this a good idea because the kids loved it, but I think it adds so much. And although the Sharpies worked great.....not the best idea for little kids because Katy almost freaked out when she couldn't eat them!

Since we couldn't all get together during the weekend we opted to have family night at Heidi's with Strawberry Short Cake! Yum!

Oh and Katy found another piano! Good think Joanne knows how to play too! Isn't it funny that I would love nothing more than to know how to play any type of instrument, but I cant? Well at least we have lots of people that know how to play the piano....there is hope for Katy. If she so wishes of course!

Running 101

The Ward Gang

I look really extra excited about my free T-Shirt...Wooo!

Do you remember that part in the movie Forrest Gump where he just decides to run across america?...

1st Reporter: Why are you running?

2nd Reporter: Are you doing this for world peace?

3rd Reporter: Are you doing this for women's right?

Newsman: Or for the environment?

Reporter: Or for animals?

3rd Reporter: Or for nuclear arms?

Forrest: (voice-over) They just couldn't believe that somebody would do all that running for no particular reason.

2nd Reporter: Why are you doing this?

Forrest: I just felt like running.

Why do I run? Sometimes I think I do it for world peace, although it seems as though I'll be running for ever at this rate! Mostly I think I run for the same reasons as Mr. Gump, just because I feel like running.

So that is what I did. The Salt Lake Running company was celebrating there grand opening of the new location on 2100 S and 700 E so they had a free 5K. Most everyone in my ward ran it, I also saw my friend Melynda there...so we ran together. It's always great to run with a buddy. Funny enough, Nicole was supposed to run with Melynda and I but had slept in that morning.

I love the roll out of bed look...I think it looks good on us!

Back last fall I promised Nicole that I would run the Ogden Half Marathon with her. This was when I was thinking that I would actually still be running as much as I was. Piece of cake right? Well I didn't sign up in time so it was sold out before I could use my Christmas money....and secondly I pretty much have only been running about once a week since my winter series experience...see here. I was sure that there was no way that I could just pick up and make it through a half marathon.

Sadly I called Nicole and told her that I knew that she had been training and I didn't want to muff it all up for her. She convinced me that it would be fine and that I should do it because it would be fun.

Oh heck...let's do it! Am I crazy??? Maybe, but we had a great time. Probably because this was one of the most beautiful races I have ever run! They are not lying when they say that it's one of the top 10 most beautiful races in the United States.

Unlike our Top of Utah experience last year...we had a plan and we shaved 40 MINUTES off our time!!! 2:21 as opposed to 3 hours! Ha. I guess being mentally prepared helps too. I think we worked well together as running buddies. Nicole would push me and I would push her (even though I think she was doing most of the pushing, Ha!). We stopped about every 3 miles and walked for a minute or two. It made me laugh when I crossed the finish line and they tried to put the metal over my head. "No thanks" is all I told them. I swear the gal thought I was CRAZY but hey that wouldn't be honest now would it?

So if any of you are interested we are running the provo half marathon on Aug 7th. We would love to have you join us. After all....maybe you just feel like running!

Has this ever happened to you?

I swear I have never heard this story before. The one about "the one bath" that your kid had. Let me tell you it's a good one....

As most of you know Katy and I do enjoy a good bath in the morning. Nothing wakes you up better than having a bath, and this day was no different.

I started the water and put Katy in. She requested some "bubbies" so I obliged and added some. I like "bubbies" too so I added some extra that I could blow in her face. I walked across the hall to download some pics (don't worry I could see Katy the whole time, I'm not a neglectful mom). She was laughing her head off infact at the "bubbies" and all the rushing water.

When I got back in the bathroom we started to wash her hair. I took my trustie cup and proceeded to dump it (no pun intended) over her head....over and over. We have to get it all wet and Katy has a lot of hair if you didn't notice. It was on about the 5th dump of water over the head that I noticed something in the water, under the bubbles.

I was mortified when I parted the bubbles to find a BIG HUGE DUMP!!!!! How long has this been there? And, my goodness, how much is really down there? Would I have noticed sooner if I wasn't greedy with the bubbles by adding some more? My worse fears were realized when I had come to the conclusion that she just had her morning dump right there in my tub! It may have been a quick clean up, but remember this is the morning dump.....not solid at all (too much info? Sorry)!

I ran down the hall with Katy covered in poopy water. I woke up Steve and insisted that he get in the shower with her so I could clean up the mess in the tub. I think he was still asleep when he got in there because it was almost like he was realizing that Katy was actually covered in poopy water after he was actually holding her (as most of you know Steve doesn't love the germs)!

All in all we are doing fine now. The tub is cleaned and sanitized several times over as has Steve cleaned and sanitized many times since the incident. I guess there is really nothing that we can do to avoid a situation like this, but I swear I have never heard of this happening! Actually now that I am thinking back I do believe there was a brief moment of silence amoungst the laughing in the tub. It was at this time, I believe, that the incident actually took place. Maybe I'll have to be more aware of the silent moments in the future!

Let's just hope that we don't have to have this much fun in the tub again for a while! And let this be a warning to you all!

Mom Rock 2

So what I really did for mothers day is....

Have Steve make me breakfast in bed, well sort of....

I woke up to this. Pretty cute considering he got off work at 4:00AM!!!!

Those of you who know me will appreciate that Steve "made" me my favorite breakfast, oatmeal (cinnamon and spice) and instant breakfast! How romantic, I am one lucky girl!

Make mom Breakfast for dinner, and take a self portrait to celebrate!

Love you mom! You Rock! Happy Mothers Day to you and to my mom-in-law Joanne (Best mom-in-law this side of the Mississippi!)

Mom Rock

I know it makes everyone all warm and fuzzy to talk about how being a mom has changed their lives and how they wouldn't change anything for the world. For me I feel the same....having Katy is the funnest (most days) thing that Steve and I have ever done together. To be honest, although I wouldn't change the fact that we waited to have Katy, we were really missing out not having her here. Anyone who can even imagine how it feels to be a mom can already imagine all that could be said about being a mom......

So in honor of mothers day I'll just say that:

I got to marry that.....

So we could have that......

And put up with that......

What's not to like? Being a mom rocks! Happy Mothers Day to all and to all a good night!

(It is to be noted that in the above pictures Katy is in fact eating the blinds....and wearing fake glasses! Ha, don't ask!)

Friday Fun

I invited myself up to my sisters house, how nice am I? Her best friends Denise and Lisa were coming over to hang out and take some one year pics of Eisley. Pictures you say....can I come?!? What you may not realize is that these gals have all been best friends since Jr. High School. I guess in a way they feel more like sisters.

We had a blast and I was quite literally there all day! Thanks Brit for saying that it was fine and that you were happy I was there. I was kind of sick of me by the end of the day!

Steve is so funny. When he asked what we did my response was "hung out". He didn't quite understand how I could hang out all day doing "nothing".

I figured as long as we were up there we might as well take some pics of Katy too, she is about to turn 18 months. After everyone had gone home for the night and we ate dinner Brit and I toted our kids (Brynn and Katy) all over her yard, neighbors yard, street....she has all kinds of great places right in her backyard.

The funny thing is that the outfit Katy is wearing is totally by accident. I had bought the dress at Target the other week, the sweater is from Roger and Joanne for Christmas, and the cute flower is one that Britney made for me! I was so supprised that they all went together so well. It almost looks like you took the flower in her hair right off her sweater!

It was SO nice to have someone else there distracting Katy. I guess you are not as prone to getting the looking right into the camera shots, but I kind of like the more candid moments of fun anyway!

We thought it would be fun to have the kids blow some dandilions. Brynn was first. Katy was so interested in blowing those things, she was quite upset when she had to wait her turn. So when it was you can imagine her excitement.

Almost ready.....just about there.....let me change this setting......

Then.....

She popped that whole thing in her mouth and I wasn't ready!!!! This was the after math of the whole situation. First it was in the mouth....
Then it was getting in the eyes!

Then the chocking began....so I took a picture of that!

Then the smiles came. Well, after we got most of it out of her mouth. I guess she doesn't quite get the concept of the blowing of the dandilions!

Even though the lighting is not the best in this pic....I love this smile!!!

We were even able to get some cute smiles at this place. A rutty old barn, if you could call it that, complete with beer bottles inside. I guess the people in Perry, UT know how to have a "good" time....if that's what you call it!!!!

Katy also got to jump on the trampoline with Brynn and Izzy. She was having a hard time staying up, although she was laughing most of the time.

And that hair of her's was OUT OF CONTROL! What's a girl to do?

After a while it was almost as if she had given up!!! Ha

Here are my favorites from Eisley's shoot....

"Are you sure I can eat this whole thing?"

"Seriously, we're done?"

You can check out the rest of the pics HERE