Dear Tooth Fairy

Let's just say that Roderic has an extremely low threshold for pain. A few weeks ago he noticed that one of his teeth were loose. He wouldn't allow any help in wiggling it, and he would hardly wiggle it himself. A few days later, we noticed that the replacement tooth was growing in, a little behind the loose one. Because I am such a mean, caring parent, when Roderic fell asleep in Sacrament meeting that Sunday (3-7), I spent the hour wiggling his tooth. Still no luck on getting it to come out. On Thursday (3-11), for an after school snack, he got a cookie (Samoa, yum!) and a fruit roll-up. Afterwards, he said, "Mom! My tooth came out!" I said, "Great! Where is it?" Roderic said, "I think I threw it in the trash." Apparently, the tooth came out with the super sticky fruit roll-up and he thought it was something gross and crunchy, so he took it out of his mouth and put it in the trash. I did not search the trash for his tooth. I told him that he would have to write a note for the tooth fairy to tell her that he lost his tooth. If it wasn't such a chore for him to write for long periods, I would have had him explain that the tooth was in the garbage. This note worked just fine though...Roderic woke up so excited with quarters under his pillow! He exclaimed, "Mom, the note worked!"



And here is Roderic, missing one tooth! Welcome to the missing tooth club, son!

Baby Quilts

Soon after I discovered I was pregnant in 2003, I decided that I needed to make my baby a quilt. I bought "The It's Okay if You Sit on my Quilt Book" from Amazon for instructions and ideas. I started working on it - I had enough fabric to make 2, one for me and one for my sister who discovered she was due with her second child around the same time as me. Progress came to a screeching halt when I miscarried in July. The fabric and the book sat untouched in my craft closet (I would burst into tears when I saw it). I even ended up making my sister's baby a completely different quilt.

When I found out I was pregnant again, it took me a while to pull out the supplies, but eventually I did and made this "Triple Rail Fence" quilt for Roderic. The quilt is tied with embroidery floss.

Pregnant again in 2006 and my baby needed a quilt. This time I found inspiration on the Internet and made a "Hugs and Kisses" quilt for Hyrum. The quilt is both machine quilted and hand quilted. The straight lines were quilted by machine and the circles I did by hand.


This time around, I used "The It's Okay if You Sit on my Quilt Book" for a pattern ("Mandevilla"). I started buying the fabric weeks before I was ready to tell people I was pregnant. I made a goal to have the quilt finished and ready to bind before my trip to San Francisco, because binding a quilt is a good on the airplane activity. And the flight was just long enough for me to finish it!


For the back of this quilt, I used flannel (I usually use flannel for backing on baby quilts - it's softer). One problem with flannel is that it shrinks a. lot. when you wash it. Since this pattern is a square quilt, I needed a square back, but all in flannel wasn't going to work unless I put some seams in, which I'm not a huge fan of. I ended up using some of the left over fabric from the front to make it a little more interesting. I like how it turned out.

And for full disclosure, it was Stacy's idea for me to bind the quilt in turquoise. I was hesitant at first, but I really like how it turned out!

Musical Hyrum

Hyrum is a budding musician. He's got rhythm, pitch, tone and a love of music! Ryan showed him one time how to play "Star Wars" on the xylophone and now this is what we hear from Hyrum. It kind of sounds like a broken record, but he is 3.



Oh, and last night in Hyrum's prayer he prayed for our baby to be born so that he is able to watch Star Wars. (Roderic has been telling him for months that when the baby is born he'll be old enough so they can watch Star Wars together.)

Girls Only Weekend

I got to spend an enjoyable 3 day weekend with this girl in the Bay Area.

We arrived early Friday morning, checked into our hotel and then went to Jack London Square for lunch and a tour of the USS Potomac (FDR's Floating White House). It was basically a private tour because we were the only tourists around.

FDR gave 3 of his "Fireside Chats" from the radio room of this boat. I took a picture of the gear because I thought my Father-in-law would appreciate the equipment.


Two of Ryan's sisters, one sister-in-law, and their three girls arrived later in the afternoon and we went off to the Oakland LDS Temple. What a beautiful place! Thanks again to Melissa for hanging out with Hailee and Sabrina at the Visitor's Center while we were in the Temple.



Afterwards we went to In N Out Burger for dinner. YUM!!!


On Saturday, we drove into San Francisco, following a misguided GPS affectionately named "Ophelia" (we have no idea why she wanted us to drive south from Oakland to get to San Francisco). We drove down Lombard Street, went around the block, found a place to park and then walked down Lombard Street. While everyone else walked up Lombard Street, I waited with Sabrina for them to drive down again and got in near the bottom.

Then we went to the Presidio and walked along a path leading us to the Golden Gate Bridge. There were a lot of runners on the bridge. I don't think I'd choose to run on it for two reasons: the noise, and the engine exhaust.

The reason this trip was planned by Ryan's sisters was for us to go see "Wicked". We wasted too much time looking for parking so we got to eat fast food for lunch instead of a sit-down meal. "Wicked" was enjoyable, but I found myself getting bored in the first act--thinking intermission must surely be coming soon. There were technical difficulties and so there were no moments of defying gravity during the song "Defy Gravity". I don't think it helped that a man with a big head was sitting right in front of me and I could hear the ushers talking to each other behind me. Sabrina really liked how this musical explained things from "The Wizard of Oz".

After church on Sunday, we had a few hours before our flights, so we drove back into San Francisco (ignoring Ophelia's pleas to turn around) and found Alamo Square and the famous Painted Ladies Victorian houses, that you see in the opening credits of TV's "Full House" We sang the theme song as we circled the block. There was one for sale, and Michelle called the number and asked the price...it was only $1.5 million.

Baby Bonnet Tutorial

This one is for you, Michelle! Call or email me if you get stuck...this is my first attempt at a sewing tutorial, so it may be a little rough to follow.

Supplies:
¼ yard of fabric (if you're going to use 2 different fabrics, buy ¼ yard of each fabric; you could also get away with using 2 fat quarters)
coordinating thread
28” of 3/8 inch ribbon
4mil clear plastic sheeting – to make your pattern (this is a thick plastic painters drop cloth)


Click on the next 2 pictures for the measurements to make your pattern

bonnet crown

bonnet back

Ironing the fabric is a good idea before you pin and cut out the pieces. I'm usually too lazy to do that. When cutting out the fabric, remember to cut the notches! Repeat with lining fabric.
Sew a gather stitch on both crown pieces between the notches. To sew a gather stitch, sew with your longest stitch length ½ inch from the edge. Then sew another line ¼ inch closer to the edge.

Pull threads to gather loosely.

With fabrics right sides together pin the crown to the back starting at the notch and going to the bottom.

Repeat with other notch to the bottom, then pin the gather to the round section of the back.

The bottom of the back will extend about ¾ inch below the crown piece.

Sew a 5/8 inch seam.

Repeat with lining fabric.



On the right side of your main fabric, pin the ribbon about 1 inch from the bottom edge of the crown. Sew ¼ inch seam to hold in place. Repeat on other side of the main fabric.

Gather the rest of the ribbon and pin down so the ends of the ribbon will be at the back bottom of the bonnet. This is so you don't accidentally sew the ribbon while you're attaching the two bonnet pieces together.

With right sides together, pin the two bonnet pieces together. The ribbon will stick out the center to remind you to not sew the whole thing completely shut.

Starting at one side of the bottom back, sew a 5/8 inch seam around the entire bonnet, stopping at the other bottom back.

Clip the corners to make it have a good chance of looking nice once you turn it right side out. Turn it out.

Pin the opening on the bottom shut and pin around the rest of the bonnet.

Sew a top stitch 1/8 inch around the entire bonnet.

Cut the ribbon at the half-way mark.

Find a cute baby to model it for you! As of now, I only have this doll to be a model. 7 more weeks and I'll have a baby's head to put them on!

Which one is your favorite? The blue and white one I made for this tutorial will match the kids' Easter clothes. The red one matches the baby quilt I'm working on. The white one is for the blessing outfit. The pink one matches the onesie dress I made.

One I love

Even though we celebrate Valentine's day with these:


And these:

And these (White Chocolate Pound Cake with whipping cream and strawberries!):

The thing that shows me that my husband truly loves me is this:
Oh, how I love a man with dishpan hands!

Valentines with HEART

When grocery shopping last week, I came across a bin of Hershey's mini Valentine chocolate bars in the bulk foods section. I waded through and pulled out about 40 Krackel bars (they're my favorite!) I thought they would be fun for Sabrina to use to make Valentines for her school class. After I brought them home and told her about them, she gave me a note from school saying that the 5th grade is having a pot-luck luncheon to celebrate Valentine's day and Valentines were not necessary. Well, what was I to do with 35 mini Krackel bars (I'd already eaten 5)? I decided to use them still for Valentines, but I put them in a Strawberry Nesquik canister and mailed them to my missionary brother! I figure he can eat them all himself, or share them with others. The phrases Sabrina and I wrote on them are variations on "You KRACKEL me up, Valentine!" and "Be Mine. Don't cause my heart to KRACKEL." I thought it was rather clever.


I found these super cute Valentines while blog surfing last night with Ryan (really I was forcing him to look at this bow-tie pattern that I want to buy). The instructions on how to make the valentines are found here! Hyrum had a lot of fun helping me stuff some this morning - we ran out of staples, though.