Finished Quilt

Yay! The quilt is completely finished and I love it! It is the crazy 9 patch. I was super easy and if you ever see it in person, don't look too close!!! It is my first real quilt. I even did the machine stippeling! It was surpringly fun. I think I may enter it in the fair this year, under beginner. I did a quilt with pinks in it, for me! I get so tired of making so many blue things, that I thought I would do this for me. I had most of the material and the borders and back I got at the darling quilt shop in town. I love that place!!!! Papa Tom gave me money for Mothers Day and this bench is what I bought with it. Jason and I both fell in love with the bench. It is really cute, and for finding it at the grocery store-I think it was a great buy! I keep the quilt folded on the side for a little country-look. I have a few of the crazy squares left over and if I didn't throw them away already, I am going to make some throw pillows to go on the back of the bench!
Now, I think I am going to start one for my mom for Christmas. She is so hard to buy for. But shhhhh don't tell her!!!!!

My Cowboys

I always wanted my family to be well-rounded individuals, I think with this latest excursion, it is putting us there. Last Saturday we went on a five hour motorcycle ride. All of us. I rode an 80, yes I am too big for it. Jason took Easti, Papa Jerry took Stanton on the four-wheeler and Jaden rode his 50. We came home sunburnt, and very tired.
So this was last night adventure. Riding the new horses (or horse, I should say). Easton loved seeing the horses and was very relaxed enjoying them. He would get so mad everytime we took him off of Sammy. He would scream and cry. Jaden is leading the horse all by himself.

Excited, buddy????!!!!!

My hot, funny cowboy husband. He put on his (baseball) hat, his (steel-toe) boots, his (Calvin Klein) jeans and his (tee) shirt, and said he had cowboyed up and was ready to ride!

HOORAY!!!!

No I did not ride, nor do I intend to for a while. I am so deathly scared of horses. But, I am sure I will eventually get over that childhood scar, and Sammy would be the perfect choice for mending that wound. Just not right now!

Farm wife?!?

Okay, so my wonderful husband is a comedian for sure. He makes me laugh my guts out every day and he loves it!
When I came home from camping, he asked if I felt like a farmers wife yet. With skepticism, I worridly asked why. He just giggled and got on the phone. Obviously making arrangements for something. I reminded him that we have fourteen chickens, a dog, a cat, three monkey boys, a papa, and us. I take care of them. I do not need more on my plate. He just chuckled. I told him no goats and no cows. He reassured me there would be no goats or cows and continued the conversation with the person on the phone, arranging a pick up time. I was getting scared.
It seems his aunt had two horses that she needed to get rid of and if we wanted to come pick them up, we could have them. Our property is horse property. We are allowed to have 2 1/2 horses (it's based on acreage, don't know about the half situation) for our lot. But, Jason had been talking to my dad, Jerry that lives six houses away. He already has one horse and they figured they could just add to the corral. So, now they have three horses on their property. They are called the family horses. They are there for my parents and us. It will be fun if I ever get the guts up to ride one!
The horses really are beautiful. Until the corrals get built on my property, I won't feel too much like a farmers' wife. Hollywood. The beautiful, spirited thouroghbred (sp?)

Sam's News The Palimino that is family friendly and the favorite the kids call her Sammy. I think we are all partial to blondies!

Camping

One of my good friends has a cabin on a ton of acreage in the woods. We all went up there last week. Just the moms and kiddos. We had a ton of fun and it was very relaxing. The boys absolutely loved being able to roam for hours. They built forts, slid down big hill slides, meandered around the pond, rode four wheelers and just explored.
This is a phot of one of the biggest dandelions I have ever seen. Stanton loves the flower, and he was so excited when he saw one this large. He is trying to pick it, but it didn't fare so well. So, I let him blow another one. Then we raced out of there to beat the oncoming storm that would have stranded us for days! The Boys eating their yummy dutch oven.

We really went on a four-wheeler ride with this many people, plus Jaden! It was fun!

Here, Kitty, Kitty!

Those of you that know me well know that I am not really an animal person. I have enough things to take care of, and an animal adds to the stress. Well, since we live out in the sticks, we have great wildlife. A deer ran through our front yard the other day and it is a constant parade of chickmunks, rabbits, and other fun animals that eat my garden! But, this year we had other gross uninvited guests. Mice. I was so freaked out! They were the smartest mice ever. They avoided every trap and would keep me up at night worrying that one would scurry past one of my babies. Yes, I am a nut. So I went straight to the pound (yes, I know people give these away everyday) and we adopted a sweet kitten. It had to be a kitten because we have a dog. We know Toby would be fine with the cat, but we also know that a big cat would not be fine with Toby. So, we brought home this tiny six week old thing. We had a family vote on what to name it. It was a close call between Cat A. Pillar, and Mitten. In the end, Mitten won. Sorry, Jason.

Yes, SHE is too little to actually catch anything, but in the meantime, my decon worked wonders and we are mouse-free. SO, next year, at this time when the swamp coolers are running and we have doors ajar, I 'm thinking we will still be mouse-free!

It was kind of scary the first two days. The dog was really wary of the cat. But, now they are buds. They play all the time, nap together and just hang out. It's very cute. Toby has to watch where he steps. Cat may be underfoot!

The worst part is that now we have had her almost a month, and the boys still fight over who gets to hold her. I was hoping that would wear off a long time ago. Yuck!

Hobbies... Part 2

This post was supposed to be after Jaden's post, but I am trying to multi-task and did not do a very good job of paying enough attention to details. Oh well. Here we go anyway!



My hobbies have varied throughout my lifetime. There's crosstitch, tole-painting, scrapbooking, card-making, jewelry making, beading, quilting (this is a new hobby) I sew with a friend every Thursday, and am learning so much. I am almost done with a project I am so excited about. I will be done next week and post the finished product. The other big hobby/project that I do is couponing. I have always been frugal and very careful in spending. But, I have been couponing for about four months and have been so amazed with the items I can get for free! My supp;ies of items are increasing dramatically and I am spending little to no money in the process! I am amazed at what coupons, doubling coupons and combining them with the right sale can really make things cheap! Here is a picture of the stash I got this morning. Three of my friends went with me and we went at 6:30 this morning. It was so nice without kiddos and we had free reign of the store. 7 cheeses, 5 flatbread melts, 2 airwick refills, 2-6 packs angel soft toilet paper, 4 Smart Balance butter, 2 V-8 Fusion, 1 Marshmallow, 2 cottage cheese, 2 Country Time Lemonade canisters, 4-8 packs juicy juice, 2 lunch meat packages, shaving gel, 1 tobasco sauce, Peanut bars.



Total spent: $30.81 Total saved: $115.53



Yes, totally worth the hour and a half of preparation, the drive to St. George, and it was so fun with my girlfriends! Thanks, girls!

Stay tuned for some more great finds!

Hobbies...

At our house, I paint faces all the time. It's fun and the boys just love it.
This is Stanton's catterpillar that turned into a yellow butterfly with pink hearts. They always choose intering things! Jaden has always wanted to be an author/illustrator since he could kind of say the words. Not surprising, since his Grandma Connie is an artist and his mother is a closet wanna-be children's author (someday). He loves to do different art projects and play in different mediums. The boys always give me very interesting requests for face painting. Then, Jaden always looks at the finished product and laughs, telling me how funny I am. I really don't try to be. I'm just artistically challenged (big time)! So, today, I told Jaden he could choose the objects and draw them himself on everybody. Stanton was already done, so he did himself, Easton and me.
He chose to do a red and black version of a bee on himself. He thought he was so clever with the color combination. He just snickered the whole time!

He painted this ladybug on Easton. Of couse it didn't make it long enough to dry completely. Easti loves getting things on his face, and touches it as soon as you set him free. Then he rubs his hands on it. In about two seconds, it's a smeared mess. But, a happy boy is always wonderful!
>

This is the catepillar he was so excited about. I never do them right!

My favorite. A big red heart with the words, I luv you. How could your heart not melt? He made me guess what he was drawing and he just giggled at all the things I would guess. What a sweet little boy. He is growing up too fast!

Don't mind the tired face or nasty hair. It was in a hat all day.

I am so grateful for boys that will try new things and have the confidence to laugh at things. What wonderful self-esteem and talents they have. I am so blessed with all these little blue monkey boys!