Thursday, July 29, 2010

Missionary Cake

It's seems to be wilting and is a bit top heavy (apparently the top is supposed to be smaller than the bottom?) but it turned out pretty cool. Jacob wore a blue tie...so he'd match it. He did not wear a brown belt...so he'd match himself. If you want to follow the coolest kids every move and write him a bunch of letters click here.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

My Little Missionary

Today, I cried like a baby as I hugged one of my best friends goodbye. My little brother will be gone for two years and I can barely believe it. He is seriously going to be a phenomenal missionary and I am so proud of him. But I'm really going to miss him.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Baby Quilt for Ruby

I am a project person. I love projects. I have about a billion on my list and about ten that are currently in the works/unfinished (including the grandfather clock I started 6 years ago...yikes). This is one of my faves. I really like quilting. I've made so many quilts I couldn't count them but this is the first quilt in which I attempted applique and quilting vs. tying. I think it's pretty dang cute.

I'm not the best picture taker. I can never make the colors seem to look just right...but you get the idea.And the close up of the front. Cute little flowery things to girly it up a bit more. They're called yo-yo's I think. See that satin ribbon edging? My poor arthritic fingers are still livid with me for that part (I hand sewed that bit).And the back. I am a minky fan.See my applique skills? They aren't perfect but still not so sucky. The "R" is for a sweet baby Ruby. Also, do you see the quilted bits (stippling)? I really like applique and stippling and already have big plans on more in my future.All in all, I'd say it's not bad for my first quilted and appliqued quilt. Hopefully baby Ruby likes it.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Disneyland

My little brother is leaving for two years to serve an LDS mission. He wanted to go to Disneyland as a family before he leaves. So we all packed up and drove to California.

We made and effort to squeeze as many people as possible into the little seats on the rides. Adam has a giant bruise on his thigh from the top right picture. Apparently three grown adults aren't meant to fit into the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride. Jacob ended up entirely off the seat before the ride's completion.It's hard to see in this picture, but Jacob and I bought matching Jack hoodies. They are for children but they were so cool we just bought XLs and will avoid drying them. They say "JACK" all over them. I am a huge fan of this since my initials are J.A.C.K.. My mom took a better picture of us wearing them. Maybe I'll post them once I get her pictures (these pictures are all Aliese's, my camera died).

And the whole fam damily riding the Winnie the Pooh ride.This trip was a blast. Our hotel was only about half a mile from Disneyland so we walked everyday (my feet/legs are so sore) and we could see the fireworks from the hotel. We also met Nathan and Brandon from "Pernaburney" (not the real name of their town but I'll keep it secret for their sakes). They were adorable.

We ate the Blue Bayou which was super delicious (and super pricey) and enjoyed the glories of the pineapple float/whip. We also did some swimming/hot tubbing. We had so much fun. I'm not so happy to be back.

...and the kitchen sink

As I mentioned in my last post, our old kitchen sink had pretty much had it so we chucked it and got a new sink and faucet. We decided to do all the work ourselves. I don't know if this was the best decision but everything seems to be working fine...we must have missed a calling as plumbers perhaps. Anyway, here are some not stock photos:

I didn't take any before photos...I wish I would have...but here is our old kitchen sink after a week in our trash can. He's filthy, but I don't make a habit of cleaning garbage. Our sink and faucet were both stainless which would have been fine if we had any stainless appliances in our kitchen. The sink was also really shallow and the faucet quite low so we couldn't fill larger pans or pitchers.The new sink matches our kitchen much better since all our appliances are black stainless and all our doorknobs and light fixtures are oil rubbed bronze. And, I can fill ginormous pans now! (The new sink is a creamish color - not white - it's quite lovely and super deep). So pretty!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Big Fat Fourth

I've never been so tired at the end of a long weekend. Seriously. On Friday night I made the coolest cake ever so I could take to to the Kay family shindig. It's five layers and looks like the flag when you cut it open. It looked all blobby and sucky but I fixed it up with loads of frosting and it ended up being a hit.

The family party was lovely. The weather was actually a little cold which I like. Adam and I did poorly in the skeet shooting contest. I shot 2 of 10 "skeets" (I know that's incorrect but that's what I like to call them) which I thought was awesome but Adam's family showed me up. We also threw in some frisbee golf which makes any day a good one. After staying up until 2 am baking and frostinging and then waking up at 5 am to drive to the family thing, I was ruther tired. So I took the longest nap ever (3 hrs...I could have comfortable quadrupled this time though) and then AK and I went to his brothers to watch some punchy kicky (UFC). One of the fighters entered to "Time to Say Goodbye" (Mads...you know this, right?). Most fighters come in to rap or metal songs...not Josh Groban. He was immediately my favorite.

Sunday we had some bbq fun with Adam's mom's side of the fam. We played games, rode the 4 wheeler, played rock band, and watched fireworks. It was so so fun. AK took me on a motorcycle ride too...now I think we need one. Maybe.

Monday was supposed to be the day to clean and recover and pack for our upcoming trip. Monday was not such a day. After some laundry time and a little Mac D brecky. I was doing some dishes and noticed an extremely wet floor. Upon further inspection, I learned that our faucet was leaking out the bottom, then down into our sink (which we later learned was caulked NOWHERE). So, Adam and I spent quite a long time cleaning and drying the mess. Then we took apart the sink, faucet, and all the plumbing underneath. The faucet was broken and the sink hadn't been caulked our sealed anywhere. We are lucky it wasn't worse. We bought this beauty:

Marvelous, no? Our new sink and faucet are much prettier than our old ones and we learned how to be plumbers. It's a good thing we have a vacation headed our way because these kids are real tired from our longest fun weekend.