Life Takes Over Sometimes

I know that since Kelby was born, I have not been posting as much as I used too. I figure he's a good excuse--along with the other two little ones I have, all under 4. :) However, I really have been making things and here's proof. I finished my flying geese quilt top! I LOVE it. I'm going to try to piece a back together with denim and/or corduroy. I can't wait. Whenever I lay a finished or in-progress quilt on the floor, the girls love to dance around on it. That's what Layla is doing here :)
AND, I made both these as gifts for my friend Jenn's birthday. Now that she's received them, I can finally blog them. These are both Amy Butler patterns that were given to me (thanks Julie!) and this may make some of you gasp, but I am NOT Amy Butler's biggest fan. Don't get me wrong, I think her designs are wonderful and her fabric is absolutely fabulous, but does anyone else think she is a little interfacing-happy??? I don't know what kind of machine she has that can sew through 6 layers of Timtex without causing her great frustration, as it does me! She even required interfacing for the lining of the little coin purse below! What? (I did not comply.) And I'm very disappointed with the purse flap. I used Timtex like she said, but after manipulating it SO much to sew the purse together, the whole thing has a kind of crinkled look. Oh, well, Jenn loves it and so I'm happy. The last time I made an Amy Butler pattern (the High Street Messenger Bag,) I didn't use it for almost a year because it was such a pain in the rear to make and I didn't even want to look at it! So there, that's all I have to say ;)

Stash Building

I went to Super JoAnn yesterday! I went all by myself and had sooo much fun. It was purely a stash-building trip, since I've been wanting to start on a stash of doll quilts to give all the little girls in my life as their birthdays come along. All this fabric was half off and do you see the little houses?? The cutest ever, I think. The Super Store is light years better than the little store closer to my house. I think the driving time more than covers the time spent standing in line at the little store, but you don't even want to get me started ;)
Isn't this fabulous?? I got a yard of it because it was on clearance and an extra half off! It will turn into a kitchen-something-or-other, I think.
And, because the weather is suddenly so springy this week, I wanted to share these pics from a wintery day last week. Casey took Natalie out in the snow and she made some snow angels. It was a sweet time for the two of them. Casey even made a snow angel with her :)

She crawled through the snow all the way home. Her Daddy is so patient :)
My kids are all still sick. And if being sick isn't enough, my sweet, compliant Layla Jane has become an official two-year-old in every sense of the word. What a live-wire!!! She's keeping us on our toes, needless to say.

inspiration

1. Joshy's Baby Clothes Quilt, 2. Laney's quilt, 3. Quilt of Emma's baby clothes, 4. quilt top for my boy, 5. doll quilt, 6. charm square scrap quilt top

Since there has not been a whole lot of quilting goin' on here this last week, I thought I'd share what I've been drooling over on Flickr. I've been saving the girls' baby dresses and things with plans to make them some quilts out of them in the future and these are my favorite ideas for that so far. I certainly have some more collecting to do, though!

I have a couple of sick babies on my hands. Layla does not do sick well, if that makes any sense, and she was up just about every hour last night. Add that to teething Kelby's three night feedings and that equals one tired Mama! Natalie started sneezing and coughing a few hours ago so we might be in for a fun weekend. Since Casey is out on military business all weekend, I am so so thankful that my mom is here and is so generous with her help!

Proof That I Still Sew...

I've been working away, but some things are gifts that I just can't share yet and one was a gift that I forgot to get a picture of (I hate it when that happens!) BUT, I have been working on a flying geese quilt. I love these fabrics and got them at JoAnn. I don't usually buy entire collections of anything, but when these went 60% off, I could not resist. So I bought them all. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out.
Isn't Layla just so silly?

My Baby Girl is Two!!!!

Layla turned two today :) We had a WONDERFUL day. We let her open her gifts from our immediate family after our pancake breakfast this morning and then after church we went to Cici's Pizza for a Tinkerbell party, where LOTS of friends and family came to help us celebrate. I confiscated this picture of her and Casey from my mom's blog. Isn't is just so sweet? The crown is what my sister made for her, isn't it so cute?

Here's a great one of Natalie and her best buddy Cloe chowing down on their cupcakes.
And this was not today, but I just think it's funny ;)

Happy Birthday, my sweet Layla girl, I love you so much! xoxoxo

Happy New Year!

This is the best picture they would let me get :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful transition into 2009! I know many people don't like the idea of making New Year's Resolutions, but I have been making them for several years and find them fun and rewarding. SO, this year's resolutions are:

1. Keep in better touch with my Grandpa. He is now my only living grandparent and I love him so much, so it will be easy to drop him an email every now and then or send him some pictures of the kiddos in the mail.
   
2. Get my 5 servings of fruits and veggies every day. I've made several small changes toward better health in the past year and this is just the next step. I like lots of veggies now that I didn't used to like, so this has been surprisingly easy so far (although it's only been 2 days ;) Plus, I fix lots of fruit for the girls anyway, so it's always around.
   
3. Get down on the floor with my kids. This may seem weird, but I think the best way to give my kids my undivided attention for awhile is to get on the floor with them.

That's all of them for now, so I'll let you know how it all goes :) 2009 is a year of huge change for our family. After Casey graduates college in May, he'll be leaving for Officer Training School until October. Then we'll be returning to active duty army and moving on from Colorado. We are so excited about the next chapter, but it's all a little unnerving at the same time!

And, totally off the subject, does anyone know anything about flax seed??? I've been having the most horrible and constant hot flashes since Kelby was born and was recently told about Black Kohosh Root as a natural treatment. However, most sources say not to take that while breastfeeding. While I was researching that, though, I came across some information that a couple tablespoons of ground flax seed every day can help with hot flashes! For some reason that I can't remember now, I had a big package of it in the pantry so I opened it up, mixed some into my spaghetti sauce and some into my V8 juice. We'll see how it goes. Any information you all can help my with about hot flashes and what helps would be great. Man, it's so annoying!