Ruffles and More!

Doesn't Joseph look beautiful in ruffles? He told me to take this picture:) I actually sewed something for myself! I sewed my skirt.

I laminated this piece of scrapbooking paper and put it in a frame for a dry erase board. I am going to change the paper periodically to make it more fun.

Here is my new toy. It's a ruffler foot for my sewing machine. It looks intimadating doesn't it? It is actually quite easy to use. It saves soooooo much time. I love it! I whippped up the girls ruffled skirts in about 20 minutes (each) and it would have taken at least 20 to 30 minutes longer to sew without the ruffler foot. So there will definately be more ruffles to come. I am sure I will get my $30 worth out of that foot!

I made 3 of these posters for our Relief Society Family History Activity. I used my slice to cut out the hearts.

Pin cusions

I made this outfit for my friends daughter. She saw my girl's ruffled pants and loved them so she asked me to make some for her daughter. I used my new ruffler foot for the pants of course:)

Stressed

Things have been busy around here so I haven't had time to post on here. I have missed it. It is just hard to type and nurse a baby at the same time:) and that seems to be the only time I have to get on the computer. So anyways I have been busy with sick kids. Last week Samuel and Elizabeth were both sick. Samuel with a sinus infection and Elizabeth with strep throat. This weekend Samuel and Joseph have had the throw up flu. They are feeling better this evening and haven't thrown up all day. The funny thing is that they both came down with the flu almost simultaiously. Besides that I have been stressing out to much and have been trying to do too much so I am trying to get things back on track. I guess that's the way things go. You start to feel like you can do it all and then Heavenly Father has to remind you that you need to rely on him. Anyways this is all I have time to post. Thanks for reading my blog.

Jon's Birthday

William (at 3 months old) After Christmas we took the kids to Chucke Cheeses because someone from Jon's work gave us a gift card and coins for the games. We had a lot of fun!

Samuel & Joseph

Elizabeth

I made this "pillowcase"dress for Elizabeth. I made one for Grace to but I didn't get a picture of it. It was super easy to make.

Grace

I embelished this outfit of Grace's for her. I appliqued the heart onto her shirt and made her capris into pants so that they would be warmer. (I used my slice to cut out the heart applique :)

Here is another project I used my slice for. I'm making boards with the kids names on them and clips to hang there pictures they draw on. I'm using vinyl lettering which I am using my slice to cut. So far I only have Joseph's done.

Painting the kids boards.

Last Sunday was Jon's Birthday. I made him wear the Birthday cape and crown that I made last summer.

Jon has been keeping busy with his running and work. He will be teaching clinicals again staring in Febuary. He is such a great husband and father!

What sweet boys!

William is getting more cordinated and can hang on to toys now. As you can see Grace was very enthusiastic about giving him toys and made sure he got all of his turtles.

What's up with the Good kids?

Samuel is doing well in school and I rarely have to remind him to do his homework anymore. He has been reading the Harry Potter books and loves Star Wars. He also loves to hold William and take care of him. He loves to help with William more than any of the other kids.

Joseph is our character. He has so much personality that it's hard to limit myself to a couple of sentences. He has been making me laugh with some of the phrases hey uses like"I'll take this guy" (refering to a brownie or something else like that). Lately you will hear him walking around the house humming. The Star Wars theme song is one of his favorites to hum he also likes to hum the Harry Potter theme song. He and Samuel love to build with legos together.

Elizabeth is my girly girl. She loves to dress up, give hugs and kisses, and do her hair. She just recently has figured out how to put her hair in a pony tail and she loves to wear the flowers that I made her in her hair. Yesterday she had so many flowers in her hair that her hair looked like a flower garden:) She wants me to make flower clips for all of the girls in her class.

Grace is my little chef. She loves to help me cook (more so than the rest of the kids). Her favorite toy from Christmas are some little cupcakes that came with her doll and all of the cooking stuff that goes with it. She plays really good by herself when the kids are at school and when she gets board she comes and helps me with whatever I am working on. She is such a good little girl.

William is a great baby as anyone who spends much time with him can see. He waits for people look at him so he can smile at them. He is such a joy to take care!

Busy!

I've been trying to figure out why I haven't had time to post on my blog. I finally figured it out, we changed from 9am church to 11am church on Sundays at the begining of this year. (I usually post on Sundays.) I love not having to be to church as early but that also means I have less time to do other things. During the week I'm usually to busy to have time. I guess the whole five kids thing keeps me to busy :)
We are all fine here. I've been busy crafting as usual. I forget how much time taking care of a baby can take and attempt too big of projects. So my goal this week is to scale back some on the size of my projects. With that being said I am planning on canning spaghetti sauce this week. Yes, I'm crazy. I did call for some backup and since my mom can't be here to help a sister from church is going to come help me. The reason I'm actually making it is to save time on meals and for food storage. I would just buy canned spaghetti sauce but I wind up adding more spices because I don't like them and it does save money to make my own. I would just freeze it but I don't have much freezer space.
I have been trying to come up with ways to make meal time go more smoothly. Besides doing the spaghetti sauce I am planning on canning my chili and enchilada sauce (not all at the same time). I am also going to make up the dry ingredients for waffles, muffins and biscuits. If you have any other ideas for things to save time and money on meals please let me know. I have been doing some freezer meals also but I am limited on space in my freezer. Those freezer meals that I have made up have really been helpful.

William's Blessing

Today was such a special day. William has been such a blessing to our family in the short time he has been in our family! He is such a happy little boy. Yeah a family photo, they are so hard to get!

I love this picture! Jon is such a great father. I love seeing him play with William and the other kids.

William loves to grasp his hands together like this. Isn't he such a cutie?

Life is Sew Good :)

Talk about project overload! Here are some of my projects from the last 2 weeks. Yes, I said some I didn't even take pictures of a few of my projects.
For one of my Christmas gifts was a Slice! (It cuts on paper, fabric and vinyl.) I've had fun making cards, appliques, vinyl lettering and even scrapbook pages (I hadn't scrapbooked in years) with it already. Today I decided I need to try not to let my craft projects take over so much of my time so I am going to try to get two chores done around the house before I can do any craft project each day. We will see how that goes.
Here is my first vinyl project. I put this up in my craft room.

I made this for Joseph's webkinz (Spotty his stuffed animal) for Christmas.

This is Jake, Samuel's webkinz. I made these pajamas to match Samuel's.

On Friday night I realized that William had grown out of his blessing outfit and we were planning on blessing him today. So on Saturday I whipped up this outfit for William.

Aren't the shoes so adorable!

Christnas 2010

I'm Happy!

We have had a very busy couple of weeks. I guess that's just the way Christmas time is. I think this is the first Christmas in years I have really enjoyed the season. Not that I didn't enjoy parts of it at other times. I think this year I was able the focus on the Savior a lot more. I didn't have unrealistic expectations like I usually did other years. I was able to enjoy some traditions with my family like baking cookies without over doing it by making a bunch for friends and family. Not that I didn't want to take them something but I knew that would be to much for me. I was still able to do something for some of my friends. I made some simple bell ornaments (just a bell with a bow on it). I enjoyed making them and didn't stress myself out about it.
On Christmas Eve I quickly read the kids the story of Jesus's birth out our Children's New Testament Stories. Which was all I had time to do. Jon had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas (in the evening). I am grateful I took the time to read to them because that is important. Then after I fed William I read the story of Jesus's birth in the bible. I still had a lot of presents to wrap and spent the rest of the evening doing that and taking care of William.
Christmas morning we had fun opening our presents. (Jon was too tired to wake up for that but the kids had fun showing him their presents when he woke up.) I have to say we have been really blessed this year! We were blessed with enough money to buy gifts for our family. Not that we haven't had gifts other years but this year I knew the money was there and I didn't have to stress out about having money for gifts. The best gift for me this year though wasn't under the Christmas tree. It was feeling truelly happy! I feel the best I have since starting my battle with depression (which started after I had Joseph and he is 9 now). It has been a miracle! I went being at the worst I've ever been 2 years ago to feeling completely healed. Moving to Rochester 2 years ago was really good for our family. I still have my little battles with my moods but I have learned how to fight them. I want to thank my friends and family for their love and support! Without you I don't know how I would have gotten through everything I've been through.