sewing/craft projects

i've been trying to finish a bunch of sewing and craft projects lately. now that they're finished, i guess i'm going to have to start on that pile of jeans i have to fix!

i just recovered these chairs. they had off white fabric on them, and they were dirty, and couldn't be cleaned. i found this really cute upholstery fabric at walmart. we'll see how long they last before they need another cover.

we have a curtain on our shower because the door they had on it would have clotheslined tyler. we were planning on putting a nice door on, but i'm getting kind of attached to this curtain. i searched high and low to find silver grommets to finish it off - and now it's finally done. who knew it was so easy to install a grommet?

i've had these curtains hanging for a long time - and finally got around to hemming them.

this is bean bag #2. notice it's flat. we only have 4 bags of beads left. the rest are at tyler's parent's house in provo. hint, hint....to anyone that might want to pay us a visit - please bring one bag of beads. then we can enjoy it just like #1:

this was a week ago. we invited my cousin and her family over. tyler is reading the story of jonah to them. afterward, we used the beanbag as the ship jonah was on. we then threw the kids off, and they climbed inside a fort we had built, which was the 'big fish'. we have lots of fun on the beanbag. i've even found ian asleep on it a few times....and he NEVER does that.

Sleeping babies

Tyler says I have a fetish for taking pictures of sleeping babies. What can I say? They are so cute when they are asleep! These are all pictures of Ian. Cameron hasn't given me any really good material yet - but I'm sure he will.

ah - sweet summertime naps!

he really is under there
nothing like a good nap after a good book.

asleep in the laundry basket.

just couldn't make it to bed.

this was last night. i took ian to a church basketball game with me, and we got home pretty late. he told me a few minutes before i took this picture that he wasn't tired at all.

Wind

The wind has been blowing since Sunday night. That's 3+ days of wind. I'm not talking a nice spring breeze either. I'm talking gale force winds, the kind that tear the siding off your house and blow rocks through your windows. Actually, we haven't had any rocks through the windows, but I have wondered at times if the house is just going to lift off and land in Oz. It feels like a freight train is speeding past. As much as we love our new house, we are tired of being held captive in here! Also, the power company had a scheduled power outtage for 3 hours today. It's too bad they couldn't schedule it on a nice sunny day when we would have preferred to be elsewhere anyway. To top it all off, I got summoned to jury duty. Arghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

check it out

I looked through all my old pictures to find some to use for my lesson in YW today. The YW think Ian looks like I did with shorter hair.

me @ 9 months

ian @ 8 months

me @ 2

ian @ 2

ian @ 2

now i know what i would look like if i were a boy.

March

The last week and a half has been, well, just plain dull. Toward the end of our trip to Utah, Ian started to get sick. He was feverish, congested and coughing for more than a week. He's pulling out of it now, but we stayed pretty close to home base for awhile. We thought for sure he got it from stopping at one too many McDonald's Play Places (they are massive germ pits if you ask me - but when it's cold outside and you need to give your kids a place to move while you're traveling - they're the only game in town). However, it seems half the valley is sick too. Hopefully none of the rest of us get sick, particularly Cameron. I hate to hear little babies coughing.

Here is our photo journal of the few things we've beeing doing.




Grandma thankfully watched the kids while I went to Elko to run a few errands and to Jiggs to look at this bunkbed. I found out through the grapevine that the bed was for sale, and jumped on it. We've been looking at them for a long time but didn't want to spend what stores charging for them. The frame is a little scratched - what you would expect from 5 years of use - but the mattresses are really nice compared to what Ian was sleeping on before. We couldn't believe they weren't asking more. Ian LOVES it....and he hasn't even fallen out of it once. Don't ask me what's up with his face. I took 4 or 5 pictures, and couldn't get him to change his expression.

Almost every afternoon in Ruby Valley we could fly a kite. This particular afternoon, Tyler was home - so he came with us for the maiden voyage of the red baron. Notice we have plenty of open space too. You may recognize the kite, as Ian's cousin, Mae has the same kite. They have great taste!

Ian didn't last long before he found this nice patch of snow. It was filthy - but he was apparently thirsty.

Cameron wasn't terribly impressed. Maybe next year.

This is after building dams in our creek. Cameron walks really well on flat surfaces - but he's not terribly stable on varied terrain. He was standing near on biggest dam when he toppled over on his face. In my hurry to pick him up, I forgot I was standing in 3 inches of water. To add insult to injury, Cameron got a face full of water....pretty dirty water. He wasn't happy until we got him in the warm bath. I can't blame him!

Livingstone News

1. Cameron weaned himself. He woke up last Saturday, and decided he was finished nursing. I could tell he was losing interest, so I am surprised/pleased he made it to almost 11 months. Ian self weaned at 7 months. Here I was all worried about weaning. I'd never actually weaned a baby before. But - he took care of it for me. It's not like I'm not all for nursing babies - but I am glad to put away the nursing bras for awhile. WELCOME BACK, PADDED UNDERWIRES - I have missed you!!


2. My Uncle Wendell got roughed up by some of his bulls a few weeks ago. They broke his leg in three places. He is in a walking cast now, but still cannot walk. Tyler is feeding his cows for him. I was talking to Ian about how Uncle Wendell still can't walk well enough to do his work. He thought for a minute, then said "Maybe Jesus can touch his leg, then he can walk again."

3. Cameron is walking about 80% of the time now. I love to watch him walk with his little bowlegs. Hopefully we can introduce him to varied terrain in a few weeks when it warms up and dries out!

4. Yesterday, I made a double batch of bread. This is the amount my mother makes all the time, but my mixer will only hold half of what she makes. Well, I thought, even though I have to make it by hand, it won't take that much more work to make twice as much, and therefore have to make it less often. Well, we ended up with 6 beautiful loaves of bread, but it WAS more work because I had these two helping me:

You can tell Cameron had the best time doing this. This is close to the beginning of the process. He had dough all over both hands, his face and his shirt when we were done. I had to give both of them a bath when we finished.

5. Tyler is heavily involved in organizing opposition to the Forest Service's latest road closure plan. They want to close off hundreds of miles of access roads to the forest, many of them affecting rancher's access and ability to do their work. They (USFS) have been quite dishonest about the details of their plan. One of the access points they plan to close is on our ranch. They (the group of ranchers) have been meeting often and have drawn up a plan to keep these closures from happening. If you are interested in the details, Tyler could explain more.

6. It's two days until my birthday!!! Who says adults don't get excited about their birthdays? I will be 35, and although I never thought I'd be this old, I'm still excited for my birthday. I'm trying to decide what kind of delicious cake I'm going to make. Any suggestions?

7. On Monday, I took Ian down to the barn so he could go tagging calves with his Uncle Jared. Wouldn't you know - the first thing that happened??? - a heifer, who had just calved, tried to run him down. Jared pushed Ian behind a panel so he wouldn't get hurt - but he was hysterical for a good half hour. He did eventually recover, and went tagging with Jared, but he says they didn't go back to see that (his words) "crusty old cow" again.

8. I noticed the other day that one of Cameron's front teeth is chipped. I have no idea where or when it happened. He gets pushed down a lot (by an unnamed person), and chews on rocks, bolts and other hazardous material every chance he gets, so it could have happened anytime. I just can't believe I didn't notice.

9. We may live 55 miles from the nearest grocery store, 150 miles from a Target or Costco and a respectable hospital, 250 miles from an international airport, have one of the shortest growing seasons in the US, and a questionable local school.............but you just can't beat this during your morning jog:

Beanbag Success

I finally finished my prototype bean bag. (Is bean bag one word or two?) I should have put one of the kids on so you could see how massive it is. I don't know how we ever thought we would fit three of these in that room. Anyway, these are some things I have learned about making bean bags:

1. Material with a little stretch might lend itself to this project. You don't want to fill your bags completely full, because then they'll be rock hard - but when you leave space for the beads to fill in around you, you have a lot of extra material on the top. Our material has stretched a little - but it doesn't retract.

2. Get a heavy needle and polyester thread to sew on the velcro. My thread kept breaking. That was the hardest part of the bag to sew.

3. Make your liner slightly bigger than your outside bag, and make sure you make it from good, sturdy material, so you don't have rips that allow beans to escape!

4. Find an ADULT buddy to help you fill the bag.

5. NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY TO FILL YOUR BAG INSIDE YOUR HOUSE - ESPECIALLY WITH A 3 YEAR OLD AND A ONE YEAR OLD AROUND. YOU CANNOT HOPE TO CONTAIN IT TO ONE ROOM. Seriously. It took me 1 hour to fill the bag up - and 4 hours to clean the house up. I didn't take any pictures - but it was an enormous mess - and I hope to avoid this on my next bag.

All this being said, we are pleased with our bean bag. We are just glad to finally have something to sit on. Now, just say a little prayer with me that nothing will every puncture the outside or the inside bag!