Indian Gift-Maker and Her Extraordinary Friends

(I was going to call this post "Strip Quilters," but then thought that might be misleading...)
Grandma Windham was a quilter and seamstress extraordinaire. She also saved every scrap she ever had, cut them into strips, and taped them onto a toilet paper rolls. At the garage sale this past summer there were two huge (think two feet by three feet) zip-lock bags FULL of these scraps. I took one home thinking a strip quilt would make a really great gift for...someone. Well, someone particular.
Back in October I started unrolling strips of fabric from the toilet paper rolls to find that some were only two inches long and some were only a 1/2" wide. Some were over four feet long and three inches wide. I sorted them by colors - blue, red, purple, green, yellow, orange, tan, brown, and white. By November I was sorting each color by length, shortest to longest. I had even sewn all of the blue strips and some pink together before Thanksgiving. After turkey day it was crunch time. If I wanted to give this away then I needed it done really soon. I sewed whenever I had a chance and got almost all of the strips sewn together...and then I called for back up. Tara and Taffy came over and spent five hours with me sewing, trimming, and piecing until the quilt top was completed. I provided lunch and a peach pie. Three sewing machines! Awesome!Then we sat and looked at the finished product (almost - just needs a border)...And I decided/they convinced me that I couldn't give it away. I know! How awful is that!? I spent the next three days contemplating new gift ideas for that person and found something that worked just fine...and now I have a beautiful quilt top waiting to be quilted (a project for January).
I have truly special friends. Two in a billion.

Bye, Christmas.

On Christmas Eve Rus and I had a "discussion" with our kids right before bedtime.
"No going downstairs without Mom or Dad."
"No waking up other kids until you talk to Mom or Dad."
"No waking up before 6am."
Wouldn't you know it, I woke up just before six, filled with anticipation, and had to wait...the kids didn't wake up until 6:46. I remember because Bekah ran into our room yelling, "It's 6:46! We slept in! It's time!"
I called my parents and they hurried over so they could share Christmas morning with us.
The first thing Bekah saw when she went downstairs was this:Doesn't every little girl need a hot pink kitchen? The wrapped present was a new Easy Bake oven from Santa. The curtains are hiding two little blue Ikea drawers and a shelf. The curtains are from my favorite fabric ever and the glass knobs were stolen (with permission) from an old cabinet of my mom's. The inspiration came from www.anawhite.com. Bekah loved it and has been eating every meal at it every day and trying to store everything inside of it. (She's a cute little pack rat.)When Jacob came downstairs he saw an awesome hot wheels chain reaction toy and a wrapped present that contained...LEGOS! Can I just say that I am SO happy I have a kid old enough to play with legos? I LOVE legos!
Beau had a fun new train track set with motorized cars and CANDY! His smile in this picture is from finding candy in Rus's stocking.I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas from Santa - a really nice face painting kid from Klutz. And a new watch from my parents. And brown boots and a cute necklace. And the "Hello Cupcake" cookbook, a "Salsa Brava" cookbook from my favorite mexican restaurant in Flagstaff, and a water-bath canner. Tyler and Gina gave us a really cool (heavy) magnet board and a balloon animal kit. I am totally going to become a Carny now. (I have a unicycle in the garage - Rus's mom's actually - I'll have to learn how to ride it.) I also got a #1 Mom award from Amy. Inside joke - totally made me laugh.
Anyway...ever since Tyler and Gina's reception (where there was a face painter present), I had dreamed of getting a face painting set and painting all the kid's faces on Christmas day. And that is exactly what I did. Bekah started out with snowflakes...(My hidden talent - making snowflakes)Jacob had fire (here with his new headlamp, too)...Then Bekah, Libby, and Zaya wanted to be butterflies and Emma wanted to be a cat.Zaya's was especially cool with her green eyes (and messy face).It was a perfect day. Really. Oh and the night before wasn't too bad either...everyone came down for Christmas Eve dinner and of course we had the little kids reenact the nativity, Rus and Jake wrestled, little Jacob almost got wrapped in a box, we sung Christmas songs (including Jingle Bells in Luff language), and my dad read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the little kids. Oh my how I LOVE Christmas! I am grateful it was such a special experience this year...and to be truthful I am grateful it's over!

Santa's Workshop

Bekah and Santa at school

Oh my if I only had another week/month until Christmas! This elf is TIRED!
I may or may not have been:
Taking pictures of all of the kids at Bekah's school with Santa (over 500 pics)
Doing custom drawings for my etsy shop, BeDoodled
Making my first quilt top
Making a play kitchen for Bekah...hot pink and SO exciting!
Having a stomach bug...yuck
Scrounging for friend gifts and teacher gifts for Bekah to take to school
Celebrating Jacob's 5th birthday! WOW!
Making a volcano cake for Jacob's birthday - a smoking volcano
Remodeling the master bathroom at Grams' house - the house we're buying and moving into sometime next year...we tore out the old shower, removed the 30+ year old red carpet (yes, in the bathroom!), Rus worked on the shower pan while I framed out the new shower and hopefully we'll be tiling the shower and the floor in the next week.
Visiting with family - hooray!
Shopping, shopping, shopping...oh how I hate Walmart at Christmas time
Eating - I love me some oreo truffles!
Not blogging, obviously.
Hopefully I can elaborate on this all later! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Rise and Shiner

This morning I woke to an awkward knocking at the door, followed by a jumbled turning of the knob and then a Beau spilling into my room, one shoe on and three shoes in hand. He came to my side of the bed.
"Hepme, Momma."
I leaned way over the side of my bed to reach his bare feet and covered them in the socks he had provided, then put his shoes on.
"Socks my hands," he said now, putting another pair of socks on his hands and then inserting them into the other pair of shoes.
I suddenly remembered the ward Christmas party from the night before and how Beau had been spinning merrily before he crashed fantastically into the ground, his nose absorbing the blow. I saw it happen and grabbed him as quickly as I could, trying to hug him, leave the room, and not let his nose touch my shirt because I knew it was going to bleed.
Which it did.
A lot.
I made it to the bathroom sink at least, but that didn't spare the floor right by the sink or my shoe or my shirt from getting dripped on. Or the trash can when I went to throw away dirty towels. Eventually it slowed down enough for me to get some toilet paper from the stall and hold it on his nose.
"Rus! Russy!" he cried now. I agreed and we left (after cleaning his mess), and tried to find Rus. Beau was still crying and bleeding a little when Rus took him and just happened to sit at the table with the two out of three nurses in our ward. They both took a good look at Beau's nose.
"Swollen."
"Badly bruised."
"Probably not broken."
"Straight," they said with a cheerful tone (like, "look at the bright side!")
"Nothin' you can do if it is broken anyway."
"Needs ice."
So we left, causing Bekah tears because she was "just starting to have fun." Beau calmed down and even slept good last night (with the help of some ibuprofen).
So after Beau came into my room this morning and had me help shoe his hands and feet, I suddenly remembered the night before and took a good look at his nose. It was still swollen and his right eye looked puffy underneath - I can't wait to see the shiner that's forming!
Here it is today:
Whatever sympathy I was feeling was forgotten when Beau (now with four shoes on), trotted out of my room on his hands and feet, bum sticking straight up in the air. He came back a few minutes later to grab a stuffed animal. With his mouth. And then trotted out again.
What a wonderful way to wake up!

Colonel Goes To School

Yesterday morning I loaded the kids in the van...and decided that Colonel wouldn't mind a ride, either, so I opened the back door and in he went. After all I was just dropping Bekah and her friend Grace off at school, taking Jacob to preschool, and then going home. No problem.
Bekah's school has a student drop-off area where the cars pull through single file and unload their passengers. I pulled forward, put the van in park (because I have to do that to open the sliding doors), and pushed the button to open the side door. No sooner had it opened than Colonel had hopped the back seat, pushed past Grace, and was out the door greeting Bekah's schoolmates. He was prancing and leaping happily while I was yelling his name and rushing out of my van to catch him. Then he seemed to realize where the flow of children was headed - the front door of the school! He made a made dash for it while I followed behind yelling "Nonononono!!!" He got in the first set of doors before I was able to catch him. The kids seemed surprised but not scared, thankfully. I pulled him outside and gave him a knee to the chest. I might have almost growled at him...no wait that's Rus who does that. Then I took him by the collar back to my van that was looking rather lonesome in the drop off area...all the other cars had been kind enough to just go past me. I passed Bekah and she said "Bye, Mom," like it was nothing. Like I do this everyday.
I spent the next ten minutes driving and stopping and opening the door and telling Colonel "NO," so he would get the idea that an opening door does not mean he's welcome out of the van.
Then I called Rus and had a good laugh.

Tyler's Wedding and Turkey Day Fun

Where oh where to start...
Last week we headed out to Mesa for the big weekend. I admit that Rus did a lot of the final loading/packing work because I was completely distracted by THIS and the immediate stir it caused in my Etsy shop. (Thank you Ashley!).
We drove seven hours and found ourselves at Rus's cousin Tom's new house in Gilbert. The kids were disappointed that the pool was too cold to take a dip in, but the swing set made up for that. We unloaded, hung out, visited with each consecutive Hartman that showed up, (I LOVE the Hartmans! I've adopted them), and then had to head over to my uncle's house to witness his big annual neighborhood pit-roasting event. Seriously it is a neighborhood affair - at last count there were over 70 turkeys patiently waiting for the flames to die down so they could be reduced to succulent goodness. The neighbors brought hot chocolate and donuts and I quickly lost the battle between dinner and dessert with my kids. Instead I turned my attention to my family: James and his wife Carrie were already there along with my parents and Tyler and Gina. Amy and Mike showed up a little later. Throw in aunts, uncles, cousins, and my cousin's kids and we had a regular party going on!
Unfortunately we couldn't stay too late because I needed to get to bed so I'd be ready for my Mi Amigo Turkey Trot 10K the next morning. Tyler and I did it together and had a great time...even if I wound up running with my phone because I didn't have anyone to give it to, so I put it in my sports bra and by the end of the race it was fritzing out...whoops...and I was also carrying the keys to Tom's beautiful truck that he let me drive (eek!), and my parents didn't even see me run past them (nor I them), and Rus was late, so basically no one actually witnessed me running (I made it up, really)....but my time was 54:36 and I was pretty happy with that. Tyler made it in 46:?? so he was faster than a turkey.
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, as always - hooray for rolls and gravy and stuffing and Matt's sweet potatoes!

Afterwards we hung out, crafted, napped, and saw Harry Potter while my uncle Jerry watched our kids (or so he claimed ;).
Friday dawned early and happy...Beau came into our room, crawled in bed with us, and proved to Rus that he is the best back scratcher in the family. Rus says it's because he did it with a little anger. We spent the morning giving haircuts and getting spiffy and were plenty early to the temple - apparently I don't listen when Rus tells me things sometimes and the wedding really was at 11:15 and not 11:00. In the meantime we hung out in the visitor center.

The wedding was wonderful, really really wonderfully incredible. You could just tell when Tyler and Gina walked in and in the way they looked at each other (keep looking, keep looking!), that they were filled with contentment and peace and joy. Oh and love. It was a really special experience....plus the sealer who married them was the same one who married Rus and I, so that was cool. I'd like to thank my mom again for handing me her questionable, wadded up tissue when I needed one badly. I love this picture:Dad, Keri, James, Amy, Tyler, Gina, Jared, Amanda, Mom

I *heart* Lindsey!

There's the beautiful bride!
Afterward we headed out to take family pictures on the temple grounds. Some of my favorite memories were from then. Coolest part: when Jacob peed on a tree. I didn't see it but someone else was kind enough to point it out to Rus. Second coolest part: James telling Jacob, "Okay, you run and I'm going to see if I can hit you with this grapefruit." And Jacob ran. And James couldn't hit the broad side of a barn because he's left handed but because one of his digits got caught (cut) up in a table saw (just the tip) he had to throw right-handed. Third coolest part: When my nephew Hayden walked around collecting grapefruits, saying he wanted to make lemonade with them. (Did you know that the Mesa temple grounds have grapefruit trees?) Here are all of us in age order: James, Amanda, Jared, Amy, Tyler & Gina, Keri, And my parents. I look really tall. It was the heels...but my sisters were wearing heels, too...Check out these Sassy Girls!! Lindsey I LOVE this picture!

(Beau wanted no one but his grandpa the whole weekend. Literally. He shrieked at everyone, but watched football, ate, played with, and was carried around by Grandpa.)

After playing around for far too long I left the temple grounds, barefoot, happy, with my family so we could go to the luncheon. More visiting, talking, eating, laughing, and then Carrie (my oldest brother James' wife), bribed me to leave and take her with us. Not really bribed, more like suggested, and I didn't need convincing...comfy clothes and a soft couch sounded pretty good to me. That night was relaxing and fun. Rus went to hang out with Tom, I got nail polish with Lindsey so we could paint our toes plaid, and Beau and Jacob did a fine job of nearly ruining the puzzle James and Carrie and been working on for two days.
Saturday morning Lindsey came over to Tom's house and we all enjoyed the worlds best waffles and buttermilk syrup together. Tom might have proclaimed his love...for my cooking. Later we cleaned up, packed up, thanked Tom for letting us stay there, apologized for Jacob puking on his carpet in the middle of the night and for Bekah breaking a bowl, and headed out to Tucson for the reception. Well at least we drove approximately .85 mile until Tom called and we returned for the box for Rus's new gun that he bought a month ago, unbeknownst to me. (Thanks Tom for your underhanded deeds.) At that moment I lost all remorse for the pair of shoes I bought the day before with Lindsey without telling Rus.
When we got to Tucson we decided to visit the Sonoran Desert Museum just so our kids could whine and complain and Rus could take some awesome pictures. I'd love to go back. When my kids are either mute or older or happier.
The reception was actually in Vail, just south of Tucson. It involved cheese and chocolate fondues, brownies, my homemade marshmallows, pound cake, veggies, bread, and a wonderful face-painter-friend of my mom named Carrie (also), who painted all the children's faces. It was really fun to see old friends, eat good food, and make new friends.
Phew. Takes a weight off me just to get all of that down on paper...er...computer. If you made it this far, kudos!