Hello?

So I'm thinking about blogging again. Maybe, just maybe, I will let you all in on my everyday awesome life! I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it privately so let me if you want in! If anyone is still around...

fun hour at the beach

Jackie and Blythe picked me up from school and we went to the beach on this beautiful spring day. I don't mean to make anyone in Utah jealous because I hear it has been snowing, but Im sure the storm is just a matter of days away from us so we have to live it up when we have the good days. I have learned not to trust Chicago spring. anyway enough talking here are pictures.

Also Congratulations to Bret and Angela on their newest arrival!

here is my guitarist Bret in a music video with his band DulceSky. I was going to post some sort of practical joke because its april first but this is more productive.

Sunshine

I just might make it through the winter if we have more days like we had yesterday. It was sunny and above freezing! Blythe and I took advantage of the day and ventured out to the zoo with some friends. It was perfect. There weren't a lot of people, it was beautiful out and I found free parking. Blythe loved looking at the monkeys, gorillas, fish and Emmy running around (her friend). We were right up close to the giraffes, but Blythe didn't care much because they were just standing there eating. It's so much fun watching Blythe discover new things like animals existing outside of her books.

Here she is with Emmy watching the Gorillas. Blythe is in the pink and Emmy in the black coat.



I didn't get too many pictures, but here is one of her watching a gorilla not pictured.



And why not a few cute pictures of what she's been up too this last week. Like giving herself hugs.



She had a doctor appointment and she was so good this time. She just laid like this the whole time. I'll take this over a crying baby every time!

Birthday Girl

Get out of town!! One year already! (plus a month). I'm so happy I get to be this little girl's mom!





About half way through opening her presents, Blythe went through a toy overload. I love that you can see it in her expressions in these pictures. So we took a break, ate some dinner and had some Birthday cake.



She couldn't wait to eat this cake. We barely made it through Happy Birthday before she got her little finger in the frosting. Because of poor planning on my part, she had to sit and wait for me to frost the cake. I was going to do just plain cupcakes but saw this idea on the back of the cake box. I thought I could handle it. Joel and I made the frosting and iced this puppy in less then 10 minutes. So the polka dots and a bit pokey and the coloring on the "purple layer" is a bit off. But, these things didn't matter in the end. Blythe loved eating it!





After she licked as much sugar off her fingers and a good cleaning we finished opening her presents. I think she doubled her toy collection and tripled her book collection all in one night. What can I say, first kid, first birthday.. it's not spoiling! Ha ha. What a night!



Happy Birthday sweetie.

Finished

I decided to make this Halloween wall hanging/table topper/mini quilt/whatever you want to call it a couple weeks ago and get it done before my mom's birthday which was last week. I had a lot of doubts. I'm a pro at not getting things done on time or ever! So, I'm a little proud that I got this done and sent before her birthday. I also like how it turned out, but don't look too close. I usually have my mother-in-law, who is an amazing quilter, with me every step of the way when I make a quilt. This time I am here and she is in Hawaii. I did make a few phone calls, watch some tutorials online, and got some help from Joel. (He wanted to make sure everyone knew he helped out). So I didn't do it alone. I really need to work on my straight lines for the next one.. if there is a next one.

Blythe helped out a lot too. She loved crawling all over it. She also loved taking the scraps and hiding them all over the house. What a good little helper!



Happy Halloween!

Steps II

Here is a little video