August 20th

25 YEARS!!

Today Mike and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.

 I can't believe it has been that many years. It felt like just yesterday.....25 years and I have the most wonderful husband and 12 amazing kids. I look forward to the next 50 years with this great family of mine.

May 24

How do you know summer is on the way?
When you see this in the yard....I'll never like them.

(Mike's wears an 11.5 in a shoe.)

May 23

The shop is done on the outside. He will put electrical in next week.
But for now, it has been a long 10 days. This weekend is hanging out and B-B-Q time.
So glad this project is done, he can now build some cool cars again.( Remember he gave me his garage last summer for my sewing room.) He really couldn't do much without a shop.

May 22

The roof went on today and the wrap is going up for the siding...

May 19

And we are moving right along.

May 14

The shop is going up!!!

May 12

Mike got a new puppy on "Mother's Day". She is so sweet and adorable. He named her Maye.

May 11

 

We had a small Circus come through our little town. The kids had a blast. But, most of all I think Kellie getting to ride a horse.  A dream come true.

May 10

Kylene has a new person in her life. They were introduced through a mutual friend. His name is Ryan. Thought I'd share a photo of him. Tomorrow is his birthday and he is coming up to spend the day. So I will probably have more photo's and one of them together. He's a really nice boy and the kids really enjoy him when he visits.

May 10

The lumber for the shop was delivered today. The pile in the first photo will be put on the slab in the second photo to make a 30' x 60' shop. After all the years, and another 2500 sf to this house, I am still amazed how this works. To be continued..

May 9

I got my Mother's Day present early. A new back splash for the range. Oh, I was so excited when we were in Lowe's and he stopped to look at the backing. Really, for me? Yay! I pretty much jumped up and down clapping while he worked. Kinda felt 5 and  I'm not sure if that really helped? At least he new how much I appreciated it....

May 3

After having the long arm for over a year, I have finally decided I could possibly do this.
It has been the hardest thing I've learned in a loooong time. But I think I'm getting the hang of it.
I'm just learning how to rack the quilt, tie-off, baste.....all the basics first. Then there is the computer,
yeah, not my favorite...you have to learn to run the programs, line them up, re size the program ...
on and on...BUT...I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once I get all this necessary stuff down, I get to be creative, that is what I'm aiming for. I have been making large block quilts. They take maybe 20 minutes to cut and sew, but the large block lets me see my progress on the long arm. Practice makes progress, right? Not looking to be perfec,t just progress. I am so thankful Mike did all my quilts for the past year, this is quite the experience. (He's a quick learner. There isn't anything he can't do, really.) 

May 2

Happy 13th Birthday to our Miss Kellie. Our newest teenager.

April 29

Happy 11th Birthday our sweet boy Kye-Kye.

April 28

When Kassadie came home from the hospital, she brought some sort of cold with her. She is at the end of it now. But.....Kurtis, Kayna and Kevin have now got it. So, only what?  10 people left? Yep.
Not so fun.

Anyways, I wanted to make a needle book for my hand sewing needles. I googled and found quite a few tutorials. Kinda picked a little bit of this and a little bit of that from them and this is what I came up with. I really like the folksy large stitches, kind of a fan of the look.

Closed, it is 3"x4". I am going to make a much larger one now. There is no way all my needles will fit in this. But it was fun and I think it came out really cute for a just jumping in and giving it a go, with really no plan. (That's why the next one will be much larger).

April 20

Kylene started Cosmetology School last summer. We never let her color her hair before. We told her when she started school she could do what she wanted. That was part of the learning....right?
So after a half dozen shades of blond later, she wanted to be Kylene again. So off to Heather's we went.
Hi Heather!
You can see it was kind of a process to get it back. She had to put a filler on her hair before she colored it back. That would be the orange/red dye. Then she put Kylene's original hair color on.
YAY......We have our Kylene back.......well until she tries something else...*smile*
Love your new hair Kylene.

April 19

I've been working on a puzzle pattern quilt. The fabric has robots and gears. It was a really fun pattern to work with, so I thought I might have enough fabric left from the first one to make a second. Yep, I did. They look kind of big, but they are just toddler size.

I am going to try to learn the long arm machine tomorrow. We have had the machine a year now. I will see if I get frustrated or enjoy it. Mike has done all my quilts so far, he does such a fantastic job. I will see what I can do or just give in and let the Man do it. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow of my new adventure.

April 16

Kassadie had another cardio cath yesterday. They were going to close off a valve, but when they tested it with a balloon, her levels got too low. She came home today with a heart monitor. She will wear it through tomorrow. To sum it all up. She's doing fine but they do think they might need to put a pacemaker in to help her stabilize her rhythm. The doctor will call after her gets monitor back and let us know the next plan.

April 14

Happy Birthday Kate....you may be the oldest, but your still my baby!

April 13

Springtime.....everything is turning green.

April 7

Yep..a party with Kylene. That pretty much sums it up. :)