Blankets and Quilts

This year, I made all the kids a blanket/quilt for their birthday. Not that any of them can use them right now...but when the winter comes they will be excited to use them.

Jaxen's quilt has a soccer theme. I also asked him what his favorite colors were and that is where the other colors come in. It is twin size and the backing is an orange fleece. If I could do it over again, I might add another fabric with print instead of all solid colors.

Ember's was the easiest to plan. She loves dogs and cats, so I knew that would be her theme. The fabric was easy to find, but one decided to shrink more than others in the wash, so I had to downsize the quilt a bit because I wasn't willing to buy more. It is a little smaller than a twin size. The backing is a cream fleece.

I hate to waste anything, so I wanted to find a way to use the left over fleece from the other quilts. Kaysen's blanket used the remnants from Jaxen's quilt. It ended up being about 48"x50-something. A pretty good size. We went with the monster print because that is his nickname to some members of our family. It is just a fleece on fleece blanket. The backing is the remnants sewn together with the top panel. No fringe, just sewn right sides together, flipped out, and another border edging.

Owen's blanket is made with Ember's remnant fleece. It is bigger than Kaysen's because Ember's blanket was smaller than Jaxen's. Real life word problem, right? Anyway, he LOVES Toy Story, so I sent Shaun to pick out some fleece to make this blanket. It ended up being 48"x60", give or take an inch. Same deal as Kaysen's on the put together.

I am so glad to be done with them though. I belted out one a month for the past four months. Some easier than others, but all the same, I am a little burnt out. I plan to take a break and work on my scrap-booking...which has not stopped piling up.

Kaysen James

 Kaysen James came into this world on July 13, 2009 at 11:21 a.m. He was my biggest baby at 9 lbs 14 oz. I think he would have weighed more if he was weighed before he "let it all out". I knew he didn't have much space in there, but I wouldn't have guessed he weighed close to 10 lbs!

He was my calmest baby. It isn't until recently that he found his set of lungs. For those of you "lucky" enough to experience the ear-splitting shrieks of delight...and the ear-splitting shrieks of anger...thank you for smiling and not saying anything.

He had the most hair at birth than any of my other children, and also the darkest and thickest. It is still thick and luxurious to this day. This kid never had a bald spot. He does wake up with a wicked teased look in the back every morning. I held out hope that I would get by blue eyed baby, but brown eyes are beautiful too.

Kaysen started crawling on March 10th and it didn't take long before he had the urge to walk (May 26th). He waves, he claps, he has a shy head tilt, he blows raspberries, he covers and uncovers his mouth while making noise. He can climb off the bed. He learns something new everyday, and his brothers and sister are there to help him learn. He is in the bruised up stage of his life. Not tall enough to do much of anything, but tall enough to run into every corner and trip of every toy and sibling. He has a beautiful smile.

I love you Kaysen James. I may not know what to get you for your birthday... (What do you get the boy who has everything?!) ...but I love you more than any present can convey. Surely you are my favorite-st baby in the whole wide world! 

Happy Birthday Kaysen James!!!!

Nothing hits the spot like cake and ice cream!

Owen....

BEFORE

AFTER

Owen begged for a hair cut. Shaun was in desperate need of a cut and I was getting things ready to do his hair. Owen said he wanted a hair cut. I tried to talk him out of it with talks of sweets and movies, but he wasn't buying it. He wanted a haircut. He wanted one like Daddy. He sat there as perfectly still as any two year old can, and let me chop it off. It wasn't until there was lots of little hairs all over his body that he started squirming. We did save a lock for his baby book.

I can't believe it. I couldn't picture what he would look like with short hair! Surprisingly, he hair is pretty thick. He didn't like all the attention he got from the relatives at the party tonight, though. We didn't tell anyone, just let them see him for themselves. Three out of four adults shrieked and one nephew wanted to know who he was. Twas great! 

To Grandmother's House we go...

My parents moved not to long ago down to Sierra Vista. We have never been there and decided to take some time this summer to visit Grandma and Grandpa. (Grandma was missin' us real bad!)

So we loaded up on a Thursday morning and headed out.

Our first day there we just sort of hung out. We went over to visit my Uncle JR (my Dad's brother). We also drove around to look for deer. The names of where we went are escaping me at the moment, but we went through two beautiful scenic routes down there. We saw five does. It was really neat to see them in people's front yards just grazing. Afterward we went out to eat at the Golden Corral.

The next morning we got up early and headed out to Tombstone. We have never been there either. It was neat to see the older buildings and the horse drawn carriages. The shops had tons of interesting things. A necklace with a scorpion embedded in it, black jack chewing gum, lots of rocks, jewelery, and other odds and ends. The kids of course wanted something from every store we went into. I did end up with a beautiful necklace from the trip. We had lunch at a little saloon over there and decided to make our way over to Bisbee to check it out. On our way out of the restaurant it starts to rain hard for the next 30 minutes or more. We ended up taking shelter in a shop. After the rain slowed we braved the trip to the van.

Hanging outside a shop

This was the street musician. The kids played music with him right before it started to pour. 

 Coincidence? I think not!

Next we headed over to Bisbee to check it out. The city is beautiful. Postcard beautiful. It is like a fake city from a movie. The house are literally built into the mountains. We got out and walked around the little shops. It was quaint. It was different. We wanted to check out the mine, but it was closed for the day. We drove back and had an awesome BBQ and went swimming. (Apparently the rain only liked Tombstone and Bisbee.)

We are planning to go up again for the Fall break and spend a little bit more time there.