For Lack of a Better Name...

You know how everyone is all of a sudden crafty? It seems like I can't blog stalk for one minute without being bombarded by how uncreative I am compared to every other mom on the block. Well, a friend of mine and I spent months aww-ing over adorable patterns and templates. And we grumbled about the dang kids who are both the reason we want to make things and the reason we don’t have time to make them.

Then, we reached our limit and came up with a plan. We would just have to ignore all other responsibilities and get some projects started. We really wracked our brains and came up with our very creative title of sewing club. The name really does not capture the essence that is sewing club. Sewing club is equal parts insanity and creativity, quality girl time and chaos. One day a week, a group of us, including all babies and kids of various ages, meet at my house for about four hours and try to complete a project. We get amazingly little done. What should have been a half hour project will likely take the entire four hours while the more intense designs take a few meetings to complete.

Why does it take so long? Well, let’s take last week for an example. We had 7 moms in attendance and 15 kids. Between sharing ideas, trying to figure out how to actually follow a pattern, unjamming the sewing machine again, feeding starving children, herding them back outside, breaking up fights, fixing owies and chatting about every topic under the sun, there is little time left.

Oh, and of course wrestling our supplies away from the crawlers.

We had an interesting incident a few weeks ago after one of the children insisted on pulling his mother outside to look at a spider. I was thinking how grateful I was it wasn’t my child when the mom is suddenly pulling me out the door with her and telling me to bring my camera. Here’s what we found.

Crazy huh? It was on the most intricate, enormous web in the corner of my backyard. I am not one for insect life but for a creepy crawly, it is pretty cool looking. Sadly, the spider met an untimely death shortly after. He will be missed… yeah not really but more than I have ever missed any other spider in my life.

Though we don’t get much done, we do get something done. Which is way more than I could say about my craftiness pre-sewing club. This has been going on for a few months now so it might actually look like we have accomplished a lot!

Since most of the products were made for her, Scarlet will serve as my model
One of our first projects was hooded towels.

Then there was hair bow week. We came up with these fun little creations.

We then found a pattern to turn a men’s shirt into a toddler dress.


I am so sad I didn't take a picture of the shirt before I cut it up. It turned out pretty fun though.

If you can see, the buttons down the back of the dress are the buttons from the front of the shirt.


Scarlet is also sporting her mom’s other project, fabric flowers.


And, most recently, we have my latest crochet project.

I was hoping to get a group picture last week but it was cancelled due to kid sickness.

Even when we get nothing accomplished, the kids destroy the backyard and front room, and my husband complains because he has once again sat on a errant pin, I still absolutely love sewing club. It is one of the happiest times of my week. So to all my sewing club ladies, thank you for all the memories made and all the ones to come.

Next on the sewing agenda, little boys church ties. Stay tuned!

A blur...

For the life of me I do not know where this last month has gone. Time is rushing by me faster than I can manage to grasp. All of a sudden I have a one year old child and my little newborn baby is gone. My first little baby has turned into a talking, singing, intelligently silly girl. And “the holidays” are absolutely around the corner. Where did September go people?!

But first things first. Before any more time passes and the kid turns two, here is a little insight on my not-so-fabulous first birthday party for Rhode.

I really try to care about my kids’ first birthdays but I just really don’t. I need a little more recognition from the receiver as motivation for extra effort. But, even in its pathetic-ness, it was still a nice little get together.

Some of Rhode’s closest friends came over. Well, some of my closest friends came over and brought their babies of various ages that Rhode loves to whack and take toys from. Same thing, right?

We had some good food, good conversation, and good play time for the kids until I realized the guest of honor had not actually joined the party from his afternoon nap. So I peeked in to see how the little guy was doing. This is what I found.




Rhode was a little dazed when I brought his more sturdily wrapped behind downstairs. I thought a little cake would wake him up. Oh, the cake. I was so embarrassed by it I almost didn’t let Jon take a picture. Let me explain. I wasn’t planning much on the cake front but I did want Rhode to have a cake just for him. So I made him a little two layer number that would be perfect for grabbing a whole handful.

While people were walking in the door I was scrambling to make some frosting. I don’t know what I did wrong but it was REALLY thin. I tried to add some food coloring for a little bit of creativity. I’m still not sure how I created the teal sea monster green shade.

So with no further ado, my son’s one year old birthday cake.

Anyone else feel like they are at a Mad Hatter tea party that went really wrong?

Rhode was obviously traumatized by the green monstrosity in front of him. He wouldn’t touch it for a million dollars. That is until some of the other kids braved the blob and showed Rhode how it was done.

He caught on quickly.


I let him tear at his presents, which he thoroughly enjoyed doing.


And now the reaction. What would he think of his new set of cars from the Stouts?


Success! Dang maybe we should have started with mom and dad’s gift…



Relief, he likes ours too.

I have so enjoyed this little boy. He is a bundle of chubs and smiles and I just want to kiss him all day long. He is going through a major mommy loving phase and I constantly find him on my lap or being carried on my hip before I realize I have actually picked him up yet again!
He has a few words. Mostly mama and dada but we get the occasional byebye, baba, and all done (ah da!). He just popped down a top tooth to raise the molar meter to three. No solid walking yet but he let go of the couch just last week and took about four steps to get to me. We’ll take it!

Now onto the rest of our month. Our good friends, the Stouts, got themselves a big old family car. We like to call it the fancy beast. First, their diesel excursion was just called the beast for obvious reasons. Any car that sounds like the school bus pulling up in front of your house deserves the nickname. But inside, it is one luxury looking car with dvd player and everything. Thus, fancy beast.

The best part about the fancy beast is we can now carpool. How many babies in car seats can you fit in the fancy beast?


Yeah that would be six. Three of Ashley’s, one extra she babysits, and my two. We looked like we were unloading the clown car when we got to the park. People passing by wondered if the train of babies coming from one car would ever end.

But we found this great city park. A good set of swings, slides for little kids, and a water park right in the middle of it.

Child heaven!

I tried to get Scarlet to stand in this spot where water would spray up around her in a circle without spraying her. She lasted just until the water started rising, then panicked and got some serious water in the face as she escaped from the circle of impending doom.
Bennett obliged as my new model.

I love this picture of the kids getting completely dumped on.


And finally, a little more fun in the Nielsen backyard. I know if I leave the kids with dad too long in the backyard, I am going to want to pull out the camera. Or save them from immanent death/injury.

This time, he found a solution to the age old problem. What do you do with two kids and one swing?

Pull some cirque du soliel style tricks!


And when that is not enough to keep daddy amused, make the baby stand.




I am speaking in Sacrament meeting in about two hours and teach Sunday School an hour after that. I think I should maybe start working on that…

Scarletism #2

It was a chilly 78 degrees yesterday so we finally got to break out the fall clothes. The whole family got to wear their new jeans. Actually, by whole family I mean the kids. My jeans have holes I am hoping are too visible if I keep moving at all times. Anyway..

Scarlet was very excited to be wearing her new jeans but she had trouble keeping them around her waist. For a chick with some booty, she sure struggles to keep her pants up. So she took them off all day long.

Finally the missionaries were coming for dinner, and this conversation ensued:

Me: Scarlet, this is my last warning, you need to go put on your jeans now before the missionaries come over.

Scarlet: No mom, no jeans.

Me: Yes, I mean it. Go grab them from the stairs and I will help you put them on.

Scarlet: But mom... (pauses to get her words in order)...... my jeans are heavy on my yegs!




I think we might have turned her into a Vegas lifer. She happily came downstairs with a pair of denim shorts she found in her drawer.