Last week of January

For Valentine's Day, my friend Linda hosted a sock exchange. It could be any socks and include anything else we wanted to provide. This was my package from Pam in OH. I love the purple and camping socks and those heart pins are so cool. The kids found the candy quickly. 

Mikaela wanted a new minkee blanket and I quilted this minkee with luxe cuddle on the back. My friend Emilee did the binding for me. It turned out wonderful and Mikaela loves it. 

Mathew needed some additional masks, so I made him a few new ones. 

My leader ender project this week has been mini Brick Road blocks for a table runner. I'm using Glamping Gypsies scraps. 

I'm working on a new baby quilt and these are the giraffe heads. 

Our Chiefs are in the Super Bowl, so we're looking forward to watching on Sunday. 

I finished the Hope quilt along top and bought backing, so I hope to quilt it soon. 

My stash report for January:

In this Month: 14.75

Out This Month: 24 yards
____________________________

+9.25 yards of stash used

 

August Family

Paul's grandpa passed away in KS in August, so we went to his funeral. This picture is our family with Paul's dad Mike.

We got to see Great Aunt Lil as well.

My MIL with Aunt Lil

My MIL, Aunt Lil, and I

Paul, Mikaela, and Mike

Our family

Grandpa Mike and the kids before we left.

We also traded our camper for a bigger one with a separate bedroom in the back for the kids. We love it so far.

This is with the slide in, but it's really pretty and has a nice hardwood looking floor.

Catching Up

I've been remiss in posting on my blog, for what I thought was a month, but now realize was almost all summer. I went on vacation for the month of July and didn't get back to it. We've had some family events that lead me to be a bit more stressed than normal. I am rarely stressed, so the past few months have tested me.

In July I took almost 3 full weeks off of work and in the midst of my time off Jennifer and Colleen, blogging friends from Indianapolis, IN and Omaha, NE both visited the Black Hills with their families on their vacations. Our families were able to get together in the Badlands on the hottest day of the year, but we had an incredible time meeting. I had met each of them, but not their families and they hadn't met, so it was an incredibly fun bloggers reunion. We've been friends for about 11 years. 

Our kids had fun climbing and playing while we had a picnic.

In August my husband's grandpa passed away in KS, so we made a trip to KS/MO to visit.

We purchased a new camper, furnace/central air, a shed, and my husband has a new truck coming, so lots of changes in our home life too. Cleaning out the old camper and setting up the new one has been fun. We have a lot more storage. We've been moving stuff around in the garage and out to the shed to make room for my MIL's new car as well. My husband finished his mom's bathroom just in the nick of time for her hip surgery in September and she's currently recovering from it. I've been playing chauffeur and personal assistant to her for the past couple weeks and have a good month left before she's back to work.
What's in store for me? A work trip to Detroit in 2 weeks with the added perk of seeing Regina, one of my best and oldest blogging friends. I'm so looking forward to her being able to see me while I'm at a work conference for UPCEA.
I've got a few finishes to share, but if you'd like to follow my current progress like my Instagram page or friend me on Facebook. I'm much more current on both of those social media sites.

ALYOF May Goal Met

May has been a busy month, but boy do I feel like I accomplished a lot. I finished my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes.  I was able to quickly finish Mathew's Thomas the Train Sew Together bag. It was super easy and he loves it for all his little trains. I love how easy it is to put them all away and quickly take them with us, especially camping.

The zippers are great for his developmental aspect.

It was so easy that I quickly made Mikaela one as well.

The weekend before and Memorial day weekend were spent camping - with electricity!! I love Mikaela's sewing machine for sewing in the camper. I can quickly set up and sew. I've pieced a lot of HST's for a Jewel box quilt and sewn strip sets for a quilt for my MIL.

Mikaela and I also made taggy blankets for her daycare providers new twin grandsons. We made a couple extra too. Two fat quarters of minkee make 2 taggy blankets.

Mikaela picked out this unicorn fabric, so I made her a basket to put her baby in.

I pulled out the embroidery machine to make a label for the NACAA quilt I made. It should be back from the quilter in a few weeks and I can bind and add it before the end of the month.

I used the leftover blocks from that quilt to make a small one as well.

My biggest accomplishment is an SDSU Pride of the Dakotas Marching band quilt made from my t-shirts from my band days. I've been planning to make this for 13 years, since I graduated, but it just hadn't happened. It just took a little look at SDSU in a different light to inspire me to finish it. So excited that I made it and quilted it in under 2 weeks and should be ready to bind it this week! Go Jacks!


My little jackrabbits are super supportive! Love how big they are growing up to be. Preschool is over for the summer and now they have many adventures to go on. This week is Teddy Bear week, so they are super excited.

Kids Camping & Parade

We went camping over the Labor Day weekend. Since I so often take pictures of Mathew, I thought I would try to get a few of Mikaela. She was less than cooperative. Here are a few from our Saturday morning, right after she got ready for the day.






Later in the day we went to the beach. Mathew didn't like the beach, but he did have fun on the shore.

Mikaela and mommy played in the sand.

Later in the evening we went back and Mathew played with Grandma Leslie.

He loves to stand up and wants to walk, just can't move the feet just right yet.

Mikaela was sporting her new water wings. She loves the water.

Last Saturday we went to Keystone for the Holy Terror Day Parade.






A sweet lady offered to take our family picture. It's been forever since we've had one taken.

Grandpa Hugh came and took Mikaela.

He took her for her first moving pony ride. She loved it and wanted to go back again and again.



She was slow to learn how to pick up candy, but eventually she got it!

Grandpa Hugh, Mathew, and Daddy sat back and watched near the store.

Grandma Ann was on the Emporium float. Mikaela was too busy catching bouncy balls to recognize her.

It was a great day for a parade and lunch with grandma and grandpa. The kids were beat!