Trek's 32nd Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart!!! He turned 32 years old on the 25th of January. So in Potter tradition he woke up to his special birthday breakfast. It was a VERY early morning for me, but well worth his smiling face.

I made him his very favorite: biscuits & gravy, bacon, fresh blueberries, & scrambled eggs with cheese. Everybody LOVED it! And of course we had to have the Hostess Cupcakes with candles inside. I think Bladen enjoyed that chocolate cupcake a little too much.

After eating we got everyone together to hold up 32 fingers so we would always know how old daddy is. 10 on Cadence's hands, 10 on Lorien's hands, 10 on Taya's hands, & 2 on Daddy's.

For his birthday, the kids & I got him a blue ray player. We've been without a DVD player for a while now & it was driving us nuts. He was SHOCKED that he opened a Blue Ray player & not just a typical DVD Player. I love surprising him. It makes me happy.

Trek got all sorts of fun things. He got some nice dress shirts for school from Nancy, some money from his parents, my parents, & both grandma's, & a cool arm band for his iPhone from Justin & Cari. He had a great birthday.

For his birthday dinner I made his favorite: Fettachini Alfredo, Strawberry Almond Salad, & Breadsticks. It was YUMMY! And then to top the night off I made him a cinnabon cinnamon swirl cake. It wasn't very pretty (thanks to pregnancy problems & being unable to stand), but it tasted good & that's what really matters, right? He loved it & the kids loved singing to him ONE MORE TIME on his special day.

Happy Birthday my Sweetheart!! I LOVE YOU!!!

Lorien's 100th Day of School Project

For the 100th day of school, Lorien had to make a project that had 100 of something in it. We talked all weekend about some of the different things she could make. She decided that it would be fun to make a 100 brick igloo out of sugar cubes & frosting. I thought that was a fun idea too. So first we counted out 100 sugar cubes. Then Lorien started assembling them into a little house with a doorway (I helped with the math part on how many should go in each row.)

She built it entirely by herself which made me proud. She spread the frosting around each brick so that it would stay well & then stacked the house 6 levels high without it falling over.

I helped her frost some graham crackers for the roof & together we iced the roof with icicles made of frosting. Then Lorien added her own self portrait on the top with red & pink icing.

It turned out WAY cute & she was SO proud to present it to her class for the 100th day of school.

Lorien's 1st Missing Tooth

Guess who FINALLY lost their first tooth? Miss Lorien!!!! Hooray!! She was SO excited! It was wiggling like crazy so Daddy took his pliers to it & with some major pulling (we totally thought it would be easy, but it wasn't) we got it out for her. She was SO happy! And that night the Tooth Fairy came to visit & left her a whole DOLLAR!! So what did she do with her shiny new dollar? She immediately gave it to Cadence of course!!! Cadence has been saving her own money for a new bike & Lorien wanted to "help her out." Lorien is such a sweet sweet little girl. She is always wanting to help everyone else out.

Sewing Adventures

A dear friend of mine here decided that she wanted to teach me how to sew. I have a good sewing machine & a SUPER DUPER AWESOME embroidery machine, but I don't know how to use them. She is determined to make me a little sewing gal. Well, turns out, a TON of girls want to learn how to sew but don't know how to get started. So Kiona decided to make a little sewing club for us all. We meet once a week for a few hours & she teaches us the basics & we work on projects together. For January she wanted us to buy a pattern of any kind & she was going to teach us how to read a pattern. I chose a cute apron pattern, thinking it wouldn't be too bad. (I was wrong by the way!) It was HARD for a first project. Everyone else brought pillowcase patterns (they were MUCH smarter than me!) BUT, I'm not one that gives up easily so I went week after week, picking out most of my stitches (because they were backward or inside out, or whatever else wrong you can do) & redoing it all. But I LEARNED! Now I'm not making the same mistakes. And the apron is finished & turned out pretty cute. I'm actually pretty proud of myself. It fits well enough for now. . . it will fit better as soon as I get this baby out of my bulging tummy! ha ha ha. But it makes me happy to look at it. I feel like I accomplished something.

The other sewing thing I've been playing with is my new embroidery machine that Trek bought me for Christmas. I am having SO MUCH FUN playing with it. I'm embroidering anything & everything I can get my hands on. I put my name on my new hand-sewn apron.

I made some chair toppers for our Primary so the kids know where to sit on Sunday. We have 120 kids in our primary, so we have 2 sets of every class! It can get confusing with all those chairs so now the chairs & rows are labeled by class to help out. It makes getting settled on Sunday MUCH easier.

I had my girls go through their closets & bring me any plain t-shirts that I could add a design to. And now their shirts are SUPER CUTE!!

And Bladen is even getting in on the fun. This is his new favorite shirt because it has a "CHOO CHOO" on it. He loves trains!

I finished my apron a week before I had to, so I started a new project that Kiona promised me wasn't very hard. This morning I finished it. We've had a baby carseat for ages & after a while, it's just not as cute as it used to be. Tonight I'm going to wash the carseat really well so it looks shiny & new, & then on top I'm going to put my newest project: the canopy. This was the easiest pattern I've ever made. It's as easy as sewing a pillowcase. I was SO surprised! I bought the vehicle fabric at a fabric store & got the lining fabric out of my pile of old fabric. You basically sew it all into a huge rectangle & then add straps via velcro & VOILA!! You have a fun carseat canopy to keep the germs out, the wind out, & to keep it dark when baby is sleeping. Plus it just makes the plain old carseat cute again. And maybe people will know Craiger is a BOY when they see the cars & airplanes. (I always get annoyed when they call my boys girls & my girls boys!) It definitely has it's flaws, but I'm proud of it. I'm just happy to be learning something again!

Costco is SO BORING. . . . according to Bladen

I love Costco. It's got to be one of my favorite "Happy Places." I go there just because it makes me happy. I don't know why, I just love it.

Bladen, on the other hand, cries as soon as we pull up. He knows that he's going to be stuck in that big cart for a LONG time! And if there's no "tasters" going on, it's not worth the trip to him. Usually I have to deal with him trying to take his shoes & socks off the entire hour I'm there every week, but this week he tried something different. He just decided Costco was a good excuse for a nap. (SO MUCH EASIER to deal with than picking up shoes from the warehouse floor 10 times when you're 8 months pregnant!) I thought it was cute too.

Cadence's Baptism Announcement Photos

Monday we had a chance to take Cadence to the beach by our house to take some pictures for her Baptism Announcements. The sky was GORGEOUS & the water was the bluest I have ever seen it. Mom & Dad bought her a gorgeous white dress & she was beautiful walking along the sand in it. The pics turned out beautiful. I'm so proud of Cadence for choosing to be baptized. She turns 8 on February 6th & then her baptism will be on February 12th.