Tears of Happiness and Sadness

This past week, we said goodbye to a family friend who died an early and seemingly unnecessary death. I've known him since we were all kids and have had a superficial relationship for many years after we reached adulthood. Back in 2007, I did his engagement portraits followed by his wedding portraits with his wonderful bride who has since become a dear friend. There were tears of sorrow as we mourned his passing and as we hurt for his widow.

There were also tears of happiness in the midst of the mourning. Josh, Randi, and Gabe made the drive down for the funeral and Donny and his fiance flew here to be a part of it all. After the funeral we were all able to sit back, reminisce about our friend, and make new memories.

For those of you who are concerned, Randi did not get injured while taking this photo. It only looks like Donny is going to punch her in the head...not sure what that was about:)

Josh and his family headed back up to Washington and Gav and I had dinner over at my parents with Donny on Thursday. It was another great opportunity to get to know the man he has become since joining the military and meeting his wonderful fiance. Gav and Don seemed to really click, it may have been from Gavin's incessant chanting of "Mr. Don, Mr. Don." You just never know:)

Life continues on even through the sadness. Make grand memories!

Green Hair Success!

Kyla had her annual school Jog-A-Thon fundraiser at school today and Gav and I went to be a part of it. The PTA's goal was to raise $5000 to purchase benches for the courtyard so the kiddos had somewhere to sit during recesses. Principal Donovan sweetened the deal by promising to dye her hair green if the students succeeded and met their monetary goal. Well, they did and so she did! You should have heard the kids crowing their delight as she modeled off her new (hopefully temporary) hairstyle:)

Here are a couple pics 0f the event.

Gavin and I even joined in the fun, walking a couple of laps with Kyla's classmates. Thanks everyone who supported Kyla financially! Go Wascher Wildcats:)

Another One!

Kyla lost another tooth last night! She flew down the stairs after bedtime last evening saying that her tooth was READY to come out. Why yes it was:) Just a little tug and her fourth baby tooth is now gone.


Does she remind anyone else of an old toothless, down home lady?:) I couldn't stop laughing as I looked at these pictures.

After making the obligatory calls to the grandparents, our toothless girl ran back up to bed for sweet dreams.

The latest sewing

I just read this quite from another sewing blog, A hoot and a holler, that I enjoy reading.

"You will be performing "surgery" as you refashion. Don't be afraid to "cut". Your a seamstress. That's what we do. We cut. We change lives. We save. To be a good seamstress you have to think like a seamstress. Emotions can be messy. You need to tuck them away and step into a clean sterile studio where the procedure is simple. You cut, you suture, you close. Now let's do this!"

Kyla has miraculously put holes in another pair of jeans this month causing her clothing situation to be on the verge of despair pants wise:) I saved one of her holey jeans to make into shorts for this summer but she really needed pants to last out this winter and spring. I decided to make patches. Not those boring old iron-on jean patches. Nope, my girl gets flowers:) I used some cotton fabric just added to my stash from a friend and a layer of jean material leftover from an earlier project. I unsewed (ripped out) the leg seams, sewed on the patches and then sewed the side seam back up. Ta Da! pants to last until summer, hopefully.

I'm part of the worship band for Celebrate Recovery at our church. CR is a Christ based recovery program for addicts in our area. It's an amazing program and I have been truly blessed by being a part of the worship team. For New Years Eve, the CR leadership team gave our band T-shirts as a gift of appreciation. It was either a small or x-large size so I took the largest with plans to cut it down to make it fit me. I took a shirt that fit (its just a little long) and used it as a pattern and within 30 minutes, my new shirt fit perfectly!

Another project was spurred on when a friend of mine gave me a pair of jeans that were just a bit on the tight side and a tad bit too short for my comfort. I hacked them to pieces and made a jean skirt for myself, something that I've been wanting to do for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. It was much harder than when I made Kyla's using the same method since women's pants are shaped quite a bit differently than girls:)

I've also made myself some lounge around pants and a summer skirt (prepping for Hawaii) from a bed sheet given to me by my aunt. No pictures yet though. Maybe soon:) My next project is a birthday outfit for my almost three year old. And then valentines stuff for the kiddos after that. Off I go to sew:)

It took just a minute

Yesterday morning I was waiting patiently on the phone to make a Dr appointment and while I was not paying rapt attention to my lovely son, he got into trouble, again. Kyla has/had one tape left from her tape player/karaoke machine, at least she did until Gavin got a hold of it.

The tape starts in one of the toy bins in the play room.


Across the playroom.


Up the stairs.


Around the corner.


Oh the wreckage!

After the mess was cleaned up and the boy disciplined, I asked him why he did it. He reasonably answered that he wanted to make a gate with it of course. Ahh, of course:)

Another One Bites the Dust

Kyla is now up to a grand total of three lost teeth with another one just barely hanging on:) When she got home this afternoon, her bottom tooth was pointing every which way and bugging her, so she decided that she was ready to yank it out.

First she tried...
Then Momma, the amazing tooth-puller tried...


Success!

Now if only that top tooth would surrender the battle:)

Whoo Whoo

I found this wonderful tutorial at awednesdayafternoon.blogspot.com on Sunday and I haven't been able to get it off my mind. I've been meaning to make myself a bag to throw stuff in as I run out the door but just haven't gotten around to it. After seeing this owl bag, I just had to make my own. I can't say that owls are my new favorite decorative subject, but this bag is cute! I busted out my very own owl bag last evening with some scrap fabric that I just happen to have left over from past projects. It fits my water bottle, a couple of library books, and other random stuff and it's perfect to have hanging by the door for a quick exit.

I was gifted a new digital point and shoot camera from my dear husband for Christmas and I believe that he purposely didn't buy a case knowing that I would want to/could make a case for it:) So I did. I used some left over material from a purse I've made (does it look familiar Randi?) and some batting and lightly followed a tutorial I'd found on line. Some Velcro and Wala! my camera is safe and cozy:)

Off to Kyla's school for the day to help in her classroom. I'm taking my new bag of course:)

Royal Cowboys Sword Fighting?

We've had quite the imaginative play here lately. We've had several ghastly sword vs. magic wand battles, a royal kingdom built, a knightly hand smashed by a sword, and of course a random cowboy/girl or two:) Battle armor has been worn, as well as high heels, a queen's cape, and a cowboy hat, variety is the name of the game here:)

The Beautiful and Majestic Queenish Kyla...

The Fierce Sir Gavin (with magic wand)...

The Epic Battle (with their kingdom in the background)...
Wow, Nice form Sir Gavin!

The knight turned cowboy all ready for bed:)

And all the knights and queens and cowboys in the kingdom lived happily ever after!

For Those Unbelievers

Some people out there don't believe that Gavin talks as much as I say he does. This video is for all of you. He turns three in under a month and man can my boy can talk, and talk, and talk... Seriously, there are times when I have to ask him to just be quiet for fear of my head blowing off my shoulders. Here is just a brief couple of minutes out of the 10 minutes recorded during a normal afternoon of Gav's interesting chatter. He continued on after my camera was full, after I had walked out of the room and for the 15 minutes following that:)

He had started talking about a large boat that he has (for pretend) and then we all had boats and so on...

We'll just label him a creative thinker and try to enjoy and follow all the twist and turns his little imagination dishes up:)

First Ever Riddle Family Game Night!

We have started a new family tradition, a Family game night. We are planning on it being a once a week thing, but we'll see how that holds up:) We started the evening with pizza and a rousing game of Rocky Mountain Animal Dominoes (Thanks Trina).

Next, we broke out our new kid version of the Farming Game, a variation of a game that Chad and his cousins played all the time when they were younger. Kyla was the banker, she did great!

Gav lost interest about half way through the game...not too unexpected:)

When we all left the table, sneaky Gavin slinked up in Daddy's chair and started playing banker. He had asked all through out the game in hopes of the chance to be the banker, it's just over his head at this point. Well, he finally got to be the banker:)

A successful evening of family fun! I look forward to next week as we smooth out some of the rough edges of the plan:)