"Mom, does Jesus drink alcohol?"

This from my 5-yr-old, yes my 5-yr-old, last night after scriptures. I didn't know how to respond. I didn't even think Israel knew what alcohol was. He insisted that there was a picture of Jesus drinking alcohol. Did you see it at Church I ask? he's not sure. So, I ask if he knows what alcohol is, but not getting a straight answer I give him a not straight answer back about wine and how in Biblical times wine was possibly grape juice.

I know, pitiful, but I SO wasn't prepared for the question and I don't know myself anyhow. I'm afraid of what Israel is going to ask next.

Help!

My new addiction

So I've become addicted to sewing again. Most particularly in making quilts and quilt "things". Here's my story:

I learned to sew growing up and made some clothes and 1 huge quilt. Mainly my mom made the quilt, but at the time I sure thought I was doing it. Anyhow, when we lived in Mississippi I made 4 quilts (2 baby, 1 queen all from the same pattern Yellow Brick Road (I'm not very adventurous and struggle with matching fabrics) and then I made a paper pieced Nauvoo temple wall hanging for my Mom.

Once we moved to Wymount I quit sewing mainly because of lack of space. So, here I am still in Wymount 3 years later and I'd found this hilarious blog The Meanest Mom, check it out if you've never read her. This Easter she posted these fabric easter eggs gone all wrong post she'd followed the idea on another blog V & Co. I checked out that blog and fell in love with her designs, her fun projected, & MODA. I'd never seen it before. If you're new to Moda, only check it out if you're prepared to want to get back into sewing and spend $$$. They have all these lines with matching fabrics and precut packages to buy in a variety of sizes. (I know, long story, I'm almost done). From V & Co. I found the Moda Bakeshop with all these recipes/patterns for making gorgeous stuff with Moda fabrics. I absolutely fell in love with the baby pinwheel quilt and determined that in honor of it bringing my sewing machine back out of it's box, that I'd make this exact quilt. I bought my charm pack of snippets, my moda white and went to work. (I LOVE the prairie points.) I discovered on the blog tutorials to teach you all kind of sewing stuff. My favorites right now are Crazy Mom Quilts, Make It & Love It, and of course V & Co.. (boy does this post have a lot of links).

So, in the past week I've made these:

pinwheel quilt top (this one took 2 weeks)

Diaper clutch from Make it and Love it. Surprisingly this one caused me the most grief. I had issues with understanding how to sew the flap.
Fabric wallet from That Darn Cat I was sad to put in the mail. See in the picture below how the fabrics match up when they're closed. I love that. It's a birthday present for my sister-in-law.

Today I made these, both from repurposed material (an old button down shirt that doesn't fit right anymore and a pillowcase we were going to donate to DI):

Tissue holder for church from the book Sew What Bags. Below is a crayon roll from Skip to My Lou The crayon roll is also for church. I'm trying for a little more organization. The diaper clutch I made was for church as well. One day (hopefully soon) I won't be sitting alone in church, but until then I need ALL the help I can get:) We'll see soon if they'll be helpful.

Thanks Tooth Fairy

A few weeks ago we were dreading Israel's appointment with the dentist. His left bottom tooth was coming in behind the baby tooth and Dr. dentist said he'd have to pull it out this time.
So, 2 days before the dreaded tooth pulling, the tooth poked through the back and finally we could get some wiggling going. We were up in Laketown helping Mom and Dad wire their house so Mom gave me the courage to do the floss around the tooth jerk method. There was more blood than with his first tooth, but he was fine and the Tooth Fairy even knew where to find him. Stan explained to anyone who would listen how the tooth fairy uses a pillow tracking system. (Thank goodness Israel had brought his own pillow for the night).

Here's the note Israel wrote to the tooth fairy telling her we were at Grandma's house. You can see the tooth on the right side of the plastic bag.

Working hard on the house. Check out Grandma's moves!

The girls were a big help too of course.

Confessions of a Shopaholic

Okay, so Allison took me to see this wonderfully clean PG movie and lets just say that I laughed so much my rear end is smaller:) So, if you're one of the few people who still hasn't seen it AND you're looking for some cheap entertainment, go to your nearest dollar theater and check it out.

Sneak Peak

Mommy, Can We Eat this Lemonade?

Yikes! I mean YeeHaw!

We may have a job- a real regular job in Stan's field. Not a professorship, but working in Medical Family Therapy at a military hospital AND Stan loves Medical Family Therapy. I am vacillating between whooping for joy and running away screaming.
I hope these feelings are normal- maybe I should ask Stan:)

Sweet Baby Mama

Julia is our little Mama, even from the beginning we just knew she was going to be an incredible mom. In her baby blessing Stan felt inspired to say "I bless you to be a great matriarch". Already she is such a sweet baby Mama, with her little dolls. Garage selling a few weeks back she found a boy cabbage patch doll. She immediately fell in love with him and took his clothes off. (Hopefully this won't be a pattern in her teen life) Now she sleeps with him, carries him everywhere (even to church AND nursery the Sunday after he was discovered. Yes, I know, huge no no)
Tonight like most nights my not so good dinner eaters were starving right when I was trying to do the scripture, prayer, bed thing. In a moment of brilliance Julia climbed on the table (yes you read that right) grabbed the plastic container with 3 cookies from last night's Enrichment and came over to me. I compromised my no more food, for happy scripture time.
Julia was the last on left with cookie. When asked she repeatedly shared with Eliza and then Israel. Giving away all that was left. She was so happy to feed them. Israel asked, "Mom, why does she like to feed us, is it because she wants to be a Mommy?" I think the answer is a resounding YES.

On a side note, Alice Osborne, author of "It's Here Somewhere" taught us how to Streamline our homes at last nights Enrichment. She was a super fun presenter and we laughed and learned together. Now do I have the courage to follow through? I hope so since we'll be moving soon! Did you know the average American spends 2 years of his life looking for things he's lost in his home? Declutter, have courage to get rid of things you don't need or use. Did you know we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time?

Mother's Day/ Warning: Explicit photo

Well we had a Happy Adventurous Mother's Day. I had my piano debut in sacrament meeting (I promise I can play it so much better when there aren't so many people listening) Eliza had a break down in Primary. Once we got home Julia refused to nap, so I went for a breather and read the May Ensign behind the temple while Stan made me a Mother's Day Feast of Pollo Relleno, brocolli, corn on the cob, and brussel sprouts. I've only had br. sprouts 1 time and didn't like them, but Stan wanted to try. I ate 1- I know you're proud. Stan told the kids that if they'd eat one he'd let them had a fruit snack. To our surprise Eliza gulped hers down with a smile. Now Israel was a different story. He tried really hard with one, but just couldn't do it and had to spit it out, but he wanted to try again. We gave him the smallest one left and Stan encouraged him to eat it and drink lots of milk. The last picture is what happened. Look at your own risk.
The pictures in the middle are so you don't have to look at the last one if you don't want to:) This morning at 9am the sprinklers were on outside, so Israel and Eliza has some early morning water fun. (with the pool closed for the summer this might become a habit)

Eliza with her earned fruit snack

Warning- yucky photo below

scroll down at your own risk

Robin my wife

I love getting to know Robin. We've been married now for over 8 years and it just keeps getting better. We surprise each other, we learn new things about each other, we do tons of things together. I am amazed by how my wife becomes more beautiful each day. I can't get enough of looking at my wife and admiring the lines of her face and the color of her skin. We work hard to have a good relationship, but its worth sacrificing personal conveniences. I think of all the long nights we spent staying up and talking to each other while we were dating. That doesn't happen as often, but it still happens.

I remind myself that I don't know my wife. I remind myself that there are still tons of things that I don't know about her childhood, her perspective, her thinking, her beliefs, things that she has read or heard or done or wants to do. I try to step outside of the usual drudgery of life and imagine that today is the only day I may have to spend with her. All change occurs in the present, nothing has ever changed in the past or future. If anything is going to change it has to happen now. I would post a picture of my wife but it wouldn't show all that I see in her, because she has so many dimensions. One day though, I will see my wife for all that she is and I will want to fall down and worship her for all her glory. Thank you Robin for all your love, Stan

Cleaning Brilliance

On the playground yesterday the mommies were talking about moving and packing and cleaning. Getting it all done in time to move out, etc. They talked of one family in our ward that had never cleaned the oven in the 2 years they lived here. How the mommy telling us the story had spent 3 hours just cleaning the stove and oven. Yesterday said mommy started packing for a August move. She is not going to be caught in the same trouble. As for me, I decided I better go home and clean my oven. Wymount has been home for 3 years and I'm sure it's only been cleaned maybe 8 times. So, if you get the bug to clean your oven, here's 2 pieces of advice.

1. Put in all of your stove's removable parts- (the drip thing and the ring thing) Let the oven do the scrubbing for you.
2. Take you bananas off the stove BEFORE turning on the self cleaning feature. Cooked bananas anyone?

I woke up this morning . . .

. . . to Julia honking my nose.

Stan is Old

How old you ask? Well as of Friday, he's a whopping 31! Happy birthday Dad! We love you. Here's a few pictures of the fun we had with Mom and Dad Hall and Susan and her kids visiting.


Thanks Susan for the pinata!