A quiet house

Our house has been very quiet the last two weeks with the older kids in Virginia visiting their mom. I feel like I am in the eye of a hurricane, just calm and quiet after a few weeks of crazy go-go-go and ramping up for the next go-go-go weeks. I know the older kids have had a slew of adventures while away, we have seen videos and pictures and can't wait to hear about them in person but here it has just been quiet.  We asked Matt what he wanted to do while the older kids were gone and he picked movies and games, I guess when you are number 4 of 5 you don't usually get your choice of movie, he also played with friends and that was fun, they had the run of the house- something Matt loved.  We've also been playing the Hamilton soundtrack at least once a day, Matt likes to sing along and ask questions about Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He also had a conversation about the difference between Abraham Lincoln's death and Alexander Hamilton's (I don't know where this kid gets all this).

We missed the older kids, the house has been too quiet and I think the dog has gone stir crazy, attention from Matt and me is not enough to get him through the day. But we did find some ways to fill our time....

Disney Movie Extravaganza 

We realized that Matt doesn't remember a lot of the Disney movies and we decided to rewatch a few. Matt would pick one or two movies every day and we would watch them. We made it though all of the Toy Storys, Bambi, Tarzan, Nightmare Before Christmas (nope Mom, I still haven't watched that one) Monsters Inc., Babes in Toyland, Finding Nemo, Princess and the Frog... I am sure that there were a few more, I just can't remember. We also got a babysitter for Abby and went to see Finding Dory. It was nice to sit in the nice cool basement and escape from the 99 degree temperatures. 

Abby thought Finding Nemo was the best movie ever. It was like her own
large fun aquarium. 

Cooking lessons for Matt 

After cooking for seven, cooking for four is a whole new ball game. I had to rethink my shopping strategy and still ended up overbuying on meat for the week. Matt thought it was fun to have some one on one cooking lessons. He learned how to brown meat and we even let him season it himself, we might have let him watch one too many Food Network shows, he also sauteed some veggies and now believes that he is a professional. 

Matt and his taco meat he added ranch and taco seasonings...oh and three pinches of salt.

Snuggle time

Most mornings I head to the gym about 6:15 so I can get a work out in before the kids wake up and the day gets rolling. On Friday I was just exhausted so we had a snuggle party instead, teddy bears were invited too. Then we went to the gym after, one of Matt's favorite places. 

Abby is still not quite sure how to hold still for a picture

Craft projects

Having only 2 kids instead of 5 meant I had a bit more time for myself and I spent it crafting and organizing! I had been looking for a fun beach frame for our pictures since we visited Newport last November but in December and January beach frames are rather impossible to find. Even with summer starting I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for so we made our own. I like the way it turned out.  

I started making a jean quilt before the kids even left, it is such a large project that it took me a few weeks.  Matt enjoyed this week when we had a "fortress" set up in the living room and I enjoyed being able to work on this project and take time to listen to the Alexander Hamilton biography (It's been a Hamilton summer) I have been trying to get through.  But now we have an awesome quilt to use for our park visits this summer.

Matt was the big helper on this one. He helped me pick out the
 backing for the quilt as well as the binding. He also laid under it while I
tied it together. 

So that's it. The kids are back next week and we go back to the bustle and hustle of a house of seven again, I can't wait.

Fall fun

I feel like I blinked and October was half over. We have been having fun this month though. Matty is jabbering and loves to run around. He also thinks the Halloween decorations we have up are awesome.   James is adjusting well at school and he and I spend time daily doing his homework, the best was when we had a ten minute argument on how his middle name was spelled and once he admitted that his dad and I were right he then insisted that it had a capital B in the middle of it.  Eve is one of the top in her class at school and has mastered both her subtraction and addition facts, next up-multiplication. Laine is doing great in school. She has read all the pages and genre of books she needs to and just needs to complete three more hours of service to receive the gold level prize in her class. We couldn't be prouder of all of them. 

Also this month...

We've had Craft Night with the Bellamy cousins...

 Played on Grammy and Poppa's roof with the cousins...

 Celebrated Uncle Zach's birthday (oh and Lu's birthday and Uncle Bart's birthday)

 Laine and I went to mother-daughter book club. Where after discussing Sprinkles and Secrets Laine made a very sparkly cupcake purse.

 We were also happy to see that the Millcreek Park finally reopened and we've decided that we love it and the kids would like to go every day.

With Halloween around the corner we are looking forward to more fun and shenanigans!  

The Nine Days of Back to School

To celebrate going back to school we put up a banner with fun activities for the remaining days left. Each day the kids would pick a card and we would do the activity each day.  

Here is what we did...

Nine days left...get shaved ice

Eight days left....make marshmallow masterpieces.

Or just eat them.

Seven days left- Build a fort

 

Six days left...make foam bookmarks.

Five days left..visit Thanksgiving Point.

Four days left...Make chocolate chip cookies

Three days left...have a swim party

Two days left...movie night at Grammy and Poppa's

One day left...make suckers, they were blue but cherry flavored.

So adios summer and welcome back school.

While the kids are away mom will....craft?

Recently my three oldest kids went on vacation with their mom for two weeks and I was home with just Matty. It was odd, I have never had just one kid. Since I was married I have had at least three kid at home. With only one child at home now, and that being the one child who usually took two naps a day, I had a lot more time.  I read three books, went shopping at the mall with my mom, cleaned the house top to bottom, and actually did a few craft projects.

First one that I did was the girls quilts. There were problems after problems with those. Eve's took me forever to sew for two reasons: 1- I didn't get the double flap on the binding so I had to fold it over myself which was difficult. 2- After pinning the quilt a whole bunch I realized that the pin heads were too big to go through the machine so I had to stop every few seconds and pull out the pin. Needless to say there was a lot of sewing and resewing this one.    Laine's was a bit easier but then the bobbin tension went off and I didn't know that until I was almost finished. Yeah. They turned out pretty well though.

Then I made a few banners- one with Back to School activities 

 And one as a Welcome Home banner for the kids

 You can read the full story about these banners on my personal blog.

When I was finished with those I made James and Matty some quiet books for church. To get the story on these easy babies you can check the personal blog too.

So it was nice to have a bit of extra time on my hands, but I am so grateful they are home.

Training domestic princesses

I remember one fall while I was growing up hanging out at my Aunt Rita's home while she and my mom tied a Christmas quilt for my dad. It was a large red and white checked quilt with a hand stitched University of Utah logo in the middle. I was so entranced with the quilt. I loved watching my mom and aunt make the stitches they needed. I loved sitting under the quilt and I wished that I could join them.  

Many years later I learned to tie quilts while in young women and then later I went on to tie countless quilts while in college and for many years after. 

I love making quilts and having hand-tied quilts on hand. The quilt that my college girlfriends made me after my engagement is still on my bed. We have quilts made of t-shirts, quilts that were gifts, quilts made of old jeans, and quilts that were pieced together. 

I have made a few quilts since I got married but every time I put them out the girls were entranced. I remembered that feeling and decided that this summer I would teach my girls to tie a quilt.  I took them each to pick out their own fabrics and then we got out the quilting frames. 

Eve was up first  she picked a delightful cup cake pattern.   

 The girls were quick studies and a great quilters. They understood very quickly how to tie the quilt and they did a fantastic job.

Matty especially loved the quilt when we started to take it off the frames.

Eve with her quilt.

 Laine went a bit brighter and more Lainey with her fabric. It was tie-dye all the way and though I wasn't sure they matched turns out she has a pretty good eye for fabrics. This quilt was one of my favorites when it was finished.

James enjoyed laying under the quilt and making it his own personal fort.

And the girls thought it was nice to snuggle in even before I had a chance to finish it.

The girls left on a trip so as a surprise when they get home they will have a surprise waiting for them. I finished their quilts last week.

They are so proud of their work and I am proud of them.

Forts!

It is not a surprise to anyone that I like to be crafty. Unfortunately being sick and working full time has left me little time to actually work on crafts. I have a half finished baby sweater and another four or five in queue to get done. Well last summer I worked on my first jean quilt top on my own. It has sat on my sewing table since July and I even got the bottom sewn and ready, I just didn't quilt it.

This weekend I finally had some extra time...and energy...to actually put the quilt together. And with some help from Paul and Christian, I was able to finally get the quilt up. Of course the kids found this to be the best thing ever as they had a new fort and liked to pretend apparating from one end of the quilt to another. Who knew it would be so easy to entertain them.

These first pictures are from Saturday night, that is why the girls are styling in there hair/curler protectors.




Christian made me go to bed as well shortly after these pictures were taken. The quilt had maybe 15 minutes work left but I was tired so went off to bed. Sunday afternoon I decided to finish the quilt only to walk in and found that the kids had truly taken their fort to a new level:



It was decked out with quilts, pillows, and looked like a whole lot of fun. I ended up waiting to finish the quilt until Sunday night, after most had gone to bed. The girls are already asking when the next quilt is going up. I am not sure if that is because I told them I would teach them how to make their own quilts this summer, or that they like to watch the needle "pop", or so they can set up a new fort...probably all three.