Jelly Roll Race at ETC..... Ready Set SEW

Today was ETC's 3rd jelly roll race!  Here is the store sample I made, we've done a different pattern each time and I think  this one is my favorite!  We have fun at this class, it's serious business getting everyone prepped until the music for the kentucky derby comes on and we say Ready SET GO!  

 So here is today's winner!  Vicki!  She finished her top in 1 hour and 46 minutes! She's going to get her top machine quilted for free!

 I don't think I got a photo of everyone, we had 15 come today.  Pauline and Shari...

 Tracy and Linda, don't you love seeing how each color came out!

 Carol, Eleanor, Koni and Monica, they all had their borders to do but the basic part for the race was done! Sure was fun to see that many fast quilt tops be done and out the door today, wow!

Ice Cream night!

What a great way to cool off in Az with ice cream!  I went to watch the boys at their swimming lessons again and we just happened by their frozen yogurt shop on the way back!  Yummmm!  I love watching what toppings they want to put on theirs....me...I go for anything chocolate, and maybe a free strawberries on top!  It was fun to hear the tales of their first day of school! I love these short little catch up times with my boys!

Happy Birthday Garrett!

 Garrett just how did you get so big to go from this to being 6 years old today!  Happy Birthday to my little buddy!  You always have the best smile for me! We'll be celebrating you tomorrow!

the latest on Bode and Brock

Life is pretty good already with the addition of little Brock!  He's doing great, chills out pretty well as you can see.  His Daddy is enjoying a few days off to enjoy his new son!  

 We are still waiting on bloodwork now every other day monitoring Brocks jaundice, The pediatrician is keeping pretty good tabs on him.  He's sleeping quite good during the night I think for the first week, seems pretty content, is doing great on regaining his birth weight, the Dr. was very pleased with that.  I got to give him his first little sponge bath the other night, ohhhh how sweet a clean baby smells
!

 Here's big brother, he's loving his little brother, Chris said he likes to get into their bed and lay by him.  He's got his new little toy story pig "ham" that I brought him.  We had to go hunt right away for Buzz then and Woodie too, he always tells me about Woodie's broken arm in the movie...this little guy is so amazingly smart and verbal for 2.  What a fun week we've had getting to help and play with these 2 boys!

Noah is here!

Grammy's long awaited day is here.....here we are at the airport waiting for Noah....

Tigger and I!

 Jamie and he arrived and he came right to me, I was so glad he wasn't afraid!

 Oh what fun is going to be had, Jamie's Mom's house is all ready for her 3 grandchildren to arrive!

 Jamie's sister Stephanie is here with Eli.

 Noah was busy doing all kinds of exploring already!

 And he was unpacking, he'd found his stash of paci's, all of them clipped together but he didn't care! 4 at once....life is good!

 Noah we are glad you are here for a visit!

 Pretty cool huh!

Swimming lessons!

Ken and I got to go to swimming lessons last week.  It was so fun to see 

Ethan and Garrett and Aiden working so hard at their lessons!  Amy somehow got them all in at the same time! whew! They have such a great pool 5 minutes from their house.  Such nice small little classes scattered everywhere...everything seemed calm and well organized....little signs up saying it's the dolphins or whatever level...and I guess that's a big deal, the boys tell you exactly what level they are in!   Ethan after his lesson....

Here is Aiden....he's working hard on perfecting his strokes, what great back strokes and work they are doing to get their stamina up.  His lessons are in the deep end and they swim back and forth and back and forth, sometimes even just kick boards getting that endurance up!  He saw us right away when we got there and waved.

And here is Garrett!  I started wandering from group to group to see who I could recognize and all the sudden clear across the pool I hear "GRAMMY" and see Garrett waving!  I can tell in his group he's the easy one since he can already swim so the teacher can just tell him what to do and let him bob around tredding water while he holds on to the non swimmers.  So cute. We took along a pizza and went back to their house so they could have their 2nd dinner since swimming makes you starving! I'm hoping to go tonight again to watch them and cheer them on.  I think the fun treat to take tonight will be the family size nuggets from McD's! They started school today so I'm sure there will be lots of tales to tell!

Arizona dust storms

Well here we are in the time of year we all love since for once we see clouds, maybe hear thunder and at least have something different than sunshine. I know for you living where it snows that sounds crazy but I thought I'd just show you what happens around here when we get a huge dust storm.  They've been coming pretty often, some nights we get just some wind, some times dirt blowing and then 10 drops of rain, this week we got a good one, huge dust storm, the kind you can hardly see thru and then gushing rain for quite a long time.  I had over an inch in a bucket out in the yard so I know none of it was run off.  Here is what it does to the pool.....the cleaner was trying!  I started the massive clean up in the yard while it was still sprinkling and thundering once the heavy rain quit.  Lots of branches down, everything on the patio was blown to the west fence, big big mess!  I saved the pool and patio until the next morning since it was dark.  More hours spent trying to get the pool cleaned up, it had tried over night but it wasn't so good.  After a total brushing and running 6 more hours it looks good again. After running again last night I can still tell it needs another brushing today but that will have to wait until after work.  Amazing how much dirt there is, every surface outside had that dirt on it.  One more patio to clean off yet...probably in time for another one tonight!  The one that came thru last night just made it windy, we didn't get the dirt, that stayed over in Phx.!  

 Here is the poor lemon tree....It's half gone again....ho hum, it's a fighter, we'll see what happens!

Baby Brock is home

Baby Brock got to come home!  Pretty fast for a c-section baby! His numbers for jaundice were back in the normal range so they released he and Mommy and the trek began!  

 

I picked Bode up from playing with Aiden, Garrett and Ethan and away we went to the hospital....mostly so he could see Mommy and also to deliver Brocks car seat.  Bode was very excited so we only stayed a few minutes and home we went for more food, bath and bedtime.  He fell fast asleep with songs then so you know he'd had a huge day playing with his cousins! He was fast asleep before the new arrival appeared!

 Here is Beans already checking out what came in the door! 

 Chris and I had fun having to change him right after his arrival since he'd peed thru his outfit already! Then the routine begins....get the clean diaper under them and before you even have it on they poop!  Then you roll them over to get the wet jammie out and they pee off to the side wetting the new jammie, the blanket and a towel..... we were all laughing so hard....half a load of laundry and he hadn't even been home 15 minutes!

 So the adventure begins!  Hope the first night went well, they have Grammy chicken noodle soup and tortilini salad fixins ready to go in their fridge, so I'm off to work!  

You can still see the little red marks on his temples from the velcro glued to his head to attach his cool dude sunglasses!  So glad his body is working on that bilirubin! His numbers were still normal after being out of the lights all day.  They'll be off to the pediatrician to have it checked again today!What a cute little frown at the flash!  Brock welcome home! 

Aiden's dinner

Aiden cooked dinner on friday night and invited us over! How cute is that...when you are 8 that's what you do!  Amy is teaching them all to cook so Aiden picked this great chili recipe out of the "childrens cookbook" they have and did all the prep in the morning for it!  

 Even fritos to dip it with,  yum!   It was so good I asked for his recipe!  What a fun time, they got to show me their back to school shopping finds, all the pencils and lunch boxes and a first day of school new shirt!  Can you believe they start school today!  3rd grade, kindergarten and , well Ethan will start preschool again in another week.  They are excited and will do so well I'm sure!

Here's Brock!

Here are a few more photo's of our newest little Brock.  Life was a bit nuts that day so we really didn't get much time to take many photo's while we were there so another day it'll happen! Chris text me moments after he was born that he was there safe and sound, then a few more minutes and I got this picture... my first peak at our newest Grandson, Chris text me this one ... I was home with Bode and boy were the text messages flying from family members asking what I'd heard, since we knew the C-section was scheduled for 8:00 AM.

Next came this cute little shot!  How wonderful to get to see him so soon! I love technology!

 
 Here is Bode in his Big Brother tshirt ready to go to the hospital to meet him!

 Fun times for them ahead....Bode's first meeting with his baby brother!

 A proud Papa!

Little Brock we are so glad you are here safe and sound! We've been so anxious to meet you! We can't wait to hold you and play with you and share all the fun we have with your brother and all your cousins!  We have enough for a basketball team and 1 alternate!  You are going to fit right in Brock, what fun we will have! You are just so cute, we just need some time to rock and cuddle!

Holly Jolly Days at ETC

We had our 3rd class in our Holly Jolly series at Scrapbooks today, 8 gals came to make the snowman or tree  table mat or treeskirt. Kathy brought back her first one all done, so cute!  This was such a fun one we are going to teach it again this fall if you missed it.  

 We got busy cutting backgrounds and moved the entire classroom all around! What fun to have such a big room so everyone could have tables to lay out on flat.

 Lots of fun fabrics, options for embellishments, ideas flying around and everyone sharing their creative thoughts which just makes someone think of something else, what a lot of fun these gals were today!

 Aren't all the fun colors great!

 So what great projects left, I hope they all bring them back to show me!

 Next week is a cute table runner, still time if you want to come!