8 is Great!



This little girl is eight years old, and there couldn’t be a sweeter 8 year old alive.


She has a blend of qualities that continually leaves me wondering at her.  She’s a unique combination of playful and serious, innocent and mature, intense and sensitive, self-motivated and obedient, brave and fragile.


One thing is certain:  she is wise beyond her years.  She intuitively knows things that take others years to understand.


She’s also the best diaper changer in the house.  (The only one, I’m afraid, excepting Mom and Dad.  The oldest three all bring the little ones to her for diaper changes.)  She’s a born nurturer.


She’s also quite a monkey.  The other night I said to my husband that I don’t think she’s capable of going upstairs for bed without yelling.  His response, “Well, she is nearly perfect in everything else, so don’t hold it against her.”  I laughed.  He’s right.  She’s an absolute delight, and has been since her birth.


What a path she has ahead of her!  We’re honored to be her parents.

Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Love, Mom

Picnic in the Canyon

We drove up the canyon recently to enjoy the beauty of early fall.  As parents, this meant both enjoying the beauty of nature and enjoying the sight of our family together in a tranquil setting.  This post is people; the leaves will come next.


On outings such as this, I find myself falling to the back of the line.  I enjoy watching my children from behind as they walk, observe and interact with one another.
















The little one, who slammed her head on a piece of furniture as we were walking out the door.  When I heard the thud, I was sure she needed stitches, but somehow it didn’t split her forehead open.


While we were eating, she helped herself to an uncut grape (prior to this I had always sliced them in pieces for her) and when we learned she could chew them up well, we permitted her to help herself.  She camped out by the grape bowl for the evening.












I think this little guy was ready to go conquer someone when I snapped the picture.










These people are my favorite people in the world.  Spending time like this with them means everything to me.  In a season of craziness with all their sports activities, homework, church activities and lessons, a night like this speaks peace to my heart.  I love them all so much!

Note to myself:

I went home that evening feeling great about the time we spent together enjoying such beauty.  Yet when I reviewed the pictures, I realized that once again my oldest three did a REALLY good job of evading the camera.  They’re all in a picture, but I’ve got to find a way to take more pictures of them when they’re unaware.

Jennifer

Punctuation Baby Quilt

It’s late but it’s done!  I think it’s also really cute.


This half square triangle quilt was made using the Punctuation collection by American Jane for Moda.  I really like the happy colors in this line, and think that it lends itself well to a baby boy quilt.  Paired with a beautiful blue solid, I made this quilt with one charm pack.  The quilt measures approximately 42 inches wide by 46 inches long.


I used straight line quilting on this, carrying the horizontal and vertical lines across the green border to the edges of the quilt.  I then quilted on the diagonal, going opposite the line of the half square triangle squares, but kept the diagonal quilting in the center of the quilt only.  I’m very pleased with how the quilting went.  I feel that I’m getting better at it, but I’m also aware that this is a very small quilt.


If there was one thing about the quilt that I struggled with, it’s the fact that the charm pack came with so many squares of the pinstripe fabric, two of each color.  I didn’t realize when I bought it how little it had of the more graphic designs.  In spite of this, however, I think that the quilt came together nicely and, on the whole, is colorful and interesting to look at even with an overabundance of that particular print.


For the back I used the alphabet print in red, which I like a lot.  It seemed fitting for a little boy born at the beginning of the school year, the sixth child in his (quite amazing) family.

And for the binding I went with the same blue solid.  I like the way it works with the blue quilting lines that go through the green border and meet the binding. I feel like it pulls the whole quilt together.  The binding was machine stitched.  I’m getting faster at it, and think that I may have found a way to sew it on that I like.  I need to bind one more quilt to see if I’m right.


And lastly, my favorite part of the whole quilt:


That’s his footprint!  When he was a couple of days old I had his grandma trace his foot so I could make this little tag .  I simply embroidered it and then stitched it to the corner of the quilt back.  I really like it.


Because of the tag I decided to simply wrap it with a ribbon.  Now it’s wrapped around an adorable little boy, and I hope they love it.

Hopeful Homemaker

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