Jack and Jill Fell Down the Hill

We live on a hill. I was worried about the hill in WA, but this one is way bigger. Dale taught the kids to push their little scooters (what are these toys called?!) up the hill and go down. I've since had nightmares about the kids falling and busting their crowns, and so they aren't allowed on a bike without a helmet now. I'm probably a bad parent since they didn't have them before we moved here, but they have them now, and that's all that matters, right?
 

It kinda looks like WA huh? I think this may have been the day that it rained on and off, and then all night. See, we get rain too...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yeah, she's getting too brave.
 

And that, besides the park and story time at the library, is what we've been up to. Trying to enjoy the outdoors until it's too hot and we'll have to play inside.

Knitting Projects

I've been really bad about sharing my knitting projects, huh? That's mostly what I've been up to since the sewing stuff was in several boxes and completely disorganized. Plus, I can bring it anywhere with me, unlike sewing projects...

So Megan was wonderful and put up with teaching me the basics late last year and this was my first project: a Honey Cowl. It took me WAY longer than it should have, but I kept messing up and didn't really know how to fix it, so I would rip it all out and start completely over. Insane, I know. I've since learned how knitting works and I can fix those little things : )

As a going away gift, Megan gave me some orange yarn (because I'm a timid yarn buyer and only go for grays...) and a baby hat pattern. Mason has claimed it for himself- his favorite color is orange.

I really like how this hat comes together at the top with a kinda swirl/star look. And I went with the knotted option rather than the plain beanie look. I don't know where the pattern is from, so if you want it, let me know and I'll ask her!

Before leaving WA I started making some finger-less gloves. I DID wear them once before it got too warm here : )

They are a good green color (I branched out!) and have a cute little cable pattern. I just love that there are only two stitches in knitting but that you just manipulate those two to create amazing looks! Even Dale thought these turned out pretty cool.

My sister said she wasn't impressed because they didn't have fingers (She was being sarcastic of course). To those who may have wanted to try projects where you use more than two needles: do it! There's nothing to be intimidated about; you still only use two needles at a time. Maybe other projects are hard- but these were way easy! If you want this pattern, let me know, and I'll send you a copy. Again, it was from Megan and I don't know where she got it. : )

And my boot toppers. These are wool, so I haven't worn them too much lately, but I DID wear them when I first got to AZ with my boots. I still kinda refuse to let winter go.

The point of this project was to learn to do cables so I picked out a simple looking cable from a cable book and repeated it in the round, adding ribbing on the top and the bottom. I did a thicker rib on one side and a thinner one on the other, depending on how I want it to look.

I don't have any boots that I could fold them over to show that look, but I do like how the cables look with these boots!

And here's the latest project that I just finished up this weekend.

The pattern was really easy and I liked how it turned out. I used a cotton yarn so I wouldn't get too hot wearing it here.

At first I followed all the instructions, but then I decided the hat was WAY too floppy and big for my tastes, so I ended up only doing 3 lace pattern repeats rather than 5. You can see, it's still a really floppy hat.

Maybe if I had more hair?

And there you have it. B has requested a hat like Mason's and she picked out a pretty blue yarn. Once I have that one done I'll share it too. What should be my next project after that? Any ideas?

Hanging Out At Grandma's

Such beautiful weather, we have to soak it up while we can stand to be outside!

The kids put their feet in the pool (Mason got his pants wet, he doesn't normally run around with no pants on...). The water was freezing. I don't know how they could sit there as long as they did, but soon they were begging to jump in and go swimming. No way!

Stomping the water off.

Hanging out on a blanket, I was reading (attempting to read) while Mason told me about his cars. And you can see the giant desert tortoise behind me. I think he wanted to chomp off my toes. He kept coming around.

Mason was attempting to scare and attack me.

Sawyer, upper left, playing with his sister, Belle- upper right, and his brother Jack, bottom. They were ganging up on Melvin. Or is it Marvin? I can never remember the turtle's name.

Pizza night! We made three different kinds of pizza. The kids helped with the pepperoni pizza.

Brighton was probably begging to eat another pepperoni.

Mason made sure his dinosaur had some bites too.

And he had to taste test the cheese.

Little Miss B slurping up mozzarella.

My Birthday

Dale was out of town, new job training, and missed my birthday! So my gift to myself was hitting the road and visiting my family for a few days. Here are the highlights of the BIG NIGHT!

My mom decorates the little shelf behind us for every different holiday and birthday. This one is my own personal, turning 28 shelf. : ) And the traditional mom+me+cake shot.

B and M helped me blow out the candles. Lucky for me it was just the two candles. Twenty-eight little candles may have been too much for me!

The cake! Brighton specifically requested that we go to Grandma's and Grandma needed to get a cake. She told me not to make my own. : )

The kiddos eating cake.

B was really REALLY excited to have cake. She'd been asking for cake for a few weeks actually.

Us and our cake.

Present time! Modeling a necklace my mom gave me. I made her one almost just like this one for Christmas. Too funny! Kassie gave me a relaxing package- bath bombs, candle and a robe- along with a full body, hour long massage. She just graduated from massage therapy school. She's amazing! If you're ever in Phoenix, call me and we'll schedule you a massage. She's so worth every penny! Kaylee gave me a cute basket, fridge magnets that are farm animal heads (cute, sound weird, but cute), a way cute appliqued kitchen towel, and a book about making things out of books.

Mason- happy about the birthday cake! (He just came in, sat in my lap and says, "Me! Eating birthday cake. Eating your birthday cake, mom." Crazy to me that he remembered it was my birthday.)

Funny thing about it being my birthday: I got Brighton up in the morning and the first thing she says, "happy birthday mom." She wanted to wear her birthday shirt from her superhero party, so she did. Mason saw her wearing her shirt, so he wanted to wear his superman shirt. It was just so cute.

The Backyard

The kids have been loving playing outside. They literally spend all day out in the sun. They brought their chairs out to enjoy the good weather.

I took a few shots around so you can see that there is really just rocks back here. I guess there are a few plants too. And some AZ trees.

From the corner of the yard.

One side of the yard has all these rocks and then this little retaining wall. The kiddos love climbing on these rocks and walking across the little wall.

Little Mason rockin' the flip flops. He's very excited to wear his sandals.

Brighton asked me to take her picture and she posed just like this.

The houses behind us both have dogs so Sawyer was going to the fence to try and see his new friends.

Just in case you Washingtonians didn't know what this is: this is called the sun- I took a picture of it for you. It's warm and bright and lights up my whole house when I open the blinds.