We have a teenager in the house! Shay turned 13 yesterday. I can't believe she is a teenager now. She is a good kid. I think I will share a few things about her.

Shay enjoys all sorts of music including classical. I still have to screen her music, but she has no problem getting her way when she asks if she can buy instrumentals off of ITunes. She loves to draw. She enjoys playing the sax, but doesn't enjoy waking up early to go to Jazz Band. She doesn't like the early morning part. I had to bribe her to wake up to do Jazz Band this year. Shay enjoys reading and writing. One of her ambitions right now is to write a book. She loves the story "The Host", by Stephanie Meyers (sp). She has read the book seven times the last I heard. She does not like the "Twilight" series though.

Some things Shay does not enjoy. She does not enjoy playing sports although she is willing to go running with me. She doesn't last long, but at least she tries. She is not good at keeping her room clean. She is not good at doing yard work. I hear a lot of complaining when it is time to work outside. She doesn't like the heat or the sun. She loves the rain. Weird. She is not very talented at math. She gets that from me. :) She does not like being the center of attention. She is on the shy side. She did give a talk in church a while back, and she did a lot better than I thought she would. She didn't even seem that nervous, although I knew she was. Also, Shay does not like getting her picture taken. Can you tell by her face in the one I posted? Well, she will just have to get over it, or look like a grump in all her pictures. ;)

Well, that is all I can think of right now about Shay. We love having her around. I hope the teen years don't change that. :)

We're Back!

We had a family reunion down in Joseph, Utah for New Years. It was a lot of fun. We took two days to get there instead of one. We've decided not to try and kill ourselves by driving all night any more. All of us enjoyed the drive a lot more. We stayed in a hotel each way, and the kids went swimming. They love going swimming.

We stayed in an old church that was converted into a place to hosts reunions and big activities. It was fun, and my kids thought the place was really cool.

Nate's brother made a pinata like he does every year. Cammie's favorite part of the reunion was eating the candy.There was plenty of snow. Braedon had to eat some of course. He always does. I told him that is fine as long as it is not yellow. :) Nate was a good sport and went out and played with the kids. They enjoyed pelting him with snowballs.




Of course, Ky was always trying to hit me. :) His cousin got me right in the head, but Ky, keep trying my boy!

Christmas Blankets- I will post pictures soon.

Well, I made three blankets for Christmas this year. One is not completely done, but good enough for now. Now that the blankets, Christmas, and Nathan's family reunion are over, I feel like I have time to do things again...well, I still have a TON of editing to do, but outside of that. :) Maybe I can even get some reading in.

Cammie wanted a blanket made from my grandmother's old squares that she made ages ago. I have been wanting to do this for a long time now. I asked Cammie if she wanted the main blanket black or white. She chose black to my surprise. I even tried to make her change her mind, but she wouldn't budge on it. I am glad now that we did black around the squares. That was the style during the time she made the squares. Cam did insist on putting pink around the edges. She wants more beautiful colors around the edges, but I don't think I am going to do it unless she keeps insisting.

The most time consuming blanket was Shay's. She wanted a Christmas colored one. She started helping me at first, but then got tired of it. I stayed up late for more than two weeks trying to make this blanket for her. It is not finished yet, but I hope to get more done before her birthday next week. I would like to finish it, but I don't think I will have time. A funny thing about that blanket is that I bought very low quality yarn. It was supposed to be just a beginner project for Shay and me. I thought that buying the cheap stuff would be best just incase she ending up not wanting to do it any more. I didn't want to be left with a bunch of unused expensive yarn. I had no idea she wanted the blanket so badly. I wish I had invested more money into it. I spent all this time making this blanket, and I don't even want to use it because it is so scratchy. We have both decided that we will only get the "Christmas" blanket out over the Christmas holiday and put it on her bed. I am going to make her another one that is actually comfortable and enjoyable to use.

Braedon's took the least amount of time but caused me probably the most grief. It is also the ugliest. He doesn't care. I just took a bunch of old stuff I already had and threw it all together. One big problem though was that both my sewing machines weren't working very well. I finished it in one day, but boy does the blanket have problems...besides just the looks of it. I want to make a sticker or a patch that says, "Made with Love. Not Skills." It is not the highest quality. ;) He wanted a jean blanket that had pockets in them. I got sick of sewing on all the pockets so it looks very random, but he is so excited about having pockets to put his stuff in. What a perfect place for his flashlight, Pokeman cards, and all those other odds and ends that he likes to collect. Boy, that kid LOVES to put things in his pockets. I really have to be careful when washing his clothes. The stuff from his pockets that I have missed have broken the washing machine twice. Screws, coins, washers, etc. He'll put anything in his pockets! Well, almost anything.