4-H Cake Decorating

My sweet girl worked so hard on her 4-H Cake Decorating Project.  It paid off... she found last night that she earned a Blue Ribbon on it!

When I Grow Up...

Happy Halloween 2011

Jacob & Anden's Room

The boy's Case IH quilts are FINALLY done!  The gal that quilted them for me called yesterday saying they were ready for me to pick up.  When I got there today, she said several people who have come in and out of her shop have seen them laying there and asked if they were for sale... HECK NO!  Worked way to hard on them to do something silly like that!  Actually, I can't take all the credit.  Jesse's Grandma, who I adore, helped me put them together.  I can't wait for her to come over and see them!  She also made the valance you see in the 2nd picture below.  It's the same material as the backside of both quilts.  She's one of a kind!  So special!

Next up is having Kaylee pick out material for a quilt for her bed... right now she's got a quilt I bought at Target.  It's very cute, very girlie, and not what I would consider baby-fied... but I've washed it a few times and it hasn't faired very well in my washing machine.  I can't wait to see what sort of "tween" theme she picks out!

Busy Week

The kids have woken up each morning this week and have scurried around to get ready for school as fast as they could because they knew that anyday, Bailey (our chocolate lab) was due to have her puppies. They went out yesterday morning and this is what they found. A bundle of black lab puppies. Keyword... BLACK. As I said Bailey is chocolate and we had her bred to a cinnamon lab. Hmmm... milk man?





No, we don't really think it was the milk man. Actually Bailey's parents were black and chocolate and Rebel's parents were black and yellow. So we knew there was a chance we'd get some black, but we didn't expect the whole litter to be black.


The Kindergarten through 2nd grade students at Kaylee's school performed at the PTO meeting last night. They did a great job and really seemed to enjoy showing off what they'd learned in their music class this year. She's grown up so much in the last year or so. She never would have gotten up in front of that many people ever before. We're so proud of her!


Here is a picture of us after the Easter Vigil at church. Some of you may not know that I was confirmed into the Catholic Church this past weekend. After having attended the Catholic Church for several years (almost 10), I finally decided that it was best for the kids if I joined. Kaylee will be going through First Communion in a couple years and I want for her to realize the importance of that Sacrament and not wonder in the back of her head why her mom doesn't take Communion. It really was a beautiful service.


I'm almost embarrassed to bring this up after having said I was nearly finished MONTHS ago, but I couldn't not mention it... I'm FINALLY done with the quilt. At Christmas, we ended up moving the quilt rack down to the basement to make room for everything in the living room. Let's just say I do not enjoy spending time in the basement. For starters, the storage area in the basement is a disaster and really needs to be organized, so it's just best to stay upstairs and not be visually reminded of what a mess it is. Secondly, SPIDERS are down there... big ones! And besides that, the treadmill is down there and well, that's just self-explanatory. It took Grandma Welp stopping by our house and saying, "If you get it finished up, I'll take it home with me and finish binding it!" So here it is, the finished product.

I hope everyone had a Blessed Easter!

These are the special times...

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We sure did. We traveled up to see Nana and Pa. We got to see my brother Brock and his girlfriend Beth. We also got to meet her son, Andrew who's 4. The kids had a good time with him. My Aunt Debbie and Uncle Steve were there along with their daughter Liz and her boyfriend. My Aunt Cheryl was also there with her husband Rick. And we also got to spend the day with Uncle Max and Auntie Kay, which is always a treat. They were very good friends of my grandparent's and have been an important part of my family. Kaylee and Jake loved getting to see and spend the night with their cousin Benny. They don't get to see him very often, but they sure enjoyed the time they got to spend with him.

We surprised Mom and Dad with an early birthday present. Dad will turn 60 in March and Mom the following January. We will be taking them to Gatlinburg, TN for a few days next spring. Benny got the honor of presenting them with their gift as well as dropping little hints to try to get them to guess what it was.

I have a funny story to share with you as well. The other night as I was making supper, somehow I got into a conversation with Jake about how the baby will be born. Here's how it went:

Jake: "How old is the baby?"

Me: "Just a few weeks old."

Jake: "When will it get here?"

Me: "In about 6 months."

Jake: "How will you get it out?"

Me: "I'll go to the doctor and he'll help to get the baby out."

Jake: "Will he use a tweezers?"

Me: "Ummm, I don't know Jake."

Jake: "Will it hurt?"

Me: "Maybe just a little."

Jake: "Well, you'd better look the other way so it doesn't hurt."

I know exactly where this came from. Just a few weeks ago when we were down at Jesse's Mom and Dad's house, Jake got a splinter and when Jesse was trying to get it out (with a tweezers), Grandma told him to look the other way so it wouldn't hurt. I almost lost it. He's so funny.

I'm very excited to share that I'm almost finished with a HUGE project that I've been working on for the last several months. Last Christmas, Jesse's Grandma gave all 18 of her grandchildren a quilt top along with the batting and backing. She wanted them all to have another one of her quilts, but didn't think she'd have the time to finish 18 of them. I've always been very fond of her and ever since I stayed with her the summer before Jesse and I were married, she's had a special place in my heart. So, crazy me decided to ask her to help me learn to quilt. Last March, I borrowed a quilt rack, set it up in my living room, and we've been working on it ever since. She's been over several times to work on it and we're almost ready to take it out and sew the binding on. I will be SO GLAD to have the quilt rack out and get my living room back, but I will miss our special quilting times. Who am I kidding... she's always got a quilt set up at her house. I'll just have to head over there and help her out for once! Here's a shot of Grandma and Kaylee working on it last night.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. We're certainly looking forward to Christmas and the New Year. Take care!