Graduation Gift for Dakota

I wrote a while back that my niece Dakota was graduating from high school and going to school at UofA in Edmonton in the fall.  My Mom and I decided that we would give her a quilt as her gift.

Dakota was so excited, which kind of surprised me but she was so stoked!

So we went to Lethbridge together and she picked out her colors and fabrics.

I was leery of her choices and not quite sure how it was all going to turn out...

but in the end she had great taste and it all worked out perfectly!!

Here are the pics of the finished product.  I didn't get any of the process this time because I was sewing at such random times around Maitland's naps and when I had help at home to keep him away from the machine and the iron.  Anyways, here you go!

 Here's the finished quilt all bound and ready to snuggle in! :)

It ended up being almost a king size...opps!

 Here's Dakota peeking out from behind the masterpiece.

 The lady who did the machine quilting for us did an awesome job 

and even put Dakota's name into the design.

 So fun!  I love it!

 This is a picture of the back so you can see the quilting and binding a little better.

 

 I also made pillows to match for her to finish off the look for her bedroom.

This "pucker" pillow is my favorite!  My Mom did the puckers and it turned out great!

I want to make it again with plain fabric, maybe linen to show off the puckers more.

This is the picture Dakota sent me of the quilt and pillows all set up in her room.

I think maybe I should of taught her how to make a bed...

or at least how to fake it for presentations sake! :)

It was a fun quilt to make and came together quite easily. I sure hope Dakota loves it and will think of Nanny and I every time she snuggles up under it for years to come.  

Love you kid! :)

What Matters Most... Part Two!

After all of the fun on Thursday I didn't know how we were going to out do that fro Friday.

But we tried! :)

We started off meeting in Waterton and going hiking to Bertha Falls.  It's a nice simple hike that even the little kids could do and my SIL Brittany did it 2 days before having their 4th baby! :)

We had lunch at one of the camp kitchens by the lake and then split up and did a bunch of different activities.  Some went shopping other to Cameron Lake and other rented the pedal bike or scooter.

Matt and I and some of the cousins ended up at the spray park they have and it was hilarious to watch the kids run through the freezing glacier water!  Maitland loved it and just kept going back for more!  Of course no trip to Waterton is complete without stopping for Ice Cream!  So most of us did that too.  We then headed to my grandparents ranch near Cardston to have a wiener roast for dinner and more games.

We had a great time sitting around the fire until the rain decided to join in the fun...it only lasted for a few minutes and then we were good to go again.  We finished dinner and then had a pinata for the kids to whack apart.  As always anything with candy was a "hit"...lame joke...sorry.  After that the rain really did start again and for quite some time so most people packed up and headed home.  Those staying at the ranch and few others went up to the house to visit for a bit and got to see a beautiful double rainbow stretch all the over the ranch.  It was the perfect end to a great day.

Saturday had us all back in Cardston for the 50th Anniversary party.  It was great to be able to celebrate my grandparents and all that they have done for all of our family.  They are such great people and deserve a party in their honor! :)  We all got a little silly with the program and had lots of fun laughing at/with each other.  We also presented my grandparents with a family tree that we had made and framed of all of their posterity.  It turned out beautifully and I was thrilled with the end result.

That was the end of the reunion...and I was sad to have it end.  I love my family and really do believe that it matters most. I am a firm believer that time spent with family is never time wasted.  I hope that everyone had a good time and was able to feel the love we have for them by all of the work we put into planning and putting on the reunion.  I am so thankful that everyone took the time out of their lives to come and participate.  It was great and well worth all of the time and effort!!  I love you all and can't wait until we get to do this again...except someone else gets to do the planning! ;)

Waterton when we arrived in the morning...I love this place! :)

Sadie and Emalia hiking to Bertha Falls.

My cousin Jordan caught one of the gophers that were hanging around the camp kitchen!
Crazy kid!! That baseball mitt was not clean after the fact... yuck!

 

Teyah, Liisa, Chase, Cole and Kyle riding one of the bikes.

 

Maitland stunned at how cold the water was at the spray park...but he went back or more!

 

Teyah and Emalia running through the water rainbow.

 

Wiener roast at the ranch camp spot.  

 

Pinata fun!

 Katelyn the family photographer...I stole most of these pictures off of her facebook...

THANKS KATELYN!!!!

Double rainbow at the ranch after the reunion!

 Our families contribution to the program at the 50th wedding party.

Grandpa Hartley had a ranch e-i-e-i-o... it was kind of lame! haha

 This is a copy of the family tree we commissioned.  It might be my favorite thing ever.  I love it.

What matters most... part One

This past week has been one of the busiest and most tiring of my life.

My Mom and her children were in charge of planning and putting on a family reunion for her

parents and siblings and their families.

I was so excited for the opportunity to plan all of the activities and get the chance to see and spend a few days with all of our extended family that live in the States and those we don't get to see very often that live a little closer as well.  My grandparents also happened to be having their 50th wedding anniversary 

and both of their 80th birthdays this year as well.  So it all worked out to do the reunion and celebrate those mile stones at one time.

We were able to rent the Pavan Park area for the first day and it was perfect!

It is an enclosed area with playgrounds and big open lawns and a huge covered patio area

and a nice kitchen and washroom facilities.  

I highly recommend it and would rent it again in a heart beat.

It was super hot the first day (about 31 degrees) and I was so glad for the shade of the patio!

We started off the day with some mix and mingle games.  Bingo, animal sound sort out and "where do I belong" (you have everyone line up tallest to shortest, alphabetically, by birthdays...etc).

Then we had a delicious lunch of taco in a bag (taco salad) and watermelon! Yummy!!

After lunch we were ready to play and had bounce houses, a water fight, art time, gak making, and lots of time to sit and visit.  For dinner we did beef on a bun and salads and it was all so good!!

After dinner my Mom had made up a ton of "prizes" to give away for coming to the reunion.

For example: who's the baldest (got a wig), who lost a tooth most recently (got toothpaste) and we had about 25 different things we did.  It was all for fun and silly.

After that I had put together a "Minute to Win It" game and split everyone into teams and had them compete to accomplish a variety of tasks in under a minute.  There was skittle sorting, dice stacking on a popsicle stick, oreo in the mouth, water bottle knock over with a tennis ball in tights among others.  It was fun to watch and see everyone trying so hard to out do the other teams.  After that it was time to clean up and head home because we had a big day planned for Friday in Waterton as well.

Here are pictures of a few of the things we did at Pavan.

 We started off with a Bingo game where we had to get signatures from different members

of the family that matched different criteria.  e.g.: In their 40's, wears contacts, been on an airplane

 Erin (my oldest sister) is good friends with a guy from Raymond who rents out bounce houses

so we got a couple of those for a good deal and they were a super hit with all ages!!

Maitland wouldn't come out once he got inside!  Stayed there for over an hour!

 

This one is called "King of the Hill" and you have to try and stay in the middle of the huge bubble...

it got a little rowdy at times and there were a few bumps and bruises and maybe a little blood too.

 

 Teyah made it to the top and stayed there!

 Maitland didn't really get the whole water fight thing but the cool water sure felt good to sit in!

 My BIL Corey won the "skittles in the a jar" guessing contest with a guess of 273

There were 267 in the jar...my cousin's husband Kieth had the worst guess with 1680! haha

 I just had to include this adorable picture of my sweet boy!  He was so good all day and made it

easy for me to do all of the activities I was in charge of and get meals ready.  Thanks for all 

of the help from all the family for taking turns helping me out while Matt was at work!!

We played Minute to Win It after dinner and it was impressive to see who could accomplish 

the tasks.  Above is my sister Liisa owning the dice stacking game!

This is my Aunt Paula, cousin Jordan and cousin Kieth using pizza boxes to "blow"

an egg across the floor...it was NOT easy!

 This is Uncle Jason working so hard and concentrating like mad to stack those dice! :)

This is my cousin Jared, my Mom (Bev) and my sister Erin getting ready for the 

skittles and straw test where you have to suck the skittle to the end of your straw and keep 

it there and run to the other side and drop it on another plate.

This is the birthday cake we had made for my grandparents 80th birthdays!

 It's amazing!

Life's full of surprises

So my niece Dakota graduated from High School last week.  My Mom and I are working on getting a quilt made for her to take to school with her when she heads off to the UofA in September.  Dakota came out to Macleod for a few days to help me with Maitland so that I can sew during the day and hopefully get the quilt all finished.  That was the plan for today except for a small mishap that got in the way of my sewing time...  

I feel really bad for Dakota.  Poor girl had to bring a bleeding and crying boy home to his Momma.  Maitland was over at my sisters playing and slipped going up her stairs into the kitchen and bit right through his bottom lip.  :(  Such a sad little face greeted me at the door when Dakota brought him back home.  We decided we better go get him checked at the ER to make sure he didn't need stitches or anything.  

 Here's my sweet boy with a fat lip and a blood covered Dakota at the ER.

He really didn't care that we were there and only cried when I had to hold him down so the Dr. could clean the wound and check to see if stitches were required.

I look terrible!  But Maitland is as cute as ever!!  

I wasn't planning on leaving the house at all today...that'll teach me!

Anyways, the Dr said that no stitches were necessary and gave us some antibiotics just in case of infection.

We survived our first ER visit that involved blood!!  

Let's hope that I don't have to deal with more crazy injuries in the future.

And don't worry Dakota we still trust you to babysit...are you busy Friday?!?! :)

Getting settled

These past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and chaos!  But I think we are finally starting to settle in.  We are currently living with my Mom in Fort Macleod.  It's not ideal but you do what you have to to make things work right?  Maitland seems to be doing pretty well and doesn't seem to mind at all that we are staying with Nanny and don't have our own house to terrorize.  Now if we could just get him to sleep through the night again.  He wakes up and screams at 2am almost every night and will not settle again.  I am lazy and will bring him into our bed but I ended up sleeping on the couch last night because I just couldn't sleep with Maitland and Matt in the double bed...it was driving me nutso!  So I am super tired and grumpy today because I didn't get hardly any sleep and woke up feeling gross this morning.  Fun fun! 

I have started to feel baby #2 kicking and moving around now which is fun and exciting.  Sometimes I forget that there's even a baby in there and then I  have to take off my sweatpants for real clothes and that's a very real reminder of what's happening.  Love me maternity clothes.  Blah!!!  I'm too poor to buy cute trendy new clothes so I am making due with what I have and a few hand-me-downs.  Whatever.  I think it's impossible for me to look cute preggers anyways.  So sweats and t-shirts are the attire of almost everyday.  

Matt was a sweetheart and took me out for a date last night to O'sho's!!  Oh how I missed that place when we were up north!  Beef terriyaki! Yummy!  And then we got to go and meet sweet Bridget and visit with our friends Trev and Whit!  It was such a fun night and a much needed break for me.  Thanks Mom for babysitting!!

I am starting a quilt for my niece Dakota and can hardly wait to get sewing on Saturday!  It's going to be amazing and I need the change of pace and something creative to do.  Don't worry I'll post pictures when it's all done!  I have 7 days to get the top done...cross your fingers! haha I hope Maitland will cooperate and let me sew a bit during the day without pulling the iron onto his head or something.

Anyways, that's life at the moment...oh, Matt likes the new job so far and is way happier and gets home before 6 every night.  I love it too!!  We are blessed that this opportunity has come for him.  Now all we need is a place to call home and I'll be happy too.

Moving on...

Well things are on the move again for our little family. 

Matt has been given the amazing opportunity to apprentice for his parts designation 

at the New Holland/Challenger Dealership in Claresholm, Alberta.

We are super excited to be moving back south to where most of our family

and friends live.  Not so excited about moving back to the wind! :)

We have been so blessed since we moved to Kitscoty.

I have nothing but great things to say about the Branch here.

I have never felt so accepted and valued and needed in a ward as I do up here.

I am sad to leave my YW and their smiling little faces!

Maitland won't know what to do with himself at church when there isn't

a swarm of girls trying to tickle him and make him laugh all the time.

We have made some amazing friends that I will miss for sure!

Thank you everyone in Lloyd for all of the love and support and friendship!!!

We have prayed fervently for the past few months for something to come

along for Matt that would make his job situation better and it seems we have found it.

I really do believe that our prayer had been answered and this move will be good for us.

I just hate packing...and cleaning...and unpacking... 

I guess it's good for dejunking!!

If anyone has any good tips for moving please feel free to pass them along!

I can use all the help I can get!!!

Finding time...

I know that I said that I wanted to blog more...and I do!  I promise.  But it just seems that I have even less time lately than ever.  Maitland is in full destroy mode lately and is going to town on anything he can reach and a few things he can't.

Anyways I thought I would get back to my list of questions to answer.  I'm going to skip a couple though.  They are too lame and not all that interesting.  What I will do is share a few stories from when I was in High School and going through that lovely stage of life! :)

• What is your favorite color?  I'm surprised Oprah even printed this question...really? that's the best you can come up with as a conversation starter...I'm skipping it.

• What is most memorable about your high school years?

 So I have a few stories from High School that I am brave enough to share.  This first one happened in the fall of 1997 when I was a senior and co-captain of the varsity volleyball team.  I was super bummed because I was the only senior on the team that year and it was lonely for me but I loved the game so much that I wouldn't quit just because my friends didn't make the team.  Anyways...on to the story.  We were at a tournament in Lethbridge with the boys team as well and we had some down time between games to kill so we talked the coaches into taking us to the mall.  Excellent, I thought. Little did I know that one of my most embarrassing moments was about to happen.  As I was walking down the corridor with some of my teammates I happened to look down at my feet and I saw a shiny new loonie (Dollar coin for anyone not from Canada) just laying on the floor so of course I bent down to pick it up.  I was so excited! Free money!!  Except when I tried to get it off the floor it was stuck.  How does a coin get stuck to marble floors I asked myself...so I kind of kicked it with the toe of my shoe and still it didn't budge.  That's when I started hearing the low rumble of laughter and giggles.  I looked up and the senior boys from my school had all stepped out into the hall and were pointing and laughing at me.  Apparently they thought the best use of their time would be to glue a loonie to the floor and see how hard people would try to pick it up.  I happened to be the first person to try.  Seriously.  I was mortified and so embarrassed.  I looked like a fool and all in front of the boys that I so wanted to impress and "be cool" in front of.  One of them even commented that he knew that I would be the one to try and pick up the dollar.  Seriously.  I was super embarrassed and didn't quite know what to do next.  I got made fun of a lot for that one for the rest of the volleyball season.  Good times!

Another story...When I was in Grade 12 I had opted out of playing basketball.  I didn't find it super enjoyable even though I was skilled and was generally one of the starting lineup.  I wasn't good friends with any of the other players and I was insecure.  I regret now not sticking to my guns and playing even though my coach and I didn't get along and I had no friends that played...but it worked out pretty well for me! :)  Since I wasn't playing basketball that year the gym teacher asked me if I would be willing to coach the Grade 8 girls team as they were having a hard time finding someone.  I thought that was a great idea and sounded much better than doing nothing at all for the season.  It was a good learning experience and I loved those girls and we had a great time!  For some reason that year the NBA (and I mean the real one...you know like Michael Jordan NBA) was sponsoring some sort of sportsmanship awards for the season and each High School got to nominate a Senior girl and boy player for the award and a local coach.  I was nominated and won that award for my school.  I wasn't even paying attention in the assembly where they announced the winners because I thought it didn't pertain to me seeing as I didn't even play on the Senior team that year.  One of my friends had to tell me that they had called my name.  It gets better.  After I won the award for my school I was also entered into a nation wide contest and was selected as the national winner for sportsmanship in coaching! hahahaha seriously!  I thought I was in huge trouble when my teacher came to get me out of class and made me go to the office and I had to sit in the conference room by myself and wait...and then the principle and a few other teachers informed me that I had won the national award too and I was going to Vancouver to accept the award at a Grizzles game and it was expenses paid trip!  Woot Woot!!  Just to be clear I am not sharing this story to toot my own horn because I really didn't do anything amazing and I am pretty sure it was a random draw that my name was picked out of a hat for the big trip but it was still dang cool and something I will always remember about High School.  My Mom and I got to fly to Vancouver and got put up in a swanky hotel and had court-side seats to the game.  I also go invited onto the court at half time and was awarded a huge plaque. It was a great trip.  And made my decision to skip playing ball that year a little less painful.

I think that's enough about high school for now.  I actually have a hard time remembering much else that's worth sharing.  It has been a few years since high school... 1998 seems like forever ago!