my little texas cowpokes

Happy Halloween! We had a trunk or treat in the church parking lot on Thursday.  Stuart was a little mesmerized and reluctant for the first 4 trunks, but once the light of understanding dawned, he was literally running from car to car. Whitney, on the other hand, wanted to sit down between each one to eat each piece of candy.  I love Halloween!

hooray for halloween!

Whitney and I spent the last few afternoons working on a Halloween project while Stuart napped. I did not come up with this idea on my own--although I wish I had. They turned out SO CUTE. 

Below are my two favorites. I got Whit started by gluing the first 2 strips of tissue paper on her jar to show her what we'd be doing. I spent the next hour so engrossed in my own jar that I didn't even take note of how she was doing, even after she told me she was done and needed me to cut a face out for her. So I did. (You can see how much effort I put into the first face on the left.) I tossed the eyes and mouth her way with a reminder to paint over them with glue, still clueless to the fact that she'd been working independently as focused and as long as I had.
A few hours later, after the kids were in bed, I picked up the jars to see if they were dry and finally took a good look at Whitter's. She had glued every strip perfectly straight and evenly overlapped. And she'd glued the face just like I told her to. I was so proud of her that I was forced to sneak into her bedroom and kiss her little sleeping forehead. I wish I could have told her how spectacular it was while she was working.

As you can see, I gave her second jar a more respectable jack-o-lantern face as she was clearly putting great effort and care into it. She also decided to try mixing things up a bit by gluing the strips on at random with varying colors, which I actually like better. We're doing it her way for the Christmas lanterns. What a girl! Did I mention how proud I feel?

matching jams

Honestly, I took so many vacation pictures this summer that I feel a little overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of posting them. So I'm starting here.
We found Stuart some Star Wars jammies for $3 at Walmart tonight, so naturally I bought 2 pairs--one for this year and another for next.  Boy, was that foresight--kinda. Whitney was incensed that she didn't get a new pair of jams, but delighted at the suggestion that she wear his other pair so that they could match.

In other news, a few days ago, Stuart requested apple slices and cheese for breakfast. What is it about seeing your children devour healthy food that is so satisfying to watch? When its cheetos, I feel like I need to turn a blind eye and hope its over soon. But Whitney ate a plateful of raw green beans for lunch today I couldn't help watch with a goofy half grin on my face. What is that?

pool pals

These pictures are a few weeks old now, but I've been meaning to post them for those of you who are far away. Here's a little summer-time treat.

the big race

I can't believe I forgot to post about this! Whitney ran her first race on Memorial Day morning at the Stake Fun Run. It was a 1-miler for kids which looped once and a half around a big pond. Unfortunately, she grew tired of waiting for the big kid race to finish, so I told her she could play on the playground till they called for the little kids. And as soon as she reached the playground, they called for the little kids. 

Typical.

Here she is at the starting line, looking longingly at the playground. 

Look at that stride!

This is us feeding our dust to some lesser competitors. They had no idea what was coming. (Except when I was all "track!" and Whitney was like "meep meep!" And then we high-fived as we cut in front of them and sent them flying into the pond.

Na. That didn't happen.)

This is where the playground came back into sight and suddenly Whitney's legs felt tired, so we cut it short after one loop of the pond.

Here is "Cuncle" Mark helping my little winner rehydrate as she crossed her finish line, after which we toweled her off and massaged those aching hammies and shoulder blades.  Na, that didn't happen either. But if there'd been an available picnic table, I totally would have done it just because I think its a really funny idea.

QUILT POST SCRIPT:

Amelia reminded me of an important note I forgot to make in my quilt post. I did not use an embroidery machine. I used the mom machine. That was, in fact, my first quilt. And my good mother, who happened to be in town to take care of me for my tonsillectomy, taught me how to cut, piece, embroider, bind, and everything in between. I would never have been brave enough to dig in without her there to hold my hand those pivotal first few days. Mom, you are a master enabler! (The good kind.)

It is finished!

Our stake started a quilt raffle at Girls Camp last year that was apparently very popular, so they're doing it again this year and I was tricked (by my good friend the assistant camp director) into volunteering to make the quilt. And here it is! The theme for camp is Camp CSI (Courage, Strength, INTEGRITY). (My understanding, if you're interested, is that every girl gets one raffle ticket upon arrival and can be awarded additional tickets for showing integrity throughout the week.)

Here it is modeled by Stuart's bed.

I embroidered the word Integrity in the lower right corner and a quote from Joshua 1:9 across the top: "be strong and of good courage," which I managed to misquote even after looking it up to double check the punctuation and reference. (It should say "be strong and of a good courage.") How embarrassing. Oh well. I'm guessing it'll be years before the recipient is well enough versed in the scriptures to even catch it.

Here's my happy accident. I was immediately displeased with the look of the quilt binding once I had it attached to the front of the quilt. So rather than blind-stitching it down in the back I top stitched it down with this super cutie leafy-vine decorative stitch that matches the quilt perfectly. Its my favorite detail.

And, foolishly, I opted to hand quilt the thing. In retrospect, I should have just used the machine and stipple stitched, but I love the look and process of hand quilting. I've just never done it on this scale before. But it also turned out to be a happy mistake because it forced me to accept help from two fantastic friends when crunch time rolled around. And now I have hours of happy memories logged away of sitting on the floor quilting and chatting and laughing with Lindsey and Tara while the kids played happily in the backyard. I love you guys! 

thank you Target

Hey Kristina, check this out. This is the third post in three days. And I know no one appreciates how cute my kids are more than me more than you. Cheap crappy Target got something right this summer. How cute is this swimming suit! Especially with that cute red ponytail. MMM! I could just eat her!