Happy Mother's Day

Being a mother is the hardest but most rewarding, wonderful part of my life. Being a mother is what defines me. That is the most important thing to me in this world. I love my kids so much.
I have the greatest mom. We have lots of similarities but we are also very different. I can still tell her everything. I know she would do anything for me. She has taught me to love being a mother and that it is the most important job of my life.
I have learned that it is ok to show that you are not perfect. I have always had a hard time with hiding my feelings but I have learned that I am ok with making mistakes. I have learned to look at all of the people who are doing good and I have realized that I am surrounded by good people. I am thankful for the good people in my life. I am thankful for the good examples to me. Nobody is perfect but if you make a mistake(which I do very often), fix it and learn from it!
Anyway thank you Brian for making Mother's Day wonderful for me, as always.

And thank you, Danny for making me this beautiful hat on the day of the Royal Wedding of William and Kate. If I had been there, I would have made a few people jealous with this hat.

Look who's walking!

Woohoo! Sarah has finally started walking. I am so happy. I let her outside for a bit today and she loved being able to walk outside.

I bought this skirt fabric a while ago and finally decided to use it. I saw this skirt online and decided to try and make it. These pictures don't do the poofiness justice. Yes, I am almost positive that poofiness is a word...at least in my vocabulary.

Sewing with Scraps!

I was shopping for fabric at fabric.com (love that website). I wanted to make some summer clothes for Sarah but I decided to quickly look through my scraps of fabric that I already have first.
I am curious to know how much leftover fabric people have. Is it normal to have a huge box full? I think I buy too much fabric. Anyway I found lots of scraps and decided to start using them instead of buying more. This is the little dress I made from some scraps:

Haha. I used this pattern that looks really gross with the fabric they used. It was only $1. Just needs some cute modern fabric to spice it up a little.

It was really wide on her so I put a tie in the back.

Happy Easter!

Oops I forgot to photoshop Sam's pirate tattoo off of his face. Yay for warm weather!

Easter cupcake baskets at Grandma and Grandpa Ross'.

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Cannon's

Poor Sam was sick.

Easter Weekend in St George

Every year, growing up, my family and I went to St George for spring break. Everyone in my family has kind of stopped going down except for us. We went down with my grandparents and had the best time. It was so warm and I have decided we are all so much happier when it is warm. I love my grandparents. I was so happy to spend time with them.

Sarah got plenty of attention. My cute grandma wanted to buy her an outfit and while we were picking one out, Sarah found a purse in the store. She grabbed it and wouldn't put it down. She was so excited about it. Thanks Grandma for the outfit and purse!

Danny playing at the park and Sarah's funny crawl. She didn't want to crawl on her skirt.

It is so fun to take pictures of this girl. She was just in heaven down here. She loved being outside. We all did.

We also did lots of relaxing. On the right, my granddad spent an hour reading the boys books and measuring everything in their room with a measuring tape. My granddad also did a lot of dancing for Sarah. She didn't really like it though :)

Monster Applique Shirt plus Matching Pants

I have had a lot of people ask how to do these shirts so here is my little tutorial:

You will need:

A plain shirt to fuse your fabric onto
Fusible web (wonder under seems to be the favorite, but I only had heat n bond and that works too)
Fabric for your design (make sure you get extra fabric for the eyes and mouth, along with the body)
A pattern of your design
Thread

Start off by fusing your wonder under to your fabric. Follow the instructions that come with the wonder under on how to do that. You will want it to be a little bigger than the size of your monster design.


Print or draw your monster design, cut it out and pin it on the fabric that you just fused to the wonder under. Cut out the monster shape.

Follow the instructions on how to fuse the fabric of the body to the shirt. I just ironed it on.

Next, add the eyes, mouth and teeth.

Last, it is a very good idea to sew around the edges in case the wonder under doesn't stay fused onto the fabric. It should be fine but I do it just in case.

I added stitches for the eyes and a little bow for the monster hair. And that is it!

I decided to make some pants to match it. Really you can just buy any pants pattern for kids and add a 3 inch ruffle on the bottom! I bought some knit fabric from fabric.com. I love that website. They have lots of cute knit fabric that is hard to find. These pants are made for the fall so they are a little big.

I originally made these shirt for the boys because I saw some cute monster applique shirts from mini boden and wanted to try to make them. For the cropped pants, I just used a regular pants pattern for kids and cut them short and hemmed them. Pretty easy and cheap!

Easter Bunny

I took the kids to get their pictures taken with the easter bunny. My sister, Whitney brought her 2 girls also. This is the best picture I could get.

You are going to sit on the easter bunny whether you like it or not!

Pat your butt

Why does it always seem like I am saying no to my kids?
Danny is always saying, "You never let me do anything."
Whenever I give in and tell them they can do something they probably shouldn't be doing, I regret it.

Sam will ask me for something and he always says please. He asks so nicely that it makes me feel even worse when I say no.
Then he will say, "No, I said PLEEEASE."
Then I have to explain to him that that was so nice to say that and I appreciate it but no you cannot build a shake-alator.

Oh, I guess I should explain what a shake-alator is. Well it is when my boys take all of the couch cushions off and stack them together so that they are next to each other, each touching the ground. Then they climb across them while the other shakes it. They got the idea from wipeout which they think is the funniest show ever. I love that they just made up the name also. They tend to start jumping on the couch and it has started ripping and then leaves a big mess that they don't want to clean up.

ANYWAY, after I still say no, he will spit at me. Not a loud spit just a quiet little spit. I know it is coming every time.
THEN if I ignore him spitting (which is most of the time), he says,
"THEN I'LL PAT YOUR BUTT."
The best part is that he really thinks that he is hurting my feelings. It is so funny. I think he thinks pat means punch or hit.

A post about poop

That is right, I am mainly documenting how Sam got potty training so if you want to read about it, then go right ahead. So, I forgot how much I hate potty training. I started with Sam last week and the first day he just cried every time I told him to go potty. I was so frustrated. Then he started getting a little excited about it (with the help of skittles). He got to the point where he would pee in the toilet great but wouldn't poop. So for a week I was cleaning out his underpants several times a day.
Then yesterday I noticed that strained look in his face, like he was forcing something out, and grabbed him and ran him to the toilet while ripping his pants off. I got him on the toilet just in time and he pooped in the toilet! I know that shouldn't really count but I was happy. Then today he went all by himself every time. There was poop all over the toilet, floor and rug but that is fine with me as long as it isn't in his underpants.
He still has accidents but he is getting better and I am so happy for that. He is so proud of himself.

Sam is so proud that he wears underpants just like Danny. I can't wait to bring this picture out in 10 years and show the boys. Maybe I will make a life size poster and pull it out at Danny's wedding. He will love me for that.

I went to go get Sam at his friends house because I had a feeling he hadn't put his pants on and this is how I found him. My boys really have no shame.


I also love that wherever we go, he says hi to everyone! I had lots of uncomfortable hi's from old men who didn't want to talk to little kids. Every time someone would say hi, Sam would get so excited.
He also asks everyone how old they are. It is funny...and a little uncomfortable. This lady said I am really old, I am 54. Then Danny said, "That isn't that old." She was so happy.