A Christmas miracle! And a trip to Hobby Lobby.

After a long absence I am doing a blog post. My first one in almost a year. Truly a miracle. I think I just got tired of posting "last week we went to the zoo, and the week before that we did this or that" blah. blah. blah.  It just got a little boring to me I guess. And I never wanted to take the time to upload my pictures from my camera. I have a new phone and I can email the pictures to myself, so I think that will help. So the picture quality will be decreased, but I think that crappy pictures are better than no pictures, right? At least for me. Plus, I got to looking at past blog posts and pictures that I have on my computer and I was really sad that the lat year has been virtually undocumented. So I plan to just blog about everything and nothing, with no rhyme or reason. :) And how about these new fonts on blogger? Long time coming. I am quite happy about it.

 And now to the point. Hobby Lobby! Ever since my first accidental encounter with the store several years ago  at the I-10 and 99th ave,  (I just thought the name "Hobby Lobby" sounded interesting...so I went in.  It was the only AZ location at the time. ) I knew that Hobby Lobby and I were meant to be a part of each other's lives. Sadly,  I have not been there in several months, but I ventured in yesterday. A trip, mind you, that is not for the faint of heart with 2 boys ages 2 and 3. But oh, so worth it despite the   "you know if he breaks that you are going to be held responsible" and "you may not climb on that, where is your mother" comments that we received from employees. And, yes,  I will admit I do get a little distracted, and lose track of them for a few seconds at a time. There are just so many great ideas and tons of inspiration there. But honestly, what am I supposed to do, get a babysitter while I go to Hobby Lobby? (Although that would be a fabulous idea.) Tanner refuses to stay in the cart, so I figure I either try and make him stay in the cart and he ends up falling out and cracking his head open or I just let him walk around with Tate. I usually give it a good effort for the first 2 minutes we are in a store and make him stay in the cart but after that I give up. During those first 2 minutes Tate always asks me, "can  you put Tanner down?" They are seriously so funny together.

Exhibit A: the Wheelbarrows

Tate discovered these wheelbarrows, and naturally Tanner thought it was a great idea. They pushed these around the entire store, loading them up with their little treasures. I kept making them put the things back that they put in but after awhile I remembered when I was little I would have thought I was so cool to be able to put things in my cart, so I backed off a little.  

As a side note, Tanner demands to wear this Cowboy hat every single day. As soon as I get him dressed he says, "cawboy hat" I have even tried to hide it a few times, you know, just to see if we can change it up a little one day and not wear the hat. Doesn't work. That and his "boooots" every day of his life. He is the cutest little cowboy, though. 

Exhibit B: The unidentified crumbs

And then a saw them both laying on the floor. They are looking at crumbs of chips, I think. I couldn't really tell. When I picked Tanner up off the floor his breath smelled like chips, so I am betting that's what they were.

I took a few pictures of things that i liked or gleaned some inspiration from. I seem to just take more pictures than purchases, though. My mom gave me a gift card for my bday in September, and when I have gift cards I make them last so long. I think my $40 dollar gift card has lasted me 4 trips now! I just don't want to squander any of it.

I made an apron like this a couple years ago, but  I have been wanting to make another.  I love these colors. I want to make a valentine's one. 

I love this mirror. Especially the color. Actually, I really like the shape, too. 

I like the way these letters are arranged.  

I found this in a book. I love this quilt! I think I am going to try it-soon.
 I am a sucker for polka dots every. stinkin. time. 

A project I finished yesterday. I think I am going to update it a little since the pink letters are hard to read.
La La Love you! (that's what it says)
It is super cutesy and girly, but that is what I was going for. 

 This is my favorite project lately, these banners. (I have a Halloween, birthday, and Christmas one!) I like them because they go pretty fast and they are easy to start and stop and then pick up again when you have time. Since I don't have a fancy schmancy machine to cut fabric letters, I just print off my computer whatever I want it to say and in what font, and then I cut the letters out of the paper . Then, I iron "heat 'n bond" (pretty cheap, available at Joanns, hobby lobby, etc.) onto my white fabric,  and then cut the fabric letters out, using the paper letters as a pattern. Then you just iron the fabric letters on the the banner.

I have a few other Valentinesy projects underway, I will have to post when they're done. Happy Friday!

Tanner

Yesterday was Tanner Mckay Smith's birthday. Chris says he would have been 34 or 35 this year. Tanner is Chris' brother. I never had the opportunity to meet him. He died when Chris was about 16. Last night we took out his picture and Chris told us a little bit about his brother. Tate and Tanner were so sweet. They both just stared at the picture and were really pretty quiet while Chris told them about their uncle. He told of how Tanner was a cowboy. He told of how funny Tanner was, and how he always made people laugh. Even today when Tate saw his picture he said, "he's a good cowboy." Chris never really talks about his brother. Basically all I know about him I told you in those two sentences. I wish I knew more about him. I am excited to one day meet him.

Ethan's Run

I ran a 1ok at the end of Feb. My first! The run was called Ethan's run, and it benefitted the congenital heart unit at St. Joes. I don't really know the details of Ethan's condition, but he had a congenital heart condition, and he died last summer at 6 mos of age. His mom organized the run. A bunch of ladies from my ward trained and ran it together. Liz, in the middle, had a baby, Jake that was born 4 days before my Tanner last year. He was born with a heart condition, and he lived 3 weeks. He was also treated in that unit at St. Joes. We all wore pictures of little Jakey on the back of our shirts. It was a really neat experience, and I am so glad that I did it! For some reason I am so sensitive about little Jake. I think it is because he and Tanner are only 4 days apart.

Chris was out of town, so I enlisted my sister, Ami to come and watch the boys while I ran. Thank You!

The run was held in Las Sendas, which made the course a bit more challenging. There are some decent sized hills. It was so nice to run down them, not as nice going back up! I wanted to finish in under and hour and I did! (Barely!) So I am not setting any speed records, but I am happy with how it turned out!

SNOW

We went to Pima the weekend of Valentine's Day, and on Sunday we took a drive to Mt. Graham. There was tons of snow. Tate really liked it, surprisingly. We thought he would think it was too cold. He loved building snow towers and then knocking them down. He was actually just talking about the snow again tonight. I think it is so funny that he is starting to talk about memories. I think it is so crazy how they remember such details at such a young age. Tanner on the other hand was a grump. (See L lower pic) He just wanted to snuggle the whole time. We even saw wild turkeys. Chris' niece, Justice, is in the Middle L picture with her snowman. I guess she had been waiting all season to go to the mountain, so I am glad that we went!

ThE ZoO

Tate and Tanner's first zoo trip. My friend Heather invited us to go with them since they have a zoo pass that was expiring soon, and they were trying to get a few more trips out of it. Thank You! We both have two boys pretty close in age, so it makes for a fun time. I hadn't been to the zoo since we had morp there my junior year. If I were feeling more ambitious I would dig that morp picture out and scan it in. Too bad I am not feeling very ambitious.

Clockwise from top Left: The ever popular petting zoo, I love this giraffe picture. Tate has these huge giraffes behind him and he appears to be totally into the map of the zoo. Trey and Tate, Tanner and the tractor, Tate, Trey and Connor.

From top L: Us and the Komodo dragon, Heather and I and the kiddies. ( I think Tate thought he was hugging my leg. ) Tate cracking up about the monkey, The 3 boys staring at the monkey, Tate and Trey. I like these collage things.